Chapter 45

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Chapter 45: Heart

On the second day of the melting snow and the eve of the end of winter, the northern frontier post opened on this morning.

Roadblocks were removed, trenches were filled in, heavily armored troops were moved to the border. The humans’ breaths and footsteps, the snorting of horses and the sound of hooves, intertwined into a sinister rumble. Before the horns sounded, the clouds of war had already gathered over the outpost, ready to turn into a violent storm, sweeping over the land of the southeastern corner of Tasmanian.

After more than half a year of blockade, they seemed to have finally cast off their fear of the plague here and were about to start a full-scale attack.

The watchtower discovered the situation immediately, and the army in the southeast corner quickly assembled. This battle was bound to happen sooner or later, and when it finally came, Tasha felt relieved. Captain Halite’s new troops and the Amazon warriors had been training for a winter, they were tense but not panicked, quickly organizing themselves. The time it took for the northern army to fill in the trench was enough for them to be fully armed.

The human army in the southeast corner arranged themselves in a formation suitable for battle, wielding weapons made by the Craftsman Dwarves, whose craftsmanship had reached its peak in the age of cold weapons. The Amazon warriors lay in ambush on the flanks, their traces hidden by the remaining trees. The trench had been filled in, and soldiers from the north were pouring out from the gap in the outpost, with the cavalry leading the way.

The horns sounded.

Between the two armies was a long open space. Even before they clashed, the cavalry soldiers were already feeling hopeful. The open field was flat and easy to see, with the ground sloping downwards from the north to the south, perfect for the cavalry to charge. The cavalry from the north descended along the slope like iron balls falling from the sky. Their sheer force was enough to scatter the opposing army, especially with rows of shining spear tips ahead of them.

It seemed like a mistake on the part of the enemy. As the scouts had reported, their army consisted mostly of foot soldiers. They had not trained enough cavalry or warhorses, nor had they trained many skilled archers for real battles. They had not reacted in time to set up obstacles on the path of the charge, nor had they interrupted the charge before it began. When the cavalry began to accelerate, victory was already halfway decided.

What was even more ridiculous was that they were using crossbowmen to counter the cavalry.

Just as airplanes fear colliding with birds, one would think that charging cavalry would fear arrows coming straight at them. However, this theoretical assumption was too idealistic. Although crossbows were powerful, their rate of fire was very slow, allowing only one round to be shot during the charge. The limited crossbows and crossbowmen in the southeast corner were not enough to create an effective hail of arrows to face the heavily armored cavalry head-on. Their resistance was weaker than a muddy ground. The cavalry captain, seeing the flat, dry ground ahead, was confident of the success of the first attack.

The army in the southeast corner remained motionless, neither closing the distance nor moving aside. They calmly aimed their arrows forward, watching as the large horses came closer and then stumbled.

A series of creaking sounds echoed on the "flat and open" ground, and the dwarf traps, integrated with the ground, unleashed their power the moment they were stepped on. Iron traps broke the horses’ legs, causing them to fall with a mournful cry, throwing the heavily armored knights off their backs. The heavy armor, both protection and burden, caused many cavalry soldiers to break their necks when they fell, while others could not immediately stand up.

It was now time for the archers to harvest.

The Craftsman Dwarves had long set up traps in all the strategic locations near the outpost. The army’s exercises revolved around the traps and terrain, while the Amazon archers operated flexibly outside the main force, disrupting and tearing through the defense lines. The home advantage aimed to compensate for the numerical disadvantage, and the battle in the north quickly intensified.

Meanwhile, in Red Gum County, some other events were unfolding at a distance from the battlefield.

The deputy sheriff in Red Gum County and Deer Horn Town is keeping order. All the strangers arriving in circus wagons are politely taken to the jail in Red Gum County. If they are truly innocent, Tasha will compensate for their losses later. It is important to deal with the small issues before the larger ones at this special moment.

