Volume 3: The Land of Mist Chapter 28 About the Elves
"They said they were going to come up and check the cabin?"
Hobbs asked, frowning.
"Yes, they said that these are extraordinary times and all ships from the Empire will be subject to strict inspection...including merchant ships like ours. "
After getting off the barge, the first mate who had been sent to communicate with the other party's person in charge nodded and replied.
Hearing this, Hobbes looked towards the elven longships not far away whose curves were as elegant as a crescent moon. At this moment, the distance between them and the Whalebone was about five hundred yards.
A distance of five hundred yards was the safe distance that needed to be maintained to prevent accidental discharge of weapons when encountering unfamiliar ships at sea and it was impossible to tell whether the other party had malicious intentions. For magic casters below the divine realm, this casting distance was as unattainable as a chasm in the sky.
The elven longships flying the Blood Blade Family flag strictly followed the unwritten rules at sea and kept their own safe distance. But at the same time, they also blocked the road to Misty Harbor and stopped the Whalebone outside the dock, with the momentum of not letting them pass unless they were inspected.
"Did they tell me what they were going to check? I've been doing business here for decades, and this is the first time I've heard of such a request. Also, did you ask why the Blood Blade family flag was hung at the dock?"
Hobbs continued, pointing to the flag hanging on the dock.
"I asked, and they just told me not to meddle in other people's business... As for why they had to go on board to check, they said it was a routine matter. After all, the current situation is like this, and they are worried that there are spies from the imperial military hiding on the ship..."
"It's not like someone who is a spy for the Empire can be seen on his face. This excuse is a bit far-fetched."
A deep male voice interrupted the first mate's words. Everyone turned around and saw William coming to the deck with Diana, who seemed to be still a little seasick.
"So, now the other party won't let us dock?"
Skipping the boring small talk, William asked directly.
"They have to be inspected before they are allowed to dock, and now the entire dock is under martial law... There has never been a situation like this before."
Hobbes replied somewhat worriedly.
Then he continued:
"Moreover, the people under martial law are not the local garrison families of Yinsu City, but the Blood Blade Family of Fenghuo City. The garrison forces between the seven city-states should be completely independent. Under normal circumstances, this kind of situation would never happen."
It is difficult to say whether this is an adjustment made in response to the imperial military threat or whether there is some political turmoil within Ava.
Or maybe it's both.
"What should we do, Mr. Yin Shima?"
Seeing that William fell into silence and was reluctant to speak, Hobbes asked tentatively.
"Then just follow their rules. There's no need to conflict with them on their territory."
Hearing this, William came back to his senses and replied.
He then went on to add:
"Keep a close eye on the three sailors locked in the storeroom. When their people come aboard to inspect, remember to explain everything to them first to avoid any misunderstandings."
Hobbes nodded immediately after hearing this, and then immediately called on the people around him to take action quickly, as if he was afraid that William would go back on his word.
In fact, Hobbes was indeed afraid that the other party would go back on his word.
Magic casters, especially powerful ones like the other party, are usually very proud and sensitive. Therefore, when Hobbes learned that the other party wanted to board the ship for inspection, what he was most worried about was not anything else, but whether his employer would feel that this was a provocation to him and would have an unnecessary conflict with the other party.
Now with his words, Hobbes felt much more at ease.
After the simple preparations were made, "Leihuo" released a [Lightning Lightning Spell] into the sky, which was the signal agreed upon earlier to indicate the inspection. After a few seconds, one of the elven longships started to move over, and the wooden oars on both sides of the slender hull were rowing in unison. The ship was moving at a very fast speed and docked on the right side of the Whalebone.
Seeing this, the sailors on the Whalebone were about to throw down the ladder for the other side to climb up, but five high elves on the elven longship, wearing dark silver scale armor and blood-red daggers on their waists, jumped up directly , like a bird that had just flapped its wings and jumped to a height of four or five meters, passed the side railing, and landed lightly on the deck, causing the sailors on the ship to exclaim.
Four of the high elves protected each other almost instinctively after landing. They looked around, and after making sure there were no threats around, they slowly put down their hands that were holding the hilts of their swords in alert.
