Chapter 177: I'm Just Watching
Brow furrowed, Brown Carlisle took a sip of the meat broth, but he could faintly taste a hint of something foul.
Feeling irritated, he set down the clay bowl and stared toward the east.
All he could see were rolling mists and flickers of firelight.
A surge of anger suddenly welled up inside him.
Brown desperately wanted to gather his soldiers and charge out to fight Bay Territory in a grand battle.
But he remembered the disaster of a few days ago and clenched his teeth, forcing himself to hold back.
Back then, he had led his men out for an attack, slogging through the muddy swamps for hours, yet they never caught sight of Bay Territory's soldiers.
When he furiously led his troops back, he spotted Bay Territory's soldiers several hundred meters away, slowly advancing toward their camp.
Ecstatic, Brown ordered his men to encircle them, hoping to coordinate with the camp's defenders and trap the enemy.
Instead, he and his soldiers fell right into a massive mud pit.
Fortunately, his personal guards reacted quickly and dragged him out. Though he was covered in filth and choked on the foul muck, at least he was alive.
By the time they finally crawled out of the pit, they realized Bay Territory's soldiers were standing nearby.
The soldiers laughed loudly, mocking them, and before Brown's men could charge, the enemy slipped away into the mist.
Brown Carlisle couldn't even remember how he endured the humiliation that day!
He felt like a complete fool!
Taking a deep breath to suppress his rising anger, Brown found solace in a new excuse:
"Ignore these failures. Once the ruins are uncovered, I'll be able to leave this mess behind."
"Then I can return to Bloodmoon City and live in comfort, while these poor fools will be stuck in this mud pit."
With that thought, his mood brightened slightly, and he forced himself to take another sip of the meat broth.
"Roar...!"
A deafening roar suddenly shattered the misty stillness.
The sound carried an imposing sense of dread, scaring Brown so much that he spilled his broth.
Instinctively, he stood up, grabbing his armor and shouting:
"Prepare for battle!"
The pit camp descended into chaos.
Most of the soldiers, without armor or weapons, flailed in the mud, panicking.
Only a handful of soldiers still remembered how to react.
Brown stomped through the pit, rushing back to the camp.
With no time to clean up, he hastily donned his gear.
More soldiers continued to flounder, ignoring the officers' frantic orders to calm down.
Most of them were fresh recruits, barely two months out of their farms—how could they remain composed?
Many collapsed on the spot, their limbs limp in the mud.
Emerging from the chaos, Brown's forehead dripped with cold sweat as he surveyed the scene.
Then he instinctively looked up to the sky, catching a fleeting glimpse of a dragon swiftly vanishing into the mist.
Even though it was just a brief sighting, the majestic and powerful silver figure left an indelible mark on his mind.
"There really was a dragon!"
"That roar was terrifying…"
"Not gonna lie, my buddy wet his pants..."
"Forget your buddy, I wet my own!"
"Seriously? Don't expect me to clean up after you!"
"Get lost! Lucky for us, Bay Territory didn't attack—otherwise, we'd be in serious trouble."
"They may not have attacked before, but now? Who knows…"
"What do we do now?"
"What else? Stay sharp…"
"..."
The soldiers' chaotic conversations quickly reached the ears of the officers.
They exchanged uneasy glances, silently contemplating retreat.
None of them were fools!
Brown noticed the look in their eyes and, despite his growing anxiety, forced himself to speak calmly:
"Why are you all panicking? Look at yourselves—scared stiff! Do you really think the enemy would dare attack us first?"
The officers seemed to snap back to reality:
"Yeah, that's true!"
"We didn't dare attack Bay Territory, so they wouldn't dare make a move either."
"So what's there to be afraid of?"
Despite their words, the memory of that roar still made their legs feel weak.
As the highest-ranking warrior in the camp, Brown knew that even though it was a young dragon, it still had the power to kill him.
He had already dismissed any thoughts of clashing with Bay Territory and cursed in his mind:
"Those idiots! How could they fail to report such critical information and pass it off as mere rumor?"
Brown made up his mind to deal with those incompetent fools once he returned.
After a while, the officers' nerves finally settled.
Now, they had to refocus and consider Bay Territory's intentions behind this move.
"It's a show of force. Looks like Bay Territory is ready for war…"
Thinking about the ruins they were about to uncover, Brown couldn't help but prepare for the worst.
Ready for what?
Ready for war, of course!
None of the officers were clueless—most were from noble families under the Carlisle banner, and they could see the writing on the wall.
If their gold mine had been stolen, they wouldn't take it lying down either!
They all began to tense up, realizing that even if Bay Territory couldn't openly attack, it didn't mean they had no options.
Whether through mercenaries or infamous thieves, Bay Territory could easily cause trouble for them.
As the officers debated the situation, Matthew hovered silently in the sky, contemplating what he had just observed.
Though his time observing was brief, Matthew had assessed the Carlisle forces' strength.
Most of their soldiers were nothing more than farmers who had just laid down their hoes.
The number of actual professionals was pitifully small—barely 500 in total.
The camp itself was poorly organized—good enough for bullying fishmen but not much else.
Their weapons and equipment gave Matthew ideas.
Most soldiers wielded crude spears, and many didn't even have proper armor.
Even the officers weren't properly trained commanders—Yaya even spotted three assassins among them.
"As I expected, before they experience the orcs' brutality, most territories' soldiers are laughably weak."
After confirming the enemy's basic condition, Matthew began planning his next steps.
There was no way he could let go of the ruins—they were a key draw for future adventurers.
But how to get rid of the Carlisle family's meddling?
Pondering for a while...
Matthew sent Yaya back to the Murloc Castle.
When Yaya landed, flapping her wings, cheers erupted all around.
Yaya was, of course, very popular within the territory.
Angela, who had been waiting, quickly approached and handed over the reports gathered by the investigation team and scouts:
"Here's everything we've gathered on the Carlisle camp and their family."