Chapter 126: A Serendipitous Encounter

After an aerial attack, Donald brought out the goblin airship once again. Once everyone boarded, they began flying at low altitude, with him ordering two cave demons to escort them from the ground.

Cave demons, a type of spider-like creature, live in underground caves year-round and are adept at burrowing. Thus, they also have certain advantages in swampy environments. As long as it’s not overly soft mud, they can use the strength in their abdomens and their eight legs to move swiftly without getting stuck.

Standing on the airship deck, Donald took out the mysterious map he had translated. One of the books copied from the Mage Association’s library was a translation guide for this ancient magical script.

Previously, while flying over the six southern towns, he had already compared the terrain around the swamp to locate the general area of the Ark. After all, thousands of years have passed, and the terrain in ordinary places has changed significantly. Places like the Twin-Feather Dragon Swamp have undergone tremendous transformations.

Although the swamp’s landscape is constantly changing and slowly shifting, the surrounding mountains and landforms still retain some relatively stable features as references. By simply comparing mountain ranges and star positions, Donald was able to determine a general direction. Moving in this direction was far better than wandering blindly through the dangerous swamp.

After entering the swamp, Donald would check the map periodically to confirm their location, to avoid getting lost unintentionally. In this vast swamp filled with mudflats, such incidents were quite common!

He also kept four owls scouting in all four directions—front, back, left, and right—to detect potential dangers ahead of time.

However, since owls’ vision is limited to the air and surface, they couldn’t detect dangers lurking beneath the swamp mud or water.

As a result, they encountered several attacks along the way. The strength of those swamp creatures wasn’t much compared to advanced magical beasts; people only fell victim when caught off guard, as no one could be constantly on guard around them.

But cave demons had a different sensory system from humans, making them more sensitive to underground conditions. Thus, they could often anticipate ambushes in advance, turning surprise attacks into open confrontations and greatly reducing the danger. Donald then used his old method again—adding a dozen ice sculptures to his storage space.

Thus, after two days of traveling through the vast, seemingly boundless swamps, Donald estimated through observation that they were now only about one-third of the way to their destination.
“Great! These dull days are finally coming to an end!”
Ferdinand was the first to exclaim in joy. Traveling day and night through the gray, swampy landscape while remaining constantly on edge, the three silver swordsmen who were no longer young and the two silver mages managed to stay calm—either meditating or conducting small experiments on the airship. As for Kelthas, needless to say, he was constantly working to strengthen himself in hopes of being more helpful to his master. But for the two younger men, Ferdinand and Donald, it was quite unbearable.
Donald found it amusing. Although Ferdinand appeared serious in the army, he was actually quite cheerful and a bit slick. He resembled his father in being someone whose true nature differed greatly from his outward appearance. In modern terms, he was a “quietly passionate” person!
Of course, he kept such thoughts to himself and wouldn’t say them to Ferdinand.
In contrast, Donald wasn’t as bored. Aside from occasionally observing the surroundings through the owl’s perspective and studying the ancient map, he spent most of his time learning the spellbooks given to him by his teacher.
Of the four-level spells available at the Bronze Initiation stage, Donald had mastered only seven so far. Thanks to his exceptional strength, he could cast spells beyond his level relatively easily, and he had also begun to master two five-level spells.
Among the five-level spells, the two he knew were support spells: “Turn Stone to Mud” and “Turn Mud to Stone,” which could be used interchangeably, thus counting as one spell. The other was an ancient spell called “Spell Stabilization,” which allowed a mage to permanently fix a spell no higher than their own casting level on an object or creature. However, the cost was a permanent loss of some mental energy. Although this energy could gradually recover after casting, it would still lower the mage’s level until recovery. The more powerful the spell stabilized, the greater the cost, sometimes even resulting in permanent damage.
These two were currently Donald’s highest-level spells, but they were practically useless in battle. So he still relied mainly on the innate spells granted by the Book of Truth and summoned creatures for combat.

