Late night. In a dense forest far from Aika City.
It was completely dark. The late-night, cold breeze rustled leaves. Occasionally, the humming of insects could be heard. These broke the silence of the night. There was a sinister and cold aura in the air. The night also felt abnormally cold after it rained.
“Zz zz..”
The sounds of slow footsteps were heard in the forest. When the fallen leaves were stepped on, crunchy and crackling sounds echoed in the forest.
At the same, there was a pair of dark-blue eyes s.h.i.+ning in the dark, exactly in the direction where the sounds were heard. The eyes emanated a dim glow, but they weren"t as frightening as one would expect.
These eyes belonged to Blue Maple.
“If you continue walking further down, the City Teleportation Scroll will lose its effect.” Feather"s voice came from his personal s.p.a.ce.
“Doesn"t matter.”
Blue Maple"s reply was indifferent. He had already dealt with the matter that he came to Aika City for. It really didn"t matter anymore.
“Are you going to stay away from cities?” Feather was doubtful as he asked.
He knew that Blue Maple entered the Elven Forest because he wanted to stay away from cities. This sparked his suspicion that Blue Maple was going to do the same now.
“No.”
“Then what are you doing?” Feather was even more confused.
“Saving on the teleportation fee.”
“Hmm?”
Blue Maple"s reply confused Feather.
Just as Feather was prepared to ask again, Blue Maple said something.
“Walking to the nearby Gong Liang City.”
“…” Feather was speechless.
He decided not to probe any further, as he knew it wouldn"t bear any results.
Walking from one city to another to save on 100 gold coins? What about the wealth that he"d just acc.u.mulated from the auction?
To Feather, only someone like Blue Maple would do something as foolish as this. It was a complete waste of time…
However, Blue Maple was in the game just to pa.s.s time. This made his actions seem a little more logical. Furthermore…he did save 100 gold coins…
He continued walking for another half hour. Fortunately, he possessed night vision, which made the journey rather smooth. He didn"t encounter any annoying wild monsters either.
However, the bad news was that he hadn"t found a suitable place to see. Although the game was similar to reality and not sleeping for a day or two was fine, Blue Maple wasn"t intent on doing that considering his lazy nature.
“If I can"t find a place to sleep, I"ll have to act myself.”
He looked up and realized the trees were roughly of the same height. Not one of them was suitable for him to lean on to sleep. As for any caves, the trees were simply too thin. There weren"t any caves that could accommodate him. Not all the trees were as thick and big just as the ones in the Elven Forest.
If he couldn"t find any other solution, he was prepared to chop a tree down and use it as his bed. Although that would draw some attention and potential trouble, it was still better than not having a bed to sleep in.
With his current attributes and his sharp Abyss Sword, chopping a tree down was easy. However, he still found it c.u.mbersome.
After some time, he still didn"t manage to find a suitable place.
When he was about to summon his Abyss Sword, he was stunned for a moment.
“Is there someone here?”
He discovered traces of human activity at the top of a tree. It seemed like an arrow had struck the tree. After this, he slowly discovered signs of a fight near the tree.
He discovered some broken branches lying around earlier, but it was very common for wild monsters to do that too. That was why he didn"t pay too much attention to it.
“The marks seem to be fresh. The fight must have had happened not long ago.”
This led him to the belief that there had to be someone nearby. It shouldn"t be a player. After all, it was late at night. It wasn"t possible for a player without night vision to still be roaming outside, especially in a place like this forest where visibility was extremely low.
Another thing was that not many players would come to this place. This was beyond the range of use of the City Teleportation Scroll.
“Is it an NPC?” Blue Maple was uncertain as he guessed.
Finally, he initiated the pa.s.sive effect of his Vanis.h.i.+ng Shadow. He entered stealth mode and followed the marks left behind from the fight. He thought it was best for him to remain cautious.
Normally, he wouldn"t use the pa.s.sive effect of his Vanis.h.i.+ng Shadow. He discovered that it affected his body slightly. Even when he walked in stealth mode, he would feel more hungry than usual.
It made him at least 5% more hungry. Although this wasn"t too much of a difference, he"d rather not use the pa.s.sive effect. After all, there wasn"t a need for him to remain in stealth mode.
He followed the marks and realized that they became more and more obvious. Apart from broken branches, there were clear signs of magic being used.
There were also…carca.s.ses.
They were carca.s.ses that belonged to wild beasts. These beasts seemed like they were very strong. They also shared a common point – they were demonized! Not only were there Bosses, but there were also demonized, ordinary beasts.
There was only one explanation for this. They were Demons and didn"t become demonized because of any mutation.
There were also a few other corpses, but they didn"t belong to humans. They were that of living beings that he hadn"t seen before.
These corpses were very short. Their heads also appeared a little bigger than normal. In terms of appearance, they appeared rather similar to humans. Some of their body features also pointed to the conclusion that they weren"t midgets.
There was only one explanation – they were Dwarves.
The weapons they used were also the same as what one would normally expect – special axes that belonged to Dwarves. However, most of the axes that were around these corpses were damaged beyond repair. They weren"t operable anymore.
