Chapter 328: The Birth of a New

Beneath the dim, setting sun.

The orange-red light shone upon Anri’s somewhat pale cheeks, leaving a mottled patch; the light and shadow slowly shifted upward, covering her eyes.

"Nn..."

Anri let out a soft moan; the return of her consciousness made her feel a soreness throughout all the bones in her body.

It was that kind of exhaustion where one couldn't muster any strength after a hard day of labor during the busy farming season back in Carne Village—no, it was even more intense than that.

Captain...

What is the situation with everyone now!

Thinking that she was still on the battlefield, Anri hurriedly opened her eyes, but all that met her gaze was a dim, yellowish light, and she closed her eyes again.

She raised her palm to shield her eyes before opening them once more.

This place... is not the battlefield?

Anri’s blurred vision cleared; looking at the lamp post above and the familiar inn environment around her, her eyes revealed confusion and panic.

"Morning... oh, it’s already evening now."

"It’s about the time I calculated; you’ve slept for two days and two nights, Anri."

A gentle, chuckling voice came from the side.

The familiar voice made Anri, who had just woken up with tense nerves, feel a sense of relief in her heart.

"——Captain."

"I, I was able to help."

Tang Zheng was startled; he had not expected the first thing Anri would say upon waking up to be this.

"You must believe that you possess an unimaginable talent," Tang Zheng replied with a smile.

Although this talent was somewhat different from what he had originally expected... come to think of it, one could notice more or less from the light novel version that Anri’s luck always seemed quite good.

"Nn!"

Anri’s eyes turned slightly red, and she nodded vigorously.

From the very beginning, only the Captain had recognized her, even when she herself had doubted whether she truly possessed the talent the Captain spoke of.

She felt more and more that the Captain was truly amazing.

"Gurgle~"

"Gurgle~"

A powerful stomach growl interrupted their conversation, as if in protest, and Anri’s cheeks turned bright red in a flash.

"Your luck is good."

"A banquet is inviting us to attend in a little while," Tang Zheng said with a hearty laugh.

A short while later.

The Elder Lich dogs pulled the carriage, traveling along one of the main streets of Kalinsha, slowly weaving through the crowd; as always, they drew gazes wherever they passed.

Compared to the past, when passersby only discussed and were surprised by the terrifying monsters that were Elder Lich dogs, nowadays, many people who saw them already knew the adventurer party that this monster represented.

"Captain, could that carriage be..."

Located on one side of the street, a five-person adventurer party stared intently at the carriage passing before them.

"They are the only ones who could use such dangerous monsters—Elder Lich dogs, which reach a difficulty of over 30—as horses to pull a carriage."

"The adventurer party 'Free Will'!"

The captain of the adventurer party, a large man carrying an iron hammer, spoke in a deep voice with a look of reverence.

"Is it really them?"

"It is said that those two legendary undead were both taken care of by this adventurer party?"

"What stupid things are you saying? No matter how you think about it, that’s impossible."

"However, accurate news seems to mention that the legendary undead, the Soul Eater, was indeed taken care of by 'Free Will'."

"Legendary undead... let alone seeing one, I hadn't even heard of them before. Captain, what is the difficulty of a legendary undead?"

Someone in the group asked curiously, unable to believe it.

"Probably a difficulty of over 100," the burly captain with the iron hammer said with slight hesitation.

Hiss—

A sound of people gasping in cold air arose.

"That's fake, right!" A voice that was overly surprised and sharp in tone rang out.

"Who knows? That is what the rumors say."

"It is completely unimaginably terrifying!"

"We low-level adventurers might actually be able to see such high-level powerhouses with our own eyes today."

"Haha! Let's go, everyone!"

"Today might be the most unforgettable moment for all adventurers in our Holy Kingdom."

The burly captain reluctantly moved his gaze away from the departing carriage, swept it across the unusually large number of adventurer parties on both sides of the street, and straightened his chest.

Over the past few days, the events that occurred in the Abelion Hills had gradually fermented and spread.

The legendary undead Death Knight!

The legendary undead Soul Eater!

An army of tens of thousands of undead!

The evil organization [Zuranon], and so on—every piece of news was already an unimaginable and unbearable disaster for commoners and nobles alike.

Yet, this disaster, which was said to be able to threaten a country and cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands, had actually been resolved without the vast majority of people even knowing.

This indescribable sense of shock made anyone who heard the news think it was a joke!

