Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After a good half day gathering information, Hao Ren and the gang gathered on the plain outside Lamberg.
As it was still an hour to go before the supposed rendevous time, and Becky was still no were in sight, the group exchanged whatever information they had managed to get insofar..
Vivian had went uo to the highest available point in town, and upon perching on the parapet, it was where the church lay. The Disciples of Glory was a prominent religious body on the three continents, especially in the Kingdom of Holletta where the religion was founded. Their church would be visible in any town that is of a decent size. Posing as a visitor, Vivian took the chance to mingle with the clergy there. Her experience has a poor wanderer and oratory skill served her well in gleaning some information off the gaudy clergymen.
"Letta Runes are no longer in use here." Vivian's first information had already shocked Hao Ren. "The people here treats is as an lost ancient language, or hieroglpyhs... I spoke to some of the priests in the church about the runes, and they don't even have a clue on how to use it. The clergy is usually the most educated lot in a medieval society, and if they don't know, the commoners won't either."
"A lost language?" Hao Ren was genuinely surprised. "Then... those runes in the town were?"
"Prayer for good luck..." Vivian shrugged nonchalantly. "The writings itself were wrong and the structure of it was all over the place, that I managed to discern. The people this age don't even know what or how to propery write Letta Runes anymore. What they did was simply just tracing the symbols from whatever source that remained, either from ruins or ancient tomes.They probably thought the characters brought auspicious meanings and have been using it since. Something like a protective charm not unlike those you can find in the houses in Chinese villages. Letta Runes have pretty much degenerated into this form. I suppose the people on Earth were much much better at preserving their knowledge, at least the demon hunters know what's what with the runes."
"Wait a minute... Letta Runes... Kingdom of Holletta..." Something dawned upon Wuyue as her expression changed. "Oh right!! When I was in town, I overheard something by the school, they were talking about the Kingdom of Holletta being a direct line of an ancient civilisation. Can it be that Letta Runes was one of the remnants of that civilisation? It's even on the name of the kingdom.
"Possible." Vivian nodded. "I didn't had the time to probe for more mundane information, but from the priests I can tell that they hold the Kingdom of Holletta's 'Orthodoxy' and 'Ancientness' with the utmost importance. This kingdom is probably the most ancient of kingdoms in this world. If you think back to the Apocalypse millenias back, it's not beyond reason that the Kingdom of Holletta is a remnant of an ancient civilsation.
"They may simply just inherited something from the lost civilisation, rather than being a remnant." Y'zaks quipped.
"What have you heard?" Hao Ren raised at eyebrow.
"The Kingdom of Holletta has a history of about three thousand years, that means it was established much more recently than when the Apocalypse happened." Y'zaks laughed. "The founders of the kingdom probably stumbled across something in the ruins and used it as a basis of their rule. I won't dare to proclaim if they are indeed a remnant of the civilisation in days gone by. Well.. those are just details. I have good news, we don't have to worry about money for a while now."
As the great demon grinned, he pulled out a bulky sack and showed it to Hao Ren and the group. In it was a whole load of shiny currencies, some of it Hao Ren recognised as the local denars, some thin copper coins, and a piece of clearly valuable gold currency. The sudden appearance of such amount of shiny metals almost blinded all present. Y'zaks laughed again. "I don't know if I got scammed, but these look like it should last us for a while. That fat merchant was even grimacing when he took out his coin purse..."
Cold sweat appeared almost instantenously on Hao Ren's head as he eyed the giant hulk of a demon suspiciousy. "You didn't resort to highway robbery did you?"
With Y'zaks 'Goodman' nature this was obviously out of the question, but the shock of a giant of coin was palpable. Aside from robbery Hao Ren really couldn't think of any possiblity on how a person who had no idea of the basic functions of this society could possibly make such a huge sum of money in such a short time. Perhaps, deep down, all demons won't say no to easy money.
Displeasure immediately appeared on Y'zaks already scary looking face. "Who did you take me for? As an upstanding person I'll never do such things.This, was from the sale of weapons."
"Weapons?" Hao Ren's eyes widen in surprise.
Y'zaks took off his bagpack (Hao Ren was indeed in charge of the luggage but the practical demon still lugged his own by habit) and pulled out two odd-looking short swords. "These."
The group gathered around to have a look at the swords. The swords were sword shorts in name and shape only, but it's blade was clearly not metal. The pitch black blade was almost obsidian-like, and looked to be crafted entirely out of stone. There were no scorch or folding marks on the blade. A very thin veil of blade mist swirled on the surface of the blade, and Hao Ren felt that he was being compelled to look at the blade. The plain, lightless blade almost have a magical aura to it, and the longer you stare at the blade, the faster the swirling of the mist is.
Wuyue picked up one of the blade out of curiosity and felt a surge of energy raced through her body. The scared Siren quickly tossed the blade back on to the floor.
"Can it be... the demonic stone?" Hao Ren only realised what material the sword was made of after a while.
