Chapter 180 – Half a Basket of Wild Vegetables (1/2)

Despair Lake

Lakeside Forest

Crack… crack…

A girl was grasping a small sickle with her slender fingers, carefully cutting the green stems, then tossing the large oval leaves into the bamboo basket behind her, revealing a satisfied smile.

These wild vegetables were called ‘dragon hearts’, because of its large heart-like leaves. It’s savory and rich, and commonly seen in the forests, it could be considered a commonplace food for the people of Heino Kingdom.

The girl had an average appearance, a small nose, and small eyes. Her fingers and arms were covered in dust, there was even black mud on her cheeks slightly hiding her freckles. She looked like a refugee, but she didn’t mind and used the back of her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead and continued to look for even more wild vegetables in the forest.

She was only focused on finding wild vegetables and didn’t notice that she wandered onto the Despair Lakeside camp.

Stationed at the camp were people not to be trifled with from various magic academies from all over Eileen, the surroundings of the camp was also guarded by soldiers, so it could be said that security was very tight. But there was no disturbance when the girl intruded, even the guards that noticed her didn’t bother chasing her away, they just glanced at her and returned to patrolling like they didn’t see anything.

They couldn’t be blamed, based on this girl’s appearance, she was just a normal girl that lived in a nearby village that came to pick wild vegetable for her family, she wasn’t a threat at all.

Take a look if you don’t believe it, her half a basket of wild vegetables and her dirty cheeks were proof.

“Whew, I’m finally here!”

She passed through the guarded area and slipped inside the camp, heading towards the center.

The strange thing was that the camp was full of people, but no one paid attention to her. She was like a pebble on the side of the road, a leaf on a tree, blending into the background.

“I don’t know how miss is doing… if she knew that I came specially to look for her, she might get mad.” Xiao Hua carried her bamboo basket on her back and headed towards the center of the camp while muttering to herself.

According to the plan, Xiao Hua should sty in Lombard Kingdom carrying out other missions, but she acted herself, going against the master’s orders and came to Despair Island to look for Shen DaiYing.

Though she knew that miss was talented, and there was no one she couldn’t assassinate if she got serious, and should be able to successfully complete the mission. But she felt anxious like there was danger, so she came for support without permission.

Xiao Hua wasn’t like Shen DaiYing who practiced powerful assassination techniques, she could at most lower her sense of existence, pretend to be a normal passerby to infiltrate and carry out some spy missions.

Her current target was that large resonance crystal at the center of the camp.

A group of people surrounded that light blue translucent crystal, they were attentively staring at it, afraid that they will miss a single detail. They pointed at the crystal and whispered to each other.

Xiao Hua knew that all the crystals the teams held resonated with this huge crystal, thanks to that it could be used for observation and knew all the movements and points of the teams.

“Look, Water Academy already has 51 points!”

Although Xiao Hua couldn’t read the movement of magic power inside the crystal, the people in the surroundings could.

Along with that shout, the crowd started stirring restlessly.

“Hey Woos, I heard that Water Academy has a strong shield warrior called Veblen! I heard that his shield was made up of cold crystal alloys, and it’s astonishingly hard! Along with his water battle skills, water shield, it’s defense power is extremely hard. There’s probably no one that could break through his shield from the front.” The bald man touched his head and exclaimed in admiration.

“Momm, that’s where you’re wrong. With Caesar’s fusion skills, undulating sword, he can definitely break through his shield! Though that would waste too much energy, so it wouldn’t be sensible to use his ultimate skill prematurely.” To his side, an old man with white hair replied worriedly.

Woos understood that even though they had Caesar, that didn’t mean that they could do as they liked. If they fall into the quagmire that is a war of attrition, they would be defeated sooner or later.

Fortunately, there was still Lin Xiao.

Woos guessed that everyone will choose to listen to Lin Xiao’s orders after they arrive. Although that brat is never serious and always tries to slack off, but his judgments are often very accurate in crucial moments, and wouldn’t make any impulsive decisions.

If Caesar was an accurate and efficient instrument, and could complete the most challenging task in the quickest speed, then Lin Xiao was like an old timepiece. He might appear normal and might be a few seconds slow sometimes, but at a life and death point, he could provide a stable reference. His slowness would restrict Caesar’s speed and achieve balance.

With Lin Xiao there, Woos didn’t have to worry about them suffering in battle tactics and decisions, he was worried about their battle strength.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and their weakest link was extremely weak.

Leaving aside the fact that Rosie wasn’t even a fifth level magician, the maid Elena was a normal person, she had no use other than dragging them down. Lin Xiao was also very protective of his maid if they start fighting they might easily go on the defensive.

“Oh? Loran Academy already has 40 points? Impressive.”

The female voice next to Woos pulled him back to reality, he turned and saw a gracefully dressed female, although time left marks on her face, she could still be considered attractive.

“Isn’t this judge Jennifer? You have the time to come here for a stroll?”

“I came to see how your academy was doing.” Jennifer put on a fake smile, “If something happened to your crystal and they couldn’t send a help signal after being defeated and encountered danger, then I would be to blame.”

“Hey, what are you trying to say? How do you know we’ll be defeated?”