Chapter 78: Buried Treasure
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The excitent in Lancaster City changed nothing in Grey Fjord Port, many miles away.
Now that she understood the significance of Warty Tidal Flat to the frogn tribe, Princess Leah abandoned her plans to lay an ambush for their enemies there. After so discussion with the leaders of the various player parties, they decided to attack from the woods about two kiloters away from the cliffs. According to Edward, who’d infiltrated the Society of the Secret Eye to provide information on where they were gathered, unless the enemy forces purposely extended their route by another fifteen or sixteen kiloters to go around the woods, they would definitely be passing through there.
The scouts they’d sent to spy on the Secret Eye’s camps had been discovered by the enemy, and imdiately slain. Things were really getting exciting now.
Currently, the players still lacked the ability to exchange instant ssages over long distances, but party leaders were able to monitor the status of their teammates. When those scouts fell afoul of the enemy sortie, they used a code that had been arranged ahead of ti, applying a certain series of buffs upon themselves in a specific order. With this rudintary coded ssage, they were able to inform their team leaders—a dozen kiloters away—that the enemy was on the move.
In response to this alert, the players leapt into action.
Transportation thods in this setting were generally unimpressive. Ordinary people travelling in such weather should only be able to move at a crawl. At best, they could maybe get so sleds, and sohow find so Huskies to pull them through the snow. The warrior-type classes were unable to use magic to summon up any mounts, but they could run at the speed of bullet trains, and easily surpass the speed of sound. Inclent weather ant nothing to them.
The mbers of the Society of the Secret Eye couldn’t co anywhere close to such superhuman feats. Even Black Whip, the mightiest among them, was only comparable to a player at Level 40 or so. Without any high-level divine gifts, he probably couldn’t even go toe-to-toe with a high priest of the Rotten Bones. All things considered, the very fastest he could go was only at about the speed of a horse-drawn chariot.
Moving out imdiately upon receiving that signal from the scouts, the players were easily able to find good ambush positions, and lay in wait to catch the Secret Eye troops by surprise.
Xi Wei himself granted all the participating players a limited-ti consumable item, Eggnog: Even if they had to lie in the freezing snow for half the day, one mouthful of that Eggnog and they’d be back on their feet at full strength, untouched by the cold!
Besides that, perhaps inspired by the players’ astounding abilities, the normally sedate frogn had beco alive with energy, positively swarming from the nest to assist the players with their ambush on the Society of the Secret Eye!
Even the frogman elder had produced so long, crooked staff from a corner of his great conch shell of a ho, and ca following after them along with Croakatoa. In his own words, this ambush would do little to help their situation, but he would co along anyway, and support his fellow frogn with combat buffs.
This ant there was no one in the frogn village at the mont.
To the frogn, this would be a last, desperate stand. Removing themselves from their hos ant distancing themselves from distractions. Whatever might happen to those empty houses was of no concern to them now. They’d left nothing of value behind besides so salted fish.
It wasn’t as though the Society of the Secret Eye was after their material goods. Their only interest was in the land. Even if they sohow got around the ambush and occupied the village, it wouldn’t serve any purpose. It was hard to imagine that they’d go to so much trouble for sothing that would gain them no rit.
However, this presented a delightful opportunity for Xi Wei.
Descending to the mortal world straight away, he strolled through the frogn village.
Truth be told, the players had already turned over the soil three feet deep, all throughout the village. Not even a tal detector would find you any treasures here—besides the salted fish.
But Xi Wei was looking for sothing hidden much deeper.
“I knew it. This ain’t no ordinary village.” He’d already had his suspicions: The frogn shouldn’t have the ability to bring down a monster over ten ters in length, and even use its shell for a ho. As such, the massive structure at the center of the village raised certain questions.
Prior to their alliance, the frogman elder had told them that it was this Aquatic Lord of theirs who had helped their ancestors settle the land here.
Nearly a thousand years ago, these frogn had to have been little more than primitive caven. How had they all been anchored to a specific spot like this? What would have been the simplest way to accomplish this?
By creating a highly conspicuous landmark.
And what sort of landmark would inspire the frogn to willingly take residence upon this sandy beach?
The answer was as clear as day: A ready-made ho with many rooms within, which could endure for millennia.
“It’s more than a landmark...” Xi Wei knocked upon the chitinous walls, and sensed faint traces of magic flowing through them. Realization dawned upon him. “It also serves as a magical focus. Ah, the patterns on the surface are actually runic symbols... Interesting. A shell like this would already be infused with magical energies, and should be able to repair itself to so degree. Channeling the power of their faith, it could lure an abundance of fish to the shallow waters nearby. Maybe it wards off sea monsters, too?”
Whichever the case, this leviathan seashell was a landmark not just for the frogn ancestors, but for Xi Wei as well.
It didn’t take him long to figure out the pattern behind the enchantnts. Judging by the alignnt of the shell, he was able to locate the nexus point. Standing at that spot, he opened his senses to the world.
In an instant, his perception pierced through the earth below.
Approximately one thousand and five hundred ters below the surface, there was an altar. It wasn’t sothing humans could have made—it looked like a holy symbol which had sohow manifested into a physical thing, and it was still emanating a faint hint of divinity.
There, at the center of the altar, lay what Xi Wei was looking for: The body of the Aquatic Lord!
Not shattered remnants, as Xi Wei had assud at first; it was a whole, complete body!
Well, perhaps not completely whole—examining the body more closely, he discovered nurous defects.
Comparing a divine avatar to a crystal ball, the Aquatic Lord was cracked all over, like a crystal ball that had been shattered all to pieces, and then put back together again.
And filling up those cracks, like the glue holding everything together, was a thousand years of faith from the frogn!
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