Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 254 The Humiliation Between the Dwarfs and Little John: A Life-or-Death Crisis

The cave was filled with a musty smell, a mixture of damp earth and old wood.

Little John, like a groundhog startled awake from hibernation, cautiously crawled out of the dark hole under the bed, moving as quietly as possible, afraid of making the slightest sound.

The young mercenary hunched over, tiptoed, and moved silently like a cat behind the wall of the mud house. He pressed his cheek against the rough mud bricks and peered out through a crack in the windowpane, holding his breath.

The streets were deserted, with only a few withered leaves swirling and drifting by in the autumn wind.

John licked his lips.

The once young archer now has a thick, dark stubble on his lips and his face bears the marks of hardship. A shallow scar runs diagonally down his left eyebrow, a souvenir from a past "job".

Mercenaries grow quickly; the more blood they see, the more injuries they suffer, the more they witness killing or kill, the sooner they shed their naivety and immaturity.

The mercenaries were far more perceptive of this sudden war than the Xi Yue officials.

War is preceded by warning signs. While those pot-bellied, incompetent officials are slow to notice, these mercenaries who mingle at the bottom of society have long since caught wind of it.

Two weeks ago, the prices of weapons, armor, and magical materials on the market all rose to varying degrees, especially the high-quality arrows produced by large workshops, which were immediately out of stock.

Experienced veterans immediately realized that something was about to happen.

Of course, this premonition of "something bad happening" is more like a vague intuition, and it is impossible to accurately determine the source of the disaster.

It could be that a wealthy mercenary group is launching a large-scale exploration of ancient ruins, emptying their inventory; or it could be that several long-suffering nobles have finally broken off negotiations and are preparing for a bloody private duel; or it could even be that a new rich mineral vein has been discovered somewhere, and various forces are secretly accumulating strength to fight for it...

Even the most fanatical person at the time wouldn't have considered that Whitestone City was about to be attacked.

But soon, the most experienced old John gathered the group of mercenaries together and solemnly announced that from now on, they were not allowed to leave the city or accept missions. From now on, they were all to stay at home obediently.

“In the past few days, a lot of cheap houses have appeared on the market. I asked around and found out that the sellers are all very secretive about their identities.”

"Something's really wrong, everyone stay out of the way!"

Weapon prices are soaring while asset prices are plummeting—this is definitely a dangerous signal, but the White Rock City authorities don't seem to care much. Why? Because food prices haven't changed.

Because of the upcoming autumn harvest, the price of old grain had even dropped slightly, so the civil officials of the city lord's mansion, after observing for a while, naturally assumed that this was an isolated incident.

No need to care.

In reality, the bureaucrats of Whitestone City judged from the surface that there was nothing wrong with the situation. In order to conceal the news of the attack as much as possible, the Elven Elder Eona deliberately did not take any action in Whitestone City, and even intentionally relaxed the military preparedness at the border of the Dark Forest, all to make everything look the same as usual.

However, nations and tribes are made up of living people, and even the Grand Elder, with all his calculations, could not foresee certain things.

The elven and half-elven agents planted in Whitestone City, though all wholeheartedly dedicated to the restoration of the elves, inevitably harbored their own ulterior motives.

It's reasonable to prepare an extra set of armor and extra arrows before going to war, isn't it?

Once the war breaks out, the prices of houses in Whitestone City will definitely plummet. It's perfectly normal to sell them cheaply now.

Old John didn't know what had happened, but his intuition, honed from years of navigating life and death, was like a flare-up of rheumatism—he knew the weather was about to change. He couldn't explain why, but it just worked.

So old John directed the families to take immediate action. They quietly pawned some less important possessions, pooled their money to buy useful tools, secretly prepared well-fed horses, reinforced their little-known safe house, and then hid themselves away, ready to flee at the slightest sign of trouble.

But no one expected the elves to arrive so quickly! They cleared Whitestone City in an hour, leaving no time for anyone to escape.

