Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 170 Whispers in the Woods, Silver Moon the Elf
The vast, dark forest, with its massive canopy forming a dome, blocks out the sunlight. Only the moss and ferns that emit a soft glow, and the occasional beams of light that pierce through the gaps in the branches and leaves, like scattered gold, barely illuminate this ancient land.

The air was filled with the scent of damp, decaying leaves and moist earth, and occasionally a distant, indistinct bird call could be heard.
In this forest, the passage of time seems to become obscure and slow.

Elves have long lifespans, and their days are generally uneventful.

When such days are defined as "barely surviving," they become especially difficult to endure.

Unfortunately, starting in 1069, the elves have been burdened with this heavy shackle.

That same year, the elves lost their capital city.

They also lost the plains where their ancestors had roamed for generations, and from then on, they huddled in the dark forest.

The royal family at that time was the Moon Elf race, which had a history of thousands of years.

It was precisely because they made the decision to fight alongside the human race that they were suddenly betrayed, their land shattered, and the immense guilt and shame led the Moon Elf race to take on all the rearguard duties, their blood staining every field.

To this day, although the Moon Elf princess has been elected as the new queen by all races, she has been praying under the Tree of Eternity, and all political affairs have been handed over to the Silvermoon Elders Council.

For the next three hundred years, every day was a silent torment for the immortal race.

The tranquility of the forest is merely a facade; beneath the rustling of pines and leaves lies a surging, magma-like energy poised to erupt—anger, humiliation, resentment, and a sliver of almost extinguished hope, yet still stubbornly waving.

Selyl Morning Breeze landed lightly on a thick branch adorned with morning dew, making almost no sound.

Another "faraway" of the elves has been summoned back.

As one of the most outstanding scouts among the elves, Selir Morrowind's greatest strength is that she is human-like rather than elf-like. This allows her to disguise herself as an ordinary human and infiltrate a human society filled with malice towards elves to complete her mission.

Reconnaissance, recording, and sending back intelligence.

Day after day, year after year.

Only when he returned to the Dark Forest did Cyril feel at home. He leaped freely across the tree trunks, each step precise and light, as if the forest itself was carrying him forward, not moving him.

Traditional elves do not move in this way; they walk normally through the forest, occasionally leaping to the treetops to catch the distant scents carried by the wind.

Those creatures that never touch the ground and leap from tree to tree like monkeys are almost always mixed-race, or more precisely, mixed-race elves whose maternal lineage is elf and whose paternal lineage is human or other humanoid races.

Following the naming convention of father before mother, they were contemptuously referred to as "human-spirited race" or "beast-spirited race" in the outside world!
They call themselves half-elves.

Because they suffer from all kinds of discrimination, cold looks, exclusion, and even insults in human society, they become unusually radical after being accepted by the elves.

For example, jumping among the trees shows one's natural affinity.

Selil's distinctly feminine name comes from his mother, a half-elf who resolutely rejected her father's surname and would always reply with unwavering conviction whenever asked, "Sorry, I've forgotten what that bastard's last name is!"

Half-elves would also deliberately show their difference from humans in everything they did—walking, sitting, and lying down—in order to psychologically sever their relationship with humans, as if this would bring them closer to the elves.

The humans in the northern wilderness, like the orcs, would deliberately laugh wildly with rough voices, expose half their shoulders, and tear large chunks of half-cooked roasted meat. It's the same principle.

Because of the desire to belong, people strive to imitate.

"The Wanderer" Cyril's mission is to scout out the Vast Territory, located at the eastern end of the continent and considered a barren land. He has been lying in wait and observing the Vast Territory for several months.

When he first received this mission, he, like the other half-elves, was filled with an instinctive aversion to that dry, barren desert land, devoid of natural spirituality.

But this was a task personally assigned by the Silvermoon Elders, so Selir set foot on that "land abandoned by nature".

However, everything on this land far exceeded Selyl's imagination.

When the Han Hai Territory Mercenary Guild was officially established, it sent out invitations everywhere, inviting mercenaries from all walks of life to develop in Han Hai. Of course, very few people went. Even though it was stated that the round-trip travel expenses and food and lodging would be covered, in the end only three small groups and about twenty idle mercenaries were invited, including Selir.

In fact, Selir thought that the vast majority of them were probably spies from various factions.

Who would send a mercenary to this godforsaken place?

However, Selyl quickly realized the benefits of this place.

Although the number of missions in the Mercenary Hall is not large, they are diverse in three aspects: first, they are highly feasible; second, the rewards are generous.

All of them were territory missions; there were no messy, stingy private commissions like guards delivering messages or hiring pets to kill people.

Well, most private commissions are carefully calculated and can't compare to those national procurements. However, in other places, the commissions issued by these countries and territories are simply not available to ordinary mercenaries; they are all taken by those with connections among the mercenaries.

By the time these connections pass it down layer by layer, in the end, not a single drop of profit is left; only the shell remains.

In the vast ocean, all missions are territory-based, and there's no such thing as mercenary connections.

There weren't even any mercenaries...

Selir quickly began to work on the mission with great enthusiasm. Since she was disguised as a mercenary, she had to act like one.

The result was that I got more and more hooked. After doing so many terrible tasks outside, it was hard to resist the urge to do these high-quality tasks.

For example, a task like this.

Task type: Data collection.

Task duration: Long-term.

Task requirements: Collect different types of plants and animals. Plants should be as intact as possible, including underground root systems; animals should have their limbs intact as much as possible, without dismemberment.

For detailed requirements and compensation, please refer to the task attachment list.

Generous compensation, double the pay for live animals!

With her natural affinity cultivated from her elven heritage, Seril quickly acquired a variety of plants and animals, large and small, with each item starting at a rate of gold coins.

