Rex was basically an open book to Ji Tang. Everything from how he became Weisshem's new lord to Lord Yang's peculiar dealings in Indahl was known to Ji Tang.
Just with his intuition, Ji Tang didn't even need the expert task force's analysis to know that Weisshem would face a batter sooner or later. A predatory ruling class in any world definitely wouldn't be benign. Lord Yang had forcibly stripped off a piece of juicy meat from Indahl's lord, and even if the latter had endured it at the time, he would likely seek revenge later.
As for why Lord Yang didn't seem worried about this matter, and didn't even consider establishing a border outpost for defense, Ji Tang could roughly understand.
If Indahl's lord, due to embarrassment and anger, sent men to Weisshem to plunder and kill, Lord Yang might enthusiastically watch on. Having the largest local feudal lord voluntarily pop up to be the antagonist to draw the hatred of the common folk just as he was worried about how to win the people's hearts would be like a free handout.
If Indahl's lord really did so, Ji Tang didn't doubt that Lord Yang would follow Liu Bei's example and bring Weisshem's population back to Exile Town. It would be a free windfall of over ten thousand people, and Lord Yang would be a fool not to take advantage of it. [TL note: reference to a story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms.]
The situation at present didn't appear like it would escalate too extremely. The mounted armored troops were just swaggering on the main road to the town in broad daylight. It was more likely that their purpose was military deterrence rather than armed conflict.
However… Ji Tang didn't think that the Indahl Lord would achieve his goal of military deterrence.
He was able to see the flashy armor of these soldiers and their handsome, high-headed horses even from such a distance away. From the logical viewpoint of any player… this just seemed like equipment-dropping human-shaped monsters were delivering themselves to the front door.
With a gaze full of immense sympathy (schadenfreude), Ji Tang pulled Rex away.
Rex, puzzled, asked, "Aren't we going back to report on this?"
"Um… No need. Let's continue with the village groundwork," Ji Tang said, glancing at the system announcement that just appeared on his player panel. It seemed that Lord Yang didn't let the natives see this information.
Thinking back to the Camore private thugs still slaving away as laborers in Desolate Outpost, Ji Tang effortlessly understood the intentions of Lord Yang, the alleged compatriot from China.
"What??" Rex's head was filled with question marks.
"Rex, just remember that we never saw this group of armed cavalry. These people have never come to Weisshem and we know nothing about it. No matter who asks, you must firmly deny it," Ji Tang said gravely.
Rex: "??"
"Alright, let's continue. If possible, let's try to visit a few more villages today…"
When Ji Tang had seen the armed cavalry, presumably from Indahl, all players online received a conspicuous yellow text prompt on their player panels:
[System Announcement] Weisshem Local Defense: Fifty-two illegal armed cavalry have invaded Weisshem territory from the main town road. Players, please hurry to the town hall to receive the defense quest.
"The heck?! Another monster attack in town?!" Qin Guan, who had PTSD from the weekend instance dungeon event, nearly jumped up when he saw the system announcement.
"Isn't it broad daylight in the game right now? Do monsters still spawn in the day?" Give Me Medicine looked around nervously.
Blossoming Strokes chuckled. "You two, calm down. Take a closer look at the announcement. This armed cavalry is humanoid monsters, not the weird creatures from Exile Town!"
Qin Guan's and Give Me Medicine's eyes immediately lit up.
On another street, Brother Lahong, who was supervising dozens of detainees in clearing the sewers, saw the announcement and shouted ecstatically, "Armed cavalry! Humanoid monsters! Brothers, let's go! Time to farm monsters!"
"Wait, wait, wait! Don't all leave! This quest isn't complete yet!" Guileless Gale grabbed Brother Lahong in a hurry. "We have to leave some of us here to watch this bunch. Failing the quest will result in a prestige deduction!"
Brother Lahong slapped his forehead, then quickly selected a few players who hadn't completed their job advancement or were poorly equipped to stay and watch over here. Then, he asked Study Obsessed to log out and call others.
