From troll tribes to elf empires

Chapter 278 The Return of the Elves and the Restart of the City

In the underwater fortress, Nesta was sitting in a small office, participating in another remote meeting.

"The prisoners will continue to be detained there. We will wait and see what happens next to avoid another surprise like last time. In fact, the interrogation can also be conducted at the detention point. It is best not to take them back to the Black Forest. For now, we have to worry about it.

In terms of food, be careful not to starve them to death. Has the Department of External Exploration made arrangements?"

"They created the illusion of a natural underground pit, and placed streams and fungi in the detention center. Just barely survive starvation, and it should be fine for more than half a year." Coarse Ya replied, "It's a wolf.

What should we do over there? The four wolf kings have withdrawn, can the remaining ones support the intensity of the war in the future?"

Nesta tapped her fingers on the table, thought for a moment and responded,

"The pursuit of mammoth species may escalate, or it may stop the bleeding, but even in the former case, they will not maintain it with high intensity. In this way, they should disperse into the habitat in advance. Their size and combat power tend to be

Better suited to that environment than mammoth species.”

"The selected habitats are all Jedi suitable for deploying mainland base stations. If the two kings still insist on it, let us see what kind of combat power the mammoth army can exert in that environment. For the future

It’s more or less a reference.”

"Jiangya is right, you can indeed observe it, and I will make corresponding arrangements for the wolf pack. How is the situation over there? What's the situation of the people, etc.?"

"The mountain fortress is very good. The trolls are advancing faster and faster, and the proportion of elves with armor is getting higher and higher. The same goes for the tree elves. The first batch of little guys are already moving towards the second level.

We have left, and a small number of the second batch of little guys have become witch doctors. As long as there is no danger this time, we will definitely be stronger."

"The situation on the island is similar. This may be what you call 'being shameful and then being brave'. By the way, we observed two kinds of gregarious monsters in the nearby sea area, and we also set up traps to catch a batch. They are quite smart and have great combat power.

The physical strength and body strength are also pretty good. If we operate it properly, we can probably become a character like the wolves."

"It means that the direction of the Ocean Druid has been chosen?"

"Well, I think it's quite appropriate, so haven't I come to discuss this with you? The little guys have been temporarily persuaded by me. They are just doing preliminary research now and haven't reached the stage of transformation yet."

"Okay, send the data to us later, and then we'll transport a few live bodies to Couya and me later."

"Understood, I will send the airship."

"Living in groups and having certain wisdom, even if there are high-level monsters behind you, you must proceed with caution."

"Understood, we have only captured single-digit individuals so far, and we cannot attract the attention of high-level monsters."

"Speaking of high-level monsters. Have you confirmed the habitat of the guy who attacked the airship last time?"

"Confirmed. After comparing the sounds, similar data was captured in the east of the mainland. There were also more than 10,000 similar but weaker signals found around it. They should be related to the same species. The combat power is unknown, but each of them seems to have exaggerated

With speed and flight agility, our power in the air seems to be far outmatched."

"We have to find a way to capture one of its kind. We need to know why they can fly freely and at high speed in the air with that kind of size. This will be a big help for the individual aircraft project. In addition, the way of the Sky Druid seems to be also

Is there much to be done?”

At this time, Nesta recalled Agatha's status report after the incident, and became quite interested in that kind of aerial monster.

"If we can set up traps to lure them to the ground, capturing them shouldn't be a problem, right? Let the External Exploration Department. No, let the Military Intelligence arrange the plan. If necessary, senior witch doctors can be sent to assist. However, the submarine fortress

There is a bit of a shortage here, do you two have any extra strength that you can send?"

"The mountain fortress has the ability to support it. The facilities here are relatively complete and there are no overly complicated expansion tasks. Just make plans."

"Okay. There is one more thing worth noting. The southern volcanoes seem to be gradually cooling, and it started when we captured the advanced salamanders."

"How is this possible?"

"But this is indeed the case, so I suspect that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between high-level magical beasts and special terrain."

Nesta replied firmly,

"However, judging from the cooling curve, this process may be quite long, even more than ten thousand years, and it is very likely that it will not be completely cooled, but will stop changing when the activity drops to a certain level."

"Then there will be many possibilities," Coarse Ya said with thought in his voice, "If this is the case, it will be necessary to check those special terrains in the north one by one. If there are dormant advanced creatures underneath, then for us.

