If you want to control the government, you must first control the army.
This is the valuable experience and truth summed up by countless regimes on the earth.
Then they gradually control the bureaucratic system, win over scholars, manipulate public opinion, endorse their own legitimacy and justice, and finally rebuild order to achieve rule over a city or even a country.
However, in the magical world, especially in the continent of Faerun where high-level wizards can easily crush and massacre an army, powerful wizards and the towers they build are obviously much more threatening than the army.
In fact, a building like the Mage Tower, which serves as both a fortress and a large-scale magical killing weapon, is not something that can be built casually in the city.
Normally, when a wizard or warlock wants to build a wizard tower in a town, the first thing he or she needs to do is to apply to the town to establish an official spellcaster organization.
For example, in Amn, this organization is the only authorized Guild of Masked Mages, in Waterdeep it is the famous Guild of Peaceful Mages, and in Neverwinter it is the Starry Cloaks.
Of course, if there is no such organization locally, you will need to go directly to the lord or municipal council.
Generally speaking, most applications from strangers will be rejected without hesitation.
Only a very small number of mages and warlocks who have won the trust or have lived in the town for a long time without any bad records will be qualified to build a mage tower.
Moreover, after the construction of the mage tower is completed, the tower owner must also assume certain corresponding obligations.
These include several apprentice places, selling a certain number of potions, scrolls and magic items to the officials, providing corresponding spell support when the town is invaded by foreign enemies, etc.
Therefore, anyone who can build a wizard tower in the city basically has a very close relationship with the local ruler.
However, what is slightly different from most cities in Faerun is that the situation in Port Calin is a little bit more complicated.
As early as the Shane Empire, a large number of wizard towers were built here, and they swore allegiance directly to the emperor himself.
Later, when Ivyklathagra destroyed the regime, she also overturned the original order and subordinate relationships, resulting in the owners of the Mage Tower being independent and not loyal to anyone for a long time in the future.
Subsequently, after two or three hundred years of competition between the Entangled Symbol and various ambitious people, nobles, merchants, and thieves' guilds, a tenuous balance was slowly formed.
The nominal emperor living in the palace is essentially a consensus reached through mutual compromise among various forces, so the power at hand is very limited.
Even the Imperial Guards and City Defense Forces, who appeared to be loyal to the Emperor, had already been infiltrated like a sieve. More than half of the officers were directly or indirectly controlled by the Entanglement Symbol.
The emperor, as the symbol of the highest authority of the central government of the feudal dynasty, lacked actual power, which meant that there was no way to rule effectively.
Not to mention winning the loyalty of the owner of the Mage Tower, even the Thieves Guilds and gangs scattered throughout the streets and alleys of Calimport may not take the government seriously.
The corruption and money-for-power transactions in the bureaucratic system are even more shocking. They are not hidden from anyone and are all clearly priced in a semi-public manner.
This means that mages and warlocks can build a mage tower of their own as long as they spend some money to bribe officials and reach an agreement with the Thieves Guild that controls the area.
In other words, the Mage Tower in Port Calim is actually in a completely unsupervised state and is growing wildly at an extremely fast pace.
In order to make the game more interesting, the Entanglement Symbol, the only one capable of controlling this situation, had no intention of intervening from beginning to end, but instead secretly fanned the flames.
However, this chaotic situation finally came to an end with the return of King Shane VII.
More than two-thirds of the Mage Tower owners swore allegiance to him on the spot.
Some of the rest were not at home at all or did not dare to come, and some were subordinates of the Talisman Masters. Basically, they were either killed in the fierce magic confrontation just now, or were killed by Zuo Si when he raided their houses. Even if there were some who slipped through the net, they should have fled by now and would not dare to stay and wait for death.
After integrating the arcane magic power of Calimport, Shane VII immediately sent his most trusted subordinate, Shaud Tarovin, to take over the Royal Guards and the City Defense Force in an orderly manner, and ordered them to enter the streets to maintain order.
As the supreme ruler of a vast empire, his political skills were obviously much more sophisticated than those of Ser Lalan el Pisakar.
In addition, with powerful strength as a backing, anyone who dared to show the slightest sign of resistance would be slaughtered without mercy.
In just a few hours, thirty powerful families were wiped out, and more than a dozen chambers of commerce were uprooted.
