Chapter 607 - 572: The Mercenary Tavern in the Demon Race’s Garrison
Tachiusu left 20 Vine Demons behind to continue salvaging timber, then led her tribe of 150 aboard the Flying. Compared to the first mission against the Evil Branch Tribe when her tribe had just over 100 Vine Demons, the Vine Demon Tribe had clearly increased their forces by a substantial amount.
The Flying then silently submerged into the Blood Sea once again.
Da Fei took out the Space Marker Divine Artifact, into which Makar had input the map of the Demon Race’s rear base, and began to select a target for the attack.
There were more than twenty maps, each with different topographies and possibly not in the same space, including ten with lakes. Da Fei picked a large lake that was most suitable for the Flying to navigate and a base on the lakeshore that was relatively large in scale.
After all, a surprise attack often yields the most accessible bounty on the first try, so such a precious opportunity shouldn’t be wasted on minor territories. If one is to act, it should be a grand slam from the get-go.
Then, with a flash of light and a shift in scenery, the Flying appeared in a dim underground lake space. This transport instantly consumed 30,000 Mana from three Magic Charging Crystals!
Damn! How far did we just travel? Da Fei was secretly alarmed and felt that the 10 "backup batteries" were absolutely insufficient, barely enough for one round trip. And the less sufficient they were, the more he had to cherish this opportunity for a raid, to burn, kill, and plunder everything before the Demons had a chance to react!
At that moment, a Hell Race transfer station on the lakeshore was brightly lit, surrounded by a ring of apparently low-level walls and a few scattered watchtowers. For a transfer station, these specs almost matched those of a Human Race village.
Perfect, you’re the exact type of village I aim to plunder! Da Fei immediately dispatched the Blood Eagle to scout the details.
At the time, the station was bustling with people, with a large number of workers moving supplies from the warehouse onto paddle boats at the lakeshore. Clearly, the war at the front lines must have failed, prompting the rear bases to start evacuating assets. However, now that I’m here, don’t even think about taking a single needle or thread!
Due to the poor lighting underground, Da Fei lowered Little Fei’s altitude to scout what these supplies were, to decide whether to rob, smash, or burn them. It was then that Da Fei was shocked to discover that the workers moving the supplies were not only Demon Children from the Hell Race but also various other species that clearly weren’t Demons!
There were dwarfs, Lizardmen, Kobolds, and so on! Among them, a particularly numerous species with big round heads and long tails were none other than the legendary underground species, the Cave People! Bloody hell, aren’t these the Cave People slaves, the level 0 troops of the hidden Dark Elf force? This means that they are slaves captured by the Demon Race from their many conquests; every common intelligent being of the underground was here.
However, these underground slaves weren’t specialized production troops of level 0 but rather ordinary NPCs! Of course, they had to be NPCs since typical troop types do not possess production capabilities—only NPCs can do that.
In that instant, Da Fei was moved. My Radiant City is in need of population, right? If I could integrate even the detested Fishmen, what’s there I can’t embrace? If even the Demons are gathering a grand assembly of the underground races, surely I can’t be outdone by the Demons? Let’s have a great unity of underground races!
Alright, let’s see if we can succeed! Da Fei began to check the defensive forces.
On the station walls, hundreds of Three-headed Dogs, Banshees, and the Hell Horse Army were patrolling back and forth—it was the Hell Race’s famous tactic of controlling the field with an assault combination of horses, chickens, and dogs. This number was more than enough for small troops, but appeared flimsy before Da Fei, not to mention being undirected units without a hero to lead them, no different from wild monsters. Next, there were a few tall Double-headed ogres supervising the work in the station, who seemed fierce but were still few in number.
Good, all in all, the total number of enemy forces wouldn’t exceed a thousand, which was a decent level of force for a rear base.
Next was to check the facilities within the station. The station had altogether six warehouses with a capacity of about 1000 units each, then there were some living quarters, and even a large tavern, but there was no administrative hall.
The simplest way to determine if a group of buildings is a village is to see if there is an administrative hall. Without an administrative hall, it is not considered a territory, lacking all territorial indicators, and NPCs wouldn’t automatically appear; naturally, upgrading territory would be impossible. And the only way to obtain an administrative hall was through a Sealing Order.
In fact, as long as there was a blueprint and building materials, one could construct buildings anywhere. For example, when Da Fei first planted the construction of Anemone King on a small island in the Nether Sea, the system also prompted him: This was not within the territory of the Alliance he belonged to and could be occupied or destroyed by enemies. Similarly, those Demon Race Factories, camps, and walls by the Pool of Radiance were considered invasive constructions.
For players, the greatest tactical value of invasive constructions was to build Arrow Towers within the territory of hostile nations or at long-term leveling spots in the wilderness—that’s the so-called Arrow Tower tactic. Therefore, the blueprint for the Arrow Tower was quite expensive in the player market. But for an official territory, the Arrow Tower is included in the list of Basic Defense facilities in town construction and can be built within the town’s territory without needing a blueprint.
