area51novel Page 440
Page 440
Latis shrugged helplessly and said:
"Then let it be. After all, I can't comment on matters within your clan..."
"Who says nobody supports you!"
Suddenly, an angry shout came from outside the gate, and then, a scumbag wearing a fake silver-scale breastplate rushed in, brandishing a straight sword that wasn't flaming, and pointed it at the several surprised old shrimps, yelling:
"How dare you incompetent fools bark and howl about something as important as the continuation of our race! I'm telling you, I will support this outsider's team! We finally have a chance to bring peace back to the Mossy Tribe, and I will not let this opportunity slip by!"
"...It's you, you scumbag."
The old shrimp stood up solemnly. Although the straight swords pointing at them were powerless, they were still temporarily silenced by Zha Zha's glare. After a moment of silence, the old shrimp finally spoke:
"This is your privilege as the king's son. We have no right to interfere with what you want to do with these outsiders, but you should think carefully. It is the king who does not want to take action against the demon king."
"The king is the king, and I am me!"
The scumbag took a step forward, slowly forcing the old shrimps to the wall, before coldly saying:
“Even if the king stood before me, I would draw my sword and tell it that I would bring this all to an end!”
"...Alright." The old shrimp finally chose to retreat. They circled the slag and backed out the gate, saying:
"I will report this to His Majesty the King."
"It doesn't matter."
Zha Zha sheathed its straight sword and hung it on its moss-covered back, calmly saying, "Then let me see just how powerful the king really is."
"..."
The old shrimp looked at each other for a moment without saying a word, then took off running on their hind legs and quickly headed towards the palace on the slope.
Zha Zha coldly surveyed the mantis shrimps peeking out from the doorways to watch the commotion, and seeing them all retract their heads, it shook its head, walked up to Latis, and looked up to say:
"I'm sorry, I didn't know your intentions before, so I observed for a while. Now that I know you want to defeat the Demon King, then we are teammates."
"So your target is also the Demon King."
Latis stroked his chin, looked down at the determined look in Zombie's eyes, and couldn't help but laugh. He bent down, extended his hand, and said:
"Then welcome to join my team for the time being."
Zha Zha was taken aback. Looking at Latis's outstretched hand, he suddenly remembered the etiquette and customs he had witnessed in the human world a long time ago. He awkwardly extended his pincers, hesitated for a moment, and then shook hands with Latis.
"very good."
Latis clapped his hands, straightened up, and said with a smile:
"Boss, it's almost late autumn in the human world, and the nights are long. Why don't you tell us about the Demon King?"
"OK……"
Zha Zha glanced at the night outside the gate, took a deep breath, and followed Latis toward the room in the corner.
The constantly moving shrimp legs tapped dully against Zha Zha's fake breastplate. Seeing Latis glance at his breastplate, Zha Zha coughed twice, somewhat embarrassed, and said:
"Also, I'm sorry, the ones I sold you before were all counterfeit."
"That's alright, I've put them all away. They can be given to the apprentices to play with when we get back."
Latis shrugged and said:
"However, the craftsmanship is indeed quite good; even the fake ones have a certain level of skill."
"After all, I'm really familiar with it..."
Zha Zha sighed, then looked up and said:
"After we defeat the Demon King, I will give you the real Silver Scale Breastplate as a reward."
Chapter 427 Piercing That Light
The holy city of Romnia was as silent as a graveyard under the cover of night.
"I wonder if Snyder made it back to the village safely..."
Astin, bored, wove various headbands, baskets, and bowls out of straw. He glanced through the narrow bars at the chattering white-robed disciples in the opposite cell and sighed.
He was still wearing the disciple's white robes, so it was easy to guess that the disciple opposite him, who looked a bit old, was actually just an ordinary person who had secretly infiltrated the holy city of Romnia, just like him.
Judging from his old and tattered clothes, he guessed that he was not from the same era as the other infiltrators he knew. Perhaps he was an unlucky predecessor who had infiltrated many years ago, only to be caught and imprisoned until now.
This did relieve Astin somewhat. Since this senior infiltrator was still alive and well after so long, it meant that they, the captured juniors, were not in immediate danger.
