Night Ranger - Full Series - 735 Chapters
Page 31
During the battle to recover White River Valley, Marvin got 2194 battle exp, the earth spirits included.
He had already reached ranger level 5 and met the conditions to advance. But to reach level 6 ranger, he needed 4800 exp.
It was quite clear that the gnolls couldn’t meet his advancement needs.
So he thought about it for a while and decided to put 1000 battle exp into [Shadow Steps].
It was the same as [Cutthroat]: due to Marvin repeatedly using the action in battle, he could use battle experience to turn it into a personal skill.
Shadow Steps and Cutthroat formed the phantom assassin’s signature combo, second only to Desperate Strike.
After Marvin used 1000 exp, a new skill appeared in his skill list:
[Shadow Steps (30)]
Shadow Steps not being as high as Cutthroat was quite normal. Even though Marvin had practiced this kind of footwork when he was playing the game, it wasn’t done as accurately as cutthroat, so it was impossible to completely emulate it. But 30 points in Shadow Steps was enough to use it.
Now Marvin was completely able to use [Stealth] or [Hide] + [Shadow Steps] + [Cutthroat], a powerful assassination skill.
These skills made his assassination abilities not at all inferior to the assassin path of the thieves. And his melee abilities were a lot stronger than ordinary rangers. Coupled with his battle experience, even without dragon strength potion, Marvin had confidence in fighting any 2nd rank expert.
“Tuff”! “Tuff!““Tuff!” Darts kept flying out.
Time quickly passed, and all the darts in his hands had soon been all thrown.
Numerous darts were stuck on circles on the surrounding big trees.
This was today’s final round of training.
Marvin picked up all the darts, and then ran in the castle from a side door.
…
It was four days after White River Valley recovery.
Just as Marvin expected, the disciplinary knights that were sent away didn’t come back to look for trouble. And the people harboring evil intentions were apparently also shocked by Marvin’s boldness. There were no signs of movement from them for the time being.
Marvin knew that even if they had plans, they could only set them up secretly.
This was the era before the Great Calamity, the era of the wizard alliance. Aside from guarding for a possible assassination, the rest wouldn’t be a problem.
And after those gnolls were thoroughly expelled, White River Valley gradually began to regain its past atmosphere.
Anna led half the garrison and they worked tirelessly, visiting each house in Green Village, Fog Village, Coiling Water Lake and other places. They invited those civilians who had fled, terrified from the gnolls to come back.
The village at the bottom of the castle town gradually became thriving with people again. All the originally abandoned farmhouses were once again cleanly put in order and the farmers began to come back.
Craftsmen and artisans took their children back to the castle town.
The current White River Valley was no different from the other territories. The core was naturally the overlord and the overlord’s people.
Marvin and Anna lived in the deepest part of the castle, with garrison members guarding the outside.
Also, all kinds of craftsmen and artisans lived outside the castle, in the city. They groomed their children as apprentices, and they would inherit their parents’ occupations and become tailors or maybe masons.
Farmers were outside the walls. There were also some peddlers, but these sly guys would often be thieves.
Looking at it from above, Marvin’s castle town was surrounded by cliffs, with a grove on the side.
There was a lone rock bridge in the south with a man-made canal below. The canal drew water from the White River. The water was quite deep and some pikes were placed inside, pointing up.
Anyone that fell in would definitely not have a good end.
Farmhouses were at the bottom of the castle town. The farmhouses spread apart from each other were still considered as just starting. It was quite difficult to grow crops in the vast stretches of barren soil, except wheat or maybe okra¹.
The White River in the distance was just like a belt flowing through the White River Valley, this vast yet unfertile land.
The northern mine could still be seen from the top of the castle town walls.
The White River Valley curled around the west of the northern mine and it had an abandoned wharf.
This was White River Valley.
An unfertile rural territory.
But Marvin still had to protect it with his life.
The sun slowly rose as people began their work.
Fortunately, Marvin managed to drive out the gnolls on time or he would have delayed the summer cultivation. If that happened, the already awful food shortage would have turned even worse.
“It’s time to work.”
Marvin ate breakfast, changed and returned to his study.
Anna was already there waiting.
After successfully recovering White River Valley, Marvin had fulfilled the youth’s wish, and the last fragment of soul dissipated.
But his oath to the youth hadn’t changed.
He would guard this place. He was totally confident in his ability to do this!
After accepting the 1000 general exp, his quest menu turned empty.
This made Marvin somewhat surprised but it wasn’t the most important thing right now.
…
“The food shortage? I can settle this issue,” Marvin softly said to the anxious Anna.
He was discussing the territory’s situation with Anna while skillfully writing a decree with his quill.
There were too many documents that need to be handled for the reconstruction of the White River Valley.
But Marvin was dealing with it smoothly. Even if he wasn’t someone working in administration in his previous life, he was quite smart. The small White River Valley still had to deal with crooked and no-good travelers.
