The Lord of Ashes

"Master Thain, we only need to climb over this mountain range to enter the border area of ​​the Lycian Alliance." In the evening camp, Haishan, the leader of the mercenary group, pointed to the dark mountains in the distance in the twilight.

A month has passed since Thane and the others left Clark City.

Because he was carrying a batch of supplies and some non-combatants, the speed of the journey was slower than when Thain was traveling alone.

Thain claimed to be the leader of the mercenary group, Haishan, as an intermediate magic apprentice.

Then he showed the mercenary leader his fire wall skills, and he was immediately recruited by Hai Shan to join the group.

Including Haishan being so respectful and enthusiastic towards Thain at this time, it was also because the other party wanted to keep this powerful magician in the mercenary group for a long time.

In Clark City, there are magician mercenary groups, all of which are large mercenary groups with a certain reputation.

This mid-level attendant Haishan is a bit ambitious, including the fact that his ancestors were also said to be nobles, and the fighting qi skills he now personally teaches in the mercenary group seem to have been passed down from his ancestors.

However, Thain's performance was extremely bland from beginning to end when it came to Hai Shan's deliberate attempts to win over her.

Earning gold coins in the mercenary group, or even using his life to obtain one or two noble titles in the future, is not Thain's pursuit.

And he also discovered that the knight group was indeed very different from the magic apprentices.

Back in Peter City, mid-level apprentice Frank soon discovered the strength of senior apprentices he possessed after talking to Thain.

But the Haishan in front of her clearly had the strength of an intermediate knight attendant, but she didn't realize that Thain was stronger. She only thought that Thain was just an intermediate apprentice as he introduced himself.

With this gap, Thain judged that it was probably related to the mental power gap between the magic apprentice and the knight's squire.

Magic apprentices with relatively high mental power can keenly judge the approximate mental strength of other apprentices and compare it with their own.

Of course, this does not mean that the knights do not have the means to identify the strength and weakness of their opponents.

When the knights grow to a certain height, their mental power will naturally transform to a certain intensity.

Prior to this, some knight attendants with rich combat experience, or who had experienced countless life and death trials, could also judge the strength of their opponents based on intuition and danger sensing.

But obviously, our mercenary leader Haishan does not have this ability.

This is just a mid-level servant who has a little bit of drive but also acts cautiously.

If it were a truly ruthless person, even if the opponent only had the strength of a low-level knight attendant, he would dare to go to the battlefield hinterland of the Kingdom of Western France and the Oak Empire to perform mercenary missions.

Rather than just leading his own mercenary group like Hassan, he went to the Lycian Alliance to perform a material transportation mission.

The dark mountains that Haishan refers to are the last hurdle for Thane to leave the Underdark.

Similarly, this is also the most dangerous area passed through during this trip to the Lycian League.

That dark mountain range is also known as the Warcraft Mountains, and has been a natural barrier on the border of the Lycian Alliance for many years.

As powerful as the Orc Empire, they have never considered crossing that mountain range to attack the Lycian Alliance.

It is said that there are magical beasts in the mountains that far exceed the strength of ordinary people, but no one has seen them.

However, mercenary leader Haishan led his team to the Lycian Alliance several times. He said that there are indeed powerful monsters living in the mountains.

The strongest monster he has ever seen is a blue-eyed crystal monkey that has reached the level of an advanced monster.

As long as they pass through the Dark Mountains, the danger of this mercenary mission will be reduced by about 70%.

After a night of repairs, everyone in the mercenary group set off across the Dark Mountains.

There were about thirty people in the mercenary group at this time. In addition to Thain and the mercenaries, there were nearly ten people who were the employer and his personal team.

The employer is an old man with a goatee. It is said that he has some connections in the Likian Alliance, so he came to Clark City to sell food and iron.

After selling it to the Lycian League, it would be enough for him to make a fortune.

The employer's old man was quite capable. Among the private team he was traveling with, there were only two mid-level attendants, four low-level attendants, and even a low-level magic apprentice as a consultant.

With the strength shown by this old man, he is already as good as Haishan's mercenary group.

As a senior apprentice and alchemist, Thane also discovered a trace of the unique elemental rhythm of low-level magic props in the old man.

"Master Thain, I will rely on you a lot this time when traveling through the Dark Mountains." Before setting off, the old man with the goatee walked up to Thain and said respectfully.

With the low-level magic apprentice as an adviser, the old man also knew that the Thain in front of him was not as simple as the mid-level apprentice he indicated.

Faced with the old man's compliment, Thain just said "hmm" and didn't make much reply.

The Shadowy Mountains is indeed the most dangerous area on this trip to the Lycian Alliance. On just the first day of entering the mountains, one member of the mercenary group was reduced.

This guy was not attacked to death by a monster, but accidentally stepped on a special plant with barbs in the forest. In the end, he was discovered late and died of direct poisoning.

"It's Bai Langhua. Tamad has told them to be careful, but someone will still fall for it!" Haishan, the mercenary leader, couldn't help but cursed, it was his person who died.

Although he was an ordinary member who had no fighting spirit, after his death, according to the convention and the contract signed before joining the group, Haishan had to compensate the deceased's family with a pension.

Thain didn't pay much attention to the dead ordinary person. In the end, he just collected a few drops of translucent liquid from the blackened soles of the person's feet as specimens.

Based on the width of the Dark Mountain Range and the speed of their group's advance, it would take five days at the fastest to get out of here.

The first and last days are normally relatively safe, but only the middle three days, because in the belly of the dark mountains, danger may arise at any time.

The next day after entering the mountains, Thain released Owl Qi.

The appearance of Owl Qi made everyone in the mercenary group more in awe of Thane.

Especially after feeling that this was a powerful monster, the mercenary leader Haishan did not mention the idea of ​​recruiting Thain to join the group.

Their small mercenary group cannot accommodate such a great god.

But besides the regret, there was joy right after.

Because the stronger Thain's performance is, it means that the cost for them to travel through the Dark Mountains will be lower.

"How's it going, Qi, have you noticed that there are powerful monsters living here?" Thain asked the owl hovering in the sky.

At this time, Qi's brown eyes looked towards the west of the Dark Mountains, which was an area that Thain and others had never passed.

"There are monsters that are no weaker than me in the east and west, especially in the west, where there seem to be stronger monsters living there." Qi replied.

Qi, who is stronger than the quasi-level monsters, is naturally a tier monster that can compete with official magicians and official knights.

I didn't expect that the Dark Mountains even contained such powerful creatures.