The sky has fallen! The elves have captured Whitestone City, the Federation has lost its key city, and its people have lost their country.

However, the city did not collapse entirely. After occupying the city, the elves exercised great restraint, appeasing the lower classes and stabilizing social order. Apart from requiring mercenaries to re-register, they neither forcibly conscripted nor confiscated weapons. The market reopened after a brief closure, and the taverns were once again filled with daring individuals.

For most professionals who just want to make a living, life seems no different from before, except that the flags flying on the city walls have changed from the Federation flag to the Elf flag.

But not John's family.

Even the Hedgehog Tavern that the old cripple left them didn't dare to go back and open.

They had a grudge against a half-elf who had performed a great service.

The half-elf was named Aug Watson, a hybrid of elf and dwarf. Because of his short and stocky stature, he was often ridiculed.

About six months ago, John and Josie's hastily assembled mercenary group had a conflict with the neighboring camp of Orgrimmar at their camp outside the city. The cause is unclear, but it was nothing more than some trivial matter.

Both were hot-tempered young men, and they started hurling insults at each other in no time. Aug seemed to have perfectly inherited his dwarf father's clumsy tongue; amidst the human mercenaries' varied and sarcastic shouts, he was so angry that his face turned red, but he couldn't utter a single powerful retort for a long time.

Finally, one of the sarcastic mercenaries uttered a highly insulting remark.

"Hey! Shorty! With your and your dad's height, you probably couldn't even smell a woman's stench if you crawled under her crotch! Hahahaha!"

Insulting someone's parents and exposing their shortcomings, Aug immediately turned red with rage and lunged forward, fists clenched.

The argument escalated into a brawl, which then triggered a massive melee between the two mercenary groups. Fortunately, the camp was still inside the city at the time, so both sides maintained some restraint and did not use weapons, engaging only in hand-to-hand combat.

Although Little John also felt that the mercenaries in his group were too sharp-tongued, in this kind of situation, the mercenaries would definitely side with their own people regardless of right or wrong, otherwise how could they survive in the underworld in the future?

From then on, they became enemies. Every time the two groups met, they would argue and fight. After several minor conflicts, the feud was finally established.

Perhaps because he had been humiliated by the humans for a long time, Org was extremely fierce when the elves attacked the city. He stood at the front of the city gate with only an axe, fighting to the death despite being wounded many times, which allowed the Silver Moon cavalry to advance unimpeded. After the battle, he was directly promoted by the elves to the position of city defense captain.

Given Aug's fiery temper, he would naturally retaliate tenfold for any grievances he suffered.

That foul-mouthed mercenary was the first one dragged out of the crowd by Aug's men, given a brutal beating in public, his teeth shattered, and then thrown into a dark and hopeless prison on charges of "insulting elves and harboring malice," his fate unknown.

Immediately afterwards, little Josh, who had gone out to buy some food, was also caught by them. Several fierce city guards pinned him down in the mud, and Aug lifted his mud-covered leather boots and rubbed the soles of his boots repeatedly against little Josh's young face, doing everything he could to humiliate him.

Finally, the reason why Little Josie was released like trash was so that he could pass on a message to Little John and the other "accomplices" who had participated in the fight that day, who had not yet shown their faces.

A newly recruited human lackey, eager to prove himself, arrogantly announced his plan to "avenge" his captain:

"Listen up, you little brat! Our Captain Orgrimmar is magnanimous and won't make things difficult for scum like you!"

“Everyone of you who were there that day, get yourselves to the main gate of the Mercenary Guild! I’ll find you a whore from a brothel, and you’ll crawl between her legs! Come out and shout in front of everyone, ‘I can’t smell any stench!’ Then this matter will be settled!”

"From now on, the captain will be his captain, and you will be your mercenaries. We will keep to your own business and have no further dealings with each other!"

"How about that? The captain has done everything he could, giving us a huge amount of face, hasn't he?!"

