Mercenaries and Adventurers

Taturones Harbor City, a few days later.

On the outside of the huge harbor on the north side of the city, there are observation towers built with bluestones that were transported costly from distant areas. This kind of observation tower is usually used as a lighthouse to guide fishing boats and merchant ships going out.

The lights of each observation tower are unpredictable. From the choice of simple lighthouse flame fuel, to the huge stained glass at the luminous place of advanced lighthouses, they all have different meanings.

In the book Travel Notes of the Farah Peninsula written by Master Donilafa, he spent a long time visiting all the lighthouses and observation towers on the Farah Peninsula.

In his travel notes, he recorded in detail the fixed flame colors used by the lighthouses to which each harbor city belongs. For example, most of the lighthouses on the north side of the peninsula use warm-toned flame colors, while lighthouses on the eastern side of the peninsula generally use cooler-toned flames.

In addition, the towering lighthouse lights up differently on different days in different months. There is a set of fixed and widely disseminated laws, and every ship that goes to sea or comes here clearly remembers this law, and even writes it on the sea chart of the Farah Peninsula.

In this way, even if you sail for a long time on the vast sea, you lose your clear record of the time you passed, or you can't tell where you are because of something like a storm. As long as you see the lighthouses dotted along the coast of the Fara Peninsula from a distance, you will naturally know where you are, or the exact time at this moment.

For the locals of the Fara Peninsula, they can even know which lighthouse they are seeing from the slight difference between the flames of the various lighthouses, and they are separated by a long distance on the sea, and through the flames ignited by the lighthouse and the The rotating machinery on it intermittently blocks the intervals of the firelight, so you can know exactly which day it is.

Needless to say, this set of precise and rigorous navigation instructions was naturally built by the empire that ruled this place at a huge expense.

Although the Fara Peninsula has an ancient magical inheritance from the depths of the desert, the harsh living environment has made it difficult for the locals to spend their energy on places that do not have a direct impact on the survival of ordinary people.

Naturally, the empire was not doing good things. They needed merchant ships from the southeast of the empire to pass the long distance to support the provinces along the northeast coast of the empire. Therefore, it is only natural to establish a system to safely guide merchant ships sailing along shallow seas.

Even though it cost a lot to build.

-

However, unlike other areas of the Farah Peninsula, the northern and eastern parts of the Farah Peninsula facing the big storm often refer to the lighthouses as observation towers.

Because the local people need these tall towers more than the function of lighthouse lights to guide ships, to accurately indicate the coming of big storms.

Although natural disasters such as big storms that block the sky and the sun come on a fixed day every year, there is never a precise and fixed time. If you stay outdoors when a big storm comes, people who go out are likely to be in danger of life in the very short time from start to fall.

Huge precipitation will bring torrents that cannot be resisted by manpower, and people who go out are easily washed into the sea by the flood.

Just like instinct, in the days when the big storm is approaching, there are no more business trips, and all the ships have returned to the safe harbors of the various harbor cities and are firmly tied together.

All sails were lowered, and a large number of wooden barrels loaded with fresh water were carried into the bilge for ballasting. The strong hemp rope thicker than a human thigh connects one ship after another, forming a floating 'house' on the water.

The outermost part of Harbor City, the top of the tallest observation tower.

The old mage was sitting with Kony on the edge of the towering tower. They each got a comfortable wooden chair and sat in the air together, looking at the sea to the north of the city in the distance.

Behind him was the huge but messy city of Tartulongs, while in front of him was the endless ocean.

Master Kony was a little excited, because he knew from his teacher yesterday that it was time for a big storm to appear in a while.

These days, his life is quite regular. Every day, he either eats the "magic nutritious food" made by his honest companion Harau, or assists the teacher in sorting out and reviewing various documents sent by the society. Of course, whenever there are fewer documents to be spit out from the magic equipment that transmits files, the old mage will teach him some systematic magic knowledge and research methods.

Compared with knowledge, his teacher was more trying to teach him how to explore magic.

"The magical journey is endless, and there are countless roads. How to go is more important than where to go."

This is what he often said.

He said so to every mage who walked the path of magic.