While the blood alliances were excitedly calling for backup, unaffiliated players doing quests in Exile Town and Desolate Outpost weren't idle either. Even casual players like Teacher Yu Chi and Liu Meng were urgently rushing to the teleportation point.
In less than half an hour (OtherWorld time), more than 260 undead filled the spacious courtyard of the Weisshem town hall, which was even more than during the initial expedition quest…
Currently, it was only 11 a.m. in OtherWorld, though on Earth, it was only six in the morning on the weekend. So many players were simultaneously logging in at this odd timing, and the reason, of course, was… everyone was tired of not having equipment drops.
There were only two relatively stable ways to obtain equipment in the game. One was to buy novice equipment with copper coins from weapon/armor vendors, and the other was to exchange white-grade equipment at the Undead Merchant Association using prestige and materials.
Monsters didn't drop equipment when killed. Regardless of whether it was in Spider Cave, Poisonous Marshlands, or outside Desolate Outpost, no matter how many the players killed, only materials were dropped.
This frustrating setting had left players complaining endlessly…
Up until this day, players had only discovered one way of obtaining equipment outside the above two methods: looting humanoid monsters.
NPCs that wore equipment, could be attacked, and were deemed as hostile were moving equipment displays in the eyes of players.
Before, many players had wandered around the streets and alleys of Weisshem that were teeming with NPCs; they weren't just trying to trigger hidden quests, but many were actually hoping to encounter monsters they could rob…
When most of the players online had gathered, the doors of the town hall opened, and Yang Qiu, with the titles "Undead Race Resurrection Master" and "Lord of Taranthan, Yang," walked out, looking solemn.
"Enemies have invaded our territory. Fifty-two armed knights with malicious intent are approaching our town. Undead friends, I require your initiative to intercept the enemy and protect the people of this land."
With a few lines of dialogue to barely meet the plot requirements, Yang Qiu skillfully issued a quest to the players gathered at the town hall.
———
[Weisshem Defense Battle]
The evil Lord of Indahl is attempting to threaten Weisshem's tranquility, secretly mobilizing the city defense force that should be protecting the city, and deceiving these soldiers to point their long spears at the people.
Head east along the town road to confront the incoming enemy.
Successfully defeat the Indahl City Defense Force squad. Each participating player will receive 300 territory prestige. For every successfully captured City Defense Force soldier, the capturer will receive 200 territory prestige. For every City Defense Force soldier slain, 50 territory prestige will be deducted from the killer. For every successfully captured war horse turned over to Weisshem Town Hall, the capturer will receive 100 points of territory prestige.
During the territory defense battle, death penalties are waived. Any player that died in the defense battle can be respawned instantly.
———
Players seeing the defense quest appear on their respective panels didn't care if Lord Yang was standing before them and unabashedly turned on furious complaint mode—
"F*ck this! Quests that deduct prestige?!"
"Seriously! What if the NPCs want to run?!"
"Didn't we turn in captured mounts during the last expedition quests?! Can't we keep them for ourselves?!"
"Keep the mounts! I strongly demand we be able to keep the mounts! Does releasing an undead horse once a month sound reasonable?! Our knights are not even considered real knights without mounts!"
Ignoring the tide of unhappy public opinion from players, Yang Qiu, like an emotionless NPC, waved his hand. "Set forth, undead warriors! For Weisshem! For Taranthan!"
Players moved off still grumbling and cursing…
Before, the undead teleporting to the town hall courtyard didn't attract too much attention from the townsfolk. This was mainly because there weren't many residential houses around the town hall, and the courtyard walls were high enough.
When this close to three hundred undead abruptly surged out of the town hall courtyard and flowed through the town, it had quite a significant impact—panicked screams rang on wherever the main force of players went.
"What kind of crappy plot is this? Aren't we here to defend the town? It's one thing if the NPCs don't line up to send us off. But treating us like a plague?" A player witnessing several instances of "real-time animation" of NPCs screaming and running off expressed dissatisfaction.
