Chapter 116 – 115 – We should still be here if we run away from the soft

Chapter 116 115. words we now fine soft run words should still be too late, right? 5560]

Upon hearing Palano praising Murphy’s talent in a fleshy tone and pompous language, the praised Murphy’s cheeks burned, and both his and Tris’ expressions turned rather odd.

Tris was hesitant to tell the truth to Parano.

That Murphy had spent the majority of the year fiddling around and taking care of her, a vampire invalid who had trouble taking care of herself, and that he’d only really gotten stronger in the last twenty days or so.
Hiss!
When you think about it like this, little Murphy’s talent is really terrifying as hell!

Perhaps guessing what Tris was thinking, the expressionless Murphy’s hand on her shoulder gave a firm squeeze, causing Tris to immediately return to her senses.

Okay.

This can’t be talked about.

Especially about Murphy and his otherworldly warriors, that can’t be mentioned.

It seemed that the psychic dog tags that Tris had made for the younger players were still useful, and at least Paranor, who had taken the physical profession route, hadn’t been able to pick up on the fact that the players were otherworldly summoners.

“As Tris said, I’m an unabashed ‘semi-literate’ among the vampire pack.”

Murphy pretended to sigh helplessly and looked at Parano again, saying:

“How about you explain the Black Plague for me. I only know that it’s a coalition of monsters that have risen up since the Dark Mountain Range, and that they clustered and impacted various parts of the continent every hundred years’ time, but the exact cause of it is completely unknown to me.”

“Well, that generalization of yours is actually accurate enough.”

The First Lord smiled and casually took out an iterative map from his own bag.

The most outrageous thing was that this thing actually had that strong rose scent on it as well, making Murphy’s eyes twitch as he watched.

Hey, big brother, I know your persona is a flirt, but there’s really no need for your personal style to be so strong, I mean, you’re really a bit too extreme ow.

“Swish.”

With Paranor’s psychic energy support, the map unfolded in front of Murphy’s eyes.

This thing was very huge, and at first glance, it was a military grade map, but it only depicted the various topographies of the Dark Mountain Range region, not the entire continent.

The so-called Dark Mountain Range was not simply a mountain! Its area was very huge, from the western border of the ancient country of Calum in the east, to the eastern line of the Genoa Peninsula in the west, to the narrow Misty Coast in the south, and to the line from Transylvania to the Great Plain of Kafhoka in the north.

This terrain alone, which was surrounded by mountains on three sides and the sea on one side, occupied a quarter of the total area of the continent, and was more than four times larger than the overall territory of the Porcia Confederacy, where the Transylvania region was located!
If one were to look down from the planet’s orbit, then the Dark Mountain Range would be like a black scar on the continent, like an area scabbed over after a serious injury. There is no way that such a huge region could be composed of only mountainous terrain, and in fact, the description “Dark Mountains” simply refers to the outer mountains that surround this huge region.

From Paranor’s detailed map, one could tell that the Dark Mountains were filled with swamps, plains, ravines, deserts, and even inner lakes and snowy mountains.

This military map from the Knights of the Blood League also deliberately labeled the different areas in the Dark Mountain Range where different forces were located.

The plains and swamps ruled by the jackal tribes, the mountains occupied by ogres, the Eternal Rift Valley and the mysterious dark region where the shadow elves are located, the vast swaths of gray deserts and the salt lakes and the Dead Sea, and also some scattered small forces.

For example, the Sin Castle, the Burning Peak and the Hungry Mountain, etc..

Just this map itself made Murphy’s eyes wide open, and as his eyes accurately swept over every part of the map, in the map function of the test management system, the original area that was covered by mist except for the Transylvania region was also “lit up”, covering the entire Dark Mountain region according to the style of the Blood League Knights’ military maps.

Yeah!
The new map and the contents of the new movie are now available!
The young players were ecstatic!

“The Dark Mountains are dangerous not only because of the jackal barbarians and dog-headed, goat-man and other subordinate ethnicities operating in them, but also because the entire Dark Mountains region has been shrouded in filthy and manic psychic energy since the beginning of the Era.

The filthy psychic energy seeped into the earth and made the life born there savage and warlike, not civilized at all.”

