"Stop waving!" Ning Xin grabbed Ebony's hand and tried to force it down.
"Why? Look, it's waving back." He pointed to the translucent glob of white that was floating off the ground.
It had something like white tentacles as legs and a pair of four-fingered hands. He couldn't see any facial features, as if it was constantly blurred off. The creature was floating above the tallest hill in the area and under the dark clouds whereas their trailer was under daylight.
"That's a level 500 Ghast that physical attacks don't work on. Fire, ice, gravity, wind and blood don't really affect it either so stop fooling around!" She scolded without much nervousness in her voice.
"You wanted to hunt me, a 'spirit' in the past."
"Ice type, away from their natural environment. I thought I had a good chance. And ghasts are completely different!" She put more strength into trying to stop his waving arm.
The ghast continued to return the wave.
"What about lightning magic and sound magic?"
"Lightning should work. I don't know about sound but since it's arcane, it should work to some extent. Please stop waving! I don't have a strong magic body yet, we'll…I might perish with a single touch."
Ebony put his hand down. The Ghast saw them through the concealment of their trailer, he should take it seriously. The Ghast's attacks might go right through his ice shield without even slowing down if what she said was true.
"Your mask doesn't do anything about that?"
"...It does. There's a function that requires mana or any other energy source from me, I can cast some sort of enchantment that allows my physical body or weapon to damage it. I didn't focus on that so my evolution didn't strengthen that ability, it's very limited and not efficient."
"There really is nothing that your mask can't do is there." He wasn't really asking the redundant question.
The Ghast slouched when he drove off. Ebony made sure to say bye.
They reached the furthest they were advised to, and started from the centre of Bubble Hills. If he flew up high enough, he was able to see both Trailane Plains on his right and Hoarfrost Glade on his left. The area behind them was called the Garden of the Deceased. It was supposedly covered in extremely thick clouds and no sunlight reaches any part of it.
The Ghast standing on that tall hill was famous, hence they knew its level. It was also King ranked. Ebony also knew a little about that region of Bubble Hill's history from Clovis's study. There had been a book on it but mostly expositions, theories, a few statements and testimonies by some random person long ago. Clovis was very interested in the place and so were many Frost Elves due to the proximity with their village and the Glades so they had quite a few books about the Garden of the Deceased.
None of them were similar in terms of its history but one thing remained consistent. The Ghast floating there never moved from that spot for as long as this place had been recorded on maps. The story goes that waving at it would get them a wave back but even touching the grass was black behind the film of darkness would cause the Ghast to charge at anyone.
No one saw a monster or animal past the darkness but the plants there seemed to be doing well other than being black in colour.
The moment one is touched by the Ghast they disappear completely, from body to equipment to belongings. The theories that they are teleported had long been debunked as some people pushed people they didn't like past it and they got kill notifications. Usually instantaneous if the books and rumours were to be believed.
All in all, nothing much is known about what's beyond the hill where the Ghast guards. The 'history' that they know of was from books passed down for long enough that it was hard to tell if it was true.
They started their scout for real.
The winding paths were less than ideal for driving through. There was no way to go fast and they needed to check every corner. Sometimes there were too many hills concentrated in an area they chose to walk or fly instead. Flying wasn't their forte and it was hard to check every spot if they flew, going on land made them less visible and was the more comfortable choice.
They zigzagged from the Glades to Trailane Plains over and over again.
The only point of interest was plenty of bloody craters that were relatively fresh but no bodies to be found.
Ebony shared his random thoughts.
"What if some high ranking troll just tossed their soldiers from the sea? They know that most of them can just regenerate so they don't have to worry about killing their own soldiers. They told us that the Empire didn't notice the army of ships before it was too late, perhaps they started to throw their units over before they started their attack."
"And those craters are where the trolls landed? A small amount of trolls that pass by the borders can easily cause plenty of harm and unrest. That…actually sounds possible."
They decided to share their findings and guesses when they returned but they weren't done scouring Bubble Hills.
Ebony's proficiency with casting a pseudo Chaotic Repulsive Membrane on someone else using surrounding gravity mana was improving quickly thanks to the evolution of Gravity Mana Manipulation to Control. He couldn't control someone else's gravity mana like how Ning Xin couldn't manipulate the blood inside him, at least not effectively.
8 days passed.
They were very thorough about their search but only found a single squad of Master Warriors. It was actually the other way around since they were jumped on. They were out of their trailer since it was having a hard time crossing some paths but both of them sensed the attack easily.
They were not a problem, Ebony was given the chance to test his domain again but the Trolls didn't stick together and avoided him. He locked two of them down as they didn't think much of him and they were powerless inside his domain. He took care of them so fast that he was able to chase after the others before Ning Xin could process them.
