Chapter 204: Sea Beasts Attack the City

By this time, Port Leyton was under full martial law. Soldiers on the city walls immediately spotted flying objects approaching from the sky. Upon hearing the soldiers’ reports, the commander of Port Leyton’s guard force rushed to the top of the wall and looked toward the three airships. With his sharp eyes, he could already see signs of human activity on those strange flying objects.

He immediately ordered, “Do not fire arrows yet. Wait until I find out who they are!” As a smart man, he knew that sea beast flying monsters were usually natural enemies—there were hardly any flying creatures, and they wouldn’t come from the land behind. So, it was likely humans from another territory.

Soon, the airships reached above Port Leyton’s city area. The commander below summoned his strength and shouted, “Who are you? This is the Port Leyton Guard Force. The city is under martial law. Identify yourselves, or we will launch an attack!”

On the airship, Donald nodded, and Uther stepped onto the deck and spoke down, “We are an envoy from the North County. Baron Merlina is visiting Port Leyton. Please clear a space for our alchemical airship to land!”

Uther had now reached the Silver Rank, and his voice carried the power of sword energy. Though he didn’t shout loudly, his words were clear enough for the soldiers on the city walls to hear.

The commander of the guard force was also a Silver Rank warrior. Seeing how easily the newcomer’s voice reached him, he was amazed by the latter’s strength. At least he was a Silver Rank warrior—and stronger than himself.

“Baron Merlina?”

The commander found the name familiar but couldn’t recall where he had heard it. Then one of his subordinates whispered something in his ear, and he suddenly remembered. He exclaimed in delight, “Is that Merlina, the lord of Dalaran and the kingdom’s hero, a mage? Hurry! Tell them to clear the guard force’s training ground!”

The latter sentence was an order to his subordinates.

Port Leyton was in a tense situation. Having a powerful mage like Merlina, who had four Silver Rank mages with him, would be enough to send reinforcements to the capital and help overcome this crisis. How could the commander not be overjoyed?

When the three alchemical airships from Dalaran landed on the training ground of Port Leyton’s guard camp, the lord of Port Leyton, the current head of the Leyton family and commander of the guard force, Liant, along with other high-ranking nobles in the city, came to greet them.

“Welcome to Port Leyton, Baron Merlina!”

The Count of Leyton in modern times was a robust man in his thirties, with a handsome face and a pair of sideburns that gave him a very distinguished and mature appearance.
“My Lord Count of Leyton!”
Donald and his party also greeted him according to their status.
Though they were very interested in the flying device that Donald and the others were on, they did not probe further and only asked a few curious questions. Donald simply explained that it was a flying apparatus powered by alchemy.
The nobles present all wished to possess such a fast and comfortable airship. However, after learning the cost from Donald, most of them gave up the idea, greatly admiring the wealth of the mages.
Considering that there were many such devices, the prices couldn’t be too high. Donald set the prices lower than what he had offered to the Thorne family and others, but each airship still cost fifty thousand gold sols—a price that shocked even the ordinary minor nobles.
Only a few were willing to accept or see the advantages of these alchemical airships and had the intention to purchase them, but now was not the right time for discussions.
After a brief exchange of greetings, the people of Leyton Port, led by the Count of Leyton, invited Donald and his party to the city lord’s residence.
Once seated in the hall of the city lord’s residence, the distinguished Count of Leyton asked Donald about their purpose.
“We are here to establish a merchant guild, set up sales outlets in Leyton Port, and transport goods from Dalaran to Leyton Port. We also want to find partners in Leyton Port, which is why we have come to discuss this!”
The people of Leyton Port were delighted upon hearing this. Goods from Dalaran were now extremely popular across Quelthar, and even on the continent, they were in high demand. Several merchant guilds that had taken advantage of this situation had made huge profits in Gardrel, inspiring all factions in Leyton Port to act.
If not for the wrong timing, they would have celebrated with a feast upon hearing this news.
The Count of Leyton then said with a hint of concern, “Lord Baron, we naturally welcome the idea of trading with Leyton Port. But right now, Leyton Port is facing some troubles, so we unfortunately don’t have the time to discuss business matters!”
“Oh? What difficulties does My Lord Count face? If I can help, I certainly won’t stand by idly!”

