CH 244

Van Cowl castle was a typical medieval castle built in the middle of a wide open plain.

Although it had no moat, the wall that protected its interior was built as high as the inner wall of the Fibiel royal palace, and it could almost crush people with its intimidating pressure. (ed: Well damn.)

It couldn’t simply be climbed by a ladder, and if someone were to use magic to climb it, they would be killed by the garrison.

Due to the nature of Minis having so many plains, its only weakness is that it can be surrounded in all directions, from north, east, west, and south.

And Minis knew this all too well.

‘Usually, there was an internal security force for safety and defense, or in the case of Fibiel, knights were put into place, but in Minis-’

They had defense forces. What was worse was that it was in the form of ‘mounted units’.

The castle’s defense and horseback riding was an incompatible combination, but the country’s topography made it possible. Not just in the defense of the castle, but in the form of field interception, swift messengers can summon reinforcements from surrounding castles when the mounted corps confronts the enemy.

In addition, since a wide search can be carried out by taking advantage of horseback riding, it was usually difficult to target only one castle. A surprise siege is their only weakness, and it was Minis’ mission to make just that an impossible feat.

‘The normal boundary range of the cavalry is 5km in all directions of the castle. If they consider moving further because of the war…’

Leeha was currently 8km away from Castle Van Cowl. It meant that he had to be careful.

Since he had entered Minis alone, it was only natural that he was not able to see where the Byeolcho special forces were. Whispering to them was also impossible.

Leeha, who practically fell into the enemy camp, lowered his posture as much as possible and proceeded to look around.

‘Mana clairvoyance!’

Leeha opened the scope cap and used his skill. What looked like a haze in the distance was a cloud of dust caused by the movements of the enemy cavalry.

Even looking through the scope with 30 times magnification, it was still quite far. The only thing he could see was a group of people caught by the mana clairvoyance skill moving around.

He closed the scope cap and hurriedly walked with the Black Bass again.

Their direction and Leeha’s direction were pretty much the opposite of each other. It was not even possible to see the situation from one side to the other.

Then, when the guards found out that they had moved to the other side, they had to move as well.

‘They don’t use 24-hour surveillance huh.’

Even though it was wartime, something like that was still impossible.

It takes huge amount of money to continue operating magic or scrolls that have a narrow search range. So, the basis of their judgment was a visual search. Leeha decided to take advantage of that.

Leeha’s march, which would have taken 2 hours even while walking normally, was five times slower than usual, he had to check the surroundings, lower his posture, wait, and even crawl to move forward.

‘The sun had long since gone down.’

He crossed the Minis border at dawn when the sun was just about to rise, and it took 12 hours just to reach the first castle. It was proof that the boundary of Castle Van Cowl was wider than Leeha had expected.

Normally he would stop there.

Mana Clairvoyance was also an effective way for identifying people in the dark, but it did not illuminate the darkness itself.

Because a sneaking person cannot light a torch or cast light magic.

In other words, it was normal to not be able to move around.

Shiiinh-!

“That is, if it weren’t for this.”

In the darkness, Leeha’s teeth shone under the moonlight.

Almost half of his face was covered by Hell Anvil’s ‘Night Vision’. His vision was green, but it was bright enough for him to move.

After another hour of marching like that, Leeha finally saw a huge fortress in the distance with his own eyes.

‘Castle Van Cowl.’

After examining the castle in the middle of flat land with few hills for a while, Leeha took out his map and compared it.

‘I wish I could get a little closer…. However, there was no other cover than this.’

There was no more places to hide other than his current location, which was an embarrassment to even call it a forest, because there was only one tree that he was currently leaning on!

Well, it was night time.

It was fortunate that even the moonlight was weak. He could have gone a little further and take a look at the walls, but what about after that?

‘I will get caught once the sun rises. However, in this wide castle, at least two keystones must be secured.’

He didn’t know which wall he had to attack, it could be the north or east.

That judgment will be left to the Fibiel’s army commander  who will come here soon. It will be decided then and the ‘command’ will be given to Leeha later.

As such, at least two keystones, possibly all four, should be identified and destroyed in a timely manner.

‘But to do that……’

Leeha folded the map, put it in his bag, and looked at the terrain where the rocks and weeds had grown by at least 330m.

“Huu, huu, huu.”

Then he caught his breath.

‘This is crazy, this is really crazy!’

Leeha went on and on. But he couldn’t help it. Was is not possible unless there is madness.

‘Let’s go!’

Leeha moved away from the tree and then ran quickly.

Pak, pak, pak, pak!

If they had night vision as well, they might have spotted Leeha on the wall. However, they didn’t! (ed: HA! What a bunch of losers)

‘Whoa whoa!’

Whaaak, Leeha barely hid by sliding behind a rock. He was now around only 450m away from the wall. If he used his scope, he would be able to see the stones of the eastern wall as if he were looking from 15m away.

‘Oh God of sniping, please help me.’

Of course, it did not mean that he would look at all of the bricks for 12 hours until the sun came up. After examining the description of the skill for the first time, Leeha exclaimed.

“Camouflage.”

Leeha’s body, which was lying among a few rocks, and knee-high weeds, began to slowly disappear.

Chuk,chuk,chuk,chuk.

***

A long line continued endlessly toward Castle Van Cowl. The flashing armors, spears, and swords were enough to show their level, but the faces of those who wore them were dark.

“Who’s looking for a team member who has 100 contribution points or more~?”

“Let’s combine platoons! Let’s combine platoons! We currently have 17 people, do you want to join us? Up to 20 people can join!”

“I have whetstone. Whetstone.”

They were all Minis users. After their defeat in the Marching Plains, there was no way the faces of the remnants who were going to Castle Van Cowl would be bright.

