Tasman, St. Karen.
Because it was located to the west of the Kingdom of Karen, when the first rays of dawn illuminated the territory of Efta, the territory of the Kingdom of the Undead was still in the darkness before dawn.
Oppressive darkness covered the surroundings, and the moat flowed slowly with a lifeless aura. The palace, "Oldmantius," appeared abnormally serene under the pale illumination of the torches. The well-equipped palace guards passed through the corridors as usual, and the clanking sounds of armor made the place seem even more empty and quiet.
Behind a metal door with complicated patterns, Augustine, the monarch of the Kingdom of the Undead, sat peacefully in his spacious study, reading a dozen documents all night long.
Like humans, the undead needed to "sleep," but the undead needed to replenish and strengthen the aura of death in their bodies. If the "aura of death" supporting their decaying bodies dissipated, the undead's lifespan would also come to an end.
Unless they were exceptionally talented, most of the undead's strength grew extremely slowly. Most of the undead could not advance even after hundreds of years. Even someone as talented as Augustine the Great had spent more than four hundred years to get to where he was today.
That was why the undead rarely provoked wars in history, but they liked to secretly weaken and destroy the strength of their "neighbors." Every undead knew that if the losses of a war exceeded the limit, humans might only need a few decades to recover, but Tasman needed hundreds of years to recuperate.
"Only a short-lived race would like endless battles …"
Looking at the evaluation report on the internal conflicts in the Kingdom of Karen, Augustine made a faint comment and casually placed the parchment on the desk.
But at this moment, a sudden palpitation caused him to freeze in place!
Two white flames suddenly ignited in his grey pupils, and then the flames gradually weakened and extinguished as if blown by a strong wind. What followed was … an intense pain from his soul.
"Bang!"
The documents that had not left his hands exploded under the twisting force, and the fragments scattered all over the ground. Augustine shut his eyes tightly, trying his best to suppress the aura that was about to erupt. He couldn't show any signs of abnormality right now. Otherwise, the nobles of the parliament would mercilessly destroy the next part of his plan if they discovered any clues …
"Failed? How is this possible … "
The pain of his Soul Avatar disappearing made him feel as if his entire body was being cut by knives. An ordinary person would probably have their will crumble under such pain and their soul would dissipate. However, Augustine forcibly suppressed the pain. Even the guards and attendants outside the study did not notice anything strange.
For a full ten minutes, Augustine stood in front of the desk like a statue without saying a word. Only his hands were slightly trembling. Only when the pain gradually dissipated did he slowly open his eyes.
The sharing of his consciousness allowed him to understand what his' incarnation 'had encountered in the Cullen Kingdom. The fury in his heart rose abruptly, but he forcefully suppressed it. In the face of the failure of his plan, this monarch did not even show any excess emotions due to his strong heart.
Failure? This was just a chess game that could be abandoned at any time.
You want to get back at me? I'll just find an opportunity … to play another round.
The lifespan of the undead determined Augustine's strong resistance to pressure, so even if he was angry in his heart, he knew how to vent it.
However, some other information brought about by this failure made Augustine a little more worried.
With a wave of his hand, the Undead Monarch cleared the document fragments. He slowly blinked his eyes. After the flames in his pupils disappeared, he walked to the bookshelf with countless ancient books and softly chanted a spell.
"Overlapping Space and Time," "Eyes of the Dead," "Death Stare."
After opening three high-level restrictions in a row, it was as if a bookshelf suddenly had an extra row of books. Augustine's fingertips slid across the spines of the books and finally pulled out a heavy black tome.
There was no writing on the cover, but the complex patterns made people feel a chaotic and crazy emotion lingering in their hearts. There seemed to be a faint whisper in their ears.
Augustine seemed to have not heard it. He gently turned the page of the pure silver forged book and glanced at the handwriting that no one had seen before.
"Witchers …"
*****
"This … this is their private operation?"
Beside the campfire, Sally and Duke widened their eyes in disbelief. "There are more than 300 Wolf Riders. This is at least the entire armed force of a large tribe!"
It was not just Sally. In the eyes of most people, the Orc tribes were always loosely organized. Even a large tribe like the Hammer of Rohar would find it difficult to gather 400 Wolf Riders. If not for Roddy's impression of Godard, everyone would probably think that this was a tribal chief leading an army on an expedition.
The living Orc prisoners of war were interrogated by Roddy. These fellows, who knew that they had no way out, were strong but not smart. Obviously, with their intelligence, they could not understand what a "super tribe" meant. The scattered information left Sally and the others quite confused.
But Roddy could basically guess what had happened with the "memories" of the past. So looking at the surrounding nobles, Roddy thought for a moment and said, "From their behavior, there must have been a drastic change in the Orc Kingdom."
"The scattered tribes have probably begun to consolidate on a large scale. This many Wolf Riders are just a 'reconnaissance team' that set out on their own. This proves that the number of Orcs is far greater than we imagined. Perhaps their total number is already more than 20,000."
He looked up and said slowly, "In other words, war … is about to begin."
