On the eastern border of the Federal State, the weather is sunny and breezy. With the departure of the hot solar moon, the temperature of the desert gradually decreases to a state that is comfortable for most subhumans and humans. The headquarters of the Warscar Mercenary Regiment, which occupies a luxurious three-story building in the center of Oasis Town, was filled with a loud bang from inside.

With a bang, the dust in the cracks on the ceiling of the hall on the first floor was shaken and fell. It seems like some furniture upstairs has toppled over.

Maggie, Giggs, and Babich were sitting in the hall, six pairs of eyes rolling upwards in unison.

At this time, their head Rodell turned down from the upper floor, and his face was not very good-looking.

"What's going on?" asked Giggs.

"Furious. Rodell sighed, "That kid left the group without permission, and I was unlucky with it, hey." ”

Old Rodell shook his head helplessly and took Maggie's wine.

"I also blame myself for not being good, and I didn't explain the rules of the mercenary group to him. Old Rodell said, "But I didn't expect him to go deep into the empire at this time......"

"Forget it, who would have guessed......" Giggs advised.

"Phew, you're embarrassed to say that you and Jinx are still messing around with them!" Old Roder rebuked, "They're rookies, don't you have any points in your own hearts?"

"Look at what you said," Giggs hurriedly smiled and poured his wine, "we thought that we would help complete a commission at the border, and when we were done, we would come back, and we could be regarded as taking care of them." Who knew young people were so wandering......"

Old Rodell gave him a blank look.

"What did the old man say?" asked Maggie.

"Well, didn't I come here to pass the word," Captain Rodell wiped the wine stained with his gray beard with his sleeve, "Victor asked you to send a message to summon him back." ”

"Okay. Maggie nodded in response.

They're talking about, of course, Ian. He is also a member of the War Scars Mercenary Regiment, according to the contract between War Scars and the Golden Tail Chamber of Commerce, for the agreed period, they are employed by the Golden Tail Chamber of Commerce and are also subject to the jurisdiction of the Chamber of Commerce. Whether a mercenary can undertake a commission in his or her own name is up to the Chamber of Commerce to decide. Although Victor has publicly stated that the restrictions will be lifted and members of the Scars of War will be allowed to receive commissions in their own names, in fact, there are clear terms in the contract to allow the scope. It's just that Ian didn't know any of this, and old Rodell, as he himself said, was negligent.

That night, Maggie's Phantom Courier was ordered to set off.

However, Ian, who was far away in Swamp Dragon City, didn't know what was happening in Oasis Town, and he didn't know that his name had been marked in Victor's heart.

"What happened last night?" Alphen asked with concern, "where have you been?"

"Something happened...... Ian didn't know where to start, "did you see the collapsed buildings?"

Alfin nodded in fear, "Don't tell me this has anything to do with you. ”

"Ian, to be exact. Zandar immediately brushed it off, "I'm just going to help." ”

"Help, help destroy these buildings?" Alfin opened his mouth.

"No, no," Zandar's lizard-eyed roll, "I'll try to help him stop the destruction." ”

"Help him and stop the destruction?Ian, what are you possessed?" Alfin exclaimed, "I've heard it's not clean! Is it true? There are seductive succubi at night, demagoguery, but it will also give you infinite power? Tell me, is the succubus beautiful?"

Zandar noticed that the topic seemed to be starting to move in a strange direction, and hurriedly interjected: "We almost became prisoners for eternity after we alarmed the Great Lord last night. Wyverns, they can only become swamp dragons in the future. His last sentence was talking about himself.

But Alphen didn't grasp his point: "Great lord?!, that crazy woman, let's go, pack our things, we will get out of the city at once, maybe it's still too late!"

"It's too late," Ian said wearily, "I've fought alongside her last night, and the interrogation and blackmail are over." Now, let me get a good night's sleep. He turned, "By the way, Zandar, watch this guy for me - I call it snap, your secret magic will work for it, at least until we get out of range of the swamp dragon city." ”

Although they stayed in the central city of the Great Lord, neither of them dared to sleep in peace. The Lizardman Prince's subhuman ancestry is clearly more tolerant of sleep deprivation than Ian, a human. He nodded, took his backpack with a snap, and went back to his room. Alphen had a question mark in his stomach, but he could only hold back and watch the two leave depressedly.

It wasn't until after noon that he finished listening to the whole story from Ian's mouth, which woke up.

"You deserve it!" he cried, "you didn't tell us about the snap, my God! do you know that you might have a demon with you?"

"I don't know," Ian devoured, making up for the day's hunger, "I'll take it away." ”

"Take it away, where?" Alphen said, "the next city, and again?"

"I want you to help me find two people," Ian ignored his emotional complaints, "a man and a woman, both blades are long swords, but they look strange and strange, not the usual style on the mainland. As he spoke, Ian pulled out a piece of paper, which he had drawn from memory, and which looked very similar to Elantra and Valrhona's swords.

"Who are they, and what does it have to do with Pata?" Alphen asked, looking at the drawings.

