Death Notice Book 8: Chapter 2: The Elf Caravan

Release Date: 2026-05-22 17:22:49

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Volume 2 Chapter 31: Combat Model »

A caravan was not an army, so it was impossible for there to be no women at all during the journey. Moreover, since the Shattered Starry Sky chose this attacked caravan as the targets for the Apostles to possess, it meant there were at least three women in the group.

“Stark, it seems they were kidnapped by bandits. Perhaps the other side is a group of slaver thieves,” Philip rubbed his hands together, looking somewhat excited, which made Qin Lun feel a bit surprised.

In fact, because Qin Lun had almost never joined a mature Apostle team, he was not very familiar with the most common mission processes of Apostle teams. In the young man’s view, Stark and the others’ neglect of investigating the campsite was somewhat inappropriate, while Stark and the others were more accustomed to facing the mission itself directly.

The reason was simple: it was because their attitudes toward the Quest World were completely different.

The Apostles of the Fortress Team, especially the Second-Order Apostles, had experienced no less than twenty or thirty Quest Worlds. For them, the side plots in the Quest Worlds were just too many. Focusing their attention on the most obvious and crucial hints from the Star Void helped them trigger the main plotline as quickly as possible.

Had the other Apostles in the Fortress discovered other clues at the campsite? Maybe yes, maybe no. Perhaps, given the current team disagreements, they would only tell Stark and Philip separately, adding weight to their respective factions’ struggle for team leadership, rather than sharing information.

Or maybe they found some suspicious points, but compared to the disappearance of the three female Apostles, they felt it wasn’t important enough and didn’t speak up immediately, to avoid interfering with the two leaders’ judgment.

But Qin Lun was different. He didn’t have as much selfish motive regarding the Fortress Team. From the current perspective, he hoped more that the Fortress could gain huge benefits in this Quest World, allowing him to safely get a good evaluation so he could gain recognition from the Tianfu Team.

Of course, this wasn’t the biggest difference between Qin Lun and the Fortress Team regarding the campsite incident. Their biggest difference was their attitude toward the Quest World. The Apostles of the Fortress Team viewed Otherworld Missions as matters of life and death, treading carefully as if on thin ice, while Qin Lun saw Otherworld Missions as adventurous fun.

The Fortress Team had developed a customary process for executing Otherworld Missions, which was also the principle of most small Apostle teams. First, ignore the minor side plots and follow the prompts of the Shattered Starry Sky to go straight for the main plotline. Only after completing the main plotline would they consider the side plots.

Second, the entire team obeyed only one voice. Besides the Leader, no one else tried to be clever. Apostle teams didn’t have many people to begin with; if you voiced one opinion and I voiced another, how could they accomplish the mission?

This principle of small teams had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that they could unite as one, and in most cases, they could complete the main plotline of the Quest World based on the hints from the Star Void.

The disadvantage was that they didn’t explore the plotlines of the Quest World deeply enough, the efficiency of obtaining mission rewards wasn’t high, and it easily made the lower-ranking team members dependent on the higher-ranking members. Over time, this would wear away their independent thinking. Once they encountered high-freedom missions like team rank-ups or large team battles, these small teams would suffer casualties.

In fact, this was also the main purpose of the Shattered Starry Sky giving guidance clues to the Apostles. It needed the Apostles to increase the Main Quest completion rate in order to develop the Quest World and plunder the World Origin. If the Apostles ignored its guidance hints and wanted to deeply explore better and more Historical Plot, that was also possible, but then they had to explore on their own, just like Qin Lun did.

However, not everyone had Qin Lun’s intelligence. If everyone treated the Quest World like an adventure trip, how low would the Mission Completion Rate be? The Shattered Starry Sky also needed to expend resources to send Apostles into Quest Worlds; it couldn’t be wasted arbitrarily.

When the Apostles’ strength reached a certain bottleneck, the Star Void would naturally select the smartest and most powerful few among them through a fight-to-the-death selection process to carry out high-difficulty missions. In other words, the Shattered Starry Sky wanted tools as smart as Qin Lun, but it didn’t need all Apostles to imitate him, because ordinary people couldn’t learn it.

“We can’t contact them through the Team Channel. Could it be that the Star Void dropped the team at two locations more than ten kilometers apart?” Stark was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke with a somewhat unpleasant expression.

The communication distance of a proper Apostle Team Channel was very far, which was also one of the conveniences for Apostles in the Quest World. Often, Apostles could exert effects far beyond those of plot characters; this covert method of information exchange was an important reason for that.

“Not necessarily. I can feel that the Magic Element in this Quest World is very active. I’m afraid it will affect team communication. If it’s over three kilometers, we probably won’t be able to contact them!” Philip closed his eyes, quietly sensing for a while, then said with a frown.

“Hmm, Longer, go check around the campsite. Since the attackers took a large amount of the caravan’s goods and women, they must have left some traces of their departure.” Stark waved to one of the Apostles in the team. This Longer was the team member Philip had mistaken for Qin Lun earlier; he was an Elf Rogue.

