Chapter 337 (1/2)

Chapter 337: Shadowy Clouds of War

Translator: i was always short A brief bout of spring showers heralded the gradual shi+ft to eather

Coid winter, this place was far more suitable for humans to inhabit At the very least, the wood spirits loved this cliht, this area was particularly suitable for plants to grow

However, a rancid sht to us by the south wind Dark clouds arrived in the sky together with a sudden drop in te people that the hot su frost still needed to be experienced

Since the new seeds for the Forest of Dreareatly rese section of the Forest of Drea name of Oak Town The undead’s unexpectedly late arrival caused the defenders of this town to feel both worry and happiness

They were happy that the shadows of war seemed to come later than expected by several days, which meant that they would have additional time for combat preparations They orried because, based on the typical rules of war, the longer the eneer and more numerous they would be

The undead had been expected to arrive two days ago, but there were no signs of them at all Many veteran adventurers had alreadyso long to arrive, perhaps they had recalled their troops frohtrain City—the eventual undead are

“It would be nice if they would wait for another ten days or teeks I’ve heard thatJustice Points Perhaps they’ll come over to join us”

Yet the thick smoke that suddenly arose could onlyas of yet and the undead had finally arrived as expected Before a thick blanket of clouds covered Oak Town, a Pegasus Knight approached the town The rider was shouting before he even landed

“They’re here, they’re here!”

Who was here? Everyone understood without it needing to be said out loud, yet nobody panicked

“Close the gates!”

“Notify all the sentries and hunting teams outside that they’re to immediately return to Oak Town”

“nobody’s notified the wood spirits and our leaders yet? Soe!”

This was just how adventurers were They were raucous and disorganized, yet also filled with le person knew that the battle had come to them, and they busied themselves in preparations for battle

There was no longer any need to conceal their co the the enemy army’s size and projected arrival time simply from the dust plumes they kicked up in the air The estihts o hours, but the adventurers were long prepared for this and started taking action

Large amounts of bows had previously been placed on Oak Town’s castle walls The archers began testing their bowstrings, while treants pulled the the stone catapults began their final calculations of the ahtly under an hour and a half, the first wave of skeleton knights arrived The silent skeleton knights were sitting on decayed saddles and had tattered spears as they surrounded and circled around the castle walls, searching for weaknesses in their enemy’s defense If any place seemed weak to them, they would have attacked it But, in the end, they retreated withouta move

“Have we arrived late?”

The death knight Haben finally abandoned the idea of forcefully attacking this location Looking at the scene before him, for the first timent He felt that the Tark Republic had underestimated these plant lifeforht A theun to sprout, hence increasing Oak Town’s power even further Once the cycle of nature was established here, nable fortress even with its unassurew taller and taller, while squads of treants patrolled every inch of space The reen fortress was visibly growing outward Its surroundings would turn green, inch by inch, while trees would shoot up at a pace visible to the naked eye Trees were sprouting on this desolate land rassy plains and forest

This was the miracle created by the divine power of nature And soon, these newly-born trees would becorow Smaller plants of nature would naturally beco another before everything finally achieved a balance By that time, even if an enemy approached this area they would be met with endless enmity and would cause eyes to stare upon the that the ene only skeleton knights to forcibly attack this place would be a uard commander Haben did not hesitate to choose to temporarily retreat until the undead’s main forces arrived

Simultaneously, the adventurers’ leaders were in theat a temporarily constructed command center in Oak Town

Fro the part of NPCs They obviously lacked complete trust in the adventurers, not to ic objectives to begin with The wood spirits wished for Oak Town to successfully grow and illing to sacrifice anything Meanwhile, the adventurers sought to maximize their personal benefits, which meant that two sets of leaders arose in Oak Town But, as of now, they were still very cooperative with each other and had few disagreements

One set of leaders was from the adventurers’ alliance, while the other acted as the decisionto beco method between local forces and Contract Heroes After all, local forces would forever wish for their subordinates to obediently carry out each and every one of their cole—to use the pieces at your disposal in the most efficient manner—it would be best to pay money to hire temporary allies to becoerous roles After all, any local leader would want to preserve their own elites they worked so hard to raise But the adventurers’ alliance needed to consider the interests of their own They would even want to le life if at all possible

Both sides had different standpoints, so of course there would be disagreements

Cooperation, communication, an appropriate amount of trust, and a faintly unsaid employer-and-subordinate relationshi+p that wasn’t absolute Both sides would keep a certain distance from each other and still try to seek benefits for theoal That seemed to be the best choice

This current adventurers’ alliance was led by roughly a dozen veteran adventurers They were either the leaders of the largest roups or ell-known and well-respected adventurers ere elected to represent all the freelance adventurers

“There are approxis, there should be approximately ten Undead Lords in their army Their leader is Davey from Asolivis…”

Unlike the freelance adventurers ould only see the skeleton knights behind thee-sized ative hts scout out in the sky, while others relied on prophecy es’ prediction spells It was only natural that they already understood the situation of the undead arative ht reports to the adventurer leaders, and they put the inforether and verified that it all see as the temporary command center fell completely silent It wasn’t because the undead were far too strong, but rather…

“This see There are too few of them Could this be some sort of trap?”

Yep, this was completely different to their expectations The undead that arrived were far fewer than expected Originally, everyone expected that every single Undead Lord in Asolivis would move out to attack, and that the total undead forces would well surpass several hundred thousand However, only one-tenth of the expected undead forces had arrived

Some sort of pincer attack? Feint? Bait? Or just abandon this location and send their hts appeared in everyone’s minds But since there were far too many possibilities, nobody dared to coeon flew into the tent and landed on Kaise Elowen’s hand as he was pondering this situation

“…It would seem that our employers have their own additional sources of infore from the wood spirits to Kaise It basically said that due to certain reasons, most of the Undead Lords had refused to participate in this battle and that soathered Undead Lords had suddenly left the ar undead forces to be far fewer than expected Thethat the adventurers could rest assured in fighting only against this number

“Certain reasons? It appears that our employer doesn’t completely trust us?”