Chapter 237: The Sea Tribe is in for a Big Trouble
After finalizing the details, everyone understood what they needed to do.
Now, we just have to wait for the dwarves to complete their War Fortress. Once that’s done, at least we can minimize the impact of those strange natural disasters while traversing the Central Ancient Battlefield.
Even dealing with the past phantoms should be no problem at this stage, though it might become a bit challenging later on, but that’s not something to concern ourselves with right now.
“Aiko, how much longer do you think it will take?”
Aiko is one of the few female students at the Dwarf Academy. After becoming a dwarf, her height has continued to decrease, and she has now transformed from a young girl into a true loli.
But don’t underestimate her. She is recognized as the most talented in dwarf forging techniques at the Dwarf Academy and is often referred to as “Big Sister,” although she doesn’t particularly like that title.
She feels it gives off a “tough girl” impression. She chose the Dwarf Academy partly because she likes her cute self and partly because she’s very handy. Her grades support her admission to the Dwarf Forging Academy.
Moreover, she is quite lively and chatty; otherwise, I wouldn’t know so much about her.
“It’s almost done! I’m no longer needed for technical guidance, so I’ll leave the manual labor to those big strong boys.” Aiko said as she put away her forging tools.
Dwarven forging tools are numerous; forging is a science, not just hammering iron. It involves various elements, such as spell effect solidification, special attribute enchantments, innate attribute granting, and so forth.
Of course, she’s still a new student and hasn’t mastered that many techniques yet.
The dwarven forging academy has come over for an exchange competition, acting almost like they’re joining in the fun. Especially the Forging Academy, they haven’t really learned many extraordinary methods yet, and their forging is still at a theoretical stage or just beginning.
That they were able to transform such a massive structure from the ruins of the forging ancient city is already quite impressive.
Most of the modules for this War Fortress are pre-made; they mainly did assembly, modifications, and made it operational.
The powerful weapons driven by Holy Artifacts were crafted by those few strong boys; after all, who can resist such a violent weapon?
During this time, we weren’t just sitting around waiting; we went to scout the situation. After all, if we want to leave, we must first turn this Land of Eternal Darkness into an ancient battlefield, focusing on leaving no trace in our wake.
“I’ve just returned from scouting. Sister Xiao Han, you’re here, and Aiko is too! Let me poke your cheeks~”
“Okay, Minian, let’s get down to business.” I said, seeing Minian’s hands about to squish Aiko’s cheeks.
“Got it, Sister Xiao Han! There were many past phantoms at the boundary where the Land of Eternal Darkness meets the Ancient Battlefield, and the speed of terrain erosion roughly correlates to their quantity. The past phantoms like to linger at the junction; they only actively invade the non-ancient battlefield areas when someone passes by. Of course, they will also attack actively once their numbers reach a certain threshold.”
“Have you counted the specific upper limit?” I asked curiously.
“Uh… I didn’t pay much attention.”
“Fine. Is there anything else? How fast are they? What’s the distance to attract their aggro? What actions or noises can attract them on a larger scale?”
My rapid-fire questions left her flustered, and in the end, she could only stammer out a rough idea.
But this can’t be blamed on Minian; it’s also her first time, and she’s not particularly adept at this. We would soon know this information after we act.
Tan Han sent Minian to scout mainly to help her get a basic understanding.
After all, I don’t care about these details because I have the strength to back it up, but Minian and the others may not be so fortunate.
“I’m sorry, Sister Xiao Han. I feel so useless…”
“Well, you just need to become useful in the future.” I comforted her. After all, everyone has their strengths. Just like Minian, who is very articulate—a talent I envy.
“You’re right, Sister Xiao Han! Being useful is all that matters! I’ll go check again!”
“Alright, no more for now. We’ll be heading out soon together. You should rest here for a while.”
I stood up; even though I wasn’t doing these things, no one seemed to mind my actions.
Because my role is Combat Support; all the previous preparations were naturally done by others. Plus, I wasn’t sitting idly by—I was also trying out new techniques from my spellbook!
I’m gradually mastering more techniques from my spellbook. Although most are focused on shaping spells, that doesn’t mean they can’t be applied to other fields.
I even wondered if I could make each spell create a so-called “spell field” like the Fire Rain Field?
Although that kind of field is immensely draining just to look at, and those who can’t control it have a low threshold for displaying its power.
If I hadn’t mastered “Resonance,” my use of the Fire Rain Field would only amount to dropping a bit more or a bit less fire rain in certain places.
Though it’s somewhat of an exaggeration to say so, that’s how a spellbook works; it’s not something you just possess to use it.
I vaguely remember Teacher Ji mentioning that the first person to learn the Fireball Spell sometimes fails to cast it. Although I succeeded on my first try, I am an exception.
