Chapter 103 Lord of Ashes

  …

   Matthew was a little upset that he didn't have the ability to harvest after entering the field for the second time. He wanted to pick up the eagle-faced man and beat him up.

   But the return of the limited-time status has lifted his spirits.

  He has already verified the power of the way of strengthening on A Bing.

   Now give Matthew another chance.

  He is confident that he will be able to grow a more powerful zombie!

   "It seems a bit strange to say that, but it is the undead who benefit greatly from the work in the natural field?"

   "When I plant trees on a large scale next time, won't the tauren domain grow rapidly again?"

  Matthew thought wildly for a while.

  Start to formulate a new round of tree planting plan.

  With the experience of last time, Matthew's thinking is clearer now.

  He now has an army of zombies as coolies, and the most difficult digging and filling is not a problem at all.

  At present, the only things that can limit the production capacity of tree planting are the three links of seeds, saplings and growth.

  In terms of seeds, Matthew plans to take a two-pronged approach—

   On the one hand, he is going to ask Samantha if there is a purchase channel.

   On the other hand, he plans to find Zeller to purchase oak seeds through the official channel of Rolling Stone Town.

  At any rate, I am already a well-established person in the lord's mansion, so it's not too much to use public channels to buy things?

   You can still ask Ella about the sapling.

  With the strong germination ability displayed by this owl lady, as long as there are enough seeds, the saplings will definitely not be a problem.

   There was also a long-term cooperation agreement between Matthew and Ella.

   It's just that Ayla has been busy with something in the Moon Obscure Forest recently.

   Matthew hasn't seen her much.

   As for the most important part of oak tree growth.

  Matthew plans to go to the "Crucible House" tomorrow morning. As long as it is a magic item produced in the east coast and inland areas, it can always be bought in the Crucible House.

  The only downside to what's there is that it's expensive.

  But Matthew's net worth is also rising, as long as it is not too expensive, he is willing to pay for it.

   "Speaking of which, can I improve the efficiency by increasing the level of the "rapid growth" spell? "

  Matthew stands under the tree.

  The thought that just flashed through his mind made his eyes shine.

  He currently has no way to improve the druid spells through normal methods.

   But he has "Spell Blending"!

   "I can definitely try to use "Rapid Growth" as the main body, reconcile other spells, and see if I can break through the limit of the number of times of Rapid Growth itself! "

   Think and do it.

   Matthew pinched on the spot.

  …

  「Hint: You have used spell blending, and the blending targets are "Rapid Growth" and "Garcia's Armor";

   After the reconciliation is completed, "Rapid Growth" is enhanced to "Rapid Growth (Green Armor.

  The strengthening effect of this spell is as follows:

   The number of times available per day has increased to 11;

  This spell can not only make plants grow quickly, but also add a green armor to them (armor +3/duration 30 minutes).

  When multiple plants in the same area have green armor, a green tree wall will appear between these green armor plants, which is enough to withstand the impact of some external enemies.”

  …

  Green nail plant? Green tree wall?

  Although it seemed useless, Matthew went back to the room and carefully recorded the results of the spell reconciliation.

   "If you can add green armor to dozens of plants at the same time, it may have certain strategic significance."

  Matthew thought about it for a while, and continued to pinch the second spell.

  …

  「Hint: You have used spell blending, and the blending targets are "Rapid Growth" and "Vampire Touch";

   After the reconciliation is completed, "rapid growth" is enhanced to "bloodthirsty growth".

  The strengthening effect of this spell is as follows:

   Increased the number of times available per day to 15;

  The caster's own 3 points of life will be deducted before each use;

  This spell has double the plant growth speed of the original spell, but the plants grown through bloodthirsty growth will have a certain probability of mutating into cannibal plants, and have a very low chance of obtaining an elite/lord template. "

  …

   "This is not bad."

