Volume III: Turbulent Beginnings (Remastered) Chapter 41: Shadowfang Castle (1)
Shadowfang Castle is located in the southwest of the Silverpine Forest, near the Greymane Wall, and close to the coastline. The name of the castle is no longer known, and thousands of years are enough time for a history to be lost in the long river of time.
The Silver Pine Forest is not a vast forest, it is actually a low hill sandwiched between the mountains and the coastline, topographically an extension of the Hillsbrad Hills. Lake Lordamere and the Ambermere Ranges bisect the area from the Hillsbrad Hills, and the long coastline allows for a thriving flora. After the Griffin Empire unified the entire human race, it was one of the best sources of wood for the dynasty, and the broad-leaved trees that grew in large numbers in the silver pine forests provided the dynasty with a large amount of building materials.
But with the collapse of the dynasty, the Silver Pine Forest soon fell into strife as well. The divided human kingdom, eager to compete for power within, temporarily relinquished control of the region. Despite this, there are a large number of human civilians who remain on the land and continue their lives.
Serberchel, near the Tirisfal Woodlands, was once the most important city in the region, but over time, this once-glorious city has gradually declined, and has been reduced to ruins by war and time. Fortunately, the kingdom of Ashwood often sends soldiers to help the human civilians living here fight against various threats, so that the Silverpine Forest is not infested by a large number of foreign tribes like the hills of Hillsbrad.
Once the private castle of the lord who ruled the city of Thurberchel, Shadowfang Castle is a sprawling castle built on a hill near the coast overlooking a beautiful silver pine forest. After the collapse of the Griffon Empire, the owner of the castle left with his wealth and people as soon as possible.
The increasing werewolf infestation has terrified the humans living in the Silverpine Forest, and although the kingdom of Ashwood has sent some additional soldiers, even heavily armed soldiers cannot confront those powerful shadow werewolves head-on. The Burning Wood Village, which was closest to Shadowfang Castle, had long since been empty, leaving only empty houses and messy furniture, and Yu Bin could even find some bedding and food in it that he didn't have time to take away, which showed the haste of these human civilians when they fled.
"It's a castle again! I always feel like there's some bad eyes on us! Keldila looked up at the towering castle gates and towers on either side not far away, the undead like to hide themselves in deep, dark crypts, while humans have a particular preference for castles of all kinds.
Looking at this familiar scene, Yu Bin couldn't help but recall some things in his previous life. In the previous life, when Yu Bin entered the world of Entagre, it was the most rampant moment of the werewolf disaster, and countless players who leveled up in the Silver Pine Forest were affected by this disaster and had to give up this rare leveling treasure until the archmage Arugao, who was hiding in the Shadow Fang Castle and secretly summoning werewolves, was discovered by the player, and after the Ashwood Kingdom and Dalaran eliminated the archmage who betrayed Dalaran with the help of the Ashwood Kingdom and Dalaran, the Silver Pine Forest returned to peace.
In his previous life, as a member of the Guardian Order, Yu Bin naturally participated in the attack on Shadow Fang Castle, and was deeply impressed by this castle that occupied a dangerous area and was easy to defend and difficult to attack. When he learned from Marithia about the recent werewolf attack in the Silverpine Forest, he immediately realized that Archmage Arugo had probably begun a summoning experiment. This is also the main reason why he chose the Silver Pine Forest as the breakthrough point, if nothing else, this archmage has found a way to summon werewolves steadily, or it won't be long before those shadow werewolves who have been summoned to the world of Entagri will start attacking the humans living in the Silver Pine Forest, infecting these innocent civilians into new werewolves.
The current expeditionary force has not yet set its sights on the Silver Pine Forest, according to the information obtained from Raphael, the commander of the expeditionary force, Tibest, is preparing to lead the expeditionary force to the South Sea town in the hills of Hillsbrad, and one Andohal alone is not enough to fill Raphael's merit book, the dark pine trolls of Broken Ridge or the bloodcave orcs of Dunhold Castle are a suitable opponent, and those fishmen and naga who infest the coast from time to time can also be used as some background decorations.