"Who cares? Lining up to send us off won't grant any extra prestige." There were also players that were unbothered.
"At least give us some positive encouragement. Even the NPCs in Swordsman 3 express their gratitude when I run errands. Is that too much to ask?"
As players bickered away like they were at a market, the cavalry squad from Indahl's city defense force was less than ten kilometers away, traveling in a straight line toward Weisshem.
The leader of this cavalry unit was Wagner Pitt, a knight in his forties.
Wagner Pitt wasn't originally a Rhine person. When he was young, he served as a squire to a city defense force knight. Due to the knight's unexpected death from an assassination and he was yet to produce an heir, Wagner, who was a foreigner, fortunately received a knight title from the Bartalis family.
However, this title was the pinnacle of Wagner Pitt's life. Despite living in Indahl for many years, marrying, and having children, he still failed to gain significant favor from the Bartalis family. Even in his old age, he remained the lowest-ranking officer in the city defense force, serving as a sergeant of the most basic squad.
Indahl, being a large city, had a retirement system for its regular forces. Those under fifty who couldn't reach a certain rank would be arranged to undergo retirement once they reached the age. Not only did this mean zero hope for career advancement, but it also meant that income would plummet significantly.
Wagner Pitt was well aware of why this assignment had been given to him. The regimental commander wasn't sure if the black magician supporting the new Weisshem lord was still in town, and rather than risking a more promising young person, he thought of using Wagner, whose retirement was impending.
No one would enjoy being treated as a discarded pawn. However, Wagner Pitt had no choice. If he dared to defy orders, the commander would forcefully retire him using that as a pretext.
When leaving the city, Wagner had even considered whether to take a risk and go to the City Lord's manor to report the commander, whom he disliked. Adra III's request was to demonstrate the strength of the city defense force and intimidate the bastard lord of Weisshem. The commander, however, hadn't seen it this way and had only sent his small squad out to probe.
But when he thought about the high regard Adra III had for the commander compared to himself, whose name likely wasn't even remembered, Wagner reluctantly abandoned the idea.
If he took the risk and tried to create a rift between Adra III and the commander, he would definitely have a bad ending himself.
While Wagner was lost in thought, his squire, a young Rhine man with perpetual ambition in his eyes, urged his horse forward and came to Wagner's side.
"Wagner, are we going directly to the town of Weisshem?" the young squire asked eagerly.
"That is the commander's order," Wagner replied coldly.
Wagner's favored squire, like himself, was also a foreigner. However, after the commander planned to keep Wagner in the rank of sergeant until his retirement, this Rhine person was forcefully added to his squad.
Wagner could guess the commander's intention. Once Wagner reached the age cap and was forced to retire, the title of Bartalis family knight would be handed over to this young man brought in by the commander.
The Bartalis family hadn't increased the number of their knights for many years, and each knight title of theirs held great value. Besides providing a small piece of land and subjects, it also came with a substantial salary from being an officer of the city defense force.
"Going to town is a great idea! I've been hearing so many rumors about Weisshem lately and I can't wait to see what it looks like now." The haughty young squire dismissed Wagner's attitude, laughing loudly. "I wonder how those women we encountered when I came with the gentlemen from the city hall last time are doing. It would be a pity if those top-notch women died."
Wagner remained expressionless. His other squire, who had served him for many years, frowned in displeasure.
The 49 other cavalrymen accompanying them kept their mouths shut and proceeded forward in silence. These soldiers also understood that offending this arrogant young man could mean trouble for their future under his command.
It was high noon, the sun was scorching, and there were hardly any pedestrians on the town road. Occasionally, there would be some farmers returning home to escape the heat that would catch sight of these fully armed cavalrymen coming down the road. They hastily found places to hide, afraid of doing anything wrong to offend these intimidating soldiers.
The difference between a professional and an ordinary person was more significant than the difference between species. The scorching sun that could dehydrate an ordinary person was nothing to the cavalrymen who had undergone professional training. Even though they were clad in heavy armor, none of them shed a single drop of sweat.
