Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“Roasted fish?” Ham subconsciously repeated. He finally remembered that he specifically ordered the famous local specialty as a reward for himself just now.
Although the food of Holm was too dull and tasteless for the gourmets, the roasted fish of different flavors was still a nice entertainment for the short-time visitors of the place. For example, the roasted fish with honey on Landel Avenue was famous worldwide, and every visitor in Rentato would go there to enjoy it. Ham was no exception. However, since it was inconvenient for him to go out with his mission, he could only order the food with the wired phone in the hotel.
Ham was much more relieved after ascertaining the door knocker. He scanned with his divine power and saw that it was a young waiter outside. So, he went to the door and was ready to open it.
“Mister, please open the door. The roasted fish with honey you ordered is here.” Bam, bam, bam. The waiter outside seemed to feel that he lacked manners in the way he addressed the customer just now and knocked on the door again.
“Why the rush?” It was something unique to Holm. Ham had never experienced similar things in Dumute. He shook his head in amusement. Phone orders were only available in Rentato where phones were most promoted.
The moment he opened the door, the fragrance of roasted fish entered Ham’s nose. Right when he was drooling hard, two shadows suddenly lunged out of a corner. One of them tied Ham’s legs, and the other covered Ham’s upper half body, making it impossible to see or hear what was around him.
“Enemy!” Ham was both shocked and infuriated. He only opened his door to accept his roasted fish with honey, and he was attacked!
His muscles bulged, and his eyes were covered in vague berserker redness. Darkness flashed on his skin that was exposed to the air, while he jerked away from the boundary of the shadows.
The blood power of dwarfs was the intimacy with machinery. Their physical strength was relatively higher, but there was nothing special about it. That was why the dwarfs from the Night Highland could not activate their blood power like human beings. However, the dwarfs who failed to migrate to the Night Highland became experiment subjects in the Magic Empire. After melting the blood of the barbarians and the swamp gnomes, the blood power of dwarfs mutated into a somewhat strong blood power.
After their blood power was activated, the dwarfs would have a physical strength and defense that was as good as barbarians of the same level. They would also be given the ability of berserkers. Ham, on the other hand, was exactly a warrior whose blood power had been activated.
His strength burst out and dispersed the shadows. Ham blinked away to avoid the subsequent attacks, before he drove away the darkness that had enshrouded him with divine powers.
At this moment, the young waiter standing on his opposite side raised the tray that contained the roasted fish and knocked Ham’s head so fast that he couldn’t dodge at all!
There was no telling what the tray was made of, but Ham was dizzy and saw countless gold stars shining before his eyes. The soft meat of the fish, on the other hand, dripped past Ham’s eyes, nose and entered his nose with the fragrance.
Under such circumstances, Ham finally got a taste of the roasted fish with honey that he had long expected.
It tasted not bad at all!
While his brain was still sluggish, the shadows came back again. The ambushers launched marvelous spells again and soon broke Ham’s defense.
At the turn of the stairs, Buck, the senior policeman of Rentato, watched the intense but limited battle. After the three experts of the intelligence department pressed Ham to the ground and tied him with the armband and necklace that could restrain blood powers and divine powers, he said to himself in amusement. “Interested in dwarfs? Do you not know that the kingdom has been paying attention to them closely? The intelligence personnel got their eyes on you immediately after you reached out to Harold. Tsk. Roasted fish with honey?”
He was ordered to cooperate with the intelligence personnel in case the ordinary people around were hurt.
Nobody knew exactly who the God of Steam was, but the leadership of the Congress and the grand nobles of the kingdom had basically guessed. It couldn’t have been anybody other than Lucien Evans. Arthur Doyle could prove that Lucien navigated the dwarfs out of the Night Highland, and the dwarfs regarded Eternal Blaze as a symbol of the God of Steam after witnessing it, claiming that they saw it in Atlantis in their dream. Therefore, everybody considered dwarfs as Lucien’s ‘territory’.
For the Congress, it was merely a misunderstanding of the dwarfs and not about the dissemination of faith. In the kingdom, on the other hand, having been confirmed by Lucien about his association with them, Natasha had instructed the intelligence department to watch them closely.
Buck retreated after Ham was taken away. The operation ended quickly without causing any major fuzz. The traveler next door even did not notice that a secret arrest happened just now. He was still mumbling to himself, “Roasted fish with honey… does smell good. Should I order one, too?”
……
In the secret intelligence apartment of Holm…
In the basement, having received the report, Natasha decided to interrogate him in person. She suspected that it had something to do with the secrets of demigods that Viken spread in secret.
