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Chapter 215 Lightning and Thunder
Chapter 215 Lightning and Thunder
Sophia swallowed hard. She had initially thought that Kane was just a drow who could transform into a human.
After all, some Drow families do not lack corresponding secret techniques.
However, the group of mages in front of them was undoubtedly real, especially the staff in the hand of the female mage in charge, and the two corpse servants behind her.
Upon hearing Kane's invitation again, she immediately bowed and turned back, saying, "Everyone, stand up."
Upon hearing this, many wounded mercenaries stood up, their expressions varying—some excited, some nervous.
The dean of the Susas Mage Academy was a very important figure they had never been able to contact before.
As a result, after the power they relied on for survival was destroyed, a powerful figure actually came to recruit them.
Sophia bowed her head, and all the other mercenaries followed suit.
Kane watched this scene and nodded slightly.
As expected, it is easier to act with the backing of a powerful force. At the beginning, he only used his empty claim of being the heir of the Drow family to wrangle with the other party, and the only thing he could achieve was a superficial transaction of gaining friendship.
Now, with the Academy as their support, they can directly subdue Sophia, the leader of a Dark Brotherhood outpost.
However, he also knew the reason: although the Mage Academy was still considered a professional organization, it also had various interests linked with Susas.
Not to mention that spellcasters require a lot of gold coins to train, many nobles and merchants send their children to academies for further study, even if it's just for a gilded degree.
Over time, even without the academy doing much, it became an absolute behemoth in terms of wealth and prestige, far surpassing the power of many other forces.
The only ones who can stand against them are the royal family of Susas and the noble council where the royal court is located.
The duke, if he hadn't relied on the Sacred Mark Ritual to continue his power, would not have been able to contend with the academy in terms of high-level power.
"Miss Sophia, aren't you worried that I'll send you on some dangerous missions?" Kane asked casually.
Sophia shook her head and said, "We have no choice but to accept an invitation from an academy dean. We will carry out your wishes to the end."
Kane smiled slightly; after all, he had been in charge before, and he cleverly used a retreat as a means of advancement.
He said, "Don't worry, all I need right now is for you to infiltrate that duke's territory one after another to find out how many troops he has and whether he has imported magic-powered turrets."
Of course, you can abandon the mission at any time if there is danger.
Sophia initially looked troubled, but after hearing the second half of the sentence, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Your subordinate understands."
"Okay, you guys take a rest first. Also, write down all the recent information about Twin Harbors on a piece of paper and bring it over later."
"Yes, I understand."
Kane nodded, turned and left, followed by the group of red-robed mages.
Sofia finally breathed a sigh of relief after he left, but her complexion wasn't much better than before.
A burly man asked in confusion, "Sister, what's wrong?"
Sophia shook her head and said, "Although the crisis at Twin Harbors is not so serious right now, we are caught in a conflict between the Mage Academy and that Duke, and the future is still uncertain."
"So what?" the burly man said nonchalantly. "We were almost wiped out in the first place, we're lucky to be alive."
Sofia nodded, then looked at the burly man with a cheerful expression and said, "In that case, you should explain why you disobeyed orders and openly went to buy bandages, right?"
Upon hearing this and seeing the unfriendly expressions on everyone's faces, the burly man immediately looked embarrassed.
"Dean Kane, I don't think we need to recruit them." After leaving the passage, Logan Susas said to Kane—
He expressed his opinion.
Kane smiled and asked, "And the reason?"
Logan Susas said, "They are all injured, and even if they recover, their combat strength will be greatly reduced."
Moreover, if we are willing to recruit openly, given the reputation of Susas Academy, we can certainly attract even more powerful professionals.
Even second-tier wanderers and knights-errant can be recruited from the six kingdoms as long as they are willing to pay some gold coins.
Kane smiled and said, "But can you tell how many of them are spies and agents sent by various factions?"
Logan Susas's usually cold expression flickered slightly, but he still said, "Then we can use spells like Truth Words or Styx Oath to eliminate it."
Kane shook his head and said, "People change. Like former Headmistress Bella, she must have passed the test of Mantra when she became Headmistress of the Illusion Division, but in the end, she still changed her original intention for greater power. Moreover, there are some special enchanted equipment that can circumvent the effects of Mantra."