“Hey, are those Fibiel bastards good at fighting?”

“I don’t know, damn it. I went to war and died pointlessly. My contribution points are in the negative and also dropped a bunch of my items.”

“Where are all our rankers? What are they even doing? I didn’t even see the tip of their nose.”

“I know that Alexander is an egotistical bastard. But what can he do while leveling up alone- Uwaaaak?!”

“Uwaaaak! What is it?! Why are you screaming!?”

A user who was walking with his friend looked around in surprise. Even his friend next to him looked at him in surprise, but he was only looking at empty air.

“What, damn it, what?”

“Why? Why? What”

“I don’t…… know. I think I stepped on something. Like slime.”

The user raised his leg and touched his ankle. His friend looked carefully, but there was nothing stuck on his boot.

“There’s nothing there? And what kind of slime would go near Castle Van Cowl?”

“I don’t know! What’s wrong with you?”

However, there was nothing around.

“I guess it’s dog shit. You’re noisy, let’s go quickly.”

The user’s friends was quick to move. However, the user who stepped on something could not walk away easily.

“There was…… definitely something there……. No, hey! Isn’t it weird if it really dogs shit?”

“Ah, hurry up! If you want to get the Castle defense quest, we need to get in position in advance! We need to get back our lost contribution points!”

“Okay.” Fuck, what did I step on anyway?”

The user who stepped into something started chasing after his friend again.

Step, step, step, The seemingly endless march continued for a long time, and when all the Minis’ remnants entered Castle Van Cowl.

A familiar voice resounded into the air from the overgrown weeds and rocks.

“Pheeew……. That bastard, where is he stepping? It’s a place that has never been used properly… That was close.”

There was no human figure visible. However, his expression could be imagined from his voice alone, even if one couldn’t see it.

****

“M-my lord, e-enemy forces are coming!”

“We already expected that, stop making a fuss.”

“T-that- It- it- But it isn’t just two divisions! There are 15- No, assuming that there are still enemy forces that could not be seen, 30 divisions are coming toward Van Cowl! The enemy is advancing quickly!”

One of Minis’ generals turned white. Minis NPC’s conversation was heard by Minis users.

“That’s nonsense. Those Fibiels aren’t fools. No matter how small of a castle this is, as long as there are the Castle’s defenses, they would need to take a lot of time. Therefore, it would be impossible if they were to attack Van Cowl. Don’t they know how many troops we could gather within a day or two?”

“How could they not know! However, if you think about Fibiel’s previous strategy-”

“It’s okay. No, I would rather have them gather at our castle as the general had thought. Isn’t it better to annihilate those arrogant bastards all at once?”

Castle Van Cowl’s lord smiled.

Minis’ general frowned as he saw the lord’s smile. Even the users around them thought that the lord of Castle Van Cowl was making a mistake.

What would happen if they make it this far?

If the castle defense failed, will Castle Van Cowl belong to the Fibiel Kingdom?

‘Where’s the guild that invested in the commercial monopoly here? It’s like they stepped on shit.’

‘Shouldn’t we suggest that we lead the defense forces? If we succeed in the castle defense, why don’t we try to negotiate in getting the exclusive right to the commercial activities?’

In the conference room of the generals and lower-level NPCs. There were also users who stuck their necks out for Minis.

Even among users, the opinions differed as to whether the castle defense would work or not, and at a time when there was a lot of infighting among the NPCs, it was the lord of Castle Van Cowl who put things together.

“The commander-in-chief has his given orders.”

“What?”

The NPC general, who was voicing his thoughts about the dangers at Castle Van Cowl asked. However, the lord did not answer any further.

“That’s all I can say.”

“T-that……. What about the commander-in-chief…”

Even the users who heard those words could not understand what it meant.

‘Ewin? The fox of the prairie? What instructions could he have given for the lord to be so confident.’

‘What? What did you hear? Damn it, I have to pay that girl money for her to tell me something.’

‘I think there’s something weird…. How will they defend? Do they think that we will take the lead?’

As they were all in their thoughts, the conference room’s doors shook violently.

“What’s going on?”

Baaaang, as soon as the door opened, the NPC started shouting.

“The enemy forces are here! The Fibiel forces are marching fast! About three hours away, the number of troops is roughly-”

Heok, his words mixed with his gasping breath as his voice was filled with fear. And the cause of that fear was.

“A-a million! There are about 100 confirmed division flags! Virtually the entire army of Fibiel from the Marching Plains are rushing over here!”

However, Fibiel’s operation was bold enough to even exceed their expectations. To the extent that users who had different thoughts until recently started to quickly use their teleport scrolls.

****

“What a spectacular sight, what a magnificent view.”

“Is this all of the users from Fibiel?”

“No. Are you saying that there are about a million people going here? Not a chance.”

“Hey, damn it, there are people everywhere. It’s my first time seeing the horizon filled with people.”

Even while marching in lines of five, the users did not stop chatting.

It was a sea of people! There were so many people from Fibiel marching to Castle Van Cowl.

Of course, one million was not a lot compared to the total number of users in the game.

Right now, based on Fibiel Kingdom alone, there was a significant number of people on the battlefield on the Sentinel Mountains side, the Witchmore Riverside, and the Dike Beachside.

In addition, those who participated in the war are all at least level 100.

If they had endured until now, it meant that they had reached level 150 or even higher. That means there were a million such people.

If all the users had really gathered, the cumulative number of subscribers would exceed 100 million, and the number of concurrent users on Middle Earth exceeded 30 million, that is why 1 million was a low figure.

“Indeed. With such a large army, the cavalry that Castle Van Cowl is so proud of will not be of any use.”

(To be continued…)