He released five overlord decrees in one breath.
1st Decree. White River Valley’s garrison recruitment decree. Any man of age in any village in White River Valley may enlist in the garrison. This would mainly be overseen by Andre.
Marvin intended to enlarge the garrison; twenty men were indeed too few. For the two thousands people in White River Valley, the garrison needed at least fifty people.
Marvin wasn’t lacking in funds. He had brought out enough money from the inner area of the scarlet monastery to provide for the garrison for many years.
2nd Decree. It encouraged the inhabitants to raise livestock. Marvin found out that White River Valley’s south pasture fields were especially fitting to herd livestock. It had not been developed in the past due to the threat of gnolls and wild animals. Now, with Marvin increasing his territory’s military force, this should be able to safeguard it. Every household herding livestock would have a certain allowance.
3rd Decree. Recruiting artisans, craftsmen and merchants. They would give energy to the territory.
4th Decree. Also a recruitment decree, but it was for class holders, especially those who had army experience. Marvin needed some people with leadership experience or adventuring experience to lead the new garrison members. This recruiting decree gave out some generous rewards, and even made Gru and the others interested.
5th Decree. It was a repair decree. Marvin hoped for the farmers and some craftsmen to send some people to repair White River Valley’s abandoned wharf.
This was a time consuming and large scale engineering project. Anna thought it was unwise.
But Marvin had his own reasons. Under his urging, the five decrees were issued.
White River Valley was shocked for a while. The overlord hasn’t taken this many actions in a row for quite a long time.
…
This was a very inspiring feeling.
Marvin could feel the change.
>
The next day, when he stood on the wall, watching the faces of the people coming and going, he could feel some kind of energetic atmosphere.
This made him feel especially satisfied. This was a completely different kind of achievement from dealing a killing blow.
A flute’s melody could suddenly be heard in the distance.
Marvin focused on it; the tune came from the windmill of the former castle town bakery.
The melody was quite familiar, Marvin recalled this song name from his deepest memories.
– White River Valley Awakening. –
The fragrant aroma coming from the bakery, the distant crystalline and silvery river.
Marvin took a deep breath.
So beautiful.
…
But suddenly, rushed footsteps could be heard behind him!
Anna’s anxious voice also followed:
“Young Master Marvin! Something bad happened!”
“Young Master Wayne was cursed by someone in Magore Academy! He is now bedridden and unconscious!”
Marvin turned around, clenching his fists.
_________
1 - Okra, also known as ladies’ fingers or ochro. It’s a green vegetable. (Never seen one here.)
Chapter 51: Curse and Adventure
Chapter 51: Curse and Adventure
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
The old butler had sent a letter, informing them that Marvin’s younger brother Wayne had a hard to remove curse. Even Magore Academy’s great wizards were helpless.
There weren’t much news on the letter, but fortunately, the old butler who followed Wayne to Magore Academy precisely described Wayne’s condition.
“Twin Snakes Cult’s skill!”
Upon reading the few details, Marvin had more or less figured out what happened.
The twin snakes cultists were actually that fierce. They dared to extend their grip to the Three Ring Towers area?
Wayne’s location, the Magore Academy, was part of the three ring tower. It was safe to say that it was East Coast’s safest area, or so Marvin had thought. He hadn’t expected a problem to happen at his brother’s location just as he recovered his territory.
This was something unforeseen by Marvin.
Why would a twin snakes follower put his hand on Wayne?
‘Could it be that the patriarch saw me? Surely not? I definitely dug out Miller’s eyes before killing him.’
Marvin quickly denied this line of thinking.
…
According to the old butler’s statement, Wayne was apparently in the middle of preparing for a very important competition.
In the three ring towers area, the three wizard tower’s academies would compete against each other. It seemed that recently, the three high level wizard towers joined hands to hold a real combat competition for the first time.
They divided their disciples into a few different levels and let them fight.
Even though Marvin’s younger brother was quite young and had joined the academy not that long ago, he still displayed fairly outstanding magical talent.
With talent like his grandfather’s, as long as Wayne diligently studied, becoming a 2nd rank wizard wouldn’t be an issue. He might even reach the threshold of a 3rd rank wizard.
This kind of talent in the three ring towers was considered quite good, especially in the weakest Magore Academy.
And it was said that this guy had an unusual battle wizard specialty. Thus, under his teacher’s recommendation, he would participate in the upcoming selections for the competition.
Wayne’s performance was very impressive. He surmounted all the obstacles, finally reaching the last round.
But on the eve of the selection, this 9 year old child suddenly fell sick.
This was clearly a set up.
Magore’s teachers did their best but could only delay Wayne’s curse.
He still remained unconscious and clearly couldn’t proceed with the competition.
The one who benefitted the most from Wayne’s coma was obviously his opponent, a wizard named White. Magore’s teachers couldn’t catch White. This guy apparently had powerful backing.
