Soul of Burning Steel

When Joshua returned to the Lord's Mansion, his private collection room - a hall full of all kinds of giant dragon heads that had been miniaturized by magic, he learned some new things from other Lord's Mansion attendants. news.

For example, his reward for participating in the Dragon War.

A few months ago, the warrior fought bloody battles in the Holy Mountain of the Far Sea, and almost died. Thanks to the help of the natural teacher, Pope Eagle and several other extreme-level clergymen, he did not really die.

Naturally, the process is difficult, but the rewards are rich.

Just before the start of the war, as Joshua's weapons, Hotaru and Rin had already been strengthened to the level of holy weapons, and the empire also sent a floating battleship—although the Gale was already in the middle of the war. He was knocked down by a certain extreme dragon, and the wreckage was recovered by the Imperial Magic Laboratory, but the soldier had already had a good time, and he couldn't afford it anyway, so it didn't matter at all.

The rewards after the war are even more generous. Leaving aside the issue of the favorability of the priests and the reputation of the Holy Mountain, the material rewards alone are already countless.

Because of the losses caused by the war, the funds of the Church of the Seven Gods are not even enough to repair the original defensive circle on the holy mountain, so they did not give a pure monetary return, but mortgaged various materials.

Joshua looked at the list in his hand, then turned his head, and looked at a large iron blue box that was carefully placed there by the maid in the corner of the hall not far away.

The control core of 500 magical automatic puppets, and the supporting control manual.

"...Because there is no money to make a puppet body, why don't you just send me the control core theory..."

Joshua muttered to himself, but he also knew that 500 cores of automatic puppets were considered a very expensive reward. For the Moldavian Territory, which does not lack minerals and casters, it is almost It is equivalent to a sudden increase of 500 silver-level combat power, and handing over the core means that the final manufacturing method is also handed over to Joshua and the empire. In this way, the Church of the Seven Gods is still very sincere of.

Lowering his head and continuing to look at the list, Joshua blinked, then turned his head to look at the other side of the hall.

There, there is a huge iron box engraved with miniature magic, and there are several large characters written in the font of the Far South Kingdom on it, "Precious items, handle with care."

"Floating ring."

The soldier nodded, he almost forgot about this thing.

Because Hei, who is a giant dragon and a mount, can't fly, every time Joshua wants to hurry or fight some flying enemies, he can only play by himself instead of driving the dragon, so the warriors have always been concerned about this. There are quite complaints, but the floating ring can solve this problem.

The floating ring developed by the Church of the Seven Gods in order to allow the giant war puppets to have the ability to fly was rejected for various reasons. In the end, only one prototype was produced. Finally, they modified the prototype so that it could match Hei's body, allowing this aquatic fire dragon to fly, and it has since dominated land, sea and air.

The floating ring can rely on the equipped magic power for self-defense, but before it is equipped, it is just a pile of fragile iron blocks engraved with runes. This huge iron box is placed firmly on a sheepskin carpet, enough to see Be careful of those who come out of the porter.

"However, I remember that Hei seems to be a little afraid of heights..."

Thinking of this, Joshua couldn't help frowning, but then, his brows relaxed immediately: "Whatever she thinks, anyway, if you practice more, you can definitely learn it."

Heilong, who was receiving the cleaning service of Shenji sister and brother, suddenly trembled and shivered. Amid the dissatisfied reprimands from Yingying and Rin, Heilong, who was awakened from sleep, carefully looked around. But the source of that dangerous chill could not be found.

In addition to these things, there are many odds and ends of items and personnel, such as a complete set of the latest alchemy laboratory equipment, several elite clergymen who were specially sent to join the College of Wintercastle for teaching, five pairs of One male and one female winged war horses, and many special high-quality holy water... All in all, the Church of the Seven Gods definitely showed their sincerity, and the list was so long that even the soldiers didn't bother to read on.

Most of the materials for the holy mountain will arrive in Moldavia before spring comes, and what is placed in the hall now is the most valuable batch sent by using the teleportation spell.

On the other hand, although the empire's rewards are not as generous as those of the Holy Mountain, they are indeed quite a lot.

Not to mention the pure money, the prestige of the empire, and the rewards related to the family and noble titles, the Moldavian territory can now have an army of 3,000 people, which is more like a policeman than the city defense army and patrol guards. It is different from the private army and knights belonging to Joshua. This is a formal army organization, and it is a team that can receive subsidies from the Imperial Army.