This direct, vulgar, and satisfyingly humiliating retaliation clearly suited Orgrim's palate perfectly, a blend of dwarven straightforwardness and elven pride. The dwarf-half-elf laughed heartily, slapping his thighs with his thick arms, which in turn roused the entire squad of city guards behind him into a roar of laughter.

When John heard what Josie had to say with her face covered in shoe prints, he was so angry that he was trembling. How could he possibly agree to go out?

Upon hearing Josie's reply, how could Little John possibly go out? That was the entrance to the Mercenary Guild, watched by all the mercenaries in the city. Going through there like that would be no different from dying.

So John, Josie, and the others had no choice but to continue hiding in the safe house. Fortunately, the Federation's slow and rigid system made finding people in a big city as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, which allowed the families to survive until now.

Of course, this also allowed them to evade the mushrooms' repeated attempts to find them.

When Chen Mo learned that the elves had chosen Whitestone City as their first target, he sent a mission to the observation group: to find some old friends from back then.

More than two years ago, when they first landed in the Vast Ocean Territory, Chen Mo had arranged for someone to invite Josie and John. However, the vast desert and the orcish border were too far and dangerous for these mercenaries. Under the strong dissuasion of their families, the two little ones gave up the idea of ​​traveling thousands of miles north.

Chen Mo did not insist, but arranged for someone to send some money and food, and never mentioned the matter again.

After all, Chen Mo himself still longed to return to his hometown on Blue Star. He fully understood and respected his friends' choice to stay in their hometown and be with their families.

Now that war has broken out in the western part of the Federation, Whitestone City is the first to be hit, and Chen Mo immediately thought of these old friends.

He instructed Junzi to find people and inquire further. If they were willing to head north to the Vast Sea, the lord could provide them with protection, which would be much safer than staying in this dangerous place that was about to be completely swallowed by war.

If they were unwilling, given the relatively good cooperative relationship between the Vast Ocean Territory and the Elven race, they could speak to Elder Aiona or the frontline commander and ask them to take care of these human lads to prevent them from being affected by the war.

The lord had personally assigned it to him and repeatedly instructed him on it, so naturally the mushroom dared not neglect it.

Junzi was determined to find the person alive or dead, so she abandoned the frontline observation in Qingze City and personally guarded Baishi, urging Aiona to assign her liaisons and arrange for people to search the city again and again.

Chen Mo had specifically instructed them in the notification not to post any public notices or leak their portraits or photos. Whether the elves could hold Whitestone City in the long term was still unknown. If the Federation were to launch a counterattack in the future, such actions could easily brand Little John and his companions as "elven spies" or "traitors," which would bring them utter destruction.

Therefore, the task of finding the mushroom was like searching for a needle in a haystack, relying on limited manpower to conduct continuous undercover investigations among the vast population and transient population of White Stone City.

Coincidentally, or rather tragically, the city defense team's search party and the elven headquarters' search party crisscrossed the streets and alleys of Whitestone City, searching again and again. One side was searching for the nicknames circulating within the mercenary groups, "Quick-Leg John" and "Freckled Josie," while the other was checking the officially registered names. With no communication and each fighting their own battle, despite doubling the search efforts, they still couldn't find any concrete clues.

This shows how well these guys hid.

But the investigation only got closer, and the hiding place was in imminent danger.

"Brother John, those hounds are cracking down harder and harder. Yesterday they almost found the secret door in the next block. What should we do?"

"What else can we do? Hide and find a chance to escape!"

As John watched another patrol pass by, he casually drew a black mark on the edge of the bed with charcoal.

"This shorty is so ruthless. I don't remember I did anything to him. I think I only kicked him once at most. Was it really necessary to make such a big fuss?"

Little Josh's eyes darted around, and she asked with an uncertain guess, "Is it possible that you kicked him in the balls?"