Amid the loud and boisterous laughter of the young haughty squire, Wagner, leading the group, irritably shook the reins and bypassed the low hills close to the town road.
Then, Wagner saw… on the other side of the hill, a group of undead spread out in a long line, loosely scattered all over the road.
Players: "The heck?!"
"Enemies!" Wagner swiftly halted his steed and unsheathed his sword.
The town road, flanked by hills on one side and farmland on the other, offered a relatively broad field of vision.
The scattered undead, forming an undisciplined formation, were approaching the bend in the road—some within a hundred meters, others at least three hundred meters away.
Wagner quickly estimated the number of undead and, realizing that the numerical difference was at least five times more in favor of the dead, made a snap judgment. He couldn't wait for these undead to assemble into formation—they had to seize the initiative!
With a loud shout of "Follow me!" Wagner bravely led the charge.
It was unclear whether the undead shared Wagner's intention to strike first. These disorganized and unstructured undead emitted strange, excited cries of "WAKAKAKA" and "YAWAKAKAKA" as they charged toward the onrushing cavalry.
Seconds later, the two sides clashed.
The undead's "vanguard," lacking any semblance of formation, was instantly trampled by the heavily armored cavalry riding their high horses…
Scenes of bones and equipment thrown into the air didn't even appear; the damage caused by the heavy cavalry in the moment of impact exceeded the players' health bar limits (damage threshold), causing them to instantly vanish in a white light…
Feeling only a slight impact, the shocked soldiers who collided with the disappearing undead couldn't help looking around in confusion.
Players, who found themselves on the teleportation platform in the Weisshem's town hall courtyard in a flash, were equally astonished.
"Wha—f*ck! Did I just die like that?!"
"Whoa, instakill? What the hell?"
"Damn it, I shouldn't have followed you guys and charged! What sort of infantry charges against cavalry!"
"Crap, we have to run back to the battlefield again!"
Players once again left the courtyard, grumbling and cursing…
About five kilometers away, on the makeshift battlefield.
"Damn it, those idiots are all dead!"
"All stop dying in vain! Quickly get out of the way!"
"Dodge!"
Having witnessed some twenty-over comrades get instakilled, the remaining players, no matter how foolish they were, knew not to take on those trampling hooves head-on. Frantically, they scattered to both sides of the road…
Fortunately, the players' marching formation was always a snaking line that would drive any commander insane, and the scattered formation made it even harder to target. Coupled with the agile and lightway skeleton bodies, making it easy to get out of the way, the heavy cavalry's charge failed to achieve any results.
The horses ridden by the heavy-armored cavalry were not purebred horses but lizard horses with lizard blood. These horses were tall, robust, and possessed exceptional strength, with both load-bearing and endurance capabilities. They met the demands of heavy-armored cavalry, whose combined weight with equipment exceeded 150 kilograms.
These lizard horses could also perform multiple short-distance sprints in a short period, allowing the cumbersome heavy-armored cavalry to launch multiple charges in a brief timeframe.
Charging out a distance of over two hundred meters and completely dispersing the formation of the undead, the adept cavalry squad, under the command of their experienced sergeant, Wagner Pitt, quickly reorganized within seconds and turned around.
Wagner once more raised his sword but couldn't immediately shout for another charge.
There was no undead on the road anymore; these sneaky creatures had fled to either the hills or the farmland.
Wagner Pitt found himself in a bit of a dilemma…
Heavy-armored cavalry, weighing nearly half a ton with rider and horse included, would be just fine on the solidly compacted town road, even if it was paved with gravel.
However, on the fields, where the ground was relatively soft, the legs of their horses could easily get stuck.
Wagner was contemplating whether a change of tactics was in order when the undead unexpectedly charged toward them again.
"Hurry up! Quickly output damage while the monsters' charge is on cooldown!"
"Damn, small monsters are always so annoying! Die for me!"
