Chapter 53: A Little Surprise!
As the season of summer and autumn transitions, the weather in Modo City gradually becomes unpredictable.
At the harbor, a fishing boat loaded with seafood returns, and soon a group of laborers making a living at the dock come to help unload. Buckets of fresh fish are delivered to the shore, where many merchants have already been waiting. Being a coastal city, seafood prices in Modo City are quite cheap, and supply is substantial. Wealthy individuals in Modo City often eat little seafood; these fresh fish are primarily supplied to the lower-class civilians and the laborers who have migrated to Modo City, and even slaves can regularly eat fish.
The rich disdain the fishy smell of seafood, and the spices that can mask that smell are often too expensive for them to afford.
Sometimes, such spices are equivalent in weight to gold.
“Old Jack!”
A plump merchant approached the fishing boat, glanced around, and slowly said, “Send me a batch of fish. Did you catch any sharks this time? If so, bring me one!”
Shark meat is the cheapest.
For some reason, aside from a few parts of the shark, most other parts are only eaten by the lower class, naturally making them the cheapest.
“Yes!”
An old man with a beard nodded and quickly instructed someone to deliver the fish. Many outsiders had come to Modo City recently, leading to a high consumption of various foods. Since the price of fish has remained low, the sales have been considerable, to the extent that this was their third trip at sea this week. The sailors were busy and took the chance to rest today, many of them linking arms on their way to the tavern.
Old Jack cursed at them and then seriously instructed, “Don’t gamble!”
“Save some money to marry a wife. If you lose it all, just expect to be an old bachelor.”
Three to five sailors chuckled and nodded. Old Jack is a good man; few would guess he was once a bloodstained pirate. Stable living and Modo City’s laws have dulled his edge; he now just wants to earn a bit more money while he still can to leave some inheritance for Young Jack. After giving his instructions, Old Jack wandered about the streets before quietly entering an alley.
A man hiding in the shadows was waiting for him.
“Recently there hasn’t been anything unusual.”
Old Jack’s expression grew serious, revealing a hint of killing intent, and he said in a low voice, “There’s a merchant named Ender who seems a bit odd. You might want to send someone to investigate.”
The man in the shadows nodded. He picked up a pen and made a note, saying slowly, “Understood.”
“You can leave now.”
Old Jack nodded and turned to walk out of the alley.
There is a group of retired pirates in Modo City. Most of them are not young anymore or have suffered trauma. After their retirement, they began to live as ordinary people, but some of the elites still have ties to the intelligence organization secretly formed by Soren. These people are Soren’s eyes and ears. Every move in Modo City cannot escape his gaze. There are even many others like Old Jack scattered about in other places.
It was still early.
Old Jack stood at the harbor entrance, thought for a moment, and turned to head to the Ocean Temple.
Recently, the fish catches in Modo City have been substantial, likely due to the Ocean Goddess’s blessings. Out of respect and gratitude toward the deity, Old Jack has gotten into the habit of donating to the Ocean Temple from time to time. The scale of the Ocean Temple has increased significantly; thanks to the Ocean Goddess’s blessings, the Ocean Church finally reached parity with the Church of Wealth, neither side having the upper hand over the other. There were many believers at the entrance of the Ocean Temple. Before entering, Old Jack instinctively glanced around.
Eyes like theirs even monitor the Church of Wealth and the Ocean Temple.
In Modo City, no power can afford to lose control. Lord Soren allows the two churches to develop their faith here but strictly prohibits their influence from exceeding his grasp.
This is a boundary between deities and their churches.
…
The Lord’s Mansion.
After nearly a week of effort, Soren finally obtained concrete intelligence.
The location of the God of the Hunt—Mara!
To the north of White Horse City, at the border of the Elven Forest, near the desolate highlands in the north, bordering orc territory.
The faith of the God of the Hunt spreads across the world, and thus, the followers of His church are quite special, seldom operating in civilized areas. Therefore, to pinpoint His location this time took considerable effort. Initially, he had intended to invite Gloria to use divination, but the cost of divining a deity’s location is too steep. In the end, he could only search slowly; he didn’t expect to pinpoint the exact location so quickly.
The Cataclysm of Saints has arrived.
Many cunning deities have chosen to hide, like the Spider Queen, Ros, whose whereabouts remain uncertain even now.
Now that the God of the Hunt—Mara has revealed His tracks, plans against Him can begin to be executed.
Shadow Plane.
While working in her laboratory, Gloria suddenly lifted her head, and immediately a teleportation spell appeared outside. She frowned slightly, saying, “What triggered the alarm trap I set?”
A series of spell lights emerged.
For safety, Gloria first cast multiple protective spells upon herself, then walked toward the edge of the Wizard Tower.
Since making this place a key target for their operations, the two witches have set up a large number of alert spells nearby to prevent other creatures from the Shadow Plane from approaching.
“This!…”
Gloria’s steps suddenly halted, her brow furrowed as she looked at the ground ahead, murmuring, “Is this a shadow raven’s feather?”
Feathers and bl**d.
There were obvious signs of battle nearby; shadow ravens are creatures they have encountered before, a large raven living in this plane.
This creature’s combat power isn’t significantly lower than that of Lesser Dragon Species!
“Dragon scale?!”
Gloria cautiously approached, kneeling to pick up a piece of scale from the ground. It was a nearly translucent light gray scale, resembling a black dragon’s scale, but only the size of a fingernail, looking more like it belonged to a juvenile dragon transitioning to adulthood rather than a massive adult dragon.
Gloria froze for a moment, then her expression brightened, saying, “Could there be an immature giant dragon nearby?”
This is a shadow dragon’s scale.
A type of dragon that lives in the Shadow Plane, an earth-type subspecies, cunning and treacherous, rarely appearing in other worlds, and only occasionally surfacing in the Underdark.
There is a lot of bl**d nearby.
However, there are no shadow raven corpses, which indicates that the dragon had no advantage in the recent battle. An adult giant dragon should easily be able to k*ll one or two shadow ravens even when besieged. The only viable explanation for the situation at hand is that the shadow dragon, under attack from shadow ravens, is a dragon that has just entered its youth stage at most.
“No!”
Gloria quickly set up a spell nearby, then headed toward the location of the portal, murmuring, “This must be reported to Soren.”
If there is an immature giant dragon nearby, a lot of things could be done.
The intention is certainly not to k*ll.
An immature giant dragon does not possess sufficient wealth; a dragon’s wealth accumulates over a long time. Gloria feels that they have a high likelihood of subduing or controlling such an immature giant dragon.
The dragon’s bloodline is also an excellent research subject!
As a neutral aligned Northern Witch, Gloria does not mind capturing it to occasionally extract some dragon bl**d, perhaps from spending too much time with Soren.
Gloria is clearly beginning to shift slightly toward the Evil Faction.
…
The discovery by the Northern Witch soon drew the attention of Soren and the Fallen Witch.
Capturing an immature shadow dragon isn’t a big challenge for a deity’s avatar and two legendary witches.
Therefore, Soren quickly decided to resolve this matter first.
The activity range of the giant dragon is broad, but as long as the immature shadow dragon has appeared near the Wizard Tower, with a little effort, Soren can still find it; as for what happens next, it will be straightforward.
One deity avatar, two legendary witches.
Will you be afraid or not!
…(To Be Continued.)
