Chapter 191: Sewer March
The dragonman youngster’s group reached their destination.
It was a tower.
The tower had a door plate, station 3 was written on it.
The tower’s door was completely wide open, with a city guard soldier standing on either side of it.
Seeing the dragonman youngster’s group approaching, they promptly ran to greet them.
The city guard was being led by the auxiliary commander and pharmacist, and because of the close distance, they had entered the underground before the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps got there.
After the dragonman youngster agreed to be hired by Hun Tong, the latter immediately notified the city guard.
“The Lord Officer has intentionally waited for everyone to catch up.” The city guard soldier lead the way ahead.
The tower interior was simple and had a round pillar standing in its center.
Around the pillar was a revolving staircase.
Everyone followed the stairs down to enter the new island’s sewers.
The sewers were three meters tall and five meters wide, thus, the tall and sturdy dragonman youngster felt cramped when he entered it.
Every so often, there were fluorescent kelp growing on the sewer walls.
The kelp emitted a light blue light that offered a faint brightness.
The dragonman youngster observed and noticed that the sewer was filled with traces of recent construction, it was evident it had just been completed.
The city guard soldier presented it at his own accord, “Two Eyes Island is a coral cage ball tree, and it is always growing slowly.”
“When it sinks into the sea, it will grow very quickly.”
“When it is floating on the surface and absorbing sunlight, it will grow far slower.”
“Therefore, when the new island’s sewer is excavated, they dig as much as possible, so as to not be forced to dig more because of the growing coral in the future.”
Everyone followed the sewer.
Hun Tong had labored to build up the new island, the sewers extended in all directions and didn’t only have a single level to the system.
There were three sewer levels in all.
Regardless of which sewer level it was, all were very expansive.
The dragonman youngster’s group noticed that the further they descended, the tighter the defenses.
At the third level, not only were there alchemy monitoring devices, but there were also long tracks of many traps.
The city guard explained, “After Hun Tong captured this place, fishmen often snuck onto the island to cause havoc.”
“They know a secret spell that can influence Two Eyes Island to make temporary underground passages in it.”
“To guard against these enemies, we built these sewers to defend against raiding fishmen.”
“This time, the fishmen that snuck in must be at a depth deeper than the sewer’s third level.”
“Alas, if only we were able to detect them in advance.”
The group of people turned a few times through the watercourse before finally arriving an underground cavity.
This was the base station.
The base station had a small magic power reservoir and ten alchemy puppets.
These puppets were primarily maintenance types, used for daily sewer cleaning.
There were also two battle puppets.
The main model was the Sliding Track Honeycomb Crossbow type.
This crossbow arrow was as big as a horse cart and could quickly slide across a track. The honeycomb looking object could shoot out several hundred arrows within a brief window, instantly exploding with formidable firepower.
When the auxiliary city guard commander saw the dragonman youngster, he promptly walked over and smiled, “Glad you all came.”
“We are sure to engrave everyone’s help in our memories!”
“You’ve really helped us out of a bind.”
The auxiliary commander was a mere iron level, and he was very self-aware of that.
The silver level pharmacist and alchemist had suffered a crushing defeat against the purple scaled fishman.
The pharmacist alone attempting to find trouble with her now would bring about his own destruction.
Furthermore, the traitorous Shi Fa who had teleported away had likely converged with the purple scaled fishman already.
The auxiliary commander could be said to be anxiously awaiting the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps.
At long last, their hope had arrived.
The dragonman youngster smiled back, “We are humans and people of the empire, dealing with the fishmen is the righteous way! Of course, the other important reason is that Feudal Lord Hun Tong’s high price truly touched us.”
The city guard burst into laughter.
The dragonman youngster’s frank manner immediately won over the auxiliary commander and the pharmacist.
In fact, the pharmacist already had a good opinion of the dragonman youngster.
Because during the auction, the dragonman youngster bravely stepped forward many times to publicly stand off against Zi Di and Cang Xu.
Now that the dragonman youngster had led his troops here to block the casting, the pharmacist’s good impression had deepened further from the former’s honesty, duty, and accepting of responsibility.
A harmonious relationship and mood was naturally good for this recently established alliance.
At that moment, a rumble came from both sides of the passage simultaneously.
Something was quickly approaching!
Seeing the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps on guard, the pharmacist explained at once, “Don’t be tense, that was from us.”
“While we were waiting, we were transferring all the troops we could to us.”
Just as he said that several alchemy puppets walked in, now visible to everyone there.
These alchemy puppets were shaped like spiders. They had long slender legs that were tipped with spiral drill bits and sawtooth wheels lining their joints.
“They are subterranean patrol puppets.”
“The Feudal Lord purchased them from Crown City for a large sum.
“In fact, the sewer blueprints and alchemist came here by Crown City’s invitation.”
“These subterranean patrol puppets are responsible for defending the levels below the sewers.
“These are the Feudal Lord’s treasures, every one of them has a considerable construction cost, and aren’t deployed often ordinarily, and if they get damaged, they can’t be repaired.”