After landing, the remaining high elf dressed as an officer walked straight towards the bow of the ship where William, Hobbes and his group were.
He wore a dark golden helmet with a phoenix pattern, and a pair of pointed ears protruded from the helmet. A few golden tassels were blown by the sea breeze and fluttered behind the helmet. They not only symbolized the tail of the phoenix, but also showed his identity as a commander.
The High Elves are taller and more slender than humans, which makes their faces slightly pointed. Coupled with their delicate facial features, they look feminine and beautiful.
Because of their image, people often think that the High Elves are a group of sissies who cannot lift a sword. They are neither as savage and powerful as their distant relatives the Forest Elves in the Jade Province, nor as muscular as the Ice Elves in the Cold Stone Province who can go out hunting in the snow and ice with only a half-covered animal skin. They have a kind of rugged beauty.
But in fact, beneath their seemingly fragile and slender appearance, they hide a power far beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
Specifically, if you choose the high elves as the starting race in the game, the player's initial numerical panel will be much higher than that of other races.
After all, the high elves blessed by the Phoenix Holy Fire could hardly be considered mortals. For example, the fact that these people jumped four or five meters high to board the ship was not achieved by the explosive power provided by muscles, and William did not feel the breath of magic at all. This was some kind of innate spell, just like the witch's ability to use her scale powder to hypnotize, create dreams, and simulate distance. It was a "phenomenon" rather than a spell.
But on the other hand, compared to truly extraordinary races like witches who were born based on a certain concept, high elves can only be said to be half a extraordinary race - after all, they still need to rely on reproduction to maintain the survival of their own race.
The Phoenix Flame, which maintains this, is both a blessing and a cage.
The blessing of the Holy Fire will only be effective in Ava and within the area covered by the fog. Once out of this area, the blessing of the high elves will inevitably weaken and fade away with the passage of time. Players who choose to start as high elves will enter a period in the early and middle stages of the game where their levels are increasing, but their character attributes remain the same, or even regress.
The regional nature of the Phoenix Holy Fire's blessing was an important reason why the high elves tended to be conservative before the rise of humans and never expanded to the continent of Wick or other places.
In the later Bronze Age, after humans rose to become the rulers of the continent of Vic, Ava experienced a crisis of faith.
At that time, the elves on Ava called themselves "elves", and their race name did not have the prefix "higher". At that time, many elves were tortured by the long and stagnant life and were close to collapse. They had always been eager for change and saw the passion that life should have and the potential to change the status quo in the human race.
They believed that it was the false eternal life brought by the blessing of the sacred fire that poisoned the entire race, so they decided to rebel against the confinement brought by fire and fog, and follow the example of humans to enter a new era.
Initially, they planned to directly extinguish the Phoenix Flame and cut off the inheritance of the Lord of the Mist, so that the entire elf race would completely lose their blessings and become a true mortal race that would experience "aging, illness, and death" after "birth".
To this end, they launched a rebellion in the name of freedom, but the rebellion unsurprisingly failed under the powerful pressure of the Lord of Mist.
But the Mist King at that time was a wise and virtuous king. He saw that this trend of thought would shake the foundation of the entire Ava Continent's Holy Fire Blessing System. Therefore, he did not choose to execute those rebels, destroy their bodies and build an immortal monument for their spirits. He chose to exile those people in the end and allow all those who agreed with their ideas to follow them and leave.
Thus, the first and only large-scale migration of the elves in history began. This migration lasted for more than 50 years, and was divided into six batches that left one after another.
The first fleet crossed the Broken Sea, passed through Fairy Bay and came to Ravenwood, where they signed a contract with the Holy Tree and became the Forest Elves. The second fleet crossed the White Sea, passed through the Thousand Serpent Islands, and landed near a crater in the Dragon Ridge Mountains north of the Boiling Plains. A hundred years later, the whole clan suddenly disappeared, leaving only the legendary fortress city of Ironforge.
