Chapter 1 The Old Man

The old man before them was affable, lacking the overbearing aura of someone in high position. As he spoke, the armored woman who had been facing away from the door turned around to look with curiosity. Hao Ren realized she was much younger than he'd expected, around twenty-five years old. She had fair skin and beautiful features, but her bearing held a hint of martial spirit, suggesting she was a veteran of the battlefield and not just a pretty face.

Becky instinctively became nervous in the presence of such an important figure. She quickly crossed her hands over her chest in a special gesture and bowed deeply, her voice stiff: "Your Excellency, the Regional Bishop, greetings. I'm Becky, a level-two mercenary from Lormberg. I have... uh, important intelligence to report!"

"Relax, I've heard," Regional Bishop Gelton waved his hand, indicating that Becky didn't need to be so formal. He looked curiously at the people behind her, noticing that they didn't bow or seem nervous, but rather maintained a subtle distance. He couldn't help but take another look, but he didn't comment. Instead, he turned to Becky and got straight to the point. "You just came down from the mountain? Do you know about the giants?"

Becky nodded quickly. "Yes... yes! We saw them splitting off from a peak on the southern side of the mountain range ancient path!"

"Splitting off from a peak?" The old man's eyebrows twitched, and a surprised glint flashed in his cloudy eyes. "How did they split off? Tell me the details."

Although Becky usually seemed carefree and fearless, she was still a commoner, and one with a deeply ingrained reverence for the Radiant Church. This was the first time in her life that she'd met a figure of the Regional Bishop's stature, so she couldn't act so casually. She quickly told the old man in front of her everything she had seen in the mountains, including the battle on the eastern foothills.

"You took care of three stone giants? You seem very capable." The old man looked in surprise at the ragtag group around Hao Ren, who weren't even wearing weapons or armor. He couldn't sense much of a warrior's aura from them, or even that of seasoned mercenaries. But this group had managed to quickly find a way to kill those troublesome stone giants on their first encounter. He was amazed. "Are you also a mercenary团 (tuan, group)?"

Lily jumped up immediately. "All the good names are taken by do..."

Hao Ren immediately pressed the girl down, but he couldn't salvage the situation. Lily's reflexes were too fast.

The old Regional Bishop sighed. "Mercenaries these days... they're getting worse and worse. When I was young, there were so many Silver Hands, Silver Fists, and Silver Eyes. Now they're rare names. Young people these days really don't value names enough."

Hao Ren muttered to himself, "The good names were taken. Why don't you say the last Silver-series mercenary group was Silver Knee?"

"We saw the situation outside the town," Vivian said, wanting to change the subject. "You were also attacked? What happened?"

"Two attacks. The Knights suffered some casualties, but they managed to drive them back after finding the giants' weakness." The old man didn't hide anything. He briefly described what had happened that afternoon. Hao Ren learned that the stone giants had attacked the town at the foot of the mountain as soon as they split off from the cliff face, and they had attacked twice in a row.

The first attack had occurred three hours earlier, about an hour after the loud noise from the mountains. A dozen stone giants had charged out of the mountain road in front of the town. Most of the Knights' casualties had occurred during this first attack. The monsters' powerful combat abilities were secondary. The most troublesome thing was their ability to regenerate as long as they were in contact with the ground. At first, no one knew this, and there was no one like Izhaks who could play with the stone giants and study their weaknesses. The Knights fought a hard battle, but eventually repelled the stone giants' attack at the cost of some casualties.

The second attack had occurred an hour earlier, shortly before Hao Ren and the others arrived in town. Again, a dozen stone giants had charged out of the mountain road, but this time the attack was easily defeated because they were prepared.

"The situation was very sudden, and the monsters almost made it into the town," the Regional Bishop said in a deep voice. "Fortunately, this is the last checkpoint before the Holy Land, and there are many Knights stationed here all year round, so nothing major happened."

"Judging by the time, the stone giants must have come straight towards the town after splitting off from the cliff face," the young woman who had been talking to the Regional Bishop said. She had been silent until now, and her voice was calm and magnetic. "Your Excellency, the Regional Bishop, what do you think of this?"

