As the war progressed, the need for shipbuilding had caused the orcs to cut down all the trees around Makabuda, and there was no good wood for a hundred miles to make large ships, and now they were all going upstream, looking for stout trees here. Rows of tree trunks can still be seen rising and falling on the Blackwater River, flowing all the way to the east.

Outside the orc city was a barren place, with nothing but mud, ash, and litter. The Three-Eyed Warlord Lunt sent part of his army outside the city and set up tents on the ruins of the original forest. They dug up trees for fuel, and then they defecated in the pits of the trees, making them smelly. Even in such an environment, there are still people who sell their catch in buckets and carts. It takes a lot of courage for these merchants to be able to navigate the rude, irascible orc soldiers, endure their cold, hateful, and greedy gazes, and hide their money as safely as possible so that they don't go home.

Next to the camp is a timber dump, where wood from the Blackwater River is salvaged, sorted according to material, and distributed to the various docks. There were human slaves who knew what wood could do, and many of them were carpenters who had been plundered by orcs from seagoing ships. Many people who didn't mix well in the Old World would try their luck in the New World, and some were plundered here.

"A lot of the wood has red markings lately, have you noticed?" said one of the one-armed slaves tending the stockpile. His left arm was cut in two from the elbow and now had a wooden hook tied to it that could be used to hang something like a baggage. It was only when there were no orc overseers around him that he dared to talk to his fellow slaves who had the same tragic fate. "Those markings don't look like they grew naturally, is it a tree disease?"

"What do you care about this, do you still want to treat the trees?" said a scrawny man with a bulging belly, "and the master said to divide the wood, and you will divide it." If you talk nonsense and make the master angry, the gold potion will not be enough. You also know that Hart's gang of shipbuilders have been eyeing our share for a long time. ”

"Those guys are more annoying than rats. The one-armed slave said, "They have always had a greater share than we have, but they are still not greedy." These days they are more like red-eyed madmen, working as if they are dying, eating and drinking more than before. Have you heard, there was a carpenter from Linwan Town in the Bloodtooth Dock yesterday who broke his hand while working, but he still didn't stop to rest. By the time others found out, his hands had turned completely black. The Overseer chops off his hand, but rewards him with a full bucket of gold potions and gives him a day off. However, this man actually went to nail the ship's board again the next day, and he was really desperate. ”

"Hmph, traitor. The bulging slave said, "It is a last resort to work for the orcs every day in order to survive, but such active work can be regarded as a traitor." ”

"Don't let anyone else hear this, they won't have mercy on our lives. The one-armed slave said, "No matter what, it will be difficult to escape from Makabuda in this life, and we must support and try to live, just to die later and more happily." Every night when I go to bed, I can seem to hear the screams outside, and we are lucky not to fall into the hands of the Skinning General. You see their messengers come here and skin a slave every night, saying that they are skilled in their hands. It's hard to imagine what it would be like in their camp. ”

"Don't say it, I'm going to throw up if I keep talking. The man with a bulging belly said: "Recently, the amount of wood used is very large, and the red pine wood is divided evenly into each dock, and the early dry is finished, and the medicine is returned early." ”

"And what about the red-streaked wood?"

"Anyway, it doesn't affect the hardness and use of wood, what do you care about this?"

The two of them began to talk about other things again, until the orc overseer reappeared. I just gambled a few games of dog fighting in the camp next to me and won some small money, and I was planning to find a woman to vent at night, so naturally I didn't care about the abnormality of the stockyard. If they looked closely, they could see that the red markings were alive, essentially a mycelium-like thing entrenched in the heart of the tree. They grow very slowly, and they are so small that they look like red markings even when they are put together. When the wood vibrates, some spores that are difficult to distinguish with the naked eye will fall off the hyphae and drift away with the wind. Slaves who inhale this spore will become fanatical and mechanical, working wildly one by one under the combined influence of the gold potion.

"The witch priests of Makabuda will guard against magicians, against priests who are not orc gods, but not against evil. The alchemist Eric explained to Siegel, "If they detect evil, there will be a bright light everywhere in the city, and nothing else will be necessary." So our plan is to fight evil with evil. ”

"What kind of mycelium do you use?" Siegel asked, "Are plants still good and evil?"