Wagner couldn't understand the loud clamoring of these undead in a weird language, but seeing them return to the town road, he didn't hesitate to lead the charge once again.
Players at the forefront of the undead charge were killed.
"F*cking insane!" Qin Guan, who reappeared at the Weisshem teleportation point, threw his weapon on the ground in frustration. "F*cking humanoid monsters in full armor, mounted and having a charge with no cooldown! Are the damn devs trying to mess with players?!"
"Did you expect warm hugs from them? Not feeding us sh*t is already good enough," Give Me Medicine swore under his breath. "Come on, Vanilla, hurry up and run to the battlefield!"
"Coming, coming!" Qin Guan hurriedly picked up his weapon.
On the town road, after multiple charges, the number of undead had decreased significantly and no longer outnumbered the cavalry squad by that much.
Wagner ordered the squad to halt and regroup on the side near the farmland. The cavalrymen, including himself, were in good condition, but the lizard horses were panting and needed rest.
"So much for that!" The arrogant squire, seemingly recovering from the initial shock of encountering the large undead army, spoke loudly, perhaps to mask his embarrassment. "I wondered how terrifying the undead army that scared away the previous baron could be, but it turns out they're just a bunch of crappy bones that crumble when touched!"
Wagner paid no mind to this fellow, who seemed to have distantly related with the city defense force's commander. He instead surveyed the hills on the opposite side of the road.
The remaining undead had fled to the hills but were still within their line of sight. They were now gathered on the hill, haughtily locking eyes with them.
They hadn't given up; Wagner could feel their hostility… Their eyes seemed to be burning with rage.
"Not much we can do if it isn't flat ground," Wagner frowned.
These undead were very agile, nearly as fast as wanderers they had encountered before. If they were to battle on terrain that wasn't flat, Wagner wasn't confident of escaping or eliminating them all.
What made Wagner even more uneasy was that despite charging multiple times and seemingly eradicating at least two hundred undead, there weren't any bone fragments on the surface of the road.
"…Were those undead really eliminated by us?" Wagner scrutinized the gravel road marked only by countless overlapping horseshoe prints and furrowed his brow.
As Wagner pondered, he suddenly heard commotion within the ranks.
"What's going on!" Wagner immediately turned around and shouted.
"Sarge! Look there!" a squad member cried out in panic.
Wagner turned to look. Sure enough, on the road coming from the direction of Weisshem, another large group of undead was heading toward them in a snake formation.
"Form up!" Wagner didn't hesitate and shouted loudly. "Prepare to charge!"
This experienced frontline officer knew very well that when facing such eerie enemies as the undead, soldiers mustn't be given extra time to think and instead quickly enter the rhythm of battle. This was also why he immediately led the charge upon seeing the undead.
This round of engagement was more challenging than the previous one. The undead this time were more agile, avoiding the direct frontal charges of the cavalry.
They were relentless, engaging in close combat and fearlessly attacking soldiers clad in full-body armor with various weapons, all while making strange noises.
What was more troublesome was that when the cavalry clashed with the approaching undead, those that were up the hill also came charging down, creating significant problems for the soldiers.
After eliminating some of the undead and driving the rest back up the hill, Wagner was unharmed. However, many soldiers showed signs of fatigue and had to catch their breath.
Wagner observed the morale of his men and then looked up at the undead on the hill.
According to the intelligence received by the city defense force, the number of undead in Weisshem wasn't large, with townspeople having encountered a few hundred at most.
It's about the same number as the ones we dealt with just now, Wagner did some mental calculations and decided to lead his troops further away so that the undead would be lured down the hills and could be eliminated.
Thus, he directed his cavalry unit toward Weisshem.
Sure enough, the undead on the hills followed.
Wagner waited until the undead and the troublesome hills were at a sufficient distance, then raised his sword. "Prepare—"
"Sarge! Look there!" a squad member cried out in panic.
Wagner's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly turned in the direction being pointed.
Another large group of undead were running from the direction of Weisshem…