"Two weirdos," Ian didn't know how to describe them, "I have a feeling they have knowledge we don't know, and maybe they'll know where Pata came from and what to do with it." ”

"Knowledge ......" Zandar's lizard's eyes lit up, "Pursue the journey of knowledge, Zandar agrees." ”

"What about the Lark City agreement?" Alfin leaned in and asked in a low voice. The man who had deliberately arranged Ian's commission and offered to contact him was still waiting in Skylark.

"Skylark ......," Ian thought for a moment, "you can wait." ”

Alphen nodded. Yes, the mutation is full of uncertainties and unknowns, no one knows what will happen tomorrow, no one knows when Zandar's secret magic will be ineffective for it. At that time, not to mention Swamp Dragon City, a few of them will bear the brunt of bad luck. Then, what to reclaim the throne, the revival of the empire, the ascension to Jackie Chan, revenge, all in vain.

"Got it, you have this. Alphen pulled out a small money bag, "Originally, there were two hundred gold coins in it, but I set aside some for you, and I will send it to the processing house in Babel City in several installments, you owe a lot of money to the boss named Baruru, right?"

Ian now knows what the prince is up to every day.

After eating, he left the tavern and returned to the vicinity of the docks where the previous night's battle had taken place. The afternoon sun was just right, and the light was enough for him to see the aftermath of the disaster. Last night was foggy and his vision was restricted, and now he was terrified to see the devastation left behind by the crackling. The shacks of all heights and lows all around are more or less signs of damage and collapse, and there are a large number of building debris and broken wood scattered on the ground.

Near the shores of Blackwater Lake, there are various building debris floating on the water. It's just that you can't see the corpses, stumps, and colorful bodily fluids left behind after fighting with demonic beasts anywhere. Because those demonic beasts that fought with them were very special, each one was no different from an entity, but none of them could be regarded as entities.

Because they are all illusions created by Pa Da with its special magic energy, extremely realistic illusions.

Looking at the shacks that had almost collapsed into ruins and the ferry huts next to the docks, Ian reluctantly leaned over and picked up a piece of wood scattered along the road. This is one of the main materials of the shack, which is tougher in wood, but not as good as wind bamboo, so the craftsmen of Nuryu City used both wood and wind bamboo as the basic materials for their houses, which was both light and tough, in line with their expectations for building the entire city on Blackwater Lake.

Ian gripped the fragments of the Wind Bamboo and the Wood, knowing what he was going to be busy with for the next few days.

The next day, a routine engineering count was delivered to Ian's tavern. The messenger who delivered the letter confirmed that Ian had personally received the documents before hurrying away. According to the documents, a total of nine homes and a ferry hut by the pier were damaged in the previous night's disaster. Although the ferry hut was only smashed by one wall, rumors spread due to countless magical beasts pouring out of the smashed hole.

Many feared that there was an "ominous mark" in that hut, or a "rift in the demon world", and the High Lord Martila simply waved his pen: tear it down and rebuild it. The rebuilding work, naturally, is still counted on Ian's head.

Ian is a dedicated person. When he focuses on one thing, he is easy to forget himself, but in the eyes of others, he will seem too serious and even a little paranoid. But for himself, he just wants to get things done until he is satisfied.

So three days later, when the first restored building he worked on was completed, it attracted many onlookers.

"You're not right," Alphen reproached him, "that's pretty much it, you've spent so much effort repairing this dilapidated house...... Do you know what's going on in the tavern right now? Swamp Dragon City is about to welcome the first magic blacksmith in history!!"

"Don't worry," Ian laughed, "I won't stay here." ”

Zandar also laughed and said nothing.

Ian chose the pier-to-down ferry hut as the first object to be restored.

He didn't know how to fix the bamboo and wood with elaborate ropes and tenon structures, and he didn't have time to learn the architectural art here. So he still uses psionic power, using the wood and wind bamboo as materials, and using psionic power to fuse. The result is a material that cannot be distinguished.

The craftsmen took these materials and built the building in their usual way, and the effect was wonderful. The new material has a faint sheen like the smooth surface of the bamboo, but the texture is tough. Ian hadn't read any books, so he took a word from each of the two ingredients and named it Bamboo. The craftsman made an attempt to bear the load, and a finger-thick bamboo was placed horizontally on the stone wall. The center is fixed, and the suspension weight is continuously and evenly added at both ends until it breaks.

By the end of the test, all the craftsmen present held their breath. The weights hanging at both ends of the bamboo have far exceeded the standards of their original building materials, and far exceeded everyone's expectations. The weights used for the test were used up, and the bamboo was bent into a half-moon shape, but it still didn't break completely.

This kind of testing is not a secret, so it is basically carried out directly on the construction site. And what Ian and the craftsmen didn't notice, there were some people with bad faces in the crowd of onlookers. When they saw the final results of the test, they quietly withdrew to the cheers of the craftsmen.

Maybe Alphen was right, and Ian shouldn't have taken things too seriously about things that weren't closely related to his interests.

This is something that Ian realized after many years of recalling it.