As for the thieves' guilds and gangs that were once rampant, a large-scale crackdown began after the huge army entered the streets.
Although at the beginning, many leaders of the Thieves Guild tried to use the original methods of bribery, threats or intimidation, they soon found that the tried and tested methods were ineffective this time.
The officers unceremoniously ordered the soldiers to attack, and all gang members wandering the streets were thrown into prison, and anyone who showed the slightest tendency to resist would be shot with crossbows.
In desperation, the leaders of the Thieves Guild could only swallow their anger, shrink their forces, hide in their own lairs, and carefully observe the changes in the situation.
After a day and a night, the residents of Port Calin were surprised to find that this city, which was originally filled with chaos, was so orderly for the first time, as if everything had become well organized under the rule of King Shane VII.
There are no more gang members collecting protection fees in the market, corrupt bureaucrats no longer dare to openly solicit bribes as they did before, and there are no more nameless corpses to be seen on the streets.
Even the slums that had been neglected were stationed with a patrol team to maintain basic order.
On top of that, a notice written in red ink was posted everywhere.
The above content is also very easy to understand. From today on, the Shane Dynasty that disappeared in the long river of history is back.
His Majesty the great King Sean VII announced that slavery would be completely abolished in the empire from that day forward. Not only would slavery no longer be protected by law, it would be a serious crime.
It has to be said that this decree instantly caused an uproar.
Those who were unwilling to be enslaved were naturally overjoyed, but many people who had been slaves for more than ten years or even decades had confused expressions on their faces. They had no idea what they should do or how to make a living after losing their masters.
In contrast, a large number of slave-owning nobles, merchants, and slave owners began to resist using every means they could think of.
This includes but is not limited to boasting that slavery is the cornerstone of the country and is a tradition of Calimshan since ancient times. Once it is abolished, it will inevitably cause social unrest. With the current administrative capacity of Calim Port, it is simply impossible to resettle so many slaves who have regained their freedom.
In addition, they also tried to unite to organize strikes and marches, paid large sums of money to the Thieves Guild, which was also suppressed, and hired assassins to assassinate law enforcement officers in order to put pressure on Sean VII.
It was obvious that these guys regarded Shane VII as a half-puppets who had no real power at all.
At this moment, the powerful emperor was sitting in his own seat, looking at the intelligence sent by his subordinates with great interest. After a full minute, he couldn't help but laugh and said jokingly, "Interesting! It's really interesting! I didn't expect that after the Entanglement Talisman and Ivyklathagra were dealt with, these arrogant guys would dare to jump out. I'm beginning to admire their courage."
"No, this is not a display of courage, but a subconscious and fierce resistance after the most fundamental interests have been touched.
Believe me, even in Cormyr, which has an enlightened feudal monarchy, if the royal family with great prestige dares to announce the recovery of all noble territories, those originally loyal noble lords will immediately launch a rebellion.
After all, no one in this world would willingly give up their power and wealth.
The most important thing is that your previous methods were not tough enough, bloody enough, or cruel enough.
Even though thirty noble families were wiped out and more than a dozen chambers of commerce were destroyed, the original vested interest groups in this city were still not frightened.
You have to know that authority is largely based on awe and fear.
Moreover, Kalinshan has been in chaos for too long, and many powerful people have been using conspiracies and tricks to climb up and gain more power and wealth.
They don't like being bound by laws, and they don't like having an emperor above them who can take their lives at any time.
So it seems to me that the abolition of slavery was just a trigger.