“In other words, the current situation is very urgent, the Feudal Lord is willing to use anything now.”
The pharmacist sighed.
He was a silver level and knew more secretive information than the auxiliary commander.
The dragonman youngster nodded.
He knew of Crown City.
It was known as Machine Crown City, a place where alchemist masters gathered in the present age. It had many alchemy workshops, alchemy schools, and was best at building machines.
Hun Tong had traveled far to Crown City so he could invite alchemy masters and others, along with spending large sums building the sewer system, it could be clearly seen that he invested his heart’s blood into Two Eyes Island yet was willing to part with that investment.
Zong Ge also seemed to ponder.
The port and city guard barracks battlefields were in a state of emergency, the fishmen were rushing in like the tide, Two Eyes Island’s future appeared dark.
Yet these alchemy puppets hadn’t been dispatched.
“Hun Tong is still holding back!”
This was evidence of that conjecture.
This was the city guard.
“It is unreasonable for these people to be waiting here for us.”
“Even though they are two cowardly to advance, Hun Tong is paying close attention and can order them to suicide charge.”
“But Hun Tong didn’t do that.”
“However, according to common sense, the enemy’s large scale magic must be prevented at all costs.”
“That said, Hun Tong has formidable methods too that haven’t been used yet.”
“Furthermore, he is very confident that when these trump cards appear, they will secure his victory!”
The subterranean patrol puppets were under the pharmacist’s control.
The pharmacist directed them to dig down.
When the subterranean patrol puppets dug, their limbs withdrew into their bodies, then they morphed into the shape of a textile shuttle.
All of their limb tips are set at their foremost point, allowing them to easily drill through the ground.
The sawtooth disks along their edges rotated rapidly, they could not only cut obstacles around them, but they could also eject out the earth and rock fragments created during the digging behind the puppets.
“Let them take the lead.” The pharmacist laughed.
“We also have some detection type alchemy puppets; they will go second.” Said the dragonman youngster.
“That’s wonderful.” The pharmacist smiled cheerfully.
The dragonman youngster then said, “Next, we will walk in, you behind us.”
The pharmacist and the auxiliary commander both grinned widely.
This was their greatest wish.
It just wasn’t good to bring up directly.
He didn’t expect the dragonman youngster to make arrangements this way.
“Commander Long Fu really dares to take it upon himself!”
“Running into someone like him is truly lucky.”
The two people sighed to themselves, and their opinion of the dragonman youngster increased further.
Because of the casting, the purple scaled fishman’s location was very visible, like a firefly at night.
The subterranean patrol puppets digging constantly in a straight line, charged in first.
Slam.
Not long after, the encountered a magic trap.
The magic trap triggered an explosion.
The subterranean patrol puppets were expensive, and the explosion merely blackened their surface.
The pharmacist appeared grave, “Encountering a magic trap here. I fear there are many more!”
Zong Ge suggested, “We should slow down.”
“Some magic traps can be triggered with direct collision, but there are many more types of trigger mechanisms.”
“Although the situation is urgent, we should go steady and strike hard.”
“I believe that of the magic traps the enemy has deployed, there are sure to be those that activate upon sensing life aura.”
Zong Ge’s words had to be pompous, while in reality he wasn’t thinking that.
Zong Ge’s true opinion was that since Hun Tong had been holding back and wasn’t worried, while the city guard was cowering and unwilling to take the lead, then the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps as an outsider and hired help, shouldn’t be rushing.
Zong Ge used a look to communicate with the dragonman youngster.
The two had a mutual understanding, thus the dragonman youngster nodded at once and asked the pharmacist if he had any method of detecting magic traps?
The pharmacist looked distressed and claimed he was a magician that only made medicine.
The dragonman youngster frowned, “You are our only caster, only you can sense these magic traps.”
“Being a magician doesn’t mean you can detect magic traps. In fact, many battle skills are enough to target these magic traps.” The pharmacist grimaced.
“Cough, cough, cough.”
He suddenly coughed, and clutched his chest, “I was gravely wounded in the last battle, it’d be difficult to offer assistance in this respect.”
The pharmacist’s heart was filled with cowardice and guilt, he didn’t dare to face up to the dragonman youngster.
He had outnumbered the purple scaled fishman in the last fight yet still lost. To save his tiny life now, he no longer wanted to fight.
The dragonman youngster sighed, “Since that is so, then we will have to use alchemy puppets to find them as best as possible, but if that happens, then our marching speed will be too…”
The pharmacist and auxiliary commander nodded repeatedly, the latter even said, “We cannot fall into the enemy’s evil schemes! If the magic traps kill or injure too many, even if we get to them, we will lack the power to fight.”
Their reactions were actually within the dragonman youngster’s expectations.
He deliberately asked because he wanted to obtain that answer.
Although Hun Tong had offered a high price, the dragonman youngster didn’t want to exchange his troops’ lives for these riches.