Sword of Dawn

The patrol captain commented disdainfully in his heart, and then used the force field shield equipped in his left hand to block it vigorously. The fireball deflected, and a ball of dazzling flames exploded among the nearby rocks, while the caster's own position It has also been fully exposed.

"The direction of the fire!"

The patrol captain yelled, and then directly used the heat energy ray guns equipped on both arms to violently bombard the position of the enemy mage. At this time, the enemies who rushed out had already died on the way of the charge, and all the firepower poured on the captain's place immediately. In the place indicated, amidst the smoke and dust, the patrol captain saw various kinds of magical light flickering there—it might be a shield, or it might be a magic item for life-saving, but no matter what it is, as long as the firepower is suppressed, it will not be destroyed. Stop, there is always a time when there is no flash.

Those flickering magical brilliance persisted for a moment, and finally went out.

The patrol captain worriedly fired more than a dozen scorching rays in that direction, and didn't stop until the energy crystal in one gauntlet was exhausted. Then he replaced it with a new crystal, and led the soldiers to check the results of the battle.

They walked through the narrow mountain road, and the veteran captain commanded the soldiers under him with experience: "Pay attention to these fallen guys, some of them are only injured in their hands and feet - tie them up and don't let them run away."

In the dead corner of the mountain rock that was bombed by the grenade, the patrol captain saw the enemy who was already dead - there was not only a mage here, but also a knight in armor. Both of them had several holes in their bodies. Killed by a headshot of a searing ray.

The knight should have stayed behind to protect the spellcaster. His role was to prevent people like sneak assassins or death squads from getting close to assassinate the weak mage, but he obviously didn't expect that the whole battle didn't develop from the beginning to the end. At the white blade stage, you don't need money-like magic attacks to directly destroy all defenses.

This is probably the most embarrassing guard knight who died.

But the patrol captain doesn't have any compassion for the enemy - especially this kind of enemy who ambushes on the mountain road and attacks him.

He bent down to check the clues left on the corpse, trying to find out where these people came from.

Although these people were crushed and defeated, it was because they did not adapt to the new fighting style, and their own side had the advantage in equipment. How much can I take advantage of.

Although the soldiers he led were well-trained, most of them had no combat experience, and these enemies... It can be seen from their ability to organize an orderly attack in a chaotic and urgent situation, these are elites.

This kind of elite cannot come out of nowhere.

Chapter 0254 Betty is studying hard

Gao Wen put down the last engineering report that he needed to confirm personally, stretched his neck to relax the stiff cervical spine, and then looked around.

The study was very quiet, but he was not alone. Not far from Gawain's big desk, there was a small table against the wall. Betty was lying on the side of the table, bowing her head and writing seriously. with a word you recently learned to spell.

Taking two hours every night to go to night school to learn spelling, and then to practice writing in front of textbooks during the day, this seems to have become Betty's daily routine, and in order to let this little girl who loves learning have a more convenient learning space , Gao Wen specially allowed her to practice writing in his study, and arranged a small desk for her here.

This obviously exceeded the treatment that a maid should be given. However, no one in this place would question Gawain's decision. As for Betty herself—her mind didn't seem to be complicated enough to think about "overriding the rules".

Betty is indeed a not-so-intelligent girl—in fact, she is a little dumb. Gawain knows that there is a word to describe this kind of girl, which is the so-called "dumbness", but he doesn't feel it from Betty's dumbness. Not the slightest bit of happiness—the girl didn't have any birth defects, her "sluggishness" was just caused by malnutrition and family life difficulties from childhood to adulthood.

Just like most poor children in this era, like most kitchen maids, low-level handymen, and serf children, lack of nutrition at critical stages of development and lack of education during the most important learning period of life often affect them throughout their lives. Knowing, being obliterated, curious, unable to learn, and not knowing how to think independently, nobles often regard "inferior people" as stupid and ignorant, and regard it as a natural defect, and even This is used as evidence to support the "truth" that "nobles are born noble". Of course, there are exaggerated and unreasonable discriminatory factors in it, but as he understands the world more and more, Gao Wen has to admit a fact:

There is really a gap in learning ability and thinking speed between the children of the abject poor and the children of the aristocrats who live well. Although this gap has nothing to do with the so-called "bloodlines", its existence is an unavoidable reality.

Therefore, Gao Wen is working hard to reduce this gap. Whether it is promoting free children's special meals in night schools or distributing food subsidies to children under the age of six in the territory, it is a part of the effort. First, solve the malnutrition of children and let them It is the most effective way he can think of to be able to fully develop the mind like the noble children, and to educate them at the same time, but what about those who have grown up or are about to grow up?

