Chapter 58 - Shocking Discovery

The invaders from the Rashk Kingdom. They were closing in on the elven settlement, and from what the elves had already seen, they were wearing the armor of soldiers from the Aldora Kingdom.

"They really wanted to frame us," Point Blank said to Arthur. "What a sneaky bunch!"

For the first time, Point Blank was truly seeing how intelligent the NPCs were, behaving just like real-life humans. That was the beauty of Chronos Online. The realism was just ridiculous.

"Yeah," Arthur replied. "Luckily we delivered that letter and ended up on the elves’ side, otherwise a war could have easily broken out."

The squads had already been divided. Although each group had an elf in command, there was a head captain overseeing all the units at once. He was the strongest elf in the settlement, level 30.

He stood before the assembled squads. There were five groups in total, with five elves in each. Well, one of the squads had only three elves and two humans, Arthur and Point Blank.

"Which of you is good at scouting?" the captain asked.

The elf who had followed Arthur looked at him immediately. In fact, several other elves were looking at him as well.

Stepping forward, Arthur raised his hand and said, "I’m good at tracking, and I can turn invisible. I think I’m a solid candidate for the job."

"Right. Then you will join the scouting squad alongside our most skilled elves. We have to assume there are more soldiers coming, not just the ones we spotted."

That squad consisted of Arthur, the elf who had tailed him, whose name was Orin, and another unfamiliar female elf who seemed to have no interest in talking to them.

"Your only objective is to find out how many soldiers are heading our way. You do not need to fight unless strictly necessary. We want them to come to us and walk into an ambush."

To be honest, this was a rather tedious job. Arthur wanted to skip straight to the part where he fought soldiers and earned EXP. Still, sometimes you just had to do things you did not want to do. That was his mindset, trying to focus on the bright side.

The trio left the elven settlement, leaping through the treetops toward the direction where the invaders had last been spotted.

The two elves, Orin and the unnamed woman, sprang from branch to branch with barely a sound. It was as if they were feathers, drifting effortlessly from tree to tree.

Arthur had a reasonably high Agility stat for his level, so his footsteps were quiet as well, which caught Orin’s attention.

"You are more agile than I expected," he remarked. "Interesting."

The female elf merely glanced at Arthur’s feet for a brief moment and said nothing, turning her focus back ahead toward the mission.

It took them about thirty minutes to catch up to the first soldiers. The men were moving slowly through the forest, hacking away at the thick vegetation with their swords.

Those troops were indeed donning Aldora Kingdom armor, but Arthur could tell something was off. The higher-level captain who was supposed to lead them was nowhere to be seen.

"Orin, I think something is wrong. Let’s ignore them and follow the path they just cut," Arthur said.

The female elf frowned for an instant, clearly considering speaking up, but held her tongue. Orin nodded in agreement.

"Understood. I will trust you on this."

They followed the trail the soldiers had carved through the woods. The cleared path was easy enough to track.

The group kept moving for another twenty minutes until they finally stumbled upon something: an encampment.

The outpost was set up in a strategic spot, close to the elven settlement. Numerous tents were pitched across the area, and the sheer number of soldiers was far greater than they had anticipated.

Arthur and the two elves swiftly took cover behind the dense foliage, practically blending into nature itself. The elves were naturally gifted at camouflage, aided by their forest-green armor. Arthur was a bit more out of place, but the thick canopy blocked most of the sunlight, leaving deep shadows that kept him well hidden.

Orin whispered.

"Don’t you think there are far too many soldiers? I thought they only intended to frame your kingdom."

Indeed, that was what everyone had assumed. Yet there were at least twelve massive tents set up in the clearing, and judging by its footprint, the camp looked almost as large as the elven settlement itself!

It was basically a small army.

"I think they are trying to conquer you," Arthur whispered, glancing over at Orin. "What should we do?"

Everything had changed in just a few moments. The elves weren’t just dealing with a few soldiers to clear up a misunderstanding with the Kingdom of Aldora anymore. Now, they had to defend their own elven settlement!

"You said you can turn invisible," Orin said, his voice a little tense. "Can you get closer and try to overhear when the attack will happen? In the meantime, I’ll go back to warn Imra. Thalindra will stay here with you."

Thalindra, the elf who hadn’t said a single word until then, finally spoke up.

"Are you sure you want to leave such an important mission to someone like him? What if he’s discovered?"

Orin had expected her to push back. He already had his answer ready.

"If he gets caught, he’s a human, so no one will suspect he’s working with us. Besides, even if he dies, he can come back to life since he’s a Chosen One. There’s no reason we shouldn’t send him."

She didn’t fully agree with the idea, but Orin was still her superior. Thalindra nodded and said nothing more. The worst thing she could do was disobey him and get looked down on by her own people.

Orin headed back the way they came, moving as fast as he could to warn the other elves about what was coming.

Thalindra, now alone with Arthur, said, "I don’t think you’ll succeed in this mission."

Arthur had no idea what her deal was. He was sure he had never seen her before in his life, so why did she hate him?

He didn’t ask. His mind was focused on something else.

’They’re trying to conquer the elven settlement. This didn’t happen in my past life.’

The timeline kept changing, and that was starting to worry him. For someone who relied on knowing the future, that was a problem.

Arthur pushed the thought aside and looked at Thalindra. "If I get caught, run and leave me behind. It’s better if they don’t find out an elf is out here watching them."

She was basically just there for backup anyway. Arthur had no intention of relying on her for anything.

He activated his Stealth skill. His body gradually turned invisible and blended into the surroundings.

Point Blank, anxious because she had no idea what was going on, sent him a message.

"Everything good over there? You’re taking way too long."

"More or less. There’s a massive camp here packed with soldiers. I think they want to raid the elven settlement. Don’t say anything to the elves yet, though. Orin is heading back to warn them."

Everyone knew Chosen Ones could talk to each other, but Arthur didn’t want the elves knowing that yet.

"What? Are you serious? An invasion? That’s so badass!"

Point Blank wasn’t scared at all. She was excited for the fight. Spending so much time around Arthur seemed to be rubbing off on her...

Anyway, now invisible, Arthur walked slowly toward the camp. His MP was draining every second, but with his massive mana pool, he knew he could keep Stealth active for a good while.

’Time to find out what they’re plotting!’

The chatter grew louder as Arthur approached the camp. The soldiers had set up

several campfires to cook food, sitting around them drinking beer and chatting.

"I still can’t believe we’re finally going to wipe out these elves," one of the

soldiers said, taking a sip from his mug of beer. "I never liked having them so

close to our border."

"Exactly," another replied. "Our king is finally finding the guts to do what

needs to be done. I think the arrival of these Chosen Ones sparked something in

him."

Arthur kept his distance, using the tents for cover. Even though he was

invisible, getting too close to someone with high perception wasn’t a good idea.

It could give away his position.

As he walked through the camp, Arthur counted the soldiers, trying to gather

useful intel for the elves.

All the soldiers were level 20, similar to the elves, and their captain was

level 30, the exact same guy from before.

However, besides the NPCs, Arthur noticed a group of 3 players there...

’Players are already joining the invasion? This must be a high-rank quest for

them!’

Maybe Arthur wasn’t the only one getting great quests at this point in the game.

Now, with players involved, things had gotten even more tense.

And speaking of those players, one of them frowned the moment Arthur got close.

"Is someone there?" the player said.

Arthur held his breath.