Kony knows that there is a second half of what the teacher often said: "For a true magician, no matter which path he chooses, it is a fulfilling and never-ending journey."

The old mage smoked his favorite tobacco from another world, his eyes shone slightly, and he looked at the sea in the distance.

He turned a blind eye to the murmurs and various small movements of Master Coney next to him because of his excitement. After all, a long time ago, when he himself was a little magician, his performance when he met the long-renowned natural power for the first time was not as good as Kony's at this moment.

He himself clearly remembered how he jumped up and down among his teacher and his fellow apprentices at that time.

So he is just sitting quietly at the moment, while quietly tasting the famous tobacco from other worlds, while driving the huge observation organ in the subspace, passing through the dimension of space, looking at the depths of the distant sea.

"Mm, the rhythm of the starry sky and the breathing of the world?"

He started talking to himself softly, as if he had aroused some interest.

-

When the two mages were sitting on the edge platform of the lighthouse and waiting for the big storm to start, not far behind them, in the flame lamp room at the highest point of the lighthouse, a plainly dressed old man was nervously holding a telescope, And after looking at the sea level in the distance, look back at the wind flag placed outside the lighthouse.

The space here is quite large. The original huge brazier has been covered by a round wooden board, and various things and tools are scattered on it.

Next to this old man, there are two middle-aged people. Just looking at the two of them carefully serving the busy old man, one can see the close relationship between the three of them.

"Master, is He here?" The taller middle-aged man asked in a low voice.

While talking, he frequently looked at a sophisticated magic clock that stood indoors and was moved here. It seemed to be very sensitive to time.

The most recent period is the period of the big storm, all the ships have entered the port to take shelter, the lighthouse naturally no longer needs to guide the ships at night, so at this moment it is fulfilling its bounden duty, as an observation tower to predict and indicate the coming of the big storm, and Accurately inform the whole city when the big storm comes.

"Well, the waves are gradually less hitting the coast, and the wind direction is also flowing towards the ocean. It's coming, it's coming soon." The old man raised his binoculars to his eye sockets, and responded loudly to his apprentice.

But his apprentice didn't seem to think it was enough. He took out a blue talisman emblem with traces of sea waves from his neck, and while carefully rubbing it with his fingers, he walked back and forth in the spacious flame burning room of the lighthouse, and babbled Speaking of it: "The believers in the church should be all gathered at this moment, and everyone is waiting for His coming. I, I, I have a responsibility to pass the news back as soon as possible."

So, he became even more nervous: "What if it wasn't for today? The believers have already gathered, and everyone is waiting. The patriarch is also waiting."

Next to him, another middle-aged man who had been sitting on the edge of the wooden table snorted coldly. He picked up a pot of local hot tea soup from the portable stove, poured one for the busy old man, and then He poured himself one, and put the kettle back on the fire.

The exquisite cooling interlayer teacups in the Farah Peninsula have quickly cooled the hot tea soup that has just been poured, and the time to drink it is just right.

The old man also put down the binoculars, picked up the tea soup poured by another apprentice, and took a sip.

"Huh, don't worry, in all these years, which time have I miscalculated the date of the big storm? If it is today, it is today." The old man quickly finished the remaining tea soup that was cooling down quickly.

"And up to now, let alone the date, I can calculate the exact time. Didn't I calculate it accurately last year just before the big storm." Speaking of this, he is very confident.

The slightly shorter middle-aged man followed up with a sarcasm: "The ring of the sun doesn't need to be so mysterious and exquisite to attract believers. The mighty power of the great sun needs nothing else, and everyone can see it every day when they look up."

On his exquisite clothes, some inconspicuous places have some marks of the Church of the Ring of the Sun. Although inconspicuous, there is no doubt that he is an official member of the Church of the Circle of the Sun.

It's just that it's impossible to see what he is responsible for from the decorations that the other party deliberately hides.

"The Lord of the Ocean is also great, but we live on land, so naturally we can't appreciate the mighty power of the Lord of the Ocean." The taller middle-aged man muttered, he naturally knew that this fellow He didn't dare to talk back about the origins of the juniors who were studying under the old man's school, otherwise he and the church behind him would not be able to hold on to the powerful opponent.