The real contradiction is that the upper ruling class that controls the wealth and social resources of Calimport wants to keep everything that exists, but you have to take it back in order to become a powerful monarch with the power of life and death. "
左思面带微笑给出了自己独到的见解。
因为当初向苦难之神伊尔玛特承诺废除奴隶制的时候，他就认真思考过这样做可能带来的后果，所以对于眼下看似危急万分的局势早有预料。
“哦？那你觉得应该如何解决呢？”夏恩七世饶有兴致的问。
左思摸着下巴稍加思索后立刻回应道：“其实处理起来很简单，把他们全部杀光一个不留就好了。
不管是什么样的社会变革，都必然是以损害一个阶级利益为代价来满足另外一个阶级的诉求。
对于前者，无论采取什么手段进行拉拢、安抚，都不可能平息他们内心之中的怨恨，搞不好还会对统治产生巨大的威胁。
所以我的建议是，不如直接将其彻底清除掉。
如此一来，就能通过没收其财产实现财富和资源的再分配。
比如说给那些重获自由的奴隶分发土地、住房，运营那些没收来的作坊为其提供稳定的工作，确保大部分奴隶都能顺利被转化成为可以从事生产和劳动的自由民。
这样做的好处是可以最大限度降低废除奴隶制可能带来的短期财政压力，等所有奴隶被转化为自由民之后，不管是市场繁荣程度还是税收都会成倍提高。
除此之外，扫清这些国家的蛀虫还能让社会中那些有才能的人获得上升通道，尤其是冒险者和佣兵中的特殊人才。
您本人也可以借着这个机会多培植一些忠于自己的亲信，对现有的官僚和军队系统进行改造。
最重要的是，卡林港是整个费伦大陆为数不多拥有大量施法者、工匠和学者的城市。
坐拥这样庞大的人才储备，您根本无需担心在杀光这些家伙之后没有人来协助管理国家。”
听到这番话，夏恩七世立刻忍不住大笑起来：“哈哈哈哈！说得好！原本我还在担心你太过于年轻，虽然也控制了像耐兰瑟尔群岛和路斯坎这样的地方，但却没有处理这种复杂局势的经验。但现在看来，你不仅是一个强大的施法者，同时也是一名优秀的统治者。等我重新恢复了夏恩帝国的荣光之后，可以放心的把它交给伱。”
“现在说这些还太早了吧？别忘了，您眼下连卡林港都还没有搞定，更不用提向东一直延伸到蒸汽之湖的广袤土地。就算统一了卡林杉也仅仅只是个开始，北方还有陷入内战的泰瑟尔。”左思不以为意的耸了耸肩膀。
说实话，他对于这位死灵皇帝提出通过联姻来构建一个横跨整个费伦西海岸的庞大帝国，实在是有点提不起兴致。
毕竟在浮空城那边，他可是拥有整整一颗星球，并且能够完全按照自己的想法和意志进行改造。
可在费伦这边呢？ 无论做什么都需要考虑到诸神的反应，还有那群怎么杀都杀不光的怪物，以及来自地狱的魔鬼和来自深渊的恶魔。
但夏恩七世显然并不这么认为。
他的先祖，夏恩王朝的开创者——老阿卡巴·夏恩，当初就是通过联姻和一系列的阴谋暗杀，最终获得了泰瑟尔王国的王冠，并将两个国家彻底整合到一起，缔造了在费伦大陆历史上盛极一时的帝国。
正因为如此，在夏恩七世的眼中，如果能通过联姻建立一个更加强大的帝国，并且让帝国皇室流淌着自己后代的血脉，绝对是一件对双方都有利的好事。
不仅可以深度绑定左思这个强有力的盟友，并且还能将夏恩帝国交付给一个可靠的人，避免出现再度灭亡的悲剧。
要知道在漫长的岁月中，他本人早就已经对权力跟统治这种东西失去了兴趣，更喜欢研究深奥的魔法知识、探索宇宙中无尽的位面。
当然，还有一个非常重要的原因就是在目前找到的几个后代中，根本没有一个适合作为帝国的继承人来培养。
其中唯一一个男性不仅拥有部分兽人血统，而且还感染了兽化症，每到月圆之夜就会失控暴走，任何一个国家都绝对不会让这种人成为最高统治者。
他未来唯一的发展方向，就是被培养成为一名强大的战士或者军队的指挥官。
相比之下，五个女性的情况虽然稍微好一点，有一个甚至被当做了学者来培养。
但她们都缺乏了一样最基本的素养，那就是足够强大的个人实力。
是的！
在费伦大陆这片充斥着阴谋、暗杀和各种恐怖怪物的土地上，想要成为一方势力乃至一个国家的领导人，个人实力是不可或缺的一环，甚至要比其他能力更优先考虑。
更不用提还有那些脑子不正常且异常疯狂的恶魔崇拜者和邪神信徒。
例如传统封建制强国科米尔，历代国王基本都是LV20以上的传奇战士； 博德之门的最高军事领袖伊尔坦大公爵，同样也是一名实力不俗的传奇战士；
深水城更是不用说，众多领主中光传奇法师就有好几个，即便是最差劲的领主也有至少LV10以上的职业等级； 统治银月联盟的艾拉斯卓·银手更是传奇法师兼魔法女神的选民；
作为直面塞尔红袍巫师威胁的阿戈拉隆，其现任最高领袖“巫后”是风暴女王欣布；
无冬城的领主——纳西尔拥有LV12的战士等级，并且他自己也知道实力不行，所以组建了“无冬九卫”来确保自己的安全； 就连在外人看来应该没什么个人实力的安姆的六人评议会，平均职业等级在都在LV13到LV15左右。
