Throne of the North.

Chapter 595 The New World, a World Where There Are Only Two Hours of Sunlight a Day
As usual, once the dimensional gate opened, a team of ten people entered it.

Karen was the captain of this squad. After Herresweg, the Frozen Territory had many more eagles, and thanks to the blessing of Maling, the knights' squires quickly learned the art of falconry. Karen was one of them. He was already powerful, and now he had become the captain of the scout squad.

Lord Ryan's service was always full of such opportunities. Karen considered himself lucky because, as one of the noble bloodlines of the Bilge World who had pledged allegiance to Lord Ryan, he quickly accepted his change of status and became a knight's squire.

At that time, there were many conveniences and shortcuts for people like them to become servants.

Taking a deep breath to clear her mind of all distractions, Karen felt a strong, damp smell in her nostrils as the white light before her eyes dissipated.

He cautiously looked around, his hand resting on the hilt of his knight's longsword, trying to find any place where danger might be hiding.

However, there are far too many such corners.

They seemed to have landed in a swamp, not the swamp between Frozen Territory and Zero Crossing City that was being developed into fertile land, but a damp, dark swamp filled with branches and rotten leaves, vines and shrubs intertwined, and gaps between trees blocked by all sorts of gnarled and twisted tree roots exposed on the ground.

The water under my feet was already above my ankles, and it made me feel nauseous.

"This seems like a normal world."

Karen thought to himself, having also worked with Lord Ryan to develop several other worlds. Those other worlds were filled with despair because of the North, but this world didn't seem to be covered by the North, because Karen felt a slight heat while standing in the water.

His body's energy and blood are actively fighting against the external environment, which makes him appear somewhat hot.

The reason for this is currently unknown, and we may only find out after Lord Ryan and the others come in. However, before that, Karen needs to ensure safety.

With a resounding eagle's cry, Karen released the Blood Eagle into the sky. This Blood Eagle was the result of his training with Lord Griff for a period of time, and it also represented his identity as a falconer scout.

The Blood Eagle was incredibly fast, soaring dozens of meters into the air the moment it was released. It flew higher and higher, its sharp eyes fixed on the vast world below. Then Karen heard an even louder eagle cry.

He had studied the knowledge of the Falconers, which meant... danger, extreme danger?
rub!
The knight's longsword was drawn instantly. Before Karen could even detect any danger around him, a huge shadow emerged from the sewage beneath his feet. The gaping maw of the giant python made the silver knight's heart pound with fear, and he instinctively swung his longsword.

boom!
The longsword struck the giant python with a metallic clang, followed by a tremendous force that slammed into Karen along with the thick snake tail.

"Kill it!"

The immense force forced Karen to retreat repeatedly, while the other knights reacted quickly, slashing their longswords at the giant python. The sharp blades were naturally able to tear the python's flesh apart, and the stench of blood spread with it, making people dizzy.

At the same time, amidst the stench, Karen heard the even more piercing cry of the Blood Eagle in the sky, and he realized something was wrong.

"There's still danger lurking in the shadows. Be vigilant, be vigilant!"

Karen roared, but something reacted faster than the knight.

From the shadows all around, snakes as thick as two fingers emerged and shot towards the ten knights and their attendants like arrows. One knight was caught off guard and bitten on the wrist by a snake. Instantly, the wound turned black, and the knight's blood and qi surged violently as he frantically resisted the toxins that had invaded his body.

"poisonous!"

Karen was terrified. They were clad in powerful armor, which even the giant python couldn't harm, but these small snakes were their deadly nemesis, especially since they were venomous.

In the chaos, Karen slapped a venomous snake away with her sword, and the next moment she reached out and grabbed another venomous snake that was right in front of her, hissing as it bit her.

The third venomous snake was even faster, and its sudden appearance from the shadows made it difficult to defend against. Fortunately, at the last moment, the Blood Eagle's talons tore the snake into pieces. The Blood Eagle then moved swiftly across the battlefield, its afterimages flashing. It was truly the nemesis of these venomous snakes; even when they attacked from the shadows, their fangs could not pierce the Blood Eagle's feathers.

"retreat!"

Karen steadied himself, smashed the giant python open with his shield, and shouted.

