Chapter 531: Perception
In the western region of Adus, somewhere in the desert.
In the early morning, the dawn sunlight spilled over the desolate land from the distant horizon. In the wasteland where the deceased roamed, a lone rider was moving forward, Kloshi riding his horse amid the desolation of d*ath.
Having barely escaped capture within Dosa City, Kloshi immediately headed for his secret base outside the city. After acquiring his horse there, he galloped towards Karnak without pause. After a night of arduous travel, having crossed a vast area guarded by the undead, he finally approached his destination. At dawn, he arrived at the outpost outside Karnak.
“Who goes there! Stop!”
Inside the trench of the outpost, a soldier from the Savior Faction, upon noticing someone had crossed into the undead guard zone, quickly raised his weapon, aiming it at Kloshi, who immediately raised his hands and shouted.
“Don’t sh**t! I’m one of you!”
Seeing the outpost ahead, Kloshi dismounted and raised his hands, signaling his intention. The Savior Faction soldier exited the trench and stood before Kloshi. After a brief search, he took Kloshi to the commanding officer of the outpost. Here, Kloshi presented his identity. Upon confirmation, the officer didn’t delay and immediately allowed Kloshi to leave the outpost. Kloshi quickly mounted a new horse and continued towards Karnak.
As Kloshi moved through the outpost, everything he observed was clearly transmitted to Doro, who was far away.
“Woo… finally at the outpost. It won’t be long before I reach Karnak…”
At the edge of the undead guard zone, a caravan encampment stood. Inside the camp, various figures dressed in Northern Ufeiga robes were bustling about, several camels resting huddled together. In the center of the camp was a tent, within which Doro, seemingly just awake, sat on a carpet in her long robe, yawning and muttering to herself. After speaking, she sipped on the Adus specialty tea placed on a low table in front of her and took a bite of a meat pie.
Upon realizing that there were spies from Karnak hidden in Dosa City, Doro understood this was an opportunity to infiltrate Karnak. To locate the spies in Dosa City, Doro first contacted Aidan and had him announce an offensive, drawing out the spies to relay information to Karnak. Then, she asked Nephnis to summon the Wilderness Soul Whiskers to help capture the messenger ghosts.
In her previous analysis, Doro judged that the spies hidden in Dosa City would likely use ghost messengers to relay information through the Underworld. Therefore, she arranged for the Soul Whiskers to lie in wait in the Underworld to ambush the ghosts delivering messages. Unlike the Dream Realm, while the Underworld was also one of the inner realms, its coordinates were uniquely corresponding with the physical realm, thus not chaotic. This meant if both the Soul Whiskers and messengers were to enter the Underworld from Dosa, they would be close in coordinates.
The Soul Whiskers possessed the ability to sense souls from a great distance, allowing it to monitor a vast area of the Underworld alone like a cat. If using ordinary souls, many would have to be dispatched to achieve the same effect, which might alert the spies.
Typically, when ordinary souls entered the Underworld, they would sink directly into the River of Souls, flowing downwards with countless other souls. However, the delivering souls would not descend into the river but rather traverse horizontally to projections in other physical realm areas. Thus, the Soul Whiskers, lying in wait in the Dosa Underworld, could confirm any soul traveling laterally rather than vertically as a messenger, allowing it to pursue and consume the soul. The strength of ordinary souls paled in comparison to that of the Wilderness Spirit.
After losing the soul messenger, the spies in Dosa City would likely set up a radio to communicate with Karnak. Doro could utilize the Thunder Summoner’s abilities combined with Misaka Mikoto’s electromagnetic wave perception to locate the radio stations and identify where the spies were hiding. Following that, Doro enacted a ruse, marking the largest spy with a Puppet Mark hidden among the many intentional scars on his back, sending him back to Karnak as her eyes.
Without the support of a communication channel, Doro found that her limit to manipulate the puppet was about twenty kilometers. This operational distance was defined as the range for optimal manipulation efficiency, not the limit of control.
