Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 781 High-Risk Infiltration
In northern Essengard lies the fallen capital, Ironhill.

The monastery complex, located at the highest point of the city, was rarely visited by the Lizardmen who inhabited the area because it was not connected to the city's underground sewers.

Beneath the sprawling church monks' quarters, large and small wine cellars were built, which also became the last refuge for the city's survivors to escape the invasion of foreign races.

In the dark and cramped cellar, only a half-burnt candle provided dim lighting.

Several people dressed in dirty gray robes gathered together, whispering and discussing something by the light of the candlelight.

"The number of winged monsters active in the lower city has suddenly increased today, and my men cannot approach the livestock market... The information you requested cannot be confirmed yet." The old man with gray hair lifted his cloak, revealing a wrinkled and aged face.

The middle-aged man standing to the side didn't look well. He covered his mouth and coughed softly for a while before recovering and saying, "If we can't get close to the market during the day, then we'll try again at night. I need to confirm the authenticity of the information immediately, otherwise I won't be able to report back to my superiors."

They were already taking enough risks during the day; if they went to the night when the alien races were more active, wouldn't they be handing themselves over to their deaths?

Anger flashed across the old man's face as he said in a low voice, "Gathering intelligence on the alien races for you has already cost me many men... It's not easy to survive in this city overrun by monsters, there's no need to push everyone to this point."

As soon as he said this, the other survivor leaders who were responsible for gathering intelligence for the middle-aged man also showed expressions of sympathy and understanding, and their attitudes became hesitant for a moment.

“He’s right, Mr. Hughes… The supplies available for scouting in the city are dwindling, and our men are already struggling to find food every day. We should be given more time to gather intelligence.”

"Yes, Mr. Hughes, let's be a little more patient and wait. Perhaps in a few days, when those monsters return to the gaps in the underground waterways, my men will be able to find a way to sneak through."

These alien races from the north were all covered with a strange, dark skin. Like amphibians, they needed to periodically return to the water to moisten their bodies. Over time, the survivors learned some of the patterns of their daily activities.

Hughes's gaze swept over the survivor leaders before him, and he ultimately chose to compromise and back down.

"I'll give you three more days..."

Hughes' situation was different from these survivor leaders. As the only son of the elder priest of the Stoneheart Hermitage, he took the initiative to undertake the intelligence gathering mission after the fall of Ironhill, and risked leading a group of core believers to sneak back into the capital.

Compared to the survivors who were stranded in the city and unable to escape, they carried a large amount of medicine and supplies that the city desperately needed, and their weapons were extremely rare alchemical firearms... They could kill an enemy instantly by hitting their chest, abdomen, or head from nearly ten meters away.

With scarce resources and powerful weapons, Hughes, with only a dozen or so followers, almost completely controlled the survivor groups, large and small, in Ironhill City. He kept these people around him, at their beck and call, gathering intelligence on the activities of the Lizardmen. A few days ago, a survivor, while searching for supplies near the abandoned palace, stumbled upon a secret passage connecting the palace to the outside world. Taking a chance, he quietly sneaked in, only to find that the end of the passage... was the entrance to the waterway beneath the palace. Thousands of alien monsters were densely packed underground, seemingly in a brief period of dormancy.

The survivor was terrified and stumbled back as fast as he could. He immediately reported the news to Hughes, who, as the intelligence chief of the "outsourced" intelligence department of Saint Valentine stationed in Iron Hill, immediately realized the problem.

When the alien races attacked Ironhill City, most people believed that they sneaked in by using the artificial waterway of the Chalten River outside the city to bring in water. In addition, the attack was carried out at night and they were caught off guard, which led to the complete fall of the capital overnight.

Now that the waterway entrance to the underground palace has been discovered, Hughes has a vague suspicion that there might be a floating island fortress beneath the capital.

Through careful observation over this period, Hughes noticed that the alien soldiers dispatched from Ironhill City were almost endless, far exceeding the scale of the previous raid on the capital. This led Hughes to suspect that the floating island beneath his feet might belong to the alien race's main fortress floating island.

It should be noted that the "No. 2 Floating Island" located on the front line of the Ice Sea was also identified as the main fortress of the alien race. The troops stored in it were several times greater than those of ordinary floating island fortresses, reaching nearly 80,000.

This speculation immediately made Hughes feel as if a terrifying, active volcano was sitting on his backside... He immediately transmitted the message back to Saint Valen via the magic brain device, and the kingdom's highest intelligence department replied that he must verify and ultimately confirm the reliability of this intelligence information in order to serve as an important reference for military operations!
This means that if the information is wrong or the intelligence is slightly off, the military may make a misjudgment during the operation, and the resulting losses are not something that can be easily borne. No wonder Hughes was so anxious to deliver a satisfactory report.

Every time he and his followers from Ironhill City sent out a message using the magic brain device, they had to take a huge risk... These northern monsters, known as the Demon Lizardmen, seemed to only have a keen sense of things that had magical or divine fluctuations, while they were relatively insensitive to ordinary mortals who moved around under their noses.

They seem to have a poor sense of smell and hearing. As long as they are not directly detected by the "eyes" under the deep red crystal armor on their heads, they can usually escape smoothly. Once they find a suitable place to hide, these monsters do not seem to have any desire to pursue them further.

However, if you carry something with magical energy fluctuations, the situation will be quite different.

Once magical fluctuations appear in the city, they will immediately sense and locate the source like a school of sharks smelling blood, and then gather in groups. Once they lock onto a target, they will never give up easily, making it impossible for anyone to escape.

This is also why, in Ironhill City, extraordinary individuals like spellcasters and clergymen are often the first to be discovered and their locations locked, leading to their immediate elimination.

Every time Hughes and his followers used the brain-computer interface to send out a message, it could attract the attention of the alien races in the city. Sometimes they managed to escape by taking advantage of the complex and intertwined terrain and secret passages in the city ruins, but more often the people responsible for sending and receiving messages would be killed.

When Hughes was ordered to lead his men into the city to infiltrate, they originally had twenty-nine companions... but now only eleven remain.

(End of this chapter)