Volume 8: A Gathering of Powers

Chapter 1: A Visitor Approaching

Although the letter from Cyprus was written in a formal tone, Kommer was still troubled by its contents. Prince Hoffman, Princess Lenta, and Tracy were coming to the Caucasus—soon?! What did this mean? Did they not realize that the chaos in the Leon region had affected the entire Homer region? The road from Fortress Bruce was closed; if they wanted to come, they could only take the sea route, landing in Matdan and then traveling overland to Ugru. But by sailing from Cyprus to Matdan in such a conspicuous manner, were they unafraid of being kidnapped by the pirates of the Abyssal Sea, or did they think they had already reached an agreement with them?

Yet none of these were Kommer’s main concerns. Everything stemmed from one person’s arrival: Tracy! Thinking of her, Kommer, who thought he had achieved emotional calm, found his heart trembling nonetheless. The joy and happiness, as well as the pain and suffering, she brought him were like fire and ice, tormenting his seemingly strong heart. Though Kommer was certain he no longer harbored any illusions about her, the thought of facing her again filled him with agony, especially knowing she was accompanied by her fiancé, Prince Hoffman.

Holding the heavy letter in his hands, Kommer struggled to make a decision. Unfortunately, it was not a request for his opinion but merely a notification. For a prince, princess, and countess to visit the territory of a lowly noble seemed like the greatest honor—though Kommer saw such honor as an insult. Yet that did not change his decision. At least for now, he had to endure many things he disliked. The support of the kingdom was still essential to him, especially given the increasingly turbulent situation.

Sitting at the desk by the window, Kommer carefully folded the letter and placed it on the desk. By now, his mood had gradually returned to normal. Though the feelings of first love are unforgettable, after experiencing more thrilling events, those emotions gradually fade into obscurity. Of course, under certain circumstances, reopening that wound can still cause deep pain.

By now, he had gradually shifted his attention to why Prince Hoffman and his entourage had chosen this moment to visit the Caucasus. It was a well-known fact that the relations between the central kingdom and Grand Duke Philip of the Homer region were strained. Hoffman was naturally aware that he and Philip were on opposing sides; while this could earn him full support from the Homer region, the consequences would be significant. The kingdom’s nobles would not allow such a situation to go unaddressed, especially since the marriage arrangement meant that a woman from Philip’s family might become the new ruler of the Romanov dynasty—a prospect they could not accept. This would surely lead the nobles to firmly oppose the marriage. If it were not possible to ruin the marriage, they might instead support another heir to the throne. As for Princess Lenta, she seemed to appear whenever her brother Hoffman did. But according to the information Kommer had obtained, Princess Lenta and Hoffman were not born of the same mother. The reason behind such a close relationship between these two heirs to the throne remained a mystery.

If it had only been Hoffman and Lenta visiting, Kommer might have been able to figure something out, but Tracy’s presence was suspicious. Could there be something odd going on? At this thought, Kommer couldn’t help but sigh. He had originally planned to wait quietly for a few months until things settled in the Caucasus before taking action, but it seemed that peace was impossible now. The situation in the Leon region was deteriorating rapidly, and the private armies of the noble miners were losing control of the situation. Perhaps it was time for Philip’s army to step in. So what did Tracy’s arrival mean this time?

And then there was Vero, who also seemed to know something about the relationship between her and Tracy. She kept probing deeply, trying to uncover something. Even Ilot and Pupber were frightened by her persistence, fearing they might accidentally reveal something. Yet her angelic appearance made it hard to refuse her, making their ordeal truly unbearable.

Rebri and the other two patiently waited as their friend measured and drew diagrams against the wall. The person doing the measuring looked more like a thin, mentally ill individual, with messy, disheveled hair and a somewhat grayish face that seemed perpetually tired. He wore a tattered but still clean mage robe that had undoubtedly weathered many storms. Only the wide sleeves remained intact, perhaps to hide something—these sleeves provided some protection for the mage.

The drawing board in the hands of the thin mage was already covered with various lines and texts, but he seemed still unsatisfied. He continued to carefully measure something using the strange set square in his hand. This process had been repeated several times—almost every other day, the mage skilled in mechanical arts would come here to observe for half a day, then return to his room to spend two days calculating. After much effort, he would arrive at a result, only for some issue to arise upon another attempt, forcing him to redraw and recalculate. This cycle of repeated actions was not strange in the eyes of Rebrí and his companions; they were accustomed to their friend’s cautious behavior. Fortunately, they had plenty of time and no need to worry. Living in this castle, they received all their necessities from the lord’s household, leading a leisurely life. Rebrí even felt that he and his companions resembled court mages.

It was a stone wall that appeared utterly ordinary at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, one could notice a slight difference in its structure. Unlike the walls of other buildings, which were built with large stones, this wall was constructed from multiple small stone slabs. The gaps between the slabs were quite tight, with almost no visible seams. But if one had a preconceived idea and examined each section carefully, they could detect that a few of these gaps differed from the rest. By tracing these gaps carefully, one could feel a winding curve extending downward along the direction of the stones, all the way to the base of the wall. Yet the base showed no signs of anything unusual—no reaction whatsoever, whether stepped on or pounded. Clearly, the secret lay within the stone wall itself.