"Yes, that stone." Y'zaks nodded. "Ever since I got back from English I've been wondering what to do with it. It was a massive eyesore and a space hogger, but was still valuable enough.. and since I was unemployed and had time on my hands. I started chipping it off to make some stuff. At first I made two kitchen knives for Vivian, but she said it was too heavy and cumbersome. So I went to made two shovles instead, and then I found out that they were not half as good as the one you can buy off the shelves. After that I made a couple of short swords like these, thinking that we might have use of it someday. While I'm not the best smith around, I still know my way in making demonic weaponry. The blade may look brittle, but it is harder than normal steel after some treatment. I've seen the weapons of the humans in this world, no normal blacksmith can come up with anything close to them."
"F*ck me! You sold someone a demonic sword?" Hao Ren gasped in horror.
"Of course not." Y'zaks simply just waved him off. "I have already removed the demonic energies from the rocks. This are no more than glorified swords with enchantments. I simply just went up to one of the weapon shops in town and said that I found a blade that I can't use in the ruins and wanted to sell it. And well.. the rest is history."
Hao Ren eyed Y'zaks suspiciously. "You seem awfully familiar with this."
The great demon grinned. "There was a time back then where a group of adventurers would come to my turf to wreck havoc. I had this old castle there and they seem to love hauling whatever broken metal and stuff out to sell. At times, if there were a whole lot of them, I could even give the groundsmen a couple of days off. Well.. that's how I learnt about human adventurers making a fortune."
"..." There was an awkward silence.
Now, Hao Ren was even more curious as to what was Y'zaks doing back then at home. Aside from being the messenger of righetouness to his kind, he was a raid boss were people would grind for loot and reputation?
That said, the ingenuity of the great demon had solved their monetary woes for the time being. As for how the monetary system works here.. they'll find out sooner or later. Lily was by then pulling Hao Ren's sleeves. "Mr Landlord... Lets get something to eat."
With that, Hao Ren realised that he did indeed felt a little hungry. Perplexed, he rose the question, "Wait... why do we need to eat over here?"
"What nonsense." The MDT who was playing nanny to the little mermaid back home suddenly rang. "Since when do you NOT need to eat?"
"I thought we were in the Dream Plane no?" Hao Ren was still confused. "Our bodies are lying in the pods back home. So why the need to eat at all?"
"Who told you that your being in the Dream Plane is a purely spiritual being? Your body there is as real as the one on Earth. When you enter the Dream Plane, an exact copy of you is being made over there and you will need to eat and sleep as usual. And of course, anything that happen to you in the plane will affect you directly. Just that your metabolism rate is much lowered and would only need a meal a day to sustain yourself. Lily was acting up because she was being Lily, hungry as always."
Hao Ren was stunned. He felt that the line between the Dream Plane and reality is almost blurred.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After a good half day gathering information, Hao Ren and the gang gathered on the plain outside Lamberg.
As it was still an hour to go before the supposed rendevous time, and Becky was still no were in sight, the group exchanged whatever information they had managed to get insofar..
Vivian had went uo to the highest available point in town, and upon perching on the parapet, it was where the church lay. The Disciples of Glory was a prominent religious body on the three continents, especially in the Kingdom of Holletta where the religion was founded. Their church would be visible in any town that is of a decent size. Posing as a visitor, Vivian took the chance to mingle with the clergy there. Her experience has a poor wanderer and oratory skill served her well in gleaning some information off the gaudy clergymen.
"Letta Runes are no longer in use here." Vivian's first information had already shocked Hao Ren. "The people here treats is as an lost ancient language, or hieroglpyhs... I spoke to some of the priests in the church about the runes, and they don't even have a clue on how to use it. The clergy is usually the most educated lot in a medieval society, and if they don't know, the commoners won't either."
"A lost language?" Hao Ren was genuinely surprised. "Then... those runes in the town were?"
"Prayer for good luck..." Vivian shrugged nonchalantly. "The writings itself were wrong and the structure of it was all over the place, that I managed to discern. The people this age don't even know what or how to propery write Letta Runes anymore. What they did was simply just tracing the symbols from whatever source that remained, either from ruins or ancient tomes.They probably thought the characters brought auspicious meanings and have been using it since. Something like a protective charm not unlike those you can find in the houses in Chinese villages. Letta Runes have pretty much degenerated into this form. I suppose the people on Earth were much much better at preserving their knowledge, at least the demon hunters know what's what with the runes."
"Wait a minute... Letta Runes... Kingdom of Holletta..." Something dawned upon Wuyue as her expression changed. "Oh right!! When I was in town, I overheard something by the school, they were talking about the Kingdom of Holletta being a direct line of an ancient civilisation. Can it be that Letta Runes was one of the remnants of that civilisation? It's even on the name of the kingdom.
"Possible." Vivian nodded. "I didn't had the time to probe for more mundane information, but from the priests I can tell that they hold the Kingdom of Holletta's 'Orthodoxy' and 'Ancientness' with the utmost importance. This kingdom is probably the most ancient of kingdoms in this world. If you think back to the Apocalypse millenias back, it's not beyond reason that the Kingdom of Holletta is a remnant of an ancient civilsation.
"They may simply just inherited something from the lost civilisation, rather than being a remnant." Y'zaks quipped.
"What have you heard?" Hao Ren raised at eyebrow.
