Chapter 6: The War Begins
Unlike the treasuries passed down through ordinary noble families, the warehouses of the Church of the Seven Gods were, as the name implied, genuine warehouses.
In the enormous square underground space, numerous steel containers were densely packed, with simple black wooden shelves dividing different types of goods, making it look like the most ordinary port warehouse.
The leading church knight activated the divine technique array, and immediately, patches of white glowstone light illuminated the dark warehouse. Glowstone was an exceptionally common translucent crystal on the Mycroft Continent. It seemed unremarkable, but as long as a trace of energy was injected into it, it could emit an extremely bright, cold light, so it was universally used by all races as a lighting tool. Because it was truly very common, even the homes of the poor occasionally had one or two irregular pieces of glowstone, left in the sun during the day to accumulate energy, and brought out at night to serve as lamps.
The glowstone used by the Church to build the underground fortress was naturally not that ordinary kind. The white light illuminating the warehouse was bright but not glaring. And because some holy light runes flickered around it, it further accentuated a sacred atmosphere.
Since Joshua had already stated earlier that he was heading to Sector Three, the guiding knight did not stop, continuing forward, and the warrior casually scanned his surroundings.
Halfway there, the middle-aged knight suddenly spoke: "Lord Count, although it is somewhat rude, I must admit that there are indeed some people within our Church who have caused you trouble."
Because he was wearing a semi-enclosed helmet, the knight's voice was muffled, even carrying a slight echo in the sealed warehouse, but Joshua could tell that the other party's tone was very sincere. He couldn't help but turn his head and ask with some curiosity: "What trouble? The hospitality of the Church of the Seven Gods has always been commendable, and I feel it's been quite pleasant here."
This was the truth. Although the Church's clergy were occasionally somewhat impersonal or acted strangely due to doctrine, they could definitely be called good people. If they weren't generally kind and upright, they would never be able to comprehend the power of Holy Light. Living with such a group of good people, things couldn't be too bad.
Hearing the warrior's words, the church knight straightened his back slightly, as if quite proud, but then he shook his head, seeming a bit embarrassed as he said: "It's not about that aspect... Lord Count, it's about the rumors."
"Rumors?" Joshua raised an eyebrow, waiting for his answer.
"It's like this. Recently, within the circle of mid-rank clergy, some rumors about you have appeared." When the middle-aged knight spoke up to here, he paused for a moment, as if organizing his words, and then said in a deep voice: "Many people have started to claim that you came to the Holy Mountain purely to satisfy your own bloodlust."
"Wait a minute." Joshua blinked, frowning as he said: "What did you say?"
"I am very sorry! But, indeed, many people have believed it—after all, if it weren't for this reason, then no matter how great the benefit, it wouldn't be enough to make an imperial noble risk death, cross the entire continent to come to the Holy Mountain, the frontline of this dragon calamity."
Having said this, the knight stopped in his tracks, turned around, and bowed deeply to Joshua: "Allowing such rumors to appear and spread is our dereliction of duty. I am very sorry!"
"Ah... well." The warrior was a bit at a loss for words, his expression strange: "Alright, although I'm a bit annoyed, actually they didn't..."
But at that moment, the middle-aged knight suddenly straightened his back and said seriously: "But I know that what they say is all nonsense!"
As he said this, the knight clenched his right fist and held it to his chest, as if truly angered by this. He said in a low but clear voice: "Although you, sir, indeed look like a genuine villain, in reality, you are exceptionally kind when interacting, without a trace of noble airs, and your every move aligns with the path of Holy Light."
Joshua: "No, please stop."
"Without a doubt, you, sir, are a person who has truly transcended lowly interests! A noble person!" Although his expression was hidden by the helmet, this middle-aged knight was undoubtedly very excited. He said loudly: "You must have resolutely left your homeland to come to the Holy Mountain to stop the mad dragons for the sake of the innocent people of the Far South. Those spreading the rumors don't understand this at all and recklessly slander you..."
Joshua didn't listen to the rest. Occasionally, a word or two like 'Believe in Holy Light', 'Paragon of Justice', 'Role Model for Nobles and Lords' drifted over, and he pretended not to hear them. After the middle-aged knight had calmed down a bit, the warrior slowly spoke: "Put all that aside for now... First, take me to Sector Three."
"Yes!"
