Chapter 043 - Exploration

Back at Silver Pine Manor, Lu Fei and Su Tongtong arrived at the stone fortress, Su Tongtong said, "I'm going to find arcane masters to study the design of the new manor right now, and I'll have them come here tomorrow at the latest to survey the terrain and adjust the design!"

　　Lu Fei encouraged, knowing that Su Tongtong was energized, it was best not to throw cold water on her.

　　Coming to the first floor hall, the new housekeeper Bernice hurriedly ordered her servant to bring coffee, Lu Fei smiled with concern, "Still getting used to it? If you have any difficulties, just tell me ..."

　　"Used to it, and there are no difficulties, thank you master for your sympathy!" Bernice carefully said.

　　"Habit is good, well ... Hite is here?"

　　"Not over here, I heard that he went to patrol outside the manor!"

　　"That's good, you go down first, there's no need for you to greet here!" Lu Fei waved his hand and began to study the drawings of the Arcane Tower, he himself will have no free time for the whole day today, and he will also go to observe the construction of the Arcane Tower early tomorrow morning.

　　A while later, Bernice came back and reported, "Master, a flashy carriage came outside, saying that His Highness Reinhardt is visiting, will you see it or not?"

　　"Reinhardt?" Lu Fei instantly frowned, at this time, a crown prince came to find himself not knowing what's the matter? Could it be for the matter of venturing out to sea? Thinking about it gave Lu Fei a bit of a headache, but he couldn't let an honorable Crown Prince eat a closed door, so he said to Berenice, "That little guy is the Crown Prince of the Medusa Duchy, so we're too embarrassed to refuse his visit, so it's better to go and welcome him!"

　　Bernice was slightly taken aback, thinking, "Is it really a Crown Prince of a Duchy who is visiting Silver Pine Manor?

　　Lu Fei had already walked out of the stone castle, just as Reinhardt the little guy was coming down from the carriage, Lu Fei laughed: "Your Highness Reinhardt, welcome to Silver Pine Manor!"

　　Reinhardt laughed, "I followed my sister back to my country without saying hello last time, and now that I have the chance to come back to Weena Harbor after a long time, I was thinking of staying at your manor for a while!"

　　"That's absolutely no problem!" Lu Fei invited the little guy into the stone castle and turned his head to instruct Bernice, "Bring out my best set of cups and concoct the best coffee for His Highness!"

　　Reinhardt entered the stone fortress, looked around and shook his head, "This Silver Pine Manor of yours is really simple, you're also considered a big businessman, why do you live in such a shabby place?"

　　Lu Fei laughed, "Isn't it that I haven't bothered with it yet? Now it's fine, I'm planning to build a few decent palaces in this area, and it will only take a year and a half for Your Highness to see the new manor!"

　　"It doesn't have to take that long, does it? Nowadays, the arcane masters in the architecture department are very good, hire some more senior arcane masters, and building a palace will be fine in ten days and half a month!"

　　Lu Fei was at a loss as to what to say to the little guy when Savage Hite hurried in at this time, shouting as he ran, "Master, it's bad, something big has happened!"

　　Lu Fei glared fiercely at Hite and shouted, "What's the point of panicking, can the sky collapse?"

　　Only then did Hite's voice lower and he attached himself to Lu Fei's ear and said, "It's that passageway that's in trouble, the three servants guarding it have all gone crazy, biting at the sight of people, I think they must have been cursed!"

　　"Where are the people? Did you bring them back?" Lu Fei hurriedly said.

　　"Brought them back, they are in the warehouse behind the stone castle!" Hite said.

　　Lu Fei waved his hand, letting Hite retreat before apologizing to Reinhardt, "Your Highness, you see I have some important things to deal with right now, should you go to the guest room to rest first?"

　　"No need, I'll go with you, I'm very good at curses, I can help your servant take a look!" Reinhardt stood up and said briskly.

　　"You heard it all?" Lu Fei was slightly surprised.

　　"Of course, you have to know that our Medusa family is a demigod bloodline, the power in our bloodline is marvelous!" Reinhardt was quite proud.

　　Inside the woods a dozen meters behind the stone fortress, there were a few stone chambers that were usually used as warehouses, opening the iron doors, the three barbarians' limbs were each chained, their eyes all turned inky black as they let out a beast-like low roar.

　　Lu Fei was slightly shaken, this looked as if he was possessed, Reinhardt had already stepped forward and scrutinized the three barbarians.

　　"How is it, can you see anything?" Lu Fei said.

　　"This is considered a curse, they were eroded by the dark power of their minds, that's why they became this way, but I'm curious, the dark power that eroded them was very powerful, it actually destroyed all of their wills!"

　　"Are you saying that they are hopeless?" Lu Fei was taken aback.

　　"Not only are they hopeless, but by midnight today, they will all turn into demonic puppets of the dark power and become murderous fiends! I suggest it's better to burn them to death now, or else they'll suffer at night, because turning into Demon Puppets will increase their power by ten times, and these ordinary chains won't be able to trap them at all!"

　　Lu Fei's face turned ugly, and Hite said, "Master, it's better to let me handle it, you go back to the stone fortress first!"

　　"Good!" Lu Fei nodded, letting Hite handle the rest of the matters on his behalf.

　　"The emergence of dark power, this event is too big for me to handle anymore, it seems that I have to report this matter to the Mage Guild ..." Lu Fei sighed.

　　"Wait first, under that passageway might just be a ruin, it's normal for you guys to open the passageway and have dark power leaking out, I think it's better for us to explore first, don't you think it's an interesting adventure?" Reinhardt laughed.

