Chapter 27: The World That Has Already Changed
After a long silence, only the sound of pages turning could be heard.
Before the desk, the black-haired warrior narrowed his eyes, carefully reading the report in his hands.
In recent days, it wasn’t just Moldavia that had been attacked by dragon beasts. The border regions of the four northern territories had all suffered varying degrees of assault from these Primordial Realm Dragons. Many villages established along the edges of forests and rivers had been destroyed as a result. In Moldavia Territory alone, four towns and villages had been affected, with a total of six hundred and forty-two deaths.
This did not yet account for the wounded and missing. The corpses had only been roughly counted; the actual losses should be higher than this number.
The northern lands were already sparsely populated. Even counting various races like dwarves, goblins, and gnomes, the entire population of Moldavia might not exceed one million. Humans made up less than a third of the total. The deaths of over six hundred, nearly a thousand people, along with many more injured, was an unacceptable loss for the territory.
Among the delivered letters were realistic paintings created using magical imaging techniques. They all depicted the tragic scenes after each village was attacked: houses burned and trampled, broken corpses scattered everywhere, cultivated farmland and exquisite workshops all destroyed. Joshua even saw, in one painting, a woman whose body was only half intact, holding a child in her arms, as if trying to protect him with her own body.
But it was useless, because her child, like her, had also been bitten in half by the dragon beast.
A heavy atmosphere spread through the study. The air, which had begun to grow hot under the Sun of Radiance Moon, now seemed to have returned to the bitter cold of winter.
Lin, who had delivered the news, stood respectfully by the desk. He quietly raised his head and looked at Joshua.
It was the first time the young man had seen his master display such an expression.
His master rarely got angry. Since summoning him to the dwarf settlement and then returning from a trip to another world, such a long time had passed without him losing his temper. Even the occasional battles that occurred were, to his master, merely a relaxing pastime like other nobles going out hunting—not an expression of any particular emotion.
For example, when hunting demons summoned through the Book of Iboun, his master clearly treated them as side dishes after afternoon tea. "Eat a little snack, slaughter a demon to go with the wine"—that was the warrior's own words.
But now, the Divine Mechanism boy could clearly feel his master's rage.
Like scorching magma about to erupt beneath a volcano, brewing a catastrophic disaster.
"After all this busywork, I actually forgot about this. It seems my brain really isn't working well."
In this oppressive atmosphere, Joshua spoke. A slight curve appeared at the corner of his mouth, but what came out first was self-mockery: "As the saying goes, a person can't do four things at once. By that measure, I'm still within the range of an ordinary person."
His voice was flat, devoid of emotion, but it made Lin unconsciously let out a small sigh of relief.
Being able to mock himself meant his master still had his wits about him and wouldn't make any wrong judgments.
At this moment, Joshua was thinking seriously. Since the incident had already occurred, anger or any other emotion was meaningless. What he needed to do was stay calm and avoid even greater losses afterward.
Therefore, he began recalling various scattered pieces of information he had obtained earlier.
At Black Forest Fortress, after killing the Frost Giant Mammoth and acquiring the Abyssal Derivative, the mage mentor of Black Forest Fortress—that white-haired, robustly built Feng—had once said that he had sensed a similar aura among the White Dragon clans of the north.
Moreover, during the entire Black Tide, not many dragon beasts had appeared.
These two points alone showed that the abnormal Black Tide and the cause of Mad Dragon Plague were inextricably linked to the Five-Colored Dragon Clan. This was especially clear to Joshua because he already knew it from his past life.
In fact, there were many other scattered clues. Pieced together, they indeed suggested an undercurrent surging across the continent. Joshua had indeed discovered this information before and even connected the dots one by one. The only thing he hadn't expected was that this event would occur so early.
In his past life, this was a major event that wouldn't happen until deep summer next year. But now it was only Starfall Year 832, July 17th.
"The Dragon Calamity... has come early. By almost a full year."
Turning to look at the large magical map hanging on the wall of his room, Joshua stood up, walked over to it, and quietly observed the cities and distributions of various large beasts marked on it.
Indeed, the omens of the Dragon Calamity had appeared. It had come early. No matter how late it might be, before autumn arrived, the Great Dragon Calamity originating from the Far South would sweep across the entire continent. Countless maddened dragon-type monsters would assault human settlements with the most frenzied ferocity.
Unlike the Black Tide, which was merely a natural phenomenon where even beasts would fight among themselves, the Dragon Calamity was like an army of dragons. They would gather together, build fortifications, form groups, and use intelligence to fight humans.
Compared to the apocalyptic scene of that time, the current attacks in the north were just a drizzle.
Thinking this, he couldn't help but shake his head.
This was normal. There were no more players on the Mycroft Continent, and this change was far too significant. Without tens of millions of terrifying beings who could resurrect and kill endlessly without limit, the world couldn't possibly remain unchanged. A major change was only natural. The Dragon Calamity coming early was just a small matter.
"The orcs, who should have been wiped out in March of this year, only had their royal court breached recently by His Majesty the Emperor's personal expedition. The Dragon Calamity coming early is due to the same reason."
The warrior muttered softly to himself: "Without so many players assisting the army in fighting the orcs, without so many players secretly disrupting the Five-Colored Dragons' plans... the turning point of history has already been changed."
But now was not the time to think about these things.
"Those damned Five-Colored Dragons. I was planning to go find trouble with you later."
A ferocious curve tugged at the corner of his mouth. Joshua's gaze shifted to the Extreme North Icefield on the map.
"Now it seems I should act sooner."
These beasts had clearly grown tired of living.
He extended a finger and pressed it onto a patch of white.
A cracking sound of wall breaking rang out. The granite wall behind the map was directly crushed into powder by the warrior's immense force, then leaked out through the gaps.
And on the map, there was a large white dragon-shaped mark.
Above it, bold letters read: Danger·White Dragon Gathering Ground!
(To be continued.)