Myriad's Conquest

This place was deemed as essential for Seastar"s expansion. Especially the nearby coastline, unlike the bay"s southeast coast where the salt pan was located, it was not plagued by beaches, thus it"s the perfect place to build a deepwater port.

Adrian didn"t have a shred of doubt that in the future, Seastar will be able to produce arrays of rare and unique commodities that would definitely attract loads of merchants" attention from all across Eires. A port will guarantee Seastar"s success even more by then. Unfortunately, the presence of Lord-grade Vargas Guardian Tiger within the northern forest forced Adrian to postpone the village"s northern expansion plan for an indefinite time.

Adrian and his party currently standing just before the southern edge of the northern forest. The distance from the river to here is only around three kilometers, so it didn"t take a long time for them to reach it after disembarking from the boats in the river"s north bank.

"Zeke! You and your squad will be the vanguard, take up the front position and lead the way."

"Leo! You will be positioned in the middle. The Lord"s safety is also your squad"s responsibility from now. Don"t let him close to danger."

"Schmidt! Your 1st squad will be at the back, protecting our rear."

"Do you all understand your task?!"

"YES, SIR!!!"

Zilong had just finished a.s.signing tasks to the squad leaders. Then, he shifted his sight at the rest of the militia"s members and staring at each of them one by one. Since they will be going deep into the northern forest, he wants to make sure that every militia here was ready for anything they might encounter ahead.

"Alright Zi, we probably shouldn"t waste any more time. It"s still in the morning, after all."

Said Adrian as he scrutinized the wide spreading treeline in front of him. Beyond it, he could only see almost a total darkness.

"Understood, Lord!"

All of them begin entering the forest in a well-trained formation.

***

The party has traveled from the southern edge for an hour.

The inside of the forest was brighter than it appears from the outside. On top of that, it gives Adrian and every member of his party the feeling of solemnity and solitude.

It was true, though, the forest was extremely quiet and soundless. Based on that, Adrian felt the forest was actually quite different from the stories he has heard. It did not felt malignant or evil at all, it"s rather peaceful, honestly.

But of course, he does not want to lower his vigilance even for a bit just because of it, this forest still has an infamous reputation in the end. Otherwise, there would be no frightening legends regarding it.

Zeke the kobold was taking the helm at the front of the formation along with his squad, he was leading the way and guiding the rest of the party"s members. He already came to the ruins along with Zilong yesterday, so Zeke more or less knew the way there.

As he strode forwards, his nose suddenly moving up and down as he sniffs around, he smells something disturbing nearby. Zeke quickly lifts his right hand, waving it slightly, and he said, "Halt!"

Hearing Zeke"s signal, the rest of the party stopped their movement. Adrian immediately activates his Dragon Sense and spread it out. A moments later, the sense was picking up large numbers of movement 80 meters west of the party.

Adrian hastily spoke, "Zi! Movements, 80 meters, west!"

Zilong gazed in the west direction, examined it for a while, he then looked at Zeke and speaking to him, "We"re gonna avoid them. Keep focusing on the direct path to the ruins."

Zeke gave a nod, then looked towards the left and right direction carefully for a moment, before continued walking. The rest of the party began following him again.

Adrian"s head began to feel painful. He immediately deactivated the Dragon Sense to alleviate the headache. Although this skill was very useful, he does not feel comfortable at all when using it.

***

"That"s the ruins, Lord." Said Leo while pointing his index something at the far.

Under the leadership of Zilong and Zeke"s guidance, the party didn"t encounter a single beast along the way. As a result, their journey was completely flawless and safe.

The party had just arrived near the ruins" vicinity. They were now resting on top of a hill merely two or three kilometers from the ruin.

The ruins could be seen clearly from there since it was positioned in lower elevated grounds. Even Adrian was flabbergasted when seeing it, he thinks this area was not a good place to build any kind of settlement. There were several reasons why he thought like that.

First, it"s too far from the coast. Even though it was basically an advantage.

Second, it was located right in the middle of the forest. How could people think that building a settlement there is a good decision?

Third, It was placed in the much lower ground than the surrounding land. Were they not afraid of being attacked from the higher ground? (A/N: Yeah meme)

Fourth, Adrian didn"t even see a river or a lake nearby. From where did the people here get their supply of clean water, then?

However, judging from the size, the ruins seem to be a very successful settlement. Especially, since the majority of its building"s architectures, design, and the fact they were entirely made of stone, clearly shown the high civilization level that the ruins once had achieved. Therefore, there might be some other factors that weren"t known to Adrian, which made the ruins very successful in the past.

"Is it always this? quite... here?" Asked Adrian, he felt this area around the ruins feels even more solemn.

"Yesterday, we already came here as well, and it did feel the same... I guess you could say that indeed it"s always quiet around here." Leo replied.

Adrian nodded but didn"t say anything else, he merely continues gazing at the ruins.

Leo glanced at him nervously and asked hesitantly, "Lord, if I may know. What"s the purpose of this mission?"

