Chapter 720 - The Village Chief
After finis.h.i.+ng everything he needed to do, Alex opened his token and realized two forces were trying to pull his token as if there were magnets around it. The first one was right under him, the place he buried his token. And the other one was northwest from his position. This was Firia"s token, so he flew toward this direction.
He didn"t forget to activate his Spirit Eyes to ensure there was no one around. He didn"t want to get spotted first before knowing what happened around the area, so this precaution was normal.
A few hours later, Alex finally felt the force in his token increasing, so he knew Firia was nearby. He flew for another few minutes and found two signs of energy. The first one had loving fire energy while the other one had rampaging lightning energy.
"Alex!" Firia shouted after noticing Alex"s presence nearby.
"Yeah, I am here. Sorry for the wait… We are lucky not to be separated that far." Alex nodded.
"What are we going to do?" Firia asked.
Alex furrowed his eyebrows and checked his surroundings. They were in the middle of a plain. It seemed Firia chose this location specifically. Although it was easy to spot people in a gra.s.s plain like this, it was the same for Firia. She could easily spot strangers that might have some thoughts about a new person in this area. They could escape after that.
On the other hand, the jungle or something similar disturbed the vision because it had many obstacles. Although it was a good hiding spot, fighting in an unknown and complicated terrain would never be a good option.
"What do you know about the Village?" Alex asked.
"We don"t know anything yet because I believe it"s better to wait for you. I am going to put on my veil right now." Firia answered while taking out a white veil. It was better to not show her face first, lest they would get into trouble. Unlike the real world where Alex had his confidence, this place was still uncharted territory for him, so she didn"t want to risk it.
"Alright. Let"s go to the village… No, I will probably go to the village with someone else and pretend that I am injured. After that, I can get some information. If we are alright in the village, you can enter as my partner who wants to bring me home." Alex revealed his plan.
Firia nodded. "We shall wait here."
"No. Let"s go to the forest. I will make sure it"s safe first before going. And I will summon Anya later." Alex smiled and guided them into the forest.
After ensuring them with his Spirit Eyes, Alex summoned Anya to think about the plan.
"All of you wait for me… Since Leoz is the strongest, he will remain here… That"s why I will bring… Fabio with me." Alex thought about his spirits and summoned Fabio. "Cut some of your sleeves and make it look like you are hurt. We have plenty of Monster Blood here, so use it as well."
"What is my job? Will I be the one who carries you, or will I be the injured one?" Fabio asked.
"I will be the injured one, so you need to carry me. Besides, I can ask them more questions with that type of condition, so try to make it more dramatic." Alex nodded.
Fabio looked away and said, "It"s not like I want to act like this, alright? I am just following your order."
"Alright. Shut that tsundere moment for the time being, unless you want to get some punishments from me later." Alex twitched his eyebrows, annoyed.
Fabio s.h.i.+vered and nodded furiously. "I will try."
"Good." Alex nodded and jumped to Fabio"s back. Before he flew away, he asked one last question. "Do you know their power level?"
"There is a Martial Lord among them. But I think he is the strongest."
"Good. I will seal my cultivation to Martial Grandmaster first. If I can seal Fabio"s cultivation, that might be better, but he can still play the role of my bodyguard???" Alex nodded.
"I understand my role." Fabio"s expression turned serious as he ran through the wood and arrived at the village a few minutes later.
…
In the village, the situation was rather peaceful for them.
Even though it was a small village, the building was made compact with bricks as the main components. The people were talking with each other harmoniously before Alex and Fabio suddenly arrived in front of the village.
"Help! Please help!" Fabio shouted in the village entrance before he fell on his knees, spitting monster blood that he had stored in his mouth earlier.
The villagers were shocked and immediately surrounded them.
"We should help them first… Call the Village Chief." One of them shouted.
"That"s right. Someone, go call the Village Chief, no, we should bring them first there."
One of them slipped away and brought the Village Chief with him.
"Bring them to my house. I will handle the rest." The Village Chief only spared a glance before he went back.
Fabio and Alex twitched their eyebrows, wondering whether this Village Chief knew something. From how they acted, he shouldn"t know about this yet, but the way the Village Chief acted really intrigued them.
Fabio tried to carry Alex but almost dropped him before two villagers came to them. One of them carried Alex, who was closing his eyes, while the other helped Fabio walk toward the Village Chief.
After settling the crowd down, the Village Chief finally came to them while releasing his Spiritual Energy. He said with a cold tone. "No need for your pretense. Speak, why would the two of you come here? I know that you are not hurt… And the fact that you are pretending to be hurt when the time has yet to come… Are you the challengers this time?"
