by Cobyboy
Chapter 42: King's Best friend
Heading towards the Jujelei River, Feihren had finally crossed the 'safe zone' of the Wolfenstein Kingdom in which neither beast nor bandits could be seen. He was finally within the territory that an adventurer would love to explore. It was a bit nostalgic for Feihren as this was the path he took together with Marvin when he first arrived in this world. It was also the place where he acquired the first [Demonic Essence].
It was late in the afternoon when Feihren had finally reached the riverbank. The sun was setting, so Feihren decided that it would be best for him to camp out for now. Although he could easily travel at night and wouldn't be bothered by anything, his body still needed rest. Having high HP is something, but suffering from a sudden [Fatigue] debuff is another.
"I have the 4th [Demonic Essence], though... It is useless to me for now"
Feihren muttered to himself as he remembered the Demonic Carbine that was lying dormant inside his Inventory. Although the Ancient Demon Lord blatantly attempted to escape, Feihren could not really blame him. Being stuck in something that can't move on its own is definitely a form of torture.
Back when Feihren was fixing the [Carbine of the Demonic Stallion] in the Wolfenstein Kingdom during his 'spare time', he was thinking if there was a better way to use the fragments of consciousness. He was fully aware that this was probably not the best way to utilize the demon lord's consciousness.
Although Feihren would admit that the carbine was useful, especially the WMD mode, he could not help but think that it was limiting what the Ancient Demon Lord could do. Feihren would not mind losing the gun in exchange for something else that he could use. He does not lack in firepower in the first place.
Looking through his Inventory, Feihren searched for something else that the Ancient Demon Lord could 'possess' in order for him to feel more 'free'.
"How about possessing some armor?"
Feihren had immediately thought of the possibility as he scrolled past the Armor tabs.
Although Feihren does not mind having one of his armors be possessed by the Ancient Demon Lord, the armor that was created through the game coding of Gaia's Paradox is not something that could be easily altered to such an extreme by the things in this world. To put it very simply, the armor from the game was incompatible with the items from this world.
"So... I should make one then?"
Feihren immediately went to the tab where he stored the [Special Blueprints] and found something that piqued his interest. [Full Plate Armor], the name was bland even though it was under the [Special Blueprints] tab. This was due to it being something that would need another sub-class for its creation, the [Armor Specialist]. Among all the subclasses Feihren has, this was his least proficient one.
Even though Feihren had decided that he would make it for the sake of the Ancient Demon Lord, it was still just a plan. After all, he had just come up with the idea and it would look stupid for him to return to the Wolfenstein Kingdom right now just to forge the armor. All he could do was set this aside until he could find a suitable place for him to create the armor. It was still too early for him to worry about such things while he was in the middle of his travels.
...
2nd day, late morning. In fact, it was almost noon.
Feihren had overslept due to thinking so much about how he could 'fix' the demon lord that he ended up not being able to fall asleep. Samael, who was sitting next to him, stared at Feihren with an oblivious expression. This giant was Feihren's night watch for when he was 'peacefully' sleeping, as sentient ores do not need to sleep. The night was quiet, so Samael only ended up playing on the riverbank. This was quite evident from the gigantic footsteps left imprinted near the water.
"Eh? You even caught something for breakfast? Good job!"
Feihren noticed the few large fish that were beside last night's campfire.
"Though I wonder if you actually eat?"
Feihren was pondering this question as he prepared to light the fire up again to cook the fish. In truth, Samael had only 'caught' these fish because of him simply wanting to play with them, until they ran out of breath and died... Samael watched with sad eyes at the 'little fishy' that he had played with last night was getting roasted by Feihren.
The man and ore duo left after the quick brunch and headed towards the destination Feihren planned to go last night. His target was the nearest trade city to the Wolfenstein Kingdom, Sechua City. In fact, it's the second largest trading center within the Shodan Continent. Although Feihren assumed it was the closest, it wasn't necessarily very close. It was still around 120 km away. It would take him a few days if he's just gonna walk, or a day if he's gonna run nonstop. If he was gonna use the Titan Slate however, it would only take around an hour or so for him to arrive.
"Hmm, but where's the fun in that? Eh, no need to rush."
Feihren decided to just walk and venture out into the deep forest. According to the map, a few kilometers from the Jujelei River, there was a small village of forest elves. Feihren had learned, after becoming the king, that a lot of different races actually co-exist within Nuwiell. But for some reason the Humans were still the dominant race. This piqued Feihren's curiosity as to how the humans asserted their dominance amongst the other races that had natural advantages which they don't.
Returning Samael to his gem-form, Feihren decided to pay a little visit to this elven village.