"Plants in general, except for those who have wisdom, are naturally indistinguishable from good and evil. But these are not products of this world. Eric patiently explained, treating Siegel as if he were his student. "In Purgatory, where the Devil of Yogros haunts, this mycelium grows into large mushroom forests, becoming its main source of food. In other words, what you see now is the purgatory mycelium, which naturally carries an aura of evil. ”

Siegel takes a closer look at these "mushrooms" and feels that they are somewhere between plants and animals. Those tiny hyphae that writhing are like tentacles that seem to sense the creatures and nutrients around them. "What's the danger of this thing?"

"It's usually harmless, but at best it slows down and dulls the mind. Eric said with a smile: "But when combined with the orc's gold potion, it will have a strong effect, and those boats will become more and more stupid, lose the ability to be flexible, and even the sense of self-protection will gradually fade in addition to working stupidly." The ingredients of the gold potion are not a secret to us alchemists, they are just very low-level recipes, and our research on gold potions is much better than that of orc witch sacrifices. The use of this highly addictive drug in slaves helped orcs establish a social class, but in fact, it was not only human slaves who became addicted, but also orc society became out-and-out addicts. Eric pointed to the Infernal mycelium, rubbing his fingers excitedly, "We've wanted to experiment with this tactic for a long time. ”

"Won't the witch priests find this mycelium? The shipyard is now the most heavily guarded place in the makabuda, and no one knows how many witch priests' eyes are staring at it. ”

"You're right, the shipyard is surrounded by layers, and the witch priest's eyes are on it, but it's useless. Eric shook his finger with a look of confidence: "The witch priest will not care about the health of human slaves, and as long as the shipbuilding work does not stop, no one will check the mycelium in the wood at all." ”

"So your plan is to kill all the shipwrights and bring down the dockyard in Macabda?" Siegel frowned, "Most of those boatmen are human. ”

"Although this is a race war, exterminating orcs to defend humanity, it does not mean that all humans are allies. The alchemist said, "If necessary, you would have said a solution, but we are not so mad. The effect of the purgatory mycelium is limited, even if I strengthen them with potions, but the environment here will eventually cause the mycelium to all perish, and it will only take half a month at most. My plan was to do the opposite, using the special power of the Inferno Mushroom to attract the fire elemental to converge so that the entire shipyard could be set on fire. ”

Is this possible? Siegel recalls what he learned at the Mage's Guild. Of all the elemental magic, Siegel has a soft spot for fire elemental magic, and is the most proficient in spells other than water elemental magic. He had memorized three hundred and seventeen materials that could attract the fire elemental, from the most basic cashmere fur to the rarest of the Adam's apple of the Fire Demon, among which there was absolutely no purgatory mycelium.

He watched as Eric processed the various materials, but out of the corner of his eye, he stole the expression on the alchemist's face. His expression remained serious and calm, and his tone did not shake in the slightest, in short, showing not the slightest hint of lying. "The most troublesome thing is not to get the attention of the witch priests in advance, and Makabuta's detection enchantment is no joke. ”

"What are you going to do with this?" Siegel asked.

"I need to show my housekeeping skills, you can wait a minute. Eric kept busy for a while more until the oyster shells were completely powdered and placed in a mud bowl. Then he pinched his back molars with his index finger and thumb and tugged on them sharply. Siegel saw a white denture being pulled out, with a thin silver-white thread tied to it.

The alchemist tugged the thin thread outward, holding back the constant feeling of vomiting until he pulled a small glass bottle out of his stomach pouch. Eric rinsed his mouth with ale and swallowed hard to show Siegel the clear glass bottle, which was no bigger than his little finger.

"That's my secret weapon. Eric said, "The Red Crystal, his fragments can emit magical energy fluctuations under the effect of potions, which can be used to confuse the entire detection enchantment. As long as it is arranged in advance, so that a large number of false alarms appear in the city at the same time, we can cover our real actions, which is called fishing in troubled waters. ”

"This gem is so magical, can you show me?" Siegel begged.

"I can't hand it over to you, mainly because I'm worried that after multiple people handle it, it will affect the mode of its characteristics, and it will delay my time to configure the potion. Eric smiled mysteriously, but there was no real smile in his eyes: "When everything is ready, I will naturally satisfy all your curiosity." ”

I'm afraid there won't be a few people alive by then, Siegel thought to himself. He pretended to be interested and nodded, like every curious boy who was good at the occult, but his eyes were fixed on the red gem. He was 100% sure that it wasn't the so-called Red Devil Crystal, but a Flame Soul Crystal, something that Knox would always collect.

Because in his key space, there is also a Flame Soul Crystal, which is ten times larger than this.