Fabio furrowed his eyebrows, and Alex finally rose from his bed, acting completely normal. "How do you know?"
"It"s simple. If you go to the castle near this village, it"s my son"s castle. My son is an earl of this territory, so he knows more than I could imagine. He has told me something about challengers… And the fact that you are arriving today, it only makes my prediction true." The Village Chief snorted.
"I see. I thought our act was pretty good, but it was not needed…" Alex sighed. "Well, we just want some information about this place."
"I will ask all of your questions, but you should leave this place as soon as possible."
Alex looked at the village chief for a few seconds before nodding his head. "I understand. My first question is, what do you know about the challengers thing? What do you mean that the time hasn"t come yet?"
"I need to talk about this place first then…" The Village Chief nodded. "This place was built a few thousand years ago… You could say that we were the followers of G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses a few thousand years ago. When they sealed this place and other things, they made us protect this place from the invasion.
"I don"t know the exact details, but they said every five hundred years there would be ten people chosen to come to this place. These ten people were the signs of the battle approaching… You coming here is aligned with the five hundred years mark, and before this, there won"t be a single monster in this place because people must have exterminated them while the new one has yet to go through the portal.
"Those people outside are scared and believe you are hurt because they believe today is the day, and you are hurt because of the new monsters… Unfortunately, they don"t know the truth yet. If you go to the main kingdom, you might find something you are searching for because you are the key to open the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses inheritances.
"Suppose that you are going there and are recognized as the challenger; they might want to make a deal with you… Something like offering you their support in exchange for the chance to enter the inheritance palaces. Once again, I don"t know the details, so you may want to go to the Main Kingdom."
Alex furrowed his eyebrows and nodded. "I see. It seems we really need to know more information first before tricking someone."
"I can give you a recommendation letter to my son and have him give you another recommendation letter to the people in the capital city. This way, you can gain more access to information. However, I want you to not involve my son in any way possible."
"Why? Doesn"t this world want—!"
Before Alex could finish his word, the Village Chief shook his head and sighed. "I am his father. If he is going to the front line, I don"t know whether he will come back alive or not. I don"t want him to die, so this is a selfish wish of mine. Even if he begs you, please reject him. In exchange, I will also answer all your questions with all my knowledge."
Alex paused for a moment and looked at Fabio. "I understand."
"Thank you." The Village Chief bowed his head a little and asked. "What is your second question?"
"Why do monsters only appear every five hundred years?"
"I only know they are coming from the center of this entire place. If you want to know the details, I believe you should ask the people from the capital. However, I once heard from my son that these beasts could actually multiply itself, and after a certain number arrived, the protection would be undone and released. These monsters will be the nutrient for everything inside this place. Don"t ask about the inheritances as well, I don"t know the answer."
Alex furrowed his eyebrows. He just wanted to ask about the inheritances, considering it was their main objective here. "I am planning to fight those monsters alone. What do you think about it?"
"I don"t want to be rude, but I need to say this." The Village Chief paused for a moment and raised his voice. "You are insane."
"You—!" Fabio clenched his fists while Alex raised his hand, stopping him. "Why do you say so?"
"There are millions of monsters that will be summoned during the span of one year. There are four major influences in this place, and each of them usually has around one hundred thousand soldiers… And they have already constructed forts around that area as well. So, I think it"s better to go there instead of the capital city if you want to fight monsters.
"However, that place will be most likely to fall because they never managed to hold on for a few months before retreating back. If you are going to fight alone, you can go there immediately, but if you want to cooperate with the influences to grab the chance of inheritances, I suggest you go to the capital city."
"How about their power level? The monsters and our forces?"
"All are Martial Emperors or above."
Alex opened his mouth in surprise. "This might be bad…"
Even though he and his group were strong, they couldn"t fight against millions of monsters, especially with Martial Emperor strength. And there must be many Monarchs and Saints monsters. Even if they used all of their strength, including the True Spirit Body, he doubted he could go past one hundred thousand monsters a day. After that, they needed to retreat and recovered their strength.
However, this would probably be a good place to search for EXPs and Gacha Tickets unless those monsters didn"t give them anything. Suppose this was true; Alex might probably summon only Leoz and Nelson as his and Firia"s a.s.sistants in this place. Alex thought for a moment and decided. "I will go to the capital first."
"I think that is a good idea." The Village Chief nodded. "However, I believe you shouldn"t trust someone easily in this place. Although they might offer you benefits, there were some people that got tricked in the past and lost their lives. That is my piece of advice."
"Thank you." Alex nodded.