Therefore, it is a good choice to detonate the werewolf plague in advance while the expeditionary force and those players have not yet discovered Shadowfang Castle, and attract the expeditionary force's attention from the Hillsbrad Hills to the Silver Pine Forest, whether it is to complete Kel'thugad's mission or to reap more benefits for Raphael.
"It looks like a completely abandoned castle! Are you sure there's a werewolf in there? Thunder waved his staff and summoned an Eye of Scouting, a Spotting spell commonly used by mages to summon a Magic Eye through magic to detect dangerous places on behalf of the controller. The undead are especially good at using soul power, so they have a lot of bonuses in this spell.
Of course, there are werewolves in this castle, and there are even quite a few of them, but these are all the information that Yu Bin learned in his previous life, and he doesn't know if Archmage Arugao has summoned those powerful shadow werewolves at this time period. Razoclow the Butcher, Ordu, the Blind Guard, Nandus, the Wolf King, and Finruth the Devourer.
Ailan glanced at the past with the wind, and the undead thieves who understood it leaned over and slowly walked into the gate of the Shadow Fang Castle with Alan, the night made their bodies merge with the surrounding shadows, after studying in the psychic academy, not only Thunder Light and Keldila mastered the method of using the power of shadows, but the two undead thieves also further improved their stealth ability.
Especially after receiving Farina's reward and transforming into a spirit creature, it is difficult for even Yu Bin to find the past with the wind at a distance of more than three meters, which makes this German young man an indispensable scout in Yu Bin's team.
Keldila raised her hand to add a life sense to Alan and the Past to the wind, and then summoned an Eye of Scouting like Thunderlight, and headed along the outer walls of Shadowfang Castle. Under Yu Bin's tutelage, they have already carved caution into their souls, and collecting as much information as possible is the premise of every action they make.
"Strange, no humanoids found!" After more than an hour, the thunder light, whose magic power was exhausted, had to cancel the control of the Eye of Scouting, "The towers on both sides of the gate, the square in the middle of the castle, and the stables have not found the enemy. β
"There was some damage to the faΓ§ade, but it was not serious and no obvious signs of repair were found. There aren't any werewolves around! Keldila also canceled the spell, "I can't scout on the side near the coastline, it's too far away to control the Eye of Scouting. β
Hasn't Arugao started summoning werewolves on a large scale? The Shadow Werewolves who attacked the human civilians were nothing more than a by-product of the Archmage's summoning experiments?
Soon after, Alan and the Past returned with the wind, apparently bringing some good news.
"I found several werewolves on the left side of the castle, in what looked like a prison, one of them was clearly a head taller than the others, presumably the boss, with brownish skin and a stabbing blade made of bone on his hand." Alan said as he gestured.
"I found the location of the main fort, near the walls near the coastline, a collapsed tower blocked the way from the garden to the main fort, and the only way to get there was to go around the castle wall, a werewolf was guarding the hall on the first floor of the main fort, and I found no werewolves other than that. I couldn't confirm the situation on the second floor, though, as there were several large bats hanging on the ceiling of the hall, and I was afraid of being spotted. β
Razo Claw the Butcher, and Oddu, the Blind Guard! Sure enough, Arugao is now able to summon more powerful werewolves.
Yu Bin was not surprised by this, the world of Entagri was not an ordinary game, those powerful werewolves would appear out of thin air, even with the ability of the archmage Arugao, it would take a lot of time and materials to summon a sufficient number of shadow werewolves, otherwise, it would not be enough to drain him by his own magic power.
If his memory was correct, the final owner of Shadowfang Castle was Baron Sivalen. In the faction war thirty years ago, the barony of the Sadarin Kingdom was attacked by a group of lizardmen, and although he desperately regained the territory, Baron Sivalen, who suffered heavy losses, finally had to sell the broken territory to another nobleman, and led his family to the Silver Pine Forest, hoping to make a comeback with the richness of Shadow Fang Castle and the Silver Pine Forest.