The somewhat smooth curve between the stone slabs seemed like a hint, but what exactly did it signify? The thin mage racked his brains in vain, pacing back and forth in front of the wall. Through calculations, he could determine that among the countless stone slabs in the wall, there must be one or two that were peculiar, but he couldn’t identify which ones. He knew this secret was related to this curve, but no matter what method he used to predict it, it never worked. Where exactly was the problem?

Subconsciously, he wiped his feet on the ground, where some strange words seemed to appear. Rubbing his eyes, the thin mage let out an “ah” and immediately fell to his knees, carefully examining this sudden miracle on the floor. In fact, it was no miracle at all—due to the humid weather, the floor paved with red sandstone had become slightly damp and moldy. A type of moss unique to the Caucasus had almost completely covered the floor, making it soft yet firm underfoot, so no one had noticed anything amiss.

This sudden discovery immediately piqued everyone’s interest. The idea of peeling back the moss to see what lay beneath took root in their minds, and soon the task of removing the moss was completed. The entire floor became clean and smooth, revealing all its secrets.

Beneath the moss were rows of blurred words and symbols, which seemed to be the key to unlocking the restrictions on the stone wall. However, the thin mage quickly shifted from excitement to disappointment. Although the symbols could be made out upon closer inspection, after glancing at them a few times, he realized they were merely an introduction to Fort Damansky, filled with fantastical elements. The introduction described the life of the fort’s founder and detailed its construction process. While this information helped everyone understand the history of the castle, it seemed utterly worthless to those eager to break the magical restrictions.

As Rebrí and the others stood up, disappointed, the thin mage was not so easily discouraged. In his view, the presence of this introduction here was already suspicious. A stone tablet in a square as a monument seemed more appropriate, but being engraved on the floor of this room was rather puzzling.

The light grew dimmer; the stone chamber, unable to receive direct sunlight, appeared gloomy. The colonnade outside seemed much brighter, while behind them was the outer fortress wall, where a tall defensive tower happened to block the light from entering the windows.

When Rebrí and his group finally lost patience and left, only the thin mage remained in the room, kneeling on the ground as he searched for clues and raged over the mystery.

Row after row, column after column; each character seemed so simple. The entire inscription wasn’t complicated. Though it covered the entire floor of the room, the large font made the symbols appear somewhat sparse. As his fingertips slid down letter by letter, the thin mage suddenly noticed a strange phenomenon: seemingly every so often, one letter appeared larger than the others. Of course, this “larger” was only relative—under normal reading conditions, it would be hard to detect such a difference. This discovery brought a look of ecstasy to the mage’s face, which resembled dried orange peel. He quickly located these distinctive letters in order, arranged them, and formed a few words: “Left three, top five.” What did these simple words mean?

Yet for someone skilled in mechanisms, their meaning was unmistakable. It was an ancient method of indication, usually referring to a specific location within objects arranged in rows and columns. The mage got up swiftly, his movements more agile than ever. Based on the meaning of the words, he quickly found the stone slab. Creating a simple light spell, he illuminated the entire room even more brightly. He examined the slab carefully—it seemed no different from the others around it, but its color appeared slightly duller, and its surface was smoother. However, this dullness wasn’t due to a different material but rather long-term use and handling. The smoothness likely stemmed from the same reason.

Suppressing his joy, the mage was almost certain this was the switch for the stone wall’s restrictions. Activating it would prevent the activation of various harmful curses caused by forceful destruction. Of course, this method couldn’t prevent all necessary attacks, but overall, it made things much easier. The mage believed he could successfully predict the approximate locations of various magical and physical attacks based on his calculations.

Rebri and his gang’s free-riding here surely didn’t align with someone’s wishes. In Puber’s view, developing Fort Damorensk was originally a mutually beneficial endeavor. If the fort had no appeal, even Komer wouldn’t be able to bring these guys here. Since it was beneficial for both sides, everything should be equal. So, with these freeloaders staying here for a month and having high demands on living conditions, they should do something in return. Needless to say, the two Dark Knights’ trained half-orc warriors were highly praised by even Fran and Baoling. The 500 half-orcs of Komer’s guard would take turns being trained by these two Dark Knights—a daunting task. As for those magicians, they seemed to have little practical value. Before they were formally hired by Komer to become part of the Caucasus Mage Corps, Puber could only reluctantly ask each mage to create three magic scrolls to cover their expenses.

Fortunately, creating magic scrolls wasn’t too difficult. Although the magicians were somewhat dissatisfied, thinking about how long they might still have to stay here, they reluctantly accepted the request. Earlier on, Puber had already established sales channels through Hes of the Adventurers’ Guild. For adventurers, magic scrolls were indispensable talismans for their exploration adventures. Depending on demand and quality, these magic scrolls could fetch good prices in the hands of adventurers.