Strength 99999 but the Holy Sister

Tricia stopped dwelling on this question, she smiled and said.

"Don't underestimate these two gems, which are no bigger than a fingernail. In fact, the entire empire can only produce a few of them. They are precious magical gems called 'Tears of the Goddess', and they are only found in small quantities in the deep seabed of the endless icy ocean. In such places, the weight of the seawater is so heavy that it is hard to breathe, and the magic energy accumulated on the seabed is extremely large and dense. It is extremely dangerous there, and even I cannot dive to the deepest part."

Elsa is not completely without vision. After living in this world for a long time, she can still recognize which things are extraordinary and which are ordinary.

However, after knowing the origin of these two earrings, Elsa felt that she should not accept them - after all, for the current queen, these should be regarded as relics left to her by the previous queen.

Aisha sighed slightly in her heart and solemnly put the earrings away.

At this time, a faint light was already appearing on the distant horizon.

"The Seyavis Territory is ahead!"

Silverbaz's voice came from the front.

"Cheer up, we're almost out of the forest!"

……

------------

309, Lindao Town

"Finally, we're leaving that dark forest..."

Charlie also breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't that she was afraid, she just didn't like being surrounded by the dark night. Or rather, after what happened a year ago, she had never liked dark places.

"Elsa, are you tired?"

Charlie asked concernedly, riding beside Elsa.

Elsa shook her head.

"I'm fine," Elsa said, winking at Charlie, her eyebrows slightly raised, as if extending some kind of invitation to Charlie, "If you're tired, why not come and sleep in my arms for a while."

Charlie immediately pursed her lips and stopped talking, a blush appearing on her face.

Tricia smiled helplessly.

Grace stared at Elsa's back secretly and muttered softly.

"Dirty..."

In the second half of the night, the caravan encountered no more attacks from bandits or monsters, and they emerged from the forest safely. The distant mountains were greeted by the first rays of morning sun, accompanied by the sound of dripping dew, and the sparse raindrops gradually stopped.

In the morning, the fresh and cool air is particularly refreshing.

"We're out!"

"Very good……"

"Huh, I can finally take a break..."

Some people burst into laughter, dancing with joy due to the excitement of surviving the disaster. Silbaz also sighed heavily, his heart finally at ease.

"Don't fall asleep, keep trying," Silverbaz said loudly, "There should be a small town ahead. We can stop there to rest!"

"Ooh!"

Finally having some time to rest, the adventurers seemed much more energetic.

Elsa didn't feel anything special, because she knew from the beginning that there would be no danger on the road - in fact, this forest should be relatively safe. Elsa had been paying attention to the movements in the forest along the way. She found that the monsters in this forest were actually mostly weak, and she had never seen any dangerous species that lived in groups. Those monsters heard the movements of the caravan from afar, but did not come forward. Most of them just squatted in the distance and watched vigilantly, and the timid ones just ran away.

Most monsters have low IQs, but there are definitely some. There are a total of thirty or forty people in the caravan, as well as strong horses, marching aggressively through the forest. For monsters, seeing so many people together makes them look difficult to deal with.

Most monsters aren't stupid enough to just pounce on you and die.

The mountain goblins were a complete exception, as they were brought by the bandits and were not originally monsters belonging to this forest. They were controlled by that smell, and according to Tricia, this method seemed to come from the ancient witchcraft of the subhumans of Hellensis Butanna.

"Calling it witchcraft is just an older term. It's essentially a method of refining medicine using various herbs and magic to extract and unleash their effects. It can be used to save lives or create deadly poisons. Essentially, it's not much different from modern pharmacists, except that witchcraft relies more on controlling magical power, while pharmacists place more emphasis on studying pharmacology. In short, the Pharmacist Union has also classified those wizards as pharmacists, but neither they nor the pharmacists seem happy about it."

Tricia explained seriously.

"This is also intended to promote communication and recognition between humans and demihumans, although the results are limited—many wizards are unwilling to join the alliance."

Elsa knew about the several major unions under the jurisdiction of the Holy See, including those of warriors, pharmacists, metallurgists, merchants... but in fact, due to the conflict between the functions of the Warrior Union and the Adventurer's Guild, it did not develop much. The other major unions did bring a lot of convenience to the management of professionals in the region.

