“I say, is it really okay to bring those two kids along with us?”
In the familiar sewer, Astraea cast the familiar Air Purification Spell, while Lucius sized up the two kids whose ages combined weren’t even half his own, and voiced his doubt.
Having fought against elves on the front lines of the Great Expedition for so long, Lucius could tell Astraea’s true age at a glance.
Although he could see the traces of the All-Father’s blessing on both of them, still, wasn’t it too risky to bring two kids to face an existence that could trade blows with Maximus?
“It’s fine. My intuition is telling me that bringing them along will definitely yield extra gains.”
Maximus said in a confident tone.
If possible, he would have actually liked to bring Aiouwen along as well.
A caster would be better at dealing with large numbers of goblins than knights who fought in melee, right?
Astraea: “Just kidding. I also like melee combat. Do as you please.”
Lucius no longer tried to dissuade the duke.
After all, the blessed weren’t so easily killed, especially Astraea, who had gained the All-Father’s favor despite being of a different race.
He could feel that the All-Father had left a deep mark on these two little ones.
After Maximus killed the Goblin Chieftain, the goblins in the Royal Capital Sewers seemed to have calmed down a lot.
During the ten-day Knight Tournament, even patrols with reduced knight numbers easily pushed the outposts forward to places the previous cleanup squads had never ventured.
With the end of the Knight Tournament, the cleanup squads’ high-end combat power had greatly increased, and it was expected to deal a heavy blow to these goblins.
He considered sending a bunch of musketeers to teach these goblins a lesson.
Goblins without decent armor were the perfect targets for musketeers.
Unfortunately, the sewers weren’t suitable for firearms; otherwise, Maximus would have wanted to blow the goblins’ souls apart with three shots.
The group of four passed through the vines that the little elf had magically grown in the sewer and arrived at the place where Maximus had previously fought the Goblin Chieftain.
This place had become a new forward outpost for humans.
The traces of the previous battle had all been cleaned up, and there was no sign that goblins had ever existed.
When the soldiers in the outpost saw Maximus, they all straightened their backs.
Their expressions were tired, and they didn’t look well.
The knight on duty seemed to be in decent condition, but upon closer inspection, the little elf noticed that the knight’s eyes were bloodshot.
“What’s going on?”
Maximus of course immediately realized that the soldiers’ condition was off.
According to the rotation schedule he had personally arranged, the soldiers were rotated every three days, and there hadn’t been any intense fighting recently.
They shouldn’t be that exhausted.
Lucius extended his hand, and a gentle Holy Light shone from his palm.
The soldiers immediately felt as if their bodies had become much lighter.
The knight on duty replied, “Your Grace, the recent cleanup missions have been going smoothly. The brothers have pushed forward quite a distance. The occasional goblin groups we encounter are not of any scale, but…”
“But what?”
“It’s just that, for some reason, the deeper we go underground, the more severe the drain on the brothers’ energy. Here, ordinary soldiers can no longer take night shifts at all. It’s all up to us knights to hold the line. If this continues, we’ll have to retreat to the previous camp.”
The knight on duty said this, and the bloodshot in his eyes did not diminish.
To get through the Knight Tournament period, he had gone without sleep for three days.
If not for the Knight Path strengthening his body, he feared he would have dropped dead in this sewer.
Maximus turned to look at Lucius, who was continuously outputting Holy Light.
“No, I don’t sense any strange aura.”
The paladin frowned.
He did feel that his stamina and energy consumption had increased a bit compared to usual, but he truly did not perceive the kind of black mist that Maximus had mentioned.
“Then let’s continue deeper.”
Maximus made this proposal.
He wasn’t surprised that Lucius couldn’t sense anything.
After all, he himself had only sensed the taint when the black mist was at its thickest.
Now that this place had been purified by the All-Father’s power, what could Lucius possibly sense?
“However, these past few days, the goblins the brothers encountered haven’t been in large groups, but they always emit a black mist.”
Seeing that Maximus was about to leave, the knight on duty also reported their latest discovery, “Sir, if you’re going deeper, you must be careful. Even though those goblins die and that’s that, I still feel something is off.”
“Mm, we’ve come precisely for this. Now you can go rest.”
The duke gave the order, and the knight on duty immediately complied.
