Capítulo 76: Chapter 76: Infiltrating the Military Base
After going through the tunnel, Zaos arrived at a huge chamber. The chamber had eight walls and each of the walls alongside the floors were reinforced with metal giving it an impenetrable impression.
Each wall had a steel door guarded by over a dozen dark elves donning metal armors with different crests engraved on their shoulder plates. These warriors were different from Almur and his friends, they were troops permanently stationed in the base and never went to the battlefield. However, their status in the army was about the same as front-line troops like Almur.
Zaos made his way over to the steel door labeled "command center" and showed the inconspicuous brand on his wrist to the guards.
One of the guards inspected the special brand on his wrist for a few seconds before nodding at Zaos.
"Welcome back, Almur," Said the dark elf guard as he nodded.
The brand was a method used to identify the warriors of the guardian clans. Zaos got the information from Almur and used his shapeshifting to replicate the skin depression caused by the piping-hot branding iron.
"Thanks. Is the marshal available? I need to notify him of my return." Zaos tersely responded. He secretly sighed in relief seeing that his disguise wasn't seen through. Although he felt no fear towards this group of warriors, if his identity was exposed and he was pincer attacked by this group, Zaos would be forced to teleport away. This was because there were more elves in the base and they were more capable than groups of elves he was used to dealing with.
The guard shook his head saying, "The marshal stepped out a few minutes ago but I will pass on your message." He said while maintaining a plain expression.
Zaos nodded and stepped away from the door. He walked to another steel door labeled "barracks" and showed his brand before being granted entry into the tunnel behind the door.
He traversed through the wide tunnel in a few moments and arrived at its end. On either side of a tunnel were two doors, one was labeled "female quarters" while the other was labeled "male quarters". Zaos opened the door to the male quarters and headed to the spacious hallway filled with numerous rooms.
Each room was assigned a number from 1 to 100. Almur's room was the 89th one which was situated at the far end of the hallway.
On the way, Zaos met a few of Almur's acquaintances who he recognized through the descriptions given to him. He maintained a stoic expression and interacted with them tersely before moving on to his room.
Room 89 was a medium-sized room that could house four individuals without getting cramped. It was a room with two bunk beds on its right and left sides and on the ceiling was a large air vent.
Zaos looked around the room as he thought, [The other occupants of the room are currently not in the base, and with the marshal absent, this is the best time to search the command center!] After making the decision, Zaos acted immediately.
His figure rippled before vanishing from sight. He walked up to the door and seamlessly phased through it before walking down the hallway completely invisible.
Zaos' steps emitted no sound as he walked back to the central chamber connecting all the other areas of the base.
He moved to the door labeled "command center" and phased through it. There was a short tunnel behind the door and at the end of the tunnel were two steel doors, one on the right side, and one on the left side.
The left door had the words "base commander's office" written on it in the elven language while the right door was called the "meeting room".
Zaos first decided to explore the meeting room so he phased through the right door and arrived at a rather compact room. The room had a large wooden table at its center and around the table were a few chairs.
On this large table was a map detailing the territory of the Dark-elf Tribe and some areas around it. There were two distinct types of wooden figurines placed on this map, one was white while the other was black.
Zaos got closer to the map and studied the placements of the figurines. He soon realized that they were all situated around the borders of the Dark-elf Tribe's territory.
[The black ones should represent the dark elves while the white ones should be the light mystics,] Zaos stroked his chin as he analyzed the map.
He noticed that the number of black and white figurines was equal but the white figurines seemed to have successfully invaded the borders in some areas.
[Weren't the two factions at a deadlock? Did the light mystics make a breakthrough recently or was the information about this suppressed?] Zaos raised his brows in surprise. Just recently, he had paid the information broker: Whisperer, and had received an update on the state of the battle, yet, the broker hadn't mentioned the loss of some territory to the light mystics.
On the map that almost filled the entire surface of the table, the southwestern and north-eastern sections of the border had white figurines firmly situated beyond the line representing the border. Although there were also black figurines in those areas, they had retreated to the nearby towns close to the border.
[The bases situated outside the four cardinal points are led by marshals, and there are two levels to this title. If the leaders' of the northeastern and southwestern bases are high marshals, then the enemies in those areas are too powerful for me to approach.] Zaos sighed.
The hierarchy of the Dark-elf Tribe's military was rather simple, the knights or warriors were the lowest-ranked members of the military, and above them were the marshals and the imperial commanders.
The marshal rank had the low marshals, who were mostly high elves, and the high marshals, who were arch elves.
The base Zaos was currently in was ruled by a low marshal from the Mandevon clan. This was one of the reasons he dared invade this base as he had confidence he wouldn't be exposed easily unlike the other bases.
[It's hard to discern much information from this map alone. I need a more detailed account to accurately judge the situation,] Zaos thought as he exited the room and moved to the base commander's office.
Compared to the meeting room, the office was much larger and had some decorations scattered around it. Among them, the most eye-catching decorations were the large painting of the marshal on the wall behind his desk, and a few octagon-shaped medals of honor below the painting.
Unlike the conventional gold and silver medals, these medals were crafted from a unique black metal called a death-rock. This bizarre metal naturally formed in dark places where lots of deaths had occurred.
What made the death-rock special to the dark elves was the constant release of the intense death aura it harbored. To other races, this aura was nauseating and repulsive but to the dark elves, it was extremely comforting.
Zaos glanced at the room before heading straight to the marshal's desk.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
Smiling_Serpent
Smiling_Serpent Sorry for the long wait guys, my exams are still ongoing so it's tough finding time to write. I only managed to get this chapter done since I am somewhat free right now
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