He had no choice but to continue talking comfortingly: "It would be different if the city was built on an island. Hey, why are there so few islands near the Fara Peninsula?"

-

On the suspended platform a few meters away from the three of them, there were two mages from the north sitting, and they naturally heard the words of the three behind them. But they were invisible at the moment, and the three people in the room didn't notice them.

Even the wooden chair on which he was sitting was invisible.

Master Kony was not worried that the three people behind him would know what he was doing, so he spoke normally: "Teacher, the old man behind him also said today." He stood up, and the edge of the platform was in front of the chair, but After Kony stood up, he stood directly in the air, even though he was more than fifty meters above the ground at this time.

Kony stood up and looked back, curiously watching the old man fiddle with the binoculars and other tools.

"Moreover, it seems that the other party is even trying to observe and calculate the arrival of the big storm in advance. Can he do it?" Kony was a little curious, relying on those 'rough' tools, and there was no magical reaction on his body, and he hadn't done any body work Transformation, a mere mortal, can calculate in advance when the mighty power of natural disasters will arrive?

If it was the other mages on other observation towers nearby who were waiting for the storm, he felt that it was normal for those companions to do this. But can an ordinary person, an ordinary old man, really do it?

The old mage looked at Master Coney, stood up shaking his head, and tapped Coney on the shoulder with a pipe: "Don't underestimate anything you don't understand. Arrogance, superman, etc., this kind of thing is brewing from here .”

"Whether he can do it, don't you know if you go and have a look?"

The old mage turned his head and glanced at the seemingly calm sea: "And there is still some time before the big storm comes, go and have a look, just to relieve boredom, anyway, you can't calm down just sitting on a chair."

Kony chuckled. He had no choice. Although he had been in the society for a while, he mostly studied inside the society. He knew this world from books, but he had very little personal experience.

How can new experiences in life not make him nervous?

The two stood in the air and walked directly to the top of the open lighthouse. When the two of them walked past the old man's binoculars, not only the other two middle-aged men didn't see them, even the old man didn't notice it.

When they came to the wooden table covered with papers and simple tools, the two carefully avoided the chattering tall middle-aged man, and carefully looked at the contents on the paper.

On the largest unfurled scroll of rough paper, a map of the northern coast of the Fara Peninsula was being drawn. Unsurprisingly, the harbor city of Taturones is right in the middle of the map.

Next to the simple icon representing the city, a thumbtack made from ant nails is pinning a small piece of white paper full of data.

The old mage glanced at it and realized that it was filled with the arrival dates of big storms in previous years. In recent years, even the occurrence of large storms has been accurately recorded.

Master Kony also noticed, and he read out the key content above softly: "Well, the year before last, three hourglasses passed halfway during the day. The year before last, two hourglasses followed the sunset. Last year, one hourglass rose in the next month."

He blinked: "Teacher, then this year's big storm may be in the middle of the night?"

The old mage shook his head: "No, just in a while, about noon."

At the same time, the old man on the side recorded the latest data on a white paper with rows of data.

Afterwards, his two discordant apprentices came over and started to take out the wooden board and charcoal pencils, and immediately calculated the new data.

The ability of the two of them in this area is comparable, and at the same time they came to the final result of the data.

"It's the hourglass in the first half of the day!"

"Less than half an hourglass! A big storm is coming!"

The two shouted in unison and glanced at each other.

The old man stroked his beard and said with a proud smile: "Haha, although it is not the middle of the night that ordinary people expected, it is the result of my life's hard work. The big storm is indeed not what ordinary people intuitively think."

Walking around the room proudly, he waggled his fingers and said triumphantly, "Great storms have a roughly fixed start date, and compared to us humans, animals in the wild are more sensitive to this."

He pointed to a cage placed in a corner of the room: "The Fara desert nest-building ants have lived here since ancient times. Although they are ignorant, they can accurately judge the exact day when a big storm is coming."

Inside the cage, there are big ants huddled together, and sticking their tail abdominal pouch to the cage with the ant glue they spit out. This guy is quite nervous at the moment, he is constantly opening and closing the big pliers on his head, and he doesn't even care about the meat he usually likes to eat.