  Matthew also recorded the results. The spell reconciliation can only be used twice a day, and the permutations and combinations of spells in his hands are at least hundreds. Only by recording all the reconciliation results can they be used at critical moments.

  Compared with the green armor technique, the strengthening effect of bloodthirsty growth is more obvious.

  Although it is troublesome to bleed every time.

  But for the purpose of protecting the forest, it is also feasible to cultivate a man-eating plant in the forest in another area.

  This trip to the rainforest made Matthew realize that nature does not mean absolute peace.

   Like the rainforest, the law of the jungle and life-and-death ecology may be too cruel.

   But such an overly pursuing tranquil and peaceful atmosphere like the Oak Field is also a bit too monotonous.

  He felt he needed to give Oak a little prodding.

certainly.

   All of the above are just Matthew’s imagination.

  His current goal is to find out the best coordination solution for "rapid growth" as soon as possible.

  Currently, the Green Armor technique is stable and controllable. If you use it once a day, you will gain a little more experience. In a month, you can also strengthen it twice.

  Thinking so.

  Matthew canceled the result of the spell coordination. Before finding a better coordination solution, he will leave the second chance of spell coordination every day to the green armor.

  After finishing the reconciliation.

  Matthew wandered through the oak forest again.

   Walking in the woods that I planted myself, this feeling is so wonderful and so reassuring.

  The breeze through the forest caressed Matthew's face.

  The fatigue on his body disappeared in an instant, and the boredom accumulated due to the exhaustion of the boat a while ago also dissipated a lot.

  Matthew's body and mind were greatly relaxed.

   Suddenly.

  He suddenly realized that his forest was already very big.

  It spread from the east of the town to the private territory that belonged to Rhaegar in the north.

   And farther north.

   There have been many neatly arranged potholes.

  That's the result of hardworking zombie workers working through the night.

   Matthew is very pleased with this.

   But then he doesn't plan to plant completely according to these potholes.

  Because the previous Matthew only roughly estimated the bearing capacity of the earth.

   And after returning from this southbound trip.

  Matthew has the ability to feel the pulse of the earth more intuitively.

   "Balanced perception"!

  In an instant.

  The world changed color in front of Matthew.

   element field.

  Etheric field.

   Feature field.

  Material Realm.

  The structure of the plane undressed in front of him as if peeling off the cocoon.

  He can clearly see every abnormal energy flow!

   "Huh? In the past three and a half days, I planted 100 trees, and I almost drained the "life elements" in the forest? "

   "No, it's not just for this reason, it should be that the expansion of the oak forest is too fast, and this piece of land is almost being drained."

  Matthew looked solemn.

  Before, he only vaguely knew that planting trees should not be too fast, otherwise it might cause permanent damage to the earth.

  But it is the first time that such an intuitive insight into the flow of elements in the earth.

  He saw that in the element field of the earth under the oak forest, there was not much life left, and the most filled elements were "dirt", "stone" and "gravel" derived from the earth element layer.

  The oak forest greedily absorbs the life elements of the earth, causing it to show signs of drying up.

  Although the oak forest will feed back to the earth, but the expansion is too fast and the feed back is too slow, which has caused the current imbalance of elements.

   "Fortunately, there is still a chance to make amends."

   "It should be possible to fill in the lack of life elements through measures such as fertilization."

   Matthew was a little scared.

  At the same time, he also noticed that near the cemetery under the earth, due to the large number of activities of the undead, a small amount of death elements were integrated into the soil layer.

  The "death" element replaced the "life" element in the earth.

   Continue like this.

   Maybe a few years later, the oak forest will absorb pure negative energy from the earth!

  What will become of the oak forest by then.

   Matthew couldn't imagine.

   "Fortunately, I have balanced perception, and everything is in time. Next, I can plant trees in the north. Fortunately, the land area provided by Rega is large enough."

   "In addition to fertilization, I remember that the druids of the Earth Association have a "Life Sanctuary" ceremony, which can ensure the vitality of the earth. I will ask Eli when he comes back. "

  Thinking so.

