Marvin and Ivan relied on the Sea Emperor"s Crown to return to the East Coast.
They spent half a day to return to camp.
Fortunately, this group of slaves and sailors was doing well under the supervision of Lola and Boatswain Roberts.
It was currently summer and they had enough food on the boat, so apart from the mosquitoes there wasn"t much to worry about.
Marvin discussed with Ivan, hoping he could temporarily help watch over this side.
These sailors were men after all. If he left Lola, Little Tucker and the others behind, who knew what might happen.
Ivan straightforwardly agreed.
Marvin had saved him earlier and then killed a Dragon with him, before finally saving him again from the hands of the Sea Elven Queen. This matter wasn"t difficult.
Marvin repeatedly warned Lola to pay attention to various things and then ordered Roberts to have the sailors keep improving the temporary camp.
This camp would be the foundation for the new harbor and city.
It was good to start planning now.
After explaining, Marvin left the sh.o.r.e alone and journeyed to the west, toward White River Valley.
In the mountain range, late at night. A silhouette could be seen flas.h.i.+ng like lightning.
Ever since he advanced to Night Walker, Marvin was getting increasingly more fond of traveling during the night.
His sight was even better at night than during the day, letting him see very far away.
This mountain range didn"t have a name, nor did it belong to the Shrieking Mountain Range. They weren"t excessively steep, and could only be considered small hills with a few big mountains in the middle.
One of those mountains was Marvin"s target, the mountain the Ogre tribe was occupying.
And when standing at the bottom of that mountain, Marvin had two paths to bypa.s.s it.
In the south was a forest, and south of the forest was a small path that ran parallel to the White River and would smoothly lead to White River Valley. To the north there was a ravine. He wasn"t sure what sorts of things were in the valley, but there shouldn"t be powerful monsters, so this path could also be taken.
Marvin wasn"t the same as in the past. He was level 13, so even if he ran across a large group of monsters, he wouldn"t be worried.
Even if he was no match, fleeing was definitely not a problem.
"Which path should I take?" Marvin was hesitating.
But a sneaky shadow suddenly flashed across his field of view!
It was a very small shadow.
"A Gnoll!"
Marvin"s eyes shone.
He no longer hesitated and immediately ran north.
He didn"t see the Gnoll directly. He noticed it, as well as traces of other Gnolls, in the ravine to the north because he was sharing the Night Crow"s field of view.
He had previously been a bit confused, wondering where Tos.h.i.+roya and Miller had found Gnolls to work with.
He had already searched the area south of White River Valley as well as other suspicious locations and didn"t find any traces of Gnolls.
But he finally found a clue in this place.
Marvin had a premonition that this sneaky Gnoll was most likely related to those that invaded his territory!
He immediately sped up, rus.h.i.+ng toward the north.
In the northern ravine, a Gnoll was walking on tiptoe through thickets and an area filled with cobbles, avoiding a small path while heading toward the high mountain in the south.
That was the mountain occupied by the Ogres!
But a shadow suddenly rushed out and kicked the Gnoll!
The latter howled miserably as he was sent flying by that kick.
With Marvin"s current abilities, he could bully a creature like a Gnoll as he wished.
He quickly used the Wishful Rope to tightly tie that guy up.
Thanks to Lola"s instruction, Marvin"s Gnoll Language was quite decent. Under the threat of the curved dagger, the pitiful Gnoll confessed everything in mere moments!
He was following the Tribe Leader"s orders to carry a letter to the Ogre tribe.
Their Gnoll tribe was the same one that had invaded Marvin"s territory. They originally lived in the depths of this ravine. After their retreat, only a few weak soldiers remained, making it difficult to stay in this area.
In order to survive, they became va.s.sals of the Ogre tribe.
The Gnoll"s words attracted Marvin"s attention.
"Va.s.sal? Ogres know how to accept a va.s.sal?"
"This is something nearly impossible. Ogres are a type of powerful creature with a very high concept of race. How could the powerful Ogres care to look at the Gnolls?"
There was only one kind of reason for this behavior.
This Ogre Tribe"s Leader must be extremely smart. It was highly possible that this was an Ogre Wizard.
Ogre Wizards and Human Wizards had different magical concepts. Like the Dragons, they had a unique casting system and were capable of overcoming the Universe Magic Pool to draw in Chaos Magic Power to cast their spells!
The concept behind their casting was similar to Dragon Spells. They relied on their own bodies to ama.s.s a huge amount of Chaos Magic Power.
Thus, Ogre Wizards weren"t affected by the fall of the Universe Magic Pool.