在这个暗杀、下毒和通过魔法诅咒别人跟吃饭喝水一样频繁的世界，如果最高领导人由一个普通人来担任，那他通常可能活不过一天，甚至是一个小时。
只需要一丁点的毒药、一次小小的魔法诅咒，又或是一支冷箭或者从阴影中刺出的匕首，就能让其当场暴毙，连进行抢救的机会都没有。
可要是换成职业等级够高的人，那么以上这些行为的难度就会大大增加。
哪怕是对毒药和魔法一窍不通的战士，也能通过其强悍的体质跟豁免多抗一段时间，等牧师前来进行治疗和解毒。
夏恩七世本人就曾经遭到过不止一次的暗杀，所以非常清楚想要统治一个庞大的帝国需要具备那些基本素质，下意识用略带失望的目光扫了一眼站在角落里五个身穿丝绸长裙，看上去稍微有些紧张的女性后代。
其中最大的一个已经二十七八岁了，总是试图将那双因为长期劳作而长满老茧的手藏进袖子里。
最小的一个才十岁，看上去十分的瘦弱，有非常显著营养不良的迹象。
不用问也知道，这些帝国未来的公主们普遍出身都不怎么好，甚至有些干脆就是奴隶。
也正因为不知道自己身上流淌着夏恩王朝的皇室血统，所以她们的先祖才能从那残酷血腥的屠杀中幸存下来。
不过在五个人当中，有一名留着黑色长发、浑身上下散发着书卷气的十六岁少女，明显有些鹤立鸡群。
她拥有卡林杉人典型的小麦色皮肤，尖尖的耳朵表明有精灵血统，身高在一米六上下，远不像其他几位姐妹那样坐立不安，反倒是抱着一本书津津有味在读。
夏恩七世的目光在女孩的脸上停留了几秒钟，随后用略带玩味的语气说道：“夏恩帝国拥有对整个卡林杉和泰瑟尔所有土地的宣称权，而我又是帝国唯一合法的皇帝。
所以统一战争不会像你想象中那样拖得很久，只要赢得一两次决定性战役的胜利，大部分城镇便会望风而降。
如果顺利的话，两年左右就能完成这一目标。
比起这种没有任何难度的小事，我倒是更关心会选择谁作为联姻的对象。
要知道只有在你做出选择之后，我才能将她立为继承人，并且进行一系列必要的相关教育。”
“这种事情还是到时候再说吧。我最近两年可是会非常忙碌，哪里有时间和精力来顾及这些。更何况，联姻这种事情原本就是一种政治手段，到时候如果您还没有改变主意，联姻对象是谁又有什么区别吗？”左思一脸无所谓的反问道。
“既然如此，那就由我来替你选一个如何？”夏恩七世面带微笑的试探道。
“可以，您请便。”
左思十分大方的做了个请的手势。
“阿依莎！从今天开始，你就是帝国的皇储和第一顺位继承人。”
夏恩七世直接冲正在看书的半精灵少女宣布了自己的决定。
When the latter heard this, he froze in place, then swallowed his saliva with his throat moving up and down, and asked in a stuttering tone: "Ancestor... Ancestor, why me? I can't manage a country well, and I can't become an emperor as decisive as you."
Shane VII smiled and replied, "You don't need to be able to manage a country well, nor do you need to be a decisive emperor. Do you see the young man next to me? His name is Sos, and your mission is to marry him in the future and promote the birth of a great empire."
"Ming...I understand."
The girl nodded, not quite understanding.
Because she had read a lot of books, she understood that she had no ability to resist the decision of her ancestor, or it would be useless even if she resisted.
So instead of making herself suffer, she chose to just lie down.
Anyway, the so-called "Imperial Princess" is just a tool for marriage, which has been clearly mentioned in many books.
Compared to marrying those old men or middle-aged men, Zuo Si, who looks young and knowledgeable, is obviously much better.