Gawain stood up and came behind Betty, watching this stupid girl struggling to spell each word. She made few mistakes and her handwriting was much neater than before, but she had to spell a word dozens of times to remember it. , to this day, she is still learning a lot of things that evening school children do in their first two months.

Betty is already much better than most people of the same class. She is almost an adult, but she still has strong curiosity, and she likes to learn actively and spontaneously. She can read and write fluently like a human, but she still has a hard time studying—she is not a hidden genius in a novel, she has missed the best learning age, which cannot be made up for with acquired hard work.

In fact, if it hadn't been for a catastrophe in the territory, if Gawain hadn't brought her to see too many things in the "outside world", Betty might never have learned that there is anything other than rough work in the kitchen. way of life.

Just like she was holding her pan in the days when she first escaped from the territory-that is because she really had nothing else in her past life, and as a kitchen maid, the pan was She had the highest honor and mission imaginable.

Betty finally noticed the figure beside her. She raised her head in shock and wanted to get up in a panic: "Master..."

"It's okay, I just finished my business, let's take a look at your progress." Gawain pressed Betty's head to reassure the girl, "Ah...you can already write neatly."

Betty laughed a little embarrassedly. She was very happy to receive the praise, but she was a little wronged: "Pea is faster than me..."

"She's still young, so it's normal for her to learn things more easily," Gawain comforted the little maid, "You work hard, and sooner or later you'll catch up with the others. And I can teach you anything you don't understand at any time."

"En!" Betty nodded vigorously. At this moment, Gao Wen noticed a few pages of draft paper protruding from the stack of books next to the small desk. With some simple basic runes.

"Have you started learning runes?" Gao Wen asked unexpectedly.

"Well..." Betty lowered her head, "Mr. Santis, who teaches runes, opened the classroom and allowed other classes to attend, so I followed..."

"Can you understand me?"

"I can...understand part of it," Betty gestured with her hand, indicating that it was a very small part, "Mr. Santis spoke very carefully, and he was very patient. The observers could also ask questions, so I learned A few. Mr. Santis said that if I can write down the basic 28 runes, let me go to the class formally."

Gawain couldn't help but think of that tall, thin mage wearing an old mage robe, with messy hair and a little cowardly, ever since he arranged for the second-level arcanist to teach runes at Cecil Universal Academy. After the magic, he never heard any news about the other party. That Mr. Arcanist is really a very low-key person. It seems that as long as he is given a job, he can keep silent in the job. Keep working - but in the end, he seems to be doing just fine as a teacher?

There are very few official mages who are as patient as he is in front of common people, and he can even explain relatively complicated rune theories to the extent that even Betty can barely understand part of them. This is really a remarkable talent.

After all, before this, no one had ever thought about how to explain magic to a group of people who could not feel magic power at all. Santis' education route was completely figured out by himself.

"Mr. Santis once said, 'You can't see the magic, but it's there'," Betty whispered, "but he didn't let us carve runes on copper plates and black stones, he let us Practice on the sand, manuscript paper and writing board first, and you must wait until you are proficient before you can touch magic materials..."

"Safety awareness is the first step in learning magic," Gawain laughed. "He's right about that."

After saying this, he suddenly turned around and looked in the direction of the window - he sensed that Amber's breath was approaching here quickly.

It's a pity that the anti-amber device didn't work this time - the half-elf lady who is skilled in the shadows directly jumped over the mousetrap on the windowsill and landed firmly on the ground, and Gawain noticed that her expression was a bit serious .

It was rare to see a serious expression on Amber's face, so Gao Wen temporarily put away the idea of ​​replacing the mousetrap on the window sill with a tripwire next time, and looked at her curiously: "What happened?"

Amber casually picked up Gao Wen's water glass on the desk and poured the herbal tea in it. After drinking happily, she took a deep breath: "Huh—I'm exhausted from running all the way here. The patrol team in the mountain came back early, They encountered a group of suspicious militants and brought back two disabled prisoners."

Gao Wen frowned suddenly: "Suspicious militants? What's the situation?"

"I don't know, those people don't have anything that can identify them, but I found mapping tools and some sketches of dark mountains on them," Amber waved his hand, "The two captured captives couldn't ask anything either. , and they were seriously injured, and Pittman didn't dare to give them medicine to extract a confession—for fear of accidentally killing them. Now they are being detained in the barracks area, and the priest is treating their wounds. The patrol back The team is there too."

