Chapter 441
Chapter 441: War Mobilization – Advance into the Swamp
The sound of tap-tap echoed in the hallway outside Murphy’s office, its rhythm indicating someone’s approach. As this sound arose, Murphy, who was holding an old book, twitched his ears.
He hadn’t heard such peculiar shoes striking the ground before.
To be precise, he hadn’t heard such a distinctive sound since entering Transia, though he used to hear it often during his days as a corporate slave.
As the footsteps outside grew closer, Murphy’s expression became increasingly peculiar.
He placed a bookmark in the ancient tome that Tris had specially found for him, containing various schools’ speculations about the “pre-epoch” era, then closed it and put it in his drawer. He assumed his most standard gentle demeanor and looked toward the door.
Two seconds later, a knock sounded, and after a brief wait, the door opened as Lady Adele entered Murphy’s sight, carrying a stack of documents. Her expression was serious, clearly here to report the latest intelligence about the “swamp reconnaissance.”
However, Murphy’s attention was currently on Adele’s feet.
Specifically, the “shoes” worn on those feet as white as jade. Indeed, as he had identified earlier, they were a pair of classic-style ladies’ open-toe high heels.
This wasn’t a traditional style from the Transia region; if he had to guess, Murphy suspected these were new items launched by the recently opened “Silver Moon Design” shop.
They might even be decorative pieces specially commissioned by Lady Aqua for Adele.
He had to admit, such an exquisite pair of crystal high heels paired with Adele’s already long legs made her height even more striking, while the unique posture of walking in high heels added an indefinable extra quality to her bearing.
With Tris’s previous “reminder,” Murphy paid particular attention to his intelligence officer’s attire this time, and he had to acknowledge that Tris’s powers of observation were indeed quite keen.
For instance, Adele’s neckline was indeed cut a bit too low right now.
These two discoveries caused Murphy some distress.
It meant Adele was slowly sliding toward a direction he didn’t want to see, but he showed little outward reaction, maintaining his gentle expression. However, as a vampire intelligence officer, Lady Adele’s perception was also very keen.
She noticed Murphy’s change in eye movement during those few seconds, and seemingly without much thought, straightforwardly changed her posture, making her figure, which was beautiful to an “excessive” degree, more clearly displayed before Murphy’s eyes, making it more convenient for him to appreciate this beauty born of midnight and shadow.
But Murphy’s gaze wavered.
This caused a fleeting smile to appear at the corners of Lady Adele’s mouth, and then to avoid this somewhat awkward scene continuing, she coughed once and said in an official tone:
“We’ve received news from the Foul Swamp reconnaissance. Master, our scouts encountered pursuit from the Plague Clan during their withdrawal. Your warrior Niuniu lost his life because of this, but this isn’t a major problem.
His heroic fighting allowed Miss Amber, who was also attacked, to survive and bring back first-hand information.”
“Ha, my warriors are always full of such romantic heroes, it seems a little fellow has already immersed himself in the fearlessness brought by love, even starting to use his immortal nature to capture a poor maiden’s affections.
How cunning.”
Murphy commented quite harshly:
“I guess Miss Amber now has no way to escape the evil Niuniu’s control. If that athlete turns out to be a villain, I’m afraid my poor Miss Amber’s life is ruined.
But well, this is their personal affair, we can’t be so undignified as to comment too much nor treat it as a game behind their backs, so tell me about your findings. Adele, we desperately need support from intelligence regarding the current situation analysis of the swamp and planning for the next steps.”
“Mm.”
Adele opened the folder in her hands and reported:
“After the conflict at Malo Town, there was a visible strategic contraction of outposts near Plague Town. The Gnoll mages seem to have detected the threat and have begun concentrating their elite forces.
However, at the same time, they’ve dispersed their peripheral forces throughout the swamp.
Over these three days, our scouts have confirmed that the number of undead wandering in the Foul Swamp has reached five times its previous level, making the swamp combat zone almost filled with wandering dry bones and zombies, though their quality has severely decreased compared to before.
These newly awakened swamp spirits form barriers in the mud that slow our army’s advance speed, but considering their quality, everything will be fine once the warriors launch their attack.
But I guess the Gnoll mages won’t think such skeleton dispersal can block our advancing steps; they’re just trying to delay the time until real combat with us as much as possible.
This point is worth digging deeper.
On another front, news from the Blood Claw Clan confirms that Hog has verified the Plague Clan leader Flesh Render is determined to explore the forbidden area deep in the swamp.
Therefore, from the cross-referencing of intelligence from both sides, we can draw an accurate conclusion that the Gnolls will likely begin their final exploration of King Gnawbone’s hidden treasure in the coming days.
Moreover, they don’t seem to plan on engaging in formal combat with Transia’s vanguard.