"

"It's both a good thing and a challenge, but no matter what, you have to grasp the situation first, and then be aware of it, so that you can be well-aimed in the future, right?"

"The Speaker is right. The data from the mainland base station needs to be screened again. If we can miss a few more seriously injured people, hehe!"

"Well, no matter whether we can find something wrong or not, we have to hurry up on this matter. Now we will do it piecemeal. When we return to land, we will call in the group of witch doctors who are best at data analysis and conduct intensive investigation for a period of time."

"Can."

"valid reason."

"agree."

"Huh? Azshara, you actually attended the meeting. Why didn't I hear your voice just now?"

"I was in a demonstration submarine before. There were no metal wires here, so the audio transmission was not smooth and the delay was quite high. I just returned to the fortress home port."

"What kind of submarine? Has it been finalized? Is it capable of actual combat?"

"Fang. You are such a war maniac."

"Haha~ It's better than being cautious like you."

"Okay, let's listen to Azshara first."

"Well, it's been finalized, but I have to disappoint you, Fang Fang."

"how?"

"This is a submarine construction boat. Its duty is to establish a sonar and supply base in the deep sea. Apart from pressure resistance, combat capabilities are almost not considered."

"Isn't that just a living target? How can you have no fighting ability!"

"Don't worry, the rest of the supporting deep-sea formations are also under preparation. The combat type, mothership type, and exploration type have all been launched, and the armored warriors who specialize in undersea combat are also being verified."

"Azshara, please wait a moment for the underwater armored units. The two monsters I just mentioned are very suitable for reference in terms of appearance, and their spell-like abilities are also very suitable for underwater battles."

"Okay, then I'll wait for your news first."

"Understood~ Today I will send a high-speed airship to send four of them over, as well as a few magic crystal samples."

After discussing different issues for a while, Nesta, who saw that the time was almost up, finally confirmed,

"Is there anything else? If not, let's break up the meeting first."

"there is none left."

"Nothing happens here."

"I'll be back to find you in an hour."

"Okay, then the meeting will end here. Wait, Jian Ya, Coarse Ya, how is your practice going? If not for this accident, you should have gone into retreat as planned."

"I'm going very smoothly here. I've been working on it for more than ten years. I should be able to enter the third level within this year."

"Me too, not much slower than the rough-toothed old man."

"Nonsense! I am no longer an old man, I am now an elf in the prime of life! I am very capable, okay!"

"Haha~"

"As long as everything goes well. If you can successfully upgrade, I will feel more at ease here."

"Speaker, do you really plan to step down temporarily after returning to the mainland? It's not necessary, everyone still trusts you."

"Even so, this time it's not just your responsibility. You can't handle it all on your own, right?"

"It doesn't matter. My consideration is not just about responsibility and system construction."

"Um?"

"I really need to retreat for a while."

"Could it be?"

"Yes, the third level seems to have reached a bottleneck, and we must work hard to figure out the future path. Therefore, this can be regarded as a smooth sailing. Moreover, it is not that we are completely ignoring things, but we just plan to deflect our attention for a while."

"Really? Level three to the top?"

"Level 4!!?"

"Can his words be false?"

"Okay~Okay! You really deserve the name of 'pioneer'!"

"Yes, yes! You live up to your reputation as a pioneer!"

"Haha, whether it will succeed or not, and how long it will take to succeed, are still unknown, so let's hide the specific situation for now. If it fails, don't mention anything. If it succeeds, we will talk about other things."

"That's right."

"Approved."

"What about the position of Speaker of Parliament?"

Azshara, who had known the situation for a long time, was not surprised and was more concerned about the transfer of power at this time.

Moreover, in order to maintain her partner's de facto influence, she actually has intentions for this position.

"Let the parliament recommend it, just like when it elected me. But more efforts should be made on the ballot. I tend to link the weight of the vote with the medal level. What do you think?"

"It's generally no problem, but how to link it specifically and the amount of vote rights occupied by each level of medals. These need to be carefully considered."

"Well, the three of you have made a draft, and the council will also give it to them first, so that they can have a rough idea in their minds."

"clear."

"Approved."

"Can."

