The melodious chirping of birds awakened Qin Lun from his sleep. The young man opened his eyes, stretched himself, and got up from the bed. Under the cover of the World Tree, the elf castle was filled with fresh and fragrant air, which made him feel refreshed.
Yesterday, after entering the Court of the Magic Cup King and having a conversation with the Elven King and Iristen, it was very late, and Qin Lun stopped going out to inquire about news, and rested in the guest room of the castle for the night.
The living room is decorated simply, with elven handicrafts and relief stone carvings on the walls. There is a large silk quilt bed in the center of the room. There are several exquisite wicker chairs for receiving guests in the outer hall. An elegant koan with a quill holder and pure white silk paper placed on it.
In fact, it's quite an ornate interior for elves. This race respects nature. An ordinary elf tree house usually only has a rattan hammock and a few tree stumps as tables and chairs. There are potted flowers and plants everywhere in the room, which is the most common elf residence.
"Hahaha!" Qin Lun had just finished washing up when there was a knock on the door.
"Prince Corus?" Qin Lun opened the door, and was a little surprised when he saw the visitor in front of the door.
"Filar, did you rest well yesterday?" The elf prince was still smiling, but Qin Lun was keenly aware of the deep thoughts in his slightly frowning brows.
"Hehe, Your Royal Highness, please come in!" Qin Lun bowed, opened the door, and replied with a smile, "We mercenaries are wandering around, so we can have a warm place and a hot meal at night. It is already the greatest enjoyment.”
"At least you have a free life, and you can pursue your own love and ideals!" Keruisi curled his lips and murmured inaudibly to himself.
"what?"
"Nothing!" Ke Ruisi waved his hand to repel the two elf guards behind him, and followed Qin Lun into the room.
"Your Highness, you came to see me so early, do you have something to do?" The two exchanged some polite words, and Qin Lun took the initiative to change the topic.
"Well, first of all, I have some good news for you. There is news from the elf rangers outside. Emma was rescued by the mercenary guards. However, they suffered a lot. There are only eight people left, and they will probably be able to recover tomorrow night." Back to the royal court." Corus said with a smile.
"Really, that's great!" Qin Lun rubbed his palms happily, but he didn't care.
The plot of the mercenary group has long been wiped out, except for him and Longer, there are only eight people left in the fortress team itself. As for the time of their return, it was a day or two earlier than Qin Lun predicted. Of course, he was also responsible for this. There was no unexpected beheading plan. How could the fortress team rescue the three of Nicole so quickly.
While Qin Lun was pretending to be happy, his mind was also running fast. If the fortress team arrives at the magic cup royal court tomorrow night, then he only has two days to find the major plot line in the royal court, otherwise he can only return the task selection right to the fortress team.
"In addition... Although your mission this time was unsuccessful, both the father and the elders believe that you are not at fault, and the royal court is also responsible. We did not expect that the human lord of Elbad would send a regular knight order to attack in such a frenzied manner. Caravan."
Corus said with some guilt, "The mercenary group suffered heavy casualties, which is heartbreaking. The Elven Court will bear all the compensation, and the previously agreed remuneration will be paid in full."
Following the Elf Prince's words, the room fell into silence for a moment. In fact, after such a thing happened, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the purpose of hiring this mercenary group before the Elven Court was to test the Jondas Kingdom, rather than entrusting the envoys to the mercenary group. them.
The mixed mercenary group that was wiped out at the edge of the forest completely became the scapegoat of the Jondal elves, helping them to test out the hostility of the human lords and the armed forces that might be used for attacks.
Seeing Ke Ruisi's evasive eyes, Qin Lun couldn't help shaking his head and chuckling.
This elf prince is not mature enough, not as shrewd and sophisticated as King Testyr. The Elf King seems approachable, but in fact he has the magnanimity and ruthlessness of a real king in his heart. The benevolence of a woman is not suitable for a king. It is a very wise decision for the Jondal elves to let a mercenary group bear their original losses.
"Your Highness, this kind of news is not worth your trip. King Testir should have other orders, so I need you to convey them!" The elf prince asked meaningfully.
"Yes! Father hopes that the mercenary group can continue the previous entrustment and accompany another envoy to the Anker Forest!" Qin Lun's gaze made Kerris feel extremely embarrassed, and his face slowly turned red. However, thinking of Tas King Tyre's instructions, he still insisted on saying.
"Of course, this time we only need the mercenary group to provide intelligence support, and the guard work is handed over to the elf guard. After all, we Jondal elves haven't stepped out of the forest for a long time, and we don't have much experience in how to get along with humans..."
Looking at the cold and angry eyes of the young man in front of him, Keruisi's words became softer and lighter, and finally lowered his noble head. If Qin Lun was really a member of the mixed mercenary group of elves and humans, then he did have reason to be angry.
Being used as cannon fodder by the employer to test the enemy's reaction, as a result, only ten members remained in the entire mercenary group. After returning, he was asked by his employer to set off again without any supplementary and rest time. It must be said that King Testier's request was very excessive.
Of course, the mercenary group can choose to refuse. It’s just that on the surface, their previous mission was indeed not completed. Now that they refuse the employer’s request to continue the mission, it would be detrimental to their reputation.
The elf prince's face turned blue and then pale, he gritted his teeth suddenly in silence, stood up suddenly from the chair, and showed a trace of determination in his eyes, "Filar, I'm sorry, I forgot what I just said. I will persuade the father to give up For this commission, you have sacrificed enough for Jondal, and there is no reason to accept this task."