This command was the one he was most willing to execute since he had embarked on the Knight Path.
During the day, he had to organize the work of the ordinary soldiers, and at night he had to stand guard.
Without any rest day and night, even a body made of iron couldn’t withstand such abuse.
Now, having received the duke’s direct order, he could finally relax and get a good night’s sleep.
After arranging the handover of the forward outpost, the four set off again.
This time, Maximus was in front, Lucius in the back, with the two great knights sandwiching the little elf and Luo En in between as they advanced.
Not even the king, who was currently slogging through administrative duties in the palace, had ever enjoyed such treatment.
Luo En in the formation was still wearing that set of blue armor.
Having just been promoted to a full knight, his body hadn’t had time for a second growth spurt, so his previous armor still fit.
He wasn’t as powerful as Maximus and Lucius, so he had obediently put on the armor.
Astraea on the side had also changed into a set of leather armor.
Her combat style focused on agility, and the Swordsman Path didn’t strengthen the body as much as the Knight Path.
Heavy armor would restrict her flexibility, so the little elf had chosen a leather armor made from wyvern hide from the duke’s storage.
However, goblins didn’t have decent armor-piercing weapons, so leather armor was more than enough to improve Astraea’s protection.
Luo En pulled his longsword from the chest of a Hobgoblin.
The Hobgoblin had both its hearts shredded by Luo En’s single thrust.
As for the ordinary goblins, they were used by Astraea for practice.
With just a dozen or so ordinary goblins, the little elf killed them all within three exchanges.
One Hobgoblin, a dozen ordinary goblins, not even a Goblin Mage—this was the first enemy the four had encountered in nearly four hours of deep exploration in the sewer.
Compared to the goblin tide that Luo En and the little elf had encountered the last time they came to the sewer, this group was nothing.
Taking advantage of the fact that the goblins had just died and the black mist had not yet completely dissipated, Lucius stepped forward to study the black mist carefully.
This piqued Lucius’s interest.
As a paladin, his sensitivity to tainted things was much keener than Maximus’s.
Previously, there had been too few samples.
Now, observing the fresh black mist emanating from the goblins, Lucius almost immediately sensed the taint.
“Crackle!”
The Holy Light released by the paladin met the incomplete black mist, and the Holy Light instantly turned into flames, burning the black mist away completely.
“This thing…” Lucius then turned to the Hobgoblin’s corpse.
It was similar to an ordinary goblin, except that the black mist emitted by the Hobgoblin lasted longer under the Holy Light.
Holy Light was a degraded version of the All-Father’s power, almost like a simplified version.
Its violent reaction to the black mist showed that this stuff was no good.
But besides this conclusion, Lucius couldn’t derive anything more.
He needed more samples.
“By the way, Astraea, you’re a follower of the Elven Goddess, right?”
“Ah, I guess so.”
Astraea said uncertainly.
She was just a casual believer; she didn’t even pray usually.
“Try using Elven Divine Magic on it.”
Lucius dragged over a goblin corpse, which still had a thin layer of black mist.
Luo En, who had just finished wiping his longsword, also looked at the little elf curiously.
He had never seen what Elven Divine Magic looked like in his life.
Astraea immediately felt immense pressure.
If she could, she would have liked to say that this was a human stereotype.
Just as not all humans could use the All-Father’s Divine Magic, not every elf could use Elven Divine Magic!
Moreover, the Elven Goddess was just an alternate identity of the God of Love and Beauty.
How much substance could those so-called Elven Divine Magic have?
Wait, she actually seemed to know Elven Divine Magic.
The little elf recalled that back in Port Tils, when she had taken Luo En to the Church of the God of Love to remove the “curse” on her, she had incidentally memorized the magical circuits that the nuns of the God of Love had constructed.
Since the deity was the same deity, there shouldn’t be any essential difference between the God of Love’s Divine Magic and Elven Divine Magic, right?
Thinking this, Astraea prayed to the Elven Goddess in her heart while reaching out to construct a magical circuit.
The circuit was not complicated overall; it just added some divine symbols on top of the generic Purification Spell.
Astraea replaced the symbol representing the God of Love with that of the Elven Goddess, then copied the rest unchanged.
Just as the circuit was about to be completed, Astraea murmured, “Purify!”