Extending from this conclusion, if their expedition is successful and they really obtain the legendary treasure, they might retreat from the swamp back to the Dark Mountains at maximum speed.
Therefore, it can be said that the Plague Clan’s response to our provocation has consistently been passive.
The Gnoll mages haven’t treated us as enemies that must be eliminated, which is vastly different from the previous warlord Kenport.”
At this point, Lady Adele glanced at Master Murphy’s contemplative posture, paused, and then said softly:
“The Shadow Intelligence Bureau currently has two action plans for your reference.”
“Go ahead.”
Murphy raised his head to look at Adele, wanting to hear her professional opinion, but that absolutely impossible-to-ignore whiteness caused his gaze to involuntarily slip.
It felt like playing a “don’t look at the chest challenge,” and Murphy, like other men, lost completely from the start.
Damn!
Who exactly taught Adele this kind of “cunning strategy”?
What man could withstand this?
“From the perspective of avoiding losses, we believe that perhaps ignoring the Plague Clan’s actions and allowing them to operate in the swamp might be the optimal solution for our current situation.
They’ll leave once they find what they’re looking for.
If they can’t find anything, they can only waste time in the swamp. The forbidden area guarded by Ningkinanka isn’t so easy to breach. In the Intelligence Bureau’s most optimistic analysis, the Plague Clan will engage in quite intense combat with the legendary beast’s clan.
Whether either side is defeated won’t be disadvantageous for Transia.”
Adele presented her first suggestion, saying:
“This plan of action also won’t interrupt the defensive line construction currently underway in the Baroness of Shadow’s territory, nor will it affect the good momentum of rapid recovery and development that the current ‘100-Day Grand Construction’ campaign is bringing to our territory.
The problem with this action plan is that if we choose this plan, it means your previously stated plan to turn the Foul Swamp into Transia’s ‘new frontier’ before the Black Plague occurs might need to be shelved.
Its greatest advantage is that we don’t need to pay more costs for this, whether in terms of manpower or resources.”
“But since you’ve taken office at the ‘Forum Tavern,’ you should know that my warriors’ heated discussions about the Foul Swamp storyline represent their expectations for the next plot. Sitting by and watching the enemy slip away isn’t their choice, and seeing off the enemy’s departure would be condemned as cowardly and defeatist.
Trust me, such accusations are already very serious in their hearts, and might even directly shake the legitimacy and authority of Transia’s regime in their minds.”
Murphy shook his head without much thought and said:
“They undoubtedly hope to see new enemies and new challenges. They hope to see a distinctly different ‘new map’ revealed and presented. Since Kenport’s beheading, my warriors haven’t engaged in high-intensity battles for a long time. If they are priceless swords, then they should be unsheathed again.
And from my personal perspective, allowing the enemy to act so brazenly in our territory is also a terrible blow to my fragile self-esteem as the local lord.
I can’t blindfold myself and say there are no risks around us, just as from Transia’s reconstruction until now, we’ve never chosen to be ostriches…
Do you understand my meaning, Adele?”
“Yes, my master has never been a strong one who fears challenges, I deeply believe this and take pride in it.”
The Baroness of Shadow brought out the second plan, looked at Murphy, and said:
“Then, we only have the second plan to choose from.
This plan is quite aggressive. Given that the Plague Clan is conducting a strategic contraction, we should respond to this change starting now.
We should fully mobilize your warriors! Have them serve as fearless vanguards entering the Foul Swamp through the safe routes explored by the Blood Claw Clan, and begin rapidly clearing the inferior skeleton armies the Plague Clan has scattered everywhere.
If the warriors’ advance speed is fast enough, we can launch a fierce attack on Plague Town before the Plague Clan’s treasure hunting produces results.
Just like the raid we executed on Kenport’s main camp!
Under extreme conditions, just one precise decapitation strike can crush the Plague Clan and strangle them in their swamp territory.
The brilliance of this plan lies in the fact that currently, due to the Plague Clan’s activities in the Foul Swamp, no traces of other dangerous beast groups or swamp residents can be found in this swamp area near Transia.
This means that as long as we defeat the Plague Clan, we can take over at least one-third of the Foul Swamp as our new territory in a very short time.
That would be an amazing expansion, and this victory would be enough to make your rule take root in people’s hearts and gain you excellent reputation in external areas, which is beneficial for stabilizing our rule and even helps with the diplomatic situation.
Moreover, Chief Hog of the Blood Claw Clan is very enthusiastic about this plan, so if we decide to launch a lightning offensive against the Plague Clan, Hog will bring out his ultimate resources to support our warriors.
We won’t even need to prepare too much compensation for the player warriors in this operation; I believe Hog will be very willing to provide this expensive feedback in our place.”
