Mercenaries and Adventurers

Tartulons Harbor City, a few days later.

On the outside of the huge harbor on the north side of the city, there are observation towers built with bluestones transported from distant areas at great cost. This kind of observation tower is usually used as a lighthouse to guide fishing and merchant ships out.

The lights of each observation tower change unpredictably. From the simple choice of lighthouse flame fuel to the huge stained glass in the luminous place of advanced lighthouses, they all have different meanings.

In the book Travels on the Farah Peninsula written by Master Donilafa, he spent a long time visiting all the lighthouses and observation towers on the Farah Peninsula.

In his travel notes, he recorded in detail the fixed flame colors used by the lighthouses belonging to each harbor city. For example, most lighthouses on the north side of the peninsula use warm-toned flame colors, while lighthouses on the eastern side of the peninsula generally use cooler-toned flames.

In addition, the towering lighthouse lights up differently on different days in different months. There is a set of fixed and widely spread rules. Every ship that goes to sea or comes here clearly remembers this rule, and even writes it on the nautical chart of the Farah Peninsula.

In this way, even if you sail for a long time on the vast sea, you lose a clear record of the time spent, or you are unable to identify your location due to things like storms. As long as you see the lighthouses dotted along the Farah Peninsula from a distance, you will naturally know where you are, or the exact time at this moment.

For the locals of Farah Peninsula, they can even tell which lighthouse they are seeing from the slight difference between the flames of various lighthouses from a long distance on the sea, and through the fire and light of the lighthouse. The rotating machinery on it intermittently blocks the fire light, and you can know exactly which day it is.

Needless to say, this set of precise and rigorous navigation instructions was built at a great expense by the empire that ruled this place.

Although the Farah Peninsula has an ancient magic inheritance from the depths of the desert, the harsh living environment has made it difficult for the locals to spend their energy in a place that does not have a direct impact on the survival of ordinary people.

The empire is naturally not doing anything good. They need merchant ships from the southeastern region of the empire to support the various provinces along the northeastern coast of the empire through distant shipping routes. Therefore, it was natural to establish a system to reliably guide merchant ships sailing along shallow seas.

Even though it cost a lot of money to build in the first place.

-

However, unlike other areas of the Farah Peninsula, the northern and eastern parts of the Farah Peninsula, which face sea storms, call the lighthouses more observation towers.

Because compared to the lighthouse's function of guiding ships, local people need these tall towers to accurately indicate the coming of sea storms.

Although natural disasters such as sea storms, which block the sky and the sun, come on a fixed day every year, there is never an exact fixed moment. If you stay outdoors when a sea storm approaches, the lives of those who go out can easily be in danger in the very short period of time from when it starts to when it comes.

Huge rainfall will bring about rapids that cannot be resisted by human beings, and people who go out can easily be swept into the sea by the flood.

Just like instinct, in the days approaching a sea storm, there are no more traveling merchants, and all ships return to the safe harbors of various seaport cities and are tightly tied together.

All sails were lowered and a large number of wooden barrels filled with fresh water were carried into the bilge for ballast. Strong hemp ropes thicker than a human thigh connect the boats one after another, forming a 'house' floating on the water.

At the outermost edge of Harbor City, there is the top of the tallest observation tower.

The old mage was sitting on the edge of the tower with Kony. They each got a comfortable wooden chair and sat together in the air, looking at the sea to the north of the city.

Behind him is the huge but chaotic city of Tarturons, and in front of him is the endless ocean.

Master Kony was a little excited, because he knew from his teacher yesterday that a sea storm would happen soon.

His life has been quite regular these days. Every day he is either eating the 'magic nutritious food' made by his companion Harao, or assisting his teacher in sorting and reviewing various documents sent by the society. Of course, whenever there were fewer documents to be processed from the magic instrument that transmitted documents, the old mage would give him lessons and teach him some systematic magical knowledge and research methods.

Rather than knowledge, his teacher was more interested in trying to teach him how to explore magic.

"The journey of magic never ends, and there are countless roads. How you go is more important than where you go."

This is what he often says.

He said this to every mage who embarked on the path of magic.

