Colorless Powder

(Thanks to Shenzhiyuan for yesterday's 100 Qidian coin tip!!)

(Thanks to Liuyuetian's big brother and little sister for the 588 Qidian coin tip!!)

(Three updates every two days, and today's a two-update day. Sorry, but I need to vent. My book fell off the new releases chart, and Qidian gave it a tiny recommendation without even the title. That's fine, normal, and I'm grateful. But the problem is... look at the recommendation blurbs for the new game novels. Has anyone got it as bad as me? ~~TAT... People barely click on those recommendations as it is, and when they see the most inconspicuous blurb of the lot... who's going to click it?)

Solarian led the squad to a new place.

"It's somewhere around here!"

She hadn't given Kael'thas the answer he wanted, but she unexpectedly said she could sense the approximate location.

"Ding..."

"You have received the quest: Find the Trolls."

The quest notification had appeared, so this seemed to be the right place. What a gifted astromancer...

Kael'thas marveled at her ability and understood why she was always so arrogant.

Although Solarian said she couldn't foresee future events and had only sensed this place after being notified by another team, her ability was still unimaginably powerful.

"How large an area?"

Kael'thas looked at the dense forest and asked.

"Hmm, let me sense it."

Solarian led the squad around the area, then pointed out its boundaries. The area was a full three hundred meters wide.

"Your Highness, it'll be hard to find them in an area this big!"

Audilon said with a troubled look. Indeed, with such a large area and no idea when they would come through, it would be very difficult to catch the rogues passing through here.

Solarian lowered her head and apologized to Kael'thas. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. This is all I can do."

"No, you've done a wonderful job."

Kael'thas smiled and praised her, then turned to a ranger. "What about the traps around here?"

"The area has been covered in traps for a while now. There are no signs that any have been triggered."

"What about the colorless powder?"

"There's no sign that it's taken effect, either."

The male mage came over and answered. He had been assigned specifically to sense the colorless powder.

"..."

Kael'thas said nothing more. Walking slowly, he raised his head and carefully examined the area.

To the right was an uphill slope, with even higher mountains behind it. If Solarian's vision was correct, the Trolls probably intended to pass through here, travel farther away, and then find a chance to descend the mountain.

"Are there traps on both sides?"

He came to a sheer rock face and saw that it jutted out in the middle of the slope. His eyes lit up, and he pointed at the long uphill stretches on either side of the rock.

"Yes. In fact, the entire slope has been covered."

The ranger answered.

"What about on top of this rock?"

"No, Your Highness. There's no way the Trolls could get over this cliff. It's too slippery, and it's more than ten meters high!"

The ranger explained, patting the base of the cliff. It looked very smooth, and the rogues didn't have the Shadowstep skill, so they certainly couldn't get up from below.

"No, they can!"

Solarian suddenly understood. She pointed at the giant trees in front of the cliff and said:

"The branches of these trees are close to the cliff. They could easily jump across."

"And the top of the cliff isn't smooth..."

A lot of vegetation hung down from the top of the cliff, not far from the giant trees. If someone really wanted to reach it from the trees, that was entirely possible!

Kael'thas guessed that if the Trolls were really smart enough, they wouldn't take the trap-filled slopes on either side. They would choose this little cliff instead.

Perhaps they had made it this far so smoothly because they had made full use of the trees.

After all, hardly any traps were set in the trees. This was all mountain forest, and when they encountered traps, there were many places where they could find a way to pass overhead.

"So, if Trolls really do pass through here..."

Hearing Solarian's explanation, the other elves quickly understood. A moment later, they grew excited:

"Do we just have to wait for them up there?"

Kael'thas nodded, then quickly gave an order:

"There's no time to lose. Let's find somewhere to hide and lie in ambush for a while!"

"Yes!"

"Okay!"

Several rangers answered and went to disarm the traps. After leading the squad up, they reset them.

The traps wouldn't distinguish friend from foe, and it would be bad if they injured a teammate.

The squad members then hid in some nearby bushes. The elves' presence suited the forest, making them very difficult to detect.

Just like that, several hours slowly passed.

Just as they were growing disappointed, faint sounds finally began to reach their tall ears.

They're here!

Everyone's hearts jumped. They hurriedly slowed their breathing as much as possible, their ears standing upright and their eyes fixed without blinking on a spot thirty meters away in the middle, at the top of the giant rock.

"Rustle, rustle..."

It was the sound of someone climbing through the vegetation and vines. Though faint, there was more than one source. It looked like there was more than one Troll rogue.

"..."

Kael'thas tightened his grip on his sword hilt and listened intently. He silently recited an incantation while estimating the time.

Just as the last sound from the vines was about to fade, he suddenly waved his hand.

"Flamestrike!!"

With a hiss, a huge tornado of fire with a radius of ten meters appeared atop the giant rock, engulfing the entire area and all the Troll rogues!

One, two... it caught a full five of them!!

"Ding..."

"You have completed the quest: Find the Trolls. You have gained 4,200 experience points!"

"Ding..."

"You have received the quest: Eliminate the Trolls!"

Quest complete! Without taking time to listen to the Trolls' screams as they fled in panic, Kael'thas immediately gave an order. "Quick! Kill them while you have the chance!!"

"Haha, charge!!"

Audilon immediately charged ahead, with several rangers close behind him.

"You, the last ranger, don't charge! Hurry and set traps around them to cut them off!"

Kael'thas kept shouting:

"Priests, heal them! Solarian, you two mages, slow those rogues down at once!!"

The Flamestrike quickly vanished after the Trolls scattered. Since many of the rogues had activated Sprint, it hadn't done much damage.

Audilon and the four rangers each picked a rogue and attacked. Unlike Audilon, of course, the rangers didn't fight in close quarters. Instead, they kept some distance from the rogues, moving around and firing arrows.

The battle was unexpectedly easy. The Trolls were all low-level, and once they were surrounded by traps, they could only be slaughtered by the elves like fish on a chopping block.

"Ding..."

"You have completed the quest: Eliminate the Trolls. You have gained 4,200 experience points!"

The battle ended in a rout. Thanks to the protection of six priests, the squad members had suffered little damage, and Kael'thas had completed the quest very quickly.

"Wait..."

As he watched the squad members happily moving the Trolls' corpses to put them somewhere suitable, a sudden idea flashed through Kael'thas's mind, and he stopped them for the moment.

"Is there any colorless powder left?"

He turned to ask Solarian. She searched her belongings, took out a small pouch half the size of her palm, and nodded. "There's this much left."

"Give me a little."

Kael'thas took a little from the pouch, then walked over to a Troll's corpse and sprinkled the colorless powder on it.

"Any reaction?"

After a few seconds, he turned and asked the male mage.

"Yes."

The male mage didn't know why he was asking and answered in confusion, "I can sense that the colorless powder has been sprinkled on the Troll."

Does His Highness suspect something?

But there's nothing unusual, is there?

The squad members looked at one another, somewhat puzzled.

"Was I wrong..."

Kael'thas sighed. He had only suddenly wondered whether the colorless powder had stopped working. After all, even if the Trolls could avoid the traps, how had they avoided so much colorless powder?

"Ding..."

"You have received the quest: Investigate the Colorless Powder!"

What!!!

A new quest? Did he trigger it himself?

Kael'thas's heart tightened. Did that mean there really was something fishy about the colorless powder?

It seemed he hadn't been overthinking it...

But how was he supposed to go about completing this quest?