  Matthew glanced northeast.

  You don’t know if you don’t read it.

  At first glance, he almost popped his eyeballs—

  But I saw a huge fault in the energy field in the northeast direction.

   That scene is like a ruthless machete, cutting into a huge piece of cheese!

   The marks left by the machete could not heal for a long time, and they were even expanding outward.

   In a trance.

  Matthew also saw an extremely weird monster in that trace.

  The monster had three human faces, and its body was like a zombie. Debris mixed with ashes and sparks fell from it every moment.

  It has countless hands, and the most eye-catching one is holding a sickle that stands upright!

   The monster's profile glanced at Matthew.

  Matthew felt a pain in his temple, and instantly exited the state of balanced perception.

   "Hiss!"

  Matthew supported the oak tree and gently rubbed his temples to calm down the pain just now.

  …

  「Warning: You have spied the secret of the Scar of the Dead, "The Lord of Ashes who is active in the element layer"!

  The Ash Lord has noticed your gaze, and it is about to send its generals and troops to destroy you!

   It is estimated that there are still 720 hours before the arrival of the first wave of troops. "

  …

   Lord of Ashes active in element layers.

   Is this the root cause of Scar of the Dead's continuous expansion?

  Matthew frowned.

  He knew that he would never be able to get around the difficulty of Scar of the Dead, and this time he came back, and he was also preparing to deal with the scar of the dead's westward expansion.

   I didn't expect to be preempted by the opponent.

  The reason is just because I looked at the monster one more time.

  However, Matthew was not worried. He had seen similar cases in the materials of the Seven Saints Alliance.

  Theoretically, the impact of the Scar of the Dead on the material world is limited to the devouring of the land and the killing of living things around the trace.

   A little farther away, and its influence drops off abruptly.

  As long as this thing doesn't mutate, the troops it sends out shouldn't be too powerful.

   Having said that.

  Matthew returned to his home in the town for the first time.

  Come to the familiar desk.

Matthew first wrote a reply letter to Lorraine, telling him that although he still minds being cheated, as long as Lorraine can guarantee that there will be no deliberate fraud in the future, the friendship between the two parties will have a chance to continue go down.

   Then he handed the letter to the albatross who had been standing guard in the garden these days.

  Sweetie pecked at the letter and flew away without looking back.

   It made it impossible for Matthew to hand over the porcelain bottle in his hand.

   "Only next time."

   he thought with peace of mind.

   Then.

  Matthew went back to the basement, took out the thick document, and read it carefully.

  The Seven Saints Alliance's research on the scars of the dead is in place, which can be seen from the weight of the information bag.

  In general, these materials can be divided into three parts.

  The first part, the historical background and causes of the scar of the dead.

  In the second part, the Seven Saints Alliance has made many efforts to prevent the spread of the Scar of the Dead, but most of these efforts have failed. The second part is a summary of these failure cases, which is also very valuable in Matthew's view.

  The third part is the feasibility forecast of a series of plans for the scar of the dead proposed by the senior leaders of the Seven Saints Alliance.

  This part is also of great reference value.

  Matthew started reading from the first part.

   Only soon he frowned.

  Although there is a lot of information in this part, I don’t know if it is a mistake in the paperwork, or someone deliberately did it.

   These materials are quite messy, and many statements are contradictory.

  The level of outrageousness has reached the point where both the previous paragraph and the next paragraph may be wrong!

   "Is this information officially recorded by the alliance?"

   Matthew was deeply suspicious.

  But when he thought about Blinken's incident, he suppressed this suspicion again.

  In fact, he hasn't had much contact with the Seven Saints Alliance, and the impressions in his mind are all from Ronan.

  After Tianlun Palace ascended to the palace, the Seven Saints Alliance is the most powerful power organization and power organization in the world, and it seems not uncommon for a slight internal corruption.

