Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Outer islands.
This was a primitive and wild area. It is divided by a river into the east and west. To the east was the territory of Amazons, and to the west was the territory of primitive tribes. The struggle between them had been going on for many years. Because the Storm Lord didn’t manage the temples very much, the temples didn’t spend too much power to pacify the indigenous people. The indigenous people kept the primitive totem belief, by which powerful spirits and demigods were born. Without the power of the gods, it was difficult to eliminate them.
This was a dangerous place.
Even when the Amazons traveled in the rainforests, they would be very cautious.
There were many powerful monsters, strange plants, dangerous environment, fierce aborigines, and all kinds of unexpected yet dangerous things.
Recently, around the northwestern islands, some foreigners appeared.
There wasn’t a lot of them, but they were very powerful. In a short time, they occupied part of the island which was 120 square kilometers. These dark-skinned outsiders look like elves, but they were more ferocious than them, and they were better at fighting. The nearby locals had all temporarily retreated because of them. However, sporadic fighting still occurred from time to time, because the aborigines were very repulsive of outsiders.
The geography of the outer islands should be mentioned.
Because of the great changes of a certain era, the outer islands broke and shifted, so that they were scattered into hundreds of large and small islands. The largest of which was the Amazon jungle, almost three times the size of Japan. Then there were other scattered islands—the larger ones were hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, while the smaller ones were only about ten square kilometers. These islands were relatively scattered and dense. They were connected by shallow sea areas and inland rivers so that the islands seemed to be a whole.
It used to be a whole island.
But a disaster occurred during the Arcane period, which led to its current form.
The drows were attacked by the locals here. They had not yet adapted to the primitive and wild environment here. In their eyes, the outer islands were more dangerous than the Underdark. For a long time, they lived in poor conditions. But recently, their conditions were better because the envoys sent out brought back a batch of important materials to meet their needs for the time being. Unfortunately, these materials could only support them for three months at most. After three months, they would return to hardship.
Dark Blade—Andri was not in a good mood.
He sat on the wall of the camp and looked around, playing with a dark blue blade. He had been in a bad mood ever since he received the help of the “Throat Cutter” and brought back a batch of important materials. It naturally wasn’t because of the help and request of Soran. As a drow, he knew that all deeds need to be paid back. Instead, and he was not happy with the objection of the high priest. The old woman refused such an important opportunity to help the race out of hardship just because of the words “humans cannot be trusted” and “surface creatures do not care for us”.
A handsome looking drow with a bow walked from afar.
Dark Blade ordered the gates to be opened then frowned and asked, “Lazerek, how are things? Have the locals made any new moves?”
This drow was a rogue.
Drows were very good rogues, and only they could go through the rainforest effortlessly.
The young drow jumped lightly onto the wall and said, “the movement of the aborigines is good. They only monitor the nearby area. As long as we don’t step into their territory, there should be no violent conflicts. However, I found that there seem to be more cannibal plants nearby. I suspect there must be a strong energy field under the island. Although it doesn’t affect the living, it will gradually mutate the plants. ”
Dark Blade nodded his head then frowned and asked, “What about those ants?”
As if he had thought of something, the young drow’s face changed and said in a low voice, “they have moved to the other side of the island, but I don’t know when they will come back. We don’t have enough materials or fire glue to deal with them. The next time they come over, we can only escape to the sea.”
Dark Blade let out a sigh and punched on the wooden wall, “Those damn ants!…”
They were terrifying creatures.
During his lifetime, he never thought that ants would be such dangerous creatures. When their number reached an unbelievable number, these creatures which look inconspicuous, could bring death, or even kill a giant dragon!
They were the army ants—and they were on top of the food chain!
When they first encountered these terror ants, 37 of their group were killed; including five high-grade professions, a talented Sorcerer, and a fighter who was about to enter the realm of legend. When the ants were all over the place, a fighter who was close to legend could only survive for three minutes. If they didn’t evacuate fast enough and had the help of a spell caster, the whole group would have been eaten by these ants.
The army ants.
A nightmare of the rainforest. Most of them moved on the ground but a tenth of them had wings and could fly.
These ants were too numerous to count. They preyed on any creature during their migration. They had extremely sharp mouthparts that may even nibble away dragon scale little by little. These horrible ants were the top predators on the whole island. The drows had even seen a Quetzalcoatlus eaten clean in just five minutes, unable to fly away.
If not for the rhythmic movement they have, the drows would not have survived on the island!
Dark Blade let out a sigh and said, “Since we came back, we’ve lost 8. If this continues, our ethnic group will become smaller and smaller. We might even completely disappear from the surface.”
“Damn it!”
“Why can’t we accept the help of that human? Even if it means paying a price; it’s better than seeing our people die one by one.”
The drows around him said nothing.
The high priest had been leading the group since the fall of the Dark Maiden. Although she was very stubborn and traditional, she had ruled the group for a long time and passed through many crises. Her majesty had been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Few people dared to question her decision; if it wasn’t for the fact that the group had been facing more and more difficulty, Dark Blade would not have questioned her decision.
“Dark Blade.”
A female drow appeared, she looked at the drows around the wall and said, “The high priest has asked for you. She wants to discuss something important.”
Male drows were mostly fighters, rogues or rangers; while casters were mostly female.
They still maintained the tradition of female superiority!
Dark Blade did not hesitate. He immediately jumped off and went to the wooden structure in the middle.
Many had gathered in the room; most of them were female drows, while some of them were male drows like Dark Blade. At the front of the table was an old female drow priest, who lived a long time. This was the high priest in the drow group. Although the Dark Maiden had fallen, the priest still could cast divine spells. Even though this ability had been greatly weakened, she was still the most powerful drow in the group.
“Tang, Tang, Tang!”
The high priest knocked on the ground with her cane to tell the rest of the drows to be quiet. During this period of time, there were many disputes among the group; mainly focused on whether to cooperate with the human who helped them, whether the human was hostile or trustworthy. Even if they believed in the Dark Maiden, they could not completely change their nature.
Cough, cough!
The old high priest coughed and said in a hoarse voice, “I just got a message from the Kou Tao. Maybe we should reconsider something.”
The high priest had many mysterious divine abilities; after arriving on the island, she had established communication with the local Kou Tao—even though their relationship was weak.
The high priest took a look at the others and said, “I just learned that the man who offered us help has killed one of the three pirate kings on the south coast [The Swamp King]!…”
“His powers are not to be belittled; even the sea creatures around the area had heard of his name!”
“I think we should reconsider the situation.”
What she said shocked everyone. The group had heard of the three pirate kings of the south coast.
There was a strange expression on Dark Blade’s face, he wasn’t happy nor sad. He felt that everything that had occurred was a little ironic. At first, he tried his best to persuade others to cooperate with the throat cutter, but in the end, the proposal was rejected by the high priest. Now after hearing the death of the Swamp King, one of the pirate kings; the high priest even offered to reconsider.
How ironic.
