Chapter 233: A New Enemy?

“Sir Bart, the headcount is complete. Seven were sacrificed, and eight are seriously injured. Apart from the twenty-three with light injuries, the rest are basically unharmed.” At this moment, a Sergeant Major responsible for the aftermath walked over.

“So many?” Sir Bart was stunned for a moment. Then, he recalled the fierce battle situation earlier and fell into silence.

As the temporary supervisor of the infantry phalanx during the battle, Cortez Campbell asked thoughtfully, “The situation with the cavalry team isn’t very good, is it!”

“Yes! Although the cavalry team only accounts for two of the sacrificed personnel, all eight of the seriously injured are from the cavalry team.” That Soldier felt that this situation was not easy to say out loud.

Sir Bart immediately asked about the most critical part, “Then, how are their injuries?”

“Not good! Although their injuries won’t affect their daily movements after healing. But if they bounce on horseback for a long time in the future, back pain will probably be unavoidable. In this case, unless a 4th Level spell is used, they will only be able to transfer to the infantry. If treated purely with herbs, the possibility of a complete recovery is very slim.” This Soldier spoke with considerable certainty.

Because he belonged to the technical sergeants within the Bolerum army sequence. Those belonging to the sergeant sequence were not good at command and combat, but possessed their own unique professional abilities. The one in front of him was a Herbalist cultivated by the Bolerum Territory. As an important part of the existing medical system, his words were trustworthy.

Of the children currently being cultivated in the Territory, if they really succeed in their studies, quite a few of them will embark on the same path as him. In George’s view, although the Bolerum Territory couldn’t be said to be waiting to be rebuilt, it really lacked everything. And the biggest gap was non-combat technical talents. Apart from relying on a good external environment to poach people from other territories, enhancing one’s own ability to produce blood and cultivate one’s own talents was also crucial. Because the former often couldn’t be actively recruited in the current environment, that would create a very deep contradiction with the party being poached.

“That is to say, the cavalry team will have a reduction of 10 people?” Sir Bart didn’t think about that effective 4th Level Divine Arts. Every time that kind of Divine Arts was cast, it was clearly priced between 300-350 Gold Coins in the Temples of the good pantheon.

If it could make a soldier who had to retire early due to injury return to the battlefield. Sir Bart believed that George would definitely pay this huge sum of money without hesitation. But if it was just to ensure the number of people in the cavalry team, he dared not be sure what choice George would make. After all, the cost-effectiveness of this approach was really not high.

Although the number of casualties didn’t seem large, the permanent reduction of 10 cavalrymen still made Sir Bart feel a little heartache. Although this world had healing spells. Generally speaking, as long as there were enough potions and spell items, most of the wounded who hadn’t died after the battle could survive through treatment. But wanting to ensure they remained intact, while not impossible, the cost involved would be great.

“And a full 7 people died. I really don’t know if this encirclement and suppression operation counts as a success!” Sir Bart looked a little low. Because these people were the guarantee of the Territory’s strength! The ones brought out this time were all elites, and cultivating each one was not an easy task. Yet seven potential warriors died in just one battle. Speaking of which, those lurkers were really hateful!

“Will the Lord give corresponding pensions to the families of those seven who sacrificed?” Cortez Campbell, who had just joined this Territory not long ago, asked thoughtfully.

Unlike Sir Bart who was figuring out how to explain things upon returning. The Soldier beside him weighed his words and said, “As auxiliary personnel, we will record their battle achievements. After we go back this time, we will hand over their deserved war rewards and death pensions to their families. Then we will bury their bodies with honor and carve their names on the large monument in the cemetery. Although their life achievements cannot be carved on it, I think even in the Divine Realm, they will have no objection to such treatment! After all, these people are our good soldiers, and the Territory will not let them feel chilled…”

After hearing this, Cortez Campbell muttered in a low voice, “This treatment is much better than my previous country. Since the Lords attach so much importance to it, it is not without reason that Nohan’s soldiers are strong and horses are sturdy.”

Compared to here, his former motherland was much worse in every aspect. What people there talked about most was not changes in strength, but rare beasts and rare flowers from who knows where. The goals people aspired to were definitely not powerful professionals, but merchants who obtained more wealth, and romantic guests who mingled among noble ladies. The better ones just hoped to become Noble bureaucrats or politicians with privileged status.

If it weren’t for the long-standing tradition, I’m afraid the Knights there would have almost gone extinct. It’s no wonder that kind of thing happened later, completely violating the consistent rules of the game. Accompanying that was also the departure of a large number of Knights from the country.

After all, the behavior of ‘good birds choosing trees to roost in’ can of course also be applied to Knights. Of course, the premise was that one’s original Liege Lord family had already been cut off, or had committed acts that seriously violated the oath. In that battle for the throne, there were no shortage of either the former or the latter. Accompanying the flight of a large number of Knights, that was inevitable.

