The fisherman druid is in another world

Chapter 777

"Quickly, sound the alarm!" roared the city guard captain of Dashi City in a fit of rage.

He was on patrol today when a sergeant reported that someone, after failing to visit, had used supernatural means to kidnap a famous alchemist from the Great Stone Inn.

You should know that this hotel is owned by the ruling family, has a long history, and is a landmark in the accommodation industry of Dashi City.

Outsiders kidnapping people here—isn't that a slap in the face to Dashicheng?
Therefore, upon hearing the news, the captain took it very seriously and led his elite troops straight to the destination.

At the same time, some preventative measures were taken, including instructing people to guard the city gates strictly and instructing the duty mage to activate and warm up the formation.

This involves the details of using city-state magic arrays.

In the underground world, whether it's a large city, a small state, an even smaller settlement, or a temporary camp, there are relatively high requirements for protection.

On the one hand, because the 'living caves' (dorms and caves where life is relatively abundant, like oases in the Gobi Desert) are relatively small in total area and unevenly distributed compared to the entire underground world, the main survival mode of the underground tribes living in living caves is more concentrated.

On the other hand, there is the 'sinking of the undead'.

In this world, the sky may not be light, but the earth is certainly turbid.

Furthermore, due to the theft of the world's origin and the dramatic changes in the world's evolution, some important links were skipped, resulting in the lack of a systematic and sound path for the souls to return to the void, guided by the gods. Therefore, even if the gods established a divine kingdom and guided the souls of believers to the divine kingdom, it would be extremely troublesome and costly.

Even the true authority of the Grim Reaper had not yet developed, the underworld was only in its infancy, and the concept of hell was nonexistent.

Look at the D&D universe. The mature magical world of Toril can still function normally even without figures like Death, though its efficiency may be somewhat lower.

The angels sent by various gods know where to receive believers, and even rescue special individuals from the three rivers of the underworld. There is also a wall of unbelievers, which punishes those who refused to believe in God while alive with the punishment of nailing their souls and wailing…

This not only represents a sound belief system, but also signifies the stability of the process of the souls returning to the mortal realm.

This world does not have this, and the process of the gods guiding believers' souls to the Kingdom of God and making them supplicants is much more arduous.

From a profit perspective, the costs are higher, the capital recovery period is longer, and the profit margin is thinner.

The earth becomes turbid because its composition and characteristics (including darkness and lack of light) make it easier for dirt and filth to accumulate. Coupled with the characteristics of the dark world, this creates a vicious cycle over time.

The spirits of the dead are inherently yin in nature, and their tendency is to sink. Because the world is dark and generally leans towards negative energy, it is easier for vengeful spirits, evil spirits, and malevolent ghosts to be born. However, there is no mature guidance system, so ghosts have become a relatively common kind of evil in the underworld.

Ghosts are spirits, and their nature dictates that for living beings, whether they are possessed by a ghost or simply pass through their bodies, it is not a good thing.

So here's the question: what if ordinary earthen, stone, and wooden fences can't stop ghosts?
Of course, it involves various methods of exorcising evil spirits.

In this context, magic arrays became a reassuring form of protection and an essential tool for establishing long-term settlements.

After all, how can people live and work with peace of mind if they don't even have the most basic safety guarantees?
Since it's already part of the magic array, there's no harm in making its functions more complete.

Therefore, city-states like Great Stone City keep their defensive arrays active at all times.

However, its operation involves consumption, so its specific application is quite flexible, much like heating (when it gets cold at night, the fire is turned up high, and when the sun is shining at noon, the fire is turned down to keep warm).

To be more specific, the duty mage was notified. The mage had a plan and started working on it immediately. By scraping together resources from various sources, they were not worried about strengthening the local defenses and intercepting those who tried to break through.

However, if there is no prior notice, in the face of an emergency, it will be necessary to double the resources to respond in a timely manner.

The difference between these two actions is huge, equivalent to burning hundreds or even thousands of gold coins.

If the intruders who were caught were worth so much money, then fine. But if they weren't, or if the criminals escaped, then the duty mage was derelict in his duty, and the patrol captain would also be held accountable.

Therefore, the captain of the Great Stone City team remained calm under pressure and handled the situation very steadily.

Unfortunately, they ran into Black Robo.

He was beaten so badly he nearly wet himself the moment they met, and his fanny pack was worn out by quicksand, which also damaged the first-level alarm fireworks inside.

