Chapter 148: The Murloc Tidewalker

  Matthew's words left Elio somewhat bewildered.

  She unsciously raised her arm, where the crimson tattoos glowed faintly.

  "Doesn't the lord mind at all?"

  "500 gold s and 200 tribution points? That's a huge sum—enough to buy plenty of things..."

  "A longsword? How did the lord know I'm more skilled with a sword?"

  "..."

  Staring into Matthew's familiar, dark eyes, Elio opened her mouth, and at Old John's urging, she bowed slightly:

  "Thank you for the lord's reward."

  With this body being a mere projeatthew had no reservations. He boldly reached out and patted Elio's shoulder, admiriall and slender frame as he praised:

  "Your personal strength is outstanding, but you o work on coordinating with your teammates and improving your and skills."

  "If you make up for those weaknesses and keep earning tribution points, you could bee a captain."

  As Elio stood there in a daze, Matthew sigo Ralph, who then shouted loudly:

  "The highest tributor in this battle is—Elio!"

  Old John and Ji Fan quickly followed suit, shouting:

  "Elio!"

  The other soldiers joined in, ign Elio's strange appearance, and shouted with envy and anticipation:

  "Elio!"

  After all, everyone wanted a strong teammate—the more loot to go around, the better!

  Having made a small gesture of goodwill, Matthew turned his attention to the murlocs spreading across the Silvermoon River.

  Thousands filled the city; tens of thousands covered the fields!

  Even though the murlocs were small in stature, when their numbers reached such overwhelming levels, c the ndscape as far as the eye could see, fear naturally arose.

  With a quice, Matthew estimated that there were han 50,000 murlocs, with more still emerging from the river.

  The vast fields that had been cleared for pnting were noled into a murky mess by the murlocs.

  Luckily, there were still a few days before sowing would begin. Otherwise, this would have resulted in enormous waste and loss of precious time.

  Even so, watg their beloved nd being so defiled made every soldier of Bay Territory seethe with anger.

  After all, the nd that was being ruined included the very plots they were about to be assigned!

  The small murlocs posed no threat to the sturdy walls, but every soldier wao rush out and fight.

  Matthew wasn't troubled by the rge number of murlocs. Instead, he silently pondered:

  "Why are these normally chaotiergetic murlocs gathering in such rge numbers?"

  "Killing these murloly grants me 1 or 2 experience points each. How I maximize their value?"

  Gng over the mass of murlocs, aruck Matthew, and he silently thought:

  "Yaya, time to make an appearance!"

  "Yes! On it!"

  With a cheerful response eg in Matthew's mind, a fsh of silvery light streaked across the sky above the walls, apanied by a clear and resonant dragon's roar that echoed powerfully.

  Majestic!

  Mighty!

  Even the soldiers who had grown familiar with Yaya found themselves feeling uneasy but were heless filled with excitement.

  Having just e back to her senses, Elio gazed at the beautiful Yaya, feeling the oppressive aura emanating from the dragon, and a strange sensation welled up inside her:

  "Is this the lord's fidence?"

  "Or does he truly not care about any race?"

  As Elio pohe murlocs below, overwhelmed by the dragon's presence, colpsed in fear.

  Even the loud, chaotioises immediately quieted.

  Yaya had never had the ce to show off in front of so many creatures before and happily fpped her wings, flying toward the murlocs that hadn't yet succumbed to her presence.

  Like a giant eraser, Yaya swept across the "murloc bckboard" with astonishing speed.

  Wherever she passed, all the murlocs fell ft to the ground in terror.

  Seeing how feeble the murlocs were, everyone couldn't help but smile.

  Just then, several bright white ice spears shot out from the Silvermoon River, aimed directly at the airborne Yaya.

  Prepared for this, Yaya skillfully twisted her wings, gracefully dodging the spears, her bright blue eyes log onto the figure beh the water.

  Watg Yaya remain unharmed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

  Matthew also received information about the enemy as he observed the ice spears leaving a trail ht white crystals behind, murmuring to himself:

  "Casting ability? There's a murloc shaman among them, which means it's very likely that the one trolling these murlocs is a Tidewalker!"

  Although much of his gaming knowledge couldn't be applied directly to this world, that didn't mean it was entirely useless.

  His familiarity with various monsters allowed Matthew to quickly deduce the identity of the enemy.

  The creature trolling this vast horde of murlocs was most likely a high-tier murloc Tidewalker!

  Defeating a high-tier murloc wasn't difficult—the rapidly developing Bay Territory already had suffit military power.

  However, log and eliminating a high-tier murloc within the vast Silvermoon River, surrounded by tens of thousands of murlocs, would be a huge challenge.

  And judging by this Tidewalker's cautious behavior, it wouldn't be easy to find.

  Looking at the tless murlocs below, a faint smile appeared on Matthew's face. ventional methods would be iive here.

  How to deal with vast numbers of aquatic murlocs had always been a major headache for the northern nations!

  For thousands of years, no effective solution had been found. The only option was to spend signifit resources each year on murlots.

  Alternatively, long-term bounties were posted, encing low-level adveo help clear them out.

  However, for the pyers who sought effid results, figuring out how to eliminate rge numbers of aquatic murlocs became a matter of pride and profit.

  After all, even small bounties on murlocs could accumute into gold s!

  Through years of pyer iy and experimentation, several effective, simple, and cheap "murloc-killihods" had been discovered.

  Eventually, entire "murloc-killing squads" formed, making a living by clearing out murlocs for lords, and it was said they earned quite a bit.

  Naturally, Matthew was familiar with these methods, and one, in particur, erfectly suited for Bay Territory's current situation.

  Having made up his mind, Matthew gave Ralph a look and spoke decisively:

  "These murlocs have e at just the right time. Their strength is weak, and they pose little threat. Let's use this opportunity to train the newly recruited soldiers."

  Such a good target had e knog—what a waste it would be not to drill the troops!

  FAL