Kony knew that there was another part to what the teacher often said: "For a true magician, no matter which path he chooses, it is a fulfilling and never-ending journey."

The old mage smoked his favorite alien tobacco, his eyes glowed slightly, and he looked at the sea in the distance.

He turned a blind eye to the excited murmurs and small movements of Master Kony next to him. After all, long ago, when he was still a little magician, his performance when he first encountered the long-famous power of nature was not as good as Kony's performance at this moment.

He clearly remembered how he was jumping up and down among his teacher and fellow disciples at that time.

So he just sat quietly at this moment, quietly tasting the famous tobacco from the other world, while driving the huge observation organ in the subspace, passing through the spatial dimension, and looking far into the depths of the distant sea.

"Mmm, is it the rhythm of the starry sky and the breathing of the world?"

He whispered to himself softly, seeming to have aroused some interest.

-

While the two mages were sitting on the platform at the edge of the lighthouse, waiting for the sea storm to begin, very close behind them, in the flame lamp room at the highest point of the lighthouse, an old man in plain clothes was nervously holding up a telescope. And every time after looking at the sea level in the distance, he looked back at the wind measuring flag placed outside the lighthouse.

The space here is quite large. The original huge brazier has been covered by a round wooden board, with various things and tools scattered on it.

Next to this old man, there are two middle-aged men. Just by looking at them carefully serving the busy old man, you can see the close relationship between the three of them.

"Master, is He here?" The taller middle-aged man asked in a low voice.

While speaking, he frequently looked at a precision magic clock that stood indoors and was moved here. It seemed to be very sensitive to time.

The recent period has been a period of sea storms, and all ships have entered the harbor to take shelter. Naturally, the lighthouse no longer needs to guide ships at night, so now it is fulfilling its vocation as an observation tower to predict and indicate the coming of sea storms, and Accurately inform the whole city when a sea storm hits.

"Well, the waves are gradually lessening against the coast, and the wind is flowing in the opposite direction to the ocean. It's coming, it's coming soon." The old man held the telescope in his eyes and responded to his apprentice loudly.

But his apprentice seemed not to have enough. He took out a blue talisman emblem with traces of sea waves from his neck, rubbed it carefully with his fingers, walked back and forth in the spacious lighthouse flame combustion chamber, and babbled. He said: "The believers should be all gathered in the church right now. Everyone is waiting for His arrival. I, I, I have a responsibility and I have to send the news back as soon as possible."

So, he became even more nervous: "What if it weren't for today? The believers have gathered and everyone is waiting. The dean is also waiting."

Next to him, another middle-aged man who had been sitting at the wooden table snorted coldly. He picked up a pot of local hot tea soup from the portable stove nearby, poured a cup for the busy old man, and then poured another cup. He poured himself a cup and put the kettle back on the fire.

The exquisite local cooling laminated tea cup from the Farah Peninsula has quickly cooled down the hot tea soup that has just been poured, so it is the right time to drink it.

The old man also put down his telescope, picked up the tea soup poured by another apprentice, and took a delicious sip.

"Huh, don't worry. In all these years, how have I ever miscalculated the date of a sea storm? If I say it's today, it's today." The old man quickly drank the rest of the tea soup that was getting cold quickly in one sip.

"And now, let alone the date, I can calculate the exact time. Didn't I calculate it accurately last year just before the sea storm." He said this with great confidence.

The shorter middle-aged man sarcastically said: "The Ring of the Sun does not need to be so mysterious and sophisticated to attract shocking believers. The power of the great sun needs nothing else. Everyone can see it every day when they look up."

On his fine clothes, there are some inconspicuous places with some marks of the Ring of the Sun Church. Although inconspicuous, there is no doubt that he is a formal member of the Ring of the Sun Church.

It's just that you can't tell from the decorations that the other party deliberately concealed what he is specifically responsible for.

"The Lord of the Ocean is also great, but we live on land, so naturally we cannot understand the power of the Lord of the Ocean." The taller middle-aged man muttered, and he naturally knew that this fellow He didn't dare to openly talk back to the origin of his junior disciple who studied under the old man, otherwise he and the church behind him would not be able to sustain the power of the other party.

