Chapter 632 Scouting Still Requires Mages
Using the multiple teleportation magic array, he brought Marilyn to Wetland City and then placed her in the manor given to him by Betta.
Compared to the Red Magic Tower, Wetland City had a better environment and a warmer and more pleasant climate.
Although werecats have lived in, or near, the desert since ancient times…
This didn’t stop them from seeking a better living environment.
What race of creatures would want to live in a harsh place if they had a choice.
So as soon as they arrived in Wetland City, Marilyn felt comfortable, and the manor did, indeed, carry the lingering smell of Roland.
Roland would occasionally visit Wetland City and help Betta build some of the larger structures.
After all, of all the players now, he was the one who was the most adept at the spells Mud to Rock and Rock to Mud.
He stayed on the property while helping out here.
He introduced Marilyn to the servants, then took her hand and went to the werecats’ gathering place.
It was in a neighborhood about 500 meters to the right of Roland’s manor.
When Marilyn came to this place, which was full of werecats, she looked delighted.
Then a black line lunged from a distance and swirled around Marilyn.
It was Maromatha the black cat.
Two cats, one white and one black, cuddled together, crying and laughing.
Roland watched delightedly. It couldn’t be helped. These two cats were beautiful and cute… Although Roland didn’t pet cats much, this kind of affection of a different race was still quite appealing.
Ten minutes later, Maromatha the black cat entertained Roland in her home.
Honey dried mice, stone-baked fish, and… raw catnip were served up.
The white cat Marilyn ate with relish, though she had no shortage of food in the Red Magic Tower’s estate. Still, the food that humans made was not really to her taste.
It was just that she wasn’t a picky eater.
These things here were the special delicacies of the werecats.
The black cat didn’t eat, and after she nodded slightly to Roland, she said, “Thank you, Mr. Roland, for sending Marilyn here as well.”
Marilyn was so beautiful that no young man would want to let her go.
Roland’s willingness to set Marilyn free had been quite unexpected to Maromatha.
“It’s fine, it’s as it should be. I don’t think it’s good for her to be alone in the Red Magic Tower.” Roland waved his hand. “How have you werecats been living here lately? Any inconveniences, or has anyone discriminated against you and hara.s.sed you?” “No.” Maromatha smiled happily.
Not to mention discrimination and hara.s.sment…
The Golden Sons practically spoiled them rotten.
Good food was served, great toys were gifted… The werecats could do whatever they wanted in Wetland City as long as they didn’t do anything bad.
Such a life was like being in the divine realm.
“That’s good.” Roland nodded.
He was the one who had offered to put the werecats here in the first place, and if the werecats were having a bad time, he was a little responsible for it.
Now he was completely relieved. “Mr. Roland, I heard that you are going to invade the Realm of Devils?” said Maromatha with a curious look, emanating a strong admiration.
The Realm of Devils was full of fierce and evil devils. On the main plane, except for the dragons, anyone would tremble in fear when they heard about it.
It had always been the case that the Realm of Devils invaded the main realm, forcing people to rely on the human alliances and the Heroes’ power to make the devils retreat.
On average, such a cycle played out every one or two hundred years.
But now… the Golden Sons were going to strike the Realm of Devils.
This was quite bold.
It was something that had never been done in the main plane.
So it wasn’t surprising that Maromatha had this att.i.tude.
Not to mention the fact that where they lived now was the land of the Golden Sons.
Quiet, peaceful, and prosperous… and even an extremely fair city.
Civilized and powerful.
Such a race was so endearing to the werecats.
Felines, after all, sought the perfect combination of grace and force.
Roland nodded. “You guys also know about it?”
The matter of preparing for the expedition to the Realm of Devils… The werecats were the first to know, apart from the Golden Sons.
After all, the werecats lived in Wetland City, and the players never had any qualms about talking about these more public matters and spoke of it whenever they wanted to.
The werecats were also a natural scout race and they habitually began to gather information.
After that, it became clear to them what the players were going to do next, and what they found troublesome.
