Lindong generally doesn't participate in the discussions between Rowena and Other Shore, but whenever she speaks, her words are unshakeable. As the saying goes, "practice makes perfect," and Rowena and Other Shore's mental exercises are naturally less convincing than real experience.

However, this caused great harm to the straightforward Rowena.

The little purple bat stood there dazed for a long time, opened its mouth wide, and couldn't utter a single word, with a tendency to fade in color.

Along the way, Ethan and the others encountered all sorts of bizarre monsters, many of which were familiar faces from the Empire's forest region. But the monsters here were much larger in variety and quantity, as if they were the real protagonists of this realm.

"Living here wouldn't be too bad."

As the sun set in the west, Rowena sighed after bidding farewell to a small group of butterfly monsters.

Rowena also discovered her own special talent—she was naturally liked by insect-type monsters, whereas Other Shore was a born leader of wolf packs. Little Octopus hadn't yet exhibited any particular talent, which she suspected was because they hadn't encountered any aquatic-type monsters yet.

As for Lindong.

Ever since arriving in this realm, she had been sticking to Ethan, unwilling to get off him.

According to Lindong herself, her summoner talent was an affinity for Ethan.

To this, Rowena could only sternly condemn Lindong's shamelessness. Fortunately, with her rich romantic experience, having chatted with every type of man, she wasn't the least bit jealous of Lindong.

Rowena even thought that if the residents of the Empire during Pope Julius's reign knew of this realm's existence, most would gladly migrate. Ever since arriving in this realm, she felt it was leisurely and beautifully surreal. Based on the rules set by the Crimson Queen, summoners were mostly simple. Even the most evil villain organizations and poaching gangs did nothing worse than capturing monsters in restricted areas.

Due to the absence of the concept of death after defeat, all the villains could do after winning was arrogantly mock you before leaving.

Having traveled across most of the Empire, Rowena could tell that the monsters' ecology was meticulously designed. Through this leisurely pace of life, she could even imagine the image of the Crimson Queen.

She must be a young girl who still held beautiful dreams for this world.

Other Shore also pondered.

The guild administrators were also divided in their use of powers. Essentially, it was about shaping the realms they ruled into their desired appearance.

If she had such power, she would probably be unable to resist carrying out drastic reforms on the Neseriel Sanctuary and even the Empire. The first issue to address was the mounts. According to Other Shore's observations, in recent years, the knights of the Neseriel Sanctuary had become increasingly negligent about their mounts. During Henry III's expeditions, there was still the Iron Guard Knight Order, with each member equipped with a warhorse. But by Henry VI's time, all the Holy Hall Knights had become "ground chickens."

In this era, it's already hard to distinguish between knights and swordsmen.

The map indicated that traveling north from Moon Forest City would lead to Misty Forest County. The Adventurer's Guild's map specially marked this area as one where summoners could encounter rare types of monsters that only appeared in misty weather.

Misty Forest County was shrouded in fog all year round, and the City Lord was a high-ranking summoner skilled in misty weather combat.

This was the City Lord's hometown. After making a name for herself through adventures, she returned to her hometown, Misty Forest County, and established a summoner academy for novices, teaching tactics for misty weather combat. Nowadays, misty weather tactics have become one of the Kingdom summoners' main strategies, attracting even summoners from outside the Kingdom who come to encounter a rare breed capable of weaving mist.

"Don't you think the atmosphere in the city is a bit strange?"

Rowena was the first to fly around Misty Forest County. Since their party set foot in Misty Forest County, the leisurely atmosphere had vanished. Summoners gathered in threes and fives, seemingly only feeling secure in numbers. The tavern no longer rang with boisterous boasting; everyone spoke in hushed tones, fearing they might attract something from the mist into the city.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the news in this newspaper."

Ethan held a newspaper called "Cuckoo Bird Daily," the most authoritative press in the Kingdom, named after the ubiquitous cuckoo birds. These birds, the most common avian monsters in the Kingdom, had long served as messengers.

Things were worse than they imagined. Moon Forest City wasn't the only city attacked by mechanical monsters. Under Rowena's superb prowess, it became one of the few fortunate cities among those reported. As for the less fortunate cities, many bad news trickled in one after another.

There were significant casualties among the summoners, and several border cities reported the deaths of their city lords.

These mysterious monsters, which suddenly appeared and defied the rules of the Crimson Queen, caught everyone off guard.

This bad news reached Misty Forest County and was further transported by the cuckoo birds to the center of the Kingdom.

In the initial battles, summoners from the border cities gradually discovered that these mechanical monsters weren't here to destroy the cities; rather, the cities were simply in their path. After breaking through the Kingdom's outer defenses, these mechanical monsters did not halt but continued forward.