Mercenary Wars

Chapter 133 Black Steel Melting Ground
Encouraged, Brian exclaimed excitedly, "I'm going to dye my beard back to red right now!"

"No!" the others quickly dissuaded, "What we need now is a white beard!"

Brian seemed to understand something: "You want me to be an inside man?"

Gaucano nodded: "Slaves are our natural allies, and we need their strength. Brian, you work at the iron mine, and we hope you can cooperate with the slaves to instigate a rebellion at the right time."

Brian hesitated: "To be honest, the vast majority of slaves are no higher than level two. Can their power really incite a riot?"

Gaucano smiled: "For slaves, appearing weak helps them survive, so they won't actively display their strength unless they're running away. So slaves are probably stronger than you think, at least much stronger than they are when they're mining."

He continued, "In fact, from what I understand, there are probably dozens of slaves at the iron mine who are at level four, and even one at level six..."

“There are even level six slaves!” Brian exclaimed in surprise, somewhat incredulous.

“It’s me,” Nikon said.

Brian blinked. "I remember you. I always thought you were a level two!"

Nikon shrugged and said, "When it comes to mining, I'm pretty much on par with a level two person."

Gaucano: "See, I told you so. So, Brian, all you need to do is get them the key to the shackles and launch an attack at the right time, and that will be enough to crush all the overseers in the mine."

“I can do it; I have some of the keys to the slaves myself,” Brian said. “However, how do I find those dozens of powerful slaves you mentioned?”

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ve already found most of them, and they’ve established a secret connection.” Gao Jiano said slowly. “Some of our men will also provide assistance.”

Brian nodded: "That's good."

Gaucano added, "After the slave revolt, Whitebeard will definitely go to suppress it, and then we will take the opportunity to attack the Blacksteel Forge and release the fire elementals there."

"And then..." he paused for a moment, "I think it will be our final battle with Whitebeard."

Brian exclaimed, "It seems that Dibusara will become the first town to belong to Redbeard!"

“Well, not necessarily,” Brown said. “We’ve lost contact with the other Underdarks for years, and perhaps the Prometheus Brotherhood elsewhere has already accomplished the same feat.”

Gaucano was a little surprised: "Are there Prometheus Brotherhoods in other Grey Dwarf towns too?"

Brown nodded: "Of course, where there's Whitebeard, there's Redbeard, and there's the Brotherhood of Prometheus."

"So, do you have a grand plan?"

“That’s one way to put it. The complex divisions between the Underdark prevent the Brotherhoods in different regions from having much contact, but as fellow recipients of the name Prometheus, we share a natural common goal,” Brown said. “Sooner or later, Redbeard will defeat all the Whitebeards!”

The group then discussed some more details.

Then, for a period of time, the alliance of mercenaries, redbeards, and slaves got busy.

During this time, the mercenaries also kept a close eye on the situation on the surface.

Their sources of information are few. Apart from the few words spoken by the grey dwarves who recently returned to Debusara from the surface, they only have the sentry guards of Barons.

The information that the sentry guards could provide was also very limited. Not only did they have visual information, but the further away they were from Barons, the blurrier their view became.

Based on the limited information provided by both sides, the mercenaries could only roughly determine that the border guards of Dibutor and Nordanron had already engaged in several rounds of fighting, and the battle was at a stalemate.

Furthermore, the focus of the battle seems to have shifted from the silver mine to other places, with fewer battles and personnel inside the silver mine compared to the beginning.

Unfortunately, the silver mines remained under the control of the Dibto people.

Therefore, if the mercenaries want to leave the Underdark, they still have no choice but to defeat the Whitebeard Gray Dwarf.

Several more days passed in the blink of an eye.

Thanks to Brian's help, Barons ended his slave work ahead of schedule and returned to the mercenaries.

As soon as Barons returned, he eagerly went to Gaucano and said, "Can I have those ten gold coins now?"

"Here you go." Gao Jiano handed him the gold coins, along with a black steel sword.

Barons was taken aback: "What is this sword?"

“I heard that you volunteered to become a slave in place of someone else. A red-bearded gray dwarf was very moved, so he asked me to give this to you,” Gao Jiano said.