"...Back then, the knights in the Holy City of Promea had just evolved into the 'Armed Knight,' a very powerful class. The various strange weapons that had gradually disappeared under the influence of the magic network, combined with the knights' own powerful combat abilities, suddenly shone with an extremely dazzling brilliance."
The veteran infiltrator was still eloquently sharing his insights when a junior member, who had been captured along with Astin, asked curiously:
"According to you, they should be very famous, so why do I feel like I've never heard of them before?"
A sense of curiosity also welled up in Astin's heart. He straightened up slightly, leaned against the cell wall, and pricked up his ears.
As a villager living at the border of the two holy cities, he had certainly heard of the Holy Knight of Promia and had even seen his heroic figure. In fact, he and Snyder had infiltrated the Holy City of Romia to search for the missing knight.
But the legend of the Armed Knights was too far removed from him, so he didn't know the details, only that there were several different generations of knights in the Holy City of Promea.
The veteran infiltrator cleared his throat and said:
"Armed knights are strong, but they are also extremely difficult to train. In the years after the rise of the Armed Knight school, Promia Holy City only trained a handful of Armed Knights. The most famous one among them was named Holnet. During the years she was active, she almost single-handedly eliminated the monsters roaming the Wilderness Territory. It's a pity that I heard she later became a Dark Knight and left Promia Holy City."
"Oh dear... what a pity..."
Hearing the sighs coming from the cells next door, though he couldn't see their expressions, the veteran infiltrator chuckled, nodded in satisfaction, and continued:
"There's no need to regret it. This had already restricted the activities of the Holy City of Romnia for a long time. They even equipped many of the white-robed disciples who were active outside with silver-scaled breastplates to prevent them from clashing with the armed knights. Fortunately, the two sides did not fight each other in the end, but chose to coexist."
"Why choose to coexist?" Astin couldn't help but ask.
"Of course, it was because the common people of the Wilderness Territory also needed the Holy City of Romnia. One Holy City could not reach the entire Wilderness Territory. At the same time, it was too hard for the knights to wander outside all year round."
The veteran infiltrator sighed and said:
"Furthermore, at that time, the Kingdom of Norard had not yet fully incorporated the Mountain Wasteland into its territory. The nobles' guards could only protect half of the Mountain Wasteland. As for the other half—the desolate land where the Holy City of Romnia was located—they could only rely on their own strength to defend the various villages and towns without any support."
“So coexistence is the only option…” Astin said with a hint of realization, “and the villages at the time even welcomed the White Robe Disciples.”
"Yes."
The infiltrator nodded and said:
"However, later, the nobles who had been given territories came to the eastern part of the Mountain Wasteland. The pressure on the Holy City of Romnia gradually decreased, but it also gradually became strange. That's when I infiltrated this place. It's been many years..."
He stroked his unkempt beard, smiled, and continued:
"I just mentioned the Silver Scale Breastplate. It's actually a very powerful piece of equipment, capable of dispersing and absorbing attacks. It's one of the rich legacies left to the Holy City of Romnia from the pre-dwarven era..."
"What's funny is that although this type of breastplate was originally intended to protect against attacks from the Holy City of Promea, it was actually designed long ago to defend against magical attacks from monsters. However, after the monsters discovered that it could also resist the power of light, it became a coveted item, and indeed, a few pieces ended up in their hands..."
Astin listened with great interest. In the current environment, although there are still some roaming monsters attacking livestock, it is much safer than in the past. Therefore, people's deep hatred for monsters has gradually turned into vigilance and curiosity.
However, just as he was about to ask further questions, a white-robed disciple suddenly appeared silently in front of them.
"..."
A silent pressure instantly weighed on everyone, rendering them speechless. The white-robed disciple's eyes, hidden behind his mask, swept over the infiltrators imprisoned in the cells, finally lingering on Astin's face for a moment before he raised his head and said:
"The clamor of light only subsides at night, and the Pope needs a good night's sleep, so our chat tonight is over."
He stood calmly in place, and suddenly a light emanated from his body. Then, the narrow openings of the food delivery ports in each cell began to slowly close, cutting off the last possible possibility of their conversation.