For example, the Pharmacists Union has re-drafted and revised the category names of almost all drugs, and issued qualification certificates to pharmacists who have passed the assessment, thereby reducing the risk of a large number of inferior and dangerous drugs entering the market. When many adventurers buy medicine, they only need to check whether the pharmacist is certified by the Pharmacists Union. This can be regarded as standardizing the entire industry.

Only the Holy See has the financial and human resources to support such a thing.

As for the wizards, perhaps because they prefer to make poisons, they are always restricted by the alliance, and their resentment towards the alliance may also be due to this factor.

……

Maybe it was because of the heavy rain, but when she walked out of the forest, Elsa felt that the temperature here was obviously much cooler than in Dammas.

But what surprised Elsa was that after leaving the forest and turning a small hill, she saw a desert in front of her.

The endless desert was not the kind of desert with piles of fine sand that she had seen in her previous life, but more like a Gobi desert with a gravel ground. Aisha looked a little further away and saw that all she could see was the color of yellow sand, with clumps of low plants that had lost their green color dotted on the dry land.

The rain that had fallen for several days did not seem to have left much of a mark on this desolate land.

Elsa looked into the distance and saw a lonely castle standing at the other end of her sight. There were people patrolling on the castle. There seemed to be a small town behind the castle, but Elsa couldn't see it clearly because of the stone wall blocking her sight.

“It’s incredible that there’s a desert right next to the forest.”

Elsa sighed.

It seems as if a clear boundary line has been drawn between the desert and the forest. This scene can perhaps be called "magical".

"Because the earth veins here are not very active, there is a canyon to the north. It was the battlefield during the Demon King War. The fighting was brutal, and the earth veins were damaged. As a result, this area is also difficult to show vitality. Over time, this place is no longer suitable for plant growth."

Tricia was lost in her memories again.

For plants in this world to grow, sufficient inorganic nutrients, water, and light are not enough. This is somewhat different from what Elsa learned in her previous life.

Hearing this, Elsa asked, "I remember it's the same in the Demon King's Territory?"

"It's similar. The veins of the Demon King's territory have completely dried up, and there's not a single life force left in the entire land. In comparison, the situation here is much better. Although the life force has become weak, at least it hasn't been completely cut off. As time goes by, perhaps one day this place will regain its vitality."

Tricia said.

"It's just that this place has become like this, it's no longer suitable for farming. The castle looks like an outpost left over from the war, and the town was probably built by the people who gradually gathered after that. If it weren't so close to the forest, it would have been abandoned long ago."

"This is where we should go."

Elsa took a look at the map. There was only a few words introducing this place on the map: "Lindao Town".

The small words seemed to be saying that this place was once a forest.

……

------------

310. Collapsed Statue of the Goddess (5K)

From a distance, Lindao Town is just a small settlement built on the castle, appearing particularly lonely in the vast desert full of yellow sand and gravel.

Elsa looked up at the sky. The sky after the rain became empty and clear, and an eagle flew across the sky.

"I wonder if this place was originally called 'Lindao'—honestly, it doesn't really fit the look of this place."

Charlie muttered to herself, seeming to be very curious about the scenery here. She looked around from time to time. It seemed that the excitement and anticipation of her first long journey had not been completely exhausted by the continuous rain and the dark forest.

Elsa and Tricia looked at Charlie and smiled.

As the caravan approached the town, the full view of the castle appeared before everyone.

The castle in the small town was far less spectacular and majestic than the lord's castle in Dammas. It was just a crude building with a few towers standing there, surrounded by a thick stone curtain wall with battlements several people high. There were crossbows and gun emplacements on the towers, and arrow slits in the curtain wall. It could be considered a relatively standard castle structure.

According to Tricia, it was a wartime outpost. The road under their feet was the original secret transport route. The outposts along the way were necessary, just like watchtowers, but they were larger, stronger, and more hidden. They could provide temporary shelter for transport convoys. There were usually a certain number of soldiers stationed inside, and they were equipped with basic equipment to defend against the enemy and magic to communicate with surrounding towns. There was also a basement for temporary shelter.

It can be said that it has all the necessary organs.

There are many similar buildings in the empire. They were all built to deal with and guard against the Demon King's army. After the war, most of them gradually evolved into small towns or villages. For the people living here, this small castle can provide them with good shelter.

The town is surrounded by a circle of walls supported by logs, which separate the inside and outside of the town. The outer foundation is set with a stone skirt, and a moat is dug outside. There is no water, but it is full of wooden spikes underneath. This is obviously a trap specially designed to deal with some monsters.