Hearing Joshua's instruction, the knight, who had apparently become an admirer of the warrior, immediately stopped talking and resumed leading the way.
—These people...
Walking along the warehouse path, Joshua couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Recently, he had indeed been helping the Church of the Seven Gods resist the mad dragons. Given his bloody fighting style and negative charisma, it wasn't surprising that such rumors appeared. While the followers of Holy Light wouldn't lie, their guesses did have a basis. Joshua hadn't paid any attention to these rumors that would dissipate in a few days.
What truly surprised the warrior was this middle-aged paladin. That he, with his charisma, could still have admirers was simply unbelievable!
This, however, was Joshua being a bit self-deprecating. In the eyes of the many knights in the Church, a warrior at the Ultimate-rank who was less than thirty years old was enough to be called a genius among geniuses. Even the most arrogant person had to admit that this level of strength was enough to make the vast majority feel inferior. But such a genius, a landed noble from the Northern Empire, a future destined Legendary-rank expert, was willing to leave his own territory and come to the Holy Mountain to help the Church, to help the entire Far South region resist the mad dragons—
If this spirit couldn't be called noble, then no spirit could be called noble. As the middle-aged knight said, this was the path of Holy Light.
Lost in thought, the two arrived at Sector Three.
The warehouse areas of the fortress were mostly connected. Sector Three was located closer to the center, and mostly stored alchemical and divine technique creations developed by the Church of the Seven Gods.
The protective measures here were significantly better than those for the outer food and ordinary weapons. Although they were still steel giant cabinets and black wooden shelves, they were inscribed with divine technique arrays for dust removal, waterproofing, and isolating elemental erosion. Runes flickered, and a layer of semi-transparent energy shield, like crystal, shimmered faintly on the outer layer of the steel cabinets under the light of the glowstone lamps.
The middle-aged knight was originally responsible for managing this warehouse area and knew the items within it in detail. He slowed his pace and began introducing the treasures stored in each cabinet for the warrior.
To Joshua's right were the energy cores of twenty Silver Peak-rank divine technique puppets. The divine technique puppets of the Church of the Seven Gods had always been as famous as the constructs of the Archmages of the Eastern Plains, far superior to similar puppets held by other forces. At the very least, the Northern Empire couldn't mass-produce combat puppets of the same level. Each of these puppet cores cost over eight thousand Far South gold coins, enough to buy a small manor in the suburbs.
It was worth noting that an ordinary Silver-rank warrior, if they didn't risk their lives hunting magical beasts, would earn only two to three hundred gold coins after a year of hard work in the city guard. This set of puppets was worth a total of one hundred and sixty thousand gold coins, enough to arm one to two thousand soldiers to the teeth.
But Joshua didn't care much. Not to mention that his territory already had a rune factory, and with the help of Miss 3, it would eventually be able to mass-produce mana puppets. The Silver Peak strength was a bit awkward—the warrior currently didn't lack mid-tier combat power; what he lacked were Gold-rank figures to hold the line.
The entire four Northern Territories, due to their proximity to the Extreme North Icefield's Black Forest, had accumulated hundreds of Silver-rank knights through years of combat. Counting the city guards and militias from various villages, each territory basically had a thousand Silver-rank fighters. This was even with the Northern Territories having a small population, insufficient resources, and heavy casualties from the Black Tide.
Silver was plentiful, but Gold was absent. It would take at least seven or eight years for the elites of Winterfell Academy to grow up. By then, the warrior would be approaching thirty or forty, let alone the Dragon Knight Order. Even with accelerated training, the time for a dragon to fully mature would be enough for Joshua to become a grandfather.
Seeing that the warrior wasn't interested, the church knight turned around and introduced other alchemical products to Joshua.
The technological reserves of the Church of the Seven Gods were no less than any major power. Even the arrogant mages of the Eastern Plains might not be able to surpass it in every aspect. In fact, the Church's alchemical standards were among the best in the world. They could even build underwater fortresses in the deep sea and use divine techniques to drive the fortresses to explore the seabed and hunt sea behemoths.
However, regrettably, the Church's alchemical style was vastly different from that of the Eastern mages. Their creations were mostly giant war machines, enormous in size, requiring many clergy to work together to operate. The Sky-Piercing White Tower did research war colossi constructs, but their overall style was miniaturization and popularization.
