Chapter 17

The兽人的审美观和人类当然不同，even can be said that the cultural and philosophical differences between this race and humans are vast. What they consider valuable might not hold much worth in the eyes of humans. However, Rody, with his rich gaming experience in "Rift Earth," naturally had the discernment to identify these items—the contents of the box had not been damaged by the flames: a leather bag, a bone emblem, a palm-sized metal ingot, and some dried meat with a peculiar smell. Rody suspected this might be human flesh, as the兽人 never had any qualms about eating any living creature, and human flesh was considered one of their high-class foods, only to be consumed by those of high status.

Ignoring the wrinkled-inducing dried meat, Rody scooped up the remaining items and called everyone to evacuate the burning camp—before leaving, he didn't forget to have Carter throw the兽人的 food supplies into the fire.

On the dark prairie, the burning camp looked like a giant bonfire from a distance. With the light, Rody and his group calmly crossed the grassy slope, bandaged the three lightly injured scouts, and then found horses, heading straight back to Noland Village.

The air at midnight felt somewhat damp and cold, and as it blew across their faces, most of the soldiers still had a sense of unreality. No one spoke on the way, and the sound of hooves on the silent prairie made everything seem like a dream. When they breathed deeply, they could still smell the distinctive stench of the兽人 camp.

However, Rody understood that the seed of "confidence" had quietly been planted in the hearts of these soldiers.

The horses moved at a leisurely pace, and the journey that took only over an hour on the way there took nearly two hours on the return. It wasn't until they saw the sign at the entrance of Noland Village by the light of the torches that they collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

Subsequently, an uncontrollable joy and excitement quietly spread in their hearts.

"Is this... victory?"

"We won...?"

"We... succeeded."

"We won the battle!"

At first, it was just whispers, but as the emotions were released, the excited soldiers began to shout loudly. Carter grinned foolishly on his horse, loudly encouraging the brave scouts, while Ruge silently watched everything, secretly wiping a tear from the corner of his eye when no one was paying attention.

Everyone had their own feelings, some different, but victory, in the end, was always joyful.

Rody did not stop the soldiers from venting their emotions in the middle of the night; he, too, had breathed a sigh of relief in his heart—this battle had not deviated from the original plan and had also achieved the expected goals. For Rody, that was enough.

While the soldiers were jubilant, Ruge was the first to break free from this emotional state. The old soldier was indeed more clear-headed than these young people, and at this point, Ruge no longer doubted Rody's abilities. He had easily killed three兽人 in the battle, a feeling of dual success that he had never experienced before, which gave him more expectations, to the point where he even wanted to find another group of兽人 to fight, even if it meant dying on the battlefield without any regrets.

At this moment, he walked up to Rody and asked expectantly, "Captain Rody, what's next?"

The originally excited soldiers immediately looked at Rody. The latter dismounted and replied, "Rest, and wait for the next opportunity. If Soding doesn't bring reinforcements, what we can do... might be limited to this."

His words were like a bucket of cold water, and the soldiers' grinning faces gradually froze, one after another falling silent, just like when Carter and his group returned here yesterday. They also realized the inescapable fact that weighed on their chests: with a total of fifteen scouts from two teams, they could not make much of a difference.

"Will there be more battles?"

Carter asked from the side, and his question seemed to be the question of all the soldiers, causing the originally lively group to fall silent instantly.

Rody looked up, intending to say something more harsh, but when he saw the determined gazes, he was taken aback—

The long period of peace had already made these scouts lose their will to fight and resist. The occupation by兽人, the annexation by neighboring countries, and the disintegration by internal strife—all these things that Rody remembered would happen—indicated that a nation and a people who had lost the will to struggle had no hope.

But today, the热血 that had been hidden by comfort and laziness seemed to have been thoroughly ignited by this battle...

Rody suddenly saw hope.

He clenched his fist and said, "There will be battles, and they will become more frequent."

...

After the group dispersed, Rody returned to his lodging house, somewhat tired. While the soldiers went to find food, he came to his bed and took out the "loot."

The first thing he saw was the bone emblem. Rody knew this was a mark of a兽人 clan, similar to the noble emblems of humans, used to identify identity and clan names. He frowned at the emblem, which bore a symbol familiar to "Rift Earth" human players: the warhammer.

This meant that the兽人 camp he had attacked belonged to the "Hammer of Rohar," his fated enemy!

