The scavengers' guild's foundations are hidden in the sewers, but fortunately, the gangs of the underworld pretend to ignore the outskirts, and the smugglers open up new avenues to avoid the sword-wielding night watchmen.

Expanding the territory little by little, owning the industry in the Shiying neighborhood as a way back for the disabled and the elderly, the speed of replenishing new blood is very fast, after all, the dock area is full of unemployed employees, in order to be able to eat well, and even to live a stable life, it is much better to invest in the semi-official scavenger union than the frightened peripheral members of the gang.

The Grey Shroud of the Black Knights, led by the Knights of the Two Wands, put aside their entanglements with the Scavengers for a moment and focused on President Aldrich Triss, who was worried about being a ubiquitous challenger rather than wasting his energy on an adventurous group with an official title.

The accident of the Dead-Eyed Knight Holm's promotion to the scepter has been repeatedly analyzed by various forces in the underworld, trying to find a key opportunity for transformation.

No one wants to see the Grey Shroud reigning supreme, and the possession of a black scepter has tilted the scales of power slightly, and the second-placed Brotherhood of Steel does not want to be humiliated by the blockade again, so that it reaches out to the inhuman, inhabitants of the dark depths who disdain it, trying to use their eyes or supernatural wisdom to see the essence of affairs.

One of them is the conjecture that the White Knight Aldrich Tris, who completely purified the body of the Banshee Infant in the Blood Chamber, was the catalyst for Holm's promotion to the Scepter. After all, the Black Knights were no match for the forgotten past, the Old Times, when they were at the end of the spectrum, and there were many outstanding ones who seemed to have broken through the strangulation with the White Knights.

With the continuous in-depth investigation, Aldrich Tris's little family background was quickly made into information and placed in front of the high-level leaders of the Black Knight Group, and even the bigwigs of the underground world.

A traditional manor knight from a declining rural family, under the arrangement of his father, Bauer Triss, spent his childhood in the home of the neighboring knight leader Mulder Stoker, and often went hunting alone due to the fact that part of his territory bordered the Whispering Forest. After the death of Bauer Tris, he interrupted his practice in the Whispering Forest and returned to Triss to inherit the family business. Due to the imbalance of income and debt, when he was on the verge of bankruptcy, he took a desperate gamble to deal with his family's floating wealth and went to Eastwood City alone to earn a living.

On the way, he skillfully solved the problem of road and bridge blockage, cleared the traffic on both sides of the Incoming Liquor River, and showed his amazing knightly skills for the first time, one with great strength and the other with a voice, which was valued by Sir DeWitt, who was returning to the city from patrolling the nearby countryside at that time, and Baron Brian, who was nominally in charge of the Night Patrol in the City Guard, and wrote a letter of recommendation to Quincy Rodney of the Cold Mountain Knights, issuing a recruitment order, and facilitating Aldrich Triss to join the Night Patrol Knights.

He was rewarded for his exploits in subduing the unruly Night's Watchman, through the street assassination of Sir Ogden Norton, a high-ranking member of the Merchants' Federation, and collecting taxes on smugglers with swords in the sewers, and was promoted to the rank of Deputy Chief of the Night Watchman. He personally created and led the scavenger guild to gain a foothold in the chaotic sewers and docklands, guiding the declining Shiying neighborhood back on track and establishing some kind of order that led to the prosperity of the neighboring neighborhoods.

After hearing the above information, the leader of the Iron Brotherhood, who also exchanged his eyes for seven curses, and the dead-eyed knight Gott Fred, who was immersed in darkness physically and mentally, pondered for a long time before slowly speaking.

"Such an unblemished, near-perfect white knight must have an extremely abundant source of faith. Perhaps an old rumor has been fulfilled in Holm, that my old rival's battle with Aldrich Triss has caused two very different sources to collide and cause Holm, which had been stagnant and his body was about to dry up, to break through the obstacles and touch the terrible Scepter of Damned. ”

With his head to the left, the chief thinker of the Brotherhood of Steel, Professor Griffin from the Lion Eagle Branch of the Rhotin Academy, is also the "Pale Hand" of the Underworld, who is proficient in forbidden alchemy.