……

"Sounds like a rainforest? And with countless poisonous snakes?"

When Ryan received the news, he couldn't help but frown, and then looked at the knight squire whose body was trembling not far away.

He was the unlucky guy who got poisoned. As a knight, his physical qualities and instincts to fight danger were not low. Out of ten squires, only one was unlucky enough to be poisoned.

They only stayed for a few minutes; if they had stayed longer, the danger would have been terrifying.

"What kind of poison? Can it be cured?"

"Lane asked, and Archmage McKen in the distance nodded, but his expression was not optimistic."

"This snake venom is troublesome. There has never been a specimen in the magic academy. Obviously, it is a specialty of that other world."

Specialty products are valuable, but sometimes, due to the lack of standards, the threat they pose cannot be estimated.

"The method of detoxification is not to kill the toxin, but to use the powerful magic contained in the life potion to crush the toxin."

"This method of detoxification is very expensive."

Archmage McKen said that if Ryan were to explore such a world, he would likely consume a lot of life potions, which would be quite costly.

"It's alright, the wealth from the other world will allow us to reclaim everything."

Ryan didn't mind, and had the scout team take the life potions and continue into the dimensional portal.

Karen's expression became much more serious, and with a determined look in her eyes, she walked towards the dimensional gate once more.

After going in and out more than a dozen times, Ryan finally realized that the other side of the dimensional gate was not some swamp world.

After walking a few miles south, the scouts emerged from the swamp and came to see the wasteland. The terrain was gently undulating, somewhere between a plain and hills. Closer views were unobstructed, while further away, the view was obstructed by the land.

There were no trees, no mountains, and no rivers; the land was covered only with a layer of messy wild grass, and the surface of the grass was covered with frost.

This is the power of the North, without a doubt. But why is that swamp able to avoid the North's harm? It's clearly further north.

Karen pondered this question. The advance force had already exceeded two hundred men, and he was currently just at the very front. Any news would soon reach Lord Ryan.

Suddenly, Karen couldn't help but look up.

"Why is it getting dark?"

He entered and exited the alternate dimension more than a dozen times. At the beginning, even in the swamp where there was a lot of vegetation blocking his view, he could still see the bright sun shining in the sky above. The process of exploration only took two or three hours before the sky darkened.

There was no sunset, no twilight; in just over ten minutes, the sky lost its luster, and a hazy glimmer of light, from who knows what, gave the world a faint visibility.

This visibility was only two or three meters in front of him. Keep in mind that Karen was a Silver Knight, whose eyesight was far superior to that of ordinary people, yet he could only see so little.

Moreover, from the moment he realized the sky had darkened to the moment visibility disappeared, only a dozen or so minutes had passed. "Evacuate first."

Beside him, his knight squire had lit torches. These torches were creations of the Alchemy Institute, crafted using alchemy techniques from Nidhogg's vast coal reserves, and could even burn underwater.

However, this world seemed too peculiar; the edges of the torchlight appeared to be covered by an invisible black film, preventing the light from illuminating any further areas.

"Go back, watch out for those poisonous snakes."

On the other side, Ryan noticed that every servant returning from the dimensional gate would subconsciously look up at the sky, where the sun hung high, and the power of the Lord of Dawn and the God of Light always looked upon this world.

"it's dark?"

When Karen finally emerged from the dimensional portal, Ryan's expression turned serious.

"One team is missing."

Brand stood by, taking notes, his hand resting on the hilt of his longsword. He needed to be wary of any potential Black Swan assassins in the vicinity.

"Let's wait and see."

Several hours passed, and the Frozen Territory lost its brightness. The sun in the sky was gradually replaced by the radiance of the Moon Lady, and the Gate of Planes still did not produce any attendants.

"According to the plan, they will be stationed there after losing the possibility of returning."

Ryan waited a while longer before closing the dimensional gate; something seemed amiss on the other side.

Early the next morning, Ryan sent people into the alternate dimension again. This time, the dimensional gate did not open in the swamp, but in the wasteland to the south. Griff personally entered it, and the Blood Eagle circled in the sky above the alternate world, but the result was that no humans were seen.