“Dwarves?”
Blue Maple made a conjecture and pondered for a moment.
“Seems like the system did announce some kind of addition to life forms. There are already signs of them. Seems like it"s a design of the system.”
“If that"s the case…”
“Now that there are indications of the presence of Demons, it appears that it"s the so-called impromptu quests. Interesting…”
Blue Maple"s curiosity was piqued at this point. It was a type of quest that he hadn"t taken up before. It even involved a new life form that he hadn"t encountered before. How could he not be interested?
He picked up his pace.
Ten minutes later…
He could hear signs of a fight coming from his front. It appeared like the fight was still very intense. He could also subtly see flas.h.i.+ng lights, possibly the result of magic being used.
I"m on time. Blue Maple thought to himself.
“Are you going to help?” Feather asked.
“I guess so.” Blue Maple replied.
This was one of the reasons. After all, he couldn"t just say that he wanted to have some fun.
“I want to help too.”
“Black Eagle?” Blue Maple was momentarily stunned. He didn"t expect Feather to come out on his own.
Ever since he came to Aika City, Feather felt that any opponent was always too weak whenever Blue Maple performed a quest. Basically, he always remained in his s.p.a.ce. It was only against a Boss that he had the opportunity to lend a helping hand.
He came out as the Black Eagle. After all, he couldn"t expose the fact that he could alter his form. At least this wasn"t allowed as of now. Whenever he helped to kill a Boss, he had to make sure that no one else was around.
As for the Black Eagle"s abilities…
They didn"t seem to be different from that of an ordinary eagle…
Perhaps the Golden Roc"s seal was too much. Feather didn"t have many abilities as the Black Eagle. In his human form, he had gear and weapons along with weakened versions of Blue Maple"s Skills. These made him stronger.
“Can"t I?”
Blue Maple always felt that Feather was being petty, perhaps because of his tone of voice.
“Forget it, stay put. You should be more cautious with Demons lurking around.”
Blue Maple decided not to let Feather out. Blue Maple didn"t want to have anything influencing him in a fight. After all, the Black Eagle wasn"t really much of a help either.
Feather was silent for a moment but he eventually agreed.
“Alright.”
Although he was still young, he could still rationalize things. He was calm and collected most of the time. He knew that he shouldn"t appear at such a timing. If the enemies were too strong, he might even burden Blue Maple.
Very soon, Blue Maple was at the battlefield in front of him.
A bunch of Dwarves was fighting three Demon Bosses. Another bunch of Dwarves was holding onto knives and s.h.i.+elds, taking precautions against the Demon Bosses that might break free from the fight.
There were carca.s.ses of other demonized beasts around. It seemed like the Dwarves decided to kill the weaker Demons before dealing with the three stronger ones.
However…it seemed like they weren"t capable of doing so…
However, those Dwarves who were standing by and waiting could join in the fight, which would increase their chances. However, they would sustain more damages or risk getting hurt in the process.
Blue Maple quietly observe for some time. The only thing that left him puzzled was that the Dwarves communicated in a language that he didn"t comprehend.
“Can"t the system translate what they are saying?” Blue Maple was lost for a moment.
Even if it was a dialect of some African country, the system would still translate the words. The only requirement was that they had to be audible.
However, Blue Maple didn"t know that the language of other life forms had to be learned from resources in the library. It was one of the additional functions of the library after his cla.s.s advancement. He didn"t proceed to the library for the past two days, which was why he was in the dark.
Learning a new language was simple. A copy of the language book could be obtained at the library and a fee of 1000 gold coins had to be paid to an NPC librarian to borrow the book.
Blue Maple wasn"t the only one who didn"t learn other languages. Most other players didn"t either – it was simply too expensive!
If learning one language cost 1000 gold coins, one would have to burden a heavy financial burden given that there were many other languages in the game. Some of the languages also came from rather weaker life forms. There was no rush to learn anything now.
Blue Maple could only pray that those Dwarves that were perhaps more experienced were able to understand human language.
In fact, Blue Maple didn"t know Feather was proficient in those languages. But…
He intentionally didn"t reveal it…
“Forget it. I"ll just give them a hand first. I hope the system shows some leeway.” Blue Maple could only hope.
After all, it was rare for him to find something as interesting as this. It wouldn"t be great if he wasted it.
This was why he decided to make his move. He used a new Skill that he hadn"t had a chance to use yet – Great Rainbow.
From afar, he locked on a huge bear that was about to breach the Dwarves" defense. The bear was back-facing him, therefore…
A sword silently appeared in his left hand. Blue Maple suppressed any light that shone from unleas.h.i.+ng a skill. His aura was getting stronger and stronger.
Locked on!
One second of aiming!
Fire!
“Swoos.h.!.+”
A ray of blue light shot through the forest. The sound it made was terrifying and it was as quick as a bolt of lighting! It formed a blue arc as it moved. Marks were left on trees as this ray of light shot past them!
Finally, it struck the back of that bear!
“Boom!!!”