Adele paused again, noticed Murphy’s gaze fixed on her, so she subtly straightened her chest and continued:
“However, this plan also has an unavoidable problem, which is that your warriors’ current strength still has a large gap compared to the Plague Clan. Let alone directly challenging the Plague Clan’s mages, even their elite skeleton army will become dangerous enemies for your warriors to face.
According to our casualty ratio when fighting in Kenport’s main camp, they might even have a high possibility of suffering a devastating total wipeout.
Although I don’t know much about the Gnoll forces in the Dark Mountains, I guess the Plague Clan is definitely not a marginal clan’s leftovers even in that harsh environment of the Dark Mountains.
The fact that they were given the responsibility of finding King Gnawbone’s hidden treasure shows that their combat power has been recognized by the Gnoll leadership.”
“Danger? That’s just vivid decoration appearing above the spoils in the eyes of warriors pursuing victory.”
Murphy was noncommittal about the danger Adele mentioned.
He stood up and took from Adele’s hands the newest updated swamp terrain map near Plague Town.
On it, the Thorn Clan’s nightwalkers and witch hunters had marked various skeleton army defense lines and optimal advance routes, with Plague Town positioned at the center of this hand-drawn map.
These Gnolls indeed had some skill, the defense before them meant that attackers would have to engage and defeat at least three skeleton armies no matter which direction they approached from before they could reach the vicinity of Plague Town.
It was like a heaven-spanning net.
“Perfect.”
Murphy looked at the map before him and revealed a subtle smile under Adele’s puzzled gaze, saying softly:
“From a team dungeon design perspective, this planning is absolutely perfect, we don’t even need to add more decorations and embellishments. The combat mode progressing from weak to strong can make them realize they’re approaching a dangerous zone, and the hook of King Gnawbone’s hidden treasure is weighty enough!
I’ve decided!
This ‘new map’ needs to go online immediately! Unfortunately, the weight of this matter isn’t enough to support an ‘extra DLC,’ so we can only treat it as an event.”
Murphy rolled up the map in his hand and said to Adele:
“You need to select some clever scouts to enter the swamp again, but this time they don’t need to execute reconnaissance operations, I need them to become ‘guides’!
They need to take on the responsibility of guiding my warriors’ advance paths and quest chain distribution in different areas. I need to design a complete quest chain for this new team dungeon to guide my warriors to ultimately reach the decisive battlefield of Plague Town.
However, the design of this quest chain shouldn’t come from me.”
Murphy glanced at Adele and said:
“You’ve been by my side from the beginning, Adele. Although you’re low-key and unwilling to be in the spotlight, you’ve observed my interaction patterns with my warriors throughout. I believe you have enough wisdom to learn some essence from it, therefore, I want to entrust this task to you and Femis.
The young lady was very dissatisfied with my plan for attacking Kenport’s main camp last time, and I once promised to give her a chance to design such a plan. Now is the time.
So, you two go ahead, before the new map goes online, you need to submit a complete guidance and combat plan to me.”
“This is quite a difficult challenge, master.”
Adele frowned and said:
“We can learn from you, gradually taking over your responsibility of interacting with the warriors, but I think this needs time. Such a big project being handed to us two ‘newcomers.’
Can you really feel at ease?”
“Of course.”
Murphy winked and said:
“I trust your wisdom, and I’ll also guide you from the side. As new members of the ‘development team,’ this is a work skill you must learn.
I originally wanted to have Maxim participate as well, but I subsequently discovered that Maxim is already overwhelmed dealing with military affairs, and his straightforward thinking isn’t very suitable for participating in this work that requires delicate design.”
“Since you put it that way, I’ll complete the first draft with Young Lady Femis as soon as possible.”
Adele nodded.
She knew this would be difficult.
But the thought of refusal never appeared in her mind from beginning to end, perhaps because this was a request from Murphy, and servants cannot resist any requests from their master.
Watching Adele turn and leave with the new task, her swaying waist and figure disappearing into the darkness accompanied by the crisp sound of high heels, Murphy couldn’t tell if it was his imagination, but Adele’s walking motion wasn’t as efficient as before, replaced by an unhurried posture that perfectly displayed her figure’s advantages.
“Just which bastard taught her this!”
Murphy rubbed his chin in his office, couldn’t help complaining:
“Don’t let me catch you! Otherwise you’ll be in for it, one Tris is troublesome enough, add another Adele and I think I’ll really go crazy…”
He pursed his lips, looked back at the map on the wall, casually picked up a pen, drew a red circle on the map, then stepped back, put his hands on his hips, and looked at the map on the wall.
A few seconds later, he picked up the core orb and said:
“Well then, my dear little players, Team Dungeon 003 ‘Land of Rotting Corpses’ is about to go online!”