Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 310: Chapter 20

Rena was squatting down in the crown of a big tree, hiding in the dense foliage and staring at the distant house of Baron Keane.

She was an adventurer whose eyesight was amazing because she had inherited some special blood. Therefore, she often took some tasks such as investigation and prying, and that made her a little famous.

Not long ago, she had received a long-term task to investigate the Baron Keane Hill and collect as much information as possible. The more information she could collect, the more rewards she could obtain.

This task was settled every ten days. Although the person paying the money hid their ident.i.ty and refused to show up, only letting the a.s.sociation of Adventurers pay for the bill on their behalf, the money was paid without any delays. Rena also did not want to meet with the employer in case she might be murdered, so as their arrangement was just right.

However, it was not easy to collect a lot of valuable information. Rena had already handed in missions twice before and after, and now it was really difficult to find new information again.

For example, she had been lurking for two days in the tree outside the Baron House, but she hadn’t gained anything. She only found out the rooms and work habits of everyone in the house.

If able, she would not want to sell this kind of stuff as information. After all, this kind of information only seemed useful for a.s.sa.s.sinations. Baron Keane had a good reputation and powerful strength. The former Baron Keane could even come back alive from the b.l.o.o.d.y scene of the “Sun’s Death Day” with his friend’s body on his shoulder. She definitely did not want to step in such irresistible hostility with such a character.

Adventurers went for money, not for stimuli. Rena had an old father as well as younger brothers and sisters. After wandering to make a living for years, she was still unmarried. If she got into big trouble and got killed for this, that would be too shameful.

Therefore, she had secretly made up her mind. If she couldn’t find any valuable information today, she would go to another place to investigate.

The sun was getting higher. When the time was close to noon, Rena saw the former Baron Keane reading doc.u.ments through a slightly remote window of the study room.

The former baron was a legendary man; he had been just an ordinary scholar that year, and he could compose one or two good poems. However, when he had succeeded as the baron, all kinds of wonderful stories had happened one after another. First, he had been poisoned and was dying, then was miraculously saved. Then he wiped through the territory thoroughly and almost had caught all the spies who had been sent by different powers. Next, he had gone to the Void Mask Land to recruit people, as was said. However, the result had been that he had won the legendary “One Gold Coin” award, and everyone was crazily eager for that award before he had won it. With a large sum of money, he had begun to promote agricultural reform in his territory.

If that had happened to other people, it would have already been a complete legend.

However, for him, that was just the beginning of his legend.

Just when everyone had thought that Baron Keane would lead his territory and his people to make great strides forward, because of the force of the upper cla.s.s in the Duchy, he had been sent to the Kingdom of Eagle to support and fight against the Orcs for a narrow escape battle. Later, the battle had been really earth-shattering. Hundreds of thousands had died and were wounded on both sides. Even the earliest G.o.d of the humans, the G.o.d of Knight, had fallen due to that. However, in that terrible battle, Baron Keane had not only come back alive, but he also had brought back the body of his close friend, Spencer.

Not only that, with injuries and sickness at that time, Baron Keane still had killed the enemies who had tried to intercept and kill him on the way back!

Rena was very curious about the legendary man, especially about the doc.u.ments he was reading. Therefore, she activated her inherited ability after some hesitation.

Her original light gray eyes suddenly turned silver with a faint gleam. If it was nighttime, perhaps those eyes would be as conspicuous as two small light bulbs.

When this change happened, the scene in her vision suddenly became bigger as if she had come to the study room at once. Then she went closer to the doc.u.ment in the former baron’s hands and read it in detail.

That was a doc.u.ment about military training expenses and recent preparations for practical training.

Because of the angle, Rena had to concentrate more on understanding the doc.u.ment because the words were reversed for her. Because of this, she did notice that the former baron had stopped reading and was looking up with interest towards her direction.

[Rena, Power 12, Physical condition 12, Agility 14, Perception 20, Intelligence 12, Charm 12, Prestige 60, Occupation: Ranger of Level 5, Scout of Level 5, Warlock of 0, Friendliness 60, Special bloodline trait.]

Crick didn’t have a special blood trait like Rena, but he had the ability to see characters’ attributes. Rena’s distance from him at this moment was exactly within the range that his ability could work.

In fact, Crick had discovered Rena who was lurking in the tree yesterday. He had felt that this person’s friendliness towards him was not low. She didn’t seem to be an enemy. That was why he had ignored her.

No matter what the person called Rena wanted to do, as long as her friendliness did not change, it had little to do with him.

He smiled, lowering his head to read the doc.u.ment intently.

The territory had not yet recovered from the last huge loss, and now all kinds of work were popping up. As a lord, he had to work harder.

This little episode did not hinder his work. After reading the doc.u.ments he should deal with today and completing the comments he should finish, he called the attendant to deliver the doc.u.ments that needed to be sent back. Then, he went to the military camp to check on the situation of the army.

The recruits had been trained for almost two months, and it was time to let them try actual combat.

The military camp was built next to the Baron House; they could be considered neighbors. He arrived at the camp in a short while. He saw 30 recruits wearing heavy armor neatly arranged in a line and practicing spear thrust meticulously. They were under the command of Shawn James, the second son of Knight Howard James.

Seeing his arrival, Shawn smiled slightly but did not come to say h.e.l.lo immediately. Instead, he ordered the soldiers to rest temporarily, and then he came to make greetings.

“Lord, you’ve come a little earlier today,” he said. “The daily training has not been completed yet.”

“I just come to see how the training’s going,” Crick said, smiling. “Without saying anything else, this team is neat enough. When they thrust the spears together, it is quite neat.”

Shawn nodded. “It is true. I thought they were not strong enough and they could not fight. But now it seems that such honest and obedient people are also good too. At least they train hard, and their movements are neat. In actual combat, it should be really helpful.”

“So, are you interested in getting them to try the actual combat?” Crick asked. “There have been a group of Grey Gnomes in the nearby mountains numbering from around 20 to 30. It’s a bit dangerous to have those guys settle near our houses. I intend to lure them out and ambush them. If you think that that’s possible, then let’s allow the soldiers to be the main force.”

Shawn lowered his head and sighed.

Grey Gnomes were a subspecies of gnomes; they had slightly stronger bodies but weaker fertility. However, for human beings, as long as they were evil and violent gnomes, no matter what varieties they were, they were nothing more than two varieties, “living” and “dead.”

As the commander of those new recruits, Shawn was quite clear about the strength of his men. They had to defeat 30 Grey Gnomes. In theory, this was the maximum. However, counting enemies to the maximum was always right—there should be no problems. The only problem was about loss.

If the loss was too big, then that would be a shame.

After thinking about it again and again, the brave young knight finally made up his mind. He said firmly after looking up, “Let them attack! A soldier who has seen blood can become a good soldier!”