   Now.

  He suppressed his nausea and tried to extract useful information from this pile of chaotic written materials.

   A few hours later.

   Matthew put down a thick parchment bag wearily.

  At this time, he was extremely convinced.

  This information has been polluted by people.

   Not only did Matthew get this, it should be after a certain point in time that the information that everyone else got from the alliance official was polluted.

  The intention may be to obscure the historical causes of the Mark of the Dead.

  But as a balance messenger, Matthew has a natural ability to capture unbalanced elements.

  Many contradictory points in the materials were easily seen through by him.

   Gradually, some relatively useful information was really extracted for him.

  Matthew pieced together the information and tried to restore the historical truth.

   "So, the origin of Scar of the Dead is actually in Jade Cangting? The surrounding areas are just affected."

  In the information that Matthew pieced together, the story is roughly like this:

  Since the ascension of Tianlun Palace.

  Teristina, the main elf **** believed by the wood elves living in Jade Cangting, was also exiled by the Scourge Mage.

  Since then, the entire Wood Elf group has been in constant panic.

   It seems that for the elves, having no faith is a very terrible thing.

  They instinctively seek some powerful existences as their spiritual reliance.

   A certain year.

  A legendary magician named Lance discovered this.

So he managed to convince the wood elves to believe that although Teristina had been exiled, he had prepared the body of a saint in the world in advance through careful disguise and tricks, so as to continue to guide the elves. spiritual world.

  Lance claims that he is Teristina's incarnation in the world.

   It is very paradoxical.

  The wood elves believed such an outrageous lie!

   Afterwards, this legendary magician successfully entered the Jade Cang Court, and also formed a partner with the Wood Elf Queen at that time, and gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl.

  The day the queen gave birth.

  Jade Cangting was still immersed in joy.

   can be very fast.

  The wood elf queen was the first to realize something was wrong.

  Because she was horrified to find that the two children she had just born were neither elves nor humans.

   They look like a humanoid with an octopus face!

  At this time, no matter how obsessed the elf queen is, she knows something bad is going on.

  She wanted to question Lance.

  But the latter flew away after the queen gave birth smoothly.

  The rest of the night.

   It was the saddest night in the history of Jade Cangting.

   No one knows what happened in the Elven Palace.

  The elves living in the outer city only saw two tentacles rising from the ground.

  One of the tentacles pierced through the crown of the World Tree Maia.

  The other tentacle attacked all nearby creatures indiscriminately.

   Matthew found only these few words to describe the terrible disaster.

  He was sure of it.

   After that night.

  The elf queen in her prime has fallen.

  Many wood elf commoners were sacrificed alive by a mysterious and evil ritual before the queen gave birth to an heir.

   And many more wood elves perished in subsequent disasters.

   As for the man and woman born to the queen.

  They turned into two tentacles respectively.

  One of the tentacles was beheaded by the queen using the artifact suppressed in the world tree.

  Another tentacle also received a fatal blow from the Queen, but did not die completely.

  It fell to the ground and merged with the veins of the earth, forming a shallow trace eighty kilometers south of Jade Cangting City.

  The elves at that time were immersed in grief, and did not notice the abnormality of the traces.

   And when the trace grew vigorously, the elves were surprised to find that they could no longer curb the growth of the trace.

  The Scar of the Dead was born.

  After experiencing this miserable night.

  The population of the originally prosperous wood elves group dropped sharply, and they lost the ability to monopolize the forest.

  In the end, they had to move their capital and introduce external forces to maintain their local dominance.

   Before that.

   Matthew agrees with his two human neighbors, the wood elves and the night elves.

  He also felt that the night elves were too arrogant and indifferent, not to mention their royal court, even the Eversong Forest where the night elves lived did not allow ordinary humans to enter.