Beyond twenty kilometers, the connections with ordinary zombie puppets or unassisted puppets became thin, making commands difficult to execute and efficiency dramatically declined. At around twenty-two kilometers, large actions could no longer be effectively controlled, but the thin spiritual thread still allowed Doro to gather sensory information. After thirty kilometers, sensory information ceased to transmit, and beyond fifty kilometers, positioning information would vanish; Doro would no longer sense the puppet’s location unless it returned within fifty kilometers. After one hundred kilometers, without additional spiritual reinforcement, the spiritual threads would snap, leaving the puppets completely outside Doro’s control unless they reappeared in her sight, allowing her to reestablish the link.
The range of the undead guard zone in Karnak was a twenty-five-kilometer radius. Although Doro could not effectively control Kloshi as he ventured deeper into the guarded zone towards Karnak, she could still receive his sensory information.
Thus, as Doro continued her breakfast, she observed Kloshi on the road ahead. After leaving the outpost, Kloshi urged his new horse to quicken its speed. After a significant amount of time, he finally reached the gates of Karnak.
Karnak was a small city located in the western region of Adus, near the border zone, far smaller than Dosa. It lay before the Seven-Fork Mountains, at the junction of mountainous and flat terrain, a city that rose due to its mining industry. In times of peace, the ores mined from the Long kn*fe Mountains would be shipped to Karnak, where they were then sent to Dosa. Many miners and their families resided here, which also attracted various services related to mining.
However, since the Adus Civil War began, the mining industry in Karnak had been disrupted. From Kloshi’s perspective, Doro saw a highly guarded, desolate city. Outside the city, she could not see any tall buildings, and at several road intersections, there were soldiers from the Savior Faction standing guard. Not a single soldier was visible on the streets inside the city. In the backdrop of the city, the tall, continuous slopes of the Seven-Fork Mountains were prominent, with the Dead Eagle Valley, where Rahman lay buried, not far from Karnak.
Sipping her tea, Doro watched as Kloshi, after passing his inspection, entered Karnak City. He was led to a not particularly large building that seemed to be the original municipal center of Karnak.
Upon entering the municipal building, Kloshi underwent another round of checks, including information confirmation, mental assessment, and extraordinary detection. During this process, Doro temporarily severed her link with Kloshi to avoid extraordinary detection before reconnecting.
After the inspection, Kloshi was permitted to continue deeper into the municipal building. He navigated multiple layers of security until he arrived in a spacious office where a large military map adorned the wall. The map detailed the situation in Karnak and surrounding areas, including the layout of the city’s defenses and outpost positions. Under the map stood two figures, one a Northern Ufeiga officer dressed in uniform, wearing the Pure Sun insignia, with a thick beard and a fierce expression. The other was a middle-aged man in a suit from the Main Continent, with a slightly portly build and finely groomed yellow mustache.
“General Shahab, Mr. Moen… I’m sorry, the outpost in Dosa has been cleared, and we lost the chance to monitor Aidan. This is my failure.”
Upon seeing the two men standing beneath the map, Kloshi bowed respectfully and spoke with utmost regret. Far away, Doro was instantly memorizing the large map as Kloshi glanced at it, then assessing the two figures before him, who were identified as Shahab and Moen.
Shahab, that name was familiar to Doro; he was the highest commander of the Savior Faction in Karnak, now the most prestigious leader of the Savior Faction within Adus. As for the man named Moen, Doro inferred he was likely with the Underworld Coffin Cult, the leader of the cult in Karnak.
“What the hell… we’ve lost the dark sentinels in Dosa! Do you know what time it is?” Shahab said, his tone tense as he addressed Kloshi, while Moen remained composed and began to speak calmly.
“How were you found by Aidan… what exposed you?”
“I don’t know… last night after we received a response from here, it wasn’t long before someone came looking for us. Those guys were prepared; had it not been for my luck, I would have been caught. I’m not sure what went wrong, but it might be related to my messenger disappearing in the Underworld. Perhaps… perhaps they captured my messenger and extracted some information from it.”
Kloshi responded truthfully, sharing his knowledge and speculation with those before him. Listening to Kloshi’s words, Shahab frowned, then turned to look at Moen beside him.
