boyutpedia Page 269
Page 269
"In short, the emergence of the black hat thread suggests that the situation may be quite complicated. Ms. Kurosawa, please go home as soon as you have fulfilled your request, and be careful in everything you do."
She stood up, hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said:
"Although the situation in the Tendrils Village is still unclear, I need to set off for Dragonhorn Territory as soon as possible. My intuition tells me that the anomalies in the Tendrils Village are closely related to Dragonhorn Territory. I need to arrive as soon as possible to prevent some clues from being erased by time."
The half-elf paused, then suddenly stroked his chin and looked at Yashutia, who hadn't yet reacted.
"By the way, I remember Miss Kurosawa, you originally had a magic power level of three rings, right?"
"Huh? Hmm..." Yashutia looked at the energetic half-elf and said weakly, "But I've long since lost my touch. I only activate my magic when I'm writing magic scrolls..."
"It's ok."
The half-elf clapped his hands and said cheerfully:
"I'll teach you how to open a dimensional rift. All this stuff is ridiculous for a mage... Oh, and a beacon spell, just in case you get lost..."
……
……
after an hour.
As Yashutia watched Arterifus turn and leave decisively, her mind went blank and she collapsed onto the table.
"Damn, the way the boss teaches is so simple and brutal! She just used magic to travel through my body like that, without even considering whether I could handle it... Ugh, my back..."
She stood up unsteadily, supporting her back, walked around the tent, and stored all her belongings in the interdimensional space. Then she stood in the center of the tent, crossed her arms, and fell into deep thought.
"Going home is definitely not going so soon. These people here have secrets, money, and questionable social standing. I can't leave without taking advantage of them..."
A few wicked thoughts raced through Yashutia's mind, then her eyes lit up and she rubbed her hands together.
"I had just found out about a few nighttime trading locations. I didn't want to get involved here, but after what the boss said, my rebellious streak kicked in again... Hehe, anyway, the lich won't die, so maybe I can even help the boss find out some information she needs..."
Her words suddenly stopped, as if she realized something, and she was immediately shocked.
"Damn, why did I instinctively call her 'Big Sister'?! Did this stinky elf secretly use magic on me??"
Yashutia quickly used her lich powers to examine her body and soul, then hesitantly touched her head.
"No problem? Just a short-term elven blessing, something's not right... something's definitely not right. She must have secretly left some other magic inside me..."
She looked at herself for a few more seconds, then gave up in dejection.
"Fine, let's just leave it be. Anyway, the life box has been entrusted to my older brother, and that stinky elf is alright... well, whatever!"
She looked around the empty tent, and suddenly the words Atelier had just spoken to her came to mind.
"Family...? That's a strange feeling."
……
That night.
Wearing a hooded coat, Yashutia used a spray of sedative tea to incapacitate several guards. Then, using her spider-like gloves, she hung upside down from the eaves, crossed the dense, thorny tendril fence, and silently landed on the ground, sneaking into a secluded tent.
At this moment, more than a dozen refugees from Dragonhorn Territory had gathered in the tent. Their identities were very easy to recognize, because the people of Dragonhorn Territory all had a fierce and unruly temperament, which was completely different from the peaceful and tranquil people of Senhai Territory.
"Regarding the return of the lord's eldest son, which we discussed last time, have you made a final decision?"
"Should we kill him and take his place, or take advantage of this opportunity to control him and use him as a puppet to get closer to the capital?"
A rough voice rang out from the crowd. Yashutia frowned and glanced at the group, only to see them gathered together, discussing something in hushed tones. She scratched her head, not quite understanding what they were saying, but the way they were so engrossed in their discussion made it convenient for her to proceed.
"Huh, what's this? Oh, a ghost-faced flower. It's so dark, I initially mistook it for a human skin mask. Hey, this isn't Yanium..."
She touched her chin, glanced back at the crowd still discussing in the shadows, and blinked.
"I wonder who left it here. Does nobody want it? If nobody wants it, I'll take it..."
She habitually stuffed the ghost-face flower into the bag behind her waist, then took two steps forward and continued searching for materials that the refugees had left in their tents.