Maromatha took a bite of the grilled fish and said slowly, “I heard that your scouts, who went over to the Realm of Devils, didn’t gather much information.”
Roland continued to nod. There was nothing to hide about this.
“Why don’t we, the werecats, come and help.” Maromatha looked steadily at Roland, her eyes full of grat.i.tude. “We can live here thanks to your protection; now you are in trouble, and it just so happens that we can help…”
“You can’t help!” Roland waved his hand.
While the top group of scouts among the players didn’t cross the portal, a large portion of the scout professionals who went over there and were the first to be killed without even seeing a shadow of the enemy were mid-level forces.
Their average strength was stronger than the werecat scouts’.
If it was something none of them could do, even if the werecats sent a dozen powerful scouts, it would be lucky if half of them returned.
The players could be resurrected; the werecats couldn’t.
Hearing Roland refuse her categorically, Maromatha was a little demoralized, and the cat ears on her head hung down slightly.
The werecats were a more appreciative race.
Having received such a great favor from the Golden Sons and having no chance to repay it made her quite depressed.
“You will be doing us the best favor by living in this city and by abiding by the rules here,” Roland said with a smile, seeing through what was on Maromatha’s mind. “How can that be!” Maromatha naturally didn’t believe it and felt that Roland was consoling her.
“Wetland City needs more races besides us to play… for Golden Sons to create a good cycle of productivity,” Roland explained. “We can indeed hold up a city, but we are all professionals with a lot to do and travel quite a bit. There may be a time where a lot of people stay here, and in the next month, there may be no one left guarding this place. Just like the expedition to the Realm of Devils, our people will move to Sisilia in ten or so days, and in half a month, there will be few Golden Sons left here. And there are still too few humansso werecats can stay here as guardians and also as popularity providers, to keep the city less lifeless.”
“It’s something any other race can do, right?”
“But werecats are prettier and cuter, right?”
“Yes!” said Maromatha, her tail high in the air, the end of it twisting and turning. “It seems to make sense when you put it that way.”
After appeasing the black cat and dropping the white cat off with her, Roland headed out of the city and then teleported to Sisilia.
Arriving at the site of the former dragon cave, Roland saw the small hill that had been completely bulldozed and at least five to six thousand tents surrounding the glowing green
portal.
And further away were the guards of Sisilia, about a thousand of them, watching the group of players in front of them with fear and trepidation.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, a thousand armored soldiers was quite a force… Sisilia was a transportation and trade hub and taxes were very high, making it possible to afford to support a thousand armored Elites. But now, the one thousand armored Elites, seeing the group of professionals who were at least Elites in front of them knowing that at least one-tenth of the group cla.s.sified as Masters—were weak in the hands and feet.
They couldn’t win no matter what.
Strength aside, they were overwhelmed in numbers. They couldn’t possibly fight that!
Besides, there was now an endless stream of Golden Sons coming from other places.
“It’s not going to be another G.o.d-defying campaign, is it?” The commander was increasingly anxious.
He was a survivor of a certain battle to annihilate the Golden Sons over two years ago.
He had then been promoted to command an entire city’s soldiers.
Two years ago, the Golden Sons, whose average level was not even Elite, had shown tenacity.
And now, most of them had pa.s.sed Elite, and there were even many Masters.
Such strength easily overpowered what they were back then.
If there was another movement against the G.o.ds, could the allied forces of the G.o.ds still overwhelm them?
The commander felt a bit anxious.
He already had the intention of resigning from his post.
The players that gathered here at this time were all from small guilds.
They were waiting for the arrival of the big guilds.
For example, Phoenix Guild, Fatter Cat, Moon Shadow, and so on.
Big guilds were different from small guilds, having large numbers that made it hard to mobilize.
And it took time for large guilds to secure a logistical line.
So they were waiting.
ere V
The players gathered together, vaguely divided into several “alignments,” from mahjong players, to Fight the Landlord, to simple bowling, to those who engaged in a murder mystery, or small groups who simply told stories.
There was also a group of rather bored Bards who started playing the familiar Fight the Landlord’s background music.