Seeing the girl so well-behaved and sensible, King Xiaen VII immediately showed a satisfied smile, and immediately turned to Zuo Si and said, "How is it, are you satisfied with this result? You know, Aisha is the most outstanding one among all my descendants. She is very smart, knows her limits, has the tolerance unique to Calishite women, and will never interfere with a man's private life. After a few days, I will start to train her to become a qualified mage."
"I have no reason to object. I'll do as you say." Zuo Si agreed straightforwardly.
After all, Shane VII is one of his important allies in the continent of Faerun. Maybe they can develop some more in-depth cooperation in the future. Marriage is indeed beneficial to both parties.
What's more, the marriage system in the land of Calinshan has never been monogamy, but standard polygamy.
Some nobles and wealthy businessmen have concubines whose number can even reach an astonishing three digits, and their races are even more diverse, including frost giants in the far north.
Therefore, the women of Kalinshan are often very open-minded in this regard. As long as they can ensure their own comfortable life, they don't care how many concubines their husbands have at home or how many lovers they have outside.
"Very good! That's settled then. And how should we deal with the relationship with Ilmater, the God of Suffering, and the Church of Tyr, the God of Justice? Although they openly support me now, I am not on the same side as them after all."
Shane VII asked a question that troubled him.
Even though he seemed to be at ease dealing with nobles, merchants, and the Thieves Guild, he had no experience in dealing with the gods.
Because when the Shan Dynasty collapsed, the gods' interference in the material world was far less frequent than it is now, and they did not have to spend too much effort dealing with religious conflicts.
But what about now? The mutually hostile churches often fight each other physically! Especially the followers of the Prince of Lies, Xirik, who is eager to cause chaos in the world, are all scourges in society.
If it weren't for the fact that the other party was a powerful being with a strong desire for revenge, Shane VII would have taken advantage of last night to kill all of these trash without leaving a single one alive.
Obviously, he and Zuo Si had exactly the same idea on how to deal with the Xirik Church.
"I think it's easy to deal with this, which is to give them certain law enforcement powers, but not legislative and executive powers."
Zuo Si gave the answer without even thinking about it.
He had already given careful consideration to how to use the church power of these kind gods to serve himself.
In particular, Tyr, the god of justice, has always placed great emphasis on procedural justice.
In other words, as long as the laws of a city or even a country are neutral and slightly more kind, they will choose to abide by them and actively join law enforcement agencies to become part of maintaining order.
This means that as long as the church of Tyr, the god of justice, is used in the right place, it is not a threat to the rulers, but a lubricant that promotes stability and eases social conflicts.
After all, in the eyes of the lower-class civilians, Tyr represents absolute justice and will not favor anyone when dealing with things, so they are generally quite convinced of the judgments they make.
Having such a group of people as law enforcers can not only strengthen the government's prestige, but also curb the breeding of corruption.
Most importantly, since they have no legislative power, they do not actually hold the highest authority in the country, and cannot have any influence on decision-making. They are just a group of simple tools.
On the Maztec continent, Zuo Si used the paladins of the Knights of the Burning Heart in this way.
In Luskan, he used the same method to make these kind and lawful people serve him.
Especially the Holy Knight Kaidong, who is not only stationed in Luskan for a long time, but also established a training base to continuously train a large number of professional law enforcement personnel.
Although at first, he simply wanted to train a paladin apprentice.
But Zuo Si was very smart and crammed two hundred people in at once, under the pretext of providing enough students.
As we all know, training a holy warrior is a very time-consuming and laborious task.
Generally speaking, a paladin can only have two or three apprentices at a time.
Even so, the elimination rate is often as high as over 70%, not to mention leading hundreds of people at once.
After all, a paladin is not a warrior, he can become a disciple as long as he learns the combat skills.
The most difficult part of becoming a paladin is the training of the mind and will, as well as the dedication to a just cause.
Since this seriously goes against the instincts of living things, it is simply not something that most people can do. It requires the personal teaching of an older paladin.
But Kaidong was leading two hundred people at once, so he didn't have the time and energy to teach and influence them one by one. He could only teach the apprentices how to wear armor and use various weapons to fight, and then explain the experience and skills of law enforcement. The result was self-evident.
Not a single holy knight was trained, but instead a large number of low-level law enforcement officers who only knew how to follow procedures were produced.