The third and fourth fleets went to Osis, and it is said that they established a prosperous country there. But a few hundred years later, Osis encountered the Moon Crisis, and the entire continent was eventually sunk into the sea by the Void Kings, and the descendants of these two fleets were all destroyed. The fifth and sixth fleets headed north, one of which landed in Lengyuan and made a covenant with the local ice giants, becoming the ice elves of later generations; the other one went north through the Dragonbone Islands to see what was in the far north of the world, and eventually lost contact completely.
After that, there was no large-scale migration in the history of the elves. However, Ava still retained the corresponding system. Whether in the era of the Mist King or in the later era of the Seven Free Cities, anyone who had doubts about the Phoenix Holy Fire Blessing System could choose to give up their blessings and surnames and leave Ava as a ranger.
Although the high elves who have given up the blessing are still much stronger than ordinary people in terms of agility and perception, they are not as good as ordinary humans in attributes such as strength and endurance. In addition, due to the emptiness of the soul caused by the loss of the blessing, many elf rangers will suffer from a disease called "elemental mutation". Therefore, the stereotype of the high elves on the continent of Vic is that they always look sickly and weak.
But in fact, the real high elves are definitely not like this.
William thought as he watched the officer striding towards them.
This seemed to be the first time William had seen a fully blessed high elf. As a magic caster, it was difficult for him to judge the opponent's combat effectiveness from the perspective of non-magic warfare. But judging from the opponent's ever-vigilant posture, the fighting posture when walking, and the momentum around him - the five people on board, or a tactical team without the support of magic casters, they could cut down everyone on the ship except themselves within five minutes like cutting butter.
Including the three magic casters already on board.
In Ava, every elf who is given a warrior-related surname is an absolute warrior. Since they are given a surname and embark on their own "path", their entire life's goal is to hone their own warrior ways.
With the talents passed down from their ancestors and the training gained through long years, although the warriors of Ava are few in number, each of them is an absolutely elite warrior who can defeat ten or even a hundred of them at once.
I must get this army...
William thought secretly in his heart as he looked at these warriors who were much stronger than the Black Guards of Thorn City.
Although one will gradually lose the blessing if one leaves Ava, as shown in the example of Remedios, the blessing can be replenished as long as one returns to Ava.
Or maybe he could crack the principle of the Holy Fire Blessing and use it as another trump card against the Moon Realm.
While William was thinking about these things, the elf officer had already walked up to Hobbes. Hobbes smiled and stretched out his hand to him, but the other party just glanced at it and did not shake it.
"Hobbes Black Whale, Captain of the Whalebone. I heard that you have been doing business with the Fengge family for the past 27 years?"
The other party asked straight to the point, his tone as if an interrogator was questioning a prisoner hanging on the torture device.
Hobbes withdrew his outstretched hand with embarrassment, then glanced at William at the side, and then seemed to have regained some confidence and replied:
"The Fengge family is just a middleman. We mainly do business with the Silver Hand, Gray Porcelain, Cold Fire and other families. We bring various rare minerals that are not available in Ava Continent, and they sell us handicrafts. And the Fengge family is not the only middleman..."
"You just need to answer my question. Have you ever had any business dealings with the Fengge family before? Yes or no?"
Although the words sounded extremely impatient, there was no trace of impatience in the other party's tone.
Hobbes nodded and said:
"Yes."
"very good……"
Upon hearing this, the other party turned his head and said to the four Blood Blade Guards behind him:
"Don't miss any corner of this ship. The Empire's spies may be in every corner."
Hobbes, who had known the other party's intention for a long time, saw this and quickly ordered the crew beside him to lead them, and added at the end:
"There are three Imperial sailors in the second-floor storage room. Pay attention. They are the survivors of the previous shipwreck of the Imperial warship. We just rescued them by chance. They are not our crew members. Don't misunderstand them when the time comes."
After these words were spoken, the officer looked at Hobbs with a serious expression.
"What's going on? Please explain clearly."
Hobbes briefly told the other party what happened on the road, and after listening to his description, the man immediately turned to look at William on the side and said:
"You mean this man, who escaped from the misty phantom and saved those three people?"