This is a common occurrence in every faction war, with a large number of nobles falling for various reasons, and many more lucky ones rising for various reasons. If the nobles who have lost their territory and their subjects do not want to become a lowly commoner from now on, they can only go to the neutral zone and find a way to regain their strength in order to make a comeback. In contrast, Baron Sivalen, who was able to obtain Shadowfang Castle from the Ashwood Kingdom, can also be regarded as a good strength.
Not long ago, however, the archmage Arugao, who had defected from Dalaran, had arrived in the Silverpine Forest and secretly bewitched Baron Sivalen, convincing him that he could help the Sivalens rise again. Convinced, Baron Sivalene did not hesitate to provide Arugao with a large amount of supplies for him to conduct a summoning experiment.
Unfortunately, the investment in the archmage did not bring glory to the Sivalenne, and Arugao, who summoned the Shadow Werewolf, killed Baron Sivalene as soon as possible, and used the surviving humans in the castle as test subjects to conduct werewolf infection experiments.
Today, the wretched souls roaming Shadowfang Castle still scream for vengeance against the dastardly archmage Arugao, and this traitor who betrayed humanity has summoned some powerful Shadowwerewolves to use against the ghosts that still hovered the castle.
"In other words, we have to face the hostility of these two forces at the same time!" Yu Bin gave everyone a brief introduction to the situation of Shadow Fang Castle.
"Can you convince those ghosts? We may be able to help them get revenge! Lei Guang said tentatively.
"I don't think the ghosts corrupted by hatred have the rational intelligence to tell the difference between us and the werewolves, for whom we are also enemies of the castle! What's more, what's the benefit of helping those ghosts get revenge? Don't forget, our goal is to find a way to detonate those werewolves and draw the attention of those human armies to the Silver Pines Forest! β
"Don't sell it, you must have some plan!"
Yu Bin smiled, of course he had a plan, otherwise how could he run to the Shadow Fang Castle in a hurry! Archmage Arugao is also a hero-level mage no matter how he says, and his strength is enough to crush their little undead!
After entering the gate of the castle, there was a huge wooden fence, and the gap in the fence was enough for Ailan and them to pass through, but Yu Bin was a little difficult. On one side of the fence is a small gate, where is the entrance to the tower.
From the tower, you can walk up the enclosure and use the stairs of the enclosure to access the interior of the castle.
"To the left is the passage to another tower, from where the corridor leading to the prison can be found, and the stables are also in that direction. To the right is a cul-de-sac, with only a secret passage leading to the wall, from where you can reach the main fort at the back of the castle. Ahead are the gardens and squares, where the kitchens, training grounds, and some low-rise buildings where the servants lived. Alan introduced Yu Bin to the terrain in Shadow Fang Castle.
Yu Bin took the lead and headed to the left: "Let's go to the prison first." β
In the face of Yu Bin and the others now, Lazo Krau, who is known as the butcher, was knocked to the ground without even a single wave, and the strength of the sixth-order cap was no threat to them. Of course, this is also partly due to Lazoclau's own.
As creatures summoned from the shadow plane by the archmage Arugao, the Shadow Werewolves generally have a decrease in strength in the world of Entagre, because as shadow creatures, it is difficult for them to maintain a complete body in the material world, and the only way to do so is to use the power of the Shadow to re-condense a suitable body.
Ordinary Shadow Werewolves only need a fraction of their strength to produce a suitable body for mobility, while more powerful Shadow Werewolves must spend more energy and time condensing a body strong enough to contain their own greater power. The same goes for Lazoclou.
In fact, Yu Bin and the others came at a critical moment for Archmage Arugao. At this time, Arugao had just mastered the stable summoning method, and Lazoclou and Audu were both by-products of his accidental summoning during the previous experiment, and their strength was damaged due to the unstable summoning, and in order to condense the body, Lazoclou's strength was reduced from the seventh-order cap at the peak to the sixth-order.
In Yu Bin's memory, the reason why this werewolf in his previous life was called a butcher was because he was the first boss that players encountered when they attacked Shadow Fang Castle, which brought huge losses to players. What Lazoclou, who has the Berserker class ability, does best is to act like a whirlwind, bringing a feast of slaughter to the player.