Chapter 853: First Floor ~ Miragul
With the elf and the moonlight rabbit in action, nding the river was eortless
for them. Within one hour, they found the wide yet shallow river. The river was
just around their calf deep. In the next half an hour, they found a settlement
upstream.
"Human settlement?" Zhang Mengyao furrowed her brow slightly. "What
about the area around the settlement? Is there still no monster or beast outside
there?"
"I don't nd any monster or beast around there, but just humans. Maybe the
settlement is still inside the safe zone?" Legion Commander Moonsong replied.
He led the search by himself along with Virion to make sure their rst
expedition as an ocial Tarrior of the Tang Empire ended with a satisfying
result.
"Hmmm...." Zhang Mengyao did not rush to the settlement even though that
place might be their chance to get more information about the rst oor.
"What about the village condition?"
Moonsong was a little bit confused as to why Zhang Mengyao wanted to know
the village's condition, but he still answered, "The village is well maintained,
and the residents look peaceful and happy." He had observed the settlement for
a while to identify the possibility of the residents being hostile to outsiders.
After that observation, he concluded the villagers might not be hostile and
welcome them if they explained the situation.
"What about farms? Do they have farms? Or do you see they have nets to catch
the sh in the river? Or do they have the equipment to hunt?" Zhang Mengyao
asked for more detailed information about the village. "No, they should not
have the equipment since this is a safe zone with no monster and beast."
The question was weird for sure, but Moonsong recalled what he had seen from
the village. He quickly realized Supreme General Zhang Mengyao's intention by
asking that. He recalled what he saw from the village and started to feel
suspicious about the village too. "No, I don't see the farm. They don't have
livestock either, and I am not sure about the nets for shing. I will send, no, I
will go by myself to check everything." Moonsong excused himself and left
with his nine subordinates to get more info about the village.
"What's so weird about the village?" Lu An asked as he did not understand
what they were talking about. Lu An had the least experienced among the
leaders despite his position and power. He could not pinpoint what was so
suspicious about the village.
"It's not weird at a glance, but if you look into it with details, the village looks
suspicious," Yeon Hee replied to Lu An in a small voice. "We are in an area with
no monsters and beasts. Considering this is a dimensional tower, this is weird
already. Then we found the village, but they don't have a permanent source for
the food. They don't have farms and don't breed the livestock, no beast around
to hunt. The only source for the food is the river, but if they don't have the nets
to catch the sh too, don't you feel weird about it? Especially if they are
humans."
After hearing that, Lu An quickly caught what was so suspicious about the
village. He imagined himself eating the sh for his entire life, and he did not
think that was possible.
*** ***
Moonsong arrived at the spot where he could watch the entire village from the
top. He was on top of the tree, but he made sure the residents of the settlement
could not see him. His eyes focused on the side that was close to the river. Yes,
the village was exactly next to the river, so if there was equipment to catch the
sh, it should be in that area. However, the village was so weird because it
looked like the village and the river were cut o as if people rarely went to the
river. Of course, he could not nd the nets he was looking for, not even a shing
pole.
The doubt and suspicion inside him rose up in his heart. He then observed the
people inside the village. He saw people were talking to each other. They were
all smiling and laughing as if they were living their happiest life. He became
even more suspicious as he felt the scene before him was unreal. This was too
perfect to be real.
"How is it? Do you nd the nets or any tools for shing inside their houses?"
Moonsong asked Revalor, who had just come over. The former Elven King had
eyesight that was much sharper than any of them, so he should be able to see
what was inside these people's houses.
"Let's back o for now. I will tell you my discovery on the way back," Revalor
immediately proposed to retreat as soon as he came to Moonsong.
*** ***
"Their houses are empty, let alone nets or shing poles; there is nothing inside
their houses. No table, chair, and even bed, nothing. The house is more like a
square room; it just looked like a house from outside," Revalor reported what
he found to Zhang Mengyao. "This is just my suspicion, but I think they are
from the demon race, Miragul. The demon with no physical gure, but they
have the ability to inuence our vision. They inuence our vision, so we will
look at them as humans."
"Ah!" Moonsong recalled the battle against the demon that invaded the Ortis
Continent. He remembered the demon that could change their gures that cost
a lot of lives from their side.
"Alert everyone! Get ready to ght!" Zhang Mengyao immediately called out.
"If they inuence your vision, that means they are aware of our presence." She
then looked at Moonsong and Revalor, "Tell me more about this Miragul! We
need to know more about them. What about their ghting ability?"
"They are weak in terms of battle prowess, but they rely on their dark mana to
poison us. Their dark mana is a lethal poison to the other races, so we must be
careful about that," Revalor replied with a solemn face.
"Hohoho.... I don't know that the new players will know about us," creepy
laughter rang in the air.
Zhang Mengyao and the others stood up and looked toward the voice. To
everyone's surprise, they found an old man with a long white beard, wearing a
black robe. The old man was just ten meters away from them, none of them
noticed his presence, and the old man managed to pass the perimeter defense
without being noticed.
"This robe is quite useful; none of you notice me until I speak," The old man
had a smug expression on his face.
Revalor did not bother to entertain the old man with the chat as he took out the
bow from his inventory. He formed a mana arrow and aimed at the old man.
Without a doubt, the old man was Miragul.
"Unfortunately, you are too late, strong elf," The old man smirked, "You have
been surrounded! We will have a delicious meal!" As soon as the old man
nished his words, Revalor shot the arrow. The arrow blinked and pierced the
old man's head. Despite being on the brink of death, the old man still had a
smile on his face. The old man's body turned into a black lump in the next ve
seconds. It was clear that the old man was not human but a demon.
Pssshhhh!
After the death of the rst Miragul, the black gas suddenly spread out. They
realized Miragul had sneaked so close into the formation that there were over
fty of Miragul in the defensive line. They turned the black mana into dark gas,
spreading it out everywhere.
"Kang Xue!" Zhang Mengyao immediately called out.
Swoosh!
Kang Xue jumped into the black gas as her body shone. Her gure turned into
light, and when she arrived in the middle of the black gas, the light burst out
from her body. The blinding light caused everyone to close their eyes. It was
like a ashbang but lacked the ring in their ears. The blinding light lasted for
half a minute, and by the time everyone opened their eyes, the black gas had
disappeared.
Everyone was alerted and immediately searched for Miragul, but more than
fty Miragul disappeared. They saw the spear made of light, piercing the
ground with a black lump in its middle. Looking at this, everyone realized that
Marshal Kang Xue had defeated all Miragul within thirty seconds.
"If you get poisoned, immediately return to the medical team!" Kang Xue
shouted. The black gas managed to spread slightly before she neutralized it, so
she thought some of the Tarriors might get poisoned. After giving them
instruction and making sure there was no more Miragul around them, Kang
Xue returned to Zhang Mengyao.
"Should we retreat, or do you want to annihilate this Miragul?" Kang Xue found
out that the demon was not that high-level as she could kill them with one hit.
On top of that, her class, Master of Light, was the nemesis for the creature with
dark mana. She was condent to ght the demon.
"You can go and help Lu An," Zhang Mengyao waved her hand helplessly.
During the blinding light, she activated [Envisage]. During that time, Lu An had
gone to Miragul village by himself.
Without saying anything, Kang Xue left the group and headed toward the
village, "I will also bring the reinforcement to assist Sir Lu An and Marshal
Kang Xue," Legion Commander Moonsong immediately asked for permission
from Zhang Mengyao.
"Hmm, go ahead. I will check over our people here. You can go with the
Luminous Legion," Zhang Mengyao nodded and headed toward the medical
team.