Elf Kingdom: Game of the World Tree-Chapter 138 - 137: Smugglers’ Base

Chapter 138: Chapter 137: Smugglers’ Base

“`html

The screenshots uploaded by Lunchbox quickly caused a stir on the official forums of “Elf Kingdom.”

It had to be said, Rivendell truly lived up to its name as the City of Miracles. The elven-style tower-like buildings remained grand and majestic even after a millennium.

Serving as the former manufacturing and mining center of the Elf Kingdom, the various remaining minecart tracks and vaguely discernible forge furnaces added a steampunk flavor to the place.

Coupled with the desolation brought by a thousand years of decay and the eerie silence unique to dark canyons, it added layers of profound mystery.

Crisscrossing mine paths, massive building complexes, deep and mysterious hues…

All in all… it was practically the quintessential lost ruins from the fantasy games in players’ dreams!

The number of replies to the post rose dramatically.

“Whoa! This ruin is intense! It fulfills all my fantasies about the Lost World…”

“Is that deep hole at the end the entrance to the Underworld?”

“This new map feels amazing! I’ve been adventuring in the forest for a while, and while the scenery is great, I always felt it lacked some thrill of mysterious exploration!”

“I’m curious about what monsters are in the new map! The creatures in the Elf Forest we could handle are becoming fewer, while the remaining ones overpower us, and distant places aren’t safe… I wonder if Rivendell has Earth Cave Spiders, Kobolds, and the like…”

“Let’s not talk about monsters. Even Feilengcui, which the elves once looted, had so many treasures. As the city of manufacture and, as I’ve heard, Rivendell was destroyed before they could evacuate, it must have even more treasures buried here, right?”

“You’re tempting me…”

The players were thrilled.

In no time, the screenshot post about Rivendell uploaded by Lunchbox shot to the top of the forums.

Meanwhile, in the game, world chat channels were flooded with player messages…

“Lunchbox master! Start a livestream!”

“Yes, yes! We also want to check out Rivendell ahead of time!”

“Lunchbox master! I heard you were captured by a Human Caravan, snap a picture for us, we wanna see what the Human Caravan looks like.”

“Lunchbox master! Hu Lu said there’s a beautiful elf girl next to you, is it true?!”

“Oh wow, there’s even an NPC girl, what a lucky guy…”

“I’m so jealous, how about you guys?”

“Fantastic! This sounds like a hero saving the beauty scenario, I really want to trigger a hidden plot with an NPC girl too!”

“Do you really want to trigger a hidden plot? You’re more likely just after the NPC’s affection, you sneaky fellow!”

“I think he’s more after the NPC’s body.”

“Pfft… all of you are just so witty!”

Lunchbox: …

He took a deep breath and muted the increasingly distracting conversation on the world channel.

Beside him, the elf girl nervously watched the surrounding human mercenaries, occasionally glancing at Lunchbox, who was lost in thought (looking at the game’s system interface), and pouted slightly.

*Blockhead is blockhead!*

*At such a time, he’s still daydreaming!*

Ever since hearing Lunchbox mention the presence of Silver Experts in the Human Caravan, she hadn’t felt right at all.

Yet, the blockhead behind it seemed utterly unafraid. *Was he truly unafraid, or just too care-free…*

As for Lunchbox’s claim about silver-level reinforcements, she was skeptical. In any case…

*She was now somewhat regretting her reckless choice.*

*What if…*

*What if this blockhead was unreliable, and they encountered Silver Experts, wouldn’t they all be doomed?*

*Imagining the consequences, the girl couldn’t help but shiver.*

…

After muting the world chat channel, Lunchbox turned his attention back to the caravan.

This Human Caravan wasn’t large; it consisted of only fifty to sixty people, with about half being mercenaries.

To avoid alerting anyone, Lunchbox didn’t try to sense their strength.

But by observing the actions and footsteps of these mercenaries, he roughly estimated that their strength wasn’t very high.