Upon hearing this, Barons couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, after all, he knew that he had only taken the slave place for the sake of ten gold coins.

However, he didn't intend to add any unnecessary explanations, after all, he did have a black steel sword made by the dwarves!

Even the most clueless person would know that this thing is worth more than ten gold coins, let alone for a man in his early twenties, the significance of a sword goes far beyond money!

Barons held the black steel sword up to his eyes and examined it with great satisfaction.

Gaucano looked at him and said, "You've got some money now."

“Yes, ten gold coins. My father was a farmer in Driftwood Town, and he never saved this much money in his entire life.” Barons looked at the ten gleaming gold coins and said with deep agreement, “I never have to be a miner again!”

“You don’t have to be a farmer anymore,” Gaucano said. “Will you become a mercenary next?”

Barons pondered for a moment: "Why did you become a mercenary in the first place?"

Gaucano: "You should have heard some legends that battle is the fastest way to awaken a holy name. The fact that you were able to awaken the first section of your holy name is mostly because you... participated in the battle against the kobold overseer."

“Indeed, many stories about saints involve battles, such as suddenly receiving a powerful blessing in a desperate battle, which sounds exciting!” Barons said. “However, battles are also dangerous, and I’m actually a little scared. Perhaps making money is a better option.”

Gao Jiano: "If you're just looking to make a little money, there are some relatively safe ways. But if you want to make a lot of money, like the Gavin Chamber of Commerce, it's not much better than fighting. The reason we're trapped here today is because the Gavin Chamber of Commerce wants to make money, right? Of course, it's also because we want to make money."

Barons sighed: "Awakening the holy name requires battle, accumulating wealth requires oppression... No matter what good things are, someone always has to pay the price."

Gaucano remained silent.

Just then, Barons' expression suddenly changed.

"what happened?"

“The mine!” Barons said. “The western exit passage of the mine has collapsed!” “Why?” Gaucano quickly stood up, his face also showing a serious expression.

“It’s unclear at the moment. It could be an earthquake, or it could be some kind of man-made accident.” Barons frowned. “Brian and the others are preparing to move in. I think we need to move in too!”

Barons returned for this purpose; his sentry posts could, to some extent, facilitate the rapid transmission of messages.

Upon learning of the unusual activity at the mine and Brian's decision, Gaucano acted decisively, immediately gathering others to prepare for the next step—an attack on the Blacksteel Forge.

The Blacksteel Forge is the place where dwarven blacksteel is smelted and forged. It is the most important place in Dibsala, located in the center of the town, where various crude metals and forging materials are stored.

In addition, the Blacksteel Forge has a variety of tools and facilities for forging, including furnaces, anvils, and fire elemental creatures summoned from the world of fire.

Almost every dwarf household has a full set of forging tools, but those tools are just for family entertainment. If they want to forge something decent, they still have to come to the Blacksteel Forge.

In theory, the Blacksteel Forge should be controlled by the Redbeard Grey Dwarves, who have many artisans, but the reality is quite the opposite; Whitebeard is the one in control here.

Whitebeard's prejudice and distrust of Redbeard grew daily, making it difficult for Redbeard to even rent a furnace at the Blacksteel Forge. This was a real conflict of interest between Redbeard and Whitebeard, prompting more Redbeards to choose confrontation.

There were several dozen people on Gaucano's side, mostly Redbeard from the Brotherhood of Prometheus, with a few mercenaries, and their average level was between level three and four.

Under normal circumstances, the Blacksteel Forge, as the most important place for the Grey Dwarves, could never be taken down by a mere few dozen people.

But with the slave revolt in the west, the iron mines were in chaos, and the situation was naturally different.

When news of the iron mine reached the town, unsurprisingly, Mayor Matolius immediately led a group of elite grey dwarves there.

The defenses of the Black Steel Melting Ground suddenly became weak.

The alliance of mercenaries and Redbeard didn't have to wait long; after all, if it had taken too long, Matolius might have slaughtered all the rioting slaves.

