Chapter 503: 491 Please don’t take it seriously_1
Now it was late at night, and apart from a few soldiers on guard, most people had fallen into a deep sleep.

This time, the rats were well prepared. In addition to Light Body Skill and dark vision, they also had magical scrolls that concealed their breath.

Unless there was a legendary strongman guarding the city wall, it would be difficult for ordinary people to discover their tracks.

Just as expected, the rats climbed the city wall smoothly.

Some of them sneaked into the city quietly, while others crept into hidden corners, slit the throats of nearby soldiers, and replaced their equipment.

Disposing of the bodies was simple—tear a magic scroll and throw an Acid Ball to remove any trace.

To facilitate the rats’ work, Gaz had done everything he could to find a large number of magic items for them, making them quite wealthy.

The rats’ work was clean and efficient, and so far, it seemed that no one in the city had noticed them.

Time passed, and before they knew it, a week had gone by.

During this time, apart from their daily mutual surveillance, all was relatively quiet between Pierce Castle and Lima Fortress.

However, in these quiet days, the rats who had infiltrated Lima Fortress were constantly searching for any information they could find.

One evening, a week later, several crows landed in a dark corner of the city as usual.

When a shadow quietly approached and stuffed something into a crow’s beak, the crows took off again, leaving Lima Fortress behind.

That night, detailed information about the situation within Lima Fortress was laid out on Gaz’s table.

In fact, the information the rats could obtain was quite limited; it was difficult for them to infiltrate the upper echelons of the fortress within such a short period of time.

But even this superficial information was enough to give Gaz a headache.

First of all, there were just too many soldiers of the Western Empire!

Considering the losses five years ago, it should have been difficult for the Western Empire to muster so many soldiers with their population and standing army.

Although the Western Empire had taken a large number of young male refugees during their withdrawal from the Eastern Empire, this number was still quite excessive.

The easily discovered number of soldiers in Lima Fortress was estimated to be two or three times the combined strength of the Dragon Soaring Legion and human legions in Pierce Castle.

To mobilize so many troops in such a short period of time, Gaz guessed that the Crimson Empress must have nearly emptied the empire of all its male population.

Of particular concern to Gaz, according to the rats’ report, was that most of the soldiers in Lima Fortress closely resembled the original Dragon Slumber Army.

Perhaps they were slightly better in that they seemed able to utter a few simple words, but they generally lacked emotional responsiveness and required specialized care even for daily activities.

At the same time, these soldiers were well-equipped, with nearly everyone wearing heavy armor and wielding heavy standard longswords or two-handed greatswords.

Such a degree of heavy equipment would be cumbersome for ordinary people to carry. In the past, only ogres and quilboar with extraordinary talents, or elite heavy cavalry with strong horses, could wield this kind of equipment.

Not that Gaz looked down on humans; he admitted that there were many strong people among humans, like the Gale Swordsman and the empire’s guardian, who would have no problem wearing such gear.

But if this type of equipment could be mass-produced and worn by a large number of ordinary human soldiers?

Gaz imagined the scene and found it hard to believe.

After much thought, he could only connect this situation to the Dragon Slumber Army and could not rule out that the technology had advanced further after five years.

At the same time, in the rats’ reports, they also mentioned the teleportation gates.

Due to limitations in their positions and time, they could not get close to those special gates, and could only observe the situation inside from a distance.

Therefore, the information they could provide was very limited. Apart from the continuous construction of the rumored gates in Lima Fortress, the only information the rats provided about the teleportation gates was one piece.

The completed and tested gates had begun to operate, continuously transporting people into Lima Fortress.

The identity of those entering Lima Fortress through the gates was currently classified, and they lived only in the core secret areas of the city.

The rats merely knew that these people were allies of the Western Empire and that they were numerous, with all the gates prepared for them.

“Allies?”

Gaz frowned, pacing around the table, with Angelina and Saru nearby, their expressions not much different from his.

It was no secret that the Western Empire had allies, like Cordan or Oakland.

The former was mainly composed of various troops on the vast plains, while the latter was a free federation formed by many independent towns, similar to the former Dragon Bone Wasteland.

To be honest, neither was a particularly powerful force. In the confrontation between the Dragon Soaring Empire and the Western Empire, they could at most be cannon fodder and should not need to be hidden so carefully.

In the end, Gaz, Saru and Angelina studied a map of the continent for a long time, but could not guess who the Western Empire’s allies were.

Finally, with no recourse, Gaz cleared his throat and said coldly, “The information provided by the rats is limited to this. The rest, we’ll have to obtain by confronting them ourselves!”

Saru shook his head and slowly stepped back, as the discussion to follow did not align with his area of expertise.

He remembered Longfang had sent someone to find him, saying that there was an issue in Nolan Forest that needed his attention.

After bidding Gaz and Angelina goodbye, Saru left first.

After Saru left, Angelina asked Gaz with some confusion, “If I remember correctly, didn’t we agree to start the war with the other side in half a month or so?”

“Really?”

Gaz blinked, then chuckled, “Just forget about it, you didn’t take it seriously, did you?

But it would be best if the other side thought the same way as you, so our work ahead will be easier.”

Angelina was suddenly at a loss for words. She had always thought she did whatever it took to achieve her goals, but it seemed there were always people who went even further.

Gaz’s consistent belief was simple: as long as the goal could be achieved at the lowest cost, any dirty means would be an acceptable option.