"War …"
Catherine and the dozen or so surviving nobles looked at each other. It had been too long since the humans had experienced war. In the past, they had thought that "war" was just a small scuffle between the nobles. But after this night, the tragic reality had completely sobered them up. Just a few hundred Orc Wolf Riders had brought uncountable losses to the kingdom. Looking at the corpses of the innocent villagers who had died and been "resurrected", everyone felt a chill run down their spines.
"Reporting, Commander …"
A soldier came over to report the casualties. Roddy did not avoid it. He looked up at the nobles and the bishop of the "Rose Cross" in front of him and directly asked them to report the number.
The final number of casualties was not optimistic. In the battle before dawn, the appearance of Augustine's incarnation had caused the number of casualties to be much higher than expected. Three members of the "Dragon Spear Knights" had died in battle, four of the Barbarian heavy infantry had died, and the private soldiers of the nobles and the Rose Cross troops that had rushed over had a total of 29 dead, including three nobles. Close to a hundred people who were heavily injured or lightly injured had stabilized after treatment, but this team clearly did not have much combat power at the moment.
Roddy's face was expressionless, but he could not help but curse in his heart, Augustine, you scum, just wait for my revenge!
At least most of the people have survived. Phew, now we just have to evacuate to the nearest fortress with peace of mind …
A viscount at the side touched the bandage on his face and sighed softly.
But after he finished speaking, he realized that the people around him were looking at him.
"Viscount Mosuo, I'm afraid you've become muddle-headed from exhaustion." Sally shook her head. "One night is enough for Sienna to 'explain' the situation to the surrounding fortresses. Now that we are 'traitors', which fortress do you think will open their doors to 'traitors'? "
"This … He …"
Viscount Mosuo was speechless for a moment. He wanted to refute, but as a noble, his brain was not slow. After thinking for a while, he understood that this was indeed their predicament. He looked left and right at the other nobles who had been implicated and muttered in a low voice, "If we say that we only escaped the pursuit of the Orcs —"
"Viscount Mosuo, stop daydreaming!"
Catherine interrupted him rudely. "Even if you kneel in front of Sienna and lick his boots to show your loyalty, do you think he will believe you?"
"Since he has the guts to murder and slander a Duke, do you think he will really be afraid of us, the lords?"
"Do you really want to be a piece of meat on the chopping board just to linger on? Instead of holding on to such a wishful thinking … It's better to die in battle last night! "
Catherine seemed to have touched a sore spot in her heart. She was clearly agitated. The two old nobles beside her quickly held her back and comforted her in a low voice. Viscount Mosuo also knew the pros and cons, so he did not dare to refute and lowered his head in silence.
Although her words were harsh, Catherine's words were the truth. Although the threat of the Orcs and the Undead had temporarily disappeared, the real threat was still Sienna and the Royal Family behind him!
Even if these nobles knew that they did not 'commit treason', if Sienna handled things properly, 'treason' might very well become the 'truth' in the eyes of others.
"Then what should we do … Is there nowhere for us to go now?"
"There's no point in guessing. I've already sent people to investigate the situation in the surroundings. Everyone, please rest and recover your strength. We'll talk about it when there's news. "
Roddy was now the leader through and through. No one would question his words. The nobles nodded and dispersed. After a day and night of exhaustion, they indeed needed sufficient rest.
"Erwin, split up a few teams and get someone to lead them to the surrounding mines to gather food."
"Yes!"
The rations for hundreds of people was not a small number. Under the situation where it was difficult to return to the city, they could only gather as much as possible. After giving out a series of orders, Roddy covered his wound and sat down to rest. Only then did he have the time to open the 'Mission Pane' to take a look.
The 'Judgement of the Bone Throne' mission was finally displayed as' Completed '. The huge reward of 6,720,000 EXP, two Talent Points for Advancement, and three opportunities to enhance skills automatically appeared.
However, after the mission was completed, the subsequent prompts did not appear anymore. Obviously, this Epic-level mission had once again completed another stage, and no one knew when the next step would be triggered.
Roddy looked at the lines of prompts. After pondering for a moment, he did not immediately use these rewards. Instead, he simply flipped through the Skill Pane.
"Enhance skills …"
Roddy saw the flashing description under the icon of each skill. The light yellow text showed the effects of the enhancement. In general, it could roughly increase the effect of the skill by 30%. For example, increasing the distance of "Leap", reducing the cooldown time, increasing the damage of "Concentration Strike" and so on.
In his memory, the rewards for enhancing skills would occasionally appear in rare high-level missions. The opportunity was extremely rare. However, with Roddy's foresight and experience, if he casually used these opportunities on skills such as "Leap" or "Concentration Strike", it would definitely be a waste.
It did not need to take up rune slots, nor did it need to change the battle stance. It was a complete enhancement. Therefore, it was the most suitable "core skill" for every class. With Roddy's current level, he did not have this level of skill yet.
Especially after advancing to the "Elemental Summoner", the magic class, Roddy had hundreds and thousands of skills to choose from. At this moment, it was better to leave these three opportunities for another time …
"The orcs haven't even finished their invasion, but this country has already collapsed … I really didn't expect this."
Thinking of the difficulties they were facing, Roddy sighed softly. However, he did not show any signs of cowardice or retreat. Instead, he slightly narrowed his eyes.
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