Before the battle started, they obediently handed over all their weapons, allowed the guards to escort them to the prison cell. Douglas even shamelessly asked for a cup of wine to calm his nerves. When the battle began, the main troops entered the battlefield, and the lazy star riders lying on the ground stood up and knocked on the iron bars.

The jail in Red Gum County was not big, the cells were next to each other, and the prisoners could see each other. The guard glanced at the person knocking on the iron bars, Douglas flirtatiously winked at him, and his fingers played a tune on the iron bars. The sound traveled through the connected iron bars, passing through each cell.

A song echoed in the prison.

It was a very beautiful song, such a lovely melody would bring joy to anyone even in a dark prison. Douglas stopped his actions, leaned on the iron bars, supporting his cheek, lost in thought.

"See, I told you," he said to the guard, "the circus background music is worth listening to."

The guard could no longer hear Douglas’s chatter, his ears and mind were filled with the clear singing voice, reminding him of home, spring, and all the beautiful places. His worries dissolved in the song, his muscles relaxed, and before the guard could even yawn, he slowly slipped to the ground like a puddle of mud. He closed his eyes, his face peaceful, snoring loudly.

The unbelievable singing voice was as soft as a whisper but could pass through corridors, doors, and cracks in the walls. The guards instinctively listened to this faint voice, as they understood the patterns of those syllables, the soft melodies entered their ears and minds, leading them to sweet dreams.

"Explain!" Tasha sternly commanded, her ghostly figure flying towards the source of the song.

"I don’t know!" Victor said in disbelief, "A minstrel without instruments can’t hypnotize a group of people just with lullabies. Humans have resistance to that, you know? Only pure-blood sea creatures or fairies who are minstrels by profession can do that. But if there were pure-blood magical creatures here, both you and I would notice it!"

When Tasha saw Jacqueline always carrying a harp wherever she went, she asked Victor about minstrels.

Minstrels have extraordinary powers, with instruments as their weapons. To be safe, Tasha confirmed with Victor about the abilities of minstrels in the past. People in this profession can enhance their teammates’ abilities by playing instruments or put enemies in negative states. A minstrel without instruments is like an archer without arrows, they can’t make much impact.

But the current situation was clearly not as Victor described.

"This can’t be!" he exclaimed in frustration looking at all the sleeping people around, "Only magical creatures with resistance like small wild animals could be knocked out by a lullaby, right?"

Something faint flickered in Tasha’s mind, but then her destination appeared before her eyes, and that thought quickly vanished.

The singing voice enveloped an area of several tens of meters around the singer, with people sleeping everywhere. A silent girl was sitting in a cell, humming expressionlessly. Just as Tasha phased through the wall to reach the source of the singing, she finished singing.

Killing a minstrel doesn’t undo the effects of a completed melody, at least that’s what Victor said. But he had been wrong so many times… Tasha hesitated, if she let the ghost here use a one-time skill to deal with her, it would mean using up the only mobile camera in Red Gum County. Creating a new ghost and returning it to its place would take a considerable amount of time, leaving a large area in a blind spot.

The surveillance from the watchtower had its limits; the sight couldn’t go through buildings. When Tasha’s ghostly form stayed by Jacqueline’s side, she couldn’t see what was happening in the other cells.

Not only the guards were falling asleep, but also some prisoners, only a few people stood tall amidst the singing. Someone came in from outside, wearing ordinary clothes, with an ordinary face, holding a bunch of keys to the prison cells. Douglas reached his hand through the iron bars and waved at him. The prison door couldn’t stop Mr. Ordinary. How could you expect a broken lock to hold back such a skilled thief like him?

The ghost only noticed something was amiss at the moment the thief was about to open the prison door, Tasha acted decisively and rushed towards him.

[Full Moon- Call of the Wild]Ready to go, the ghost transitioned from invisible to semi-transparent state. Claws manifested on Tasha’s hands, briefly turning into tangible form, eager for the imminent bloodshed. Closer, closer, she swiftly approached from behind, the people she targeted looked terrified, but they didn’t have time to sound a warning.

The thief managed to dodge it himself.

