Somewhere far away from Storm Bay, Hope sat by the fire and asked Carl in confusion.

Not long ago, the situation in Storm Bay made her a little worried. Bain and his companions even had to occasionally take the adventurers who followed them out on patrol to prevent conflicts.

But the situation seemed to become clear all of a sudden.

Carl even took them on a journey to search for the giant ruins.

Stirring the firewood in the fire pit, Carl crossed his arms and said slowly, "It's very simple, because those guys who wanted to take advantage of the unclear power structure in Storm Bay have come to their senses.

Power comes from force. This fact may not be so obvious in peaceful areas, but it is the truth in a place like Storm Bay where there are no clear laws.

The words spoken by those who wield the strongest military force are the law, and if those words are in line with people's universal values, they will become iron laws that cannot be easily shaken.

Everything that happened some time ago was just those ordinary forces testing my bottom line. They wanted to find a group of "privileged classes" who had a certain status in Storm Bay and integrate them.

But unfortunately, adventurers with good strength do not belong to this list, civilians who are a disadvantaged group do not belong to this list, and the Sailors who traveled across the ocean to come here do not belong to this list.

The Dragon Mark Family can barely be considered one, but the dragon mark cannot be faked.

So the current situation is that they can't beat me and don't want to leave Storm Bay, so they can only honestly abide by my previous rules. "

After saying this in one breath, Karl took a deep breath, leaned against the shadow next to him, and lay on her lap.

Almost all the things he learned from watching TV in his previous life were used to deal with various problems in recent times.

But to be honest, he did not expect the current situation.

According to his original plan, he was going to stay in Storm Bay for a long time, and only leave when his rules became some kind of fait accompli.

"What's going on with Joanna? She gradually became timid some time ago, but when she sent us away the day before yesterday, she returned to her original state."

Seeing Carl lying down, Hope also lay on Ying's body without hesitation, and also showed concern for Joanna's condition.

“Joanna is so submissive because she wants to gain privileges for the Cyrus people.

I plan to train her as an assistant or secretary, and she knows it herself.

So, what do you think is the mentality of the second-in-command of a faction that would allow someone to set up a small group in his own territory?"

Frowning, Hope couldn't think of anything for a moment, but Ying said hesitantly, "When she herself wanted to do something similar?"

Karl glanced at Ying with appreciation. He really didn’t expect that she could think of this.

“Yes, so she never mentioned to me the matter of wiping out those civilian forces, because she also wanted to see if these people could find a way to make me compromise. If possible, she also wanted to use the same method to fight for the interests of the Saier people.

But the answer is no. The construct's cannon shattered her luck. She figured it out, so she no longer followed her family's orders to give the green light to the Celtic people, but decided to become a qualified manager.

Didn't you notice that the divine power displayed by the brother and sister is much brighter than before? This shows that they have figured out many things. "

The scorpion on the other side of the fire pit was startled when he heard this.

"Is there such a saying for priests and paladins?"

"Of course! Otherwise, why do you think there are so few people in these two professions? Do you really think that these two professions can be improved by reciting the doctrine when you have nothing to do?

I tell you, it’s okay for a priest, but if a paladin gets too obsessed, that’s a disaster! If a paladin who believes in the Silver Flame gets too obsessed, that’s an even greater disaster.”

For some reason, after Carl finished saying these words, Bane, Scorpion and the newly joined Thorin turned pale and stopped talking.

Karl got up from Ying's thigh puzzledly, looking at the three people with unhappy expressions, and for a moment he didn't know if he had said something wrong.

But he quickly thought of a factor that made the three of them frown—the priest who had founded the adventure group with Bain and the others! "You are... because of that priest brother?"

Karl's voice woke the three from their memories. Seeing the concerned looks from Karl and the others, they nodded embarrassedly.

"I'm sorry to have made you worry. Rogge was indeed not in a good state when he left. We originally thought that he was unhappy with the decision we made in the end, but now it seems..."

Although he really wanted to know about his former teammate's situation, so much time had passed. Bane felt that even if he found him and talked it out, it would probably be difficult to salvage anything.

"Well, after we find the giant ruins, we will return to Khorvaire. You can come back with us then. I remember he is a Thrane, right? It's almost on the way."

After a moment's silence, Bane nodded.

"That's good. The money we earn from following you is enough for us to buy some property in Khorvaire. We can also go to the Talanta Plains to see Milo later."

"Then it's settled!"

Picking up the juice beside them, several people clinked their glasses together and drank it all in one gulp.