It hadn't been much further than a kilometer of walking before Feihren had detected some weird activity that was going on in the distance. Weird howling sounds accompanied by the shouting of humans could be heard.
"Some kind of beast or animal attack perhaps?"
The howling and weird noises grew louder by the second. It grew to the point that Feihren could not ignore it any longer.
Hurriedly rushing in the direction of said noises, Feihren climbed up into the tall trees as to have a better view of what was happening. But, contrary to his expectation, this was not a beast attack, or even something that forebodes danger to the humans. It was the exact opposite of it!
"Poaching?"
Feihren immediately noticed that these little, weird looking puppies were being dragged about by large chains and either being sacked within large bags or being caged within the carriages that these people were using.
The poor hounds were being tied up so that they couldn't fight back, while their mouths were being sealed shut by what appears to be a restriction spell from one of these hooligan mages. One of the larger cubs was fighting back against these poachers as he successfully bit off a good chunk of one of these poacher's arms. That last cub ended up getting whipped and beat into submission by around seven of these men.
"All right that's it. You little sh*ts are going down!"
Feihren shouted as he heroically jumped from the tree.
Chapter 43: Caught in the Crossfire
"Hurry up will you? We need to get these damnable beasts to the city tonight!" A bald burly man said angrily towards the people that were struggling to pull a single pup into the cage within the carriage. The poor little hound, which about the size of a football, was actually capable of dragging these men back.
"These beasts are strong you know? It's not that easy! If you wanna complain about how we are doing it then you do it! As if you're our boss. Psshh!" The other 'poachers' retorted as they continued to struggle to put the beasts away.
"What's so special about these pesky dogs and cats anyway?"
The only magi within the group asked the burly man, who seems to be leading this party of animal poachers.
"It was a personal order of a noble family within the city. The payment for this is good enough for us to last years without doing any more work you know? Good thinking in joining us for this mission." The man replied with a smug look on his face.
Aside from the macho bald man and four of his companions, the remaining five people within this group were known to be a good adventuring team from around Sechua City. But being a
n adventurer is something that never guarantees a stable source of income. As such, tough times call for desperate measures. These odd jobs were technically illegal, and most of these things were definitely not morally aligned to the oath of being an adventurer either.
Lady Caroline, the mage with these adventurers, could not help but feel guilty doing this 'animal poaching' job. Although killing beasts is a common occurrence when you have the occupation of being an adventurer, she had never done anything like this. It was basically kidnapping helpless animals. On top of that, they were doing so with such force that one would always feel a wrenching pain within their hearts.
The other members of the adventurer's party felt the same sentiment as Lady Caroline, but they could not retort. They had chosen this job as it was the safest and the most 'in demand' with the highest payout. It could be considered a win-win situation if one could swallow their pride for the duration.
On the other hand, the bald macho man leading the main poaching team, Myron Stalwart, is a 'veteran' in doing the dirty jobs that were given to those adventurers who could stomach them. Although his team was technically considered a party of adventurers, to the eyes of others, they are nothing more than rogues and hired hooligans.
The Adventurers Guild in this world is somewhat crude and does not systematically do things such as regulating offensive acts and misbehavior done by registered people. In fact, it was more of a profit organization than a place where people could ask for help. From collecting money by adding taxes on mission and quest creation to gathering 'inconvenience fees' for unfinished quests by, this institution was nothing more than a big scam. This was the reason even the 'purest' of people within the guild would often resort to such dirty missions such as poaching and illegal trafficking.
"Let me do it then, you idiot!"
One of the men with Myron took over the role of pulling the beast into the cage, but in doing so, he was now forcefully kicking the animal into submission as the pup slowly lost its consciousness.
A loud thud was suddenly heard as a man wearing nothing but rugged commoner's clothes could be seen approaching the group of poachers. Wary gazes were thrown at the man, who suddenly shouted,
"You bunch of scum better run right this instant or so help me... you'll be unconscious forever!"
Feihren shouted full of confidence as awkwardness filled the air all of a sudden. 'Eh, I guess 'unconscious forever' isn't my best punchline by far...' Feihren inwardly muttered as the opposite party had finally finished processing what just happened.
"Are you tryin' to be funny, old man?" A thin guy spinning a curved dagger in between his fingers walked towards Feihren.
"Old man? You look older than me you stupid looking twat!" Feihren replied as he threw a casual side kick towards the chin of this man. The blow cracked and dislocated his jaw, dropping him to the ground, dead in an instant. Feihren then intently stared at the others, who were now looking dumbfounded.
'Just a bunch of [Beginner Class] trash...' Feihren's boiling blood from a while ago was quietly simmering down as he disappointedly looked at the other three approaching enemies. Feihren had thought that the average levels for people in this world would be around 300-400, but he was definitely wrong.