In short, Da Fei had already scoped out the rough strength of this group of wild buildings—it would be a piece of cake to capture them.
Now, under the faint coverage of the mist, the Flying silently approached the dock like a lurking invisible giant crocodile; all the ships and workers on the dock fell within the range of the Flying’s starboard Crossbow Cannons.
But it wasn’t enough; they needed to get closer. My goal is not to slaughter indiscriminately but to kill selectively, with precision. I want to capture them alive!
We’re getting closer, closer and closer. All the workers on the dock are now within the firing range of the Jungle Hunters on the deck of the Flying.
There’s nothing to say now, take action! Da Fei waved his hand grandly: "Prioritize bombarding the Demons and Arrow Towers!"
——Boom Pah Pah!!! With a shudder of the Flying, the gun doors of the starboard Gun Cabin opened in unison, and two rows of Crossbow Arrows whooshed out, blasting toward the Watchtowers on the city wall! At the same time, hundreds of densely packed Jungle Hunter Units on the deck, temporarily assigned by Anlicia from the Kingdom, simultaneously drew their bows, unleashing a volley of arrows with a whoosh!
In that instant, the hundreds of Demon Children toiling at the dock screamed as they fell, and the Watchtowers were engulfed in clouds of dust!
The gigantic bulk of the Flying also revealed itself from the void!
The other workers of various races on the dock immediately screamed, dropping their cargo and scattering in all directions. The entire garrison was instantly filled with the piercing alarm. It was at this point that Da Fei noticed that these supplies were things like "Mysterious Ore"—to loot or not to loot?
As the alarm sounded, a crowd rushed out from the tavern, and looking at the colorful auras beneath their feet, Da Fei’s jaw dropped to the ground! Heroes! All heroes! Kobold heroes, Cave People heroes, Lizardman heroes—it was a complete set of heroes from various underground races! The most conspicuous among them was actually a fatty Ogre Hero!
Holy moly! Da Fei’s jaw dropped in shock! He thought there were no heroes leading troops in this area, but now it seemed not only were there heroes, there were frighteningly many! What the heck is this place? A gathering of great heroes!
Could it be? Da Fei zoomed in with Little Fei again to check the signboard of the tavern and finally realized—this tavern was no ordinary tavern, it was the legendary special neutral facility, the Wandering Mercenary Tavern!
——Wandering Mercenary Tavern: A neutral facility where players can encounter some very rare heroes and powerful troop types in the tavern. Players can pay a high price to have them fight for you for a period of time.
Neutral facilities, as mentioned before, are the same type of entity as the Lighthouse and the War Academy that increase player Attack and Defense. But of course, this Mercenary Tavern is not a typical tavern for hiring Vice Heroes in towns. The mercenary heroes here are powerful, and their troops come with strong elites and even boss-level units. As long as players can afford it, they will fight for the player, but will never join the player’s team as a Vice Hero.
Sometimes, when players encounter particularly tough battles, being fortunate enough to encounter such a tavern in the wilderness is undoubtedly a good way to solve problems.
However, under normal circumstances, such facilities, like the Lighthouse and War Academy, are publicly open to all players. For this tavern to be surrounded by the Demon Race’s station was quite abnormal! This was just like some unscrupulous players during the open beta who monopolized facilities and charged admission fees, right?
At this moment, there was no time for further thought. With the appearance of these heroes, the tavern seemed to pour out a large number of various underground creatures like beans, instantly filling the streets! Especially those dozen or so Double-headed Cannibal Magicians as tall as small houses, downright boss-level!
My freakin’ goodness! Now, the total troop count and combat power of the opponents were not only no less than my own but even more formidable! The possibility of capturing slaves alive for persuasion was impossible!
Then, well, no choice, fight! My huge advantage is having the water fortress-like Flying—it’s an unstoppable presence no matter how many troops you have!
Da Fei gave another grand wave: "Blow up the paddle boats on the dock!"
——Boom Pah!!! Another volley of Crossbow Cannons fired, and paddle boats on the dock were blasted into splinters amidst the spraying water!
Wahahaha! I’ll make you stare in vain!
Sure enough, these Underground Heroes quickly assessed the situation; not only did they not foolhardily rush to the dock to exchange fire with the Flying, they promptly pulled back their forces beyond the range of the Garrison’s Crossbow Cannons.
Now it was Da Fei who was left staring in vain, damn it! If you guys don’t charge, it’s going to be very troubling for me!
Da Fei couldn’t help but sigh to himself, it’s pitiful, loathsome, lamentable—if I could bring up the Ancient Tree Fortress, I could land-tank them just the same!
At this moment, Elena came up to Da Fei with a smile and asked, "Master, shall I set it on fire with a single blast?"
Da Fei helplessly waved his hand: "Burn it down!"
Damn it, this trip I met my match, and not to mention recruiting slaves, even sending Vine Demons ashore to grab some corpses comes with huge risks. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets, your support is my utmost motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)