The soul servants were double-edged swords. Risk and power came hand-in-hand!
Greem now possessed knowledge of the method to create the Stitch Ghost Golem and the soul attachment ceremony after reading the knowledge crystal. It was entirely possible for him to create this golem with his current ability and power. After a moment's hesitation, Greem put the knowledge crystal away and silently started assessing the cost-benefit ratio of the Stitch Ghost Golem.
…………
The Swamp of Sorrows.
Dirty swamps and filthy puddles were everywhere.
Looking from a distance, the only thing that filled one's vision would be the dark-colored mud and the black water pooled on the ground. Anything further away was all obscured by a thick layer of mist. It was hard to see far in this environment.
The mist was thick, and the earth was silent.
However, unimaginable dangers and death brewed within this silence.
Sly and sinister hunters could be hiding under every single pool in the Swamp of Sorrows. They silently hid under the murky and pungent waters, waiting for their prey to arrive.
These pools were often connected to each other by narrow tunnels at the bottom. It allowed them to change positions or retreat without alerting anyone. The prey would only sense danger approaching at the moment the hunters lunged at them with their bloody jaws open.
A loud splash shattered the silence in this world.
A thick and scaly dragon's leg stepped into a puddle, sending water and mud splashing everywhere.
"Dammit."
Dragonborn Asa loudly cursed as he pulled out his front leg with much difficulty.
His loud voice traveled far in the silent swamps, but Asa couldn't care less.
For he was a dragonborn!
If the dragon lords were the noble rulers of Lance, then they, the servants of these dragons, would be the nobles of various statuses. The dragonborn were the uncontested strongest warriors in any land, and before any species, in Lance. They were the strictest tax collectors and the justest executors of the law.
No native dared to offend a noble dragonborn, even if they were only an ordinary dragonborn warrior or dragonborn scout. As for attacking a dragonborn? That was an unforgivable crime that would result in the extermination of the entire tribe!
Thus, dragonborn scout Asa did not need to worry, even as he trudged along the unfamiliar Swamp of Sorrows. He even went against the principles of being a scout in letting out such noise.
Strangely enough, Dragonborn Asa wasn't attacked by the swamp creatures hiding in the surroundings, even after he made such a commotion. Instead, it caused the animals to dive underwater in a panic and escape into the distance through the winding tunnels.
A wicked smile appeared on Asa's sharp, long face when he saw the bubbles rise from the murky pools.
He dragged his large and heavy body and started to walk through the more solid dirt road rapidly.
Here in the Swamp of Sorrows, one needed to be able to recognize which patch of dirt could be stepped upon and which contained a pool underneath. Otherwise, it was easy to get trapped in all the mud. That would have been a massive insult to Asa as well since he was a scout.
A large dragonborn army was brazenly marching just thirty-five kilometers behind him.
As the dragonborn scout they had sent out, Asa needed to clear away all possible ambushes in the path of the army. On the other hand, he also needed to chase away those pesky swamp creatures in case they interrupted the progress of the dragonborn army.
In truth, there was no creature on Lance that dared to ambush the dragonborn army. Asa still remembered the last ambush. It had been over thirty years ago.
A lizardman had attacked a dragonborn tax collector, having been driven mad by the heavy taxes. The lizardman threw mud at the dragonborn. Thus, that entire area was cleansed. Be it the lizardman tribe or the kobold tribe, everything that could stand on two legs was slaughtered by the dragonborn.
Ever since then, all the native tribes of Lance would frantically hide from the dragonborn, fearful of accidentally offending them.
Dragonborn scouts didn't need to be concerned about those terrified native tribes when they went on expeditions. Instead, they had to be careful of the many wild magical creatures in the wilderness.
They were all powerful primal beings without the intelligence to differentiate between those that they could afford to provoke and those they couldn't. Asa's main job was to chase away these creatures!
Asa walked another one and a half kilometers in the humid and dim swamp before stopping.
This wasn't right. Something wasn't right about this place!
Quiet. Unprecedentedly quiet. Even the small sounds of pythons slithering on rotting leaves and leeches bubbling in the murky waters couldn't be heard.
The massive swamp area had become uncommonly quiet, almost as if the living beings here had all suddenly died.
Death…
Asa felt something wrong with his body when this word appeared in his mind.
He quickly took two steps to the side, bent his body, and lowered his head. It was only now that he realized he had been hit.
An almost intangible shroud of gray mist rose from the puddle below, polluting Asa's scales and turning them a gray color. As the fog grew denser and thicker, the rate at which the gray corroded Asa's body increased. It quickly spread toward the upper half of his body.
What was this?
Poison? A living creature? Or the strange ability of some magical creature?
Asa's brain was rapidly spinning. His constant training as a dragonborn scout was already driving him to flee from the gray mist. Asa let out a muffled roar upon escaping to a nearby dirt road. Blinding firelight blasted out of his scales.
The robust Physique of the dragonborn gave Asa exceptional magic resistance. Ordinary biological poison would not be able to cause lethal damage to him. He was already gathering his strength and planning his counterattack upon escaping the enemy's trap.
