The night on the mainland has always been dark, only faint starlight, every time the blue sun jumps out of the horizon, the light will return to the world. However, life on the mainland is so intelligent and industrious, torches, oil lamps, and gas lamps have been invented one after another, and I heard that in the palace of San Jose in the East, there are magic lamps that use magic to store energy. Therefore, at night, although the red and blue lights are not there, countless lights can still light up the cities on the mainland.

In the royal capital of Kaman, under the quiet night sky, the lights flickered, and the crowd of the city had not completely dispersed shortly after the night had just fallen, the merchants of the eastern market were still selling the last goods, and the workers were loading and unloading the remaining goods at the docks on the north bank.

Overlooking the city, the lights and voices of the people tell the vitality of the city. Along the way to the west, there is one of the brightest beings, tall and mighty, brightly lit.

The solemn stone walls were towering, a torch was lit at every battlement, and some strong, armored men patrolled along the walls, asking each other for passwords aloud. Behind the walls is a huge castle with a stone body and a number of stout cylindrical columns, and a huge wooden door inlaid with iron rivets, which looks like a huge black mouth in the darkness.

Behind the giant gate, there are some guard towers and ear walls, and further inside, there are two towering round towers, which are in the same style as the minarets of the Royal Capital Academy. This huge stone building is the castle of the Duke of Carman, or the palace of the Carmen king.

At this time, in the round tower on the left, Mu Gongzi, yes, it was the sloppy and stained little Mu of our Wangdu Academy, who was sitting at the dark thick wooden table with a serious face. He changed into a rich satin coat, wore a heraldic brooch of gold jasmine (note 1) on his chest, and occasionally held a quill tube in his hand, listening to the people in front of him.

"News from the Chief Elder of the Kaman Chapter of the Adventurer's Guild yesterday. So I'm calling you from the academy in a hurry today. The situation is not very clear, but the coalition side may need our envoys. The problem now is that my father needs me to assist the government, and I can't get out of here, so only your identity is suitable in the country. ”

The person who spoke was a graceful and luxurious woman, about thirty years old, with a noble temperament and a serious face. In addition to Xiao Mu in the hall, there is only this woman with a good temperament and image, she is Xiao Mu's sister, that is, Princess Mu.

Grand Duke Kaman is not particularly old, but his energy has not been as good as before in recent years, so a few years ago, he began to gradually hand over state affairs to his eldest daughter and the heir of the principality, Monica Mu, Princess Mu gradually took control of state affairs with the help of the affairs officer, financial officer, and sheriff.

This time, it seems that he encountered a tricky situation, so he called Xiao Mu, who had always squatted in the academy to study and study, back to the palace.

"Monica, tell me more about the situation, I'm a little confused. ”

"As you know, the Adventurers' Guild is responsible for monitoring anomalous events in addition to managing adventurers on the continent to help each other. Yesterday, the chief of our Kaman Adventurer Branch, through the channel of the affairs officer, came to the palace to ask for a meeting, and this matter is currently only known to the affairs officer and the chief except for you and me. You should be aware that the kingdom issued a decree based on a reminder from the Adventurers' Guild, asking people from all walks of life to pay attention to the changes in the Sunset Mountains. The follow-up adventurers increased the number of investigators and got more information. ”

"Is that the beast commotion you are talking about?"

"Yes, the beastly commotion is only a façade. There's a dark ability behind it. The hunters of the Adventurer's Guild found a group of fire wolf corpses in the depths of the Sunset Mountains, which had died a horrible death, and through autopsy, they found that the fire wolves showed signs of being attacked by dark abilities. There's a cut fire wolf skin over there as evidence, I've seen it. ”

"How can you be sure it's a dark ability?" asked Xiao Mu.

"The enduring dark streamer flickered in the fur, and if you sniffed closely, you could smell the sour rancidity. Princess Mu replied.

"It's consistent with the Dark Ability Warning Book published by the Adventurer's Guild, and I thought it was just a legend. ”

Princess Mu shrugged, "Before yesterday, I always thought that the dark ability was a story from a novel. But the head of the Adventurer's Guild, he said, it was true. ”

"What does that have to do with me going to the capital of the Business Alliance?"

"In fact, the Adventurers' Guild says this is a serious matter, and three years ago, they had already issued a request to the chapters to keep a close eye on the resurgence of the dark ability, and there have been many sightings reported in various places. This time, the Sunset Mountain Range originally just thought that there was a beast tide, because the time point was a bit different from the time of the beast tide reincarnation, so the head of the adventurer branch of Kaman sent someone to investigate, but he didn't expect to find out what was going on. Because Kaman was the last merchant ally to spot signs of the dark ability, but it also basically announced that the entire territory of the merchant alliance had been discovered. Therefore, the Merchant Alliance Adventurer's Guild will always invite representatives of various countries and city-states to Manning City, where the Guild is located, to discuss countermeasures. That's the basics. ”

After listening to what his sister Princess Mu said, Xiao Mu didn't ask any more.