Eagles have a wide patrol range; they can transmit the environment over a range of dozens of miles in just a few minutes. Such a large area of ​​land, yet there are no humans.

Is the dimensional gate malfunctioning again?
The last time something went wrong was in the world of Hereseveg. The Eagle's territory was too large, and there was only one person in that world, Griff. The dimensional gate opened around Griff, but Ryan's army could not detect it.

What about this time? Is it the same as the world of Herresweg? Are the humans and supernatural beings there also adept at hiding? Or is their living space frighteningly vast?
Ryan leans towards the former.

"Can't even the Blood Eagle find the humans hiding in the shadows?"

As time passed, the day-night cycle in the other world also began to appear.

"Two hours, only two hours. When it's noon on the Norris continent, it's daytime in the other world. There's only a one-hour difference between the two, and that's how long daytime is in that world."

"The remaining twenty-two hours will all be night."

"It's pitch black for an ordinary person."

A world where a day only lasts two hours—what kind of world is that? Could anyone even survive in such a world?

Ryan was surprised and confused. After going there himself, he felt that if there were only two hours of sunlight, the world should not be like this. In fact, it would be easier for the North to plunge this world into a frozen wasteland than to invade any other world.

But it doesn't seem so at the moment; the barren grass underfoot is only covered with a layer of frost.

Standing at the temporary camp, Ryan looked around. A cry of an eagle came from the sky, and then everyone's eyes turned to the southwest.

Flames were shooting into the sky there.

“The servants are all here. It couldn’t have been our men who set the fire. We’ve also found the bodies of Jill and his squad in the swamp; they’re already decomposing.”

Jill is the captain of the ten-man squad that disappeared in this other world yesterday. The most important thing to do today in exploring this world is to find their bodies. This is not as difficult as I imagined. The swamp in the north is a bit long, but it is not wide from north to south.

"Those are the natives. Could these natives be the ones who killed my knight?"

When Ryan realized that the venom of the swamp snakes could kill superhumans, he considered that the natives of this world might possess unique superhuman powers. If there were superhumans, then it was possible that they could kill his knights and squires.

"Go and see."

The cavalry charged forward at breakneck speed, and unless the opponent was a creature like a dragon, it would be impossible to wipe out the entire cavalry force in a short period of time.

It's impossible for a giant dragon. That kind of terrifying apex predator could not possibly escape the Blood Eagle's sharp eyes, nor could it hide away.

However, the cavalry troops went quickly and returned just as fast.

"Nothing was found?"

Ryan frowned upon receiving the results. From the moment he saw the flames soaring into the sky to the moment the cavalry arrived, the entire process, even in the darkness, took only a few minutes at most.

Within minutes, the natives who set the fire had vanished.
"And Griff? What did he discover?"

Griff has a lot of freedom, but he hasn't come back yet.

When the new daylight arrives, it means that the world has spent twenty-two hours in darkness, and nothing has been found except for a great fire that has scorched the land.

As the Blood Eagle came into view, Falconer Griff finally returned to the temporary camp and brought back some different news for Ryan.

In his hand, he held a corpse, a human corpse.

"There's no way to capture them alive. These people... they're not like humans, they're more like wild beasts."

In response to Ryan's questioning gaze, Griff said this.

"They can become invisible, the kind of invisible that disappears directly from sight. Because of this power, my eagle can't catch them. Fortunately, they can't remain invisible forever."

Blood Eagle's sharp eyes can capture every trace on the ground beneath its feet. Even though Griff said so, the fact that he could chase after the invisible natives until they could no longer hide demonstrates Blood Eagle's strength.

It may not be able to see you, but it can find the traces you leave as you move forward, such as your feet crushing the frost on the wild grass.

“These natives…”

Ryan stood before the petite native, pondering what the humans of this world were like. The next moment, the sky shifted between light and shadow, and a sharp, cold light shot towards his location.

A black swan? That feels so familiar.

No, no, Brand, standing beside him, had already angrily swung his longsword, smashing it into the void at an even faster speed, forcing out a human dressed in black tight-fitting clothes with his head covered by a hood. As for the sword that attacked Ryan, it was also broken in two.

(End of this chapter)