The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

Sitting in the study and looking out to the environment different from Fresh Flower Town, Liszt again found himself entwined in a moment of repulsion at the idea of "killing."

In the end, he used his reason to overcome his chaotic emotions, focused his mind, and summoned the Smoke Mission.

"The task: for completing the mission, you will be rewarded with a Low-Level Dragon Beast Landwalker Bird."

Clearly.

Among the Earth Knights that Liszt had killed, there was an Elite Earth Knight, so the task was deemed complete. However, he was a bit puzzled, "What is a Landwalker Bird? It feels like it's some low-level dragon beast similar to an ostrich?"

Whether it was like an ostrich or not.

A Low-Level Dragon Beast was a highly valuable prize, "I wonder how this Landwalker Bird will become my reward."

He only planned to stay in this castle for one day.

However, after a search of the surroundings, there was no trace of the Landwalker Bird to be found, but Liszt was not in a hurry. As long as it was a reward from a Smoke Mission, the right opportunity would always appear to tug at the Threads of Destiny and intersect with the Landwalker Bird. He began checking the new tasks, and his eyes lit up after reading the content.

"Task: The first battle is won, the loser will pay with everything, and the victor will take it all. Complete a thorough search of the castle in front of you, and all that is obtained will belong to the spoils of war, including the treasures in the underground vault. Reward: a Little Elf Soldier."

"A Little Elf Soldier?"

This was a weapon whose name sounded interesting but was actually very cruel in practice, as it required the killing of a minor elf and soaking in its blood to create a Little Elf Soldier. After absorbing the Magic Power in the elf blood, the Little Elf Soldier would undergo special property changes.

In terms of value, a Little Elf Soldier might sell for 1 Dragon Coin, which is tens of thousands of Gold Coins.

But the act of turning an elf, such a beautiful creature, into a weapon was extremely cruel.

Liszt would never do such a thing, but he wouldn't give up on a Little Elf Soldier that had already been made, "Scouring the castle, the spoils of war are not all mine; they must be stored and handed over to the Grand Duke... It doesn't hinder me from taking away the most valuable things. It seems that the Little Elf Soldier is in the underground vault."

He immediately called Captain Layden, "Did you find an underground vault while you were cataloging the castle?"

Captain Layden shook his head, "We only found a storage room filled with flour and jerky; we didn't find any underground vault."

"I suspect there is an underground vault in this castle; have your men search carefully and notify me immediately upon finding it." Having subordinates to direct, Liszt didn't need to search on his own.

Soon.

Captain Layden excitedly reported back, "Commander, your guess was incredibly accurate. We indeed found the underground vault!"

The vault was right next to the entrance of the underground passage, disguised as a wooden wall. However, once the wooden wall was dismantled, behind it was a sturdy stone door with a special secret lock, and the knights were looking for the key.

"Sir, we haven't found the key yet."

"No need to search anymore, break it open!" Liszt doubted if these knights had brains at all. They were all Earth Knights with Dou Qi, and it wasn't their own castle to worry about, so they should just forcefully dismantle it.

With Liszt's reminder, two Earth Knights immediately brought several broken Knight Spears, infused them with Dou Qi, and began frantically dismantling the stone door. Even the most robust stone door would crumble under the relentless assault of Earth Knights. A dark passage leading deep underground was quickly revealed.

Liszt had someone bring torches and shone them down the passage, where rough stone walls were visible all around.

There didn't seem to be any signs of traps, and with the castle's rough construction work, it didn't look likely to have any. An Earth Knight was sent in as the vanguard, with Liszt closely following.

The passage turned out to be much shorter than expected; after turning a corner, they arrived directly at the underground vault, which wasn't very large—just a small storage room.

On the walls of the storage room, several rows of holes had been chiseled out, holding eight wooden chests.

"Open a chest and take a look," Liszt commanded.

An Earth Knight promptly pulled out a wooden chest, smashed the lock with a Knight Spear, and lifted the lid. Instantly, silver coins glittered dazzlingly under the torchlight—one after another—a chest full of silver coins appeared. Judging by the number, there were at least a few thousand silver coins.

