Chapter 680: Chapter 680: Mission
On this day, Duke was summoned to the central area of Darkmoon Town, into a heavily guarded stone house filled with soundproofing and anti-detection barriers.
Inside the house, there were only two people: the chief commander of the Star Do Comrce Association in the region, Level 3 Mage Vika, and a tall, thin man in an imperial black military uniform whom Duke had never t before. His aura was cold, and his gaze sharp like a dissecting knife.
"Duke, a Level 1 Crystalized Mage, known as a Limit-Breaker, temporarily affiliated with the Star Do Comrce Association as an Explorer. His record is clear, and his task completion rate is good, especially with a relatively high dark attribute affinity due to his shadow perception ability," Vika introduced in a calm, steady voice, his gaze on Duke as if examining a tool.
"Your praise is too much, Lord Vika." Duke bent slightly, fully aware that this was no ordinary mission summons.
The man in the black military uniform continued, his voice dry, "There’s a mission, extrely risky, but the rewards are also great if successful. We need a person to infiltrate the periter of the Silverlight Court, inside the subordinate Moonmark Clan. This is a large clan with a Level 3 Moon Well, located in the mid-section of Shadow Song Gorge. The terrain is perilous, the defense system is well-established, and a conventional attack would incur severe costs."
Level 3 Moon Well! Duke’s heart shook, though he kept his face expressionless.
"Your mission goal is neither assassination nor destruction," the man in the black military uniform stared into Duke’s eyes as if trying to see into his soul, "but to plant this in the core area of the Moonmark Clan leader, Moon Dancer Ysira’s daily life and cultivation, usually near the Moon Well’s adjacent Moonwatch Platform."
He produced an item. It was a hexagonal crystal plate no bigger than a fingernail, thin as a cicada’s wing, nearly perfectly camouflaged with its surroundings in color shifts.
Inside the crystal, extrely complex, infinitely miniaturized three-dinsional runes were faintly circulating, emanating a nearly non-existent spatial fluctuation.
"This is a one-ti activation phase-fold beacon," Vika explained, his tone uncharacteristically solemn. "It emits almost no energy waves itself, highly assimilated with the natural environnt, making it exceedingly challenging to detect through conventional ans. Once activated, it requires an external, more powerful main control device to send a particular spatial harmonic at a specific mont.
It will instantly unfold a pre-set, miniature spatial fold cage. The strength of this cage is sufficient to trap a Level 3 life form unprepared."
For a preditated ambush, where the enemy’s strongest force temporarily loses command and intervention abilities, this could swiftly collapse their defensive system.
"Your plan is to decapitate?" Duke inquired.
"To create an opportunity for decapitation," the man in the black military uniform corrected. "Moon Dancer Ysira is the core of the Moonmark Clan and the key link to the deeper Silverlight Court. Trapping her, even for just a dozen breaths, will increase our overall assault’s success rate by more than fifty percent, reducing casualties by a third.
And the position for planting the beacon must be extrely precise, within her daily power field coverage, yet not raising any suspicion."
Vika chid in: "We plan to fabricate an identity for you from the Flowwind Clan, a Level 2 clan we defeated two months ago, whose chieftain escaped with a few elite mbers."
You are a young clansman of the Flowwind Clan, skilled in covert operations, who lost contact with the chieftain during the final escape. Your na is Ying Ye. You narrowly escaped, having heard that the powerful Moonmark Clan is gathering scattered forces to confront invaders, and thus you ca to join them.
This identity is traceable and fits the current atmosphere among the Night Elves of gathering strength against foreign foes."
"A disguise..." Duke pondered aloud.
"We will conduct a comprehensive disguise for you," the man in the black military uniform asserted with confidence, "Not just your appearance, aura, and energy wave simulation to perfectly match a Night Elf, but a layer of sophisticated disguise over your soul’s surface.
Unless a deep soul-level probe or prolonged, high-frequency moonlight resonance ceremony is conducted, even a Level 3 Elf would find it difficult to detect. We will provide you with Flowwind Clan’s basic information, linguistic habits, and even battlefield detail mory fragnts known only to clan mbers.
Your task is to play this role well, earn initial trust, find an opportunity to approach the Moonwatch Platform, and plant the beacon. Your high dark attribute affinity ability makes you well-suited to impersonate a mber of the Night Elves."
The risk is self-evident: once exposed, there is no chance of survival in the enemy camp’s center with Level 3 strong beings and nurous elites present.
"Then, what is the reward?" Duke asked.
"A Level 1 Moon Well," the Seville Empire soldier replied calmly, his voice utterly steady.
Duke’s heart trembled; he never expected to be rewarded with a Level 1 Moon Well.
By this point, it was clear that the mission’s reward was indeed high, though the risks were equally significant.
Duke did not respond imdiately, lowering his gaze as if weighing his options.
A brief silence enveloped the room, broken only by Vika’s finger lightly tapping on the table.
After about ten breaths, Duke looked up, his eyes serene, his voice steady: "I accept."
"Excellent," Vika said, "in terms of disguise, the Empire has prepared special Alchemy Creations for such missions."
He gestured slightly, and the man from the Intelligence Departnt retrieved from his bosom a palm-sized, complex compass-like object composed of dark-silver tal and several color-changing crystal stones.
Suspended at the compass’s center was a drop of dark purple blood seemingly alive, exuding a pure, ancient aura of a Night Elf.
"This is the Thousand-Faced Instrunt, a support-type Level 3 Witchcraft Artifact. It’s not for combat but can generate and sustain an extrely sophisticated disguise covering the user’s body and mind," the man from the Intelligence Departnt explained. "Using this high-elf source blood obtained from an ancient elf relic as the core, combined with the artifact’s power, it can form a perfect Night Elf exterior around you, including appearance, aura, and energy wave.
It will also affect the recognition of surrounding creatures. Unless a Level 3 pinnacle being skilled in the soul domain conducts a deliberate deep probe or triggers certain specific moonlight oaths that directly pertain to the true na, your identity will remain undetected."
He emphasized, "This artifact is a significant asset of the Empire and must be returned intact after the mission. During use, it will continually consu your Spiritual Power to maintain the disguise field, with consumption proportional to your activity intensity and the intensity of probing encountered.
Excessive consumption may lead to disguise field instability or even collapse, and this is sothing you must manage yourself."
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