"Okay, that's it, let's break up the meeting."

~~~~~~~~

In the northern continent, the Rangers took fifteen days to send the news that the entire Vanguard army had been annihilated to Mammoth King City;

The two kings were furious about this, and the male king even had the idea of ​​​​conquering it himself. Fortunately, the female queen persuaded him and finally just sent three heroic level ten thousand captains and three thousand altar guards under their jurisdiction.

;

The marching speed of the altar guards was quite fast. It only took them more than twenty days to arrive at the coalition station, and together with the 50,000 troops, they headed towards Area 034.

But when they arrived, the wolves had already penetrated into several selected habitats and carefully avoided them;

Naturally, the mammoth army that came all the way would not give up. They also started a retaliatory encirclement and suppression, and the wolves also fought against them in pieces.

In the following months, the two sides were constantly competing within a thousand-kilometer radius, hunting and counter-hunting, pursuit and counter-hunt, and scenes of great drama were staged one after another;

This not only caused huge casualties to both sides, but also allowed the Republic to gradually understand the fighting methods of the Mammoth Army and its subordinate multi-racial coalition forces.

It has to be said that the wolves have shown great resilience during this period. After the previous reduction in numbers, their strength can even be said to have increased rather than decreased to a certain extent;

The mass death of low-level wind wolves gave the remaining power greater flexibility and execution, and the wolves already had strong transfer capabilities, and were subsequently taught the classics of previous lives by Nesta himself. guerrilla tactics;

Therefore, in the later stage, they used the "dangerous habitat" as the basis to engage in a long-term confrontation with the mammoth species, and inflicted a heavy blow to the opponent in the confrontation.

Relying on their agility and excellent sense of smell, they carried out continuous sneak attacks on the protector army. In the already dangerous environment, they caused a serious psychological shadow on them. Even the troops directly under the mammoths were severely damaged by this.

However, the size of both sides was there after all. When the altar guards, led by the three mammoth heroes, launched a step-by-step encirclement and suppression, the wolves died out amid huge casualties, and then completely disappeared into the desperate situation. Show up again.

Of course, the original monsters there would not welcome the arrival of wolves, but dealing with them is much easier than dealing with mammoth species. After all, wolves naturally belong to the wild.

As for the Mammoth Alliance, they have now completed their retaliatory action. Due to factors such as food and environment, they finally chose to retreat. The wolf carcasses in their hands were enough for them to return to the mission, so there was no need to continue spending them here.

During this period, intelligence from both sides was continuously sent to the three fortress groups further south, allowing the elves to learn about the situation in the north at the first time.

Nesta, who looked at the intelligence, also understood that the wolves had established a foothold in the north;

Next, perhaps we can gradually send out some of the overpopulated wolves in the Black Forest in batches, so that they can become more powerful in the areas north of the mountains and south of the continent.

In fact, this move may not have any direct benefits for the Republic, but it will have many disadvantages for the Mammoth species;

The so-called 'Southern Sanctuary Governor's Area' will become a high-risk area due to the influx of a large number of wolves. This may not affect the mammoth herds, but the relatively weak sanctuary residents will not be able to live peacefully here.

In this way, although the plan does not benefit oneself, nor does it harm oneself, it is enough if it can harm it.

~~~~~~~

Time continued to move backwards, and when September approached, the six-month period originally set for the evacuation had arrived. Fortunately, the elves did not suffer revenge from the ‘sanctuaries’;

Facts have proved that the so-called "omnipotent" in the speculation is not really "omnipotent" at least at this time, which somewhat makes the top leaders of the Republic breathe a sigh of relief.

After that, the citizens of the three fortress groups began to return in batches under the organization of the ruling government, returning little by little to the Black Forest.

As the vanguard, there are several seemingly ordinary totem-powered rail locomotives, and more than two hundred elf witch doctors loaded inside;

The locomotives were traveling quite slowly, even far below their normal speed. The reason for this behavior was actually because these locomotives had a special mission - to open roads.

Here, they started from the underwater fortress and headed north in three ways

There seems to be no trace of the track in front of the front of the car, but every time they traverse a certain distance, the ground under their feet often changes for no reason;

As the front of the car passes by, the foundation beneath the feet rises, the sleepers appear, and the tracks extend backwards. They were either hidden underground or mixed with dead branches and roots;

But now, thanks to the role of totems, it has quickly been restored to a passable track line.

Restarting is always more complicated than covering up. The confusion that could be completed in a short time during the evacuation took a longer time to truly recover.

More than ten days later, these totem vehicles, which started traveling from the coastline, finally arrived at their destination - the headquarters of the Republic.