Equivalent to several dozen Gold Coins.

"Storing silver coins in chests?" Liszt was somewhat speechless. Normally, chests hidden in secret rooms should contain gold.

However, the Earth Knight was very excited, "Commander, can we divide up these silver coins?"

"As long as you can carry them away, I don't mind if you divide them up."

"Thank you, Captain, for your generosity. It's truly admirable," the Earth Knight wished he could immediately grab a handful of silver coins and stuff them into his clothes.

But he restrained himself, pulled out the second chest, and opened it again.

It was still a chest full of silver coins.

Four chests in a row, all filled with silver coins, it was unclear what sickness afflicted the castle's owner that they didn't exchange them for gold coins, which might not have even filled half a chest. Instead, they used silver coins to fill four chests. If it had been gold coins, each knight could easily walk away with a few and be done.

Now, they had to fill their pouches with silver coins to be able to carry them away.

There were four chests left on the wall.

They didn't contain silver coins, nor gold coins, nor copper coins, but armors.

"Captain, this set of armor is very light, it must not be ordinary fine steel armor!" The Earth Knight passed the armor to Liszt.

Liszt felt it, the armor indeed was very light and thin, yet its hardness was not at all inferior to the fine steel armor he wore.

This made his eyes twinkle: "It's Mithril Armor!"

"Congratulations, Captain!" The Earth Knight immediately started flattering. Without a doubt, as they had divided the gold and silver coins, Liszt should receive the better spoils of war, and this set of Mithril Armor was definitely not bad.

Out of the four chests, there were three sets of Mithril Armor.

Liszt was very satisfied. One set of Mithril Armor was worth at least the equivalent of seven or eight sets of fine steel armor, which he unhesitatingly accepted with a smile.

The last chest.

It only contained one bow, with emerald green limbs and silver-white strings, clearly in the style of the popular cavalry straight pull bow from the Duchy of Sapphire—somewhat similar to the English Longbow.

The length was about one meter one, and the limbs' arc wasn't very large; it didn't have the curved ends of a recurve bow.

Strictly speaking, this kind of straight pull bow was not exactly Liszt's favorite; he knew that the development of bows would eventually yield to recurve and compound bows. But the straight pull bow was simpler to construct and less likely to lose its internal stress, making it easier to maintain and tame.

Picking up the longbow, he pulled the strings, which were very stiff.

Without using Dou Qi, Liszt could hardly pull it, but he quickly circulated the Dou Qi within his body, drew the longbow open, and then released it.

"Twang!"

The power that the strings and limbs generated upon returning to their original state could be felt through the vibration of the air.

"A very strong bow!" After trying it, he felt that he should discard his old hardwood cavalry bow, as this emerald green longbow was worthy of his superb archery skills.

Moreover, he had already guessed that this longbow was the Little Minor Elf awarded for completing the Smoke Mission.

Holding the bow, he said, "This bow and these three sets of Mithril Armor belong to me, the silver coins are yours to divide."

"Yes, sir!"

...

Back in the study, he carefully examined the emerald green longbow in his hand and discovered that there was fine Serpent Script carved into the limbs, which he inspected under the light from the window.

The Serpent Script was clearly written as "Little Minor Elf · Swift Shadow Bow"—this was the standard naming convention for Little Elf Soldiers, "Little Minor Elf" indicated it was soaked in the blood of Little Elf Soldiers, "Swift Shadow Bow" was its true name.

He took out an arrow.

Circulating his Dou Qi, he drew the Swift Shadow Bow. Liszt didn't use "Multi-Arrow", relying only on the bow's innate power, he released the string.

Whoosh!

The sound of cleaving air rose.

The arrow shot forth like a ray of light, instantly hitting a large tree not far from the castle, with the shaft burying itself in the trunk.

With a smile at the corners of his mouth, Liszt was satisfied with the power of the bow and arrow: "Worthy of being called the Swift Shadow Bow, the speed of drawing the bow could be called swift, and the speed of the arrow could be described as a shadow. This is probably the special property change it obtained from the magic power in the Little Minor Elf's blood... This Little Elf Soldier is more precious than my Crimson Blood Sword!"