Capítulo 1101: Chapter 894: Soma the Tiger-person’s Bristling Journey
This unnaturally cold rain appearing in the hot summer seems to foreshadow an unsettled future for the ‘Queen’s Arrival’ team… while the team members might get along peacefully, the bodyguards on both sides certainly will not.
The Quel Senta people, having been scolded by the mage, naturally dared not have any complaints, nor would they dare appear around the female undead, so they chose to follow behind the male undead.
Clearly a team of less than three hundred people, yet this group managed to walk in a formation of thousands.
This might also relate to the Quel Senta people’s guilty conscience when facing the elves… If it were people from other Human Kingdoms treating them this way, the mages of Quel Senta would have a sense of ‘you need to look at the owner’s face before hitting their dog,’ surely showing dissatisfaction… although the Undead Tribe has many, given there are no Ninth Ring Mages, the gap between both sides isn’t that large.
But these are elves… elves seeing the Quel Senta people and only splashing some ice water without beating or killing, that’s called restraint.
So even though there was an unpleasant first meeting, everyone still harmoniously set off on the road.
It’s just that the atmosphere was a bit awkward.
Everyone’s enthusiasm for new friends was temporarily suppressed by the cold reality, perhaps only by encountering an enemy and fighting together once could they slowly close some distance.
Actually, everyone understood this, facing enemies was just a matter of time.
Now they were walking in the forest, they could of course relax a bit; once they leave the controlling realm of the Hidden Forest and enter the areas of Long Saddle Town and Neverwinter Forest, as long as they leave the realm of Ferun Avenue, enemies will certainly appear.
The bandits around Agleya and Hidden Forest, even those near Luskan, including those monster races like goblins and gnolls, had long been scared into moving by the relentless clearing of the undead.
And those useless guys in Neverwinter, after leaving the protection of Tyr Temple, couldn’t even control the forest beneath their own feet… the folks at the Temple of Heim, with no money, couldn’t afford to hire anyone, they never worked voluntarily.
How could lumberjacks afford to hire adventurers? And why would the nobles with nothing better to do waste money chopping wood?
They only needed to keep urging the lumberjacks to go to their deaths.
Then these workers dragged their families and fled to Luskan overnight, there’s also a forest there, and the mining rewards are quite high… even those Mirar Dwarves cheerfully picked up mining tools and headed down mines voluntarily.
When the nobles of Neverwinter discovered something was amiss, even if they spent money to hire adventurers, it was too late, almost all the lumberjacks fled in one night.
And then the Neverwinter Forest became a monster stronghold.
Yet Long Saddle Town, being a trade route after all, always had some merchants reluctant to hire ships gathering and taking this old trade road, the bandits near Sword Bay nearly all concentrated on the road from Long Saddle Town to Deepwater City.
So Edna said her adventure would start from these two places without any problem. Near Agleya City, it was only here they could find enough enemies.
Edna’s team walked amidst this odd atmosphere where both sides didn’t really want to acknowledge each other, but knew when it was time to reconnect.
What puzzled the Quel Senta people a bit was that those high-handed female elves kept looking back at that tiger person, and sometimes, even the male elves glanced back at him.
If it were hostility towards him, that would be fine… between elves and the beastmen, fighting on sight wouldn’t be surprising.
But they were merely pointing and laughing at him, just like Edna did when she first saw the tiger person, their curiosity seemed to all be for the same thing.
However, the Tiger-person Somar found this attention a bit uncomfortable, though he didn’t know what was happening, Somar would rather these elves come out and fight him!
Being a beastman feared and despised by humans, to become a follower of an arcanist as he is today, strength was the most crucial reason… Somar is the one among these mage followers who is closest to being Transcendent.
Moreover, having been raised by humans since childhood, although he still had a somewhat chaotic personality, his manner was orderly, which allowed him to secure this well-paid position.
A hunting-oriented beastman with such a stable life as Somar is extremely rare; most of his kin would only appear in arenas, fighting for a better future.
However, having been adopted… by a cleric warrior of the Azuth Temple, Somar had already obtained the future that his kin would achieve through mad combat.
Somar cherished everything he had gained, so despite being a tiger person who easily got agitated, he always managed to control his emotions.
But sometimes, situations like now arose, Somar felt the fur on the back of his neck stand up… what exactly were those female elves looking at?
Wasn’t it said that the hatred between Teraxil Elves and beastmen wasn’t that high?
Somar looked over at his mage master Devis Pease… as a Priest Mage of Azuth, wasn’t he supposed to be knowledgeable? Couldn’t he give the poor big cat an explanation?
