Before long, the agile figure of the Forest Elf Laisa appeared first at the outpost entrance.
Her emerald hair was somewhat disheveled, clearly having just undergone a rapid sprint.
Immediately after, the scout Alvin and the assassin Dulu also appeared silently.
All three carried a faint scent of blood.
They immediately saw Betty kneeling on the ground, her face flushed red.
The young girl kept her head lowered, her fingers tightly clutching the corners of her clothes, shrinking herself into a ball.
"That, um..." Betty’s voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum. "Sorry, it was my fault this time."
Her ears were flushed deep red, and her voice grew even softer.
"I just learned some practical techniques from the little mage and couldn't help but try them out..."
"In the end, my control was unstable, and I crashed the train."
Freya stood with her arms crossed, looking at her coldly.
The other members remained silent as well, an oppressive quiet permeating the air.
"Your entire reward for this trip is confiscated," Freya said without a hint of emotion. "Do you have any objections?"
Betty shook her head frantically, her voice trembling as if she were about to cry. "No, no objections..."
She stole a glance at everyone and quickly lowered her head again.
Freya let out a soft sigh.
This wasn't the first time Betty had led the entire team into a tree.
Her little apprentice had only been practicing Levitation for a year and had already crashed five times.
The most serious instance had directly flushed four months of their income down the drain.
Freya turned to Lin Gui, the greatest contributor who had just saved them from Betty's blunder, her tone softening significantly:
"Thanks to your timely reaction this time."
"Once we receive the reward, Betty's portion will be transferred to you."
She looked around. "Does anyone have an objection?"
"No objections!" the barbarian warrior Barton shouted in a gruff voice. "If not for the little mage, we would have worked for nothing again!"
The beastkin Grom nodded dully. "His Levitation... is very strong."
Priest Silas smiled gently. "I have never seen such exquisite control."
Laisa and the other two who had gone to lure the demons away were filled with confusion.
After hearing their teammates' vivid descriptions, they all wore expressions of disbelief.
Alvin murmured, "A twenty-meter-long train weaving through a dense forest? How is that possible..."
Dulu spoke rarely, "I missed a good show."
Freya recalled the scene from just now, her eyes still filled with wonder.
Lin Gui's understanding of Levitation had already transcended conventional knowledge.
He could not only precisely control a hundred-ton heavy object.
But also maintain absolute stability during high-speed flight.
Even more astonishingly, he could actually channel the train's immense momentum.
Achieving flexible turns that nearly defied the laws of physics.
This level of control precision made even her, a Legendary mage, feel inferior.
Facing the group's praise, Lin Gui made a timely suggestion:
"How about... I take control for this stretch of the forest?"
"Once we exit the woods, Miss Betty can take over."
He explained, "Unlike the complex terrain of the forest, the sea basically has no obstacles."
"As long as we're careful not to be spotted by sub-aquatic demons, controlling it will be much simpler."
Hearing this, Betty's face turned pale instantly.
She desperately signaled Lin Gui with her eyes, her tears nearly falling.
Lin Gui was puzzled.
The sea was indeed an ideal environment for Levitation.
No obstacles, wide field of vision.
Epic rank demons usually resided in the deep sea, with the water acting as a natural barrier.
It wasn't like he was talking about that forbidden Silent Sea...
The scholar Eli saw his confusion and stepped forward with a smile.
"Little mage, you'll understand when we get to the coast."
He gave Betty a schadenfreude-filled glance:
"By the way, when we left Twilight Fortress, everyone suggested you control it through this forest."
"But Betty insisted on letting you handle the sea while she took the forest, saying her Levitation had made great progress."
"And then... what just happened, happened."
Lin Gui had an odd look on his face.
It seemed Betty was exceptionally resistant to controlling the train over the sea.
And from the scholar's expression.
It appeared it wasn't because Blackwater Bay itself held any special dangers.
The last glimmer of twilight was being swallowed by the forest, and darkness was spreading like a tide from the depths of the woods.
Looking at the forest as it gradually sank into deep darkness, Lin Gui suddenly spoke:
"How about we set off overnight, using the cover of darkness?"
This suggestion made the surrounding team members frown simultaneously.
Vice Leader Aubrey stroked his chin, musing, "It's true that it's easier to be exposed during the day..."
"But the cover of night also means limited vision," the Forest Elf Laisa pointed out calmly. "The difficulty of transport will increase exponentially."
Scout Alvin added, "Furthermore, we lack true night vision."
"Dulu and I mainly rely on sound for positioning. The range we can see clearly in complete darkness is very limited."
The assassin Dulu nodded silently, his figure flickering in the twilight.
Lin Gui had already anticipated their concerns and pointed to Theia beside him:
"My ranger can see through the darkness."
Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Theia.
At this moment, Laisa's eyes suddenly grew sharp.
In the chaos of the train's roll earlier, the hood Theia used for concealment had fallen off.
Now, her dazzling silver hair and long, pointed elven ears were completely exposed to everyone.
Only now did the North Wind caravan discover that this ranger who had been following the little mage all along.
Was actually an elf, and an extremely rare silver-haired elf at that.
Laisa narrowed her eyes and stepped forward quickly, almost coming face-to-face with Theia, staring directly into her eyes:
"You... which elven tribe are you from?"
Her voice carried an unquestionable tone of interrogation.
"Silver hair is extremely rare among elves; only two tribes possess this trait—"
"Elven royalty, or..."
Laisa’s voice suddenly turned cold. "Traitors, the Windrunners."
Theia's body tensed instantly.
Her fingers unconsciously clenched her clothes, and she instinctively tried to pull up her hood.
Only then did she realize it had already vanished in the previous chaos.
Lin Gui immediately stepped forward, blocking Theia:
"She is mixed-race. Her mother was an elf captured by humans. As for her father..."
He paused deliberately, looking at Laisa meaningfully:
"I don't think you would want to know her father's race, as an elf."
Laisa remained entirely unmoved, retorting coldly:
"Silver hair! It is absolutely impossible for it to appear in a mixed-race person!"
Lin Gui shot back without yielding:
"Are you sure?!"
"Of course! This is a universally recognized fact within the Elven race!"
Lin Gui suddenly laughed. He held up his hand, beginning to count one by one:
"There are quite a few races naturally born with white hair on the Akara Continent."
"The Barbarians of the far north live on the snowy plains for generations; one in ten of them is born with white hair."
"The beastkin of the White Fox tribe have hair that is silver-white by nature."
"Then there are the winged folk of the Snow Eagle clan; their feathers shimmer with silver light under the moon."
"Even the hair of certain sea folk is silver-white."
His gaze swept over Laisa’s gradually changing expression as he continued:
"How can you be certain that when elves combine with these races, their children won't inherit those white-haired traits?"
Lin Gui's voice suddenly rose:
"Don't forget the hero in your own Elven race's history, the one called the 'Blade of the Silver Moon'!"
"Didn't she have white hair? And she was a mixed-blood rescued from the slave pens!"
Rate on N.U.