Fireworks of this caliber are only available to the city patrol captain. Their use would mean that a high-level superhuman has caused trouble within the city, resulting in significant losses.

As a result, various departments will activate their response mechanisms, including fully activating the city's protective formations and carrying out targeted suppression of forces.

The city's high-level superhumans will also be mobilized urgently. They all carry identification artifacts, so the suppression of the magic array will not target them. At that time, they will not only gang up on them, but also create an effect similar to crushing opponents of higher ranks. Generally speaking, troublemakers will suffer a terrible fate.

But now that the magic fireworks are broken, we have to activate the backup plan and sound the alarm.

Black Robb seized the opportunity, carrying the alchemist who was bound in the stone coffin, and sped out of the city like lightning.

He was taking a considerable risk this time; if he were trapped in the city by the magic circle, he would most likely be beaten to death. Therefore, he did a lot of groundwork.

For example, in terms of intelligence, he first searched the soul of a city guard and learned that only the captain in charge of patrolling the city could emit the highest level of warning fireworks. The next level of sound wave warning takes longer and is relatively less effective, which is his chance to escape.

To ensure speed, he also set up temporary magical artifacts along his escape route.

Once activated, the power of the elemental magnetism erupts, creating an effect similar to the electromagnetic acceleration of a railgun projectile on his self-magnetized form, causing his speed to surge, making him comparable to those specializing in the wind element.

In order to minimize obstacles, he also specially set up a quicksand rainbow bridge, which is equivalent to surfing on a quicksand slide more than two meters above the ground when performing.

It was precisely this series of safeguards that allowed him to blast open a gap and break out of Dashi City before the city's protective formation was fully activated.

He didn't linger and ran straight towards Xiangshui Town.

He knew very well that he might lose track of Dashi City temporarily, but there were ways to track them down and catch up with them in Xiangshui Town in no time.

And that was exactly where he was going to wait for the people from Dashi City.

He cannot establish his presence in Xiangshui Town without fighting a battle to demonstrate sufficient strength.

The high-ranking members of Beast City are not in good condition, so they are happy to see the Raptors clash with their old rival, Great Stone City. They won't lose out regardless of who loses.

As for Dashi City, it is highly likely that it will have to fight this battle. After all, its painstakingly planned scheme has been ruined by interference, and it has even infiltrated the city and caused a disturbance. If it doesn't make a decent show of force, its deterrent power will be greatly diminished.

Lota's choice to fight this battle in Xiangshui Town was deliberate, aiming to demonstrate how he could use the magic array behind him and the terrain advantage to defeat the high-ranking officials of Dashi City without being defeated.

In this way, the necessary muscles are shown off without making the strength seem too monstrous.

After that, once the Grey Orc Lota was stationed in Xiangshui Town, all the forces, including those from Dashi City and Giant Beast City, would have to weigh the cost of attacking him.

In the underground world of this region, peace is maintained by a delicate balance between various forces.

While the high-level combat power of the Beast City may have been damaged but they were able to put on a brave front, would the Great Stone City dare to act recklessly?

If the high-level combat power of Dashi City is lost, and other forces openly or secretly plot against him, how should he deal with it? How much vital energy will he lose after all this trouble?

Therefore, Dashicheng did not dare to go all out and play any kind of fight to the death.

This is the main reason why Black Rob believes his plan has a high probability of success.

As expected, things unfolded exactly as Black Rob had predicted.

Da Shi Cheng was quite efficient in his search for the enemy; just a few hours later, three high-level extraordinary individuals appeared together in Xiangshui Town.

However, Black Robo, who had long planned to gain a foothold in this underground world, was even more efficient. Using advanced biotechnology, he had already constructed a magic circle in Xiangshui Town to create gray orcs through cultivation tanks.

Although the high-level superhumans in Dashi City sensed the energy flow of the magic array and saw its simple yet strictly disciplined effect, they could not easily give up. They had to argue their case, in case the other party was a paper tiger that had not yet established a firm foothold.
The three superhumans were old partners. After a brief exchange, they immediately used their routine tactics, one of which involved an affinity for earth elements, attempting to attack from both above and below for physical destruction.

Below were earthen waves, which first surged and brewed before erupting like cascading waves, each stronger than the last. At first, they were just earthen waves, but later they had the power of an avalanche.