He could only continue to talk comfortingly in his heart: "It would be different if the city was built on an island. Hey, why are there so few islands near the Farah Peninsula."

-

On a suspended platform a few meters away from the three of them, two mages from the north were sitting. Naturally, they heard the words of the three people behind them. However, they were invisible at the moment, and none of the three people in the room noticed them.

Even the wooden chair he was sitting on was invisible.

Master Kony was not worried that what he was doing would be known by the three people behind him, so he spoke normally: "Teacher, the old man behind him also said it was today." As he said that, he stood up. In front of the chair was the edge of the platform, but After Kony stood up, he stood directly in the air, even though he was more than fifty meters above the ground.

Kony stood up and looked back, curiously watching the old man playing with the telescope and other tools.

"Moreover, it seems that the other party is even trying to observe and calculate the coming sea storm in advance. Can he do it?" Kony was a little curious, relying on those 'crude' tools, and there was no magic reaction on his body, and he had never made a body. Transformation, can a mortal calculate in advance when the power of natural disasters will arrive?

If it were other mages on other nearby observation towers who were waiting for the storm to come, he felt that it was normal for those companions to do this. But can an ordinary person, an ordinary old man, really do it?

The old mage looked at Master Kony, stood up as if shaking his head, and tapped Kony's shoulder with his pipe: "Don't underestimate anything you don't understand. Arrogance, Superman, etc. This is where things like this come from. .”

"If he can do it, won't we know if we go over there and see?"

The old mage turned his head and glanced at the seemingly calm sea: "Besides, there is still some time before the sea storm is coming. Come and have a look. It will relieve your boredom. Anyway, you can't calm down just sitting on the chair."

Kony chuckled, but he couldn't help it. Although he had been in the Society for a while, he mostly studied within the Society. He knew about this world from books, but had very little personal experience.

No new experience in life would make him nervous.

The two stood in the air and walked directly to the top of the open lighthouse. When the two of them passed by the telescope in front of the old man, not only did the other two middle-aged men not see them, even the old man was unaware of it.

Arriving at the wooden table covered with papers and simple tools, the two carefully avoided the nagging tall middle-aged man and carefully read the contents on the paper.

On the largest unfolded rough paper scroll, a map of the northern coast of the Farah Peninsula was drawn. As expected, the harbor city of Tartulons is located right in the middle of the map.

Next to the simple icon representing the city, a thumbtack modified from an ant nail is nailing a small piece of white paper full of data to the side.

The old mage glanced at it and knew that it was filled with the arrival dates of sea storms in previous years. In recent years, the occurrence time of sea storms has even been accurately recorded.

Master Kony also noticed it, and he read out the key content above softly: "Well, the year before last, three hourglasses rose halfway through the sun. The year before last, two hourglasses followed and the sun set. Last year, one hourglass rose in the second month."

He blinked: "Teacher, then this year's storm might happen in the middle of the night?"

The old mage shook his head: "No, just in a while, about noon."

At the same time, the old man on the side recorded the latest data on a piece of white paper with rows of data.

Then, his two apprentices who didn't agree with each other came over and started taking out wooden boards and charcoal pencils, and immediately calculated the new data.

The two of them were equally capable in this area, and at the same time they came up with the final result of the data.

"It's half an hour before midday!"

"Less than half an hourglass! A sea storm is coming!"

The two shouted in unison and glanced at each other.

The old man touched his beard and said with a proud smile: "Haha, although it is not the middle of the night that ordinary people expect, this is the result of my life's hard work. The sea storm is indeed not what ordinary people think intuitively."

He proudly walked around the room, wagging his fingers and said proudly: "Sea storms have a roughly fixed date of onset, and compared to us humans, animals in the wild are more sensitive to this."

He pointed to a cage placed in a corner of the room: "Farah Desert Nesting Ants have lived here since ancient times. Although they are not intelligent, they can accurately judge the exact day when a sea storm is coming."

In the cage, there are large ants huddled together and using the ant glue they spit out to stick their tail and abdominal pouches to the cage. This guy was quite nervous at the moment and was opening and closing the big pliers on his head constantly, not even caring about the fine meat he usually likes to eat.