About to reach the area near Arcta, they received a call from Roya informing them that Korben wanted them to return. It was perfect timing.
Ebony didn't come across Obsius.
It didn't even take an hour before they returned. Arcta was safe and sound but there were no kids running about and the playground was silent.
They made a stop at the Thoyas first but Roya and Kiva were out with only the two guys working out a new patch of frozen soil.
They didn't want to disturb the focused Clovis after Halvis eyed them away so they left for the Lasil's house.
It appeared that Kiva was in their backyard, they could hear her from the front door.
Palom escorted them in but was asked to leave by her parents. Even Ebony could tell that she was a little upset when they said that "The adults have to talk." because she was older than him and Ning Xin but she didn't argue.
Korben and Koawe were present together with a bunch of elders that Ebony never saw before. By old, the men mostly had long beards and the ladies were hunched back. They were really as old as one can get.
[Arch Wood Mage Lvl ???]
[???]
[Bow Artisan King Lvl ???]
[Arrow Artisan King Lvl ???]
'Arcta sure hid many King Classes…' Even the wood mage appeared to be a crafter but he hadn't seen or sensed these presences till this day. Roya was standing behind the old lady with the question marks while eyeing Kiva who was rolling in the snow with Willow. They were playmates but it was worrisome that the similar-sized cub might accidentally injure her baby.
"We'll leave out the introductions for now, we have more urgent news to discuss." Korben cut their greetings down but he didn't need to as the old Frost Elves excused themselves "These old bones will get back since our business here is done."
"Involving us?" Ebony was the one who asked while he forcefully shut Everlasting Tranquillity down. This way, he found himself actually caring about certain 'less troublesome' matters and wouldn't fall into random trances so easily.
Apparently, Koawe personally went to the front lines to get more information since remote communication was cut off. To summarise, things were getting bad enough that the Frost Elves' had to act. They were on friendly terms with the Empire but Ebony didn't realise to what degree their relation went.
"We don't have the leeway. Koawe and I are the only ones capable of fighting on the front lines. One of us has to stay in the village and the other would have to cross the Glades to get help from Tuctra." Korben explained.
Communication through callstone wasn't possible to both the front lines and their other village, Tuctra. The mana and environment cut all of the mental links.
"Do you have to send someone?"
"Fifth Tide is barely holding itself together. The Dwarven Archduke is a Warsmith but he is but a single person, the scope of battle is expanding due to the Troll's shamans. Not to mention, his no longer at Fifth Tide since they managed to stablise the situation."
They heard that the Troll Shamans were experts at creating land to fight on due to the many wars they have been on. When Korben and Koawe explained about Trolls previously, they mention how after the Tides were built Trolls had trouble since they couldn't fight on the sea and the place they were attacking were all cliffs. The Tides had the overwhelming advantage of defensive towers and height, the Trolls could only take attacks without any defensive measures.
The earth wielding Shamans trained over thousands of years at conjuring land. Tova had numerous mysterious lakes and ponds that had never been covered for the past thousands of years. The Shamans trained to cover the lakes over and over but the lakes always resurfaced or the conjured land constantly disappeared.
A phenomenon that even the Empire investigated but had no clue why or how. Elva had something similar. The Great Lake that Xienor was constructed beside.
The two Frost Elves didn't know why but Ebony knew, Ful informed him.
The Spear Saint's attacks cannot be removed, recovered or even covered up so easily. The only reason Ful's 'sister' survived so long was due to her race and personal strength as a Phoenix. Till this day, the after-effects of his spear thrusts onto Elcra haven't been removed.
This only improved the Troll's Shamans' ability as their skill levels skyrocketed easily with those lakes.
Ebony couldn't imagine but according to them, the sea can no longer be seen from any of the Tides. Wastelands stretched for months down the cliffs of the coast. 'Months' were at Korben's speed if he moved at his greatest speed without stopping or anything disrupting him. This made Ebony rethink how large the sea was or how fast the ships here were to only take a year or two to reach Tova.
The Trolls created their own battlefield to stand a chance at breaking through the tides and also so that they could fight on their terms. Their main camps were obviously out of reach of the Tides' defensive towers and mages. They moved around and laid siege attempts as and when they liked while the Imperial Army had no choice but to play along and hop onto their battlefield.
"Once Fifth Tide is overrun, Arcta will be the very first target," Koawe added.
"...So Navin sort of forced you to make a move?" Ning Xin said.
They shook their head without giving any details. The Frost Elves didn't have a choice, Milly wasn't going to leave her child here when an Impending invasion was going to come at any time and Korben or Koawe alone isn't enough to assure the village's safety. It was a subtle threat behind the call for help. Once Fifth Tide is down, Arcta is next.