Although there were suspicions, there was no conclusive evidence. The couldn’t do anything about it.
‘Indeed, divination spells already lost their effectiveness.’
Marvin carefully read the letter, not wanting to miss any details.
There was at least a 3rd rank diviner among Magore’s teachers. However, they were powerless.
It was quite obvious that divinations had already stopped working or a [Truth Recollection] would have been enough to catch the culprit.
Wizards had gradually begun to display powerlessness.
Next, the other schools of magic would also begin to weaken and the wizards’ rule would slowly waver
After all, they were about to face gods that were a lot more powerful.
…
“Young Master Marvin, let me go,” Anna said spontaneously.
Marvin shook his head.
This matter wasn’t that simple. Wayne remaining unconscious like this was similar to the effects of a twin snakes follower’s methods.
The average person, even wizards, were unclear about the twin snakes techniques due to not having fought them for years.
After all, curses were the most troublesome. Want to remove the curse? You just had to remove the curse’s source. Magore’s academy didn’t have an expert able to do that.
‘Unless She is willing to take care of it.’
‘But this is clearly impossible.’ Marvin silently thought.
Magore’s academy was affiliated to the rainbow tower’s master, a wizard close to reaching the legend rank, Hathaway. It was said that she was the wizard with the highest chance of rising to the legend rank in the South Wizard Alliance. Marvin clearly remembered that during the game, this woman had successfully ranked up before the Great Calamity, luckily avoiding that split second of severe damage caused by the universe magic pool exploding.
She was one of the few legend level wizards active after the Great Calamity. Sadly, she was killed by a god one year after the calamity.
It seemed it was the work of Shadow Prince, just like Anthony. That guy didn’t use the appearance of a god. He would commonly use an incarnation to mount a sneak attack on mankind’s legend wizards. He would never miss a hit.
If Marvin didn’t guess wrong, Hathaway was definitely in seclusion, trying to break through the final doorstep to the legend rank.
Even if something like the sky and earth turning upside down happened at Magore’s academy, she wouldn’t take care of it.
Let alone a very young wizard apprentice suffering an inexplicable curse.
If not for Magore’s teachers treasuring Wayne’s talent, he might have already been abandoned.
The medicine and spells to delay the curse’s outbreak were quite expensive after all.
The old butler’s letter was quite clear about it. Wayne’s current situation could only be kept up for ten days at most.
And the selection had been delayed, but the deadline was two weeks, leaving Marvin with little time.
“I’ll go personally.” Marvin firmly decided.
“But the territory…” Anna awkwardly said.
“Tell anyone outside that I’m recuperating. There is nothing to be done about it,” Marvin muttered. “Keep proceeding with my decrees. I’ll have to trouble you with the specifics.”
“I understand.” Anna nodded solemnly.
“The strength of the territory is still a bit weak. But I’ll take care of this issue.”
“Gru and his Bramble team are pretty talented, and they probably won’t be willing to be adventurers all their lives.”
“Don’t worry about money, do your utmost to recruit them.”
Marvin instructed, “With the Bramble team, White River Valley would be a lot safer.”
Anna nodded.
“Also, if a young girl comes, bringing her mother from River Shore City, take care of her. Her name is Isabelle.”
“Also…”
Marvin quickly gave her a series of numerous strategic decisions.
It took no less than an hour. He gave Anna a lot of arrangements, in order to deal with any matter, regardless of its importance.
And this diligent butler had been taking continuously taking notes on Marvin’s orders.
Marvin finally clapped his hands, “Help me get Gru, let him know that I found a book which has the cure to his daughter’s plague.”
Anna hesitatingly said, “Could it be that you want to tell the truth?”
Marvin laughed, “Of course not.”
“I’ll tell him that Masked Twin Blades told me that he can join up with him in River Shore City.”
“There, go. After taking care of these, I’ll need to make some preparations for the journey.”
…
Things happened too quickly; even though Marvin had always been good at handling all kinds of tasks quickly, he still felt it was a bit tricky.
Taking the normal route, you would go down the road through River Shore City toward the northwest and cross the Deathly Silent Hills and the Despair Hills in the middle, before reaching the Moonlight Forest.
Then continue north and you’d arrive at the three ring towers domain.
This was close to a week long journey.
He would be delayed.
‘If I directly cross the Despair Hills, I can arrive at the moonlight forest in two days. If my luck is good, I’d be able to catch the moonlight forest hot air balloon and arrive at the three ring towers the next day.’
Marvin drew a straight line on the rough map, memories about those places surfacing before his eyes.
His rich adventuring experience played a great role at this moment.
There were a lot of dangerous places on this route, but there were also a lot of areas with plenty of good things.
Despair Hills was after all close to Jewel Bay, the area Marvin was most familiar with.
‘If I’m lucky, before arriving to the three ring towers, I should be able to get a few first-rate curved daggers.’