Originally, most of Moldavia's official troops were stationed in the Black Forest Fortress, fighting against the Kuroshio year after year, but now, except for the Black Forest Fortress, which can increase its personnel, the soldiers stationed in other villages and towns except the main city There is also a great leeway in the establishment, which is indeed a very important thing for the Northern Territory, which suffers from cultists and adventurers. Most importantly, most of the expenses are paid by the Imperial Army. Why not do it.

In fact, just this reward is completely enough, but it is obvious that the empire is not short of money, so it is not willing to treat Joshua badly.

In his own name, Israel once promised to provide Joshua with a batch of materials that can improve the divine machine. This is not the same as the Holy Mountain infiltrating with the power of the holy light, but another kind of improvement. Now , This batch of supplies is already on the way. According to the herald, it has already arrived at the checkpoint in the Ural Mountains, and it will only take more than ten days to reach Moldavia.

In addition, it is a small floating airship. This 37-meter-long airship inherits the establishment of the Gale, and is equipped with a large number of magic weapons. A new product created from the experimental data obtained on the original Gale, it can not only fly rapidly in the air, but also dive into the sea water - this is a warship for both sea and air, the reason why the laboratory I gave it to Joshua in the hope that the soldiers would help them collect data while traveling.

After all, everyone knows that the Earl of Moldavia has never been someone who can stay in the territory for a long time.

The following bits and pieces, as well as the thank you from the Moldovan leader, are too cumbersome, but a few days ago, Brandon, who had advanced to the extreme, was preparing to return to the imperial capital after being warm with his wife and daughter. , specially came to meet with Joshua. Apart from exchanging ideas with the warrior, he also told the warrior an important news.

"The imperial capital is very unstable now."

When the blond swordsman said this, he was arranging his collar, but it could be seen that he was not a guy who would deal with clothes. After struggling for a long time and finally giving up, Brandon seemed to be trying to cover up his Embarrassed, he said to the expressionless Joshua in a serious tone: "His Majesty the Emperor has not appeared on a formal occasion for a long time since he returned from the Holy Mountain. According to Mr. Nostradamus, he seems to have been Why are things troublesome, and the atmosphere among the nobles of the imperial capital is also very weird."

"You know." Speaking of this, Brandon shrugged: "I've been in the Northland for too long, so I don't know the situation very well, but I can vaguely guess why—it's all because of the second prince, Demoore Diamond, Joshua, you have met him once, and you should understand that this is a dispute within the imperial family, be careful, someone may already see you as a thorn in the side."

At that time, Joshua scratched his head inexplicably, and then moved his fingers subconsciously.

"Treat me as a thorn in the side? I said, shouldn't they be the ones who should be careful?"

The blond swordsman's speechless expression flashed in his mind, and the soldier suddenly remembered something, and he thought with some annoyance: "Damn, I forgot to borrow his Order Double Blades from Brandon again."

But this is not a big deal, the blond swordsman often comes to Northland to meet Verdani, so it doesn't matter if he asks again next time.

Peaceful days always pass quickly, more than ten days pass by in a flash, but in these ten days, many things have happened.

After experiencing an adventure in the Great Ajax Mountains, the students of Cold Winter Castle ushered in another practical test, but this time the first place was not the brother and sister Ivan and Amira, but they The half-dwarf in the team, this robust half-dwarf who has just grown up and awakened the racial talents of anti-magic skin and stone skin, is basically invincible in today's black iron-level academy at most, he laughed loudly He knocked down a dozen desperate opponents, and kicked his good friends off the ring one by one.

After studying for a long time, the two deans, Joshua and Nostradamus, finally decided to let this half-dwarf student with poor grades in the written test choose whether to transfer to the newly established Warriors Branch or continue to stay. In the main courtyard of the spellcaster, the result was unexpected. This little guy named Nick was an unexpectedly devout believer of the Seven Gods. He was spotted by several gold-level priests from the Church of the Seven Gods and became a young Paladin Apprentice.

As for those young white dragons, they thrived under the leadership of the blue dragon Sularno. In just a few months, some young white dragons have learned to control magic and fly with two wings—generally speaking, they prefer water The white dragon with the ice element should first awaken the ability to control ice and liquid, rather than the auxiliary flight of the atmosphere system, but their mentor is a blue dragon after all, and it is helpless to be affected by the free elements of the other party. Things.

And there is also a lot of good news from the dwarf gathering place.

Last time, it was sent together with the Holy Mountain Express, which was a notice from the old dwarf Moria. By studying the special living metal on Steel Element No. 1, they have successfully produced a brand new rune puppet. , but under the test, there are still many unsatisfactory places. For example, as long as the distance from the first number is too far, the living metal will slowly lose its activity and become an ordinary alloy again within a few days.