On one occasion, she managed to obtain a mutant insect that wasn't on her quest list, earning her a reward of twelve gold coins. Selir thought that if these quests could be sent indefinitely, all the elves from her hometown could come and do them, and they'd all be financially independent in no time.

For example—

[Collection of Mainland Legends]

[Obtaining City Specialty Products]

Whether it's mechanical parts, spirit puppets, spellbooks, or cultural information... in short, anything that doesn't exist in the Vast Ocean Territory, if you can get your hands on it, you'll be rewarded handsomely.

The list in the hall is updated daily, and the mercenaries can check it anytime, anywhere. They can see whether the items they are going to collect are new products purchased at high prices, spare parts purchased at regular prices, or junk that are no longer being purchased. They don't have to waste time or spend money to buy so-called inside information from the intelligence department.

Soon, Selir became so engrossed in her mission that she almost forgot why she was there, just like the other spies.

Because of her outstanding and positive performance, Selyl Morningwind was able to integrate into the system of the Vast Ocean Territory more quickly and gained the right to come into contact with more people and things.

Through careful observation and communication with the local inhabitants, the elf "Wanderer" gradually pieced together an unbelievable reality.

"This barren desert is coming back to life at an astonishing rate."

When questioned by the Silvermoon Elders, Selir spoke with a firm tone, drawing curious glances from the crowd.

The Silvermoon Guild's chief elder, Iona, nodded slightly.

"I admire your honesty. Now, my child, could you elaborate?"

Iona is very old, so much so that among the elves who are still active, everyone has to respectfully call her "Senior Iona", "Grandma Iona", or "Ancestor Iona".

Her face was aged and covered with wrinkles, but her eyes remained clear, like the forest sky after the rain, clearly reflecting Selil's somewhat nervous figure.

"Yes, wise elder, I can only try to describe the wondrous sight I have seen with my meager language!"

"That young lord, though in the desert, seemed like a fanatical believer in the god of nature."

"The Vast Ocean Territory has a deep-seated aversion to quicksand. They spare no expense in spending a great deal of time and manpower to clean away the layers of loose sand from the surface of the land, digging out crisscrossing trenches and grids in the earth like a chessboard, and then planting grass on these parched lands, planting large amounts of grass!"

Selyl waved her arms, trying to make her description more vivid.

"There are also shrubs and desert trees, which they buy from the desert people at high prices and then arrange for the people to plant them with high compensation. They water them continuously to ensure the survival of most of the plants."

"When I first arrived at the vast expanse of green, though the color was light, I almost thought I had gone to the wrong place!"

The elven elders narrowed their eyes.

For these well-traveled old folks, having seen so much, they have lost their imagination. They can understand small lakes and oases in the desert, but they simply cannot conjure up the bizarre scene of vast grasslands coexisting with the desert in their minds.

Celeste paused, seemingly recalling the scene in her mind, and continued, "Also, they grow rice that thrives in water in the desert."

"When I first saw it, it shocked me even more than hearing the sirens sing on a high mountain!"

"In fact, they have succeeded. Most people in that desert can use this rice, which grows on salt-covered land, as food. I have also eaten it, and it tastes pretty good and is enough to fill you up!"

“Every day there, I could see grasslands, trees and rice paddies constantly increasing, and the yellow sand getting further and further away from that city in the vast desert!”

Iona narrowed her eyes: "So, according to you, this lord is a believer in nature?"

“Wise Elder, the situation may be somewhat different from what you think.”

Cyril quickly added, trying to recall the rugged city that rose from the desert and the strange, rumbling machines within it, describing it in words as best he could: "This lord seems to prefer... being a follower of a god of machinery or craftsmen?"

"His transformation of the environment may not have stemmed from the worship of a nature god, but simply from his decision to live there."

"And it seems they intend to live there comfortably for a long time!"

A low murmur rippled through the council of elders.

As elves who have lived for hundreds of years, they have seen humans burn forests to cultivate farmland for a living, seen orcs overgraze wildly, causing grassland degradation, and seen many examples of "I only live this life, I don't care about the next life," but they have never seen a lord who likes to "plant grass" so much.

Selyl painstakingly described this systematic, large-scale transformation of nature and the construction of life balance. Well, the traveler was unaware that a huge picture was slowly unfolding in the space behind him.

The elves used an "Ancient Eye" stored in the Ancient Tree, which was equivalent to releasing a detection spell with an extremely long range and a huge area, projecting the ditches, fields, and buildings of the Vast Ocean Territory into the air, albeit slightly blurry, but clearly visible.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, my child! Your eyes have shown us unexpected scenery."

Elder Eona's voice pulled Selir back from her reverie, "Besides hearing your reports, there's something even more important we need to confirm. We've received scattered information that seems to indicate the Vast Ocean Territory has recently been involved in military operations against the orc tribes?"

Selyl's eyes lit up, and her body involuntarily straightened up.

"It's not just participating, it's leading!"

"This battle has been under the control of the Vast Ocean Territory from beginning to end!"

To gesticulate wildly and exaggerate—that is the way of the speaker.

They looked at each other in disbelief—this was the listener!
Several travelers needed to report today, and after seeing off yet another traveler, the members of the Silvermoon Elder Council engaged in a heated discussion.

It's hard to imagine how closely and enthusiastically a group of old guys, the youngest of whom are over 170 years old, are concerned about the situation on the mainland.

They were not only aware of the northern orcs' southward invasion, but they also possessed far more inside information than any other third-party force.

In the stories sung by bards, the elves are elegant, proud, arrogant, and unyielding... their strengths and weaknesses are intertwined.

But in reality, those are all old stereotypes.

When the elves, like stray dogs, burrowed into the forest and struggled several times, realizing they could never bring themselves to take a single step, they abandoned all pretense of humility.

(End of this chapter)