Gawain frowned, and looked back at Betty: "You watch the door at home, I'll go out for a while."

The little maid nodded blankly, and in the next second, she saw that her master and Amber had rushed out of the window in a hurry, and only their voices came faintly from the air:

"Oh, I'm going to this mousetrap!"

"It's what you deserve, who told you to trap me with a mousetrap—you caught yourself this time!"

"I can't go with you-you said why I jumped out of the window with you!!"

Betty was stunned for a while, then lowered her head and continued to write hard - it is too difficult to understand the behavior pattern of the master and Amber when they are together, it is better to learn easier.

On the other side, it didn't take long for Gao Wen and Hu Po to arrive at the "prisoner's holding room" in the corner of the barracks.

Here he saw the patrolling soldiers who encountered the enemy and the two captives who were defeated and captured by them. Indeed, as Amber said, the two captives were seriously injured—they were pierced by scorching rays Their hands and feet were broken, and there were many places on the torso that were scraped by heat rays. The metal armor melted by the high temperature made their injuries extremely serious. If the soldiers of the patrol team hadn't poured healing potions on them in time, they would have returned to the territory. With the priest's holy light to rescue them, it's hard to say whether they can survive.

Priest Wright has completed the emergency treatment of the wounds of the captives—through a series of effective treatments such as bone setting (physics), cleansing (physics), and healing (physics), as well as a little bit of insignificant special effects of holy light, he made the captives The situation stabilized. After seeing Gao Wen coming in, the pastor immediately greeted him: "Lord, you came in time."

Gao Wen saw the blood on the pastor's hands and body at first glance, and was startled: "If I come later, you will put him to death, right?!"

"Ah?" Wright was stunned for a moment, and quickly waved his hands, "No, no, their injuries have stabilized, I mean if you come a little later, I will prepare to release the tranquility spell on them to make them fall asleep—by then There is no way to ask."

Glancing at Wright's casserole-sized fist, Gawain believed that the pastor's tranquility technique was so effective that anyone could shut up...

Chapter 0255

Gao Wen listened carefully to the reports of the soldiers of the patrol team. From these reports, he learned that what the patrol team encountered were not simply desperate robbers or mercenaries in exile, but a group of experienced and well-organized professional soldiers.

The report of the patrol team can't be wrong, because their captain is a senior veteran who has served the Cecil family since the old Cecil era-all the veterans in the territory and the outstanding soldiers who grew up later have been scattered and beaten. Into the various recruit teams as "seeds", these people will not have any major problems in the judgment of the battlefield.

If it weren't for the black technology armed by Cecil Combatants, which is simply a Zentraedi creation for the conventional army of this era, and if the patrol leader hadn't detected the enemy's presence in time and responded accurately, it would have turned into a difficult and vicious battle , but there were no ifs on the battlefield. Faced with completely incomprehensible weapons and fighting methods, these suspicious militants who tried to infiltrate the Cecil Territory suffered a disastrous defeat. In the end, only two of the ten-man team survived.

Gao Wen looked at the confiscated items brought back by the patrol team - weapons and armor, bags and backpacks, many things had traces of being burnt and melted by scorching rays, but there were also many well-preserved items, but all these things were invisible There is not even the slightest sign of subordination, and there is no obvious style. Although each piece of equipment is of excellent quality, it is obvious that their owners do not want to use these equipment to reveal their identities.

The map-making tools and sketches that Amber mentioned were placed on a separate table, along with other things that Amber considered quite suspicious.

Gawain picked up the rough maps that showed the course of the Dark Mountains, frowned and observed carefully. He noticed that there were not only maps on them, but also some incomprehensible code marks—but even if they couldn't see the signs, Guess and guess what the symbols mean.

Although Amber is quite shrewd in the professional field, this occasion is obviously not suitable for her major. She looked at the tools in a daze, and asked Gao Wen curiously: "Where do you think these people come from?"

"Don't even think about it? Of course it's our 'good neighbor'," Gawain shrugged, and casually threw those sketches back on the table, "well-equipped, well-trained, infiltrating from the dark mountains, drawing maps and collecting intelligence along the way, Who else would you say would do such a thing?"

While talking, he curled his lips and looked at the unmarked weapons and equipment: "I also specially prepared these white boards and equipment to cover people's eyes...Are you treating the Ansu people as fools?"

At this time, the door was pushed open, and Hetty walked in. She heard Gao Wen's words and couldn't help shaking her head: "You can't say that - although as long as these people are caught, Ansu's border guards will treat them I know the origin of the spy, but as long as there is no evidence, it is useless to catch it. After all, the two countries have not declared war on the surface. No matter whose spy is caught, everyone just refuses to admit it. Most nobles A creature of prestige and brazenness."