Redbeard, after all, wanted to liberate the slaves, and they didn't want things to turn out this way. So, not long after Matolius left the town, they also began their operation, with dozens of men heading straight for the Blacksteel Forge.

On the way to the Black Steel Forge, Gaugano whispered, "Will Groin help us?"

Brown: "His stance is not very clear, it has always been so, but one thing is certain: he will not side with Matolius... In fact, you can think of Groin as a fake Whitebeard, as the representative of Debussy Redbeard, he is destined to find it difficult to be as decisive as we are."

Another red-bearded man said, "This is true for almost all of the more than a thousand townspeople. The fate of most people is determined by the victory or defeat of a few. It all depends on us!"

Gaucano drank the dark vision potion.

Dark vision isn't really necessary for this battle, since the Blacksteel Forge has multiple furnaces and is practically the brightest place in Dibsala.

However, there was still darkness between the furnaces, so just in case, he drank a bottle of dark vision potion.

After drinking the potion, Gaucano activated his Eagle Eye technique and peered into the darkness at the white-bearded guards of the Black Steel Forge.

There were probably several dozen guards, slightly fewer than their side.

Among the guards was a group of blacksmiths, who were intently engaged in smelting and forging, with sparks and the sounds of hammering echoing throughout the melting field.

For dwarves, smelting and forging are similar to reading and physical exercise. Ambitious dwarves will spend a lot of time and money on it in order to improve their forging skills and gain spiritual pleasure.

However, for the fire elementals, this is clearly a painful process.

There are more than a dozen fire elemental creatures in the entire Black Steel Molten Field.

As beings from the world of fire, their bodies are composed of pure flames, and their shapes are somewhat similar to humans, except that they have no legs and their facial features are somewhat indistinct.

These burning fire elementals were all bound by magical handcuffs, and under the coercion of the gray dwarves, they would occasionally unleash their power, giving the furnace astonishing temperatures. Without them, the smelting and forging of high-grade metals would undoubtedly be much more difficult.

The fire elementals vary in size, with the smallest being about the height of a dwarf and having a somewhat dim firelight; while at the deepest part of the Black Steel Lair lies the largest fire elemental, which appears to be three or four meters tall and is particularly conspicuous in the darkness.

Even such a massive fire elemental could not escape its fate of being enslaved, constantly having to channel its power into the furnace and anvil, each time causing its body to darken.

Whitebeard always adhered to the principle of "making the most of everything" when it came to slaves, so there was no doubt that as time went on, he would become dimmer and weaker, turning from a big guy into a small guy, and then into forging material.

The redbeards of the Prometheus Brotherhood were filled with rage as they looked at the enslaved fire elementals.

"Let them taste the wrath of fire today!" Brown gripped his warhammer and battle axe tightly in his hands.

Gaucano raised his hand and placed the hunter's mark on a white-bearded man who was supposed to be the patrol captain—the real white-bearded man. To avoid accidentally injuring anyone, they had already roughly figured out the fake white-bearded men in town.

Then he took out a black steel piercing arrow, stood at a distance, and nocked the arrow.

Blood-red arrow, swift breeze, aim and fire!

With a whoosh, the black steel arrow shot out and arrived in an instant!
[Kill a level 5 gray dwarf, experience +250]

The others followed suit with their aim and fire, and several white-bearded guards were killed on the spot.

"kill!"

"For Prometheus!"

The redbeards roared and charged at the whitebeard guards.

Gaucano fired a few more arrows, then drew his Blood-Summoning Sword and began close combat with the white-bearded gray dwarf.

[Kill a level 4 gray dwarf, experience +200]

[Kill a level 3 gray dwarf, experience +150]

With many elite troops on their way to the mines to suppress a slave revolt, these guards were not particularly strong and lacked vigilance, so most of them were powerless against Gaugano.

But the elite guards who suppressed the riots will soon return.

"Speed ​​up, guys!"

"Martolius could return at any moment!" Brown roared as he slashed at a white-bearded guard. "We must get to the Central Forge and unleash the most powerful fire elemental, the Flame Guardian Eboshir!"

(End of this chapter)