As a twenty-year-old girl with thirty years of alchemy experience, she is so familiar with materials that she can identify what kind of material and what part of it she is just by touching it. Even if she has never seen the material before, she can deduce its approximate properties by roughly touching it and relying on the material analysis ability that she has gradually developed as a wizard.
However, that's a story for later. In this scenario, Yashutia only needs to turn on auto-pickup and collect the unclaimed materials on the ground.
"It feels like a black mamba snake...and it really does! Take it, take it!"
"What is this? The magical essence within it is more active than ordinary materials, vaguely possessing a living quality. It feels like the 'Soul-Strengthening Vine Leaf' from ritual materials, its main function being to stabilize the soul... I'll take it all!"
"Ordinary cloud iris, take it! Fresh mango, take it! Ten copper coins, uh, that's a bit... oh well, since I'm here, take them!"
"Luckily, the boss left me a blessing before she left, and now I feel so light on my feet!"
"...What other good ideas are there?! The Dragon Horn Lord has turned into biscuits, damn it!"
"Never mind, this is a serious matter. It was just an experimental ritual magic, so changing the test subject doesn't matter. It's just that the materials used for the sacrifice have all escaped, so we can only capture some substitutes for the experiment. I don't know if this will be enough to explain to that person..."
The sudden commotion in the crowd caught Yashutia's attention. She paused, her brows furrowing slightly. The word "experiment" touched a nerve with her as an alchemist, and she instinctively wanted to move closer and listen carefully.
"Oh, right, I forgot it can already be stuffed into the interdimensional gap..."
The heavy storage bag made Yashutia realize something immediately. She scratched her head, casually opened the dimensional gap, and stuffed all the materials inside.
However, for some reason, when she closed the dimensional rift, she found that the scene suddenly became silent. She gasped and instantly realized that it was a magical fluctuation!
She hadn't studied magic in so long that she'd forgotten that magical fluctuations could be detected!
"I knew it, I'm still not cut out to be an assassin."
Yashutia sighed, drew a retractable sword case from her waist, and while using her belt to teleport outwards, flung out her longsword. A refreshing minty scent wafted from it, causing her to choke, and she grumbled under her breath:
"Next time, once you're sure the enemy deserved to die, just become a berserker! Stop wasting my time with all this nonsense!"
Chapter 274 Elf Side Quest 4. The Story of Artemis
"The bounty for capturing wandering elves is 200 coins for male elves and 300 coins for female elves. Anyone who discovers traces of elves or wishes to hunt them can come to the village chief to receive a magic-suppressing handcuff and several spears."
"Everyone, catching Pokémon is risk-free and incredibly profitable! Catching Pokémon brings wealth and fortune! Catching Pokémon leads to instant success!"
The rotten wooden sign, stained with old, dark brown bloodstains, was covered by fallen, withered grass, but was now mercilessly exposed by the bleak wind as the season was about to change.
A pair of dusty boots stopped in front of the wooden sign. The owner of the boots bent down, stretched out his slender fingers, and gently touched the bloodstains on the sign.
"So that's how simple it is."
Artemis straightened up, and there seemed to be a turbulent undercurrent in her lake-like blue eyes.
She calmly put on her hood and walked toward the village not far away.
Lonely High Village is located in the wasteland of northern Dragonhorn Territory. Like other towns in Dragonhorn Territory, it is desolate, disorderly, and impoverished.
Under the harsh policies of the Dragonhorn Lord, the villagers of Lonely Village lived lonely lives and lived in abject poverty.
The rice they cultivate has two out of every four grains bearing the name of the Dragon Horn Lord from birth. The tax levied on this rice is called the "Birth Tax." In addition, there are various other taxes such as the "Lying-Down Tax," "Single Tax," "Old Age Tax," and "Unnatural Death Tax," among others...
The establishment of these tax categories was so abstract that when the villagers of Lonely High Village saw these categories, their first reaction was not anger, but speechless laughter. In the end, they gave Uroda the title of "Taxation God". Anyway, there was no money to be made in this wretched village, so there were no lords or guards to govern them.
However, tax officials would still come to collect taxes every year. Whenever this happened, the villagers of Gugao Village would cry poverty and say things like, "The locusts and rats are as strong as monsters, and we cannot defeat them no matter how hard we try." After a series of tricks and deceptions, they didn't pay a single tax.
