Chapter 65 – The Stone Fortress

Stone Castle is the most important military stronghold of the Red Ridge Mountains, where the walls are built thick, the castle is also run Zhang strong, next to the Stone Castle waterfalls across the bridge flowing down, pounding phosphorus of the water from a long distance can be heard clearly, very spectacular.

For hundreds of years, this place was the forefront of the fight against the northern dwarves and the Red Ridge Mountain Jackals. For the dwarves, a terrifying enemy with heavy siege weapons, and for the jackals, a madman who fights for his life, a city wall that is not thick and a castle that is not big cannot cope with it.

The existence of the stone fortress ensured that the enemy could not attack Lakeside Town at all without occupying this place, let alone advancing into the East Valley or even Shining Gold Town, and so the stone fortress became the center of security for the entire human power of the Red Ridge Mountains, and its sturdiness became more and more exaggerated with the addition of generation after generation of kings.

Several years ago when the Dark Gate was opened, even the vanguard led by the then tribal Grand Chief Black Hand himself almost folded here, until the arrival of the main force, relying on the numerical superiority that far exceeded the defending troops by a dozen or even dozens of times, as well as the terrifying magic of the Shadow Council’s elite warlocks to bring down the stone wall, successfully occupying this place.

Today’s stone fortress has lost its past splendor because the walls are broken in several places, and there are breaks and gaps everywhere, and the difficulty of its construction is also extremely great, so the progress of reconstruction to this day is extremely slow.

Jace dismounted from a campsite outside the stone fortress, perhaps because of the fresh air of the Red Ridge Mountains, or perhaps because the view looking down the mountain was so refreshing to him, Jace felt so much more relaxed along the way. Let’s just hope that Grid will get back to normal as quickly as he did.

One of the guards, seeing that he was from the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary, took him straight across the bridge into the stone fortress to meet the commander of the place.

The commander of the stone fortress was an inch long man who looked Jace up and down and didn’t say anything for a long time.

Jace felt uncomfortable standing in the middle of the stone fortress walled courtyard, he kind of wondered if it was because these veterans of the great orc wars were more sensitive to dark magic or some demon or something than a mage, and he didn’t know where he was revealing himself?

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“Jace Sesso.” Jace replied, “From the Wizard’s Sanctuary in Stormwind.”

“There’s no need to keep emphasizing that you’re from the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary, I know what’s there.” The commander pressed on, “We have a few mages in our castle, mages are nothing unusual.”

Jace said, “I was asked by a mage to deliver something here, a very important package.”

The commander nodded and said with a mocking laugh, “Mage stuff has always been important.”

“My boss told me to hand deliver the package to Martin Harrower.” Jess said.

“Martin Harrower.” The commander looked around him and asked, “Isn’t that the chap, the one who went bald in his twenties?”

The men next to him nodded in agreement as this commander said, “Looks like you really did come from over there. I’m just a little surprised how someone like you managed to cross the entire valley alone to get to the stone fortress, didn’t you run into any trouble on the way, jackals, fishmen, or anything.”

“He’s a mage, Colonel.” A nearby soldier reminded, “Mages have always had their ways.”

“No need for your nonsense.” The commander, known as the Colonel, finished, glanced at Jace and asked, “Is that horse your own?”

“No sir.” Jace answered honestly, “The horse is from the mage district, and I’ll need to return it once the mission is complete, so I need it some time soon.”

“Call me Colonel Todman.” Colonel Todman waved his hand and spoke to a young soldier next to him, “Take him to the mages, it seems the Lake Valley is really much more peaceful these days than it was before.”

“Also feed that horse, look at that little girl so pretty starving like that, tsk tsk.”

The Colonel stared at the package in Jace’s arms until the guards led him into the interior of the stone fortress, which was filled with soldiers, guards, and civilians going back and forth, and looked very busy.

However, the people here were dressed differently from Stormwind’s army, and from the militia in Lakeside, and Jace curiously asked the man with him, “Are you with Stormwind?”

“Of course we serve King Varian.” The soldier leading him replied, “But after the orc wars, we are now an independent force, led by Colonel Todman, and are responsible for manning the stone fortress and preventing the fight between the black stone orc horde in the north and the Black Iron Dwarves from spilling over here. Of course, it’s also responsible for maintaining security around the neighborhood, which is now mainly a problem for the Jackals.”

“The mages of the Wizard’s Sanctuary were a great help in the battle to retake the Stone Fortress last year, sir.” The soldier looked back as he went up the stairs and smiled, “Colonel Todman didn’t mean to take it personally when he spoke like that. It’s just because things are tense right now and the Jackals are up to all sorts of tricks, poisoning, setting off bombs, stealing, whatever, always trying to make some kind of mess.”

“I understand.” Jace said, “There’s been a lot of tension over at Three Forks as well, the kingdom has deployed a lot of troops there.”

“Yeah? Are the jackals still that rampant there?” The soldier sighed and said, “I have a sister who does business in Gran Town and needs to travel to and from this side of Lakeside Town from time to time, I haven’t been back there in years, so I hope she’s still all right.”

When he reached the second floor, the soldier knocked on a wooden door next to him and said, “Several masters from the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary are usually here, reading books and doing research and whatnot, and it’s so hard for any of us here to turn to them if we’re injured or sick.”

At that moment a middle-aged man with dark hair opened the door.

“Master Morgans.” The soldier said, “He’s from the Wizard’s Sanctuary in Stormwind City, says he’s delivering a package, if there’s a problem call me, I’ll be downstairs.”

“Thanks a lot.” The middle-aged man said.

Morgans?

Jace remembered this person. Morgans was originally a mage in Stormwind City, but he was expelled from the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary for his research on forbidden dark magic, and thus he had been harboring a grudge, and finally betrayed the kingdom and helped the Black Stone Orcs seize the Stone Castle.

Apparently, right now, he hasn’t been banished from the kingdom or the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary, nor has he been found out by other mages to be involved with dark magic.

Morgans was not quite old at this time, probably less than forty, with a long, thin, horsey face and a rather somber air.

He had long black hair and wore a close-fitting shirt and pants, looking at people with his head slightly raised in a slightly haughty manner.

Morgans scowled at Jace, who suddenly remembered that his orcish warlock staff was still behind him.

It wouldn’t have been noticed right away, he didn’t even think he’d run into such a mana-powerful sorcerer here.

Morgans didn’t care what was behind him, though, and just looked to what he was holding, perhaps not that Marin package, but the warlock’s pouch at Jace’s waist.

“You were sent by Master Marin? Come in first.”