Upon hearing this, Count Leighton’s face lit up with joy as he said, “With the help of Baron and your subordinates, I feel much more at ease. At least I’m confident we can send reinforcements to the royal capital!”
“Is the situation that serious?”
As Donald asked, everyone in Port Leighton’s camp grew solemn.
“Baron, this sea beast threat is quite severe. If the royal capital doesn’t send reinforcements in time, Port Leighton might even be at risk of being captured!”
“It’s indeed a sea beast attack—that kid Freyge was right!” Donald thought to himself.
The sea beast attack was only discovered the day before, so the news hadn’t yet reached the Northern Counties. However, the royal capital was already aware of the situation and was preparing to send troops.
According to Count Leighton, the origin of the problem lay on an island outside Port Leighton.
That archipelago was located about a hundred miles northeast of Port Leighton, covering a vast area in a highly strategic location—at one end of the U-shaped Fallstar Bay. It had always been occupied by those ferocious fishmen; otherwise, it would have been an excellent island territory.
The fishmen who occupied it were called Fangtooth Fishmen, numbering around five thousand. They were a relatively powerful branch of the fishman race. Though not very intelligent, they were far stronger and taller than ordinary fishmen. Adult Fangtooth Fishmen had combat capabilities comparable to those of high-level Black Iron warriors, with quite a number also possessing Bronze-level strength. That’s why Port Leighton’s army had never managed to eradicate them.
If it were just that, these Fangtooth Fishmen would have long been wiped out by human warriors. Although the Fangtooth tribe’s fishmen were strong, that strength was only against ordinary armies. For warriors of the Silver rank, as long as three or five of them joined forces, they could destroy the entire Fangtooth Fishman tribe.
But perhaps decades ago, when the Fangtooth Fishmen tribe first migrated to the fishman islands, they weren’t as powerful as they are now. Yet somehow, they acquired a powerful Golden Sacred Beast to protect them.
Among marine magical beasts, those above the Golden Sacred Beast level are called Ocean Lords, as they are entitled to occupy large areas of the sea. Their domains serve as hunting grounds, and all creatures beneath them are their prey.
This Ocean Lord was the ruler of the shallow waters around Fallstar Bay, where Port Leighton lay. Powerful Ocean Lords usually lived in the deep sea, with only the lowest-tier Golden Sea Beasts choosing to reside in coastal areas.

Under the protection of that Ocean Lord, these merfolk essentially ruled their own island chain, claiming ownership of the seas within dozens of miles around it. Any human ships that approached would be attacked by the merfolk from beneath the water, resulting in the destruction of the ships and the deaths of their crew. However, these ferocious merfolk probably understood the principle that excess is as bad as deficiency, so they never left their territory to approach the coast, staying only in the waters around their islands and in deeper seas. Thus, Port Leyton and the Merfolk Island chain coexisted peacefully for decades, until recently when people from a merchant ship from Gardrel hunted down a silver-tier sea beast near Port Leyton, drawing serious trouble upon them. Three days later, a powerful merfolk who understood human language led an army to Port Leyton, declaring that humans had killed the child of the Ocean Lord and demanding that they hand over all the culprits within three days, otherwise they would scour Port Leyton clean, using human blood as a sacrifice. This shocked the entire leadership of Port Leyton. The people from the Gardrel merchant ship had complex backgrounds; some even came from Tholos, and they left Port Leyton that very day. How could they hand over the culprits? After all, the opponent was an Ocean Lord of the golden-tier, whose strength in the sea far surpassed that of golden-tier beasts on land. The strongest people in Port Leyton were only silver-tier warriors, whose strength was usually sufficient, but against a golden-tier opponent, they had to seek help from the royal family! Moreover, Ocean Lords could naturally command sea beasts, and just in the shallow waters around Bay of Falling Stars, there could be hundreds of thousands of sea beasts living there. If the enemy summoned a large number of sea beasts to attack the city, and if they couldn’t defeat the Ocean Lord in time, not even a single golden-tier warrior could deal with such a multitude of sea beasts. Port Leyton would surely suffer an unprecedented disaster. Understanding these circumstances, Donald wasn’t overly worried. Smiling, he said, “If it’s just sea beasts attacking the city, my lord, you don’t need to worry too much. I’m confident I can hold off until reinforcements arrive from the capital!” The Earl of Leyton exclaimed in delight, “Really?” Then he slapped the table and laughed, “I forgot about your profession, Baron! Thank you for your help. Whatever supplies you need, as long as Port Leyton has them, I will provide them for you!” The summoner was a renowned expert in group battles, and this one was the strongest summoner in the kingdom. Surely, he could summon many creatures to help fight against the army of sea beasts.

Donald smiled gently and said, “Just a few magic cores will do. Lord Count, there’s no need to worry too much. Whenever aliens invade human territories, the royal families of various nations will not stand by idly; they will surely send strong warriors to stop them. As long as we can withstand the first wave of sea beasts!” Count Leighton’s confidence soared instantly, and he took Donald’s hand, expressing his gratitude repeatedly.

As the current head of the Leighton family, he wasn’t particularly talented and lacked the innate ability to become a powerful professional. However, he was very skilled in business and city management, though he tended to be too cautious rather than proactive.

If nothing went wrong, the family’s long-standing foundation should be enough to sustain their territory and even help it grow, before it could be passed on to the next generation.

But the sudden emergence of these Ocean Lords and the powerful threat of sea beasts attacking their cities left him extremely anxious and at a loss for solutions.

The mages and swordsmen in the family were all silver-ranked, with the strongest swordsman being only at the peak of silver rank. They had virtually no chance against gold-ranked sea beasts, unless the enemies were foolish enough to fight on land, in which case they might have a slight advantage.

Now, with Baron Merlinna, the legendary powerful mage, arriving along with at least one silver-ranked warrior, he felt he had found a key figure. He hoped this powerful summoner could prove useful, so as to prevent the centuries-old legacy of the Leighton family from being ruined by his own hands.