In summary, thank you Spirit Vision… it has given me all these benefits, although it brought me only bad memories during the first half of my life.
I once fantasized about living a normal life like an ordinary family if I hadn’t possessed this so-called Spirit Vision… but all of this is just wishful thinking; I know very well that everything cannot go back to how it was.
But everything can start anew.
With Tan Han’s return, our plan officially commenced. As for that mermaid, she was forcibly stuffed into the dwarves’ area.
Since we brought her with us, it would be a pity to k*ll her. Not killing her is somewhat troublesome.
But if we k*ll her, and if she’s lucky enough to alert others when she’s resurrected, it could cause us considerable trouble with other academies.
So we have to leave it at that for now.
Moreover, the Sea Tribe’s water magic is quite useful; having water in the dry ancient battlefield, where the yellow sand is rampant, is certainly a blessing, right?
And we are separate from the dwarves. After all, such a large structure moves somewhat slowly compared to a witch riding a broomstick, so they need to go ahead to the next location first.
Concurrently, they will check the safety of their War Fortress in the ancient battlefield area. The witches, who do not ride broomsticks, will go with the dwarves, also for their safety. After all, the dwarves have proven through action that their War Fortress is not invincible and needs an external collaborative fighting unit.
As for us witches, we will start trying out the fastest erosion method, making the entire Land of Eternal Darkness an experimental site.
And we will also try the erosion of the ancient battlefield’s yellow sand landscape in the adjacent Land of the Fallen sea area to see if it works there. If successful, we will leave and regroup with the dwarves; if not, we’ll have to think of other methods to deal with the Sea Tribe in the sea area.
Otherwise… we can’t just poison them, right?
How large of a quantity would that require?
“Xiao Han, let’s go.” Tan Han waved her broom at me.
At the boundary of the ancient battlefield, I finally saw those past phantoms that had become very powerful. With their growing strength, their size became monstrous, and some had even deviated from their human forms into more grotesque shapes.
They have no vision, so naturally, no special actions can attract their attention. However, they are products simulated in the dream’s earth veins and obtain information through the earth veins themselves.
As long as they touch the earth vein energy from above or below, leaving information to be recorded in the earth’s veins, they will be discovered by them.
This is a conclusion we reached after testing. Of course, from the perspective of Spirit Vision, the pulsing of the earth vein energy can be seen more clearly.
The erosion of the terrain is also a manifestation of the earth veins surging; the earth veins display anomalies and “erode and assimilate” other areas. The natural disasters generated by the aberrations of the earth veins can affect here.
So theoretically, the faster the earth vein energy flows, the quicker the ancient battlefield’s regional erosion will be; though in practice, the erosion speed can be hampered for various reasons.
Logically, erosion should be quick. Did the genius who designed the map anticipate that we would use the ancient battlefield’s erosion to encircle and annihilate the enemies?
After deeply understanding the construction of this dream, I roughly grasped its operational form. It forms a self-consistent map by shaping the earth veins through dreams.
Different areas generate different effects from the earth veins, which is why the so-called “erosion” occurs so quickly. They are essentially the same thing—the effect of the earth veins.
If the sea area can erode the land, then the land can also erode the sea area since the sea is also a scene generated by the earth veins in the dream.
“The erosion speed of the ancient battlefield is even more terrifying than we expected. Without obstacles, or even prompted by us, this progress…”
Tan Han and the others looked at the result after just slightly guiding it; the yellow sandy land unique to the ancient battlefield continuously eroded the terrain of the Land of Eternal Darkness, and the sandstorms in the ancient battlefield would only accelerate this progress.
The sandstorm is a manifestation of the anomalies in the earth veins. The flowing sandstorm fundamentally represents the surging energy of the earth veins, so the arrival of natural disasters will speed up erosion even more.
“So the so-called ancient battlefield erosion is probably just the assimilation of the earth veins. The entire formation of the dream depends on the construction of the earth veins, so instead of guiding the past phantoms, we should guide the energy of the earth veins instead,” I said.
“Uh… Sister Xiao Han, what are you talking about?” Minian looked at me a little confused.
But Tan Han and others who understood the properties of the earth veins seemed to grasp my meaning.
“So guiding the past phantoms is essentially guiding the earth vein energy.”
“Yes, but the natural disasters bring much larger earth vein energy, and it seems we can take advantage of this characteristic to speed up our progress. The pulsation of the earth vein energy in the ancient battlefield is like tidal waves coming in one after another; we just need to seize the opportunity,” I nodded.
“Uh… in short, we need a more efficient method, right?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
Then we began to change our approach for new attempts, but it was evident that Tan Han saw more from the information I revealed.