"A single Farah Desert nesting ant will try to stick itself to a place where it feels safe on the day when a sea storm approaches. Of course, it's not just that, I have other confirmation methods." The old man wanted to brag about how many times he had But his tall apprentice couldn't help it anymore. Although he didn't know whether there would be a sea storm later, was his purpose here soon?

Since the church sent him here to study, it was to get the exact moment given by the old man.

Thinking of this, he hung a prepared token on the talons of an eagle, trying to make the eagle fly back to its owner at the church headquarters.

But this usually brave falcon buried its head under its own wings at this moment, completely ignoring the middle-aged man's actions to let it fly. Every time it was thrown from the top of the lighthouse, it immediately fluttered its wings and flew back to the house. inside.

The old man on the side didn't take it seriously. He pointed proudly at the falcon that was unwilling to fly and said: "Look, the brave sky warrior is not willing to spread his wings at this moment."

The tall middle-aged man rolled his eyes at his master, who immediately turned to the second backup plan.

There are levers made of high-temperature-resistant metal in the corners of the room. These levers can control the lighthouse's magical mechanisms throughout the tower. It's nothing surprising, just some secondary magic ores that emit different colors after being crushed.

The magic content in these secondary magic ores is very low, and after being broken into pieces, they will only emit a magic glow that can be seen by ordinary people.

At this moment, the tall middle-aged man pulled one of the many levers in an orderly manner according to the observation tower control method he learned before, so that the lighthouse faced the city side and emitted a colorful color that could be clearly seen in the daytime. flash.

This was a backup plan agreed with him by his superiors. If the falcon brought to the lighthouse had an accident, he could use this method to tell the church that a sea storm was coming.

At that time, the church that has received the news will carry out religious rituals to welcome the ocean gods in its headquarters.

Precisely welcoming the sea storm during the ceremony will greatly boost the piety of believers.

-

At the same moment, another apprentice of the old man, after calculating the data again, picked up a square iron box on the ground that he had brought. The box is not small, but it is obviously empty or the contents are not heavy.

He carried the box to the suspended platform outside the lighthouse, and opened the box next to the invisible chairs of the two mages. Inside was half a jar of thick, grease-like liquid.

Needless to say, after placing the box on the ground, the middle-aged man snapped his fingers at the box, and then a high-temperature light appeared from his hand and floated into the box according to his will.

"That thing." Master Kony raised his head from the various documents spread out on the table. He sniffed: "It seems to be similar to the ink of a big squid we eat in the sea?"

The old mage didn't even look at it. He was holding an old man's notes and looking at them carefully. The note in his hand was physical, but the three people around him couldn't see it. However, where the notes were originally placed on the table, there was a half The transparent virtual image of the note, but other people in the room did not feel that the thing was not real.

But I don’t know when the old mage swapped the illusion with the real thing. The real thing is in his hand, and the fake one is on the table.

The three of them were just ordinary people, but they couldn't tell at all.

Hearing the student's question, he said, "It's that thing. But I didn't expect that this kind of ink would look like this after being lit. Harao really likes the taste of it."

As he spoke, after the half-box of deep-sea giant squid ink was ignited, a small but dense stream of thick black smoke rose up.

This black smoke rose straight into the sky, rising higher and higher slightly toward the sea.

The dark plume of smoke was clearly visible in the clear blue sky. At the same time, after seeing smoke columns rising from several other tall lighthouse observation towers along the coast, the same smoke columns also rose.

Soon, in the city of Tarturons, the clanging bells, indicating that a sea storm was about to come, rang.

The big bell built high up in the city's castle where the army is stationed will only ring when a sea storm approaches. In the past countless years, the bell rang only when the sea storm was coming, which could be seen with the naked eye. Unexpectedly, at this time this year, the sea storm had not yet arrived, but the bell rang.

Although the people still have questions, they have known since they were born here that when they hear the bell, they will immediately return home and wait for the sea storm to come.

-

On the top floor of the lighthouse, the old man was sitting comfortably on a low metal hollow chair, sipping his favorite tea.

The two mages discussed the old man's method in a low voice.