"As for the Styx Oath, many people probably don't care about the fate of their souls after death. Even if they are tortured, they will probably try to gain real benefits in life."
So you think recruiting them is a bad deal for me, but what I need right now isn't their fighting ability, but their loyalty.
After hearing Kane's explanation, Logan Susas was speechless.
Kane looked at Logan Susas and said, "Mage Logan, thank you for your support. Tell me how you got here."
Logan Susas nodded and said, "We entered Twin Harbor through a merchant ship from the Cooperative Chamber of Commerce. When the guards checked us, we used illusion magic to conceal our presence, since there were only a dozen or so of us."
There were more than ten people, mostly at the second tier, and the rest were equipped with enchanted gear.
Kane looked at Logan Susas and sighed inwardly: the mages Hammond was supporting were all elites from various academies.
He saw many familiar faces, but this also increased the pressure on him. If he suffered any damage while facing a powerful enemy, it would likely cause him considerable trouble.
He looked at Logan and asked, "Where's the clue I asked for?"
Logan nodded and beckoned to the back. A red-robed male mage took a stack of papers, handed them to Kane, and said, "The recent changes in the legion's garrison, the trends of the Twin Ports Noble Council, and the rumors gathered by the Merchant Guild—all sorts of clues are here."
I believe this information is more useful to your conquest than it could be to the mercenaries you recruit.
Is this a sign of being unconvinced?
Looking at Logan's aloof face, Kane was slightly speechless, but quickly said, "Thank you."
"No need to thank me. After all, you are in charge of this mission. I'm just assisting your assistant."
Kane nodded, took all the documents, and began to examine them carefully.
It is indeed very detailed, marking out all possible locations, even specifying the attack on Master Zeno, the subsequent contact methods, and the location where he went missing.
"So, he actively cut off contact after being attacked, rather than being passively attacked?"
"Yes," Logan Susas said with a grim expression. "This means he believes there might be a traitor within our academy."
Kane shook his head and said, "Don't overthink it. It's a miracle he's alive. What we need to do now is find him and prove the academy's innocence. But before that, let me perform an arcane divination."
He placed the documents on the table, took out the dice, and asked, "Is Master Zeno still in Twin Harbor?" The dice rolled 454, confirming his selection.
"Will he face a crisis within a week?" The divination result was 121, indicating a successful and negative reading.
"But will he face a crisis after more than a week?" Points: 351, divination failed.
Kane nodded, not surprised: "It seems that we don't need to worry too much about that Zeno mage for now, but to be on the safe side, we should find him and take him away in about a week."
After explaining to Logan, he continued to roll the dice, analyzing where the other person might be, but without exception, all his divinations failed.
Logan Susas frowned slightly, while Kane looked thoughtful.
He explained, "Since the other party is facing pursuit, they are likely constantly changing their location randomly. Therefore, predicting their location based on the available information is likely to be inaccurate."
Although Twin Harbors are currently in a state of recession, shipping remains convenient, and the other party may very well use ships to move 37
.
Logan Susas frowned and said, "Then how should we solve this? The other party obviously doesn't trust us now, and at the same time, he is a third-tier illusion mage, making it difficult to find his whereabouts."
Kane nodded and said, "In that case, let's take the initiative. The local legions have been completely corrupted, and there are clearly many enemies lurking within the Duke's merchant guild. You lead the mage squad to attack the legion's base, while I'll provoke the Duke's merchant guild."
If we make a big enough commotion, the other party will come looking for us. However, we must always be careful.
Logan looked at Kane and said, "I understand. Don't worry, I will bring everyone I brought back safely."
Kane patted her on the shoulder and walked out first.
At the Twin Port Legion's garrison, Frankie, the commander who should have been transferred to the Nord border due to the devastation caused by rumors in Twin Port, looked at the eight second-tier captains below him with a furrowed brow.
Not only that, but one of the team leaders who was originally here has also disappeared.
"With so many of you, couldn't you find the location of that damned, wounded mage? And another team died on their way to hunt down those remnants of the Dark Brotherhood!"
Hearing their superior's reprimand, the eight second-tier captains all looked very grim.