So Joshua kept shaking his head at the church knight's introductions—it wasn't that those things were bad, but they were unsuitable. Whether it was the 'Elemental Crystal Resonance Core,' which could activate elements within a radius of several tens of kilometers, making it easier for people to perceive arcane power, or the 'Purification Ring,' which could subtly purify the environment for hundreds of kilometers using sunlight and free energy, these were all genuinely good things. But these creations were simply too massive, so massive that their cores were over ten meters high, requiring the Church to send hundreds of professionals to manufacture parts on-site, then spend over half a year assembling them.
The church knight seemed to know these things weren't practical, so after a brief introduction, he didn't say much more, and the warrior patiently scanned his surroundings.
Luck was on his side. A few minutes later, Joshua found something that greatly interested him.
"Floating Ring..." Looking at the divine technique creation before him, made of steel and crystal, exuding a sense of science fiction, Joshua turned to the middle-aged knight: "What did you make this thing for?"
"This?" The church knight looked up at the massive ring, over ten meters in diameter, occupying a large space in the warehouse, and thought for a moment: "It should be an auxiliary component installed on a giant steel puppet. The vast majority of divine technique puppets don't have flight capabilities, especially large ones. So some people in the Church wanted to create flying puppets."
"And the result?"
"A complete failure. It's more effective and saves more materials to inscribe a few floating arrays on the puppet instead of loading this component... Of course, this Floating Ring does have the ability to allow the user to float and fly freely, but it's too big and wastes too many materials."
The church knight looked at Joshua with some curiosity and kindly reminded him: "Lord Count, you are an Ultimate-rank expert. You don't need this thing to fly. Even if you want a flying mount, I would recommend inscribing a floating array rather than using this... Its output is too high, enough to make your house fly. Using it for something like a carriage to fly is truly overkill."
Joshua naturally knew the other party was right. This Floating Ring was indeed a useless thing, neither here nor there. Ordinary carriages, even war chariots or cannons, didn't need something this big. And floating fortresses or warships already had their own inscribed arrays and didn't need external components.
But... he had a sea dragon at home that couldn't fly!
Thinking of this, Joshua couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated.
A majestic dragon as an aerial mount was the romance of any man. He had originally gone to great lengths to awaken Black's bloodline, certainly not to train her into the turret she was now—but who knew Black's bloodline was that of a sea dragon? Although she had wings, she couldn't fly!
This time in the Abyss of Anos, Black had performed very well in resisting sea beasts and detecting ocean currents, but not being able to fly was a real hard flaw. The reason dragons were powerful was that they could rain down dragon breath and magic from a high vantage point. For example, if it weren't for protecting the Chaos Rune, Mandagar could have worn Joshua down just by kiting him with flight.
Black's dragon breath was terrifyingly powerful. If unprepared, even Joshua wouldn't want to take it head-on. The only drawback was her inability to fly.
But now, with this thing, maybe Black could fly?
Thinking this, Joshua made a mental note, adding it to his personal list of options.
And at that moment, a violent tremor came from beneath the warrior's feet.
"What's going on?" The church knight beside him immediately showed a look of surprise and uncertainty, looking up at the swaying glowstone lamp above: "An earthquake?"
"No." Joshua shook his head, his expression calm, as if he had anticipated it: "It seems, as Pope Eagle guessed, it's early."
"What's early?"
"The attack." He replied calmly, turning and walking towards the warehouse exit: "The general offensive of the Five-Colored Dragon Clan is about to begin."
Accompanied by the sounding alarm, the two walked out of the warehouse, following the sturdy stone passageway quickly towards the exit of the underground fortress. Many clergy walked with them towards the surface, while many non-combatant pure clergy remained calmly in the fortress, waiting for the next instructions. This was a procedure that had been rehearsed dozens of times.
The underground fortress had been specially reinforced with divine technique runes. As long as the Holy Mountain didn't collapse, it wouldn't cave in. Not even an earthquake could destroy the fortress's structure.
Joshua left the underground fortress and walked out of the temple that served as the entrance and exit.
He looked up at the sky and the sea.
Dark clouds gathered, gale-force winds swept through, and monstrous waves came one after another. The line where the sea met the sky was shrouded in darkness. Lightning streaked across the sky, bringing with it peals of thunder.
Nothing was beyond his expectations.
Year 833 of the Falling Stars Era, August 26th, the night of the storm.
The Five-Colored Mad Dragons officially attacked the Seven Sacred Mountains.