"Master, what do you think of Holm's intelligence gathering?"

Professor Griffin, whose face was covered in bronze and had no jawless skull mask, wore gray silk gloves and flipped through the paper in front of him: "There is good news and bad news. ”

"Master, let's follow the old rules. On the right side of Gort-Fred, as he quickly rose in status due to the condensation of the Killing Heart, he jumped past his partner in front of him, and Helus, who was standing in the third position of the steel sequence, opened his mouth to ask.

The pale hand nodded lightly: "The bad news is that Holm, who has a cursed scepter, can break through the limit and cast all the curse spells of the Dead Eye Knight's body, and the price paid is once a day, and there is no trace of repeated spells for the time being, maybe there is a certain upper limit, but he is well disguised." ”

Gott Fred then took over the subject: "I have to explain this change in detail to all the brothers here. Well...... The Dead-Eyed Knight who chooses the source of arrogance to exchange his eyes for curse spells will receive permanently solidified spells, just like a warlock who ignites his bloodline, once chosen, he cannot change it for life. I've experienced the moment when I lost my eyes and embraced the darkness, and there were roughly seventy-two curses, condensed into strange runes that floated in my consciousness. That kind of experience is difficult to describe in words, and the fact that people who have lost their eyes can still see things is probably an illusion caused by the feedback of the source of faith, somewhere between real and unreal. ”

Professor Griffin continued, "The good news is that Holm the Cursed Scepter had been immersed in the path of the Dead-Eyed Knight for so long before he was promoted, that his body was withered and semi-undead, so he did not complete his final metamorphosis, and was only a defective product at best. The name of the Knight of Wands may be able to scare ordinary people who don't know the details, but it can't fool us, who are also black knights. On another note, according to the information coming from the inside of the Grey Shroud, Holm had planned to 'canonize' a scepter of the scepter, but in misfortune, he shamefully failed. By the way, that man is the lone sewer ranger, Chart the Phantom Hunter in the dark, who has made a pact to follow him until death in the name of the cursed scepter. ”

Gott Fred, the leader of the Iron Brotherhood, slapped the table with his iron fist hand, "Holm the cursed scepter of the Grey Shroud is not a concern, but it is a little scary to call on the Dead-Eyed Knight to join him in the name of the Knight of Wand. ”

The pale hand clasped his fingers together: "Chief, no matter what we think about, we must stop Holm's reckless actions. The fact that the inside can pass on the information must have come from the connivance and indifference of the Black Scepter Dismaster, who must have been affected by the rumors circulating in the underworld. ”

"Big Brother Fred, you must break the boundaries and become the next, perhaps the true Cursed Scepter. The killing knight Herlus spoke earnestly, and the high-ranking members of the Brotherhood on the left and right nodded in agreement after hearing this.

The Dead-Eyed Knight Goth Fred, who has reached the pinnacle of his life, slowly got up: "For the sake of the Brotherhood of Steel, for the sake of all of us, I will definitely succeed in becoming the Knight of the Scepter." Of course, first I'll personally face President Tris of the Scavengers Guild to see if his source of virtue is really the opportunity for me to wait for the transformation of the Black Knight. If the reasoning is correct, Aldrich Terris is the whetstone of our Brotherhood of Steel, and not only me as the Dead-Eyed Knight, but also other brothers of different formations can challenge him. ”

These words immediately won the hearts of the attendees, and it had to be admitted that the fact that Gott Fred was the head of the Brotherhood was indeed due to his extraordinary courage and keen insight into the essence of things.

Challenge the Fourth Knight of Eastwood, and according to the irresponsible gossip provided by the intelligence broker, Aldrich Triss has approached the Grand Knight. It is very likely that when he breaks through the boundaries of the Black Knight, it will become a stepping stone for his growth.

