Drawing Cards in the Middle Ages to Rise in Ranks-Chapter 413 - 98: Nikiforos’s Commission

Early morning.

Beneath the calm surface of the Black Sea, dark currents swirled.

The merchant ship departing from the Kherson Military Zone sailed slowly across the Black Sea, flying the Empire’s Double-headed Eagle Banner.

Although the Empire’s inland sea had shrunk from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, it had not yet devolved into the dreadful state of the Marmara Sea after the fourteenth century. The shores of Georgia, Trabzon, and Kherson were still within the Empire’s sphere of influence, and the Empire’s flag still carried weight. Generally, no pirate with any sense would dare to attack them.

The Kherson Military Zone was the gateway to the Empire on the Crimea Peninsula. From the North, an endless stream of slaves, grain, livestock, and pelts entered the Empire through this gateway, making it the most valuable point on the Black Sea trade route.

Many members of Constantinople’s Varangian Guard also traveled along this route to reach Constantinople.

"Boss, how many ships have disappeared in the Mist Sea Region recently?"

"Hmm, pass the order down, tell the lookouts to keep their eyes wide open, and watch every reef on the sea surface carefully."

The captain was feeling uneasy.

If it weren’t for the demand from the buyer of the ship’s cargo, insisting that they must take advantage of the recent "plague" in Constantinople and the high prices of grain, fur, and meat to quickly transport the goods there,

he would rather take a long detour than navigate through the Mist Sea Region.

"Heavenly Father above, let’s hope those unfortunate missing ones just accidentally hit a reef, rather than being dragged to the sea floor by a sea monster, plucked from the ship’s cabin like opening a shell."

He crossed himself.

Beside him, a burly young man hearing his words couldn’t help but laugh, "Where’s this sea monster coming from? If it dares to appear before me, I’ll chop it with an axe."

This was a princely youth from Russia, on a mission from the Kyivan Rus prince to board the ship to Constantinople and join the Varangian Guard.

The captain sneered at this, "Young lads are always so unaware of how the world works. When you really encounter a sea monster, you’ll know they are the true rulers of the Mediterranean, and even a Dragon Slayer Warrior won’t pose any threat to these beasts while standing on a wobbling deck."

The young man scoffed, "Cowardly Greeks, you’ll soon find out."

...

At the sea bottom, the Ghost Ship, soaked by seawater for an unknown length of time, had rotted and blackened, covered in a layer of green algae and a large area of barnacles, now flickering with a ghostly green glow.

On the deck, a strong and majestic unicorn nightmare horse, draped in full armor, stood like a steel giant, stepping on the rotted yet curse-reinforced sturdy deck.

It was quite satisfied with its outfit, though donning it was rather cumbersome, consisting of a head armor, neck armor, chest armor, body armor, and haunch armor. Once donned properly, it had to be overlaid with a layer of horse clothing, topped with saddle gear.

Except for the extraordinary unicorn nightmare horse, there wasn’t any warhorse of this era that could maintain such heavy gear under normal conditions.

Zombie sailors looked on in awe at this monstrous beast. "Eclipse" cooperatively posed in various ways, showing off its impressive demeanor to these unsophisticated and wild sailors.

Some good-natured people, familiar with its temperament, praised and coaxed "Eclipse" to perform a fire-breathing trick. Hog, the captain who was patrolling, overheard and kicked one of them sharply, cursing them loudly.

"Aren’t you idiots afraid of burning our precious ship down?"

The zombie sailor who had a leg kicked off showed an indifferent expression, "Can’t burn it down anyway. The boss’s boss wants us to take care of his precious mount. We’re just doing our job, not fooling around for fun."

"Damn creatures, even learning to use superiors to pressure me—drag him down and punish that fool to clean the barnacles off the ship’s bottom!"

Hog grumbled, deciding he needed a good talk with Losa.

Since he ran from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and connected with Losa, the unicorn nightmare horse had brought him quite some trouble. This energetic horse simply couldn’t stay quiet in the narrow cabin; it was too noisy.

"You completed a milestone: Military Zone General [with at least fifty Armored Cavalry under your command]. It’s been a long time since Losa left the Holy Land for Cyprus, and then Jerusalem.

With the number of armored cavalry reaching fifty, the milestone was naturally fulfilled.

The new reward received was a blueprint for building an ’Iron Pagoda’ cavalry training camp.

This reward was naturally very pleasing, as Losa had experienced the might of the Iron Pagoda. In the era of cold weapon cavalry, it was absolutely the top-tier armored cavalry, serving a function similar to the Byzantine Armored Cavalry Archers.

Both were extremely versatile units, capable of fully armed charging; retreating, they can travel light and perform skirmish archery; during sieges, they can dismount to fight on foot, wielding hammers to spearhead the assault. Losa planned to form them into a unit, certain to perform extraordinarily in the forthcoming holy war.

The upcoming great holy war, the jihad as called by the Saracens, posed both risk and opportunity for Losa.

Once he defeats Saladin, with his current power, gaining the greatest benefits in the war against Egypt, becoming the Duke of Cairo, Duke of the Nile River, or even the King of Egypt, was very much achievable.

But the prerequisite was that he had to win.

Saladin had recruited many super-ordinary layer powerhouses, while the financially strapped Kingdom of Jerusalem had no effective means to counter this. The pressure, in the end, had to fall on Losa’s shoulders.

After listening to Hog’s grievance, Losa could only console, "I’ll discipline ’Eclipse’. It surely was shortsighted on my part to bring it onto the ship, but for now, we can’t just leave it at some random shoreline, can we?"

Captain Hog grinned sheepishly, "I didn’t mean it that way."

"Now, where are we?"

Nikiforos’s commission was to salvage the rubies from a sunken ship in the Mist Sea Region of the Black Sea. A challenging task to others, but not so for Losa with the assistance of Captain Hog.

After all, that was a reward of twenty thousand gold coins. Losa had many subordinates awaiting upgrades, in addition to continued investment in the territory and merchant fleet construction; there was never a shortage of financial needs.

"We should be in the Mist Sea Region as marked on the chart. Should we surface and take a look?"

"On your ship, I follow your lead."

Hog was about to say something when he suddenly furrowed his brow, "There’s a big fishy smell ahead. It must have sensed our presence and is swimming quickly in this direction."

"Not good, its speed is too fast."

"Prepare for impact!"

He shouted at the top of his lungs.