Chapter 275: Chapter 88 Traces of a Devil
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Three thousand miles from the north!
This was a barren hilly land which once a lush forest. However, as humans began to develop towards this side, a large number of trees had been cut down, which had resulted in quite serious soil erosion. This kind of soil erosion directly caused the appearance of a yellow river, but in this world, it was not called the Yellow River—it was known as the Nile Donna river. It was the language of the Sindars which were the descendants of the Arcane Empire who lived to be over 120 years old.
From the south of the Nile Donna river, there were scattered villages and towns, which were the gathering places of humans. 300 years ago, they had been cutting down trees there. From the Lost Forest to the Dark Forest area, the number of trees had decreased by a third at least. Just like the Han people at the beginning, they cut down the forests in the upper reaches of the Yellow River for various reasons, and then completely led to uncontrollable soil erosion.
The Druids were of course greatly displeased about this matter!
There had also been fierce conflicts between the two sides, but because there was no strong Druid organization in this region, sp the cutting of trees did not end. However, after the obvious soil erosion, people began to pay attention to some problems and slightly reduced their logging activity. An industrial area almost started here, but it was finally crushed by various forces at its early stages.
At that moment, near the edge of the Lost Forest, a graceful and fit figure was moving forward at a high speed. She wore delicate leather armor and had a special emblem on her chest armor. A Knight in Silver. She seemed to have been on the road for a long time. When she saw a cloud of thick smoke in front of her, she couldn’t help but speed up her steps and rush towards the place where the smoke was rising. There was a village in front of her, but it was oddly silent; there were no sounds of animals or human activity.
A clear call from an eagle was heard.
Then an eagle flew down from the sky, and in a moment turned into a middle-aged Druid with thick hair. He looked at the Knight in Silver beside him and said in a deep voice, “there is no one here! I don’t know why the Druid Council suddenly sent us here to investigate. Is there anything important here? ”
The Knight in Silver had a serious face, “Listen! There’s nothing here at all, no living creature!”
The two walked toward the village.
The village was almost destroyed. There were traces of fire everywhere and there were many bodies on the ground. The Knight in Silver bent over and looked at several corpses. Then she said with a worried expression, “it’s not robbers! The valuables weren’t taken. It seems that the cause of their death is a little strange! ”
“Over there!”, the middle-aged Druid pointed at a direction after sensing something.
The Knight in Silver soon followed, and as they passed through a burned house, their faces became pale. They saw a lot of corpses, including men, women, and children. There were traces of a great fire. There was also a corpse that was burnt to a crisp in the center and many messy footprints on the ground. It seemed that many things had happened.
“The fallen?”
The middle-aged druid looked around then looked at the Knight in Silver and asked, “Or is it some other evil existence?”
The Knight in Silver’s expression was serious. She picked up a small piece of dark red skin fragment from the ground and looked at it. Then she said in a voice: “it’s a devil!”
“Come!”
“We must report our findings.”
“Damn it!”
“How did the devils from the Hells of Baator come here?!”
—
On the eastern sea route.
The half-elf put out his tongue and licked the blood on his arm. He had just been attacked and cut. However, the injury was not serious. As a pirate, he was used to it. Next to him were his men bandaging him, and some vicious pirates were kicking the surrendered prisoners, mainly crew members who had no combat capability.
“How are the casualties?”
The half-elf asked his men to finish bandaging him quickly then swiftly stood up and asked, “How many dead? How many injured? Are all the enemies cleared up?”
A very smart looking pirate ran over, bowed down and said, “Sir. Thirty-two died and about fifty or sixty men were injured. All the enemies who resisted were killed. There were people under the cabin who wanted to resist, but we also killed them. Everything is sealed under the cabin. We know the rules of his excellency Throat Cutter. We guarantee that no one will go down there. ”
“Good,” the half-elf nodded and said happily, “Do not touch the things below; you’ll get your fair share when we reach port Tylon.”
The half-elf then walked toward the ship that carried slaves.
The loot they found was not so important since there were other ways to get money. What concerned him most was the slave craftsmen who were escorted from the East. The task assigned by Soran was still the most important. The half-elf soon came to the bottom of the cabin with his men. Most of the slaves in the cabin were Oriental. They looked like people in the desert, but their skin was a little yellow; their facial features were not as pronounced as the people here.
“Where are the craftsmen?”
The half-elf looked at the fifty or sixty slaves in front of him. The eastern tradesmen would not transport cheap goods, thus the quality of these slaves was relatively high.
A smart pirate came to answer quickly, “more than 30 here are skilled craftsmen, and more than 10 of them are oriental gladiators. They will send them to the City of Wealth and sell them to the underground arena on the south coast. All these slaves are valuable. ”
Gladiators?
There was an expression of interest on the face of the half-elf. He went to an oriental gladiator and looked at the strong man in front of him. The man’s muscles didn’t look as exaggerated as many soldiers here, but they had a sense of strength and fluency. It was said that oriental gladiators were very skillful, and some had received the training of oriental monks.
[Note: many oriental Fighters multi-profession in monk and their training methods have incorporated the tradition of monks. ]
“Bring them all back.”
The half-elf glanced at the shackles and said, “these people seem to be useful. His excellency Throat Cutter would need many men now, maybe they would be useful.”
“Hmm?”
He glanced at the innermost part of the cabin, then walked over carefully, asking, “What’s in the cage over there? Why is there no sound? Is it empty? ”
A pirate brought a torch over.
As the light came on, the creature in the dark cage also appeared in front of them. Many people couldn’t help but marvel, and then someone suddenly realized, “is this? A Beastfolk of the east? ”
A little girl appeared in front of them.
A very small girl, at most six or seven years old. She was wearing clothes with broken laces. She had big eyes and white skin. What’s more surprising was her ears, which were hairy like cat’s ears, and a little cattail sticking out of her butt.
“A Beastfolk?”
The half-elf looked at it in surprise, and then murmured, “it seems that it’s the legendary catgirl? I thought this kind of Beastfolk had become extinct! I can’t believe there would be one in the East! ”
“Chiii!”
In the face of a group of ferocious pirates, the little girl seemed to be a little scared, but courage filled her heart and made her bared her teeth to these people; revealing a pair of obvious little tiger teeth. Since the period of the Arcane Empire, the number of Beastfolk had been greatly reduced and was very rare now. Their appearance was unknown but seemed to have been related to some sort of arcane experiment.
After all, the Arcanists at that time were trying to be gods—trying to create life.
The half-elf looked at it curiously, and then said to his men “don’t hurt her. This cat girl looks very rare. Take it back to the young madam as a gift.”
The young madam was none other than Vivian.
But they were mainly referring to Lilian because only Lillian would occasionally give them a lot of orders.
All the men close to Soran knew that Vivian was his favorite.
The half-elf walked out quickly.
There were already several people waiting outside. One of them, with glasses, looked more like a middle-aged businessman than a pirate. He came over, slightly nodded his head and said, “Sir. The cargo on the three ships has been counted. There are 26 cases of porcelain, 21 cases of tea, about 12 cases of pepper and spices, and some rare silk fabrics. The items should worth more than 50000 gold Derahls. If it can be sold to those local nobles, it’s estimated that its value will increase by 50%.”
After hearing what he said, the half-elf was stunned and muttered, “That much gold?”
However, he felt that something was off.
Because the things that the three ships carried were too valuable! It seemed they were the most valuable items on the eastern sea route!