But what kind of city appears in front of us? This place seems to have turned into a forest environment that is no different from other undeveloped areas in the Black Forest.

More than two hundred witch doctors left the carriage without being surprised, quickly dispersed into the "headquarters", and then stood at a close or far distance from each other;

The pace of the cars did not stop there. They were still traveling north, east, and west, and at the other end of their path, there was the same car, starting from different starting points;

As a result, those tracks and lines in the black forest that suddenly disappeared were restored little by little under their influence.

His eyes returned to the witch doctors who entered the headquarters. After they stood at each point, they began to cast spells. As the long or short spell casting time ended, more than two hundred wooden stakes spontaneously

Rising at the feet of these witch doctors.

These wooden piles are tall and thick, with groups of extremely complex patterns and vine patterns engraved on them, all the way down into the ground, and ultimately it is unknown where they will extend.

'Are you ready?'

A voice sounded from the minds of the witch doctors, and after receiving a response, they continued to say,

'Everyone coordinates their casting speed, the high-level ones synchronize downwards, the low-level ones maintain their own stability, the countdown begins. 3.2.1 starts!'

‘Boom!’ ‘Boom!’

The silent forest roared, and with the actions of the witch doctors, trees that looked ordinary but were much thicker and taller than usual began to gradually reveal their true colors.

The trunks retract and deform, and the branches and leaves fall and become flat. They either become multiple, or combine with each other, or shed their outer coverings;

Immediately afterwards, specious hollow bodies were formed one after another, and slowly approached the appearance of the elven building.

And when a short period of time passed, the previous forest completely ceased to exist.

Three tall mother trees have grown up in the city. The surrounding Yingling Square and the Central School are gradually restored. There are also many public buildings, residential buildings, research institutes, urban pipelines, and factories. In the process, they are also "returning to their roots" and once again

Appear.

Finally, when all the commotion ended, the brightest pearl in the black forest returned after a period of silence.

This is the first sign of the urban defense system that has been built since the end of the High Salamander capture operation;

The previously launched plan was actually the most helpless one, specifically used to cover up traces of its own existence by "turning the city into a forest" when other methods failed.

At present, whether it is the witch doctors who have personally implemented the "city restart" or the citizens who are further away waiting for news, they all sincerely hope that this plan will never need to be used again from now on.

;

Escape, only experiencing it once is enough.

When the city's functions were restored, messages of 'track renewal completed' and 'city restart completed' were quickly sent to the three fortress groups, and more than 70,000 citizens embarked on a journey back home.

~~~~~~

More than a month passed, and the Black Forest gradually returned to its appearance more than half a year ago. When it completely settled down, the ruling government began to gradually resume the production activities that had been interrupted before.

For the Republic, it has already missed a farming period, and is likely to miss a farming period again. However, in the face of a large amount of food reserves, this is not an unbearable loss. What is relatively more troublesome is that those weeds must be spread as soon as possible.

The fields are reopened;

Fortunately, totem power has been completely popularized in the fields. Farms of all sizes are now completely mechanized operations, rather than the original pseudo-mechanical operation model that relies on "giant magic power";

Therefore, when heavy totem engineering vehicles of various types began to roar in the fields, the deserted fields began to be restored relatively quickly.

Compared with agriculture, the resumption of industrial production is relatively easy. After the factory ends its hibernation, as engineers and front-line workers reset, most of the assembly lines are restarted in a short period of time.

However, there is another aspect where the losses are really heavy.

This evasion caused a huge blow to the Republic's animal husbandry industry. During the evacuation, except for the best 'breeding animals', all the other animals were slaughtered and turned into food reserves as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, the department has been working on the optimization of livestock breeds before, and its products have also occupied tens of thousands of cultivation cabins, and were properly disposed of during the evacuation period;

So now, when the three mother trees have returned to their original positions, the first thing to start is the resumption of animal husbandry. It is expected that within two years, it will not only return to the previous scale, but also have better livestock for various purposes.

.

These new beasts will be improved products that balance the growth cycle and functionality. They will bring huge improvements to the Republic in the near future in terms of diet quality, wool spinning, etc.

~~~~~

Starting from being attacked by high-level monsters, then to the sudden battle in the north, and then to being evacuated due to an uncertain crisis, this series of unexpected changes finally came to an end at the end of the 66th year of the Rune Calendar;

And the Black Forest Country, which has developed step by step to today, has also restored its former appearance and started its development path that has never stopped again.