Of course, Kaidong is not aware of the problem yet.
When something really happened, he realized that the students he had trained were actually very different from what he had imagined.
"I see! What a perfect idea."
Xia En VII was so smart that he immediately understood the subtext that the other party wanted to express, and a meaningful smile suddenly appeared on his face.
Zuo Si also smiled and added: "Any stable society needs laws to maintain the most basic order, but maintaining it often requires a high cost. The Church of Tyr, the God of Justice, can not only greatly reduce this cost, but also reduce the people's resistance to the rulers. Why not do it? Believe me, you will like them."
Just when Shane VII wanted to say something, a fat and big-eared figure suddenly walked in from outside, put one hand on his chest and bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty, as you requested, I have already investigated how many thieves guilds in Calimport are involved in this operation."
"Oh? How many?" Sean VII asked calmly.
"Ten... twelve! Except for the dock area that I control, almost all the thieves' guilds have sent out their most elite assassins."
The fat man wiped the sweat from his forehead and face with a very obscure movement, then raised his head to reveal a pair of eyes full of tension and fear.
He was none other than the leader of the Thieves Guild, Aipke, who had once worked closely with Zuo Si.
It was precisely because of this relationship that his guild was not suppressed, but instead gained a series of benefits and privileges.
However, it is obviously not easy to get these benefits. The price is the loss of independence and becoming a subordinate organization controlled by the Undead Emperor, responsible for collecting intelligence and gathering information.
If Shane VII fails in this struggle, what awaits Aipke is being besieged by all the Thieves Guilds in Calin Port.
But if he succeeds, he will become the master of the underground world of Kalin Port, truly second to none.
In the future, there might be a chance to clean up your name and become a senior official or noble and establish your own family.
In order to realize his ambition, the fat man decided to gamble his entire fortune and life after repeated consideration.
"All? This is really good news, what do you think?" Xia En VII turned his gaze to Zuo Si.
"That's good news indeed. All the enemies can't help but jump out, and now you can wipe them out in one fell swoop." Zuo Si agreed with a relaxed look on his face.
Shane VII nodded slightly. "That's right! It's time to take action. If you don't mind, can you help me deal with these annoying Thieves Guild? As the emperor of the empire, it seems a bit unbecoming of me to go into the sewers."
"No problem, it's just a small matter. Davian, go and accompany Apke."
Zuo Si gave orders to the Flame Dragon Knight standing behind him.
Obviously, he didn't want to go into the stinking sewers of Calimport, which were littered with rotting corpses and bones.
"As you wish!"
Davidian worked hard as always. He bowed to his master, then stood up and followed Apke out of the palace.
The two did not communicate at all along the way.
It was not until he walked out of the palace and returned to the territory under his control that Apke let out a long sigh, raised his head and asked in a slightly worried tone: "Sir, before we take action, I want to confirm your strength first."
Needless to say, he didn't recognize that the burly man in front of him was the soldier who had followed Zuo Si in the past.
After all, it has evolved several times, causing its appearance to change greatly.
Not to mention Apke, even the werewolf living in the wizard tower, the orc Rhett, and the dwarf berserker Korgan might not be able to recognize him if they saw him.
"You just need to tell me who to kill." Davian responded expressionlessly.
"You mean... you are so strong that you can deal with all the Thieves Guilds by yourself?" Apke opened his mouth in shock.
Although he had seen many arrogant people in his life, including the killer Artemis Entreri, whose name alone could make the entire Calim Port tremble in fear.
But this is the first time that he is so arrogant.
Just as Apke was about to tell Davian about the strength of each thieves guild, a black shadow suddenly broke out from the second-floor window of the house above his head. He held a dagger in one hand and a long sword emitting magical halo in the other, and stabbed at the fat and big-eared leader of the thieves guild at an extremely fast speed.
Because everything happened too suddenly, the bodyguards around had no time to react. They could only watch as the sword and dagger got closer and closer to their boss, and blood was about to splatter on the spot.
At this critical moment, Davian jumped up at a faster speed, swung the red dragon scale shield in his hand and rushed forward.
The next second...
Bang! Boom! The man who jumped down from the second floor was hit hard by the shield and flew five or six meters away. Then, his whole body smashed a wall nailed with wooden boards under the huge impact force, and slid along the ground and knocked down a lot of tables and chairs, scaring the guests in the tavern.
