The Water Body Refinement Adept 19 The Expedition 2

She wasn't smiling because she had won, but because she had successfully protected what was rightfully hers. She had protected her lands twice already, once against the Huntingwood's forces, a few decades ago, and a second time, against the Water Troop. She had improved by leap and bounds, especially when she acquired her enchanted long bow. She could shoot from a kilometre from her target with acute accuracy, and every single arrow she fired equalled a kill. Thirty years pa.s.sed and she had never betrayed her t.i.tle as the Dead Eye.

Her ancestors had pa.s.sed down several archery arts, very useful and unique in this region. They had also written many parchments of the various uses that plants possessed, and each generation strengthened this strive of knowledge, by adding notes, or creating new parchments altogether. These archery arts were meant to increase one's accuracy, while training dexterity and sight which were all very difficult to improve.

This is also because archery arts were so rare that master archers, back in the human world, were so much scarcer and few in numbers compared to master swordsmen. Imagine a master archer coming into contact with an archery act!

Over centuries, this process of continuous growth strengthened her village, and even though elves reproduced quite slowly, the village had long since pa.s.sed the 5000-inhabitants threshold, a very rare sight in Alphen, considering the secretive and antisocial nature of elves.

However, two weeks had already pa.s.sed since she had defeated the strange order of more than 200 knights and preparatory knights, along with its commander. She expected a messenger, but there was nothing but silence.

'Are they preparing a second army, mightier and stronger?', she was asking herself.

And indeed, her instincts didn't betray her. While the second army she thought of was nowhere near as strong as the Water Troop, individually speaking, their commander was evil, cruel and ruthless. Drodosis was dangerously pragmatic and overly cautious.

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Yet, because the elder druids could communicate with trees and didn't find the slightest presence of enemies, she could only deem these feelings as nonsensical paranoia. Her trust in such elders would one day cause her downfall.

[Name: Mud Golem. Owner: Drodosis. HP: 60/60

Attribute: Strength – 13 Agility – 3 Physique – 20

Perk  Mud Golem Lifeform (Base HP increased to 20, defence increased up to 15 based on the quality of mud).

Enchantment: Earth Connection (Can travel underground, and regenerate one HP per second when in contact with soil).]

Golems. O mighty golems.

Over the past week, Drodosis had learnt to control golems, eventually managing to control ten at a time, a huge feat which could mainly be attributed to his biochip.

Golems didn't cost mana, and they weren't too expansive to make when one had a significant experience in runic formations. Then, why one-man armies didn't sweep through battlefields? The reason is simple. Unless the golems were autonomic, which required soul mastery of adept-level, golems were simple-minded artificially-crafted beings, who could only do an action once its owner gave it its orders.

As humans' brain weren't made to mult.i.task, few can control two golems at a time while fighting themselves. Drodosis could actually control 10, without burdening himself too much, thanks to his biochip which filtering the golem's perception useless feedbacks, and easing the information transfer.

Hence, the golems' hindrance on his mind were about 6 times less burdening than it should originally be, enabling him to control up to 12 golems at a time. Of course, since he only owned 10, he couldn't actually exploit his full potential, but it was already enough for him to get the upper hand on the upcoming war.

His enemies didn't know him, or more accurately, they would have a false image of his character. The Water Troop knew the Drodosis from several months ago, a new rising star with average talent, elite knight cultivation and 14 years' worth of experience. Basically, he was a new born in the eyes of humans, not to mention in the eyes of elves, who could live twice or even thrice longer!

On the other hand, Drodosis knew the elves better than anyone. The acc.u.mulation of knowledge originating from thousands of years of pa.s.sed down information by adept powerhouses of the Old times, as well as his personal observations in the past week, made elves look like an open book in his eyes.

Thanks to his golems, his army had built an underground base, two kilometres below the surface. There was food, and even a safe route towards a near city of nearly 50 000 inhabitants, located 12 miles away. It meant he could rely on this point to get daily life resources, without betraying his presence in the Magnolia Forest.