Palanor’s finger slid over the map in front of him as he spoke in a low tone:
“However, there is a complete food chain and ecosystem within the Dark Mountain Range, and it is this food chain that maintains the basic stability of this barbaric region, which is based on the filthy spiritual energy that drives the life in it to multiply, and accepts ferocious challenges all the time to complete the metamorphosis of death.

Take the jackals!
They are very fertile.

But their death rate in the harsh environment of the Dark Mountains is also very high, so that they can barely maintain the slow growth of the pack without causing too much trouble.

Unfortunately, the tainted psychic energy in the Dark Mountains has a rather peculiar ‘cycle change’.

For a long time this change went unnoticed, until the first large-scale ‘Filth Depletion’ occurred in 645 Era.

The tainted psychic energy that enveloped the Dark Mountains suddenly weakened to a state of ‘calm’ over a period of several years, which allowed life from the outside world to finally truly explore the region, but the sudden change in psychic energy shattered the already fragile food chain and ecology of the Dark Mountains.

The environment for the jackals became better and their numbers began to surge, spawning a huge army of savages in just five years.

They began to conquer the forces around their territory, and the dog-heads and ogres were all caught up in their desire to seek more food and resources beyond the Dark Mountains.

That was the first Black Plague in history!”

The First Lord’s finger nodded at the eastern pass and northwestern exit of the Dark Mountain Range as he glanced at Murphy and said:
“The scale of that Black Calamity was not too large, the invasion of the tide of Jackals in the east was fended off by the Brass Dwarves’ Brass Castle built at the entrance of the Dark Mountain Range, however, they soon found an unguarded alternative exit in the northwest.”

“The Tainted Swamp!”

Murphy narrowed his eyes, he didn’t need the First Lord’s description to guess what happened next.

“Yes, the Filthy Swamp in the southernmost part of the Transylvania region, the largest swamp terrain on the continent, the natural isolation zone between the core of the continent and the Dark Mountains.”

Tris took over and sighed as she sipped her wine:

“I was not yet born when the first Black Plague occurred, but from the records of the Blood Vulture Clan I learned of the tragedy then.

Over two hundred thousand jackals and their vassal ethnicities stormed through the Tainted Swamp in a frenzy, permeating Transylvania, which was still a clan system at the time, and the entire region was swept clean of human tribes in almost half a month.

The jackals then marched east and west, and it took a third of the free city-states of the Silans to hold off the jackals’ rampage.

The Nords’ clans were able to protect their wilderness with the aid of the Frost Dwarves and the Thorn Clan and their god of the North Winds, and it took fifteen years for the human races to drive the Jackals back into the Dark Mountains.

The vampires also became deeply bound to the humans from that point on.

It was the first time we fought alongside humans, and that was when we were still firmly in leadership.

But the first Black Plague wasn’t all bad.

Five years after the end of the Black Plague, the free city-states of the Westlanders in Anjou, Bourbonnais, and Saxe were the first to be united under a system of wartime union.

They formed the first human kingdom of Sealand.

After that, the Kingdom of Isha in Grimnir Island also started the unification war, and the Kingdom of Nordtorf was the last to be established, but the Winter’s Descendants who finally conquered the Great Wilderness completely hundreds of years later were still the descendants of Boris, the human hero king who was the first to fend off the Jackalmen back in those years.

It can be said that it was the first Black Plague that erupted in Era 650 that shaped the current human civilization.”

“And the Portia Confederacy?”

Murphy said:
“This area we are in was also established because of the Black Calamity?”

“That was the second Black Plague.”

Tris waved her hand, speaking casually with the credulous demeanor expected of a historian:
“The second Black Calamity broke out in Era 720, but this time it was on a smaller scale, more like a backlash from the remnants of the first Black Calamity.

Though the jackals once again broke through the Tainted Swamp, the well-prepared human allies blockaded them to death in the Transylvania region, and with the help of the quick-reacting dwarves of the Brass Castle, they were successfully driven back to the Dark Mountains after three years of fighting. After that, the humans realized the connection between Transylvania and the Dark Mountains, and no kingdom was willing to take over this ominous land, which was closed and always subject to war.

As a result, the three kingdoms of Silan, Isha, and Nordoff each sent a group of unlucky nobles to reside here, and they also sent out their border tribesmen to migrate here, building the political framework of this place.