John's neck stiffened as he tried to recall the scene from that day, rubbing his tangled hair that hadn't been washed in a long time: "I... I don't think so..."

"If he had actually been kicked, wouldn't he have passed out?"

"Who knows, maybe the dwarf's testicles are more resilient? Bro, if it really comes down to it, let's just admit defeat and try it once. Survival is the most important thing!"

"If I lose face, I can just become a mercenary in another city."

“Don’t talk nonsense!” John rejected Josie’s suggestion to kneel down without hesitation: “We can leave if we lose face, but our parents and uncles are all in Whitestone. They can’t leave. People will laugh at us for the rest of their lives!”

"Besides, haven't you noticed that the guys looking for us these past few days have been getting higher and higher in rank? Before, it was just those human lackeys, but now even high-level elves have been mobilized. I think Org is getting really angry!"

We still need to find a way to escape!

Hard work pays off, and John and his companions finally got their chance. With the fall of Qingze City to the elves, the elven forces underwent another round of reorganization, and more and more positions in the city were assigned to the "human puppet troops." One of John's good friends became a squad leader in the transport team.

They used all their savings and their good brothers to bribe officials and secretly slipped the disguised John, Josh, and their companions into the mercenary escort team of the transport convoy.

On the morning of their departure, the sky was overcast and it looked like it was about to rain. Several horse-drawn carts loaded with ordinary timber and leather creaked and groaned as they rolled over the cobblestone road. John and his men, wearing ill-fitting mercenary leather armor that reeked of sweat, kept their heads down and mingled with the escort team.

The carriage moved slowly, taking them all the way to the west gate of the city. Once they passed through this gate, the world outside would be vast and boundless.

Then, among the line of city gate guards, Little John spotted Aug, the short man with the pointed ears.

John felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, as if all the blood in his body had frozen. He turned to look at the "good brother" before him, with whom he had once drunk, adventured, and even saved each other's lives. That familiar face now seemed so strange and ferocious.

"You...you betrayed me?"

Faced with John's fiery gaze, his good friend smiled slightly.

“John, the Federation is finished. Qingze City fell in a day, and the elves have already surrounded Shicui City. They might have already taken it by now.”

"Brother will have to make a living under the elf lords from now on, I'm sorry!"

The convoy had slowly arrived at the city gate. Og Watson's short, stocky figure stood in the center of the gate, arms crossed, a hint of mockery on his face. Behind him stood a dozen or so city guards, some human and some half-elf, each holding a weapon and looking hostile.

"What should we do?" Little Josie's voice was already trembling with tears.

"Admit defeat!"

Old John made a quick decision, taking a few steps forward and bowing deeply to Aug, giving a mercenary salute so that his gaze was below Aug's eyes. He spoke earnestly, "Captain Aug, our children were ignorant and offended you. We are willing to offer all our possessions as compensation. Please, have mercy and spare their lives!"

Without even glancing at Old John, Aug narrowed his eyes and said gruffly to Little John and Little Josie, "Little guys, finally decided to come out of your mouse holes?"

The surrounding city defense team members cooperated by letting out an exaggerated and ear-piercing burst of laughter.

"It's late!"

A human city guard deliberately pinched his throat and let out a strange, shrill laugh, dragging out the sound:

"Normally, it was a trivial matter that could have been resolved by crawling between a woman's legs, and our captain, being magnanimous, let it go!"

"But what about you? You're asking for trouble! Now you dare to impersonate guards, carry weapons, and try to sneak out of the city! This isn't just a personal grudge between Captain Aug and you! This is a premeditated rebellion!"

Little John involuntarily gripped his weapon, but it was immediately seized by his grandfather Old John's rough, iron-like hand.

Faced with dozens of long swords and short bows wielding menacingly on and around the city walls, Little John could only bite his lip and slowly release his weapons.

In the midst of despair, he suddenly heard a voice as beautiful as heavenly music.

"You're John? John who went to the Tower of Halfur?"

(End of this chapter)