I became a god through archaeology in the Wizarding World.

On the second floor of the warehouse, the curtains were drawn tightly shut, with only a gas lamp emitting a hissing sound.

Wearing his specially made gold-plated gloves, Rhodes steadily sliced ​​open the strange fish's abdomen with his silver-plated scalpel.

Instead of bright red blood, a thick, dark green liquid with a strong fishy smell flowed out.

When this liquid comes into contact with air, it quickly evaporates into a thin mist.

Benjamin stood three meters away, holding a perfume-soaked handkerchief to his mouth and nose, watching Rod's actions with a pale face.

"Its internal organ structure has completely mutated."

Rhodes' voice was calm: "The stomach has shrunk, the lungs have disappeared, and in their place is an extremely well-developed parotid cleft system. This indicates that it has completely given up the possibility of terrestrial survival and has fully adapted to the high-pressure environment of the deep sea."

The tip of the knife picked up a grayish-white tumor located behind the strange fish's brain, connected to the spinal nerves.

Rhodes stopped what he was doing.

In his spiritual vision, the tumor was emitting an extremely faint but very high frequency of magical energy.

The color of this fluctuation is a murky deep blue, with a viscous feel that makes one feel uneasy.

"What is this?" Benjamin couldn't help but ask.

"Receiver".

Rhodes cut off the tumor and placed it in a glass bottle containing stabilizer: "It's also a locator. The magical properties of this thing are completely identical to the bio-beacon Mortimer created in the Necropolis. Although its strength is only one ten-thousandth, its essence is the same."

He turned around, took off his gloves, and threw them into the incinerator.

"This means that Mortimer's signal before his death was not only received, but the other side has also responded. This strange fish is not a lost mutant; it was a scout sent to investigate. This organ inside its body is guiding the subsequent main force to locate the coordinates of the capital."

Benjamin shuddered. "The main force? You mean... there will be more of these?"

"It's worse than that." Rhodes walked to the window and looked through the crack toward the eastern port. "The Deepsea's remnants are just cannon fodder. The true deepsea races possess intelligence and social structures no less than humans. They don't charge around like wild beasts; they attack through tactics."

As soon as Rhodes finished speaking, a pale white light suddenly flashed across the distant horizon.

Immediately afterwards, a dull thud traveled down the ground, making the glass bottles on the table clang.

……

Royal Port, East District of the Royal Capital.

This is the largest deep-water port in the entire kingdom, where dozens of ocean-going freighters and several Royal Navy frigates are moored.

Although the port's throughput has decreased significantly due to the pandemic lockdown, the docks are still piled high with goods that have not yet been shipped out.

The night was deep, and a thick layer of white fog covered the sea, reducing visibility to less than ten meters.

Hans, the old sailor on night watch, wrapped his wool coat tightly around himself and patrolled the pier with a lantern in his hand.

He felt that something was off about the sound of the waves tonight.

Normally, the sound of waves crashing against the shore is a rhythmic "splash, splash," but tonight, the sound became more muffled, accompanied by a strange "gurgling" sound, as if countless feet were stepping on wet mud.

Hans stopped and raised his lantern to shine on the sea.

The light pierced through the thin mist, illuminating a small patch of the sea.

His pupils suddenly contracted.

The sea is receding.

The seawater, which should have been at high tide, was now retreating at an alarming rate, revealing a black seabed covered with barnacles and seaweed.

On the exposed seabed, countless dark shadows were writhing.

Before Hans could react, a ten-meter-high white wall of water silently surged towards them from the distant horizon.

Tsunami.

But the tsunami did not roar loudly; it seemed to be controlled by some force to conceal its presence.

"Enemy attack—!"

Hans had barely uttered half a syllable when a sharp bone spear pierced through the mist and precisely struck his throat.

His body was thrown backward by the immense inertia and became embedded in the wooden stakes of the pier.

The next second, the white wall of water crashed into the breakwater.

Contrary to expectations, the seawater quickly spread out after overflowing the seawall, flooding the low-lying areas of the dock.

As the seawater surged in, countless black figures leaped out from the waves.

They are about 1.5 meters tall, with hunched backs, their bodies covered in slippery scales, webbed hands and feet, and sharp fins on their backs.

He held a crude weapon made from coral, animal bones, and scrap metal from sunken ships.

