351. Chapter 349: 348 Concerns from Afar 1

Chapter 349 348.Attention from afar +1
The news that the Scarlet Fortress was going to organize the Champion of Fighters Tournament was quickly spread through the communication network formed by the Operational Treasure Pearls in the ruling network that Murphy had currently built, and as far away as the Ancestor’s Woodland in the West Ke Collar, the little Earl of Sheren who had been living here for the last few days immediately became excited when he saw that notification that had been sent out by the Administration Division.

At her age, it was the time when she liked to be lively, although she was much more stable than her peers because of her experience, but when she saw that such a fanfare was about to be held, she could not restrain the idea of wanting to join in the fun in her heart.

This large-scale activity also seems to represent that the chaotic era of Transylvania has come to an end, Murphy’s territory is moving towards some kind of order that is taking shape.

And the little earl himself was a member of this evolving order.

But Sherron was an administrator in the end, and she quickly realized that this absolutely hilarious event would actually have a second meaning for her.

“The mountain people of the Ancestral Woodlands have just joined the Transylvanian system, and at this time of needing to unite and work together to get through difficult times, it is no longer good to maintain the closed attitude that favored those outside the system.

So, this is actually an opportunity that Governor Murphy has purposely created for the mountain people at this moment, well, absolutely!

It’s a great opportunity to publicize the mountain people to other communities, and I can’t afford to waste His Excellency the Governor’s good intentions.”

Outside the wooden house at the top of her ancestor’s mountain forest, little Sherron looked out over the woodland that was filled with fog in the early morning, she flapped her wings to let herself hover in the air, and while cruising deeper into the woodland, she pondered in her mind:
“So this time, I’m going to select some Mountain Folk warriors to follow me to the Scarlet Fortress to share in the event, so that we can reflect the idea that we’re also part of Transylvania, and so that we can show those otherworldly warriors the power of the Mountain Folk and entice them to move towards the Ancestor’s side of the woodlands.

With their enthusiastic energy that loves to help, my people will definitely have a much better time in the woodlands.”

The more Sherron thought about it, the more he realized that he had a great idea.

And so she soon flew to the area where the Valander Knight was located, after becoming a Grail Knight in an ancient ceremony, the ever more powerful guardian of the mountains and forests had spent the last two days living alone beside the springs of the ancestral woodlands, guarding the forest chalice that had been returned to her.

“Valander! I have a great idea.”

Sherron gathered his wings so that he landed on the rocks beside the spring, and Valander, who had spent the night meditating beside the chalice with his legs crossed, opened his eyes at the call.

Unlike his previous gray pupils, Valander’s eyes were now a gray-green color, a sign of the forces of nature converging within him.

“Speak, I’m listening.”

Valander revealed a rather kind smile, startling little Sheridan. This kind of calm smile wasn’t something that had appeared on the Cthulhu Knight before, this rude and powerful mountain knight used to have a grumpy personality that fought like fire.

It made the little earl wonder if that strange Holy Grail had dumbed down his own escort knight?

Other rituals conferred power at best, how did this thing even change personalities?

Valander’s son was about to be born hey!

What will happen to Sunny if she really has a life change and becomes enlightened and converts to Buddhism?

The Pale Vulture Knight seemed to have sensed the surprise in the heart of little Xue Lun, he waved his hand and explained:

“I’m fine, I’m still the same person I was, it’s just that those concepts that the Spirit of the Forest and Woods conveyed to me through the Holy Grail need time to digest. I feel more and more that our disagreement with the Church of Avalon is wrong, both sides originally belong to the same source, and their fall to Transylvania to rebuild the church may be the will of the Mother of the Forest.

The ancient faiths will eventually merge.”

“Hey, it’s fine if you don’t explain, the more you explain, the more scary it gets!”

Sherron screamed.

She couldn’t help but look at the Forest Wood Chalice beside Valander, and thought to herself that this thing really did carry some sort of “magic”, a strange power that made Valander almost turn into another person.

But according to His Excellency Kudel, who was also a Grail Knight, these were normal steps.

The blessing of the Holy Grail will bring him more thoughts about power and the world, and he only needs to go through this “growth period”, and after the power is matched, the Knight of the Cthulhu will return to his original life style.

The young earl first pushed down the worries in his heart and told Valander his thoughts, and the Vulture Knight nodded his head with little hesitation:
“Indeed it is a good opportunity to proclaim the presence of the mountain people, and we do need to draw the attention of the warriors of Transylvania to the Sicor Collar, Shirren, you can’t forget about those things hidden under the ruins of Sicor City.

We can ignore them now, but before the Black Plague arrives, we must find a way to get rid of these hidden dangers.

Those warriors from the Otherworld have excellent talent and endless courage, and no matter what measures we are prepared to take against the ruins of Xike City, we must have their help!

This game is a good avenue for that, but I’m sure you’re aware of certain disturbing traits of theirs from your previous encounters with them at the Scarlet Fortress.”

