Chapter 22: Offering and Natives

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Hiss! Hiss!

The tiny figure of a Black Serpent was rampaging inside the orb trying to get out, but to no avail.

[Soul of Black Serpent]

[Level: Extraordinary Rank-1]

[Rarity: Perfect (Offering)]

[The soul of a vicious Black Serpent who recently devoured lots of human victims. Offer this soul as a tribute to gain recognition from the spirits of deceased human heroes.]

“Just as expected.” Ji Ye smiled.

Just like Honor, “offerings” were another type of discovery recently being discussed by other players. It was currently known that finishing a settlement mission would guarantee such a reward.

As its name suggested, the item was used for sacrificial purposes inside settlements.

“A Perfect offering, huh?” Ji Ye muttered out loud, “As far as I can remember, the first player who cleared the settlement mission only found a Superior rated item in the end. This means the rarity of the offering item is determined by my performance rating, but not how much time I used.”

“Experts” on the forum claimed that players who had finished their settlement missions earlier had been rewarded more abundantly, so they all urged players to challenge their respective missions as quickly as they could. Still, this had never been Ji Ye’s intention; since the mission had given him a time limit of ten days, he believed that he would be fine as long as he didn’t go beyond the agreed upon deadline.

Proceeding too fast didn’t necessarily lead to a better outcome, as hasty plans would always be flawed. He was glad that he had made the right choice.

“The serpent ate someone recently?” Ji Ye frowned when thinking about the other piece of clue he noticed from the description.

During his watch, he did not see the monster going after any other human. This had left him with only one explanation.

He turned around and looked at the “mist zone” further away. When he wasn’t looking, the mist became thinner until it was completely blown away by a strong gust of mountain wind.

At the same time, he heard someone yelling loudly, “The mist is gone!”

The retreating mist revealed a group of people who were carrying cheap, improvised weapons and torches. Their clothes also appeared to be pretty old-fashioned.

“I saw the monster going that way!”

“Let’s go! We shall avenge our brothers!”

They saw the dead serpent and moved closer, weapons raised.

“Wait… It’s—it’s dead!”

It was already nightfall. Those people had to move close to the serpent to notice that they were only looking at a damaged corpse, as well as several arm-sized crossbow bolts stuck on it. The creature’s head had been chopped off, and most of its bones had been somehow removed.

“But who did this?”

“Did Ducky get out of the mist ahead of us? No, these aren’t our arrows.”

“Elder, the monster is already dead!” Someone had left the corpse and rushed to see an old man who had just reached the mountain peak on slow steps.

“What did you say??” The old man quickly stepped forward, taking a moment to catch his breath, then checked the tattered monster body with a pale look. “But how come… who just—”

Ji Ye had been hiding behind a rock nearby. He decided to step out and talk to those people at this point.

“It was me.”

He had removed the Mantis Stealth Cloak, which allowed the strangers to look at his survivalist getup that stood out among all the people who wore ancient-looking clothes.

“Who’s there?!”

His sudden appearance scared the chattering people. They pointed their weapons at him first, but soon calmed down upon realizing that it was just another human.

“Who is he? Did he say he killed the monster?”

“But he’s not from our clan.”

“I’ve never seen someone like… Wait a minute, could he be the ‘chosen one’ mentioned by the prophecy??”

“Silence, you!” The old man ordered, before he moved to the front of the crowd and gazed at Ji Ye with a look of respect. “Was it really you who got rid of this monster serpent, my friend?”

“Yes.” Ji Ye showed the heavy crossbow which was clearly capable of firing those large bolts.

The strangers began whispering to each other again.

“It’s really him!”

“So he’s the Chosen One after all? He confronted the monster all by himself!”

“He looks just like us… I was expecting the descendant of the gods to probably have extra arms or legs.”

Ji Ye was glad to see that those people weren’t hostile to him. He stepped forward just to find out what their reaction would be.

Also, he knew that those people had to be from the human settlement he was supposed to protect. These were “NPCs” generated inside the Land of Inheritance to represent a small group of humans. According to the new announcement from the confederation government, players should try joining them peacefully so they could receive something good in return. As “Chosen Ones,” players would not get much rewards from those NPCs at first. But they could always earn prizes by working with them in the long run.

Since those people seemed to hold a nasty grudge against the Black Serpent, Ji Ye believed that as the hero who had eliminated the serpent, he might be off to a good start with them.

He didn’t come out at the beginning because he didn’t want to get an arrow in the head from a potential enemy. Though he no longer worried about it, after seeing how they behaved.

However, what happened next completely surprised him.

After silently assessing him for a few seconds, the old man who had just addressed him suddenly showed an excited look. He went down on both knees and groveled.

“Be praised. Welcome to our humble home, fort master!”