But as they got closer to the town, a faint smell of blood and decay filled the air. The smell was so faint that no one else in the caravan seemed to notice it, but Charlie, as a vampire, could sense something was wrong from afar.

Charlie twitched her nose and frowned slightly.

"Elsa... do you smell it?"

She subconsciously looked at Elsa, and Elsa had also restrained her smile.

"Hmm, fresh human blood—it doesn't smell like the blood of the monsters and bandits we carry." Elsa glanced around and rode towards the front of the caravan. "Let's see what's going on first."

When it comes to sense of smell, even Charlie, a vampire, is not as good as Elsa. Charlie has experienced this a long time ago.

"Oh……"

Charlie quickly rode up to catch up.

Coming out of the forest, they faced the side of the town, so the caravan circled halfway around the moat, and the town's gatehouse appeared in front of everyone - there was a drawbridge in front of the gatehouse for passage.

"Here we are."

Silbaz walked in front. He dismounted and looked at the gatehouse in front of him with his pupils slightly drooping.

The others followed him silently, their expressions becoming slightly solemn. At this moment, more than a dozen figures were hanging with ropes in front of the town's gatehouse. Those figures... or rather corpses, died in a miserable state, with no part of their bodies intact. Blood flowed and dripped from the wounds all over their bodies, and the blood on the ground had not yet dried up. Several vultures stood on the gatehouse, staring at the people who had come from afar with a fierce look.

All these people are dead.

This scene dispelled the adventurers' joy.

Silbaz narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at several of the corpses again and again - he recognized that these corpses were those of the bandits who attacked them last night.

"It looks like someone has already taken care of the aftermath for us, although it's not quite what I imagined. I thought they would be put to trial before being executed."

Aisha's voice appeared behind Silbaz. Silbaz turned his head and nodded slightly as a greeting.

"No one would want to share their limited food with them. In a small town like this in the wilderness, execution is the simplest and most direct way. These bandits deserve death."

Said Silbaz, looking up at the corpses, his eyes revealing a hint of hesitation.

"It's just that I'm surprised why they appear here."

Although it wasn't like wartime, the castle here wasn't just for show. Those bandits had clearly fled, so why were they here again? Silbaz didn't think those bandits were all fools.

"Who knows? Maybe it's hard to see anything on a rainy night, or maybe he just wants to try his luck."

Elsa remained noncommittal.

In fact, if you combine the information you got from Harper before, Elsa has some guesses, but she didn't say it explicitly.

Silvers sighed and shook his head.

"Anyway, let's go in. There aren't any other villages or towns nearby. By the way, this is your first time here, so you better be careful."

"Be careful?"

Aisha was a little confused about Silverbaz's warning, but nodded anyway.

At this time, Ebusen personally walked up to the guard and started talking to him, showing some documents. The guard glanced at the caravan and said something else. Ebusen took out a purse and handed it to the guard - the purse was full of money and it was heavy.

The guard confirmed it, put away the money bag, and then waved his hand, indicating that everyone should dismount and enter the town.

"Charlie, stop looking."

Elsa held Charlie's hand, and Charlie finally turned her gaze away and stopped looking at the hanged people.

“I always feel uncomfortable here.”

Charlie said sullenly.

Aisha rubbed her little hands and said, "No one likes to deal with the dead. This is normal. Let's go in first."

Following the caravan to the town, it was not quite what she had imagined. The town was very empty, covered in yellow sand, and without much of a breath of life. It made people inexplicably feel depressed. Apart from a few guards at the gate, Elsa didn't even see many people after entering the town. The houses on both sides were empty, with their doors open, roofs and windows broken, and the houses covered in dust. It looked like no one had lived there for a very long time.

Moreover, from the moment she came in, Elsa felt a lot of eyes cast at her. Elsa glanced at her and saw some skinny children hiding behind the wall and secretly looking at them. There were people dressed as hunters sitting against the wall, doing nothing, just staring at them. Turning their heads, they saw that the soldiers at the gate must also be looking at them.

Meeting Elsa's gaze, the children blinked curiously. They seemed to be very interested in these people coming from outside the town, while others did not flinch and even gave her provocative smiles.

“There are fewer and fewer people here.”

Silbaz walked in front, muttering to himself.

Charlie followed Aisha. She also noticed the gazes around her, and a hint of vigilance flashed in her eyes, but on the surface she pretended to be indifferent.

Tricia followed slowly and asked, "Were there a lot of people here before?"