The Scarlet Knight rubbed his brow as he said:

“They’re quite realistic and it’s hard to get them to willingly serve our cause until they see no gain, so if we want to draw the warriors into the Ancestral Woodlands then we have to come up with some rewards that can make their hearts sing.

But the life of the mountain people is close to nature and tradition, and we don’t have quite enough for our own usual usage, so we really don’t have that many resources to use to gift them.”

“Actually, there is!”

The young Earl of Sherron had considered this on her way here, and this time she hung in mid-air and pointed in the direction of the north to Valander:

“We can use our liaison with the Cesar Barbarians in the Ice Bay region to place some special goods from the Ice Bay for sale in the Ancestor Woodlands to those warriors.

Although the barbarian tribes in Ice Bay are poorer than us, they really have a lot of good things over there.

Cold iron unearthed from underneath the ice, storm pearls found in the frozen sea, rare materials from those sea monsters they hunted at sea, and even some skillful handwritten notes from the barbarians’ unique berserker profession.

I know what the warriors of Murphy want, and we can target our hoarding of these things.

Oh, right!

There’s also the ice claw bears that the barbarians would tame to use as warbeasts and mounts, and naturally their love of exaggeration would surely favor that furry white beast that only exists around the Frozen Sea.

There were also hunters among them.

I’ve heard a few of the warriors who frequent my stall to buy bullets complain before that they want to tame warbeasts but Transylvania has nothing but jackals.

We could also bring back some Ice Bear and Frost Wolf cubs, which could be our exclusive ‘resources’! We also have nests of wind vultures, giant lords, and thunderhawks deep in our mountain forests, hidden places that only mountain folk can find.

Not to mention the various alchemy materials produced by the Ancestral Woodlands, which even the Spiritualists of the Tower of the Ring had to come and purchase before the Ten Years’ War.

Valander, the Ancestral Woodlands are much richer than we thought, and these resources are enough to hire warriors to stay here for a long time and become good assistants to the mountain folk in developing the woodlands.

This Fighter’s Championship is a perfect opportunity for us to bring some resources over to open up the area for them.

Also, I want you, the guardian who is now respected by all the tribes, to select some powerful young men from each of the great tribes to compete, and if possible, have them stay in Scarlet Fortress for a long time to serve Governor Murphy.

Though Murphy says he does not wish to interfere with the traditions of the mountain people, we as ruled are expected to show some traits of obedience as appropriate.”

“Good, I’ll get on it right away.”

Valander stood up and casually threw the forest chalice in his hand into the mountain spring in front of him in Sherron’s astonished gaze; the wooden chalice sank when it met the water and disappeared almost immediately into the depths of the clear spring water. Seeing Sherron’s curious gaze, the Pale Vulture Knight explained while putting his special forest wood armed armor on his body:

“This is a trait common to all chalices, they will only appear in front of the eyes of those eligible candidates and grant them the power of the chalice in specific scenarios, there is no need to worry about it being lost, as long as the ancestral mountains and forests are still here, the Forest Wood Chalice will remain here.

It will wait patiently in this pure mountain spring for the next Grail Knight to be born.”

“I’ve always had a question.”

Shirren flapped her wings and followed beside the Pale Vulture Knight whose height surpassed 3 meters like a giant as she asked in a low voice:

“The Linwood Holy Grail was retrieved from my ancestor’s tomb, doesn’t that mean that my ancestor was also a Grail Knight in addition to being a Berserker? But isn’t there hostility between Vam and Avalon?
How was he able to gain the favor of both deities at the same time?

There was never any mention of this in the records about the first Earl of Syco.”

“The first outbreak of the Black Plague was also the time when the mountain people of the Woodlands first set foot outside their homeland, and your ancestor died in battle on our land with the Holy Grail. Perhaps the suddenness of the event prevented him from telling his descendants about the mysteries of the Grail.”

The Knight of Valander, still in a “funk” from the power of the Grail, whispered:
“No one knows what happened at that time, but that doesn’t change the fact that Lord Sicomair did a great deed, and the mountain people’s allegiance to Sicomair began then and continues to this day.

Sharon, don’t get carried away.

Your ancestor was never a thief who wanted to monopolize power; he was a child of the mountains, just as you are.”

“I know you’re complimenting me, but your tone of voice is really strange this time, please hurry up and change back to the rude Valander you were before, can’t you? I can’t even dare to tell Sunny about your current condition, she’ll be worried for sure.”

“I didn’t want to, but the power of the Grail changed me Kudel was right, the Grail once held greatness, it was not a power that mortals could fight against. I now need a chance to be able to reclaim who I once was from the Grail’s reinvention, not become a slave to it.

It is too difficult.”
—
At the same time that the Ancestor Woodlands got the news about the Championship and started actively preparing for it, Maxim in the city of Batasin received the same reminder.

He immediately understood that this was Lord Murphy already putting his previous arrangements for the captives on the agenda.