Yet, an intense daze engulfed his mind while he was ferociously stimulating the blood within his body,
Asa stumbled for a few steps and almost collapsed to the ground.
His previously rock-sturdy dragon legs were trembling and shivering. They could no longer support his massive weight.
Dammit! What poison is this? Why is it so strong?
Asa once again roared furiously. He raised the heavy metal axe high above his head and intended to fire a ferocious fireball into the air to warn the dragonborn army behind him.
Sadly, while he erected his body with serious effort, a skinny and withered black silhouette suddenly appeared within his blurry vision.
"Take a nap! Take a good nap! You should just take a nap now that you've run into me, Poison Hag Endor."
The next second, an intense pain coursed through every single part of his body and gathered together to shatter Asa's consciousness as if the figure before him had successfully cursed him.
Clang!
The metal axe fell to the ground, and the dragonborn scout's large body slowly collapsed, splashing even more dirty water into the surroundings.
Poison Witch Endor's withered body approached the dragonborn scout after she had brought him down. She casually made a grabbing motion, and most of the poison was extracted from his body. However, she kept part of the poison lingering in the dragonborn's skull. This way, the dragonborn would not be able to wake up easily.
"Come, take him back to the base!"
Endor's voice wasn't too loud, but it immediately caused a commotion in the surroundings.
Dirt went flying and water splashed in a few large pools nearby. A dozen large construction machines climbed out of the pools to gather towards the witch with heavy footsteps.
The construction machines surged forward, lifted the unconscious dragonborn, and ran into the depths of the mist, all under the command of a goblin technician sitting high above an open-top machine.
En
dor lifted her old and sinister face to look in the direction that the dragonborn scout had come from.
"The subordinates of that female fire dragon came quick! It seems we will have to fight with them here in the Swamp of Sorrows."
Poison Witch Endor pulled her hood over her head once more after mumbling to herself and silently disappeared from the scene.
Chapter 583 Glaring
The squads of dragonborn walked through the filthy swamp with no particular organization or order.
All the swamp creatures fled wherever they went, and none of them dared to come within a hundred meters of these dragonborn.
A large swamp alligator was a little too slow in running and entered the dragonborn's alert zone. Four to five violent elementium fireballs instantly greeted it, blowing it into scattered pieces of meat on the spot.
A native tribe hid in the darkness within the depths of the mist, silently watching this massive army of dragonborn from the shadows. An indescribable hatred filled their eyes, but they could only look on wordlessly. They didn't dare to get close.
Here was a massive dragonborn army that numbered three hundred. No ordinary dragon lord could come up with such a powerful force, even in Lance.
Thus, when Second Grade Dragon Army Commander Will charged into the Swamp of Sorrows with his ferocious soldiers, everything in their path scattered. No living creature had the courage to appear within their vision, much less stand before their way.
"Sir, we have already lost contact with three groups of scouts. We have not found any communication marks left behind by them along the way. The search parties we sent out have not found them either." A particularly muscular dragonborn captain jogged toward Commander Will and beat his chest firmly with his fist.
The metal gauntlet clashed with the metal armor, emitting a flat metallic ring.
No traces of the dragonborn meant no corpses.
However, no native tribes within the Swamp of Sorrows had the ability to silently murder a dragonborn scout. The powerful magical creatures might be able to do so, but they shouldn't have the courage to do so.
Moreover, the three different groups of scouts had gone in three different directions. All of them disappearing at the same time was already extremely suspicious!
"Have the other scouts withdraw!"
Commander Will was a tall and ferocious dragonborn. His body under the metal armor was covered in a fine layer of red dragon scales. That meant that apart from his exceptional strength, he also possessed immense fire elementium powers.
"Since the enemy has started removing our eyes and our ears, it means that their den isn't far away now. We will find a suitable spot to make camp later. Then we need to hurry up and send someone to establish contact with Lord Cherkes. Melman, later you will be bringing Squad Seven to go collect food from the nearby villages. Be careful and watch out!"
"Understood!" A dragonborn captain at his side also beat his chest and accepted his orders. The dragonborn then strode away to gather his subordinates.
"Falka, you bring your subordinates with you and go figure out who it was that attacked out scouts. I hope to hear good news from you before dinner is made." This time, Will gave his order to a troll in a black ceremonial robe.
Indeed, there was a squad of two hundred trolls mixed in with this dragonborn army. Moreover, they were all zealous followers of the Cult of the Dragons.
All sorts of traitors would appear when a species was being conquered by another foreign race. In fact, there were sometimes traitors who made a comfortable life for themselves through their acts of betrayal.
The Cult of the Dragons was one such bizarre organization!
The trolls had no chance of turning the tables once the dragon lords had destroyed their Empire.
Many troll powerhouses had been hiding in the shadows during these thousands of years of dragon rule. They invariably started waves of rebellion against the dragons. Yet there was also an alternate group of trolls that had gotten sick of the bloody and endless cycle of resistance, suppression, and rebellion. They raised the flag of revering the dragons and called for their tribesmen to stop their unnecessary revolutions.
Trolls like this naturally fell into the good favors of the dragon lords.