‘Forget it, what am I thinking about! There, I have long been a dead person without status. Now I am a member of the Bolerum Territory of the Duchy of Nohan. After gaining a new life, everything in the past has nothing to do with me now. Anyway, that kind of country won’t last long, right? The news I heard a while ago, they actually reached the point where they had to send out Mercenaries to face Bandits. Now in the eyes of the surrounding countries, it is a big piece of fat meat, just waiting for the right time to put it in the pot.’ Standing aside, Cortez Campbell, full of thoughts, didn’t speak, but still nodded lightly.

He listened distractedly to his current mentor, Sir Bart, and that Soldier discussing countermeasures for the aftermath. For some reason, that sense of loss appeared in his heart again. Perhaps he really couldn’t forget his old feelings for his past motherland! After all, he had never fought head-on against invaders for her!

“Alright. Let’s arrange it like this! First, count everyone’s achievements, and then let everyone rest here for a while. After resting enough, we will deal with the Loot! Really unlucky, how did that group of Druids get mixed up with those Cultists.” After muttering for a while, Sir Bart made a decision.

Collecting the weapons and Loot from both the enemy and our side after the war was a very important task. Sometimes this could be considered a kind of money-making behavior in war. The purpose was to reduce one’s own losses and better welcome the next battle.

“We are all old hands at this, you can absolutely rest assured about how we handle things.” That Soldier answered quite shrewdly. Because on the issue of cleaning the battlefield, these elite troops were already familiar with it.

Generally speaking, these soldiers wouldn’t hide anything. Not to mention that after this batch of Loot was registered and handed in, four-tenths of it would be distributed as rewards according to each person’s war achievements. Even the punishment they would receive if discovered hiding Loot was something they were unwilling to bear.

The punishment of being kicked out of the army after being notified was probably more cruel than death for these soldiers! This was not just losing a well-paid, high-status, and enviable good job. More importantly, the disdain and spitting from people around them after their behavior was notified was a heavy burden on their psychology. A tree lives for a piece of bark, and a person lives for a face. Those strong and sturdy men couldn’t stand the feeling of being poked in the spine.

Of course, the mutual supervision among the many soldiers cleaning the battlefield was also very important. No one wanted to fight desperately in the front, only for the benefits to be taken by others. In their view, this behavior was no different from lying about war achievements. Even the best relationships usually didn’t work at times like this.

Suddenly thinking of something, Sir Bart was silent for a while and then said, “Those prisoners must be watched closely. Those ‘black gloves’ in the Territory are preparing to pry something out of their mouths!”

“Please rest assured, My Lord. Except for those Goblin, as long as they have no physical defects; or look like they have relatively high status or strength, they are all specially tied with Iron Thorns! There won’t be any mistakes in this.” The other party patted his chest and gave Sir Bart a guarantee.

“That’s good!” Sir Bart’s thoughts flew away to who knows where again.

After that Soldier left, Sir Bart patted Cortez Campbell on the shoulder beside him and said, “This time, we probably poked a hornet’s nest. The status of that female Druid I killed earlier is probably not low! I just don’t know which sect she belongs to. The best result is that she is a reserve Blighter, fooling her subordinates to achieve her own ambitions. The bad thing is that a certain sect is involved in it and is in cahoots with those Evil God believers. The former is just individual behavior, if it’s the latter, that would be a big trouble.”

“Blighter? What are you talking about?” Cortez Campbell was confused. Although he had traveled in the Western Continent for a long time. But because his own level was relatively low, many things were not within his reach.

Sir Bart patted his own head and said, “Look at my memory, not many people know about those guys. I’ve only seen this once before, that was really a hard battle! It’s a long story if I start talking about it…”

There are always some outliers in any industry. When a Druid gets tired of the earth, the earth often gets tired of him too. Some ex-Druids will calmly face this change; others will try every means to restore this connection. However, there is a small group of ex-Druids who have actually gladly accepted their separation from the natural world and have become a destructive force. These people are called Blighters, and they bring desolation to the places they pass through.

These Blighters constantly plunder the life on the earth to obtain spellcasting abilities. A long strip of eroded forest is the path she takes when crossing the wilderness. Similarly, acres of fertile fields become desolate because of them. And whether it is forests or fields, they are often regarded as their own property by the Lords. Druids like this are not only unwelcome but also targets that need to be encircled and suppressed.

So most Blighters are lonely wanderers, they are constantly looking for and destroying green. Some are cruel, while others laugh at the destruction they cause. But almost all Blighters are lonely and crazy. What pushes them to the edge and makes nature have the last laugh is that to get spells, they must find the most lush forests in the world, even if it means they will be smashed to pieces. Therefore, even though they have abandoned nature, they still have to go back constantly.

The act of destroying forests is definitely hated by their former colleagues. So the ones who work hardest to encircle and suppress them are those Druids whose mission is to defend nature. So the relationship between Blighters and Druids is like the relationship between Blackguards and Paladins. So it is reasonable for this kind of member to cooperate with evil Churches. Plus, which Territory’s development doesn’t require cutting down a lot of trees? So if you really want to operate, the difficulty involved is not as big as imagined.

After Sir Bart’s explanation and introduction, Cortez Campbell was no longer as confused as before. Then he asked, “Those Druid sects you just mentioned, they wouldn’t be like those vicious guys from the Stag Hiverner sect, right!”

