Mercenary Wars

Chapter 138 New Enchantments

The title "Flame Guardian" in Eboshir is not a nickname, but a formal title, similar to a "knight" in the human world, belonging to the lower nobility.

For elemental creatures, titles, like physique, can directly reflect their strength.

It is a well-known fact that the higher the social rank, the smaller the racial differences. Conversely, the lower the social rank, the greater the racial differences.

At least at the seventh level, the racial differences between elemental beings and mortals are still quite obvious, and Eboshir's strength is clearly superior to that of Matolius, who is at the same level.

When Eboshir's fiery red figure appeared, he let out a thunderous roar and caught up with a group of white-bearded gray dwarves in the blink of an eye at a speed no less than Gaucano's Blood Burning Sprint, and then waved his fiery palm!

Amidst the roar of flames and piercing screams, several white-bearded men were reduced to charred remains.

Abohir raised his hand again and threw out a cluster of bright fireballs.

The small fireball traced an elegant arc in the darkness before falling into the area where the whitebeard was densest.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, the seemingly inconspicuous small fireball burst open instantly, turning into a surging wave of fire that engulfed more than a dozen white-bearded men.

"Dragalia above—" the whitebeards screamed.

"Drag, humph! Before the King of Flames, he's nothing but a bug!" Eboshir roared again, continuing his attack on Whitebeard as flames danced in the air.

Faced with the siege of Redbeard, slaves, mercenaries, and fire elementals, Whitebeard was quickly wiped out. Many were not even left behind, turning into charcoal and ash in the rage of the flames.

The battle ended shortly afterward.

After quickly cleaning up the nearby battlefield, the mercenaries gathered together to discuss their next plan.

They now have two problems that urgently need to be solved.

First, there's the issue of the exit route. Now that they've eliminated Whitebeard's forces together with Redbeard, they can naturally leave openly by using this route. However, the western passage has collapsed—the reason for which is still unclear.

This leaves only three export options.

The north exit is blocked by molten hounds, the east exit connects to the silver mine controlled by the Dibutons, and the south exit is a body of water occupied by merfolk; none of them are easy to traverse.

The mercenaries discussed it for a long time but still couldn't make up their minds. They had no choice but to put the issue aside for the time being and decide on a decision after consulting with Redbeard and his men.

In addition, there is another question: what should be done with the freed slaves of the Jehovah disciples?
Especially Nikolai, the prosecutor of the Christian church.

From a religious perspective, they should have eliminated Nikon. If they had done so, they would have certainly received commendation from the Mosaic Church, at least verbal encouragement.

However, they were all shallow believers with weak religious feelings, and Nikon had fought alongside them for a period of time and was regarded as a comrade-in-arms to some extent, so almost no one considered this option.

They were hesitant to let Nikon go directly, though – what if someone accused them of “colluding with heretics”?
This is a potential problem they have to consider.

Then Gaucano suddenly remembered: "Hilgon, do you remember what Nikon revealed when we first met?"

Hilgon paused for a moment, then his eyes lit up: "I remember now!"

The others were mostly unaware of the situation and looked at the two of them with confusion.

Gaucano explained: “When we first came into contact with Nikon, he told us that he knew Cyril XIV’s secret—a bishop who had competed with Cyril XIV for the position of patriarch was murdered, and that Cyril XIV knew about the murder beforehand and was likely an accomplice. Nikon ran into trouble because of his efforts to expose this, and eventually became a slave to the Grey Dwarves.”

After hearing these words, everyone understood.

“We must let Nikon go!” Daniel said.

Hilgon added, "Yes, and we also need to pray for his safe journey!"

Ryan smiled slightly: "Perhaps there will be an interesting story."

They could easily imagine the chaos that would ensue in the Duchy of Dibuton if Nikolai had safely returned to the territory of the Yemeni Church and successfully exposed Cyril XIV's incriminating information!

From this perspective, letting Nikon leave not only aligns with their personal feelings but also perfectly serves the interests of the Mosaic Church. Even if the church were to inquire later, they could provide a reasonable explanation.

So everyone reached a consensus—to let Nikon leave.

Since the decision had been made to let Nikon go, there was nothing more for the other disciples to discuss.

