Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 868 - 861: Traces of War

Chapter 868: Chapter 861: Traces of War

After a night’s rest, the travelers continued their journey the next day. The further north they went, the stronger the wind and snow became, until even Eve could no longer bear it. She dared not continue to drive the carriage and instead hid in the carriage along with the rest.

Speaking of which, Luo’er still had great respect for the livestock that lived in the frigid zones. Despite such conditions, they still maintained a relatively good state.

The fierce snowstorm lasted for about a week, by which time even the polar livestock could no longer withstand it. But fortunately, by then, they had already completed more than half of their journey and had arrived at the narrowest part of the North Lead Corridor.

Here still stood the ruins of a fortress built by the Snow Elves a thousand years ago. However, after the Aud people breached the fortress, they completely dismantled the main structure, leaving only some of the walls. With the passage of time, wind, rain, and floods had eroded these walls, which were now dilapidated and covered with thick snow.

Fortunately, Eve, acting as the guide, still vaguely remembered where the walls were. Under her guidance, Tangmo blasted away the thick snow accumulated at the foot of the mountain wall with magic, and Luo’er made the decisive call to set up camp there and wait for the snowstorm to lessen before setting off again.

Luo’er estimated that since they had reached the North Territory fortress, they had about covered half of their journey. With their current supply reserves, they could hold out for some more time, so making camp on the spot and waiting for the snowstorm to subside seemed like a prudent plan.

The northwest winds in the North Lead Corridor were now at their fiercest. Traveling against the wind by force, it wasn’t just a matter of possibly freezing to death, but the resistance could greatly slow down their speed. This would be gainless stubbornness.

After some thought, Luo’er figured they could stay there for about five days. If the storm did not abate after five days, they would turn back the way they came and return to Melia’s camp, waiting until the full onset of spring to enter the corridor.

Before their departure, Luo’er had seriously underestimated the power of the wind and snow, which was why they had been so impatient to try to enter the Snow Domain. The members of the Advance Team had grown up in the subtropical region since childhood and had never seen snow with their own eyes before coming to Otherworld. Now, heading to the Snow Domain, everyone had developed a fear of snow.

The place where they set up camp was at the city wall under the mountain. Here, the walls had not been completely eroded away by the weather, and some portions of the wall were about seven to eight meters high.

The walls were assembled from cut stone slabs of different lengths, the longest being over two meters, while the shortest was just over ten centimeters.

The stones were somewhat similar to sandstone and had been cut very smoothly on their surfaces, without even a hint of moss attached. With some free time, Luo’er began to inspect the stones near the camp and discovered some strange things.

"What are these marks?" Luo’er caressed the ancient scars on the city wall.

This was a stone slab embedded in the city wall that had already shattered into several pieces, with a rather apparent penetration mark at the center of the cracks. Though thousands of years had passed, the sign was still quite evident.

Luo’er tried to move the broken slabs and found they didn’t budge, firmly embedded in the city wall. It was foreseeable that if this slab had been singled out, it would have certainly shattered to pieces.

"It must be the mark left by some siege weapon," said Baiyue, who had been drawing the wall, upon hearing Luo’er’s voice. She put down her paper and pen to come over and speak.

"This is the trace of a powerful crossbow bolt fired by the Empire," Eve came over to explain. "My mother told me that back in the day, the Aud Empire possessed a crossbow with such strong penetration power it could even shoot through the hardest rocks."

"That powerful, was it a crossbow or a cannon?" Luo’er couldn’t help but be astonished.

After all, this was a wall made of hard stones, and in Luo’er’s own impression, even the most powerful crossbow could not have the kinetic energy to shoot through such thick stone slabs unless it was enchanted with magic.

And if it were caused by magic, then there are only so many types of spells that come to mind, the most familiar of which would be the rune that can enhance the power of a weapon. It can sharpen blades and make arrowheads more lethal. The knives equipped by Cheng Ziang and Feng were engraved with such runes.

