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Chapter 3 The Dwarves are the Impeccable Front Row
Elizabeth shook her head. “No, in fact, what you see now are all my men who can fight.”
The king frowned. "Aren't you the Duke's daughter? In the common language, you are also a princess. Can't you command the Duke's combat troops? There should be 200 knights in the Landon Territory. Counting their followers, there should be about 1,000 well-armed standing troops. If you count the guards and militias in each town, you should have an army of about 15,000.
"This is a huge battle that would take a long time to destroy even with the Nine Rings of Magic. As a princess, you can't mobilize even a single one?"
Elizabeth looked at the apprentice mage in silence, "You just said it yourself, for a ninth-ring spellcaster, this mob of 15,000 can only serve to delay time.
"From the history of previous wars, we can learn that at least 60% of the outcome of a war depends on the outcome of a high-end battle. The cornerstone of Landon County is the knights and their followers."
King: "Yes, Princess, where is your knight?"
Elizabeth was a little embarrassed: "I...haven't yet."
The cat man sitting in the distance shouted, "She doesn't like any of them."
"Does she mean that you are not satisfied with the abilities of all the knights?" the king asked.
Elizabeth bit her lip.
Catman: "She doesn't like it."
Wang was confused. "What do you mean? Shouldn't we use people who are capable and loyal?"
The tavern owner tried to smooth things over: "Young lady's requirements are quite high. Now, can you introduce the members of the team to Mr. Mage?"
"Okay." Elizabeth took the opportunity to turn her attention to the drow elves. "This is our rogue, Marika, the most experienced member of the team."
Marika, the drow elf, smiled and said, "I am experienced in every sense, little wizard~"
Wang: "Well, Zhuoer's hometown is far away from Langdon Territory. You must have been adventuring for a long time for you to appear here."
Zhuo Er laughed for some reason.
Elizabeth's expression was a little confusing. She turned to the next person: "Catman Sharpshooter Misha Sara..."
"I was just about to say this," Wang raised a hand, "Sharpshooter means... she's a magic shooter?"
"No, if we have to classify her, she is a ranger who likes to use bows and arrows, and she also knows some rogue skills. The cat people's classification of professions is different from ours."
King: "I know. They don't differentiate between rogues and rangers, so a cat-man archer is likely to be good at fighting with two swords."
Drow Elf: "Is this knowledge also obtained from books?"
"Not all of them. Some of them are from teachers' own experience."
The tavern owner interrupted, "His teacher is the protagonist of "The Dawn of Roshar", and he worked together with the cat tribe for a period of time."
"What?" The drow was shocked. "Isn't that a bard's poem? Aren't they all made up?"
The tavern owner spread his hands.
Elizabeth continued: "Mark, a master with a sword. Gotrek, a barbarian from the moose tribe, is particularly good with a giant axe."
Wang: "Is it my illusion? You seemed a little perfunctory when introducing them?"
Mark shrugged. "Because we are just ordinary people. We can neither cast magical spells nor steal someone's wallet without anyone noticing."
Wang immediately lowered his head and checked the bag of spellcasting materials on his waist.
Mark: "Master Mage, during the battle we will try to delay until you finish casting the spell."
Gotrek nodded.
The king also realized that the barbarians were either not good at the common language or simply did not like to talk.
Elizabeth: “Finally.”
She placed her hand on her extremely prominent "secondary sexual characteristics": "It's me, Elizabeth Langdon."
The king frowned. "Are you going on this adventure with us? Shouldn't you stay in your luxurious mansion and wait for us to come back and report the results?"
Elizabeth's eyes sharpened, and it was obvious that she was angry.
"I'm a warlock!" She raised her voice slightly. "My bedroom was often haunted when I was very young. My father's wizard came to check and discovered my warlock bloodline. Then my father hired a warlock master from Nice at a high price to teach me."
Wang: "I see. Then what level of spells can you cast?"
"Second ring."
"It's one ring short of the three rings~ Sorry, this is a catchy song that one of my teacher's apprentices often likes to sing. Although this song is used to mock fellow apprentices who have inferior spellcasting abilities, I don't mean to despise your spellcasting abilities by singing it now."
Elizabeth: "I know. Warlocks are not as good as mages in mastering spell diversity."
King: "You are so beautiful, you must be an outstanding warlock."
It is common sense that the more beautiful the warlock, the more powerful he is, regardless of whether he is a man or a woman.
Elizabeth accepted the flattery with a fake smile and responded nonchalantly, "Thank you. I am indeed very good at magic missiles."
Wang: "That's right. From now on, I'll leave the light armor and unarmored enemies to you."
Elizabeth frowned and stared at the wizard apprentice suspiciously.