After all, for most lower-ranking believers, following their own pastors is only natural. As a sixth-rank pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ, Nikon would certainly be followed by most of the disciples of Jesus Christ as they leave the Underdark.

Just as the mercenaries were discussing, a beam of holy light shone from the darkness a little further away.

Gaucano turned his head and saw that Nikon had used a holy light spell to create a spotlight effect on himself.

In the dim environment, this blob of holy light was extremely conspicuous, instantly attracting everyone's attention.

Nikon, speaking amidst the holy light, said: "Disciples of Jesus, I am Nikon, a sixth-level priest. Due to a mission concerning justice and faith, I must return to the surface as soon as possible. Therefore, I implore you to help me dig open the passage on the west side..."

To the disciples of Jehovah, Nekhom was their priest and their savior, and since they were also destined to return to the surface, they did not hesitate and said, “Brothers, let’s go and dig a tunnel!”

"For Yemen!"

"For Nikon!" Many of them, still holding their pickaxes, said, turning to head west.

They were interrupted by a voice as loud as rising flames: "There's no need to dig up the west passage. If you want to leave, just take the north passage."

The one speaking was the Flame Guardian, Eboshir.

As a flame, he was just as conspicuous in the darkness as Nikon under the holy light, drawing the attention of everyone.

“The north passage?” Nikon frowned. “As far as I know, there’s a Molten Hound there.”

Eboshir simply said, "To the fire elemental, it is not a 'vicious dog,' but a loyal companion."

Nikon was taken aback.

The mercenaries were also taken aback, then looked at each other, seeing a mixture of surprise and delight in each other's eyes.

Does this mean that Eboshir can directly persuade the Molten Hound?

If that's the case, then there's no need to worry about the access route.

Of course, the mercenaries didn't intend to leave with the disciples of Jehovah. After all, even if Nikon was somewhat trustworthy, among hundreds of disciples of Jehovah, there were bound to be some extreme fanatics. Traveling with them rashly, and if something amiss was detected, who knew what might happen?

“Come with me, mortals,” Eboshir said to the disciples of Jehovah, and then walked north, the firelight from his body illuminating the way.

His steps appeared somewhat slow, but considering his large size, his actual speed was not slow.

Therefore, Nikon and the other disciples of Jesus hurriedly followed, and soon disappeared from everyone else's sight... Several days passed.

In these few days, most of the slaves, including all of Jehovah's disciples, had left the Dark Lands.

Redbeard and his men dedicated themselves to repairing the wounds of war, including the destruction of towns and, more importantly, the death of Whitebeard.

After all, before this, Redbeard and Whitebeard in Dibusara Town were still of the same race, and even though there was a deep estrangement, they still had a lot of brotherly ties.

Some families, with both white and red beards, suffered the most heavy losses in this battle and may even come to hate the Brotherhood of Prometheus. After all, if it weren't for the radical Brotherhood of Prometheus, they might have been able to save their loved ones' lives.

Of course, they dared not express this hatred.

With Whitebeard's massacre, the Prometheus Brotherhood's beliefs and ideals underwent a transformation, from what were once heretical doctrines to now being considered infallible truths. All the Redbeard and Grey Dwarves completely abandoned Drag and turned to the flame and Prometheus.

The statues, symbols, and books of Drag were destroyed one after another, and replaced by various symbols of the fire-breathing titan Prometheus. The red beard became a source of pride rather than shame, and every dwarf began to compete to see whose beard was redder and more like flames.

In this situation, those who secretly hate the Brotherhood of Prometheus can only adopt a posture of sacrificing their own for the greater good and use disguise to avoid hostility—just like the Redbeards who once disguised themselves as Whitebeard.

The mercenaries had nothing to do for the time being.

After Dibusala became Redbeard Town, they naturally became honored guests. Not only did they no longer need to hide, but they were also frequently invited to drink, which meant they were living a very comfortable life.

The dwarves not only loved to drink themselves, but they were also incredibly enthusiastic about urging others to drink. Compared to them, the "drinking culture" that Gaucano had seen in his previous life was simply child's play.

Fortunately, the Earth's Skin could both detoxify and cure hangovers—or perhaps the two were essentially the same thing—which prevented him from getting completely drunk at a party and allowed him to maintain his composure and drink as if it were water.