That was the initial prototype of the Confederation of Portia.

They talked a good game at the time! They said that they wanted to follow the privileges of the Dwarf Gaia Praetorians of the Brass Castle and grant those chosen nobles the sacred duty of ‘defending civilization’ with the power of independent statehood.

Unfortunately, the secret manipulation of the three kingdoms has prevented the entire region of the Portia Confederation from ever establishing a truly unified state, and the union of the seven free city-states of the Portia Confederation was a desperate move.

The Blood Vulture Clan also entered the Transylvania region at that time.

At that time, Salokdar’s act of occupying this place was still praised as a ‘glorious act of righteousness’ by the human nobles and kings, but 400 years later, we became the thieves of the night who shamelessly stole their territory in the mouths of the humans.”

“How do you know this history so well?”

Murphy looked at Tris with surprise, and the scarlet witch rolled her lovely eyes and said:
“Because before becoming a vampire I used to be a psychic as well as a historian, and this history happens to be one that I have personally experienced, I was born in the year 660 of the Era, and happened to be born when the first Black Plague was about to end, so I basically witnessed the entire process of the birth of the Porcia Confederacy.

Ten years before the outbreak of the Second Black Plague, I was first embraced by Salokdar after a serious illness, officially starting my life as a vampire.”

“Then you’re only 451 years old.”

Murphy whispered:
“Less than 500 years, yet you always say you’ve lived 500 years . It’s a lady’s instinct to talk about her age in younger terms, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a deliberate exaggeration of her age. You’re an oddball, Tris, in every sense of the word.”

“You shut up! You don’t pry into my affairs!”

Tris said with a disgruntled stomp on Murphy’s left foot:

“This is about business! Palanno, go on.”

“That’s okay, I can wait a bit.”

The Prodigal Knight Lord watched with interest the amusing interaction between the pair in front of him, whose ages differed by 432 years, as he waved his hand and said:

“It’s actually quite interesting to watch the two of you get along, I haven’t seen such a friendly relationship between an honorable elder and a bloodborn in many years, even in the Blood League Knights such exchanges are rare.”

“You shut up!”

Murphy and Tris chided in unison, causing Paranor to shrug and continue with what Tris had just said:

“The third Black Calamity took place in Era 860, and this time the scale was similarly small, even to the point of making everyone involved in the Black Calamity’s resistance wonder if we’re too worried about this once-in-a-century disaster.

After all, as the power of each civilization grows, the tide of jackals that used to be able to easily destroy the continent seems to have become a ‘natural phenomenon’ that doesn’t deserve too much attention, and the third black plague didn’t even need the dwarves to take action, relying on the allied forces of mankind alone would be enough to keep the jackals down in the southern part of Transylvania and unable to advance an inch.

However, it turns out that the Jackals are not stupid.

At least not as stupid as we thought, they also learn, and they have a heritage.”

The First Lord narrowed his eyes, his finger drew a circle in a woodland area in the southern foothills of the Dark Mountains and said:
“The Jackal Grand Warlord of the Third Black Plague did not send out all of its warriors; instead, while attacking the Brass Castle and invading Transylvania as is traditional, it sent a special Jackal force to take this mossy valley from the Shadow Elves.

It was a rare area in the Dark Mountains with a mild climate and plenty of food, and most crucially, it suffered very little interference from tainted psychic energy.

I don’t think I need to describe what happens next.”

Paranor stood up and casually grabbed a white rose and placed it under his nostrils to sniff it lightly, and with his artistic movements, the story about the Dark Plague took its most crucial turn.

“In the year 1000 of the Era, the fourth Black Plague arrived as expected!

Because of the unanimous opinion reached by the leaders in the Third Black Plague, except for the stubborn Brass Dwarves who didn’t abate the defense force of Brass Castle, all the other forces coincidentally withdrew a portion of the military force dedicated to defending against the Black Plague.

And the jackals who had been hiding in the mossy valleys and had been secretly storing up their strength for 140 years, this time under the leadership of a great warlord named ‘Bite Bone’ poured out their troops!

This time, not only did they have an army that was more than ten times the size of the Third Black Calamity, but even more terrifyingly, there were also a large number of Spirit Energy individuals born among them.