Sir Bart stretched out his hand and waved his finger, starting to show off his knowledge, “No, no, no! There is still a big difference between so-called Druid sects! Most of the Druids in the Prime Material Plane, apart from a few who believe in the Nature Gods, are such sect Druids. Of course, there are also some disorganized individuals, or some emerging small sects. Among them, the current five major organizations have existed since before our Knight profession appeared. Their rise is no longer verifiable. But the reason for forming the current pattern stems from the Aberration Catastrophe caused by Mages in the previous era. The Aboleths and Beholders commonly seen in poems now are relics of that era…”

The oldest is the Ashen Alliance, their main goal: the eradication of the so-called Arcane, the eradication of “unnatural” things, and the purification of the world.

It can be said that the Ashen Alliance’s hatred for the Arcane has existed for a long time. The earliest can be traced back to the era of the Aberration Catastrophe caused by the unbridled abuse of the Arcane. Besides that, Alliance members don’t have much affection for the Priests of the Gods either, considering the Gods they worship and draw power from to be very “unnatural”. Of course, Aberrations and Undead are their sworn enemies.

Radical Ashen Alliance members like to use force and destructive Magic to solve problems. Rational members are more inclined to persuade others to give up the pursuit of “unnatural” things. Although they still hold a considerable degree of distrust towards Arcane users, and even believers of Gods.

The most well-known to people are those unwelcome Winter Servants, and wanted notices related to them seem to be visible from time to time. They have attributed values: survival of the fittest, selection of the superior, the arrival of the Final Winter and the rebirth of the world.

Winter Servants believe that the appearance of cities has disrupted the natural law of survival of the fittest. Because the weak are allowed to survive, and the strong are buried among the weak. They believe that death is just an ordinary part of the cycle of all things, and after death there will be a new beginning. Only the strong who can still stand tall after heavy tests are qualified to live in the Eden after rebirth.

Although in the past Winter Servants were more inclined to watch the world go to destruction as bystanders, the history of the Aberration Catastrophe stirred up quite intense discussion among them.

The radical Winter Servants believe this is some kind of omen, walking out of the Gloaming Forest and starting to look for ways to accelerate the arrival of the Final Winter; the conservatives think this is just a man-made accident and has nothing to do with an “omen”. At the same time, they actively started looking for evidence to prove their theory. The traditionalists continue to stick to the Gloaming Forest, silently watching this world with their ancestors.

The most recognized by the world are the Watchers, their main goal: to protect the innocent, mediate and balance, and watch over the world.

As the main combat force in the Aberration Catastrophe back then, the Watchers played a crucial role in several major battles, and of course, the sacrifices made were also the most tragic of all factions. As the guardians of the Continent, they walked out of the forest in the early stages of the war, declaring war on those Aberrations that crazily poured into the Prime Material Plane with the Scimitars, Longswords, bows and arrows, and Magic in their hands.

Although Watchers have to accept strict military training, their duties are not limited to combat. Most of the time, they are also responsible for various mediations related to nature, such as persuading farmers not to enter the territory of nearby brown bears. So many Watchers have a certain amount of training in negotiation skills.

The most mysterious are the Gatekeepers, their main goal: the end of the Aberration War, the sealing of Plane fissures, and the repair of the world.

This is a mysterious group that appeared in the late period of the Aberration Catastrophe, traveling to various places in the Western Continent, dedicated to sealing various Plane rifts. However, there are many theories about its origin.

According to some mysterious organizations such as the Scroll Society, this organization actually came to this world through various Plane rifts during the Aberration War. Their true source is a secret organization fiercely competing with various Evil creatures in a certain chaotic Plane.

Nowadays, in the Prime Material Plane, although the Aberration War has long ended. But the Plane rifts remaining in various places still threaten the safety of the Prime Material Plane all the time.

Gatekeepers conduct a secret pilgrimage across the Continent while sealing various portals considered “threatening” encountered on the way. At the same time, they also teach the various mysteries of the Gatekeepers to those who respond to their summons.

And the most common on the market is the Green Singer organization. Their main goal: the communication of the world, or to say, is there really no such thing at all?

Green Singers are the closest allies of the fairies. As early as in the Aberration War, they ignored the horror of mutation and traveled all over the world to deliver messages. Their whereabouts are secretive and changeable, and they are the most elusive singers in nature.

Most Green Singers tend to be of the chaotic alignment, so their actions are often difficult to figure out. But one thing is certain, compared to performing in the city’s gorgeous opera houses, they prefer to wander among the mountains and rivers, expressing their feelings through the magnificence of nature.

The members of these five major organizations account for almost 60% of the number of Druids in the Prime Material Plane. Of course, where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and these five major sects also have various branches.

“By the way, Campbell, the Stag Hiverner sect you mentioned earlier is a branch of the Winter Servants that is good at modifying themselves.” Since he was a teacher, Sir Bart certainly had to give Cortez Campbell a comprehensive education, which really made him talk until his mouth was dry. After he finished explaining, the cleaning work of the battlefield was almost done.