Chapter 66 The Walls at Night

Jace followed the middle-aged man through the door, there were two other young men in the room who looked like apprentices or trainee mages, and an older woman, Morgans was the oldest in the room, he was supposed to be the teacher here.

“I am Master Marin’s assistant, and Master Marin asked me to deliver the package to an apprentice named Martin Harrower.” Jace handed over the package and said, “There’s a letter in here in addition to the contents.”

“I am Martin Harrower.” One of the young apprentices came over and took the package.

“Eden actually had an assistant deliver a letter here?” The woman said skeptically, “And so young.”

Jace says, “Master Marin recruited me as an assistant just so I could help out on Red Ridge Mountain matters, ma’am.”

“So it is.” Morgans asked, “Do you know what’s in here?”

Jess shook her head and said, “I haven’t opened it to look at it.”

“Anyway, sleep here tonight.” Morgans pointed in the direction of the right and said, “The room that goes out the door and turns right and walks to the head is empty and there is no key, but this is an army fortress, so you don’t have to worry about security, so you can sleep in peace.”

The apprentice placed the package on the table and discussed it in a low voice with another young man.

“Teacher, look.” The one called Martin unfolded the orc war flag inside and showed it to Morgans.

Jace said, “I’ll go first then, Master.”

He was just about to turn around when Morgans called out to him and said, “Do you know what this flag represents?”

Jace looked back and said, “It’s the crest of Clan Dragothroat.”

Morgans opens the letter, reads the contents, and says, “It seems Master Marin asked you to help him find the Red Dragon for a reason, Mr. Jace Sesso. Marin was right, instead of fleeing Azeroth by entering the Dark Gate like the rest of the Horde, the Dragon-throated Orcs have continued to maintain a presence here and are still enslaving the Red Dragon Legion, and this flag has disproved my previous suspicions.”

“However, the letter says it was found by mages in Port Minethil in Kazmodan, not Blackrock Mountain, and not quite the same as his previous guess. He wants me to return to Stormwind, and Andromas is going to organize an expedition to conduct a reconnaissance …… deeper into the Wetlands to find the true stronghold of the Dragon-throated orcs.”

“Could it be Grimbletto?” The female mage asked.

“Do you really believe the orcs can find that cursed dwarven city?” Morgans said, “And Grimbator hasn’t had a living soul come out of there since the Barbarian Hammer Dwarves disappeared 200 years ago.”

“I heard there are dragons living there.” Martin said.

Morgans says, “Some people say they’ve seen red dragons there, or black dragons, and whether it’s true or not, it’s an extremely dangerous place, and perhaps Andromas shares your suspicions, but I don’t think launching an expedition deep into the wetlands right now would be a sensible decision.”

He sighed and sat down in his chair, looking at his student and said, “Our Master Andromas wants to achieve even more outstanding feats than Kenrito, he wants to find the tie between those green-skinned invaders and the Red Dragon before Antonidas and Master Crassus do, and Eden Marin is a fellow who will do anything for status and fame, no doubt he desires it even more than Andromas does! At this point, these two were a perfect match. But since the Sorcerer’s Sanctuary wants to conduct an expedition …… damn it, I can only comply, after all, I’m just the same, I’m also trapped inside these people’s game and can’t get out of it.”

Morgans gave a bitter laugh, holding his forehead, and said, “I’ll write a letter in reply, this evening, and tomorrow, please, Mr. Sesso, deliver it to Eden again. By the way. Don’t tell him what …… I said just now.”

Jace agreed and turned back just as he opened the door, just as he ran into a guard taking three steps up the stairs and rushing through the door to brush up against him.

“Master Morgans, we found some signs of dark magic in the woods to the east, the colonel thinks it’s that jackal dark mage showing up again, the previous hunts were failures, this time the colonel intends to lead a siege himself, and he would like you to come along and help, he wants to get rid of that scourge once and for all, and put an end to the trouble at Stone Castle.”

Hearing this, Morgans stood up and said, “I’ll go at once and tell the Colonel I’m ready.”

Jace walked up to the door of the room Morgans said he was in, and Morgans had hurried down the stairs after the guards.

Given that he knew what this Morgans had done since, it now always seemed like he had gone out not to help the soldiers hunt the jackal warlock, but to try and investigate what the warlock had, such as spells, spells, etc. for his own use.

Or maybe it was simply to help the jackal warlock escape the hunt, maybe Morgans is now in collusion with the jackals of the Red Ridge Mountains?

Thinking about it, he felt like he was more or less putting himself in his place.

Jace set his bag down and walked straight out of the Fortress building through the doorway at the end of the hallway.

Coming to the wall and looking out into the woods to the east, he wanted to see what the so-called signs of dark magic actually were.

By now it was dark, the sun had been blocked out by the Red Ridge Mountains, and only a remnant of red haze struggled to keep the sky from going completely dark.

Even so, even with Jace’s perception of dark magic, he could still sense a hint of something unsettling in those woods.

The courtyard of the stone fortress behind them had resounded with the sound of hoofbeats, soldiers shouting, and the sound of the colonel giving orders was especially noticeable.

In the game the most powerful jackal warlock in the Red Ridge Mountains is a guy named Van Gorey, Van Gorey in the local language of the Red Ridge Mountains means bloody claws, enough to side-step the cruelty of this jackal.

And even more frightening than his name was his dark magic. Jace didn’t know if Van Gorey was still being born at this time, or possessed that much mana, but the darkness that roamed that forest indicated that at least some warlocks similar to him already existed in the jackal clans.

At that moment he heard a door open and close, and it turned out to be the apprentice, Martin, who had also run up to the ramparts to come and look to the east.

Jace asked in passing, “Can you feel the Shadow Breath in there, Mr. Martin Harrower?”

“What darkness?” Martin looked over and said, “It’s too far away to see anything here. By the way, you’re still just an assistant, aren’t you, Mr. Jace Sesso?”

“But, I think there could indeed be darkness there.” He continued, “The warriors here are veterans of the orc wars, and they have a much sharper sense of the darkness than I do. That doesn’t mean your senses are necessarily accurate though, it takes talent to perceive magic.”

Jace stayed silent, more concerned about his own unusual Shadow Sense ability than Martin’s disparagement of himself, instead.

The apprentice can’t feel anything, while he himself can see some.

Perhaps with the use of the Shadow power over and over again, and the use of his inner darkness over and over again, it made the connection between him and the Shadow deeper and deeper, and so he was able to detect the abnormality in the forest better than this apprentice.

Either that or it was just an illusion? Jace ran to the sentry tower on the other side of the wall and climbed the ladder to where the sentry normally looked out over the deep forest, examining the forest more closely.

Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to hone your magical senses?

He searched the forest carefully for the direction in which the cavalry of the stone fortress were advancing, and though he could faintly hear the sound of hoofs and the shouts of the riders, with the canopy of trees covering them, it was impossible to find a definite direction.

“Let’s hope they can return safely.” Martin, who was on the wall below as if he were talking to Jace or to himself, finished and headed towards the fortress.

Jace had just glanced at him, and Martin had not even touched the door when he heard a whoosh in the air, and in the light of the torches the apprentice was suddenly dragged into the darkness beneath the walls like a white garment blown away by the wind, without even uttering a cry.