"The low tide at unfavorable times, and the sea breeze that should have blown the land abnormally returned to the ocean. The instincts of various local animals, and the crude magic sensors." Speaking of this, the old mage shook his head.

"I didn't expect that this person could use these rough methods to narrow down the exact time of the storm's arrival step by step. Well, that's amazing." He said with a sigh.

At this time, Master Kony was curiously observing the large local ants in the cage while looking closely at the magic sensor that was not sensitive at all.

The magic power all over his body showed no reaction at all in front of this magic sensor, which the old man claimed was the 'most sensitive'.

This left him scratching his head a little.

He looked at the smug old man sitting on the side, wondering how the other party relied on such a fooling device to detect the sea storm that he didn't know when it would come.

As if he saw his precious disciple's doubts, the old mage put down the notes in his hand with a smile and put them back in their place. Then he walked to Kony and explained to his apprentice how the other party did it.

-

"Kony, before you explain how he did it, you have to know what causes sea storms. And before you know how sea storms occur, you have to know something that can be widely applied."

The old mage stood aside and spread his arms in the manner of mages talking about knowledge.

Upon seeing this, Master Kony immediately stood up and acted as if he was listening attentively.

This is not a show, knowledge has its own power and must be taken seriously.

"In general, in nature, there are a wide range of phenomena that occur on a yearly basis. Behind them all involve the laws of the cyclical movement of celestial bodies in the universe."

"From the starry sky in the Sea of ​​Stars, to the sea storm on the Farah Peninsula, from the far-reaching roar of the Empire's echoing valley, to the sky kingdom in the Skyrim Mountains, and so on. These huge celestial disasters that occur repeatedly on approximate dates every year, They are all vast phenomena caused by various influences on the planet under our feet as it orbits the sun."

Master Kony was sweating as he listened, because from the various examples mentioned by the old mage, he knew the pros and cons. The unknown answers sought by magicians in many books have been given clear and accurate answers by his teacher.

He didn't think his teacher was bragging, because as the longest-lived human being and the strongest known human being, he didn't need to speak arrogantly. Naturally, people would listen to him even if he hummed softly.

"The gods may be said to be infinitely powerful by believers, but in fact, let them release their power at the level of a sea storm once a year. Haha, I think at least one of them will die every year."

The old mage pointed his finger at the sky, and Kony pursed his lips, naturally knowing what the teacher meant.

As a young man, he did not dare to imagine the scene of the gods falling above, but as the teacher said, it was roughly equivalent to the upcoming sea storm. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but breathe heavily.

What a power that is. If I, well, when can I save my family from my father's clutches?

"Having said that, after knowing that sea storms are natural phenomena caused by the cyclical movement of the planet, we can have a deeper understanding of how sea storms appear."

Having said this, the old mage asked: "Koni, do you still remember which direction we arrived here from the Farah Peninsula?"

This question was simple, and Kony immediately answered: "From the north. After all, our society is in the north, and all the countries in the Northern Kingdom are in the north." He knew that behind this simple question, there was a more difficult question.

"So how did we get here?"

This one is not, "It's a ride on the magic power propelled sailboat newly developed by the Society."

"Very good. So, what's so strange about the deep sea on the northern side of Farah Peninsula? And what do you think of the performance of the new magic-powered sailboat?"

Coming, Kony thought, and he then replied: "We encountered a complicated storm. In the storm, I feel that our new ship is not as useful as an ordinary sailing ship."

The old mage nodded: "Yes, it's not actually that the new ships are not easy to use, but that the depth of the sea we were in at that time was following the cycle of the planet, and the middle-depth sea layer was strongly accumulating huge power. "

He looked at the seemingly calm ocean from a distance: "Small changes in the depths of the ocean are transmitted to the surface with high winds and rough waves. When it accumulates strength and moves toward the northern and eastern parts of the Farah Peninsula, it approaches the shallow sea continent. It soared into the sky and transformed into a shocking sea storm."

The old mage had never seen a sea storm with his own eyes, but after his analysis and inference, he already knew in his mind how earth-shattering a sea storm would be when it appeared.

For a wise person, there is no need to witness it with one’s own eyes, as everything seems to be happening in person.