Normally, with Davidian's exaggerated strength attribute of 55 points, most "fragile" assassins would most likely suffer fractures all over their bodies, accompanied by ruptured internal organs and heavy bleeding after being hit by this blow, and should have died when they hit the ground.
But this man not only did not die, but after spitting out a large amount of dark red plasma and blood clots, he swung the dagger in his hand and started killing people in the tavern.
Every time he killed someone, his injuries would obviously improve.
After slaughtering all the living people in the tavern, the killer had fully recovered and was staring at Davian, who had almost killed him just now.
"Ah...Artemis Entreri? Why are you here!?"
After surviving the disaster, Apke instantly recognized the identity of the person who assassinated him and couldn't help but scream out loud.
Unfortunately, Entreri obviously did not intend to speak, but raised his left hand high.
Before anyone else could react to the meaning of this action, several drow elves emerged from the darkness, raised their specially made crossbows, aimed at Apke and pulled the trigger.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Under the refraction of the sunlight, one could see that the front ends of these sharp crossbow arrows were emitting a purple glow. Not only were they enchanted, but they were also obviously poisoned.
But unfortunately, these people underestimated Davidian's reaction speed.
His agility attribute of 30 points made him a real superman to some extent. He quickly raised his shield to block in front of Apke.
As expected, all the crossbow arrows were blocked by the sturdy dragon scale shield.
At this moment, Aipke's whole body was completely soaked with sweat, even his pants were wet.
Because he was not a fool, he knew that someone must have spent a lot of money to hire Artemis Entreri and those dark elves to kill him.
And if it weren't for Davian, he would have become a corpse after the first blow.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Apke's heart was beating violently. His eyes revealed a strong fear of death. He subconsciously activated the amulet worn around his neck.
moment!
A ring of magic [Shield] appeared on his body.
But just as the shield took effect, another dark elf rushed out from the alley behind him.
Since he was wearing a pair of magic boots, his footsteps did not make any sound. He raised the rapier in his hand and wanted to pierce Apke from the back.
At the critical moment, it was Davian's high perception and blind sense from his red dragon bloodline that detected the danger. He pushed Apke to the ground and used his body to block the opponent's attack.
When the rapier collided with the red dragon armor, the former bent to ninety degrees on the spot and failed to penetrate the body at all.
"Damn it! Who are you? I don't remember there being a master like you in the Thieves Guild of Calimport."
Seeing that the sneak attack failed, the dark elf quickly retreated to a safe distance.
From the conspicuous wide-brimmed hat and the large number of rings, jewelry and amulets he wore, it was not difficult to recognize that he was Jarlaxle who had just left the Underdark not long ago.
Just as Davian was about to respond, Apke asked loudly, "Why are you here to kill me? Are you hired by other thieves' guilds?"
"Yes, you guessed it right. You know, your life is very valuable now. Whoever can successfully complete the assassination will immediately receive a reward of 200,000 gold coins. It just so happens that we need a large sum of money as start-up capital, so..."
Jarlaxle deliberately dragged out the word, and the implication was self-evident.
"Who posted the reward?"
A fierce light flashed in Aipke's eyes and he asked through gritted teeth.
"Ivo, Kevin, Antoine... all the Thieves Guilds in Calim Port have united to issue a bounty on you because you are a traitor and have violated the traditions here." Entreri replied without any emotion.
"Going against tradition? Traitor? Hahahaha! What a poor excuse! They are just jealous of me."
Apke got up from the ground and laughed sarcastically.
Davian drew out the red crystal sword hanging from his waist and assured without even turning his head: "Don't worry! No one can kill you while I'm here."
"Hehe! That's not necessarily true."
Jarlaxle suddenly grabbed the ruby pendant around his neck and activated the spell stored inside with a spell.
An orange-red fireball flew out from his fingertips and hit directly where Apke was.
"Don't even think about it!"
Davian exerted force with his legs and rushed out like an arrow, blocking the fireball's path.
Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With a loud bang, the dazzling flames directly engulfed him, and then he fell heavily to the ground.
Seeing this, Jarlaxle immediately sneered triumphantly: "Idiot! You actually used your body to block the fireball? I really don't know whether I should laugh at your stupidity or admire your bravery. But it doesn't matter. Now I'm going to take away the head worth 200,000 gold coins."
(End of this chapter)