"Since this is already the case, then, I won't say more, you are ready to prepare, and then go to the adventurer's guild to meet. I have to meet with the representatives of the Desik Chamber of Commerce tomorrow morning, so I won't accompany you much. If you come back once, rest in the palace. After Princess Mu finished speaking, she clapped her hands, the door of the room opened, a guard and two female officers pushed the door in, saluted Xiao Mu, and escorted Princess Mu out of the room.

Inside, Mu was lost in thought, thinking back to everything the book said about the dark ability.

It turns out that a thousand years ago, the continent was still this continent, but the situation on the continent was not the same. At that time, there was only one giant superpower on the continent that crossed the Morro River, called the Magic Empire.

In this country, legend has it that the nobility will have a kind of black magic. They absorb energy from the Blue Sun, and then release it through spells and runes. The energy released is huge.

The scientists of the Magic Empire, using magical power, can drive huge machines, and can create terrifying weapons through the release of magical power. These black magic powers help the people of the Magic Empire rule everything in the Empire.

However, one day, a civil war broke out in the Magic Empire, and the rulers who used dark magic suddenly split into several factions, they attacked each other with magic, the sky was obscured by magic-powered machinery, and countless huge magical shockwaves bombarded the land.

Soon, uncontrolled magic completely destroyed the empire, and countless oppressed people and other races united to form a rebel army and began to attack these uncontrollable rulers.

Among them, there are some outstanding warriors and scholars, who have organized the people to form a rigorous army, and use cold weapons to fight against the dark magic. The barbarians of the north, they formed the Wasteland Army, tamed the giant Steppenwolf, and formed the invincible Wasteland Cavalry. Forest elves have formed archers, and dwarven artisans have crafted weapons for all races to counter the magic of darkness.

Legend has it that the Dragons, in alliance with some powerful humans, use magic and dragon breath in the skies to attack the armies of the Magic Empire. The Magic Empire, which was plagued by internal and external troubles, collapsed under its own division and the attack of the rebel army.

The huge empire was torn apart, and on the final decisive day, the dark mages of the crazy magic empire launched a decisive suicide explosion, and the huge dark magic power bombarded a large canyon hundreds of kilometers wide on the continent. After the final battle, the rulers of the Magic Empire were wiped out, and the few remaining dark mages hid and disappeared like rats crossing the streets.

However, when facing the nobles and remnants of the army of the Magic Empire, there was also a huge dispute within the rebel army. The barbarians advocated extermination, the scholars of the East wanted to enslave them, and some of the rebels of the Magic Empire itself joined forces with the moderates of the rebels, so that several forces actually fought again on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

After decades of war, the clouds of war have finally cleared the continent.

After the end of the war, the continent was divided into dozens of countries, large and small, which went through annexation, integration, and alliance, and finally stabilized into the current three-legged situation more than 100 years ago.

Therefore, the current mainland countries are all descendants of the rebel army. Therefore, in the millennia after the end of the Continental War, magic has also gone through a process of decline, decline and even gradual disappearance, and the group of magicians who use dark magic has also suffered a major suppression and gradually disappeared.

Books that have survived have become more and more shy about mentioning the uncontrollable power of dark magic, and have instead used dark abilities to describe it. In the past few hundred years, there have been few rumors. Therefore, even the nobles of the principality like Xiao Mu have little insight into the dark ability, and have always thought that it is a legendary story.

Who knew that the news of the dark ability suddenly appeared today, or the official news from the always strict adventurer guild, and Xiao Mu couldn't help but be shocked.

However, he was shocked, although the Nine Nations Alliance was one in honor and disgrace, it was still a loose business alliance in essence, even if the adventurers would urgently send a message to convene the leaders and nobles of various countries to discuss, Xiao Mu himself was still a little unimpressed, "It's been a thousand years, who knows what will happen." I don't want to think about it so much, let's go over and see. ”

So, under the arrangement of Princess Mu, Xiao Mu came to the North Shore Wharf early the next morning, boarded the royal merchant ship "Golden Jasmine", and went east along the Morro River to Manning City, the capital of Manning Kingdom, the largest country in the Nine-Nation Alliance, to attend the meeting, accompanied by the chief of the Kaman Adventurer Branch.

After Princess Mu saw off Xiao Mu in the palace, she devoted herself to daily state affairs. Although this matter was convened by the Adventurer's Guild, it did not attract the attention of the principality officials after all, and did not make a splash in the affairs of the principality.

For a month after Xiao Mu left, Chestter still stayed in his manor, accompanying Feida and Lolita, who had recovered, and lived a quiet life. The boring manor life, because of the addition of two beautiful girls, has a touch of brightness, of course, occasionally, it will still cause the dissatisfaction of the little maid Lianna.

Note 1: Golden Jasmine is the family symbol of Duke Carman, and therefore the symbol of the Duchy of Carman.

The countries of the continent have their own symbols, such as Steppenwolf, San Jose's Golden Book, Manning's Three Axes, etc.