Qin Lun watched the Elf Rogue disappear into the bushes around the campsite and couldn’t help but frown slightly. The adventure experience shown by Stark and Philip, such as the effect of Magic Elements on team communication, was quite informative for him.

However, these two were too by-the-book and lacked imagination and deductive reasoning ability, which disappointed him a bit. At the very least, from his earlier observation of the campsite, he had already basically figured out all the hidden clues at the campsite.

Although, as long as they could find those attackers of the campsite, the Fortress Team would definitely be able to deepen their understanding of the upcoming Main Quest and execute the Main Plotline better. However, that wasn’t the main point, and at this stage, it would actually affect the efficiency of completing the Guidance Mission.

The reason was simple: because the Team Channel couldn’t connect now, waiting for the Fortress Team to find and deal with those attackers might take two or three days. Adding the time to return here, it would probably be three to five days. Although they could still find the Magic Cup Court of the Qiongda’er Elves in the following days, it definitely wouldn’t be the most straightforward way.

Given the Shattered Starry Sky’s usual nature, they might miss some Historical Plot, and their mission choices would also be much narrower. This fit the Star Void’s principle of ordinary Apostles carrying out common tasks and elite Apostles carrying out high-reward tasks.

Not to mention that the Fortress Team probably wouldn’t notice anything; even if they knew, they would only lament their bad luck, completely unaware that this was intentionally arranged by the Shattered Starry Sky. Besides, providing multiple guides to help ordinary Apostles deepen their understanding of the Plot Mission was also beneficial for them to complete the Main Plotline.

If following Qin Lun’s true feelings, at a time like this, he would be happy to just stand by and watch what these people would encounter. However, the Fortress Team performing better in this Quest World might affect Sky Float’s evaluation of him, so he was a bit hesitant now.

“Qin Lun, if you have any thoughts, feel free to speak up!” Stark keenly noticed Qin Lun’s hesitant expression, as if he wanted to speak but stopped himself, and immediately spoke up encouragingly.

Although both Stark and Philip were Second Order, Stark had after all independently led a Black Iron Team all along, so he paid more attention to the performance of other team members.

Moreover, Qin Lun was, after all, a newcomer that Sky Float had inserted into the Fortress Team. In Stark’s understanding, Novice Apostles who could enter the sight of large teams should all have something exceptional about them. There was no harm in hearing his thoughts.

“Leader Stark, I have rarely followed team actions and have basically carried out missions alone. There are some things I don’t quite understand and would like to ask for advice!” Qin Lun smiled friendly at everyone, trying his best to use a guiding tone as he said, “What kind of difficulty would a Sergeant-level mission of a Silver Team roughly have?”

“I thought it was some question…” a few quiet sneers came from the people gathered around.

“Sergeant-level missions have little to do with teams or not; the basic difficulty is about the same!” Stark and Philip were slightly stunned. Philip immediately explained with a laugh, while Stark frowned thoughtfully, seeming to hear the hidden meaning in Qin Lun’s words.

Their Guidance Mission “Magic Cup Court” was exactly a Sergeant-level mission!

“So that’s how it is. Then that means the Guidance Mission ‘Magic Cup Court’ could be easily completed even by one person alone!” Qin Lun seemed not to hear those low sneers at all, and said cheerfully to himself.

As soon as he said this, the quiet discussions around immediately stopped. They weren’t fools; even if they were by-the-book, they now knew this new Apostle was implying something else.

“Qin Lun, if you have something to say, just say it directly!” Philip raised his eyebrows and said unhappily in a deep voice.

“Two sirs, haven’t you noticed? The plot characters we possessed include both Elves and humans, and the Apostles who themselves had an Elf Bloodline all revealed their bloodline appearance.” A gleam flashed in Qin Lun’s eyes as he said lightly with a smile, “Most importantly, the Elves are mostly dressed splendidly, while the humans…”

“You mean this is an Elf Caravan that hired human guards!” Stark’s heart stirred, and he rubbed his double chin as he fell into thought.

“Not necessarily. It’s also possible that the caravan’s leader was human, but was taken away by the thieves!” Philip curled his lip and interjected.

“No, that can’t be. The area near Elbad is the Delta Plains. Thief groups have no defensive terrain to hold, so they wouldn’t stay long. Taking women to sell is understandable, but kidnapping hostages for ransom is too troublesome and easily attracts official suppression!” Stark slowly shook his head, refuting Philip’s idea.

“I also believe the caravan’s leaders were Elves, not humans!” Qin Lun showed a slightly apologetic smile and nodded toward Philip. “This can explain why entering the Qiongda’er Forest and finding the ‘Magic Cup Court’ is only a Sergeant-level mission. After all, a human caravan would have difficulty seeking trade with the Qiongda’er Elves, and it would be hard to use this identity to receive missions issued by the Elven Royal Court.”

Stark and Philip couldn’t help but nod. If connected to this point, the identity of this caravan was beyond dispute.

“Qin Lun, continue!” Stark smiled kindly and nodded at Qin Lun.

«Volume 8 Chapter 1: Elbad

Index

Volume 2 Chapter 31: Combat Model »