"The Kingdom of Holletta has a history of about three thousand years, that means it was established much more recently than when the Apocalypse happened." Y'zaks laughed. "The founders of the kingdom probably stumbled across something in the ruins and used it as a basis of their rule. I won't dare to proclaim if they are indeed a remnant of the civilisation in days gone by. Well.. those are just details. I have good news, we don't have to worry about money for a while now."
As the great demon grinned, he pulled out a bulky sack and showed it to Hao Ren and the group. In it was a whole load of shiny currencies, some of it Hao Ren recognised as the local denars, some thin copper coins, and a piece of clearly valuable gold currency. The sudden appearance of such amount of shiny metals almost blinded all present. Y'zaks laughed again. "I don't know if I got scammed, but these look like it should last us for a while. That fat merchant was even grimacing when he took out his coin purse..."
Cold sweat appeared almost instantenously on Hao Ren's head as he eyed the giant hulk of a demon suspiciousy. "You didn't resort to highway robbery did you?"
With Y'zaks 'Goodman' nature this was obviously out of the question, but the shock of a giant of coin was palpable. Aside from robbery Hao Ren really couldn't think of any possiblity on how a person who had no idea of the basic functions of this society could possibly make such a huge sum of money in such a short time. Perhaps, deep down, all demons won't say no to easy money.
Displeasure immediately appeared on Y'zaks already scary looking face. "Who did you take me for? As an upstanding person I'll never do such things.This, was from the sale of weapons."
"Weapons?" Hao Ren's eyes widen in surprise.
Y'zaks took off his bagpack (Hao Ren was indeed in charge of the luggage but the practical demon still lugged his own by habit) and pulled out two odd-looking short swords. "These."
The group gathered around to have a look at the swords. The swords were sword shorts in name and shape only, but it's blade was clearly not metal. The pitch black blade was almost obsidian-like, and looked to be crafted entirely out of stone. There were no scorch or folding marks on the blade. A very thin veil of blade mist swirled on the surface of the blade, and Hao Ren felt that he was being compelled to look at the blade. The plain, lightless blade almost have a magical aura to it, and the longer you stare at the blade, the faster the swirling of the mist is.
Wuyue picked up one of the blade out of curiosity and felt a surge of energy raced through her body. The scared Siren quickly tossed the blade back on to the floor.
"Can it be... the demonic stone?" Hao Ren only realised what material the sword was made of after a while.
"Yes, that stone." Y'zaks nodded. "Ever since I got back from English I've been wondering what to do with it. It was a massive eyesore and a space hogger, but was still valuable enough.. and since I was unemployed and had time on my hands. I started chipping it off to make some stuff. At first I made two kitchen knives for Vivian, but she said it was too heavy and cumbersome. So I went to made two shovles instead, and then I found out that they were not half as good as the one you can buy off the shelves. After that I made a couple of short swords like these, thinking that we might have use of it someday. While I'm not the best smith around, I still know my way in making demonic weaponry. The blade may look brittle, but it is harder than normal steel after some treatment. I've seen the weapons of the humans in this world, no normal blacksmith can come up with anything close to them."
"F*ck me! You sold someone a demonic sword?" Hao Ren gasped in horror.
"Of course not." Y'zaks simply just waved him off. "I have already removed the demonic energies from the rocks. This are no more than glorified swords with enchantments. I simply just went up to one of the weapon shops in town and said that I found a blade that I can't use in the ruins and wanted to sell it. And well.. the rest is history."
Hao Ren eyed Y'zaks suspiciously. "You seem awfully familiar with this."
The great demon grinned. "There was a time back then where a group of adventurers would come to my turf to wreck havoc. I had this old castle there and they seem to love hauling whatever broken metal and stuff out to sell. At times, if there were a whole lot of them, I could even give the groundsmen a couple of days off. Well.. that's how I learnt about human adventurers making a fortune."
"..." There was an awkward silence.
Now, Hao Ren was even more curious as to what was Y'zaks doing back then at home. Aside from being the messenger of righetouness to his kind, he was a raid boss were people would grind for loot and reputation?
That said, the ingenuity of the great demon had solved their monetary woes for the time being. As for how the monetary system works here.. they'll find out sooner or later. Lily was by then pulling Hao Ren's sleeves. "Mr Landlord... Lets get something to eat."
With that, Hao Ren realised that he did indeed felt a little hungry. Perplexed, he rose the question, "Wait... why do we need to eat over here?"
"What nonsense." The MDT who was playing nanny to the little mermaid back home suddenly rang. "Since when do you NOT need to eat?"
"I thought we were in the Dream Plane no?" Hao Ren was still confused. "Our bodies are lying in the pods back home. So why the need to eat at all?"
"Who told you that your being in the Dream Plane is a purely spiritual being? Your body there is as real as the one on Earth. When you enter the Dream Plane, an exact copy of you is being made over there and you will need to eat and sleep as usual. And of course, anything that happen to you in the plane will affect you directly. Just that your metabolism rate is much lowered and would only need a meal a day to sustain yourself. Lily was acting up because she was being Lily, hungry as always."
Hao Ren was stunned. He felt that the line between the Dream Plane and reality is almost blurred.