However, Carl always felt that this agreement was a bit unlucky, so he made up his mind to pay more attention to the usual precautions to avoid any problems due to this Flag.

…

Four days later, somewhere near Lone Mountain.

As the group continued to go deeper, they were already very close to the core area of ​​Xen'drik. The ordinary wild beasts around became scarce, and were replaced by various more ferocious large beasts and giant tribes.

The group of six people came to a place that seemed relatively safe and were preparing to set up camp and rest.

"Karl, the key seems to be responding!"

As he spoke, Hope took out the adamantine key.

The patterns on the key were flashing a certain light, and as the key was turned, the light would change accordingly.

But if you look closely, you will find that the light is clearly pointing to the isolated mountain nearby.

"Oh my god, this key is finally giving me some feedback. Wait a minute, I'll fly up and take a look at the nearby terrain. Based on the current distance, we will most likely not be able to reach the cliff and will have to move to other areas. I'll try to make a map of the area!"

Using the flying technique, Carl soared into the sky like a stork pulling up an onion from dry land.

There is also space transfer in Xen'drik's airspace, so it is not advisable to reach your destination by flying.

The reason why Carl flew was mainly to be able to judge the distance between the surroundings and the isolated mountain as quickly as possible after the space jump.

After reaching a certain height, Carl quickly rotated his body and temporarily memorized all the terrain within his field of vision in his mind.

Then, Carl landed back to the ground before the effect of the flying spell dissipated.

"Very good, I have almost memorized the map. I will start making the topographic map after repairing it tomorrow morning. Now let's rest!"

The goal that had been sought for a long time finally had some results, which made everyone inevitably excited.

It was not until very late that everyone finally fell asleep.

However, when it was late at night, the guard inscription set by Carl was suddenly activated.

"Boom"

A powerful explosion was heard along with the roar of some wild beast. Carl and the others quickly woke up from their dreams and ran out of the tent.

In the open space, a petrified bull that was estimated to be nearly two meters tall was roaring angrily.

One of its hooves was wounded by Carl's spell, and it was now lying on the ground, struggling to get up.

The challenge level of a petrified cow of this size is not as simple as that of a petrified cow of ordinary size.

Carl felt that this guy was at least ten levels strong.

"I didn't expect that the record that has been maintained for so long would be broken here! Bane! You take the others to support from the side, I'll go meet this guy!"

Because of the petrification ability of the petrified bull, Carl stopped the others from getting close and instead summoned his own mecha to fight.

A mecha that looked like Optimus Prime from "Transformers 2" appeared in the open space as Carl fought. Its ferocious black external weapons looked very eye-catching.

“Bite your teeth!”

After saying this to the petrified cow that was still struggling on the ground, Carl punched down, making a hole in the ground.

How could the petrified cow have ever suffered such injustice?

It opened its big mouth and spit out petrifying breath.

The gray breath was a little difficult to see in the dead of night, but fortunately, most of Carl's teammates had dark vision, and they all hid in the remaining firelight.

"Sure, you took a punch from me and nothing happened to you? Come on!"

Grabbing one of the petrified bull's horns with one hand, Carl exerted force and lifted up the entire upper body of the petrified bull.

The two floating cannons behind him then floated up, and the muzzles were pointed at the petrified cow, firing two shots with "bang bang".

The petrified cow's body defense was amazing. After two shots, its body was only slightly damaged and not even blasted through.

As blood sprayed, Carl pointed the muzzle of the large electromagnetic submachine gun mounted on his arm into the petrified cow's mouth.

“Try this!”

Dazzling electric lights flashed one after another, and the petrified cow's body struggled violently, but it could not escape the grip of Carl's mecha.

After firing dozens of rounds of ammunition in succession, finally, an electromagnetic bullet pierced the petrified cow's throat and flew towards a big tree behind it.

The tree, which required at least three people to hug together, shook a bit after being hit, and the bullet was deeply embedded in the tree trunk.

In an instant, the petrified cow's body became weak and it fell heavily to the ground, leaving only unwilling whimpering sounds.

Without torturing this guy any further, Carl ejected the melting knife from his other arm and directly chopped off the petrified bull's head.

"We really can't be careless. Fortunately, I set up the defensive measure of guarding the glyphs. If we still used the alarm spell like before, at least four or five of us would be seriously injured, and someone might even be petrified.

It seems that we have to be more careful once we get closer to the core area of ​​Xen'drik."

(End of this chapter)