The players also said:
“Seventeen cards, can you second me?” “Big brother, hurry up, or I’ll pour you a cappuccino if you don’t.” …Such arrogant sounding lines.
And Roland’s arrival caught the attention of almost all the players.
It couldn’t be helped; his face was too recognizable.
Especially once the figurines were out, even more people recognized him.
Roland walked up to the portal.
The players around started wagging their tongues.
“Oh sh*t, finally a person of importance has
come.”
“Only Roland came from F6?” “Where’s Schuck? The Saint Samurai should also have restraining abilities against devilish creatures, right? If he comes, and with these two experts taking the lead, we’ll follow.”
“Only one man came, probably to spy on the enemy. The scouts went in and were killed. I reckon Roland has a way.”
“I remember that he has a spider that can be thrown to the ground and is hard to spot.” “Yes, yes. In the Netherworld, he relied on that thing to break free from the illusion.”
The players’ instincts were spot-on. Roland had indeed come here to use the magic spider to scout out the enemy.
He snapped his fingers and used Lesser Benediction.
“I wish for my next spell to have no magic fluctuations.”
Then Roland summoned three magic spiders.
The magic spiders were already very small and the magic fluctuations were close to nothing.
But there were still some, and Roland reckoned that the succubus had sensed the faint magic fluctuations, which had led to the discovery of the magic spiders and their subsequent destruction.
He didn’t believe that in the dimly-lit Realm of Devils, the succubus could spot the magic spiders a dozen meters away when they hid in a small rock crevice and were almost completely transparent.
So Roland surmised that it must be this residual magic fluctuation that had been discovered by the succubus.
Now, with the enhancement of Lesser Benediction, the three magic spiders didn’t have any magic fluctuations.
Roland then used Mud to Stone to create a rock dummy that was over two meters tall.
It wasn’t a summoned creature, it was just a humanoid stone that Roland had simply manipulated with magic threads.
Then three magic spiders crawled onto the stoneman’s body and hid in dips and b.u.mps.
Finally, the stoneman walked swaggeringly towards the portal.
At this time, many players who were watching from the sidelines started their livestreams.
The names were varied and dominated by words synonymous with shocking.
Shocking, this man actually let a stoneman do this kind of thing.
Unbelievable, the spider actually has such a relations.h.i.+p with the stoneman.
The stoneman entered the portal, and Roland immediately switched to the perspective of the magic spiders.
After pa.s.sing through a green spatial tunnel, the stoneman had just stepped out of the magic array. One of its feet hadn’t even stepped on the ground of the Realm of Devils when a dozen air slashes suddenly appeared in the air.
These slashes appeared at the same time.
The sharpness was extraordinary.
The stoneman instantly turned into dozens of pieces and fell to the ground.
One of the magic spiders was also cut down.
But the two other magic spiders fell to the ground along with the fragments of the stoneman, then were hidden underneath the small stone fragments.
From Roland’s point of view, the surroundings were dark; after all, the magic spiders had no vision now.
Yet, he could hear the sounds around them.
The vibrations of someone walking… from a distance.
Then there was the sound of fluttering wings in the air.
“This time they were smart enough to send a summoned creature over to see what’s going on, but my spatial slashes were still faster.”
The male voice was low, and though it was in the language of the Realm of Devils, Roland had Language Proficiency on him and could understand it.
“What is the situation over there? It’s obvious the magic array has been activated, but Lord Paimon won’t let us go over.”
This was a female voice, very sultry and charming. Just listening to it would make one hard. It felt like such a voice needed to be censored.
“None of the imps that were led there have returned either,” the male voice continued. “But I’m curious, how long will the army continue to a.s.semble? There are already thirty thousand now. That’s enough for us to conduct the main plane expedition. Why is Lord Paimon still not satisfied and still looking for reinforcements?”.
“Lord Paimon’s divination is quite powerful; he must have a reason for doing so.” The sultry female voice made a strange sound as if she were licking her lips. “I would love to get intimate with the young men of the main plane. It’s been over two hundred years since I’ve tasted them.”