“The Underworld… you should be quite familiar with it. How did you mess up in there?”
At Shahab’s words, Moen fell silent for a moment. After taking a couple of steps, he spoke in a grave tone.
“According to our previous investigations… Aidan’s control over the Underworld should be minimal. With his abilities, he shouldn’t be able to interfere with our messengers, and prior to this, the messengers had completed numerous missions. For such a situation to occur now, Aidan must have gained some reinforcement on an extraordinary level of ‘Silence’…”
“Reinforcement… you mean that advisor sent by Shadi? Is he an extraordinary being of ‘Silence’?”
“Highly possible, and he should be a White Chalk Tier ‘Silence’. This might be Shadi’s mercenary, specifically hired to deal with us. It seems Shadi can no longer hold back and is concentrating forces towards Dosa to launch a decisive battle… and is currently cleaning up internally…”
Moen analyzed the existing intelligence, and upon hearing that Shadi might be mobilizing large forces toward Dosa for a decisive battle, even hiring experts to deal with the undead, a hint of urgency flickered across Shahab’s face as he looked at Moen anxiously.
“That traitor Shadi is about to make a big move… What about your progress? The tomb hasn’t been opened yet? You said it would be swift to open the tomb! It’s been so long already, and there’s still no news!?”
“Plans can’t keep up with changes. There’s been a problem in Kankdar. Robert inexplicably collapsed, and the ritual book has yet to appear… Initially, I thought that the Baruch royal family and the Faraluo agents had united, making things settled in Kankdar, but it turned out to be a collaboration of fools and lackeys.”
Grinding his teeth, Moen suppressed his emotions as he spoke in a low voice. From the other side, Robert’s face showed even more impatience.
“I don’t care! Now that Shadi is ready to fight us to the d*ath, even if the tomb doesn’t open, we’re done for! You have to open that tomb immediately! I’ll provide however much explosive you need!”
“I’ve said this isn’t just about explosives. Those earlier issues can be solved with them, but the tomb can only be opened through a ritual. It doesn’t matter how many explosives you stack; it will be useless.” Hearing Shahab’s words, Moen slightly raised his voice, speaking seriously to Shahab, while a look of disdain flashed across Shahab’s face as he replied.
“Useless for stacking explosives? Hmph, I don’t believe it. Wasn’t the artifact room also incredibly fortified? If one portion of explosives can’t blow it open, why should we wait for some key? I don’t believe your nonsense; three portions will definitely breach it. The divine blessing object you use for the ritual was sourced from that same room. If I don’t blast it out to commence this dead ritual, Aidan’s people will be on us! Are you still saying explosives are ineffective!?”
With a hint of agitation, Shahab continued to speak to Moen. Moen’s anger became evident on his face but he restrained it, biting his teeth before continuing.
“That’s not the same; the materials of the artifact room differ completely from that of the tomb; the tomb is built with Netherstone, and even if you stack ten portions of explosives, it won’t work!”
“Then stack twenty portions!”
“Twenty portions… have you lost your mind? So much explosive packed in the underground palace could not only fail to open the tomb but the entire palace would definitely collapse! By then, the tomb would be buried, and we wouldn’t even be able to enter in a short time! Use your brain, you lunatic!”
Moen directly displayed his anger upon hearing Shahab’s absurd suggestion, unable to contain his emotions, while Shahab disregarded Moen’s words, responding coolly.
“I don’t care! Now that you’re unable to open the tomb, I can only use my own method to ‘open the door’! I’ll give you two more days; if it still doesn’t work, I will do it myself!”
“Madman… even if you manage to open the tomb this way, it will cause Rahman’s undead to go completely out of control! We can’t have that! We need to control Rahman, not let it rampage and k*ll everyone!” Faced with the increasingly deranged Shahab, Moen spoke sternly, while Shahab simply laughed it off.
“A rampaging Rahman? Heh, what’s wrong with that? As long as it can follow its instincts to punish Shadi for stealing its territory, as long as it can destroy Shadi’s Adus and take revenge for Lord Muhetar, that will be enough.”