Wang stared at her expression for a few seconds before he suddenly realized, "Oh, you were just insulting me? I will be careful not to become your enemy."
Elizabeth looked helpless: "Your reaction makes me look inferior."
"I did not do it on purpose."
"I know."
"That's good." Wang nodded.
As soon as he finished speaking, Michaela burst into joy.
Elizabeth glared at the cat-man, "Stop laughing! Now that we're done getting acquainted, let's get back to the disappearance of the cat and dog. The only thing that looks like a clue right now is the goblin tribe that was wiped out last week. Why are you raising your hand again?"
Wang: "We don't have a priest or a paladin yet."
Elizabeth asked helplessly, "Does it have to be a priest or a paladin?"
"According to the current development, the next step is to go underground to investigate the ruins of the goblin tribe, right? There may be undead in the sewers, and we may need the priests to expel the undead. I don't have the spells to deal with the undead in such an efficient way."
The king paused, then added, "Besides, we just wiped out the goblin tribe last week. That was a tribe with a great goblin battle wizard. There must be casualties on the human side. Add to that the dead goblins... there may very well be naturally occurring undead."
Marika nodded. "The Thieves Guild has indeed issued a new commission to exterminate the sewer undead. It should be the aftermath of last week's big move."
Elizabeth looked at the ceiling, helplessness evident on her face.
Wang: "You look like a little girl who was excited to go on an outing but couldn't go out because it rained that day."
For a moment, the whole tavern fell silent.
The cat-woman was trying to hold back her laughter, and the swordsman was stepping on her feet desperately to keep her in control.
The drow looked at the wizard's apprentice again with admiration.
The tavern owner coughed, breaking the awkward silence.
Elizabeth held her forehead with her hand. "Thank you for your accurate description. I have indeed been looking forward to my first team adventure for a long time. Wait, why did you think of this description? Haven't you been hiding in the tower all the time? You should have neither participated in an outing nor met any little girls."
Perhaps the princess herself did not realize that her counterattack was actually a revenge for what the king had just said.
Anyway, the king didn't notice this, and the wizard continued in a steady tone: "First point, it's true. But I've seen other people go outing in the books. Second point, there is actually a girl of the same age as me in the tower. But..."
He hesitated, looking back and forth at a certain physical feature of the drow and the human warlock girl.
Zhuo Er asked with great interest: "What happened to her?"
"She doesn't have such prominent secondary sexual characteristics. I'm now beginning to suspect she may not be a girl."
The pub was quiet again.
After a moment, Elizabeth asked in an uncertain tone, "Is this a joke? Should I laugh?"
"No, it's a statement."
Mark raised his glass high. “Actually, this wizard is exactly what I imagined a wizard to be. He’s a total nerd! Let’s toast to nerds!”
The taciturn barbarian raised his glass, which was a circle larger than the average wine glass: "Cheers!"
The drow ignored the human warrior and stared at the king, "With your personality...are you a wizard from the school of prophecy?"
"Yes. You didn't listen to me just now..."
"No wonder. The reason you were able to sense my threat just now was not because of your experience, but because of the crisis perception ability given by the school. What I hate most is spellcasters like you who are difficult to sneak attack."
Wang hesitated for a second before saying, "Thank you? Should I say thank you?"
Elizabeth tapped the table with her slender fingers. "Let's get back to our mission. I agree that we should indeed find a priest."
Wang: "Paladin is also OK."
"No, I don't want those dull cans, let's get a priest."
Wang: "That's fine. But I have another question."
Elizabeth: "Go ahead and ask. I'm used to you asking questions."
"Have you been planning to lead this team to investigate the incident from the beginning?"
Elizabeth: "That's right. I initially thought it was the work of a necromancer, and was going to take everyone to search suspicious places like cemeteries, but you overturned my speculation right away."
Wang: "Even if the caster is not found?"
"Yes. Although Bob has been advising me to have a reliable spellcaster before taking action, I can't wait to take action."
Tavern Owner: "The young lady really does look like a child planning an outing."
Wang: "I have another question. Who is Bob?"
Tavern owner: “It’s me.”
"Okay, it's okay." Wang put down his raised hand.
Just as Elizabeth was about to speak, Wang spoke again, "I just went through the process. So you suspected that it was the necromancer without any solid evidence, and then planned to lead an incomplete team of adventurers to search the cemeteries and crypts around the city?
"You don't even have a divine spellcaster in your team that can target the necromancer?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's it."
Wang spread his hands and said, "Oh my God, my first impression of you was completely overturned just now."
Elizabeth: "What was your first impression of me?"
"Your Highness is a clever and calculating princess, who is deliberately trying to accumulate strength to show her skills in the upcoming drama of seizing the throne."