Chapter 10: A Small Amount of Work
This was a room with a strong military atmosphere.
On the walls, forged from white stone, hung various weapons in the styles of many races. The floor was covered in a black-backed, gold-threaded carpet woven from fine Ulan cashmere, embroidered with the emblem of a hand gripping a sword.
In the four corners stood several potted pine trees. Their deep green needles seemed somewhat withered and yellow from a lack of water. Antique Glowstone Lamps, simple in design, hung from the ceiling, casting a warm, steady light throughout the hall.
At the center of the room was a long table made of polished black ironwood. On it lay a massive map, nearly three meters long and two meters wide, depicting the entire northern region of the Mycroft Continent. The map was covered in dense markings and notes.
Standing before the table was a black-haired warrior. He wore a simple dark blue military uniform, his posture straight and firm. His gaze was fixed on the map, his brows slightly furrowed.
"According to the latest information from the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department, the route of the Black Tide outbreak should be: the Central Black Forest, the Empire's southern border, the Empire's western regions, the Empire's central area, and then after making a large loop, it headed straight north to arrive here."
His finger traced an invisible circle on the map, finally stopping at the location of Black Forest Fortress. Joshua frowned. "Calculating by this speed, that dragon probably didn't stop at all, but kept moving north. This piece of Dragon-Slaying Stone I have is probably useless. Based on its direction and movement pattern, the next area to be contaminated and suffer an outbreak should be the Black Forest near the Moldova Territory."
"If there's a chance, send a message to notify them, let them prepare. The most important point is that the scales of a Black Erosion Dragon can block communications."
His tone wasn't certain. After all, no one could guess a dragon's thoughts. If it suddenly had a whim to change its flight path, causing his solemn notification to be a mistake, even with Joshua's mental fortitude, it would be quite an awkward situation.
"What a hassle."
He sighed. The black-haired warrior suddenly felt a headache coming on.
This Berserk Beast Tide seemed, on the surface, to be a very simple aftereffect of a rampaging demon dragon. But beneath the surface, countless undercurrents surged, and it even vaguely involved the headache-inducing maelstrom of the Astral Dragon civil war. It was truly unpleasant.
Joshua felt he was very unsuited for thinking about this kind of thing.
Back in the game, he had an entire staff of advisors. In a situation like this, he wouldn't have needed to act personally at all. A dozen or so people would have analyzed the situation and explained the circumstances for him. As the leader of the largest battle group in the Far South and the commander of the First Squad, Joshua's daily task was only one thing: lead the charge, and then crush the enemy.
Fighting, conquering, and killing—that was his domain.
Of course, this didn't mean Joshua disliked thinking and only liked brute force. That was a completely wrong perception. At most, it could be said that his focus was different. At least when it came to thinking about combat techniques, he had ample confidence.
As for now, although Joshua was also a Count with actual territory and did have some staff under him, those people knew less than one percent of the information he did. Forget seeing what was behind the Black Tide, they were still guessing at the cause of the Berserk transformation. Apart from being able to help with administrative affairs, they were practically useless.
"Display the map of the Mycroft Continent, Far South region."
Sighing, the warrior spoke softly. With this command, the graphics and markings representing Moldavia on the huge map instantly disappeared. In their place was a diamond-shaped continent and a vast outer sea, with a few islands dotting it. A peninsula at the southernmost tip of this continent was highlighted. That was the so-called 'Far South.'
On the vast Mycroft Continent, there were four regions that were centers of civilization: the western mountain basins, the northern lakeside hills, the quiet forests of the Far South, and the eastern river plains. The Far South was the abbreviation for the [Far South Nanling Pan-Human Race Federation].
This was a nation built between mountains and jungles, primarily composed of humans, elves, and fairies. Unlike the Northern Empire, a place Joshua only knew vaguely and wasn't very familiar with, the Far South was his former base of operations. The black-haired warrior knew it deeply.
The reason he suddenly called up this location wasn't for nostalgia, but because a series of epic events that would later affect the entire continent were closely linked to the Far South.
And that Black Erosion Dragon, currently speeding through the northern snowy mountains and forests, might be the opening act and omen for these events.
[The Exiled God]
"Year 832 of the Falling Stars, the Sixth Month of the Sun's Radiance. The Dragon Clan civil war officially broke out. The millennium of accumulated conflict between the Five-Colored Dragons and the Metal Dragons was fully unleashed. Outside the world, the Five-Color Dragon God, because the Metal Dragon God had the God of Might and Justice, one of the Seven Gods of Humanity, as an ally, had his divine domain shattered. His true body was exiled to the material world, incarnating as a Saint and falling upon the Bovenald Volcano Archipelago in the Stormy Sea of the Far South."
Softly reciting the events he had experienced in his previous life, Joshua looked at the Far South peninsula on the map, his face expressionless. "Months later, the vengeful Dragon Calamity arrived."
In this era of the game in his past life, the first version's storyline had just ended. The highest-level players were only at Silver High-rank. Facing the Dragon Calamity stirred up by the Saint's revenge, everyone struggled bitterly amidst the rampaging, berserk Dragonblood Beasts. The Far South, being the region closest to the source of the Dragon Calamity, suffered the most severe damage.
At that time, Joshua was also tormented. Under the assault of endless low-level Dragonblood Beasts, his newly established battle group's base was breached time and time again. The enraged warrior swore on the spot that he would one day slaughter all the Five-Colored Dragon Clans. Of course, he did fulfill his oath.
"Because of my arrival, the future has already been changed. Black Forest Fortress was not breached, and Moldavia will not suffer heavy losses. With my warning, the other northern nobles will also be on guard."
Now, it was the 7th of December, Year 831 of the Falling Stars. There were still six months until the Dragon God's fall and the Mad Dragon Calamity of his past life. But Joshua was completely unconcerned.
The warrior put away the map and set it aside, muttering to himself, "The God of Justice no longer has a reason to act. The Astral Dragon civil war will certainly not end as quickly as it did in my past life. It might even last for many years... Even if the Dragon Calamity is stirred up again, it definitely won't be for the same reason."
The so-called butterfly effect was probably nothing more than this. He thought to himself. He had only done a small amount of work, fulfilled his duty as the lord of Moldavia and a noble, and yet it had caused the entire world's situation to change.
This feeling... wasn't bad at all.
*Knock knock.*
The door to the meeting room was knocked on.