In a simple cream-colored hunting suit, she stood before Ham, her arms crossed, and repeated the information she just obtained. “Heit, the God of Craftsmen, defeated Okun, the God of Valiance, in the annual summer ritual. Afterwards, Okun admitted that Heit was an incarnation of the God of Steam and respected him as the overlord of the dwarf gods. Heit took the chance to announce his identity and sent envoys to contact the dwarfs of other tribes in the continent.”
“So, he got his eyes on the pious dwarfs of Rentato and intended to take advantage of the God of Steam who could not grant divine powers… Hehe, I’m afraid that Okun is no longer the Okun he used to be.”
She did not sound solemn but rather amused, as if it were not an important matter but just a folly.
The religions of fake gods which rose at the beginning of the War of Dawn were not weak. Different from the fake gods like Ell in the alternate dimensions, the gods of such religions were usually legendary, like the mother God of the earth, the Master of Darkness, the God of Valiance and the God of Craftsmen. There were about eight legendary fake gods.
As to why they were not restrained by godhood or affected by the gathered power of faith like Ell did, whose self-awareness and soul were disrupted by the invading consciousnesses, the Congress of Magic did not understand the reason at the beginning, but after discovering the secrets of the ancient sorcerers in the World of Souls, they basically understood what it was about.
They must’ve been the products of the ancient sorcerers during the studies of gods. Instead of melting themselves with the power of faith directly, they had replaced themselves with special divine items first and finished the melting at the end. The problems were less severe this way.
Ham was only one meter tall. Shaking his dizzy head, he was full of ire when faced with Natasha before. He had been faithful and refused to say anything until the lady who was more terrifying than gods and dragons came in. After her silver and purple eyes glared at him, he was so overwhelmed that his soul seemed to be cut and minced by knives, and he confessed everything he knew.
Natasha was so tall that Ham had to crane his head in order to see her face. He shouted angrily, “You have desecrated the great God of Steam. You shall be punished!”
“I do not like other people calling themselves God of Steam. Please ask Heit to change his name, or he might have no name anymore, because dead people, no, dead gods do not need names.” Said Natasha half jokingly.
Suddenly, bright gold light burst out of Ham’s body, and the heart of faith consumed him, turning him into a swirl of gold brilliance.
A voice of exasperation echoed from the swirl. “I am very mad at your disrespect!”
And the consequences would be dire… Influenced by Lucien, Natasha finished the sentence for him, while she thought to herself in amusement that the guy had indeed arrived.
The swirl immediately turned transparent. A dwarf wearing a gold, hallowed armor could be vaguely seen. He was holding a heavy silver hammer that was fully loaded with patterns.
“Accept your judgment!” Heit waited the silver hammer angrily, turning the gold swirl into the same shape before smashing it at Natasha.
A silver sword suddenly glittered. After a flash, the gold swirl was shattered into pieces, and the illusionary, hideous cracks cut the many obstacles in between through obscure connections and slashed Heit unstoppably!
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
Heit’s painful roar came through the last bit of gold light and echoed in the chamber for a long time.
Looking at the disappearing gold swirl, Natasha shook her head. “I still cannot carry out the power of the Sword of Truth under such circumstances…”
As a matter of fact, she could carry out the power of the Sword of Truth more because of her blood power and her hard work. If the common level-one legends were as strong as her, Heit wouldn’t have arrived recklessly to teach her a lesson at all.
Heit was a level-two legendary god. He thought that in a remote battle through the heart of faith, Natasha’s Sword of Truth couldn’t be so horrifying without really hitting the target, and he could deal with the general attacks. As a result, he suffered a major setback.
……
Inside the Atomic Universe…
Natasha looked at Lucien in amusement. “Ever since Viken secretly spread the way to become demigods, the competition of faith has become heated. Your steam dwarfs will definitely be coveted. I don’t think you can maintain them without granting them divine power. Hehe. How are you going to deal with them?”
“I don’t think it’s a big deal. That is not my path.” Lucien scratched his chin and smiled. “However, I am happy to do what certain people want me to do. As for Heit, I need to find a chance to ‘talk’ with him properly.”
Natasha chuckled and found it interesting. It was not until they discussed it for a long time that she finally changed the subject with great interest. “What’s the paper on your desk?”
“Basics of Mathematics. The mathematical development in the Congress is uncoordinated and unsystematic. I’m planning to sort through the knowledge such as sets and topology and establish a whole system. Well, it also includes certain mathematical conundrums and paradoxes that I haven’t figured out yet. I hope that the development of mathematics can be bolstered by working on those questions.”