　　"It's not fun, it's dangerous!" Lu Fei emphasized.

　　"Right, it's called an adventure because it's dangerous, don't worry, my personal guards are on standby at Weina Harbor, I'll order them to come over right now, the strength of my personal guards is comparable to the Mage Guild's exploring team, there won't be any dangers in exploring a bit first, and you get to pick whatever treasures you find from exploring, how's that?" Reinhardt patted his chest and packed his bags.

　　Lu Fei couldn't help but laugh, this little guy seemed to be very old fashioned about adventures, it's just that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is just a little kid, whether it's worth trusting is still debatable, Lu Fei stared at Reinhardt and asked, "Your Royal Highness, are you sure that you are just eight years old this year?"

　　"Yes, I'm quite sure, I'm eight and a half years old, is there any problem? If not, I will call my personal guards over!"

　　...

　　Waiting until the entire five hundred Medusa Royal Guards assembled in front of the stone fortress, Lu Fei realized why Reinhardt was so confident, the Crown Prince of the Medusa Duchy that was not a cover, there were five hundred people in his personal guards alone.

　　These five hundred people were divided into three echelons of strength, the most powerful were the God Knights and high level Arcane Artists, then the Gold Knights, and finally the Silver Knights. This power was quite a bit stronger than the Mage Guild's regular exploration team.

　　A whole five hundred knights wearing fine black gold and secret silver armor saluted Reinhardt, and at the head of the group was a God Knight with a very full essence and a fifteenth level Arcane Artist.

　　Seeing that the entire Silver Pine Manor was in a state of shock, Reinhardt was very flattered, and immediately pointed his finger at Lu Fei and laughed, "Knight Commander Lei Kai, Arcanist Bot, let me introduce to you, this is the master of Silver Pine Manor, Lu Fei!"

　　Knight Commander Lei Kai wore white and gold armor, his head was covered with a steel helmet with a red feather on top of it, his back was draped with a red snake hair patterned cloak, and the solemn armor was painted with black and gold inscribed divine art runes, representing the power possessed by the divine Knights.

　　Lu Fei's eyes lit up, this Lei Kai Knight was really good, he looked like he had an aura that stood like a mountain and stood tall, and his eyes were bright, showing the beliefs that knights should have, such as humility, honor, sacrifice, valor, compassion, spirituality, honesty, and justice.

　　As far as Lu Fei knows, Terran continent according to the level of the warrior, can be divided into four levels of black iron, silver, gold, god level, this is in accordance with the essence of the power to divide, the first three levels is the use of fighting qi, only the god level can be used in the divine arts and divine power, the power of the essence of the change in the battle, super strong.

　　Lu Fei took a glance, there were at least ten God Knights, two dozen Gold Knights, the rest were Silver Knights, and Black Iron Knights were not qualified to be in the team, such a team, with a clear power ladder, and also equipped with a high level Arcane Artist, it could be called an elite.

　　Knight Commander Lei Kai clenched his hand in front of his chest and saluted Lu Fei, saying, "Your Excellency Lu Fei, it's a pleasure to meet you, and our Royal Guards are very grateful to Your Excellency for taking care of our Highness!"

　　"No need, it is an honor for Your Highness to be able to come to Silver Pine Manor!" Lu Fei turned his head to Reinhardt and exclaimed, "Your Highness, your guards are truly valiant, and this one knight looks like he's the best of the best!"

　　"That's ... so that means you don't have to worry, isn't it just a small adventure, with my personal guards protecting them, there's no danger whatsoever!" Reinhardt signaled Lu Fei to take out the topography of the stone slab for the crowd to study.

　　Lu Fei was slightly relieved by this time, and took out a piece of cloth and unfolded it, which was covered in medieval script.

　　The crowd were all knowledgeable people, seeing the medieval text, most of them revealed a grave expression, Knight Commander Lei Kai and a few Divine Knights were immobile, while Bot Arcane Artist was a bit surprised and asked, "Your Highness, where did this come from?"

　　Reinhardt said rather smugly, "This thing was found right here in His Excellency Lu Fei's territory, it was topped off from a stone slab that covered a passageway, and I suspected that it was a subterranean ruin left over from the ancient era, so I wanted to explore it, but it seems that there are still dark forces lingering in this place, because just today, three barbarians guarding the passageway were corrupted by the dark force went berserk ..."

　　Bot Arcanist nodded his head, unimpressed, "So it seems that there is some arcane, probably it is really an underground ruin from the ancient era, there is a lot of value in exploring it!" Bot Arcanist turned his head to Knight Commander Lei Kai, who firmly said, "Lei Kai has no problem, as long as Your Highness commands, it's the mountain of daggers and the sea of flames that I'll go just the same!"

　　Lu Fei immediately admired, such a divine knight is simply the most loyal and reliable fighter ...

　　The personnel of the exploration squad was finally finalized, with Reinhardt at the head, and the other personnel being Lu Fei, Knight Commander Lei Kai, Bot Arcane Master, and the other ten Divine Knights.

　　God Knights were warriors who had mastered divine power and divine arts, essentially a type of Divine Artist, but focused only on combat, unlike Divine Artists who specialized in worshiping certain gods. Divine Knights believe in the essence of the gods, a certain power or a certain belief itself, and gain the power belonging to the divine art or essence directly from the Force Ocean.

　　Considering the difficulty for non-God Knights to withstand the dark aura for long, the questing party was determined to be eleven God Knights and three Arcanists, making a total of fourteen.