During a break at the party, Gao Jiano sorted out his recent gains.

He first reviewed his own dashboard information.

[Experience: 4040/6000]

I need 2,000 more experience points to level up.

However, at least in the Underdark, it's definitely impossible to accumulate those two thousand experience points. After all, Whitebeard has been defeated, and the only intelligent race in the Underdark that is hostile to him is the Fishmen in the south.

He was actually considering going to investigate the fishmen's background.

But after careful consideration, I decided against it.

The murlocs live in an underground river in the southern part of the Underdark that is suspected to be connected to the Levin River. They usually do not leave the water. If Gaugano wants to use them to gain experience, he will have to go to the water himself, which is definitely dangerous.

Murlocs are a secondary intelligent race, offering relatively little experience. Given the danger and limited experience, the cost-effectiveness is extremely low.

It seems we can only wait until we return to the surface to see how the battle between Dibto and Nordanon unfolds. If it's not too devastating, we can go and grind some experience.

After examining the panel, Gao Jiano picked up the Blood Summoning Sword and reached out to touch the blade.

[Item: Blood Summoning Sword]

[Hood Level: Unknown]

[Sword Level: 6]

[Enchantment: Blood Summoning: ...]

[Enchantment: Rosier's Touch: ...]

[Enchantment: Mark of Enslavement: There is a very low chance to trigger "Mark of Enslavement" upon attack, granting control of the target's body. The lower the target's mental attribute and the weaker their will, the easier it is to trigger the Mark of Enslavement.]

……

The blade of the Blood Summoning Sword has been upgraded.

The upgrade from level 5 to level 6 means that the lowest level of blood currently constituting it is level 6.

Of course, this level is not very meaningful. After all, to some extent, the level of the Blood Summoning Sword can be regarded as continuous, so it is more accurate to say that it went from level 5.9 to level 6 rather than from level 5 to level 6.

The biggest change is the addition of an enchantment—the Mark of Slavery.

It is obvious that this enchantment was obtained from the blood of Matorius, and its effect should be similar to the "Mark of Enslavement" that Gaucano personally experienced, which can be said to be very powerful.

The question is, just how low is this "extremely low probability"?

Besides, Gaucano doubted whether he could truly enslave an enemy—a living enemy.

After all, the Blood Summoning Sword has an amazing killing effect. Against enemies of the same level, regardless of the body part, as long as they are hit by three sword strikes, they will most likely die instantly, and it will be difficult to leave them alive.

"Rosier's Touch" has the same problem: as an enchantment with a 100% trigger rate, no enemy has ever truly benefited from it.

Gao Jiano then sorted and counted the spoils of war.

His spoils of war mainly came from Matolius: a black steel battle axe, black steel heavy armor, heavy strike gloves, and a level 5 storage ring.

Open the storage ring.

A pile of coins estimated to be worth hundreds of gold coins, several high-quality black steel ingots, a spare battle axe, and several books written in dwarven script...

There was also a whole host of shackles, a must-have for slave owners, and an even greater number of keys.

Gaucano glanced at it and estimated that Matolius had at least a hundred keys, strung on several keychains.

Most of the keys were clearly just keys to slave shackles and were of little use, since there were no slaves left in Dibusara Town. Redbeard had freed all the slaves and allowed them to choose to leave or stay as laborers.

There were also several keys that were clearly not shackle keys, but were strung separately on a keychain. They were made of different materials, including stainless steel, black steel, and mithril. It was unclear what kind of lock they corresponded to.

Shortly after counting the spoils, a knock came from outside the door.

Gaucano opened the door and found Groin and Brown, along with a translator.

“We have some news for you, and of course, we'd like to hear your opinion as well,” Groin said.

Seeing the serious expressions on the two dwarfs' faces, Gaucano couldn't help but ask curiously, "What news is it?"

Groin: "There are two opinions about Redbeard's future. Some people think we should continue to call ourselves 'Redbeard Grey Dwarfs,' while others think we should completely abandon the Grey Dwarf identity and identify ourselves as an independent dwarf race..."

Brown added, "Most brothers prefer the latter. What's your opinion on that?"

(End of this chapter)