He had spied on the Grace Settlement. He knew their habits, their numbers, their strength and their weaknesses. Now that he had acc.u.mulated enough data, he could formulate a suitable plan. For sure, his biochip could help him suggesting plans, but an AI would never be the equal of a human being when it came to imagination and originality. Drodosis relied on his AI because it was a tool, but a tool didn't mean that it should ban thinking for himself!

After countless simulations, Drodosis found out the most suitable approach for tactics was a general idea of the plan, coming from his experience, knowledge, and imagination. With the help of Alpha, his biochip, he would then refine this plan through countless simulations, and once he had finished both tasks, then his tactic would have the ingenuity of mankind, and the robotic and flawless efficiency of AIs.

In this case, Drodosis had many options, but he didn't want to cause a ma.s.sive ma.s.sacre on innocent elven villagers, which was against his principle, and counter-productive. They were the owners of the Magnolia forests, maybe even the rulers! Killing them would just invite another clan of monstrous beings to come here and conquer the place, and if anything, Drodosis didn't want to ma.s.sacre people on a daily basis.

His plan was simple: weaken the elven army by ambus.h.i.+ng soldiers, capturing or killing them. Should they ever encounter a risk of casualties, they would run away, and return to the hidden underground base. Once he had enough prisoners, he would have leverage to negotiate, and he would make a soul contract to have the elves' loyalty. It was much more responsible, since resources weren't infinite. Who was better suited than elves to harvest the Magnolia Trees' materials!

Moreover, with elves as hostages, they wouldn't dare show signs of rebellion. This is why this plan was so much more well-thought-out than the Elders' mindless decision of exterminating them. But, of course, he would first need to earn many victories in skirmishes.

And that's what they did.

Every day that pa.s.sed, Drodosis received a report.

He had his 10 golems leading his Ironcloud Knight Order's 10 divisions, and using the effect of surprise, his subordinates would have the upper hand in conflicts. With golems 'acting' as means of transportation, means of escape as well as tanks, the Ironcloud Knight Army could hit without risking being hit! Whenever his golem encountered anything stronger than intermediate-level, Drodosis would intervene personally.

"Sir, we captured 12 elven guards today!", Sandy said in a military tone, "in the fight, we killed 18 elves."

Reports like that came one after the another.

"Commander! We captured all 6 beginner-level druids but because they shapes.h.i.+fted, some of them are quite injured!", Lara Coldwinter said proudly, "we also exterminated 41 knight-level archers."

Lara Coldwinter, now a veteran knight, was a genius. She had the potential to become a grand knight in the future.

She wasn't thirty yet her body was filled with scars, making her a terrifying woman, both physically and psychologically. She was a ruthless freak, but Drodosis found her more reliable than anyone else. She was his right-hand!

Fang came in to report as well, "We had to escape, there was a woman called Diana. She had pseudo-adept strength…We lost two men, and we would have been killed if not for the golem, sir!"

Drodosis narrowed his eyes.

He had found Selene's corpse, and even though he was furious, he couldn't allow his judgement to be clouded by the thoughts of revenge.

'So, this is the woman who planned and carried out the execution of the Water Troops huh…A worthy opponent. Let the past remain in the past. If she cooperates, then this Diana will survive. Otherwise...I will personally behead her. That's all there is.'

Over the first week of conflicts, his odds of success had risen from 32% to 86%. The more time pa.s.sed, the more casualties appeared in Elven ranks, and the more prisoners Drodosis was acc.u.mulating.

Eventually, Drodosis acted by himself to save time and efforts, and came into contact with advanced-level powerhouses.

Would he fight fair and square? No. Would he conduct himself according to the codes of knighthood? No. He was no hypocrite. This wasn't a spar, but a life and death battle. If he had a way to increase his chances of victory, he would go through it with no hesitation.

The advanced druid was actually sleeping when he sneaked upon him. This was the main reason why he had confidence in winning against an advanced-level powerhouse. For sure, elite knights could usually fight advanced level powerhouses, but that was only after a considerable amount of training. One must not remember that although Drodosis' techniques were better than most of Peak knights, he still had an immature body! He was only 14, and he was very far from his peak!