The goblin airship was moving at a low speed when suddenly Donald’s expression changed, and he cut off the visual connection with the owl ahead. At the same time, the two silver mages, Messele and Edwina, also sensed that something was wrong and turned to look at Donald.
“I think they’re in trouble!” Donald said gravely. Ferdinand immediately asked, “What kind of trouble? Have they encountered powerful magical beasts?”
“It’s worse than that. Right ahead of us, a human adventuring party is under attack by swamp magical beasts! It seems the battle won’t end anytime soon, but the enemy probably has silver-level strong fighters as well, so they should be able to defend themselves!”
“Then what are we waiting for? We should decide whether to go around or go help them!” Ferdinand said impatiently.
Edwina asked Donald, “Are you worried that our intentions will be discovered by them?”
“That’s right!” Donald nodded.
Messele then said, “Anyway, as humans, we shouldn’t stand by and do nothing. Besides, according to Donald’s observations, our strength exceeds theirs. It’s also a good opportunity to see what they’re up to! Otherwise, even if we go around them, how will we know if their direction is the same as ours?” Messele’s reasoning was thorough, and after he spoke, the other seven agreed.
So Donald immediately ordered the airship to fly at full speed toward the battlefield ahead.
This was a rare patch of solid ground in the swamp, covered with lush shrubs and vegetation. In the past life, it would have been a proper nature reserve. But now, it had been heavily damaged by the intense fighting between the two sides. What used to be an oasis-like island in the grayish-black swamp was now in ruins.
The ones attacking the human adventurers were large lizard-like creatures with dark green skin. Each one was at least two people tall, with a terrifying appearance. Just looking at their sharp fangs made it clear these creatures weren’t harmless.
As for the adventurers, there were two mages, two swordsmen at the peak of bronze rank, and one silver-level strong fighter. It was quite rare to see a warrior using bows and arrows. Although Donald had never seen one before, he had heard of them; their proper title should be archers. As for the two mages, one was old and the other young, one male and one female. Donald quickly recognized them as the Gardrel nobles who had interacted with him at the royal capital’s auction hall a few months ago.

The remaining person was dressed differently from the five of them, wearing dirty leather armor, unkempt, and holding a large axe—clearly not of the same ilk as the others. Donald had seen this person before; wasn’t it Sorg, the most famous bounty hunter in the kingdom, who was also at the auction hall at that time?

As for how they ended up together, Donald didn’t care. He had a fairly good impression of these people back then, so he certainly couldn’t just stand by.

Ferdinand’s vision, enhanced by his heroic talents, was almost as good as Donald’s, and he had already seen the appearance of those people, naturally recalling their identities. He was now briefly introducing them to his group.

After hearing about their backgrounds, Edwina’s expression improved significantly, and she said, “People from Gadré—this makes things much easier!”

In other words, even if they knew about the ruins, they probably wouldn’t spread the news around Celt. As for Gadré’s reaction later on, it wouldn’t cause much upheaval in Celt due to the great distance.

By then, they had already cleared everything from the ruins. With the status and power of the Ansel family in Celt, aside from the royal family of Celt, which was also a descendant of the Banai Empire, there were hardly any forces they had to worry about. Even a giant like the Mage Association wouldn’t intimidate them, because in terms of the kingdom’s interests, the Ansel and Celt families stood together. As allies for thousands of years, any factor threatening the stability of the kingdom of Celt would face a thorough purge by these two ancient families.

Though the Mage Association had five Golden Mages, their power paled in comparison to the forces hidden behind the two ancient families. Donald could infer this from the powerful will he sensed during the auction.

Such ancient families had managed to survive to this day because they had their own principles and foundations. They understood that cooperation brought mutual benefit, while conflict harmed everyone.

This was also the main reason Donald chose to cooperate with the Ansel family and build a good relationship with the royal family through the old fox Anguana.

“Friends from Gadré, do you need our help?” Donald called out from over a thousand steps away from the oasis island.

In fact, the people on the island had already noticed their arrival. After all, a airship capable of carrying ten passengers was quite large—its length alone was nearly thirty feet, not to mention the floating air sacs on top.

The airship slowly approached the island. At that moment, the young female mage, who was being protected by several men, suddenly pointed at Donald on the airship’s deck and shouted, “Aren’t you the baron from the auction?”
“That’s right!”
Donald replied with a smile. He then unleashed three Frost Nova spells in succession, freezing the dozen or so giant lizards that were climbing onto the island to attack.
He then ordered two dungeon demons to drive away the remaining lizards. After those three powerful spells, along with the attacks from the young female mage and her companions, several of these lizards, which were originally only at the third or fourth level, lost nearly half of their numbers. As a result, all the lizards retreated, and in no time, they all disappeared into the mud.
All that remained was a dozen frozen lizard statues and seven or eight corpses.