They didn't utter any roars, but maintained an eerie silence, quickly dispersing and creeping towards the warehouses and guard posts in the dock area.

A guard who was dozing in his post heard the noise and opened his eyes to see a huge mouth full of sharp teeth looming in front of him.

"Click."

Half of the guard's head was bitten off.

The blood fueled the fishman's ferocity, but instead of stopping to eat, it quickly charged toward its next target.

This was an organized massacre.

In just ten minutes, all twelve outer sentry posts were eliminated without a single alarm being sounded.

The murloc raiders then targeted the warehouses filled with supplies.

Instead of stealing valuables, they took out black spheres from leather pouches at their waists and threw them into the warehouse's ventilation openings.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The continuous explosions finally broke the silence of the night.

The towering flames illuminated the entire port area, making the ferocious figures leaping in the flames look like demons from hell.

……

The Black Iron Barracks in the western district of the capital.

The Iron Duke Balthazar stood before the sand table, his brow furrowed.

His main army is currently scattered at the border between the lower and upper city districts, maintaining that fragile blockade line.

Although the plague has been suppressed by medicine, the panicked crowds remain a huge hidden danger, and any slight disturbance could trigger a riot.

"Sir, there's an explosion coming from the direction of the port, and there's a huge fire."

Colonel Vance strode into the command room, looking somewhat puzzled. "The patrol reported a fire in the warehouse area. It could be a fight among smugglers, or the mob trapped in the lower city trying to break out by water."

"Smugglers?"

The Iron Duke snorted coldly, "They still dare to defy the law at a time like this? Let the port guard handle it. If they don't have enough manpower, send two squads from the reserves. Don't use the main force. The blockade of the lower city must not be loosened."

In his view, the port unrest was nothing more than a minor ailment; the real threat remained the plague within the city and the civilians who could easily spiral out of control.

This ingrained way of thinking and lack of intelligence led this battle-hardened commander to make the wrong judgment.

The port guard force has fewer than 500 men, and most of them are poorly equipped second-line troops.

Faced with thousands of fearless murloc raiders operating under the cover of night, their defenses were as fragile as paper.

……

Black Oak Street, warehouses.

Rhodes stood by the window, looking at the firelight in the east that had dyed half the sky red.

He could feel the water element in the air becoming unusually active, and a suffocating sense of oppression was coming with the sea breeze.

"here we go."

"Rhodes said in a low voice."

Benjamin stood behind him, staring at the flames, his teeth chattering. "That's...that's the port? Mr. Rhodes, should we escape?"

"Escape? Where to escape to?"

Rhodes turned around, his expression calm. "The port has been captured, and the waterways are cut off. On land, the Iron Duke's army has sealed off the city gates. The capital is now an isolated island."

He walked to his desk, picked up the map he had taken from the steam infantryman, and drew a circle around the location of the port with his finger.

"Their first wave of attacks targeted ports, aiming to cut off supplies and escape routes while creating chaos. This suggests that the vanguard was not commanded by mindless beasts, but by a high-level deep-sea creature with strategic acumen."

"Benjamin, pass the word down: all workers must stop production and evacuate to the basement for refuge. Seal the warehouse doors and activate all defense mechanisms."

"And what about you?" Benjamin asked eagerly.

"I'm going to see someone."

Rhodes donned a black trench coat, pulling the hood down to cover most of his face: "The Iron Duke's reaction to an invasion of this scale was too slow. If we wait until those merfolk stormed into the city, it would be too late."

He had to go see Sieg.

Only through Sieg could a direct warning be sent to the King, enabling the Royal Mage Corps and the Royal Guard to launch a counterattack.

Rod pushed open the door and stepped into the chaotic night.

Just as he stepped out of the warehouse, a belated alarm finally sounded from the direction of the royal palace in the distance.

"Clang—clang—clang—"

The dull and urgent tolling of the bells echoed through the sky.

This was not an ordinary fire alarm, nor was it the sound of a curfew bell.

This is a war alarm signifying foreign invasion and a state of emergency in the capital.

The bell rang twelve times in succession.

Level II combat readiness.

The entire capital city, this massive war machine, finally awoke in agony and began to laboriously turn its rusty gears.

On the streets, the military police who were originally there to maintain order began to assemble, and the sounds of horses' hooves and the clanging of armor rose and fell.

As the chimes faded, Rhodes' figure darted through the shadows, speeding toward the palace.