However—

The Holy Kingdom’s most elite Paladin Order and the Temple Priest group, two units, were actually stationed in Kalinsha, and some had even seen the Captain of the Paladin Order, Lady Remedios.

Besides that!

The most bustling thing in all of "Kalinsha" recently was the surging number of adventurers; a large number of adventurers were rushing in from both the north and south of the Holy Kingdom.

To celebrate the birth of an "Adamantite-ranked" adventurer party in the Holy Kingdom!

Due to the Holy Kingdom’s long-standing national policy, the status of adventurers had always been relatively low!

But at this moment.

Because of "Free Will," all the adventurers who appeared in "Kalinsha" felt the looks the commoners gave them, which were different from the past.

Inside the carriage.

Anri held a piece of soft white bread she had bitten into, her fingers tightening.

"Miss Cuiye, did she stay in the Abelion Hills?"

Tang Zheng nodded.

Anri’s shoulders relaxed; she hadn't seen Miss Cuiye just now and had thought something had happened, though she didn't know why the Captain had made such arrangements.

But the Captain must have his own reasons.

"Anri, what kind of feeling did you have when you swung your sword to attack at that time?" Tang Zheng was somewhat curious about the more detailed information regarding Anri’s class.

He needed to judge the direction of Anri’s future strength improvement.

"I don't know either."

"I only felt..." Anri pursed her lips as she recalled, and without reservation, she told him in detail about the situation she had experienced at the time.

Tang Zheng was thoughtful.

The Soul Eater possessed the ability to release a "Fear Aura" and a "Death Aura," and the distance between the two should not have been far at the time.

Because of the "Fear Aura," everyone was subconsciously fleeing, which triggered a spread of panic, yet Anri was able to ignore that situation.

And the "Death Aura"!

The lower a person’s level, the less likely they were to pass the check for "Instant Death"; at the time, Anri’s level was undoubtedly the lowest on the entire battlefield.

However, at that distance, Tang Zheng could not be sure if Anri had been affected by "Instant Death." If she had been affected?

——Then

Tang Zheng’s eyes flashed.

The class [Hero·Believer] must at least possess the passive abilities of "Fear Immunity" and "Instant Death Nullification."

Special classes generally have two to three class skills!

"Heroic Moment" was only one of them; he would need to judge the other skills after she leveled up.

Actually, there was no need to overthink it.

Just from the effect of the skill "Heroic Moment," Tang Zheng already had a basic idea of Anri’s class structure in his mind.

"I originally only wanted to be a supporting character in this incident."

Tang Zheng felt quite a headache hearing the enthusiastic discussions on the street outside the carriage.

"High-profile" was never what he wanted.

Even the elimination of the Death Knight and the leader of [Zuranon] had been done with the help of the Slane Theocracy’s power; these could all be explained away with excuses about combat awareness and potions.

Only in Anri’s case...

An ordinary girl destroying a Soul Eater in one blow.

It was truly a bit exaggerated.

"The Theocracy will likely form some kind of speculation about Anri," Tang Zheng mused to himself.

Should he let Anri pose as a "Player" and stand at the forefront?

The moment this thought appeared, Tang Zheng extinguished it!

Impersonating a "god-man" is safer than impersonating a "player."

Furthermore, Enri can withstand investigation!

The biggest difference between players who descend into another world and the local natives, besides the gap in power, is that their previous backgrounds are a blank slate; they appear in this world out of thin air.

Enri is from Carne Village and has parents and a younger sister; as long as this point is investigated clearly, the Theocracy will revoke its suspicion of Enri being a player.

The problem is...

Whether the Theocracy will suspect him because of Enri is what Tang Zheng is worried about.

"Fortunately, I already had Imina make preparations," Tang Zheng thought to himself.

Since he knows the "characteristic" of players having blank pasts.

How could he not have prepared? Secretly manipulating "Eight Fingers" was originally for the sake of using the power of Eight Fingers to control the kingdom's underworld.

Sometimes, turning a fake into a reality is not difficult!

"In the end, it is still a matter of strength."

"These were originally prepared to confuse the Great Tomb," Tang Zheng thought of the ritual he had arranged in the lava zone based on his own concepts, and his heart burned with fervor.

Perhaps his strength will usher in a major improvement!

"Still a bit short."

The "Spiral of Death Ritual" appeared in Tang Zheng's mind, and he modified and adjusted it.

The birth of the Death Knight and the Soul Eater gave him a deeper understanding of the "Spiral of Death Ritual," especially the Soul Eater that Khajiit transformed into.