Did he hear the faint sound of claws or did he intuitively sense something? The man didn’t look back, just swiftly rolled to the side. For the first time, this fail-proof skill missed its mark, no matter how strong the power if it couldn’t hit, it would be useless.

The floor of the prison made a crisp sound, huge scratch marks tore the rock apart. The thief rolled a meter away, paying no attention to what attacked him, just quickly sprinted to the side. Only after creating a three-meter distance, he turned slightly, the dagger in his hand flew accurately towards Tasha, the flying blade passed through the ghost’s body, embedding itself into the ground.

The first second passed.

The thief threw the guard’s body at her, blocking her face-to-face attack. Tasha stormed through the body towards him, her smoky figure had its pros and cons, she passed through the body and also through the thief, even when using her skills, only a part of the ghost’s body was solid. She repeatedly rushed past the thief as he kept turning around, wasting too much time, controlling the ghost was like using a mouse with low sensitivity, not suitable for combat.

The second second.

He was as nimble as a slippery mouse, always avoiding a direct confrontation with Tasha. She moved so quickly, her ghostly figure almost dissolving until she finally seized another chance to attack. Tasha swooped down like an eagle, the thief drew another dagger from his boot, clashing with the sharp claws above his head. The blade shattered into pieces under the immense force of the claws, even cracking the handle all the way down. But the thief had already abandoned the dagger before it shattered, fleeing to a safe distance and squinting, contemplating how to deal with the ghost.

This was the last scene Tasha could see.

In three seconds, the battle ended, and the ghost shattered into pieces. The thief remained vigilant for a moment, quickly vanishing into the shadows.

Douglas’s door opened, the rider saluted with two fingers and stepped out of the cell. Next, a girl and an old man were released, the only two who hadn’t fallen asleep. The keys to the cells were unlocked, opening each one and kicking awake the people sleeping on the floor, who quickly left and headed to the adjacent room where their weapons were stored. They had been searched before being imprisoned, but their confiscated items were not kept far away.

They took weapons from the room and guards, retrieved the Spiritual Amulet, and made adjustments to the sleeping people’s necks. The old man took a wooden staff, the girl took a harp, Douglas regained his hat and rope. Half of the people dispersed in different directions, heading towards the residential area with oil and fire.

The remaining guard troops quickly had to respond to this.

"What’s next for us?" Douglas asked, looking at the thief, "boss?"

The thief, referred to as boss by him, glanced at the old man. Alexander took a few steps forward, took a deep breath, raised his staff, and shouted loudly.

Boom!

The gnomes ran around the dungeon in a panic, like a group of scared mice. Nearby, the Craftsman Dwarf looked around in confusion, suspecting a small earthquake had just happened. Tasha stared in shock at the hole in the dungeon, the first time in a long while that the dungeon’s terrain had changed due to external reasons.

It was clear what had happened, even though it seemed unimaginable. A hole appeared on the ground, just two people wide but several meters deep, leading all the way into the dungeon. It was solid rock and earth that thick! The old man’s wooden staff pierced through the ground, rocks and soil falling beneath the passage, leaving no barrier between the dungeon and the people above.

"Follow me!" Alexander said firmly.

They jumped down one by one, a group of ten people entering the dungeon. Tasha envisioned classic game scenes in her mind, of the brave team and the dungeon they were about to conquer.

It was time to personally explore some possibilities.

As the tenth person jumped underground, he was surprised to find his feet not touching the ground. Before he could even try to move in the air, a mysterious force grabbed him tightly and slammed him into the ceiling with a loud thud.

The dungeon’s ceiling was extremely hard.

He wasn’t the only one; at the same time, six figures shot up from the ground. They didn’t have time to react as their bodies were plastered against the ceiling, their heads landing first. The sound of smashing watermelons echoed above as Douglas pulled Jacqueline away from the raining blood. The next moment, the six shattered bodies dropped to the ground, their skeletons twisted into strange shapes from the impact.

Douglas clicked his tongue, the thief furrowed his brow, and the other two remained impassive. Tasha looked at the four unharmed individuals with a serious expression.