'That explains why those Bainzen spies from back then were considered 'elites' huh...'
Feihren had thought that the average would be higher, as he hadn't met many people who were at the beginner level. The townspeople within the places he had gone to had either a solid level 0, which meant zero combat capability, or a level 1 without the subtitle of being a Beginner class. They were basically NPC's.
Three people rushed towards Feihren with a myriad of different weapons. Feihren merely stood in place as he condescendingly glared at the incoming 'attacks'.
*Clank! Clank! Clank!
A series of unprecedented noises were heard when the weapons landed on Feihren's body. It was not the kind of noise flesh should make against the sharpness of a blade. The sound was more akin to the clashing of two metallic objects. It was obviously the effect of [Pallas Skin] that made Feihren's skin impervious to these mediocre attacks.
Feihren's attackers immediately had their arms turn blue, then black. They became severely bruised as they received heavy recoil from hitting something that was akin to solid rock. In fact, it seemed harder than any rock should be.
"Arghhh!"
These three people were in such pain that they could only curl up and scream from the torment that they were going through.
'Pathetic... just a bunch of babies'
Feihren coldly stared at the weeping poachers as he shifted his gaze to the remaining people who were frozen in place from the shock of the situation.
Myron was looking strong and domineering at the start when he commanded his four 'part members'. But now he had an unsightly expression that mingled both seething anger and extreme fear on his face. He was taking a few steps back as Feihren drew closer to them.
Grabbing a spherical object from within his pocket, Myron hurriedly ran in the opposite direction, leaving behind the pebble-like object that dispersed into a thin mist that reduced the visibility of the area.
'Smoke bomb...' Feihren inwardly sighed as he shook his head, preparing to give chase to this macho man who was totally chickening out right now. Opening his radar and using the [Battlefield Scan], he could clearly see where Myron was heading. But something was odd about the scan, as multiple red dots could be seen right behind him.
*Phew! *Phew! *Phew!
Multiple arrows were shot and landed on Feihren's back. The arrowheads completely failed to pierce his skin, as they lightly bounced off Feihren's skin before dropping to the ground, leaving no traces of a wound.
'Glad I still had the [Pallas Skin] activated, or this would've been a bloody mess'
Dozens of arrows are being shot at Feihren and the rest of the remaining people, although Feihren was taking almost 90% of this so-called 'attack'. Clanking arrowheads bounced of Feihren as he walked towards the people who were still hiding in the bushes and above the trees, shooting all these arrows.
"Okay, you can stop now. Come out, all of you." Feihren calmly said in a strong yet caring tone.
"... You, you should be dead by now! You damnable humans! How dare you take our Spirit Guardians away from their rightful habitats, such insolence can never be forgiven!"
An alluring woman with perfect proportions came out of hiding as she angrily shouted at Feihren. Her face was completely red with rage as she shouted at him from close range.
Chapter 44: Spirit Wolves
The Spirit Wolves were known to be the Guardians of the Forest, and had lived alongside the elven race since the beginning of time. These mythical creatures are extraordinarily powerful as they could exist within both the Physical and Ethereal Realm. This peculiar ability is the reason why these creatures had survived for such a long period of time, even amidst catastrophic dangers and life-threatening occurrences.
The physical realm pertains to the natural embodiment of every living creature, which could be affected by the basic senses such as touch, smell, or sight. The Ethereal realm on the other hand, is the realm where the soul and consciousness of a creature merge, forming a mystical imagery within that could not be affected or detected by normal worldly standards.
Having the ability to switch back and forth to the physical and ethereal realms could be both an advantage and a disadvantage for the Spirit Wolves. Being in a physical form would mean that the Spirit Wolf could take advantage of its superiority as a [Mythical] beast against weaker creatures, but they would be vulnerable against physical attacks that are dealt by creatures or beings with a higher grade than them.
Being in the spirit form would make them immune to all physical attacks, but it was in exchange for being vulnerable to any and all types of magic, even amplifying the damage of some magic. In this form, the spiritual consciousness of the Spirit Wolf could then be destroyed, which would be similar to a physical de
ath.
Although the Spirit Wolves are [Mythical] grade creatures from birth, they do not immediately possess the ability to traverse into the Ethereal Realm. For the life cycle of these beings, they would have to pass different stages before obtaining such a heaven-defying ability. The Spirit Wolves have to attain at least their 'Adult' stage in order for them to use their spirit forms properly. Infancy and Adolescence are the first two stages before attaining Adulthood in which the Spirit Wolf could then freely be in his physical or spiritual form. An even higher stage could be achieved by the most formidable wolf within the group, the Alpha stage, in which one would have stronger physical and spiritual capability in comparison to its peers. Making them the best choice to be leaders of the pack.