Upon reflection, however, Luo’er still felt this unreasonable. Bear in mind that rune inscription was a very complex task that required a lot of specialized manpower at the time. Even now, the output of rune-related weapons in Otherworld remains very low. The main reason the Advance Team could be equipped with such refined rune weaponry was the reliance on Earth’s CNC machine tools and laser etching capabilities.

Shooting the city walls with crossbow bolts engraved with runes always gave the impression of using a machine gun to swat a mosquito. Or perhaps the Aud Empire was simply so destitute that they only had money left.

"It is said that it’s a special kind of crossbow bolt that, when fired from a large crossbow, if you’re lucky, can penetrate the city wall with a single shot," Eve replied.

"Penetrate the city wall, you must be joking," Luo’er exchanged a glance with Feng before turning to her and saying, "You know, even Earthlings with their current traditional weapons wouldn’t guarantee to breach this wall in one go."

"If it is fired from a crossbow, the kinetic energy contained in the crossbow bolt would by no means be higher than that of a shell fired by gunpowder," Baiyue frowned and analyzed calmly, "Let’s assume what she’s saying is true, then the problem lies either with the crossbow mechanism or with the crossbow bolt itself."

"This is what my mother told me, and I’m not clear on the specifics, since she also heard it from her mother," Eve answered with a shrug.

"Okay," Luo’er nodded.

If his guess was correct, either Eve’s mother had exaggerated the truth, or her grandmother had. These stories passed down verbally often have more fiction than fact.

Baiyue bowed her head in thought, and Luo’er noticed her hat moving, which meant she must have been twitching her fluffy long ears.

Sometimes Luo’er truly found Baiyue’s existence to be miraculous, a humanoid with traits characteristic of animals. However, in Otherworld, it seemed all impossibilities could become possible, just like how he himself had a pair of Elf’s pointed ears.

Suddenly, Baiyue seemed to have thought of something, her eyes lighting up as she muttered to herself, "During the reign of the Aud Empire, the empire defeated the Bobulu people to the south, expanding its influence all the way into Lene territory, so could there be such possibility..."

"Mother said, these crossbow bolts seemed to have come from the south, specifically to target this kind of wall construction..." At this moment, Eve chimed in, instantly resolving Baiyue’s puzzle.

"No doubt about it, it must be so," Baiyue lifted her head to look at the wall for a long time and said confidently.

"What did you think of?" Luo’er asked curiously.

"Kedal metal," Baiyue looked at Luo’er and explained seriously, "The sphere of influence of the Aud Empire once extended to Lene, so there’s a very good chance they could have accessed Ilanadale’s Kedal metal."

"You mean," Luo’er showed an incredulous expression, "the Wood Elf Kingdom supplied the Aud Empire with Kedal metal for weapons?"

"That’s the only explanation," Baiyue nodded, then said with her head down, "Regrettably, I haven’t read much of the historical texts about the Wood Elves, so right now, it’s not clear whether the Aud Empire and the Wood Elves had a relationship of subordination or of trade."

"I reckon, if Ilanadale knew that the Aud Empire was about to invade the Snow Domain, then they would likely be more than willing to provide Kedal metal to strengthen the empire’s military," Luo’er remarked, glancing at Eve before shaking his head in lamentation, "When will this cycle of vengeance ever end?"

"If that’s the case, then what Eve just said can all be explained," Baiyue stroked the crack in the wall and said, "Kedal metal has fracturing properties, the greater the contact force with an object, the more easily it causes the target to fracture. Thus, even if the crossbow bolt doesn’t have as much kinetic energy as a cannon shell, it can still achieve the effect described by Eve."

As she spoke, she took a sniper rifle magazine out from her pocket, pried out a Kedal metal bullet, then placed it point-first against the stone slab, pressing lightly on the primer with her thumb.

To everyone’s amazement, Baiyue managed to make the bullet head sink two centimeters into the stone slab without much effort. Wherever the bullet head touched, the stone chips kept breaking away, making it seem not like solid stone, but rather some sort of commonly seen weathered rock.

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