Therefore, Maxim did not hesitate any longer, he almost immediately started the “selection” in the temporary barracks outside of Batasin City, he could not bring all the Yankee criminals to Scarlet Fort.

Fortunately, the civil servants of the administrative office had already explained the mode of this selection to the prisoners, and after realizing that the Transylvanians were not joking, but would really rely on individual force and special skills to give them awards of status and identity, and give them a chance to leave the criminal career to quickly realize their own status, the Yankee criminals were also excited.

Most of them had no interest in being “rehabilitated”.

But if even half of these vampires’ promises could be honored, it would mean that they could return to their old jobs in this “hot spot” of Transylvania with a clean slate, and even receive “start-up money” from the vampires.

Maxim made it very clear.

Any boxer who can enter the second round of the rematch will be given 100 gold coins, and the prize money for entering the third round will be raised to 500 gold coins, and if they can enter the final round, they will even be given the deed to the Scarlet Fortress business district and the right to form a guild.

There were bold guys who ran and asked if they could form a smugglers or black market guild, and to that Maxim’s answer was quite clear.

As long as they could make it that far and withstand the Blood Rat Gang’s suppression, and were willing to obey the administrative division’s basic rules, then they would naturally have a share of the vast territory in the Scarlet Fort’s sewers.

As one of the optional camps left by the “Development Group” for small players, Murphy does not prohibit smugglers from appearing in his territory, and there is definitely room for gray areas in Transylvania, provided that these guys are really capable and have a clear understanding of the “right and wrong” issues. The only thing is that these guys are really capable and have a clear understanding of the “right and wrong” issues.

After receiving the confirmation, almost all of the prisoners with a little bit of ambition began to gang up and start working together.

As Nords who grew up in the bitter cold of the Great Wilderness, these Yankees have been reproducing in the harsh and uninhabitable environment for generations, giving them a stronger body and more savage fighting spirit than the Sealanders and Caitians, and the Earl of the White Mountains has complained that such things as gladiator fights are quite common in Nordstorf.

Although the situation over there is different from Transylvania, but the same folk are tough and prefer to fight.

Not to mention that these guys are the North from the rebels, soldiers and criminals from all over the world screened out the “hero”, almost everyone has a good body, in the aspect of the brave and ruthless, they have not been afraid of anyone.

But the first time Maxim and these guys met, he had felt a unique atmosphere, in these scum hiding a few really capable guys.

And in the case of the current selection of fighters carried out in the case of the boom, the few hidden “masters” also began to private activities.

In a shaded area at the edge of the barracks, a few guys in hoods were talking in low voices.

They were all quite tall, and among the five of them, there were both men and women, but what they had in common was that they were all very quiet, and some unique tattoos could be seen on the arms that occasionally peeked out from under the hoods.

Not the kind of tattoos used by punks to show off their ferocity, those emblems were often brief but had a unique aesthetic, if I had to say, somewhat similar to the psychic masters of the Tower of the Ring tattooing their own skin, but with a lot more of a religious ritualistic flavor.

This is not a small, secretive group.

For there were some other minions roaming around them to help keep an eye out for them, but those guys were clearly not on the same path as these five, perhaps more akin to dependence and following?
“Turner! Are you ready?”

The one at the head of the five said in a low voice to the one surrounded in the center:
“We have been guided to come to view for my god the changes and ripples advancing beneath the surface of this Transylvania, and my god’s gaze has fallen upon this land of suffering. The Black Plague is a catastrophe but there is opportunity in that!
But we know that you are not traveling with us just to spread the faith of our God.

You have your own mission and vows.

If my god has told you that what you seek is in Transylvania, then we wish you well on your journey, my brother.”

“Thank you, Master Yuri.”

The man known as Turner pounded his fist hard against his chest, the chill that wracked his fingers was not illusory but more like the substance of some well-honed skill and strength.

He said in a tired yet tough tone:

“After I have completed the vows I must fulfill in the mundane world, I will return to you, to our monastery, with supreme fervor, to dedicate my life to the Scriptures of my God.”

“This is the right thing to do.”

The middle-aged man at the head nodded, but he still warned:

“Turner, you are a ring bearer, you are an oath keeper, you are a man favored by the God of the North Wind, you must remember that this fight is only to fulfill an oath. We are not here to teach the Transylvanians to follow the admonitions of the God of the North Wind, much less to stir up a dispute.

This land has its own destiny.

Do not indulge in myths of bravery, nor do you break your commandments for the sake of a moment’s bloodlust.

Always remember!
We ascetics are different from those life-killing monks and soldiers who have fallen into demonic obstacles; we never bully others by force, much less by force.”

“Thank you for the reminder, Guru.”

The martial monk named Turner humbly whispered:
“I will make good use of my power, and I thank my brothers and sisters for accompanying me here. May all beings listen to the teachings of the God of the North Wind, and may all be filled with the courage to face the demons of all things head on.”

(End of chapter)