"On the day when the big storm comes, a single nest-building ant in the Farah Desert will stick itself as far as possible to a place it feels safe. Of course, it's not just that, I have other confirmation methods." Next, but his tall apprentice couldn't help himself. Although he didn't know whether there would be a big storm after a while, was his purpose here soon?

Since the church sent him to study, it was to get the exact time given by the old man.

Thinking of this, he hung a token that he had already prepared on the claw of an eagle, trying to make the eagle fly back to the owner who was at the church headquarters at the moment.

But this brave falcon usually buries its head under its wings at this moment, ignoring the action of the middle-aged man to let it fly. Every time it is thrown from the top of the lighthouse, it immediately flies back to the house with flapping wings inside.

The old man on the side didn't take it seriously. He proudly pointed to the falcon that didn't want to fly and said, "Look, even the brave sky warriors don't want to spread their wings and soar at this moment."

The tall middle-aged man gave his master a blank look, and he immediately switched to the second backup plan.

There are pull rods made of high-temperature-resistant metal in the corner of the room. These pull rods can control the magic organs of the lighthouse all over the tower. It's nothing surprising, it's just some lesser magic ore that emits different colors after being crushed.

The magic power content in these secondary magic ores is very low, and when broken, they will only emit a magic glow that ordinary people can see.

At this moment, the tall middle-aged man pulled one of the multiple levers in an orderly manner according to the control method of the observation tower that he had learned before, so that the lighthouse faced the light-emitting window of the tower on the side of the city, emitting a colorful light that can be clearly seen during the daytime. flash.

This was a backup plan that his superior had agreed with him. If the falcon brought to the lighthouse had an accident, he could use this method to tell the church that a big storm was coming.

At that time, the church that has received the news will carry out a religious ceremony in the headquarters to meet the sea god.

Accurately meeting the big storm in the ceremony will greatly boost the piety of the believers.

-

At the same moment, another apprentice of the old man picked up a square iron box brought by him on the ground after calculating the data again. This box is not small, but it is obviously empty inside, or the contents are not heavy.

He carried the box to the suspended platform outside the lighthouse, and opened the box next to the invisible chair of the mages. Inside was a half-jar of thick, grease-like liquid.

Needless to say, after putting the box on the ground, the middle-aged man snapped his fingers at the box, and then a high-temperature light appeared from his hand, floating into the box according to his will.

"That thing." Master Coney raised his head from the various materials spread out on the table, and he sniffed: "It seems to be similar to the ink of a kind of giant squid we eat in the sea?"

The old mage didn't even look at it. He was holding an old man's note and looked at it carefully. The note in his hand was real, but the three people around him couldn't see it. It is a transparent virtual image of notes, but other people in the room don't think that thing is not real.

But at some point, the old mage swapped the phantom with the real thing. The real thing is in his hand, while the fake one is on the table.

The three of them are just ordinary people, but they can't tell at all.

Hearing the student's question, he said, "It's that thing. But I didn't expect this kind of ink to be like this after being ignited. Harlow really likes its smell."

While speaking, after half a box of deep-sea giant squid ink was ignited, a small puff of slender but thick black smoke rose up.

This black smoke rose straight into the sky, rising higher and higher in a direction slightly towards the sea.

The black plume of smoke was clearly discernible against the clear blue sky. At the same time, on several other tall lighthouse observation towers along the coast, after seeing a smoke column rising here, the same smoke column also rose.

Soon, in the city of Taturone, a thumping bell rang out, representing the imminent arrival of a great storm.

The big bell built on the height of the castle where the city's troops are stationed will only ring when a big storm comes. In the past countless years, the bell rang only when the big storm could be seen with the naked eye. Unexpectedly, at this time this year, the bell rang before the big storm came.

Although the people still have doubts, since they were born here, they knew that when they heard the bell, they would go home immediately and wait for the storm to come.

-

On the top floor of the lighthouse, the old man was sitting comfortably on a low metal hollow chair, drinking his favorite tea soup in sips.

The two mages were discussing the old man's solution in a low voice.

