Chapter 656
The Dark Witches wouldn’t usually be bothered with participating in such a meeting given their usual arrogance.
However, considering that they still needed to borrow the power of the flying ship for their future venture into enemy territory, they had no choice but to patiently lower themselves and take part in the meeting. Moreover, there was a topic that very much attracted them during this conference. It was a topic that they couldn’t wait for.
That was the splitting of the loot!
After two consecutive battles, they had killed and captured countless elves. Now that they had moved to a relatively safe place, it was time to make clear the ownership of the spoils.
A Dark Witch accompanied Snowlotus to collect a proper count of all the elven prisoners. They performed a comprehensive and detailed record of the elves based on their grade, gender, profession, age, and appearance.
This long list quickly reached the hands of Greem, Alice, and Uzzah.
Remembering simple numbers like these was no problem for the adepts and their supernatural Spirit. The list was quickly read through by everyone present, and the discussion promptly shifted to the splitting of the loot.
According to their prior agreement, the Dark Witches were to take a majority of the elven prisoners. They also had priority in choosing the prisoners. Greem politely invited Witch Uzzah to pick first.
The lighting here wasn’t great. One would even call it dim.
Yet, the fantastical scenery and the slender vine bridges that rocked in the wind were just so beautiful and amazing to behold!
Elves weren’t a particularly hard working race.
Their longevity, casual and easygoing living environment, and their art-loving peaceful personalities were all factors that caused the elves to be extremely leisurely and lazy!
There were only around sixty elves in Rut’theran Village. Almost eighty percent of these elves were ordinary people that had not chosen combat professions. They either decided to become florists, artists, or organists; their pursuits were varied, and thus their choices were very different. Still, all their jobs did not differ from their essence as elves– a great love for nature and passion for life.
All the elves of Rut’theran would leave their treehouses in the evenings and gather upon the largest platform behind the village hall.
It was a place that the village had specially created to provide the elves with a place to practice archery.
If the elven kingdom were said to have imposed any requirements upon its citizens, then it would be the practice of archery!
All elven villages, towns, and cities had to build such a public archery range for elves in the area to practice. Every single citizen of the elven kingdom was also obligated to spend a minimum of one hour per day to practice their archery skills.
To better guide these ordinary elves living in peace and comfort, and to ensure that they didn’t abandon the racial proficiency of the forest elves, archery instructors and war dancers were stationed in every elven settlement. They were to provide the elves with proper training.
Elves that performed well from a young age would be selected and sent to nearby training camps.
There they would be able to fight with talented youths from the dozens of nearby villages, train with them, and grow to become qualified warriors or archers. Those who possess spellcasting talents were sent to even further places to receive more systematic training from more professional druids and elven spellcasters.
If the central mountains of the elven kingdom were said to be a massive ancient tree with winding branches, then a small place like Rut’theran Village was like an insignificant whisker of the extended branches of this tree.
It was the existence of many such whiskers that allowed for sand to gather into a tower and for a droplet to collect into an ocean, forming the massive elven kingdom. It was large enough to rule over the entirety of Garan!
Evening time was the period that Rut’theran village used to practice archery.
Apart from some elves who were out on errands, all the elves in the village put down the tasks at hand. They left the flowerbeds they were tending to, emerged from their treehouses, and walked across the haphazard vine bridges to gradually assemble on the platform.
What they never expected was for each and every one of their actions to fall under the eyes of a terrifying and evil adept.
Countless beetles as tiny and light as flies beat their wings and flew between the green leaves. They kept a close watch on every elf in the village.
As the elves unknowingly gathered on the platform, a strange swell appeared in the earth near the roots of one massive, ancient tree; it was in a dim corner where no one could see.
As the black dirt broke apart, numerous fearsome bugs swarmed out from within.