Amber stared at Heidi: "Hey, you are also a nobleman, your whole family is noble!"

"But it doesn't affect my evaluation of other nobles," Hetty said without hitting Amber's head with a stick (probably because there are too many people to maintain elegance), she just glanced at Amber, and then walked towards Gao Wen, "Ancestor , I have already arranged for the mine to send additional manpower, and Knight Byron has also gone there in person.”

Gawain nodded approvingly, while Hetty showed a worried look, "Ancestor, do you think these imperial soldiers are a signal to start war?"

"They have already run into the Dark Mountains, and the war is not far away." Gao Wen didn't say any comforting words at this time, but directly stated his judgment, "The eastern defense line of the Ansu Empire is solid, and the Loren family is a piece of land." The stone that cannot be chewed, only the dark mountains that extend from Ansu to Typhon and are adjacent to the Gondor wasteland are considered to be the weak point of the entire national border-but this natural barrier does not allow the army to pass through, Typhon You can only send small infiltrators in and do something, and those infiltrators only come in when they're really ready for war."

Speaking of this, Gawain slightly closed his eyes, and the satellite view of the entire dark mountain range came to his mind.

The Dark Mountains meandered in Ansu and turned southward at the border of Typhon, forming a natural barrier. Finally, the mountains gradually flattened between Typhon and the wasteland of Gondor, blending into the land.

He could almost outline the course of action of these Typhon soldiers in his mind.

"I'm worried that this is not the only group of troops that infiltrated." Gawain opened his eyes and looked at the two Typhon prisoners lying on the mat who had regained some energy. He walked towards them and looked down. Was it captured by someone?"

One of the prisoners looked at Gawain without fear. Although his face was distorted by the pain, his voice was still calm: "I heard you are Gawain Cecil."

"Is there anything you want to explain?"

"What should be asked, your people have already asked, and they didn't ask anything," said the Typhon soldier, poking his neck, "Even if you are really Gawain Cecil, we won't say anything."

"I know that you still have companions, scattered into several teams and lurking in the dark mountains, while surveying the map and infiltrating into the territory of Ansu, if I'm not wrong, you will even lurk in the territory of Ansu, waiting for orders to wait for an opportunity Destruction, right?" Gao Wen said calmly, relying on Gawain Cecil's experience and knowledge, as well as his own quick thinking, he could easily imagine that these infiltration troops would be able to What is the use of it, and every time he said, the faces of the two prisoners became worse, "Your intelligence is obviously wrong-I guess how your commander described Ansunan before you set off It is a barren land with no one to develop, and the defense is empty, relying on the natural danger of the dark mountains to keep peace for a hundred years, right? That's why he boldly let you come here."

"No, we know your existence, ahem...we also know about your pioneering territory," another prisoner said, "ahem...our information is better than you think, if you really are 700 years ago That great hero... you must know, times have changed..."

Gao Wen looked at the two captured soldiers in a little surprise. He was very surprised by the excellent psychological quality and pressure tolerance of the other party. Not everyone can maintain a tough posture in front of a resurrected legend, even well-trained soldiers. The same is true for the soldiers—most professional soldiers of this era have little sense of honor and "family and country beliefs" at all, but the two captives in front of them are obviously different. They put life and death aside and devote themselves wholeheartedly.

How did Typhon train the army?They also realized the importance of instilling values ​​in soldiers?

Gawain calmly released the coercion of a powerful transcendent, even if his strength was lower than that of the original "Gauvan Cecil", this coercion is not something ordinary people can bear. Under the dual pressure of erosion and mental power, the faces of the two prisoners quickly turned pale, while Gao Wen said unhurriedly: "Don't be too confident in your intelligence, 'soldiers of this era', you forgot How did you lose?"

The eyes of the two prisoners visibly wavered.

"The ones patrolling the mountains are only ordinary soldiers from the Cecil Territory, the most common kind—they can easily destroy so-called 'elites' like you. You can think about it a little bit, your comrades and a whole What would happen to a similarly armed legion—your intelligence is too far behind, young man."

After saying this, Gao Wen put away his coercion directly. Instead of continuing to try to get information from the captives, he walked towards the door and left a word to Wright before leaving: "These two people will be handed over to you. Look after them and try to heal them as much as possible."

After leaving the holding room, Hetty caught up with Gawain: "Ancestor, you intend to scare those two people, then ask Pastor Wright to heal them and create a chance for them to escape, and finally let them run to warn you Comrades, can we track them down and catch them all?"