The Regional Bishop lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "The Dragonspine Mountains are blasphemous things built by the arrogant magic emperors of ancient times. Every stone on this mountain range is a challenge to the authority of the Goddess. All the strange phenomena that occur here should be attributed to sinful motives, and the stone giants that split off from the mountain range are undoubtedly full of sin—I think their target is not this checkpoint, but... Beinz Sacred Lake."

"I agree," the woman nodded. "The Holy Relic is missing, there are strange movements in the Sacred Lake, and then monsters appear in the Dragonspine Mountains, and these monsters are now trying to attack the Sacred Lake—this series of events is a clear, planned provocation."

The Regional Bishop was silent. He didn't like the explicit words "attack" and "provocation", but the facts before him made it difficult to refute. In the end, he could only nod. "Perhaps those sinful souls of ancient times are still unwilling to give up, and they are brewing something..."

The armored woman said, one word at a time, "Elok has declared war on the Goddess, Your Excellency, the Regional Bishop."

"It's too early to consider this a Holy War," the Regional Bishop seemed to insist. "The authority of the Goddess is not so easily provoked."

"But the ancient magic emperors did successfully provoke her once—we must respond before they provoke her a second time, or the Goddess may become angry a second time."

The Regional Bishop was silent for even longer this time, and finally he could only wave his hand helplessly. "...Lady Ofra, please remember that some things are taboo and cannot be mentioned frequently near the Sacred Lake. Even without the Holy Relic, the Goddess can still know what is happening in this world. Well, I will consider opening the Holy Coffin, but at least we have to wait three months. I hope you can report this to His Majesty the King."

"A wise move," the woman called Ofra nodded, and then suddenly remembered that there were other people present. She smiled apologetically at Hao Ren and the others. "I'm sorry, I was so busy arguing that I neglected you."

Hao Ren was confused and still stunned, while Becky had already jumped up in surprise. "Wait... wait! Lady Ofra?! You... you..."

Ofra crossed her arms, seeming to find Becky's reaction amusing. "I am Ofra, Marshal of the Kingdom. What's wrong?"

Becky thought for a moment, then slapped her forehead and fainted.

Nangong Wuyue was the closest, and she quickly supported the mercenary girl. Becky opened her eyes in a daze. When she saw that the heroic legendary woman was still standing right in front of her, she prepared to faint again. Fortunately, Nangong Wuyue splashed a ball of icy water on her face before she could faint again.

"Are you that surprised?" Ofra said with a hearty laugh. "I've met a lot of interesting people, but this is the first time I've seen such an extreme reaction."

"I... I admire you!" Becky jumped up and wanted to rush over, but she stopped halfway and nervously retracted her hand, making an awkward salute. Then she began to bow and pay her respects. "Marshal... uh, Your Highness... uh, Your Majesty..."

"Don't do that, I'm not royalty or nobility," Ofra smiled and waved her hand, dodging away. It seemed like she was embarrassed by those titles. "I heard your name was Becky, right? You've done a great service this time. You're an excellent mercenary."

Hao Ren couldn't help but come up behind Becky and whisper, "Who is this, anyway?"

"How can you not know?!" Becky stared at Hao Ren like he was a monster, and then remembered that he was a "wizard from the Northern Empire", but she was still incredulous. "The Holner Empire should know about Marshal Ofra, one of the three leaders of the kingdom, a female hero known throughout the continent! You're too ignorant."

"It's not that exaggerated," Ofra said with a smile, now looking approachable, completely lacking the aggressive demeanor she had when arguing with the Regional Bishop. "I just happened to have experienced a lot of things."

Then she turned to the Regional Bishop. "Your Excellency, the Regional Bishop, I will take my leave now. I will have my Knights responsible for the night defense. Tomorrow we will discuss in detail how to deal with the monsters that ran out of the mountains—if these mercenaries' information is accurate, we will be facing more than just those twenty-odd rock giants."