This clan became famous across the continent entirely due to their疯狂 plundering of the Kingdom of Calen. The moral-less兽人 brought deep suffering to the Kingdom of Calen, and Rody did not even want to recall it. At this moment, his fingers trembled as he held the emblem.

"Indeed, history remains the same."

Putting the emblem aside, he picked up the palm-sized metal ingot, weighed it, and then drew a light line with his curved blade, examining it under the dim candlelight in the room. He slowly exhaled, "It's actually a blood ore."

"Blood ore" is a common term used by players in the game for "rich iron ore derivatives." It is a type of iron-containing ore that contains some energy bodies that allow blacksmiths to forge powerful weapons. Of course, "powerful" is only relative to plain equipment; it cannot add powerful magical effects like "scorching" or "icy" to weapons, but it can significantly enhance the hardness and sharpness of weapons. For Rody, it would be a good additional item for the next stage of weapon forging.

This discovery already made Rody feel that the trip was worthwhile. He then opened the smelly leather bag and poured its contents in front of him—a piece of paper with crooked handwriting and a set of voodoo dice made of bone joints, shells, and stones.

"Display attributes."

He summoned his attribute panel and equipment panel, and then focused on the attributes of the voodoo dice among the messy data in front of him—

Simple Voodoo Dice

Required Level 3

Carry

Spirit +1

Intelligence +1

"Shamans are always eager to trade voodoo dice."

Clearly, this was a marginal item. Rody, a legion soldier, had no use for an item that increased intelligence and spirit, as intelligence only affected mana recovery speed and spell attack bonuses.

It was not surprising to Rody that a shaman's item became a private collection of a兽人 leader, as he was well-versed in all the details of兽人 culture. He deduced that this兽人 must have a direct subordinate relationship with a shaman of the "Hammer of Rohar." Typically, possessing these discarded divination tools by shamans indicated a higher status than ordinary兽人.

"Hammer of Rohar, shaman, Sarota..."

Several key words floated in Rody's mind. The "Hammer of Rohar" was the clan that benefited the most from the invasion of the Kingdom of Calen, and thus they also faced jealousy from other clans, even leading to armed conflict. However, the three chieftains of this clan were one more cunning and cruel than the last. At this time, Sarota, who was still a clan shaman, would later become the third and most powerful chieftain—under his leadership, the "Hammer of Rohar" clan grew unprecedentedly, even having the capital to remain inactive or even resist the orders of the "King of Ten Thousand Axes" of the兽人 kingdom.

Sarota was a shaman who rose from the "bottom." When the Kingdom of Calen became a tragedy and scholars from other countries began to study the rise of the "Hammer of Rohar," they summarized a rule: this shaman was never as stingy as other shamans, often gifting discarded items to subordinates he deemed promising to build relationships—this method was common among humans but rare among兽人, and it laid the foundation for his later dominance far surpassing other兽人.

This text was the basis for Rody's current judgment.

Due to the faction relationship, the tech-savvy Rody had naturally read these research documents on Sarota, but while recalling this content, he suddenly felt that something significant was about to happen at this point in time.

Frowning, Rody struggled to recall the specific content, as for him, everything about events before the game's launch was unexperienced, and the clues came only from certain books and mission snippets, making it impossible to remember everything. However, the thought of facing the most aggressive chieftain in the history of the兽人 empire and his subordinates still gave him an unprecedented sense of crisis.

Understanding that he would eventually have to interact with this shaman, Rody did not expect to encounter him so early. He calmed himself, reached out, and opened the unique grass sandpaper of the兽人 empire, reading its contents—his actions seemed like self-inflicted torture to others, as most civilians in the Kingdom of Calen generally believed that兽人 did not deserve to have a written tradition, and even if there was evidence of letters, most people considered it the most primitive pictographic writing.

But no one would have thought that Rody, a ranger who had experienced countless battles and intelligence gathering before his rebirth, was an expert in兽人 language and writing, so even if it was written in兽人 Sabine script, he could still read it.

The grass sandpaper was somewhat worn, likely from being carried by birds, and Rody struggled to read the writing, his frown gradually deepening.

Some words were unclear, but he could roughly identify a few terms: "assembling squad," "four days later," "raid."

Rody glanced at the date and the vague signature mentioned in the letter, and his heart suddenly raced.

He rubbed his temples hard, his fingers trembling as he smoothed out the paper to reconfirm what he had read. These contents made his vague memories more specific—Sarona, Hammer of Rohar, and the current date: Elon Year 588, April...

Rody increasingly felt that putting these together pointed to a significant historical event!

...