He suspected that most hadn’t even reached the Black Iron Middle Rank!

This puzzled Lunchbox.

He found human mercenaries’ skills seemed somewhat lacking.

Actually, Lunchbox was unfamiliar with the general strength of intelligent creatures in Segis World…

In the Human World, few could reach the Black Iron level; perhaps only two or three out of a hundred people would break through to become professionals of Level 10, with many more just at the apprentice level.

Hiring professional fighters wasn’t cheap.

A Black Iron Lower Rank individual wouldn’t have any trouble finding employment; any mercenary group or caravan would welcome him.

Segis World’s Human Caravans usually aimed for maximum profit.

When escorting with mercenaries, they typically hired low-cost professionals.

Ordinarily, they’d employ numerous low-level professional mercenaries, supplemented by one or two noteworthy experts to hold the line.

The reason Lunchbox found the mercenaries weak was that he constantly dealt with Demon Beasts and Half-Beasts.

Actually… the Demon Beasts and Half-Beasts they were hunting were formidable, and brutal even by human standards.

Certainly, while the average human strength was low, humans had strength in numbers, so overall professionals were the most numerous.

Moreover, among those who became professionals, there were people who went much further, with the Sorren family gaining its continental prestige thanks to such strong individuals.

Overall, in terms of raw strength, humankind might actually be the strongest on the Segis Continent.

The rulers of the Eternal Era were humans!

If not for the internal struggles among humans, dividing them into several countries, their combined middle and upper-level forces would probably make any intelligent race tremble!

As one of the renowned Sorren Caravan traveling across the continent, as long as they could muster sufficient defense against monsters along the route and brandish the Sorren family’s banner, generally speaking, no one dared to target them.

Thus, though the goods this caravan transported weren’t low in value, their collective strength included only two noteworthy Silver Professionals.

Still, Silver Professionals were already quite formidable…

Lunchbox’s gaze flickered slightly as he looked toward the front of the caravan.

There stood a human mage, luxuriously dressed, appearing around fifty or sixty years old.

Beside him stood a tall, golden-haired swordsman.

Even from a distance, Lunchbox could sense the powerful aura surrounding them…

Silver!

They were the two Silver-level experts of the Human Caravan!

After a while, the caravan stopped in front of a hundred-meter tower amidst the ruins.

The mercenaries drove the freight wagons into a hidden area beside the tower, then escorted Lunchbox and the elf girl inside.

After entering the tower, they realized this was one of the hideouts for the smuggling caravan!

Unlike the outside ruins, the tower’s interior was meticulously maintained, with various amenities well-prepared, although the air inside was quite stale, causing the two to frown unconsciously.

Upon the caravan’s arrival, a few individuals, seemingly guards, greeted the caravan.

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on freёwebnoѵel.com.

Lunchbox watched as one of them approached the leading mage, paying respects and flatteringly said,

“Lord Belus, you’re finally here! They’ve been urging for the goods several times over there. This time the sum is enormous… without your presence, I wouldn’t dare transact lightly.”

The mage named Belus chuckled warmly,

“The kingdom’s been conducting tight checks lately, so we took a detour. We also made a small profit off the Half-Beasts and gained an unexpected catch.”

After speaking, he pointed at Lunchbox and the elf girl,

“Look, another two elves! Lock them up as well, and we’ll deal with them along with the previous batch.”

“Two more?”

The man’s eyes lit up.

He eyed the pair, nodded,

“Alright, I’ll have them locked away right now!”

He waved, and two individuals stepped forward to take Lunchbox and the others away.

Lunchbox and his companion didn’t resist, *appearing as if genuinely drained of energy* as they were led by humans into the depths of the tower, where… there lay a dark passage leading underground.

Escorted by humans, they walked down the underground passage for ten minutes, finally arriving at a deep, damp cell in front of them.

And the moment they arrived, Lunchbox saw seven or eight young elves imprisoned there!