There weren't many places to run to with a village full of crafters either. Hoping to defend so many villagers on the move was far from ideal and the young children couldn't exactly run fast.
"I would be supporting the front lines but I remembered you two were here. This way, one of us can get actual support from Tuctra." Koawe smiled.
The village chief's party was still going around the surroundings for their scouts and in Korben and Koawe's assessment, not ready to take part in a war. Not when their village was so understaffed.
The initial plan was that getting reinforcements wasn't even a choice since the Frost Elves from Tuctra usually don't care much about the war with Trolls, the most they would do was send volunteers to protect Arcta. So one of them would gladly join the front lines.
It was just so coincidental that all the other strong old fighters returned to Tuctra when they went to fetch Milly. Those people felt uncomfortable with the heat in Arcta and went back for a holiday, at ease that their guardian beast would be present anyway. None of them expected a Troll invasion.
"Okay." Ning Xin affirmed.
"I haven't said what-" Koawe continued but got cut off by her.
"You want the two of us to support Fifth Tide. This helps the village and we want to fight strong opponents."
"Surely, there are more reinforcements other than us." Ebony added. He didn't overestimate themselves, their impact probably wouldn't be big enough. The individual Trolls were too strong and fighting an army of them was vastly different from removing a few squads that got caught off guard. Not to mention there would be much stronger Trolls there to command the battle.
"Freelancers are being hired but not many would take the job. The majority is tasked to escort and protect the supply lines from the Great Farms since there's the presence of roaming Trolls on land. Most nobles are being called back from whatever dungeons they are in but they need to protect their territory as well. Some towns are unable to let their nobles go as their nearby dungeons are constantly under-cleared and under the threat of dungeon breaks."
Korben explained about some towns that are surrounded by multiple high-level dungeons and the lack of clearers or freelancers to decrease these dungeons' population. Or some nobles who purposely stops the killing of dungeon monsters. Allowing the dungeon to build up essence to create higher value materials or even controlled strengthening of a dungeon so that they can increase the rank of the dungeon as a whole.
This was dangerous but of immense value, if they could improve the materials or increase the average monster level in a controlled manner that was near their town or city so it was not uncommon for nobles to take up such policies.
The royal order was to stop such activities but it takes time for them to clear off a build-up of monster populations even with freelancers' and professional dungeon clearers help. Depending on their distance from the Tides, it just meant that reinforcements to the front lines would both take a lot of time and the reinforcements wouldn't be all that helpful. They cannot leave their own towns and cities without anyone taking charge after all, the most would be a few sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters and many a few more generations depending on the noble family's size.
The food situation was what most freelancers were in charge of now since the army couldn't afford any more manpower away from the front lines. These supply lines were of utmost importance so they were highly paid and only the best of the best were hired. That or a large number of escorts. The amount of food the army was going through every single day had to be unimaginable for him.
"Is the situation that bad even after the population growth and the Empire's general advancements?" Ebony commented.
"...I saw the front lines, the Trolls are more coordinated than ever and their numbers are unlike anything I've ever seen in the previous war. The Trolls are more aggressive this time but also more cautious. Navin's not willing to tell me more even though he knows something is up." Koawe still smiled.
"Is it because the Trolls have a new ruler? A King Classed Shaman if I remember correctly." Ning Xin pondered.
Ebony was gonna guess it was knowledge her grandma left.
"...That is bad news. They have so many King Classed warriors since they always retreat before things get bad. Quite a few of them survive each time but their shamans..." Korben frowned.
He was probably worried it was a bonafide, maxed out Fortifications King compared to the mass-produced kings. That would be a massive pain in the butt.
They informed him that unlike their warriors who evolve if they don't have talent, every shaman is groomed to have the best Fortifications they can get. So an extremely powerful Grandmaster shaman has gotten even more powerful. It would be bad if it was a particularly smart one and there was a very good chance it was smart.
Koawe was going to bring them there to introduce them into the fight but not immediately, he had some preparations to make. They needed to wait for the previous 4 elders to complete crafting some stuff that would be donated to the Imperial Army as part of the Frost Elves support. It wasn't so much of a donation as it was a trade. The Frost Elves were getting food in exchange but it wasn't exactly a fair exchange.
The village needed a source of food now that hunting was extremely difficult and they didn't really have many crops or farms. The army needed equipment to which the crafters could whip up or take from their stockpile.
They remained to play with Willow and Kiva. Roya entrusted Kiva to them before she returned to cook dinner.
Willow was not willing to part with Kiva as the only similar-sized creature around it. Milly helped to distract her daughter when it was feeding time and they snatched the sleeping baby up to carry home.