The impact from above was naturally from the top wall of the dome controlling Xiangshui Town, where large amounts of rock and soil fell off, creating a regional impact.

If both of these methods succeed, it's like flipping the wok and adding salt – being caught in the middle is incredibly frustrating.

But that doesn't work at all; Black Rob has set up an elemental magic circle here.

Although the water, fire, and wind elements cannot be too prominent due to the character design we want to portray, simply showcasing earth elements is enough to prevent a high-level cultivator from trying to take advantage of us.

After all, comparing a magic circle to an individual is like comparing a machine to a person in terms of strength. The machine has many horsepower, but the individual's strength is nowhere near enough. For an individual to defeat a machine, they need to use skill, such as cutting off the power. How can you compete with a machine in its area of ​​expertise?

Therefore, the magic circle's flowing light and the earth-shaking operation were neutralized, and the tremors failed to occur.

As for the falling sand and gravel, the high-level transcendents in Great Stone City took it to a whole new level, adding extra layers of complexity. One of these high-level transcendents was a relatively rare individual with an affinity for the power of thunder.

Electricity is magnetism, and magnetism is electricity. This high-level entity imbued the falling sand and gravel with the power of thunder, causing them to connect with each other through magnetic force. Furthermore, the power was greatly increased by electrical energy, just as if adding more mass to plasma, turning it into a different kind of thick lava.

This move, 'Thunderous Spray Strike,' is famous throughout the region and has been used to bully many smaller factions.

It is modeled after the 'Lava Bombardment' of the Giant City.

The effect of Lava Burst is exactly as its name suggests: it creates a large lava ball in the dome above the target town, then shatters the earth's crust and causes it to crash down.

It is mainly aimed at those forces that rely on magic circles to play the turtle strategy.

The underlying principle is that resisting pure energy attacks and resisting physical kinetic energy attacks are two different protection modes, and the most energy-consuming is protecting against both types of attacks at the same time.

In this context, the cost of manufacturing lava or lightning plasma and manipulating it to fall from the top wall is far lower than the cost of activating the magic circle for double protection.

This leads to another concept: "War is about spending money!" Who can outlast whom?

Black Robb completely ignored this tactic, letting the molten metal crash down, creating a devastating zone of lightning and fire in the town.

Anyway, he's going to rebuild Xiangshui Town, so he won't be short of the usable building materials salvaged from the old buildings.

He concentrated the power of the elemental magic array for his attack, striking the superhuman who was casting lightning magnetism while the lightning plasma was falling.

The last member of the Big Stone City trio initially tried to withstand the attack with a calm demeanor, wearing an expression that said, "I knew you would risk your life at any cost."

He possesses a powerful magical artifact that can be considered a treasure of the mountain. Combined with his extraordinary strength, it can create an extremely powerful shield. Although this shield is only two meters high and a meter wide, its protective power is truly strong, capable of withstanding even legendary-level law strikes.

But when faced with a Black Robo whose skills are overwhelming, he becomes the one who gets manipulated.

Black Robb's attack, delivered using an earth elemental magic array, was an area-of-effect attack. It treated the entire area as a single mass and then directed the shockwave.

This clearly possesses the characteristics of a law.

The Earth element law materializes the region, and every tiny basic unit becomes a medium for the propagation of the shockwave's destructive force.

Therefore, this kind of impact is more like a microwave oven effect; it's three-dimensional, from the inside out, rather than just a single surface.

The shield of the extraordinary beings in Great Stone City is best suited for protecting the front.

Of course, being a high-level transcendent being, they already have a considerable understanding of the power of laws and can even use some of it, and they also possess the corresponding perception.

Sensing something was wrong, they immediately changed mode, activated the emergency plan, and applied a temporary buff, gaining the ability to forcibly use the power of laws.

Although the side effects are huge and it can only be used once, the power of this law is very compatible with the magic shield, directly adding protection at the level of the power of the law.

This kind of blessing is actually crude. It's like being afraid of being stained by external colors, so you first use your own familiar paint to dye not only your whole body, but also the surrounding space.

So in the end, a golden light shot out from the elemental magic circle, while the shield of light transformed into an enveloping stream of light. The two collided and ended inconclusively.

This is the effect of the confrontation as seen from a third-party perspective.

It seems that Black Robo suffered a loss, after all, a town area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters was smashed into burning and smoke-filled ruins.