"The low tide at the wrong time, and the abnormal backflow of the sea wind that should blow the land. The instinct of various local animals, and the rough magic sensor." Speaking of this, the old mage shook his head.

"I didn't expect this guy to use these rough methods to narrow down the exact time of the big storm step by step. Well, it's amazing." He said with a sigh.

At this time, Master Kony was curiously observing the local big ants in the cage, and at the same time looked closely at the magic sensor that was not sensitive at all.

The magic power in his whole body didn't react at all in front of the magic sensor that the old man called himself the 'most sensitive'.

This made him scratch his head a little.

He looked at the smug old man who was sitting on the side. He didn't know how the other party relied on this kind of trick to detect the big storm that he didn't know when it would come.

As if seeing the doubts of the precious apprentice, the old mage put down the note in his hand with a smile and put it back in its original place. Then he walked to Kony and explained to his apprentice how the other party did it.

-

"Kony, before explaining how he did it, you have to know what causes a big storm. And before you know how a big storm happens, you have to know a piece of knowledge that can be widely applied."

The old mage stood aside, spreading his arms out in a gesture of telling knowledge between magicians.

Seeing this, Master Coney immediately stood up honestly, pretending to listen attentively.

This is not a show, knowledge has its own power and has to be taken seriously.

"In general, in nature, there are a wide range of phenomena that appear on a yearly basis. Behind them all involve the laws of celestial bodies' periodic operation in the universe."

"From Xingyao Sea's Xingyaohai, to the great storm on the Fara Peninsula, from the profound earth-crying in the Echoing Valley of the Empire, to the Sky Kingdom in the Skyrim Mountains, and so on. These huge celestial disasters that recur on approximate dates every year, It is a vast phenomenon produced by various influences on the planet under our feet as it revolves around the sun."

Master Kony was sweating, because from the various examples given by the old master, he knew the pros and cons. In many books, the unknown answers sought by magicians have been clearly and accurately answered by his teacher.

He didn't think his teacher was bragging, because as the one with the longest lifespan among humans and the one with the strongest known strength among humans, he didn't need to speak wildly.

"The gods may be powerful in the mouths of believers, but in fact, let them release the power of a big storm once a year. Hehe, I think at least one of them will fall every year."

The old mage gestured to the sky with his fingers, and Kony pursed his lips, naturally knowing what the teacher meant.

As a young man, he didn't dare to imagine the scene of the gods falling above, but as the teacher said, it was roughly equivalent to the big storm that was about to happen. Thinking of this, he couldn't help breathing heavily.

What a power that is. If I, hey, when can I save my family from my father?

"Speaking of which, after UU Reading www.uukanshu.com knows that big storms are a natural phenomenon brought about by the cycle of planets, we can gain a deeper understanding of how big storms actually appear."

Speaking of this, the old mage asked: "Kony, do you still remember which direction we got here from the Fara Peninsula?"

This question was simple, and Kony immediately answered, "It is from the north. After all, we learn to be in the north, and all the kingdoms of the Northern Kingdom are in the north." He knew that behind this simple question came a more difficult question.

"So how did we get here?"

This is not, "It is to ride on the newly developed magic power propulsion sailing boat."

"Very good. Then, in the deep sea on the northern side of the Fara Peninsula, what's so special about it? And what do you think of the performance of the new magic-powered sailboat?"

Here comes, Coney thought, and he replied, "We encountered a complicated storm. In the storm, I think our new boat is not as useful as an ordinary sailboat."

The old mage nodded: "Yes, it's not that the new ships are not easy to use, but that we were in the depths of the sea at that time, and following the cycle of the planet's movement, the mid-depth sea layer was accumulating huge power. "

He looked at the seemingly calm ocean: "Small changes in the depths of the sea, when it reaches the surface, it will be windy and rough. When it gathers strength and moves towards the northern and eastern part of the Fara Peninsula, the continent that is close to the shallow sea, It soared into the sky and transformed into a shocking sea storm."

The old mage had never seen a big storm with his own eyes, but after his analysis and deduction, he already knew in his mind how earth-shattering the big storm appeared.

For wise people, there is no need to witness with their own eyes, and everything is as if they were present.