Although this seems to be an unreasonable tossing for more than half a year, the process of 'tossing' is not completely without benefits;

First of all, the "high self-esteem" that has been accumulating in the hearts of the people has been eliminated without damaging their self-confidence. The citizens have put away their nascent external rebelliousness and begun to wait for the blooming of the new era.

opportunity;

Secondly, it rehearsed an evacuation procedure that would be best not to be used in the future;

Finally, the three refuge fortress groups have received greater investment of resources, especially the underwater fortress group, which has undergone functional changes in the past six months that have gone beyond the previous design.

When the population returned at the end of September, the overseas islands in the south began to rise and fall with the airships above. The number of refugees here began to decrease in batches. In the end, the entire fortress group shut down the production line and entered dormancy.

state;

The same is true for the underground fortresses located in the northern mountains. With the return of the population, most industries have been shut down and dormant, and have entered a period of overall closure;

The only difference is the underwater fortress

Since Nesta planned this place as an undersea advance base, the largest fortress here has not been closed down, and it even has further production capabilities that focus on underwater ships.

For example, a "main battle submarine" with deep-water navigation capabilities and equipped with ultrasonic strikes and reaction chamber weapons;

Another example is the ‘exploration submarine’ that has the ability to shuttle under the sea at high speeds;

Another example is the ‘base submarine’ with submarine construction capabilities;

For example, a ‘mothership submarine’ capable of dropping armored combatants on the seabed.

With the efforts of the numerous witch doctors in the underwater fortress, and with the assistance of the marine monster samples provided by the Fangs, they have been completed in a series of steps from design and finalization to assembly line production in more than half a year.

Now they have reached their respective relatively mature 'generation models';

From this, the Republic began its own path to open up the seabed.

Explore offshore waters, establish sonar and logistics supply bases, and step into the open sea;

Build a base for advancing to the far sea, search for seabed mineral resources, find valuable ocean monsters and hunt them;

After that, from magic crystals, to runes, to totems, and finally feedback to applied technology.

As long as this process is carried out in an orderly manner, in the face of a systematic and large-scale totem industry, the deep sea is not an inaccessible place.

The first step is to become thoroughly familiar with and master the conditions of the sea area near the headquarters, capture or drive away the monsters living there, and make it a controlled sea area;

The second step is to expand northward along the east and west roads, and then open up safe routes above the sea through control of the sea. For the planned migration of the "fourth-class weak people" in the future, sea transport capacity is greater than air transport.

, a more cost-effective way to achieve land transportation;

After that, we will slowly encroach and expand the scope of our control of the sea area without provoking high-level monsters for the time being.

In addition, the path of the Ocean Druid has also entered the development stage. Among the new batch of growing witch doctors, it is expected that there will be those who can move freely on the seabed;

Although most of the previous witch doctors have chosen a transformation route, in the future, as the road is gradually improved, it is not impossible to achieve control over multiple transformation abilities.

On the other side, the 'deep sea armor' that is more suitable for the seabed environment has also entered the development stage;

The original intention of its design is to prevent large-scale equipment from being bullied by the "landlord" monsters using their flexibility. Individual armor adapted to undersea combat will become an important supplement to combat power in this regard.

And it doesn't stop there. Some witch doctors have also focused their attention on 'armor deformation', hoping to allow armored soldiers to obtain the ability to seamlessly switch between sea and land.

Of course, there is a considerable degree of complexity in this, and it is unlikely that results will be achieved in the short term, but it is a direction worth looking forward to.

And perhaps just like what Jian Ya mentioned before about "knowing one's shame and then being brave", during the half year of "refuge", not only the number of compatriots who were promoted to elves increased rapidly, but also the number of elven warriors who gained the ability to drive armors also increased.

the more;

At this time, the former is continuing to work hard to get closer to the latter, while the latter is gearing up and looking forward to the new achievements of the witch doctors;

Once the 'deep sea armor' is finalized, even if the land and sea deformation capabilities are temporarily lost, they will not mind taking over one more armor, or 'degrading' the existing armor to its initial state, and then re-architecting it from the core, thus obtaining the naval battle

ability.

On the other side, traps targeting fellow members of the 'Giant Bird' family have also begun to be laid in the east of the Northern Continent. Several senior second-level witch doctors have already set off for the target location, preparing to promote the Republic to open another 'Sky Druid'.

(End of chapter)