Although they could evade taxes, their harvest was indeed not much. However, the villagers of Lonely High Village were not particularly struggling to make a living, because just a hundred miles north of the village, the long staircase leading to the floating island began right there.
As a result, many people eager to reach the floating islands pass through Lonely Village, and the villagers of Lonely Village are able to make money off them. Given the cunning nature of the villagers of Lonely Village, although they do not openly rob or kill passersby, there are still all sorts of pitfalls and traps.
Things like food delivery being delivered to your door only to find out it's a man, riding in a metered carriage only to discover it takes a longer route, and ordering drinks at a tavern only to find the glass has been secretly heightened or lowered.
First-time visitors always suffer some losses, only to discover these pitfalls on their way back. As a result, they become increasingly angry, and when they return, they are filled with intense resentment.
Just like now...
"Damn it, Lonely Village, I'm back again! Get out of my way!"
The loud crack of a whip rang out behind her, and the sound of hooves and wheels hitting the ground as they bounced grew louder as they approached. Amidst a series of insulting shouts, Artemis, walking on the main road, turned around to look at the neighing old horse galloping towards her and gently stepped aside.
"Get lost... Holy shit!"
The vicious whip swept through the air, and just a second before it was about to strike the half-elf, the old horse that had just passed by her suddenly shuddered, twisting to the side in terror, and with a loud crash, threw the carriage it was pulling over onto the roadside.
Artemis turned to look at the nag, seeing in its terrified eyes a natural awe of higher life forms. She tilted her head, saw that the people in the carriage were only knocked unconscious and otherwise unharmed, shook her head, and turned to leave.
Although the family crest engraved on the carriage looked like that of a noble from a floating island, what did that have to do with her? She was just an ordinary passing elf.
……
The reason for passing through Lonely Village was not only because it was one of the closest villages after leaving Senhai, but also because of Arterifus's own historical reasons.
That dates back to before they were captured and imprisoned in the dungeon. By then, Herod City had long since collapsed, and the elves had almost disappeared from the continent.
Because the elves scattered throughout the world were recalled when Herod began to fall, almost all the elves perished along with Herod, except for a few.
Artemis, who had been wandering for many years, was clearly unaware of what this symbolized. Even though she lived in human society, she did not integrate into it much. Instead, she lived with several other younger elves in the remaining elven camps in various places.
This meant she was destined to be unable to learn about the changes in human society in time. So, when she followed the traces of the fall of Herod City to Dragonhorn Territory, she was quickly captured, put in magic-suppressing shackles, and sent to Golden City, the main city of Dragonhorn Territory.
But that wasn't her fault...
Wearing a hood, Artemis stood in front of a small wooden house, peeked at the dilapidated fence beside it, and calmly knocked on the door.
Thump, thump!
"Who?!"
An old voice shouted, as if filled with thick, turbid phlegm. He walked heavily to the door and pulled open the rotten, blackened wooden door.
With a piercing creak, a cunning old man with a wrinkled face poked his head out from inside the door. He glanced at Ateliers, who was wearing a hood, and his expression immediately changed. He then slammed the door shut.
A crackling sound came from inside the door. Artemis listened for a moment, then placed her hand on the door. With a tremor of the wood, the old wooden door seemed to automatically move back a few steps, making room for it.
She glanced inside and saw the cunning old man grab a long shovel from the pile of garbage and charging straight at her with a loud, incoherent roar.
hum...
A strange buzzing sound emanated from all the wooden utensils. The old man was startled and trembled as he looked up at Ateliers in the doorway.
In the shadows cast by the backlight, the half-elf's lake-blue eyes reflected the darkness of the room, as if he were about to sweep away all the murky things with a powerful will, accumulating a terrifying aura.
Even so, the darkness slowly sank to the bottom of the water. Atelier took a small step back, looked up at the desolate and rugged daylight of Dragonhorn Territory, and the bright sunlight fell into her crystal eyes, making her light blue eyes as clear and bright as diamonds.
Her eyes flickered for a moment, then she looked down at the bewildered old man and said in a low, hoarse voice:
"Have you received your three hundred gold coins?"
The old man trembled violently, his long shovel fell to the ground, and he immediately knelt down with a thud, crying out in terror:
"My lord elf, spare me!"