Adrian shifted his attention towards Leo, looking a bit surprised. This lion man beside him that has a really huge body had suddenly asked a question that no one dares to ask.

"Heh... Even the militia"s members couldn"t help but anxious too, huh?"

"Two purposes... To investigate the ruins itself and... looking for treasures within it."

He answered in a straight manner. What else would they be here for if it weren"t looking for treasures? Besides, he did have other purposes like wanting to complete a quest for example, but he couldn"t exactly tell other people about it.

"I understand the need to study the ruins since it is very close to our village and we somehow didn"t know anything about it... But searching for treasures? Are we gonna turn ourselves to being grave robbers, Lord?"

Leo replied with eyes full of suspicion. It looks like he didn"t quite agree to disturb a ruin just because of treasures. It"s akin to opening up a grave and took everything from it.

Adrian smile knowingly, he could discern Leo"s objection within his words.

"If you dug a 1 or 2 years old grave and take all the possessions of its already dead occupant, of course, that would make you a grave robber... But what we"ll gonna do is different than that. Because if we did find the treasures, we would only take it from a city that has been abandoned for hundreds of years at least. Thus, since the treasures would only be laying around until it was buried under the dust, it"s shame if we didn"t take it for ourselves, right? Moreover, we could use it for the betterment of our village and the villagers, think about it..."

Hearing Adrian"s words, Leo"s eyes widened. He realized that Adrian was right. They would only take the treasures from a long-dead city instead of a new grave.

It"s a taboo to dig a new grave because that will be very disrespecting to its occupant and the family"s member that was still alive. But ransacking a forgotten, abandoned city was still an acceptable thing to do, probably.

Leo seems to understood Adrian"s reason. He was a.s.sured and moved on, thus he asked, "Very well, Lord. What"s our next move?"

"We wait for Zilong and the rest to come back first, then we"ll proceed."

The lion man nodded without saying a word and returned back to his squad.

A few minutes later, Zilong and several men return from doing a recon close to the ruins.

"Lord!" Zilong saluted to Adrian.

"How"s the situation there?"

"It"s safe, we"ve confirmed it. No sign of tiger beast too."

Luckily, the Vargas Guardian Tiger wasn"t nearby. Otherwise, Adrian would be forced to return back empty-handed.

"Good, resting time is over then, let proceed immediately."

And so, all them start descending the hill and heading directly for the ruins.

***

"That"s a very strong wall."

Praised Adrian as he was impressed by the stone wall that protected the ruins.

The wall was completely made of stone, almost 10 meters of height and several high towers attached to some of its section. Even though it was already decayed to the point, many parts of the wall were broken and had turned into rubbles, but the feeling of absolute protection still permeated. In short, It"s still a proper city wall, indeed.

The militia was looking at the wall with their mouth agape. All of them has been living on this island their entire. They had never seen anything so grandeur before.

Inside their mind, they asked, "How could people build something ma.s.sive like that?"

Some of them who had gone to Lerna before couldn"t help but thinking that the town"s wooden wall couldn"t be compared to the stone wall in front of them right now at all.

The only one who doesn"t share other"s enthusiasm was Zilong. He merely appreciated the wall"s architecture, which was unique and foreign from what he had usually seen, but other than that, there was nothing else that needs to be appreciated.

He even thinks the walls of Luo Yang, and Chang An was bigger, thicker, stronger. It"s probably true, though. Those two ancient cities used to have almost a million populations each. Due to that, their fortifications were perhaps more complex and st.u.r.dier.

"Sir Zhao! I saw a huge gate, over there..."

Zeke suddenly shouted while pointing his finger at a broken city gate attached to the west section of the wall.

"Good job, we"ll use that gate as the entry point. Let"s go men!" Zilong rallied the militia and instructed them to goes for the gate.

Dirt roads were gradually replaced by broken cobblestone roads the closer it was to the ruins.

It appears that the gate itself used to be metallic instead of wooden, judging from the remaining parts scattered around the arch.

As they pa.s.sed through the gate, the scenery they saw was extremely marvelous yet sad at the same time.

The solemn feelings that the men have felt since they first entered the forest were intensified the moment they put their feet inside the ruins. Pile of rubbles everywhere, hundreds of destroyed building, broken statues and columns, charred remains laying on the ground unattended, and many more depressing sights was unfolded.

The last memories of the people of this city were not very wonderful.

Every member of Adrian"s party could only look at the scenery with gloomy expressions. They didn"t know that the grand looking wall actually contained such tragic view inside. They could see from the remaining visage that the city was once glorious.

They were slowly advancing deep into the ruins while avoiding the rubbles and debris.

"I remember now... It"s just like the ruins of Pompeii..."

Adrian once visited the ruins of Pompeii, an ancient city that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the atmosphere there was almost exactly similar to this city. Though, because this city"s destruction was not caused by the same disaster, hence it did not have a speck of volcanic ashes laying around.

Afterward, Adrian caught the sight of a huge palace at the most eastern side of the city just next to the mountain.

"If it"s a treasure then they must be located at the palace... Besides, I need to investigate this city too, and the palace must have some records or notes as well."