Hence, he had to make up for his physical inferiority, when compared to other knights, with refined swordplay and acolyte spells. Of course, as he trained tediously and consumed magical beast meat coming from the Water Fortress' exploitation - mainly fire pork, forest boars, Yale Fishes and Ice Shark Meat - he had tremendously improved in physical attributes.

[Beep! Name: Drodosis Thornfield (14-years-old, 2 months).

Beginner Acolyte – Elite Knight

Evolution points – 221

HP – 37/37

Strength – 8 (+6) Agility – 7 (+4) Physique – 10 (+6) Spirit – 8 Magic Power – 8 (+0) Mana – 24 (+0) Internal Energy – 16 (+0)

Status: Healthy.

Perks: → Elite Knight Physique (+6 Strength and Physique, +4 Agility), Scimitar Mastery (Advanced), Scimitar Essence (+8 Internal Scimitar Energy Damage when using a scimitar.)

Skills: → Acid Spear (Deals [Spirit*4] points of damage, cost 3 points of mana. Projectile's speed scaling with magic power (50 + [Magic Power] *10 m/s)).

→ Water Orb (Create a water orb around the caster, with [Spirit] layers, each one of them absorbing up to [10+Spirit] points of damage. Cost: 3 points of mana. After ten minutes, the spell is cancelled)

→ Water Clone (Create a clone made of elemental particles, with half of host's attributes and half intelligence.)

→ Mummy Whirlwind strike (Rotating to acc.u.mulate centrifugal energy and unleas.h.i.+ng every single ounce of power into this one strike, Deal [10] + [Strength*2] + [Internal Energy] + [Scimitar Essence] + [Weapon Damage] points of damage. Cost: 30% of host's stamina.

Items: 3 magical crystals, 54 gold coins, Enchanted Scimitar (+5 Shadow element damage per strike), Grand Knight Breathing Technique, Shadow Cloak, 10 Mud Golems, Wyvern Poison…]

Over the past months, he had mastered the water clone spell, which suited him greatly. His clone only had veteran-level strength, but it was still an incredible increase in his fighting power, considering that the clone didn't see itself as anything but 'disposable'. With no regards to survival, anyone could be dangerous, not to mention a veteran-knight powerhouse!

His clone had rushed towards the druid's bed, and released a terrifying Mummy Whirlwind strike, enough to deal 40 points of damage! The advanced druid wasn't a high elder of the Grace Settlement for nothing though, managing to wake up at the slightest release of killing intent.

The latter had long since mastered shapes.h.i.+fting, and his arm had turned into that of a bear, right before the strike connected. His physique increased from a weak 6 points to 15!

*SPLASH*

Blood splattered everywhere, but the arm was still hanging, despite the fact that it was utterly broken, some bone fragments visible and deeply incised in the flesh. This was a brutal sight, but Drodosis knew his victory was only a matter of time.

'The main purpose of this attack isn't to deal damage, but to poison the advanced druid!'

The druid suddenly found himself paralysed, eight seconds following the hit. He managed to kill the clone in this narrow window of time, but to his utter shock, it wasn't even a real being: it was a mere clone! The poison was even more incredulous in his eyes.

What kind of poison could paralyse a being with more than 15 points of physique?

Well, it was a magical poison for sure: Wyvern poison, coming from adept-level wyverns' fangs, rare, expansive and very difficult to get one's hands on.

Of course, this was but a diluted version of wyvern poison, since the druid would have had a heart attack already otherwise. Drodosis used the golems to submit the druid who was now a bear, and he chained him personally with Ironcloud shackles. Unless the druid could muster up 40 points of strength, he wouldn't get out. And every single elven prisoner was bound in a similar fas.h.i.+on, making it impossible for them to escape or even communicate with the surface.

It was the third Elder Druid Drodosis had captured in the night, a tremendous achievement which displayed the power of stealth, strength, and money. Without Wyvern poison, such a feat would have been impossible, even with 10 golems!