Many people looked at this official who was supposedly connected to them and secretly grumbled in their hearts.
Many of them knew that the officer had personally handled a minor whistleblower incident, which resulted not only in the loss of a squad of soldiers but also in the deaths of two second-tier professionals sent by the duke.
But just then, with a "bang," the door to the council hall was pushed open, and a soldier rushed in, saying, "Sir, there's a group of people wearing robes and hoods not far from the corps' base!"
"What? Send men to bring them back!" Frankie shouted.
The soldier lowered his head and said, "I don't know why, but we've already used crossbows, but they were either blown away by the wind or only hit illusions. According to our garrison mage, they are all spellcasters, and—"
"And what?" Frankie pressed.
The soldier swallowed hard and said, "They were using second-tier spells."
"Second tier?" The captains exchanged glances, with Frankie's expression filled with surprise and uncertainty.
Susas has a spellcaster training organization like the Mage Academy, and the number of mages is indeed quite large, but even so, among all professions, mages are still the smallest group.
The power displayed by a team of mages capable of casting second-tier spells is far more than just 1+1.
"Oh no!" a captain suddenly exclaimed, his expression changing drastically.
"If they gather together, they might unleash a coordinated attack using several second-tier spells, the power of which would rival a large-scale third-tier war spell! We must defend ourselves as soon as possible!"
Frankie and the others rushed out of the council hall in a panic, heading towards the group of spellcasters that the soldiers had reported.
At this moment, Logan Susas stood in the middle of the group and began to direct everyone to chant incantations. Many second-tier mages from different divisions began to cast spells.
"Updraft!" "Heavy Rain!" "Thunderstorm Clouds!" "Cloud and Mist Spell!" ————
As the crowd chanted, the airflow in Twin Harbors began to accelerate rapidly, and a hurricane carrying rising mist spiraled upwards.
In the sky, a huge cloud slowly took shape, with lightning flashing continuously within it.
Kane, standing atop a red rooftop some distance away, sensed the fluctuations in the ether and, upon seeing this scene, revealed a knowing expression: "Just as I thought. Even I, using the panel, can research complex spells that combine several spells. How could the native mages possibly only foolishly use basic magic network spells?"
"With the combination of several water, wind, and lightning spells, its power is slightly greater than the third-tier war spell that Malcolm hastily used."
Although it takes longer to prepare, having several mages use illusions to conceal the group can buy enough time.
Immediately after the spell ended, everyone concealed themselves and evacuated.
"However, it'll be almost done."
In his line of sight, just as the thunderstorm cloud was fully formed, the elite soldiers of the legion, far inferior to the Nord soldiers, finally reacted under the leadership of their respective captains and charged out in formation—but it was too late.
As Logan waved his staff, several mages chanted in unison, and the storm clouds slowly moved above the legion's encampment.
A huge white light flashed across the sky in an instant, and the entire Twin Harbor heard a cracking sound.
Immediately afterwards, several bolts of lightning, accompanied by raindrops, struck the ground, directly hitting the soldiers of the corps. Dozens of them were killed on the spot, but more lightning was attracted to the taller buildings.
Flames rose above the corps' buildings, and many buildings in the vast corps' encampment were destroyed or set ablaze by the lightning.
In the arena, Frankie, covered in dust and grime, stared at the horrific scene of death and injury, his mind filled with absurdity.
Hundreds of apprentice-level conscripts were killed instantly, and dozens of professional soldiers led by captains also suffered casualties. Although only two captains died, the rest were in a sorry state.
The morale of the entire corps plummeted to an unprecedented low.
"Damn it, where are those mages?"
"They've already retreated using illusions," a captain replied, his face grim.
"They came prepared, attacking only once before retreating. Damn, so many second-tier mages, could it be—no, if they come again..."
The thought of a certain possibility made everyone's faces turn grim.
Frankie gritted his teeth and said, "Let's ask the Duke for help! Their merchant guild in Twin Harbor has enough Tier 2 professionals to help us get revenge!"
But what he didn't know was that within the Duke's merchant guild...
A person walked in alone, his shadow behind him coalescing into the shape of a scimitar, while in front of him were dozens of clumps of solidified wax.