Just now, that move used a huge amount of magic. The skill of the dungeon master really does have unlimited power, as mentioned. She could feel that the magic used on these four people was several times more than the other six, but even with that much magic, it only lifted them off the ground for a moment.

Facing a big battle at the same time, Tasha couldn’t rely on luck with her magic reserves, and she couldn’t keep trying to solve the situation that way.

"Professional," Victor said numbly, "thief, templar, minstrel, and what else? Four professionals."

It was only at this moment that Tasha truly understood the power of the professionals – and they hadn’t even started fighting yet.

She had always acknowledged that non-human species had unique powers in this world, but she had never truly understood their strength. The professionals were human, but they were not just well-trained individuals or frauds like qigong masters. Their existence alone set them far apart from regular people. She had underestimated them, while Victor, after being proven wrong time and again, had misjudged the state of this world, thinking that the professionals, like the creations of the Abyss and Heavenly Realm, had become legends.

So now, some things began to make sense.

If the professionals had such extraordinary privileges, the dungeon City Master couldn’t easily deal with them internally. If the thief had stealth skills to conceal their presence, like the patrolling teams and watchtowers, then nothing could stop them from passing on information. It seemed like all that was happening now had been planned for a long time.

The attack from the north held back most of the forces, forcing Tasha to reserve some magic to deal with the situation there. The disruptions happening simultaneously kept the remaining troops occupied, allowing this small team to break through the dungeon’s defenses.

But what were they here for? They couldn’t possibly find the core location in the underground maze…

Alexander broke the wooden staff.

No, not broke, but "opened." The sturdy wooden staff was opened by his hand, revealing a battle axe. The blade gleamed coldly, with sharp spikes at the top, looking unexpectedly delicate in the wooden staff and the old man’s large palm. He took out the long-handled battle axe, made a cut on his arm, and blood trickled down his wrist, flowing towards the ornament held in his hand for who knows how long.

The old knight’s hand grasped the Invisible Hand. The pearl in the palm of the Invisible Hand was soaked with blood, and for a moment, a soft light shone. This light flowed like water onto the ground, then split into two beams. One beam pointed straight at a wall, while the other twisted and turned on the ground, disappearing into the corridor ahead.

"They really did it…" Victor murmured to himself, "without needing a divine spell from the gods."

Without Victor explaining, Tasha could also see the effect of this divine spell.

Those two beams of light, one direct and one meandering, all led to the Dungeon Core.

The battle in the north was intensifying, and Marion, who had transformed into a wolf, rampaged on the battlefield. She rushed in as the front line was about to collapse, just as planned. Her sharp fangs and claws tore through enemy after enemy, but each individual on the battlefield was like an ant, unable to influence the overall situation, even this fierce white wolf was at best just a small beetle.

The forces in the southeast corner were undoubtedly at a disadvantage. Home advantage, traps, undead soldiers, morale, and unscientific potions could level the playing field, but withdrawing from any corner would be quite dangerous.

It is more accurate to say that withdrawing is of no use, as the battlefield is too far from here.

The team of four people rushed through the dungeon, not knowing how the old man accessed the two lights. Sometimes he followed the winding path, sometimes he broke through walls. Alexander’s veins throbbed on his forehead, and a golden light appeared on his battle axe. The solid outer walls in front of him were as soft as tofu and as fragile as ice blocks. Even though the gnome kept changing the terrain ahead, they were getting closer to their destination.

The male Amazonian guarding this place was no different from ordinary humans, like sending them to block or deliver food. The remaining skeletons and zombies in the graveyard climbed out of the ground. Paladin noticed them from behind a wall, the light on his battle axe made the bones sizzle, almost melting like butter when the sharp metal struck them. These undead soldiers easily slain by Paladin were completely dead, turning into irrecoverable waste.

The thief threw a throwing knife, and suddenly a forest of spears sprang up from the ground ahead. As a triggered trap showed no further response, he crouched up front, manipulating the trap mechanism, a strange smile on his face.

