Chapter 1212: Chapter 828: Fluctuations of the Void
Morning.
The warm autumn sunlight poured down.
Turning the vast fields into a boundless golden sea.
A light breeze brushed past, waves of rice rippled and rustled, and the air was filled with the rich, mellow fragrance of ripened grain.
The quiet little town of Hampton nestled in this golden expanse, cooking smoke curling upward, children chasing and playing by the mill, Farmers driving fully loaded wagons slowly along the dirt road—a scene of peace and harmony.
It looked just like one of those peaceful little towns from a fairy tale.
A place called home.
On the edge of the town, a two‑story building of Solid stone blocks, bearing the emblem of the Night Watcher, stood tall; this was the outpost established by the Night Watcher.
Many years ago.
The Night Watcher’s outposts were still built in a concealed manner within towns or cities, usually in the guise of taverns.
But after the Night Watcher revealed themselves openly to the world a few years back, the outposts no longer needed to hide.
Even though the Night Watcher had called themselves a neutral organization from the very beginning.
How many countries were actually willing to believe that, and willing to let the Night Watcher establish outposts on their soil?
No one was willing.
Unless they were fools.
Even the Holy Light Church had to spend hundreds of years earning the trust of the various nations before they were allowed to build churches and exercise missionary rights within their borders.
And even then there were all sorts of restrictions.
Many times they had to go against the Church’s sacred doctrines just to deal with problems that arose.
But ever since the Rat-Extermination War ended.
Things naturally changed.
Although the Night Watcher had effectively become the largest organization in the world, unmatched even by the mightiest nations.
They still called themselves a neutral organization, with no intention of dominating the world.
Even though they occupied a large swath of the Lebia Continent and had, in practice, become the Dominator of that land.
In contrast, on the Night Watcher’s homeland, the Anwein Continent, there had always been open and covert struggles over who would hold the continent’s leadership.
Despite the fact that their own nations’ basic supplies were already completely controlled by the Night Watcher’s Commerce Association.
And so.
The Night Watcher still claimed they were harmless to man and beast.
But what could anyone do? The others were strong, with gods backing them; they could only grit their teeth and accept it.
This led to the formerly hidden outposts within various countries being openly exposed, with proper fortresses being built.
Fortunately, the Night Watcher did not take things to the extreme.
Each fortress housed no more than a single squad of Night Watchers.
A Night Watcher squad never exceeded five people.
Most outposts didn’t even have a full squad.
And all the fortresses were built in strategically meaningless places, posing no military threat.
They were also quite small, practically no more than little manors.
It was precisely because of this behavior that the Night Watcher did not trigger a backlash from the nations.
High-handed as they were, they at least acted somewhat Human; they didn’t push things to the absolute limit.
Inside the outpost, a four-person squad was preparing to start their patrol for the day.
Captain Old Jack was a weathered Human Warrior, one hand resting on the hilt of the standard-issue Longsword at his waist.
The other three were the lithe Half-Elf Ranger Eira, the young Dwarf Warlock Bran with the earnest expression typical of an Apprentice, and the taciturn Tree-man Druid Mog, who carried a huge medical kit on his back.
The Night Watcher’s Profession System had given Dwarves the capital to wield Magic Power freely.
A cause for celebration.
As for Professions like Warlock and Druid, they didn’t exist as separate entries in the Profession System.
Within the Profession System, both of them were certified as Mages; they had simply converted their Skills and chosen to walk a different path.
The Night Watcher’s original three Professions had long since, over the years, become the most basic foundation.
Based on their own energy-utilization framework and Profession framework, the Night Watcher had mapped out numerous branches for each Profession, allowing people to study and combine them according to different directions and preferences.
This outpost squad had a task both simple and crucial—to monitor the energy fluctuations in this region.
According to routine scans and scattered reports, several unusual, faint energy ripples had appeared nearby, the nature of which could not be immediately identified.
"Bran, take your ’Buzzing Bug’. We’ll follow Route Two." Old Jack patted the Dwarf on the shoulder.
In Bran’s hand, the delicate Alchemy Detector—shaped like a brass little insect made of intricate gears and pale blue crystals—was letting out a faint, steady hum, its needle holding level along the baseline.
Perhaps it was because of Kana’s influence.
When the Night Watcher tinkered with various pieces of Alchemy Equipment, they liked, whenever possible, to give them a plausible biological appearance.
The patrol moved along at a leisurely pace.
They stopped at the edges of the wheat fields, near the creek, and at the forest’s edge—places where energy might converge.
Eira was in charge of leading the way, while Bran carefully pressed the Detector’s sensing crystal to the ground or held it to the air, squinting as he read the flickering numbers and waveforms on the dial, and recording them meticulously in a leather-bound log.
Mog would occasionally place his palm on the earth or a tree trunk, close his eyes, and use his Nature sense to resonate, feeling the low Whisper of the land.
Old Jack swept his sharp gaze over the tranquil surroundings.
The work was far from intense, but they did not relax in the slightest.
Experience had taught them that more than half of all abnormal fluctuations often hid threats behind them.
And as this world slid toward the Abyss, any anomaly might conceal a lethal danger, capable of causing irreparable harm.
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