“Did you also see this through Spirit Vision…”
“Mm.”
“So if everything is based on the earth veins, does that mean the ancient battlefield’s erosion of the sea area is already certain?” Tan Han spoke again.
“Yes, but to be safe, it’s still better to try it out,” I shrugged.
Time passed little by little, and with our joint effort, the Land of Eternal Darkness completely vanished from this map.
Where the earth veins heaved, the land boiled, hard rocks crumbled, buildings buried deep, shadows dispersed, followed by surging natural disasters and endless past phantoms.
The time taken to completely collapse the Land of Eternal Darkness far exceeded our expectations, and in the end, it was as if an avalanche occurred without our guidance.
The most threatening element that emerged was the past phantoms we had previously underestimated. After the Land of Eternal Darkness fell, enemies from the past phantoms appeared resembling the bl**d Clan, wielding powers and employing bl**d Clan combat styles.
But I have to say, the past phantoms made us realize how troublesome the bl**d Clan’s combat style can be, even more terrifying than the bl**d Clan Academy itself.
Looking at it this way, the bl**d Clan Academy seems to be somewhat embarrassing, performing so poorly.
“The past phantoms are truly abnormal… bl**d Clan form… then wouldn’t there also be Sea Tribe forms in the erosion of the sea area?”
“Why worry about that? In terms of Sea Tribe forms, we should worry more about the Sea Tribe itself.”
“Exactly. The sea area is so vast; the erosion speed might be much faster than on land!”
We flew in the sky on our broomsticks, but there were also flying creatures among the past phantoms, presumably chasing after floating islands. But at this moment, dealing with us witches was equally challenging.
We were no longer guiding the past phantoms to the submerged Land of the Fallen; instead, we were forced into this situation.
“It’s terrifying. The second day hasn’t ended yet, and the strength of the past phantoms… Are we going to lose control?”
“Don’t worry; at least if we do lose control, everyone will have to bear the risk with us, right?” I comforted them.
We witches are naturally in a very “free” state and are also the group most likely to stir trouble. If we don’t suppress the Witch Academy from the very start, we’ll definitely suffer a big loss in the end.
But this kind of thing was not taken seriously by any academy at the beginning.
“The erosion from the ancient battlefield towards the sea area has begun.”
I turned my head to look down at the Land of the Fallen, as the past phantoms began charging into the water, and even the sandstorm disaster behind us was madly pouring into the sea.
“Is this the submerged Land of the Fallen that you mentioned, Sister Xiao Han? It’s truly magnificent…” Minian exclaimed in awe, still like a little fan girl. The last time this happened was probably the burning of the forest, right?
However, the erosion of the ancient battlefield towards the sea area wasn’t exactly as we imagined it would be. We thought the seawater would recede, and its form would display yellow sand eroding the seabed.
But at this moment, it was not so. The blue seawater at this instant seemed to rapidly pollute like the Yellow River flowing into the sea, the once clear blue water appearing as if it had a filter applied, turning filthy and murky, with something churning inside—it was the past phantoms.
The erosion of the ancient battlefield towards the sea was indeed as rapid as I had guessed, but the entities born from the past phantoms after erosion were terrifying undead seas and undead corpses!
Undead beings marched from the seabed, disregarding the seawater, climbing to the highlands that were once peaks of islands.
With the erosion of the ancient battlefield towards the sea area, new manifestations of natural disasters appeared. Initially, most of the calamities consisted of sandstorms, dark thunder, extreme weather, and tornadoes. After eroding the Land of Eternal Darkness, there began to emerge signs of acid rain peculiar to the Land of Eternal Darkness, among other phenomena.
And now… the eroded sea area had tumultuous waves, and I could already imagine the waves rising from the eroded sea, accompanied by sea storms…
Such a scene would surely terrify the Sea Tribe, right?
Just thinking about it gives me chills, and I instinctively swallowed hard, almost scared by my own thoughts. Our actions might have brought the Sea Tribe a catastrophic disaster… I hope the land is completely eroded before the sea area falls; otherwise, if the sea area stirs up even greater tsunamis and natural disasters, no one on land would be able to escape.
This time… it looks like the Sea Tribe is in for big trouble; they probably never expected that the sea area could also be eroded by the ancient battlefield, right?
“Xiao Han, stop daydreaming. I want to leave here quickly.”
“Oh… okay.”
Coming back to my senses, I quickly caught up with the main force. Now we have completely made the Land of Eternal Darkness fall, and we have also practiced the possibility of the ancient battlefield eroding the sea area. Next, we need to regroup with the dwarves.
Additionally, we should communicate with them about the intelligence and assumptions we just gathered.