"Hasty footprints," he said. "Just made, fresh dwarf craftsmanship."

This man looked very ordinary, with a very dull expression, but when he smiled like that, anyone would feel uncomfortable. It was a kind of… craving for killing? Cruelty? Coldness? In any case, a twisted smile accidentally revealed from beneath his skin. He stood up and waved to the other three people.

"I’ve always wanted to know whose craftsmanship is stronger, mine or the dwarf’s, unfortunately I’ve never seen a living one," he said. "I’ll go to work, you don’t have to worry about any more traps ahead."

The thief left the team, not moving forward anymore, just slowly tapping his fingers on the wall. Behind the door, in the workshop, three Craftsman Dwarves watched the thief’s smiling face through a peephole-like device, huddling in fear, looking at each other.

After a moment of staring at each other, the next moment, there was no one in front of the peephole. The thief entered stealth mode, leaving traces in the dungeon, but unable to communicate with the Craftsman Dwarves – according to the clan contract, only the one who signed with the chief and Tasha could engage in telepathy and sensory sharing at any time.

The newly created ghost was quickly heading that way.

The gnome army blocked the path of the remaining trio.

They were now so close to the Dungeon Core that construction efforts were futile. The construction team transformed into fighters. The small stone mice, the size of calves, charged toward the brave trio, trying to scatter and overwhelm them in all directions. At Tasha’s command, the gnomes avoided Alexander and focused their attacks on Jacqueline. Douglas continuously shielded the young girl, slowing down their progress.

"We must go!" Alexander furrowed his brow. "Douglas!"

Douglas’s lasso caught a gnome, which seemed to be less responsive to Tasha’s orders. He rode on the gnome’s back, holding the reins with one hand and Jacqueline with the other, kicking away gnomes trying to attack him. Without looking back, he shouted, "You go on ahead!"

"Paladins never leave their comrades behind!" Alexander said angrily.

"Douglas never abandons any lady, especially on the battlefield!" Douglas said, rolling his eyes. "You can consider me… oh, my hat! You can consider me a willing sacrifice! Hail Aryan?"

The sound of a harp resonated as Jacqueline, now in a stable position, began to play and sing. It was a rousing battle song that lifted the spirits of the other two. Douglas straightened his posture, even managing to rescue his fallen hat from the stream of gnomes. "I feel full of strength!" he exclaimed. "Let’s go, don’t worry about us, old man!"

Alexander’s brow furrowed as he dodged but was unable to evade the entangled music. The faint golden glow above his battle-ax reappeared, and with a grim expression, he nodded, turned around, and swung his ax.

Just like the dead stones, the living stones could not stop Alexander’s path.

The old Paladin started running as fast as he could. His legs pounded the ground heavily, surrounded by Holy Light on his body and axe. He gripped the Invisible Hand again, squinting as he tried to see if there were any cracks on the pearl, but his eyes, which were no longer useful to him, found it too difficult.

The old knight suddenly remembered the young Pastor of Saro, who was ignorant but in a way, enviable. The young heir, Alexander, searched for sixty years, traveled all over Aryan, but the qualified ones weren’t interested, and the interested ones lacked determination. In the end, he gained nothing, so he became the last.

This was the most fitting end.

Alexander took a deep breath and crushed the pendant that had been with him throughout his life.

The silver Invisible Hand melted at the moment the pearl shattered, and the dazzling silver light merged into the Paladin’s body. His muscles were no longer tired, old scars that used to ache on rainy days and during intense activities faded away, everything lost over the years briefly returned at this moment. His face became younger, except for the deep wrinkles between his brows. Alexander roared as he pierced through the last wall, behind the thick stone wall lay the core of this evil structure.

It was a grand hall with a shimmering pond in the center. Unnatural blue light reflected on the ceiling, like a blue pillar of light, within it, a strange crimson stone throbbed, resembling a broken heart.

Between Alexander and that heart, stood a woman with a wolf skull, holding a knife.