Amber, who ran out together, was surprised when she heard Hetty's guess: "Can you still do this?"

Immediately afterwards, she sighed: "Your noble hearts are really dirty."

However, Gao Wen directly shook his head: "Don't think about it, this kind of specially trained soldiers are trained, they won't be fooled by this."

When Hetty heard this, she was very surprised: "Then the last thing you said to those two captives was..."

"It will be more powerful to say a few words on the scene before leaving."

Hetty: "..."

She didn't know how to reply to an ancestor who would casually say the words "appears to be more powerful", so as to appear respectful, filial and elegant, so she simply hypnotized herself to forget what Gao Wen said just now, and was stunned. He continued the topic: "Then, will you continue to interrogate the two captives?"

"The results of the interrogation will not come out in a short time, but their accomplices may have lurked around here. It's hard to say whether those guys will cause havoc in a short time." Gawain frowned, looking in the direction of the dark mountain range , he is not worried about the defense of the territory - guard posts, walls, magic traps, and rune alarm devices in all directions are enough to ensure the security of the territory, and it is impossible for a small group of infiltration troops to lose their wits and attack a pioneering town guarded by the army , but he was very worried about the isolated mines, logging camps and development strongholds outside the territory, "I need to go into the mountains to see for myself. Amber, you come with me too."

"Ah?" Amber was stunned for a moment subconsciously, but then she finally remembered her identity as a guard, her ears drooped, "Oh..."

The battlefield of the mountain encounter has not been cleaned up, and the patrol team has limited manpower. They just took away the prisoners and some of the captured items and returned them to the territory. For the corpses still blocking the mountain path, Gao Wen took Amber to inspect each corpse and the entire combat area, and finally something caught his attention.

It was a piece of paper that fell by the side of the mountain road. It seemed to be an order written by a certain superior to these soldiers. Half of the paper itself had been burned by the scorching rays, and only a few fragmented, Words that don't connect at all.

But it was those few fragmented words that made Gao Wen frowned slightly.

"What's the matter?" Seeing Gao Wen stop, Amber couldn't help leaning forward curiously, "What's written on this piece of paper... I can't understand it."

"This handwriting... looks familiar to me," Gao Wen said with an incredulous expression on his face, "Could it be... that guy?"

Chapter 0256 Old Acquaintances

A team operating nearby lost contact, and they didn't even have time to release the magic insects. This made the Soldering team operating in the dark mountain heightened their vigilance.

In a relatively hidden cave, the soldiers of Typhon were hurrying to rest, while several knights in the team were discussing in low voices about the team that had lost contact, and the atmosphere seemed very serious.

"That team is more dangerous than good. They may have encountered the nearby Ansu army through their actions," said a knight. It is a large regular army."

"The neighborhood here should be the pioneering territory established by the legendary 'Resuscitating Pioneer'?" Another knight recalled the information he had before departure, "Could it be that the 'Duke of Pioneering' has sealed off the mountains around the territory? No Say he's just established himself in the area?"

"Perhaps our intelligence is wrong. He has strong support from the Ansu royal family," the last knight guessed. "If he wants to rebuild the entire Ansu southern defense line, then he should bring a large number of troops over..."

"The communication with other teams is still normal..."

The knights were discussing in low voices, but they paid more attention to Solderin who was resting with his eyes closed not far away.

The knights knew very well that although there were so many imperial warriors active, the entire infiltration plan in the Dark Mountains was actually centered on this elf commander—this high-ranking ranger was the brains of the entire operation, And those ordinary soldiers, even knights and mages, are only used to collect information for the mind and explore the way forward.

Just as an infiltration in the early stage of the war, although these teams entering the Dark Mountains are elite, they will not have much advanced combat power. Send a group of strong men locally to carry out infiltration missions. These strong men with high combat effectiveness may not be much better than experienced soldiers when collecting information and drawing maps. Under such circumstances, a strong man trapped in the enemy's defense line is as difficult to come back alive as an ordinary soldier. The cost is frighteningly high but there will be no additional benefits. In addition, there is only another "deputy team" with a mid-level mage sitting in charge.

Here, Solderling is the backbone of all of them.

And the backbone didn't make any expression after learning that a team had lost contact, he just quietly thought about life on the sidelines.

"My lord," a mage in the team couldn't bear it anymore, and he took the initiative to come to Solderin, "We should take action—whether sending back information or continuing to search for clues about the missing team is better than waiting here .”