At the same time, because of being in contact with Chaos Magic Power for such a long time, they were more p.r.o.ne to chaos and destruction.
This was a race that was very troublesome to tame.
Thus, Marvin made proper preparations to clear the wilderness and slaughter every creature that dared block his path.
It was bound to be a bloodbath. But not having any bloodshed on the road to success was impossible.
"What letter? Take it out," Marvin ordered.
The Gnoll helplessly took out the letter.
Marvin checked it and found that he couldn"t understand its contents.
"Not Gnoll Language… Looks like Ogre Language. Did the Gnoll Leader personally write it?"
"What the h.e.l.l."
Marvin collected the letter, becoming more and more doubtful.
After making sure he couldn"t get more out of this Gnoll, Marvin directly killed him.
He would never be lenient when it concerned Gnolls. Who knew how many innocent villagers were killed when they invaded White River Valley.
He could still remember many of them.
This was enmity forged through a sea of blood. There was no way he could forgive them.
"Looks like I have to take a trip to that Gnoll tribe."
Marvin took a deep breath and went inside the ravine.
One hour later, the Gnoll Leader and those few soldiers met with the same treatment.
As a Night Walker, sneaking into their buildings was really too easy for Marvin.
He grabbed the Gnoll Leader directly.
Ever since that Shaman died, the Tribe Leader was a relatively strong Fighter.
Naturally, strength was always relative. Under the absolute strength suppression between the 3rd rank and the 1st rank, the pitiful Gnoll Leader was no different from those soldiers.
He kept his lips tight for a moment, but unfortunately, after Marvin used a few simple interrogation techniques, this guy immediately spilled everything.
After hearing it all, Marvin started pondering.
"It actually has something to do with a black-clothed old man."
"This letter actually is trying to instigate the Ogre tribe to attack White River Valley."
"The old man said that a treasure was hidden under White River Valley!"
That black-clothed old man again!
This wasn"t the first time Marvin heard about him. He had already heard of him from Tos.h.i.+roya, and now the Gnoll Leader.
Marvin tried to make him describe the old man more carefully but the Gnoll Leader only shook his head blankly.
He didn"t remember clearly.
The person he saw was vague. The other side apparently had a mysterious power that could persuade them.
But after parting they would only remember that the other side was a black clothed old man. The rest of the details would be fuzzy.
This strange method made Marvin think of h.e.l.l.
That group of Devils seemed to be fond of using this kind of stratagem… Hold on… h.e.l.l? Devil?
Marvin recalled the Great Devil Head in his grandfather"s hidden room.
Along with that hidden treasure map.
Everything was connected.
"What treasure?"
"Could that singing voice I heard that day in the secret path be some whispers from h.e.l.l?"
Thinking of that, Marvin felt numb.
Having dealings with a Devil was very troublesome. That group of b.a.s.t.a.r.ds was good at playing with people"s hearts and controlling feelings. Playing with contracts was also their strong point.
It was clear that the thing under his territory was related to the Devils, and it didn"t look like something minor either.
This made Marvin very anxious.
It felt like he was sitting on a bomb.
Who knew what his grandfather had hidden there?
If he wanted to find out, he would have to start from the secret path.
He would have to ask some Legends next time to help explore this secret.
Marvin casually dealt with the Gnoll Leader.
After pa.s.sing through the Gnoll tribe, he kept going west. He would soon reach White River Valley.
But he suddenly felt a jolt of pain.
His Night Crow was killed!
The other side had acted pretty fast. Marvin had no time to see what attacked!
"What the h.e.l.l!"
Marvin frowned and immediately used Night Tracking!
The attacker shouldn"t know about this skill.
The Night Crow was Marvin"s summon, and could be tracked with his Night Walker abilities. Regardless of who killed the Night Crow, Marvin would be able to use Night Tracking to catch him!
A faint red line spread out and Marvin quickly judged that the target wasn"t far!
He sped up and five minutes later, he caught up!
But when he caught up, he saw a constantly running shadow.
It was wearing black clothes.
A weird feeling filled Marvin"s mind. He couldn"t see through the other side"s strength!
"Who are you!"
Marvin ground his teeth and sped up, arriving in front of the shadow and forcefully blocking its path!
The other side forcefully stopped on a withering tree.
Marvin stared at him. It was an old man sneering at him!
A black clothed old man!
"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" Marvin asked in a heavy voice.
"Me?" The other side spoke very slowly in Common Language, apparently thinking of something.
But then, his body suddenly distorted!
From a black clothed old man, it turned into a Three Eyed Great Devil Head.
Marvin felt a s.h.i.+ver down his spine!