No one knew where the Jackals learned this, but they just had formed spellcasting units.

As a result, in the first month of the Fourth Black Calamity, the entirety of the Confederacy of Portia fell, except for the cities of Cadman, Sogno, and Sico! The neighboring borders of the Great Plains of Kahovka, Ice Bay, Saxe, and East Prussia with the Cato region became as much of a paradise for jackals to wreak havoc as possible.

By the time the entire dumbfounded human civilization reacted, the Black Plague had already become a torrent from a flood, and in the sixth month, the Jackal vanguard even reached the city of Northwind Castle.

But it was like a replica of the first Black Plague!

Humanity finally reached unconditional unity in the final moments of civilization’s demise.

The nobles of Sealand, who were so corrupt in our eyes, regained the glory of their ancestors, and the knights of the Praetorian Guard, led by the then King Louis VI himself, rushed to the front, while the Kingdom of Isha spared no effort in sending all of their warships across the dangerous North Sea to support Nordtorff against the storms and the monsters of the sea.

Most importantly, the last human kingdom that had been watching all of this coldly, the Ancient Kingdom of Calum, which had existed for more than 800 years in the history after the Era, finally took the initiative to intervene in the events of the Black Plague for the first time.

Mysterious and powerful dragonborn crossed their White Mountain border with the kingdom of Nordtorf, and brave men who believed in the dragons of the Star Realm rallied to the aid of the precarious kingdom of the Nords in various places throughout the Great Wilderness.

This, coupled with the fact that the jackals on the western front crossed into the Cato region and foolishly burned the emerald green forests of the elves, finally angered the Castilian elves, who had never intervened too much in the affairs of the continent.

As the majestic Amastasia fleet of twenty-seven Forest Ranger legions and three Storm Druid legions made an unprecedentedly brilliant landing on the Misty Coast and joined forces with their ancient cousins, the Thirteen Clans of the Shadow Elves, who live in the Eternal Rift, in a rear assault on the Jackal defenses in the Dark Mountains, all civilizations and races across the continent were shocked to see that they could not be stopped.
All the civilizations and races of the entire continent were united, and in the face of such power, the Black Plague that was once about to sweep across the continent was finally effectively stifled.

And when the Sanghai Empire, which was far away from the land of origin, also sent a magnificent sun ship into the battlefield and precisely annihilated the clan where the great warlord Bite Bone was located in the southern part of Transylvania, the king of Bite Bone fled into the filthy swamp without a trace.

The Fourth Black Plague, after eight years of ravaging it, finally turned hard into a moment of counterattack.

In the end, it took a full decade and the sacrifice of nearly 400,000 warriors of all clans and millions of civilians to drive the Jackals back into their mountains.

Since then, no one has ever dared to underestimate the Black Plague again!

And the trauma that the Fourth Black Plague inflicted on the continent has yet to be recovered even now, 111 years later; there were once nearly two and a third million people in the Transylvania region, but now there are less than four hundred thousand left here, and that’s just before the Ten Years’ War began.”

Paranor looked back in the silent tent to Murphy, who was full of seriousness, as he spoke softly:
“Now, another Black Plague is already brewing, we have noticed that all the jackal clans throughout the Dark Mountains are acting erratically, and this cycle of the Dark Mountains’ Taint Depletion Cycle is in its final stages.

In a minimum of four months, and a maximum of six months, the fifth Black Plague will take full shape!

At that time, Murphy, as the only Free State Lord in the Transylvania region at the moment, whether you like it or not, you will have to take on the sacred duties that were given to you when the Bosia Confederation was founded.

Either transform into an iron wall to block the Black Plague!

Or be mercilessly consumed by it.

These are the brutal rules that must be faced by all who wish to establish dominion in Transylvania, and unfortunately, you have joined the game and so far, the candidate is only you.

If you try to run, His Holiness Pa Ying will personally teach you what it means to have the dignity of a Blood Clan!”

Murphy didn’t want to run, he just blinked his eyes and glanced at the rather subtle six-month completion cycle on his “main quest”, and all his doubts came to light at that moment.

Well, I told you that this heartless administrator system had so generously given me half a year’s development time, so it was waiting for me here!
Blanch!
(End of this chapter)