Soul of Searing Steel

Panda Novel

This room had a design very similar to a standard military brigade.

There were different kinds of weapons hanging on the wall made out of white granite. A cashmere wool weaved carpet embroidered with a golden emblem of two hands bearing swords over a black background could be seen within the room.

Surrounding all four walls were pine tree plants in pots which leaves plants seemed to be a bit yellowish due to the lack of water. On top of a pine wood table resembling a meeting table, an old lamp made from pyroxene illuminated the surroundings.

There was a complete silence in the room. Within this place, a tall and sturdy man with black hair was standing beside the table, looking at a large piece of map.

This map was three-meters long and two-meters wide. This huge map was situated on top of the meeting table. Joshua was examining the map carefully to the last detail.

Ever since he came to Dark Forest Fortress’s meeting room, he had been looking at this magic map for quite some time.

This map was made using enchanted magic. It had the capability to expand showing the whole Mycroft Continent and shrink, only showing Moldavia’s area. The complexity in terms of craftsmanship for this particular map was unbelievable. Joshua had thought that there would be only about not more than a hundred of these magic items found across the Empire. Nobody would have thought that Joshua could find one within the meeting room of Dark Forest Fortress. It was more surprising as the map was hung on the wall previously.

This is an utter waste of resources! Why did they even make this thing in the first place for an undeveloped northern land and have this item placed within a fortress?Fort Black Forest was meant to be the line of defense against the Dark Tide. There was no valid reason for them to actually own such a high-grade map in the first place.

Joshua felt it was too much of a waste to leave it there and decided to bring it back home and hang it in his bedroom. Even if he didn’t really need to use it often, it was still better than letting dust cover the whole precious map in the fortress.

“Based on the information provided by Mengsk, the invasion path of the Dark Tide would be the central Dark Forest, Empire’s Southern Border, West of the Empire, and Empire Central District. After a roundabout it’ll go all the way up north and reach here.”

After drawing a circle on the whole map, Joshua’s finger finally landed on Dark Forest Fortress. Furrowing his brows he said, “Based on the movement of this dragon, it does not seem to stop at any point and is heading north currently. It seems that this Dragon-slaying Stone will not have much usefulness in this onslaught. Based on the direction and scale of its movement, the next uproar will be from the Dark Forest near the area of Moldova.”

“If there is a chance, I must inform the others so that they can prepare themselves for the upcoming battle. It is also crucial for them to know about the Corrupted Black Dragon having the capability to disrupt communication.”

Joshua was still a bit hesitant about his own prediction. After all, who could guess what the dragon thinking about? If the dragon suddenly decided to change his flight path, Joshua’s prediction would be incorrect and the wrong information would be conveyed. This could very possibly cause Joshua to feel hesitant about his decisions in the future.

“What a hassle.”

After lamenting for a while, Joshua felt that the responsibility at hand gave him quite some headache. The mad beast horde seems to be the aftermath of the Dragon’s Berserk, however, there were more issues behind the scenes. All the events felt like an internal conflict within the dragon clan. This issue gave Joshua a headache. Such a hassle!

Joshua felt that he was not the right person to ponder about these issues.

When he was playing the game, he was one of the members of a full party. Whenever they faced similar issues within the game, he would not be the one to contribute brain cells. There would be many people helping him analyze the situation and explain their own circumstances. Being the primary leader of the large party in the Far South, Joshua only focused on one task, which was leading his party to annihilate all enemies before him.

Battle, conquer, and massacre, those were his forte.

Of course, those facts did not state that Joshua only liked using brute force without thinking. One could say that Joshua preferred battle over thinking strategies and plans. Even when it came to planning and plotting against the enemies, Joshua had the confidence to do so.

At this stage, Joshua was still a count. Although he had some servants in hand for him to utilize, the knowledge that these people had was very minimum. Set aside the Dark Tide, even the reason behind the beasts going berserk was still a mystery to them. These servants could only be used to manage government affairs. Anything else beyond that was hopeless.

“Display the map of Far South – Mycroft Continent”

Joshua sighed on the hopelessness of his servants. After that, he gave the map an order. As the huge map received the order, it transformed from the map of Moldavia into a diamond-shaped land and a vast ocean. Within the ocean were numerous island. The peninsula of the furthest north of the land was marked as ‘Far South’.

There were four centers of civilization on the vast Mycroft Continent: the mountain basins in the West, the lake hills in the North, the quiet forests of the Far South, and the river plains in the East—Far South was short for [Far Seas South Ridges Metatype Alliance].

‘Far South’ was a country built between the mountains and forest. It was a country led by humans, elves, and fairies. This place was different from the northern empire which Joshua hardly knew about. The ‘Far North’ was once the main headquarters for his guild and Joshua knew nearly everything about that place.

The reason Joshua suddenly checked the particular place was not that he wanted to reminisce his old memories. It was mainly because there would be a World Class event occurring which would affect the whole continent. That cause of the event had a very close relationship with the ‘Far South.’

The Corrupted Black Dragon which was traversing towards the northern snowy forest might be signal for the beginning of the event itself.

[Exiled God]

“Starfall Year 832, in the brilliant month of June, internal conflict within the dragon clan erupted. The grudge between the Pentashade Dragon and Metal Dragon could no longer be endured. Outside of their world, the Pentashade Dragon God was defeated by Metal Dragon God who had an alliance with one of the Seven Gods of Humanity, the God of Might and Justice. Its sacred realm was shattered and its main body was exiled into the Main Material World. The main body was later on incarnated into a saint and descended upon the Bowen and Volcanic Island of the Far South Stormy Ocean.”

After briefly murmuring about the history of the event, Joshua looked at the peninsula of Far South. Without any visible expression, Joshua said, “After a few months later, the Dragon’s Calamity would invade our land.”

During this period within the game world, it marked the end of the first arc of the story. The maximum level of online players during that time was only Silver tier at best. Facing the Sage’s Revenge which caused the Dragon Calamity, every player was battling to their bitter end against the Berserk Daemons. Being the closest area from the core of the Dragon calamity, the Far South suffered heavy damages and casualties.

During that period of time, Joshua suffered a lot during the process as waves and waves of low-level Berserk Daemons invaded. The party which he formed recently during that period of time was trampled by the onslaught over and over again. Warriors who could no longer endure the torment vowed to slay all the Pentashade Dragons. Joshua also made the same vow.

“All due to my presence now, the future will be changed. If Dark Forest Fortress does not fall, Moldavia will not suffer too much damage. With my early advice, the nobles in the north will be more prepared and geared up to face the upcoming invasion.”

The current timeline Starfall Year 831, 7th of December. There was still half a year before the Dragon God’s arrival into this realm and invoke the Berserk Dragon’s Calamity. However, Joshua did not really care about this event.

After this black-haired warrior packed the map, he spoke to himself, “Since the God of Justice does not have a reason to get involved with the dragon’s internal conflict, and the internal struggle might not end as fast as this lifetime. Who knows… it might even last for quite a few years. Even if the Dragon’s Calamity occurs again, it might not be for the same reason anymore.”

The butterfly effect evolved based on the encounters they met during their lifetime. Changes were made for the future as some extra interventions were introduced. Joshua would have never thought that as Moldavia’s count, his decisions would make great changes to the state of the world.

This feeling was… not bad at all.

Knock knock

Numerous footsteps were heard outside of the meeting room and someone had just knocked on the door.

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