In reality, it was the trio from Dashi City who suffered the loss. They were forced to come up with emergency measures. The temporary enhancement of the law power alone was worth half of Xiangshui Town, and that was assuming the houses were filled with people and ordinary wealth.

The two sides then entered a somewhat strange standoff.

The trio were very worried that Black Rob would use the same trick on them again.

According to general theory, if one disregards the cost, that is, if one is willing to allow the magic circle to suffer a series of aftereffects such as excessive consumption and damage, it is possible to forcibly cast the same attack a second or even a third time.

This posed a very serious security threat to the three of them.

They can no longer provide law-level protection, even if the other party may not know it, they cannot afford to gamble.

They could certainly try to dodge, but only if they couldn't use spells that restricted their ability to stand still.

However, for powerful spells, standing meditation is almost a necessary condition.

This is not simply a matter of not being able to multitask and control the body, but rather a matter of not being able to efficiently control the external environment.

After all, powerful spells involve immense supernatural forces, and the influence of external environmental factors must be constantly monitored. This places extremely high demands on the caster's ability to perform real-time model deductions and comprehensive computing power.

If the caster is mobile, it means that the difficulty of real-time calculation increases exponentially, much like carrying a glass vessel that is constantly undergoing a chemical reaction and running around in a space full of various objects.

Ordinary extraordinary strike methods pose almost no threat to enemies protected by formations, and only waste one's own resources.

So, the trio found themselves in an awkward situation.

In the end, they could only retreat into that small dome.

The main body of Xiangshui Town is located in two connected domes, one large and one small. Black Rob voluntarily gave up the smaller one, and the trio gained the bridgehead without much effort.

Realizing that a direct assault would be futile, they temporarily halted their efforts and sought tactical guidance from Dashicheng.

If a fight really breaks out, there are ways to fight. These include a protracted battle, periodically increasing the intensity on the enemy, and using relatively inexpensive methods, such as explosives and catapult bombardment.

Even if it's just playing the siege game, preventing the Grey Beasts from establishing a stable foothold and carrying out normal production and life, it can still wear them down to the point of exhaustion.

Conversely, a war of attrition is a two-way street. Even if Dashi City can establish a solid forward position in Xiaoqionglong, it still has to consider the issues of defense and supply lines.

With fewer people guarding the area, it is easy to suffer heavy losses from a strong counterattack.

Too many of them would mean that high-level superhumans would be tied up here.

The supply line inevitably becomes a weak point.

At that time, it won't just be the currently hostile Grey Orcs who will plot against us.

Therefore, because so many things are involved, the three-person team of high-level thugs alone cannot make this decision; it must be decided by the person in charge.

In fact, there's not much to decide anymore. The Grey Orcs have already built a new town-level magic array system, and it has proven to be highly effective. Even if they could take it by force, they would have to sacrifice the lives of high-level superhumans. This shows that they have already exploited the loopholes and gained momentum, making it difficult to reverse the situation at a small cost.

As the saying goes, once a move is made, there's no going back. Just testing the waters has already cost a fortune. How much more money are you planning to throw in next? And what benefits will you gain if you win?
The power structure of Dashicheng is like that of a conglomerate, with shareholders of all sizes. It doesn't belong to any one person, which proves that it's not a soft target and can't be easily manipulated. We'll have to think long-term about this.

Black Robb, on the other hand, just went about his business.

There are still some townspeople in Xiangshui Town who refuse to leave, and those who are unable to leave.

During the plague and the creation of a refuge for human survivors, Black Rob has developed a practical and flexible plan for managing the mess. Although he now needs to consider the racial and social characteristics of the Grey Orcs, if he grasps the core principles well, managing a town of this size will not be difficult.

For example, they could use voodoo and herbal remedies to sort out the townspeople, and then provide them with work relief by having them do demolition work, thereby improving their adaptability and obedience to the new rulers.

To put it bluntly, it's a combination of carrot and stick, benefits and power. Fairness isn't even necessary; as long as the rules are clearly stated and followed, most intelligent beings can adapt.

But this wasn't Black Rob's main focus. Having observed the establishment and development of hundreds of shelters, and having tried things out himself, he had long since lost interest in this adult version of playing house. He preferred to entrust his work to others if possible.

His main focus, besides the big picture, was on role-playing to earn resources.

When other characters don't cause any significant events, creating a new alt account is more exciting and worth playing around with.

For example, 3-6, the mountain dwarf Barto.

(End of this chapter)