Under the intentional aid of the dragons, a portion of the trolls established the Cult of the Dragons. The Cult called for natives of all species to come into the fold and become the devout followers of the dragons.
The dragons even bestowed upon the Dragon Cultists a status only inferior to the dragonborn to further rope them in. The Cultists became the servants of the dragons' servants!
The dragons would even bestow part of their dragon bloodline upon those who were the most devout and had the most contributions. Thus, these cultists came to possess strange spellcasting abilities reminiscent of warlocks.
Outsiders also knew these cultists as Dragon Cult Priests.
Falka, who Commander Will had called for, was one such Second Grade Dragon Cult Priest.
Even though Falka knew that this was a difficult task with nothing to gain, there was no room for discussion with Commander Will. Priest Falka had no choice but to accept the order helplessly.
Falka shouted, and a large group of black-robed Dragon Cultists quickly left the dragonborn army. They disappeared into the distant mist in the blink of an eye.
"Hmph! Leave this dirty work to that Dragon Cultist bunch! Cohen, inform the soldiers to turn northwest. I remember a large kobold camp located in that direction. We will set up camp there tonight." Will couldn't help but coldly snort once he saw the Dragon Cultists had left.
"Kobold camp?" The few trusted captains around Commander Will looked at each other and hesitantly spoke up, "Sir, those kobolds stink too much. It will affect the rest and appetite of our soldiers."
"Hmph! Who's scared of a little stench? Kill all those kobolds and litter the camp with their blood. We won't smell their stench anymore that way."
The dragonborn captains had no choice but to nod obediently now that their leader had already spoken. They disbanded and went to organize their own squads.
Soon, only Deputy Commander Eden was left. He was an old friend of Commander Will, and both of them went back over a hundred years. It was only now that a trace of solemnness appeared on Will's commanding face.
"What is it? Are you still worried about our enemy this time?" Eden asked softly.
"I can't help but be worried!" Will's voice was filled with fury, "I have already heard about the situation. We might be facing off against a bunch of mysterious individuals that broke into our plane from the outside."
"What about it then?" Eden consoled his friend nonchalantly, "Other planar invasions happen a few times almost every year. Most of them are wanderers with nowhere to go or some idiotic spellcaster that chanted the wrong word. It has nothing to do with us once we expel them from this territory."
"No, old friend, this time might not be all the same as all the previous times."
"How so?"
"I already checked before we left on this expedition. Those intruders appeared in the Swamp of Sorrows nine days ago. They then made a beeline straight for Lord Cherkes' territory. Cherkes, on the other hand, had come to ask for help from our master three days ago. If we were to exclude the time spent on the journey, it means that the enemy had defeated Lord Cherkes' soldiers within a single day."
"One day." Eden's eyes couldn't help but be opened wide in shock.
He knew the Wind Dragon Lord Cherkes. The dragon commanded over a hundred dragonborn, and his commander was a powerful Second Grade as well. If the enemies could route an army like that in a single day, the risk of this mission was extraordinarily high!
"I expected these people to hide within Stonetalon Mountains and defend that place to the death. Who would've known that they would extend their claws into the Swamp of Sorrows? Let us first make camp! We will decide on the next course of action once we figure out the situation at Stonetalon Mountains." As expect
ed of Fire Dragon Philippa's most trusted aide, Commander Will was not only an exceptional fighter but possessed a calm and collected mind as well.
Eden sighed silently. He supposed that was all they could do for now.
…………
The Swamp of Sorrows, inside a hidden camp.
Several adepts of the Crimson Clan had already gathered inside one of the tents and were quietly waiting for news from a distance.
A dozen images with different angles were being projected upon a metal strategic platform in the middle of the tent. The movements of the dragonborn army were completely displayed before the adepts.
The adepts might have all sorts of magical means to spy on the dragonborn, such as Adept's Eye, Invisible Servant, and Life Sense, but these means all unavoidably released magical flux. That could very easily draw the attention of the dragonborn.
Thus, all the scouting this time was done by Gazlowe's machines.
Vibration sensors fitted at the bottom of puddles, hidden mechanical eyes embedded in the trees, multi-band sound recorders buried in the mud, and life sensors flying above the mists of the Swamp of Sorrows.
These mechanical constructs all carried a bit of magical aura with them, but it was far weaker than actual spells. If one were to take Lance's high-magic environment into consideration, even adepts would have a hard time discovering these mechanical constructs if they weren't very carefully searching with their Spirit.
As such, there was no way the dragonborn could discover these strange objects hidden around them, regardless of how careful and cautious they were being.
Now, it was almost as if a one-way mirror separated both sides of the conflict. The adepts had a perfect grasp of the opponent's movements, while the dragonborn were still moving about like they were blind, unknowingly walking into a death trap.
"I didn't think these dragonborn would bring a bunch of Dragon Cultists with them. How about it? Who wants to go draw these Cultists away?" As the temporary leader of the group, Mary had taken on the role of commander.
Standing beside her were the three Blood Knights she had taken into her fold in the Knight's Plane, along with the old fox Vanlier They had successfully arrived in Lance after transferring from the Goblin Plane.
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