Considering the limitations of the White Knight, in order to prevent Gott Fred from accidentally breaking his blade, Professor Griffin suggested that Aldrich Triss's close friends be taken hostage, threatening him to stop at a critical moment.

The Council of Brothers immediately agreed, and the first target was Madame Lovette, who was rumored to have met at a dinner hosted by Baron Federi and had an "in-depth exchange", but this was quickly rejected by Gott Fred.

"This woman can't do it, I am vaguely aware of the identity of the big man standing behind her, and I can't even provoke our backstage, so let's choose the people of Tris, how to say it's also an acquaintance who watched him grow up. ”

Helus and the others nodded vigorously: "We can't be blamed for being mean, but we are well aware of Aldrich Tris's jealous and hateful temperament, so we have to take the first countermeasures." ”

Professor Griffin of the Pale Hand did not speak against it, so the Brotherhood of Steel quickly gathered a consensus and immediately began to collect the whereabouts of Aldrich Triss, identify more than half of the members of the union from the Triss Collar, confirm their affinity with Aldrich, and, more importantly, crack down on the scavengers who were making money in the sewers, preferably by shedding blood and mutilation, in the hope of luring President Triss into the trap and into the chosen battlefield.

Thinking about the future direction of the union and the individual, Aldrich Triss stayed at the headquarters of the residence to prepare for a rainy day, because of his reputation in the Shiying district and the area of the docks, and the constant stream of guests who came to visit him upon hearing the news, the union members were able to avoid the door as much as possible, although there were a few people who could not refuse.

For example, Baruch Stoneaxe, a highland warrior who had fought Aldrich, knew that Tris had set up a bakery as promised, and that he had established close friendly relations with flour merchants and large grain merchants, so he visited him with great anticipation.

Aldrich Triss learned of this good-natured heroic descendant, and immediately put down his plan, and clashed fists with Baruch Stone Axe at the door, and invited him to the inner room on the second floor for the sake of the sparkling battle friendship.

As soon as he sat down, the warrior from the heights of Furness spoke bluntly about his request, hoping that Tris would provide his tribe with a quantity of grain or flour, which of course would be much higher than the market price.

Aldrich had been prepared for this, and after a moment of contemplation, he nodded heavily under the expectant gaze of Baruch Stoneaxe, and then the two of them exchanged pleasantries without politeness, and got up and went downstairs to the storage room of the whole wheat bakery.

Asking the shopkeeper to open the palm-thick door and stretch out his hand to invite the Highlanders to take a tour, Baruch Stone Axe did not hesitate to stoop in, stand up straight, and look around to the right and left, and saw hundreds of flour bags neatly stacked against the floor, and more baskets full of wheat that had not yet been ground into flour.

The air is filled with the smell of harvest and abundance, the fertile land is producing, and every wheat is condensed with the brilliant sunshine and the sweat of the farmers. Taking a deep breath, Baruch Stone Axe turned, wiped away tears of joy from the corners of his eyes in a somewhat disfigured manner, and put his hands on Aldrich's shoulders.

"I said, I would help you. Tris smiled and spoke, reassuring the Highland Warriors' overly agitated mood.

"As bad as my mind may be, the transport of large quantities of grain and flour out of Eastwood is definitely a conspicuous thing, and I have to find a way to cover up the past. Look, what are the channels of smugglers?"

Aldridge's expression was solemn when he heard this: "How can this be? The scavengers' union started with the fight against smugglers, and they must not be used through their channels! Baruch, my friend, please prepare enough cash to pay, and I will personally settle with you in the afternoon at the river of spirits outside the city." ”

Seeing him so confident, the Highland Warrior felt a sense of peace of mind, and his intuition made Baruch feel that Tris would not lie to deceive, but that there was a solution, so he left happily and went to his partner to raise money.

As for Aldrich Triss, after seeing him off personally, he walked into the pantry again, closed the door, reached out and touched the red sock on his waist, and smiled knowingly.

Today he is going to use the storage of the whole wheat bakery to test the maximum capacity of this space bag, and judging from the past records, the truth will definitely surprise Baruch, including himself.