Devis’s mouth twitched slightly, Somar’s tiger-like eyes were wide open, looking eagerly at people, always exuding a sort of bizarre cuteness.
This tiger person being called a big cat since childhood was simply too fitting!
But no matter how heartwarming he tries to be, not knowing is just not knowing!
He is a human, how could he possibly understand what elves are thinking?
And on the Floating Castle, Hill was diligently switching channels on the giant screen, eventually choosing the Magic Cult between the two families… no other reason, but simply because he somehow found himself in a situation where the former ‘Recorder’, who used to call everything ‘Old Dog’, and his partner ‘Cinematographer’ had joined the Magic Cult.
Compared to the chaotic scenes on the Black Rose’s side, the professional journalists on the Magic Cult side indeed produce more beautiful shots.
Unlike the reporter who once followed the Undead Tribe’s army, constantly silent and preferring to speak through the lens, this ‘Recorder’ clearly spoke a lot more, which might be the difference between an official reporter and a paparazzi?
Soma’s puzzle appeared on the giant screen at this moment, a tiger head next to Soma’s big head, only to say there was hardly any difference between the two, even their patterns were similar.
“See here, this is Baldy’s animal companion.” The ‘Recorder’ said with a spirited voice and joyful laughter, “This is a beastman from Toril, a member of Edna’s team, a follower of the Scroll Mage.
Though tigers might look similar at first glance, you must know that in the world, with so many tiger-like creatures, they can be distinguished by the width and thickness of their patterns, and the character King on their foreheads is rarely identical, even a pair of seemingly identical twin tigers might have a tuft of fur in different colors.
However, look at this pair, from two different worlds, in two separate universes, one being a beastman, the other a real tiger, yet their heads can almost be identical!
Hmm… of course, with a sharp research focus like ours, you can still note some differences.
Especially their eyes, don’t think Baldy’s tiger looks smart, it’s still a beast after all, its gaze is far more ferocious.
As for this beastman, his eyes are visibly restrained… look at the fur bristling on his ears! Though the young ladies have flustered him, he still manages to suppress his emotions.
If it were Baldy’s tiger, it would have been roaring through the forests and jumping around causing a ruckus!
And then there’s the whiskers by the mouth, the beastman’s are a bit shorter.
Further, take a look here, the bottom left corner of the King character, Baldy’s tiger has white fur there, while the beastman’s is light yellow.
Although it’s hard to notice in normal light, in the translucent dawn rays, they are quite easy to identify.
What a pity, Baldy, due to being a ‘dutiful son’, must change diapers and make baby formula for his son, unable to join this adventure.
Otherwise, putting these two together, who knows who would end up scaring the other~ Such a shame~”
A gentle voice drifted to Hill’s ear: “How exactly can dawn’s light be so transparent that it lets him instantly recognize white and that shade of light yellow? I can’t tell?”
From her grievance-filled tone, it was clear that if it weren’t inappropriate for her to appear in front of the adventure team slowly coming out of the Hidden Forest, Celene might have directly shown herself to the tiger-person to confirm the exact color of those strands.
Shaer coldly said, “Are you colorblind? The difference is so obvious!”
The pool where Celene lingered suddenly trembled, a series of vertical stripes floated in the air like color cards from light to dark, then scrambled without hesitation: “You tell! You tell me what all these colors are! Forget it, even if you name them, you couldn’t, just lay out a sequence from lowest to highest!”
Hill gulped as he regarded those color cards transitioning from transparent white, then to beige, and finally to light yellow… he could only make out the most obvious four colors, but he truly lacked the ability to discern the ones in between.
Shaer went silent for a while, but still, those color cards flew in the air.
In Celene’s eerie chuckling of ‘hehe hehe haha’, those color cards finally formed a ring.
Celene muttered a couple of noises as she seemed a bit uncertain herself.
Shaer’s voice gradually sounded: “These color cards are your own doing, surely you should know if I arranged them correctly or not?”
Celene didn’t reply, hanging that ring on a spruce facing the pool.
Clearly, even if Shaer had arranged them wrong, without prior labeling from the Maiden of the Moon, there would be no distinguishing them.
Yet she was still unwilling to give up, deciding to observe a bit longer, perhaps she might discern some mistake.
Shaer uttered in amazement: “Why are you always serious about the oddest things?”
“The long night~ restless sleepless~” Celene chucklingly said with an odd intonation, “You must find some amusement for yourself.”
Hill’s mouth twitched—the frivolous tone! What exactly has ‘Young Master’ been doing over in Karin Forest?