Astin's gaze was fixed on the white-robed disciple's face, and the disciple, as if sensing this, turned around to look at him.
The two men stared at each other calmly through the bars until the narrow food delivery opening was completely closed, at which point the white-robed disciple silently left the cell.
Astin took a deep breath, lowered his head again, and looked at the straw in his hand.
He glanced at the plate he had just finished weaving for a moment, placed it in the straw basket, and then selected two long, stiff blades of dry grass from the haystack and placed them on his lap.
His childhood skill in weaving grass has almost returned, and this time, he wants to weave a sword out of grass.
He once used a grass sword to kill a monster in the wild that tried to devour him.
If the white-robed disciple of today were no longer the kind and benevolent knight brother he once was, Astin would not mind killing the white-robed man who devoured that knight himself.
……
……
“If the demon king of today were no longer the brave and fearless elder brother I once knew, I would not hesitate to kill him with my own hands.”
Seeing the surprised looks on Latis's and the others' faces, Zha Zha said in a deep voice, "This is both my will and its legacy."
"How could things be like this..."
Latis took a deep breath, looking at the straight sword that Zha Zha had hung on his back, and the story that it had just told slowly surfaced in his mind.
Contrary to their initial assumptions of a power struggle, this was not a story of intrigue and backstabbing.
The king of the Moss Tribe was a lobster full of pioneering spirit in his youth. Like the young lords in all stories, he also traveled far and wide, risking his life to step into forbidden areas that no one had ever visited before, and opened up new safe roads on his own, more than doubling the size of the tribe's territory and the routes of the gathering teams.
However, the light absorbed by the vegetation will eventually be revealed.
Not far from the Moss Tribe, in a region called Spring Forest, an ancient tree suddenly appeared whose mind had been plundered by the Will of Light. Although it was a plant, it possessed the ability to move its roots. Therefore, under the influence of the Will of Light, it began to have aggression and invasiveness, and it also corrupted some special movable plants into the appearance of monsters, such as the Ball Monster, which was originally a kind of spherical grass.
The safety of the Moss Tribe is under great threat. Faced with the ancient tree monster slowly advancing towards the tribe, the king is caught in a fierce internal struggle: should he lead his mediocre people to fight the tree monster, or should he immediately move away from the territory and try to find a new home?
Both of these options could cripple the Moss Tribe, and as its king, he simply couldn't choose between them.
Fortunately, at this critical moment, the king's son resolutely stepped forward. Just like his father in his youth, he was brave, skilled in battle, and fearless. After making ample preparations, the prince set off alone to challenge the fearsome tree monster and successfully stopped its actions.
However, it too fell into the entanglement of the tree monster. Once, an explorer from the Moss Mantis Shrimp climbed to a high place and looked out from afar, discovering that the once young and powerful lobster now radiated a molten lava-like light, silently surveying its territory like the successor to the tree monster.
As for Zha Zha, this young lobster, who is not particularly large, is actually the younger brother of the heroic prince. When the prince challenged the tree monster alone, Zha Zha's pincers were not even strong enough to cut the vines.
And now, it is a powerful lobster.
Zha Zha had never actually met any fighters from the Moth Tribe; he had only heard about them from his older brother.
"That moth warrior wore a silver-scaled breastplate and wielded a flaming straight sword. With a single strike, he severed the monster's body. The warrior said it was heading to the Land of Light. It's a pity that your elder brother can't leave the tribe. I can only hope that one day you will become a powerful adventurer and go find the warrior's trail for me."
At first, Zha Zha didn't take it seriously, but the prince did indeed have the silver-scaled breastplate given to him by the Moth Warrior, and the prince would often mention the Moth Warrior with longing in his eyes. Over time, Zha Zha started to believe it.
Therefore, when the prince was trapped in the territory of the tree monster, the first thing that came to mind was to go to the Land of Light to find the moth warrior.
As for the location of the Land of Light, Zha Zha naturally assumed it was the source of the beams of light that illuminated the Moss Tribe every day, which was the legendary surface of the earth.