"His Royal Highness, please wait a moment!" Qin Lun finally broke the silence, stopped Corus, who was about to turn around and leave, and said after a moment of pondering, "Our mercenaries are a profession that licks blood at the edge of their swords. Dodging tasks because of danger. However, we don't want to be treated as dispensable cannon fodder by our employers.
This task can only be answered by my companions when they come to the royal court. It's just that I want to know the inside story of this mission in advance. Why Anker Forest? Wasn't the previous destination Mill Forest? "
The elf prince hesitated for a moment, then turned and sat down. According to the mercenary principle of Faerun Continent, it is not necessary to know the inside story of the mission, but only need to know the goal of the mission.
However, the Elven Court used the mercenary group as a temptation bait in the last employment, and caused heavy casualties to them. Now that he is hiring someone again, it seems that he should really explain the ins and outs of the future.
"The situation has changed. The father decided to agree to the conditions of the Anker Elf Court, and let the Jondal moon elves decide to stay or move to the Anker Forest." There was a trace of loneliness in Prince Corus's words, "This way Now, there is no need to go to Mill Forest, which is more than 1,500 kilometers away, for help, Anker Forest is much closer, and the risk on the way will be much smaller.”
…
Watching Ke Ruisi Luye leave his room, Qin Lun couldn't help frowning slightly, and sank his mind into the death list.
"Apostle No. 70053, due to your butterfly effect, the main plot of the Magic Cup King's Court has undergone some changes. You have gained 0.204% of the world exploration rate, and the current personal world exploration rate is 0.207%. Additional rewards will be distributed uniformly when you return."
"Apostle No. 70053, you have triggered the main plot mission of the Devil's Cup Royal Court——The Devil's Cup Crisis!"
[Magic Cup Crisis: (Lieutenant Colonel). The Magic Cup Court is now in a critical moment of life and death due to internal and external troubles. The Jondal Moon Elf has decided to leave the Jondal Forest and move to the Anker Forest. The World Tree, which is the cornerstone of the Elven Court, is in the last hundred years of its demise, and the Magic Cup King's Court urgently needs to cultivate a third-generation World Tree that can support the inheritance of the elves.
Mission objective: After the apostle accepts the mission, there are two ways to choose from. One is to try to help King Testir keep some Jondal moon elves, just more than 30% of the population of his tribe. The second is to join the Jondal Mission, go to Anker Forest to get the World Tree Seed, and deliver it safely to the Magic Cup Court.
Mission rewards: Distributed depending on the contribution of the apostles in this mission, the stay time will be the original stay time and will not be increased. If the apostle completes all the two major mission objectives, the final mission evaluation will be raised by one level.
Tips: Due to the butterfly effect that the apostles participated in, the main plot line has been partially changed, and the world exploration rate has increased from the original 0.212% to 0.216%. The shared information of the main plot has been distributed to other team members, and the team leader can accept this task after arriving at the Magic Cup King’s Court.]
Qin Lun looked at the reminders in the death list, and was a little confused for the first time.
He faintly felt that this so-called butterfly effect might be related to King Testier's decision to compromise with Anker Forest. But he didn't know what the problem was, and it actually allowed him to pick up 0.204% of the world exploration rate for nothing, which was more than the branch plot that triggered the "Moon Elf Migration" at that time.
With Qin Lun's emotional intelligence, he would never have imagined that the conversation he had with Elisine last night would actually have the effect of beating a mandarin duck. Not only broke up the pair of elf lovers, but also made Elistine, who was originally interested in the elf court, decide to migrate with the tribe, which turned King Testier's painstaking plan into naught, resulting in a change in the current main plot.
Of course, no one else knew about this matter except Qin Lun and Elisine. Even the shrewd and experienced King Testir could not have imagined that the elf druid would give up his love and resolutely decide to live and die with his clansmen because of the words of a strange elf.
However, what Qin Lun focused on at this time was not this unexpected surprise, but the difficulty of the task of the main plot "Magic Cup Crisis".
Judging from the current situation, there is no hope of completing the first approach of this mission. Even Elistin, a descendant of the royal family, cannot convince the elders of the Moon Elf tribe. It is even more impossible for the apostle in such a short period of time. In fact, this task can only be completed through the second way.
But to lead the mission to Anke Forest again is actually a lieutenant colonel-level task... This is what Qin Lun really can't figure out. With the strength of the fortress team, it is not surprising to receive a lieutenant-colonel-level team mission, but the problem is that the branch plot mission that also escorts the Moon Elf tribe to the Anker Forest is only a major-level mission.
In terms of strength, it is impossible for the elf guards escorting the envoys to be inferior to the weak moon elf tribe. In terms of the external environment, leaving aside the Jondas Kingdom, the addition of the Moon Elf tribe to the Anker Forest will inevitably increase the power of the Anker Elves, and the neighboring Sespeits Kingdom may also join the attack. The envoys seeking the seeds of the world tree have no influence on the Kingdom of Sespeits.
In other words, the migration team of the Moon Elf tribe has to fight against the harassment of the two human kingdoms of Jondas and Sespeitz, while the envoys only need to deal with the kingdom of Jondas, and the difficulty of the tasks of the two should be reversed. It makes sense.
Qin Lun rubbed his temples with a headache. He lacked relevant information and had no way of judging. The only thing is obvious, there must be some inside story of this lieutenant-colonel-level main plot that I don't understand, maybe even Prince Corus, who issued the mission, doesn't know much about it.
In this way, he must find out the mystery and convince them before Stark and others step into the court of the magic cup, otherwise the fortress team will not be able to control the direction of the mission and can only follow the trend.