In the past ten days, the rune dwarves have made a big breakthrough. By imitating the energy flow in Number One's body, they have successfully kept the rune puppets alive for more than ten days. Of course, this is far from enough , but Joshua believes that the dwarves who have found the right path should be able to get the final result soon.

In this way, what you promise to someone can be done.

Starfall 834, February 18th, Moldavia, main city, lord's mansion.

Joshua is enjoying his lunch in the restaurant.

A warrior who has reached the state of ultimate intent can no longer obtain enough energy to maintain his body from eating, and even the energy consumed by his digestive organs is far more than the nutrients contained in ordinary ingredients, but no matter what, eating has always been important. Not just to live on.

The main dish on the table was a steak made from the most essence of the tenderloin of a demon cow. It was fried on the outside, charred on the outside and tender on the inside.

The side dishes are all kinds of magic plants, special dishes cooked with the flesh and blood of monsters. The simple taste is second to none. Each dish can provide a lot of magic power to strengthen the body and spirit. This kind of satisfaction is not It is what ordinary food can provide.

Although these strengthening effects are already a drop in the bucket for Joshua today, and have no effect at all, but because the part-time chef Rin's cooking skills are more sophisticated, soldiers are willing to sit at the table and clean up the food just for the taste. And empty.

It took about five minutes to eat up the whole table, Joshua took the letter from the magical girl under Yingying's shocked gaze, and asked casually, "What's the matter, Yingying, do you have any urgent news?" ?”

"It's not an urgent message, but it's Mr. Nostradamus's personal letter after all. I think it's better for the master to open it yourself."

Gathering her mind, the silver-haired girl forced herself to forget about her master's eating scene, and then said in a slightly puzzled tone: "But didn't you discuss with the old mage in the academy a few days ago? Don't want to talk?"

"Because this means that what is written in the letter is indeed something that happened in the past few days."

After opening the letter, Joshua scanned it intently.

His expression suddenly became serious.

"Natural Tutor and his party have secretly arrived at the border of the empire yesterday..."

The soldier watched and murmured to himself: "A legendary strong man is here with an emissary from the Elven King's Court. His Majesty Yisrael is going to meet him in the imperial capital... The two sides will complement each other according to their advantages, mutual benefit, long-term cooperation, The principle of common development, a series of strategic cooperation negotiations - this paragraph is an official statement, and has nothing to do with me."

After skimming through a large section of diplomatic nonsense in the middle, such as "kind and friendly conversation", "strategic partnership" and so on, Joshua looked at the last section.

"So that's how it is... After being received by the natural teacher in the imperial capital, he will go directly to the Great Ajax Volcano, and the reward materials from the empire will also be shipped together. At that time, the team will be led by me, and I will take this group of elves to see if the portal is still open In the same place, can you go to the world of Ilgna?"

After roughly understanding the meaning of Nostradamus' letter, Joshua put the letter paper on the table and pondered.

He has already prepared for this matter. Now it leads to the bottom of the Great Ajax Volcano. The original underground cave has been excavated by workers wearing magic armor, but the soldier himself has not yet visited it. , but according to the workers, the possibility that the transmission channel is still intact is very low.

You know, it was the evil god of natural disasters who destroyed the transmission channel. The full blow of the world's coordinating circle turned the entire Sigma volcano into nothingness, and even the underground lava reservoir was completely penetrated. There are signs of an eruption on the Aspen volcano. Joshua believes that the space-time channel will not be completely destroyed, but it is impossible to pass through it normally.

But that has nothing to do with fighters. Anyway, Joshua only needed to lead this group of people to the location of the space-time channel. With the background of the legendary powerhouse and the elf king's court, he would definitely find some clues that the warriors could not find.

Maybe, they can really find a way to go to the world of Ilgna?

"Is there a problem, Master?"

Looking at Joshua's way of thinking, Yingying couldn't help but feel a little strange. She thought for a while, and then asked softly, "Are you not full?"

"Even if I eat a dozen meals of this kind of thing, I won't be full. Of course, that's not the problem."

Shaking his head, Joshua stood up, stretched his fingers, and said, "Okay, Yingying, you will accompany me to Nissie Snow Mountain later."

Rubbing the hair of the girl who was nodding obediently, the soldier said with a smile: "I have to prepare well, but I can't let the guests from far away feel that we are not sincere."

sorry! Update is late! This is yesterday's 4700 words!

Fix the typo later