   In comparison, the wood elves seem to be more reasonable. Not only can Jade Cangting be entered at will, but even their capital, Wangcheng, ordinary humans have the opportunity to enter to see the beauty.

Now it seems.

   It turned out that it was only the wood elves who died and suffered a big loss, so they had to introduce human power to check and balance their fellow tribes who were ready to move.

   "Sure enough, there are no special cases without a reason in this world. No wonder even the daughter of a small town merchant like Beanna has the opportunity to learn dance in Jade Cangting. The wood elves are also in decline."

  Matthew stretched.

   Picked up a pen again and wrote down the background he sorted out—

  …

"Afterwards, when the Seven Saints Alliance studied the beheaded tentacle, it was found that it belonged to a void creature that I hadn't heard of very much. The latter's name was Yukrus, the sorcerer of the Scourge Order. The master of the void that we believe in.

  We have reason to believe that the legendary warlock is also a member of the Scourge. "

  …

   Finish writing these.

   Matthew stopped writing.

  It is too tiring to extract the correct information from a pile of mixed materials.

  He has to rest.

  I can't use up all my energy tonight.

  One will be an appointment to have a class with Sif.

   I have been pigeonholed for a month.

   Matthew was somewhat embarrassed.

  He decided to prepare well for tonight's history class, trying to make the most perfect impression on Sif.

   "I have to plant trees, organize materials, and find time to learn spells. It seems that I really don't have time to go to the office of the Lord's Mansion."

   "Well, let's work for two or three days first, and then find another opportunity to ask for leave with Rhaegar."

  Thinking so.

  Matthew happily grabbed a history lesson plan and scanned it comfortably.

  …

   night.

  In Matthew's living room, the lectures are loud.

   Matthew worked extra hard tonight.

   But soon.

  He found that Sif's state was a bit wrong.

   Except when we first met she seemed happy.

  After class starts.

  She just looked absent-minded.

   This is rare for Sif.

  So Matthew stopped talking and asked with concern:

   "What's the matter, Sif? Did something happen?"

   Sif was stunned for a moment, and smiled reluctantly:

"No."

  Matthew said seriously:

   "In class, you can't lie to the teacher."

   Sif blushed and sighed:

   "This afternoon, I heard from my father that he also participated in your adventure to the south."

   "After I knew about this, I felt a little uncomfortable."

  Matthew was taken aback for a moment, and immediately apologized and said:

   "Sorry, I shouldn't have put your father in that danger."

  Although Matthew didn't expect Rhaegar to be the person who came, saying such words was like an excuse, so he didn't say it.

  Who knew Sif immediately shook his head and said:

   "That's not what I care about. I also heard from him that you are now the magic consultant of the Lord's Mansion."

  Matthew said in surprise:

   "Is there something wrong?"

  Sif held her small face and looked at Matthew seriously:

   "So, now you spend more time with my father than with me?"

  What the **** kind of question is this?

   You won't even want to eat your father's jealousy, will you?

  Matthew was surprised by the girl's bizarre comparison.

  In order to avoid Sif’s misunderstanding, Matthew explained:

   "Don't worry, Rhaegar and I don't have that good relationship. Except for official business, we hardly talk in private."

  Sif looked at him suspiciously:

"real?"

  Matthew laughed:

   "Of course, I can guarantee it."

   Sif immediately breathed a sigh of relief:

   "Sorry, the relationship between you and my father has improved, which I would like to see, but I am afraid that you two will get too close... Oh, let's not talk about this."

   "In short, it's good that things are not as I imagined, shall we continue the class?"

  Matthew nodded.

  He picked up the lesson plan and was about to continue.

   However, at this time.

  A loud and excited voice suddenly came from outside the main entrance:

   "Open the door, Matthew!"

   "I came up with a brilliant idea, we can sell my sword oil to the south, it will definitely make a lot of money!"

   "Open the door! Matthew!"

that moment.

  The smile on Matthew's face froze completely.

  …

  (end of this chapter)