After the war ended, Tang Zheng specifically went to the corpse pit to conduct research and investigation.

Additionally.

Through the means of resurrection, he had already obtained complete intelligence from the Alliance Leader, and he also knew the specific identities and current locations of the remaining eight high disciples of [Zuranon].

The Alliance Leader actually really had connections with the Slane Theocracy, but he was not a person from the Slane Theocracy as imagined, but a figure born 200 years ago, during the era of the Thirteen Heroes.

"If anyone asks about your abilities, just say it is the effect of a natural innate talent," Tang Zheng said to Enri.

"En, I understand." Enri was somewhat puzzled, but still nodded vigorously.

——Adventurer's Guild.

The Adventurer's Guild in Kalinsha is relatively old, and because it receives little attention, coupled with the fact that the number of adventurers in the Holy Kingdom is quite scarce.

The existence of the Adventurer's Guild is more symbolic.

At this moment!

In front of the Adventurer's Guild, which had always been empty, a dense crowd of adventurers had gathered.

These people were all adventurer squads that had rushed over from nearby cities, or even from the Southern Holy Kingdom.

Rumble—

The vibrating sound of wheels rolling on the ground came from far down the street.

"They're here!"

A soft cry came from among the adventurers.

In an instant, pairs of excited, fervent, and curious eyes looked toward the carriage pulled by ghost hounds driving down the street.

As the chains controlled by the ghost hounds tightened, stopping the carriage's forward momentum, the wheels slowly came to a stop.

Click!

The carriage door pushed open.

Tang Zheng was the first to step down from the carriage, and seeing the hundreds of adventurers gathered in front of the Adventurer's Guild, a helpless expression appeared on his face.

Enri followed closely behind, and facing those pairs of fervent gazes, she subconsciously wanted to lower her head.

"You are no longer that Enri who needs others to take care of her and hides behind."

Tang Zheng spoke to the figure behind him and walked toward the Adventurer's Guild.

The shadow that had been blocking the front gradually moved away from Enri.

Miss Cuiye is not here either.

In the past, she only needed to follow behind Miss Cuiye.

Enri's fingers trembled slightly, and looking at the white back in front of her, a voice suddenly emerged in her heart.

'I can already help Captain.'

This was what she had just said not long ago!

Step~

Enri took a step, and the inferiority and caution from the border village deep within her light brown eyes were gradually disappearing.

Step—

Enri's other foot landed firmly on the ground, and she suddenly put her hands behind her back and revealed a simple and kind smile to all the adventurers looking at her.

The braid on her left chest jumped slightly as she quickly followed Tang Zheng.

A trace of heroic spirit gradually condensed in her stride!

"The young man walking in front must be the leader of 'Free Will'."

"That's right!"

"It's the 'Genius Alchemist' Tang."

"Are there only two people? I heard the 'Free Will' squad had three people, and one of them seemed to be a demi-human."

"Demi-human? Could it be that they knew we people of the Holy Kingdom hate demi-humans, so they didn't come together."

"That girl is so young, could she be the one who eliminated the legendary undead in the rumors?"

"She feels so weak."

"Wait, she smiled at me, so cute!"

"..."

Whispers of discussion constantly rose from the adventurers on both sides.

Guild Master Botejin had already been standing at the entrance of the Adventurer's Guild waiting, and after seeing Tang Zheng and the other appear, he took the initiative to walk up quickly.

"Welcome back, Mr. Tang, Miss Enri."

Guild Master Botejin bowed slightly, his face carrying a bit of respect as he spoke to Tang Zheng and the other.

His gaze lingered briefly on Enri in particular.

If it weren't for the confirmation obtained from members of the Paladin Order, he really couldn't imagine that this ordinary girl could actually slay a legendary undead.

Heavens!

I actually let this Miss Enri open the door back then.

However.

Her aura is indeed a bit weak.

Guild Master Botejin suppressed the various thoughts in his heart and immediately withdrew his gaze after a brief pause.

"This is a bit too lively, Guild Master Botejin."

Tang Zheng gestured toward the surrounding adventurers.

Changing an adventurer's rank badge is actually not a big deal; even if an "Adamantite-ranked" adventurer squad changes badges, there is actually no special ceremony.

The reason for the situation before them,

Tang Zheng could roughly guess that it was intentional by Guild Master Botejin, all for the sake of the extremely low presence of the Adventurer's Guild within the Holy Kingdom.

(End of chapter)