Chapter 573: Initial Communication, The Possibility of a Transaction

Hearing a very young voice, Yamila was instead taken aback, because judging by the intense vitality of the other party and the various divine power methods they possessed, they should be a formidable enemy with a high status within a church.

"May I ask which church you are a priest of? Or are you a Knight of the church?" Yamila did not deactivate her invisibility, and at the same time, she slowly moved her feet, attempting to increase the distance between herself and the other party.

If the other party was a Knight, the current distance was far too close.

She had heard her teacher speak more than once of the terror of Knights; their movements were too fast, and often, even if magic users like them cast combat-enhancing magic such as 【Rapid Consciousness】, their reaction speeds during battle still fell far short of Knight-rank Warriors.

Especially for Magic Apprentices like them, because their bodies had not undergone magical biological modification, they were far inferior to Human Knights in terms of strength, reaction, defense, and self-repair.

Furthermore, because their magic tolerance was poor, some powerful enhancement magic could not be cast upon them.

For a mediocre Magic Apprentice like her to deal with a Knight-rank Warrior at close range—especially this peculiar Knight before her, who was fully armed, carried Magic Power, possessed two magic weapons and one spiritual weapon on his person, had divine power from a god blessing him, and had a divine power creation by his side—was still somewhat strenuous; at least, that was what Yamila believed at this moment.

Hearing the young female voice, Jier frowned and said with a still-firm attitude: "You deactivate your invisibility state first, then speak with me."

After speaking, Jier struck the Dwarf Long Spear in his right hand against the ground, the butt of the spear hitting a tree root on the ground and emitting a dull thud.

Hearing this dull thud, Yamila shuddered all over; her perception was keen, and she clearly sensed a gradually intensifying killing intent from the other party, and the long spear struck on the ground was also an unactivated magic weapon.

Although her teacher had taught her that when a Mage fights, they must simultaneously activate invisibility and magic shields to increase the difficulty for the enemy to identify and attack, she had to go against her teacher's teachings at this moment and deactivate her invisibility under the other party's demand.

Although the various magic tools on her body were gradually activated, the mere thought that she would have to pay money or personally replenish the Magic Power for those magic tools later made her feel distressed.

Magic is very expensive.

And she was very short on money.

"Sir, uh, I will deactivate my invisibility, but you must guarantee that you will not launch an attack immediately! Otherwise, I will risk bankruptcy to activate some magic sufficient for self-preservation. I hope you can understand this point!"

After speaking, Yamila stared tightly at the other party, and after seeing him nod slightly, she pinched the Dagger in her left hand and touched the patterns on the inside of her Cloak in sequence, thereby deactivating the use of this Invisibility Cloak.

Gradually, Yamila's tall figure was revealed; she was tall, and after wearing heeled leather boots, she was actually slightly taller than Jier while standing in place.

Of course, that was when Jier was not wearing his Helmet; once he put on the Helmet, Jier was quite a bit taller than her.

At the same time, the figure under the other party's dark Cloak was quite slender, and the pair of long legs hidden under the Cloak were also wrapped in a loose long skirt.

Jier noticed a pair of earrings glowing under the other party's hood, as well as a necklace emitting a dangerous red light under her slender neck; at the same time, a Magic Badge hanging on her belt was also emitting a faint magical glow, clearly currently in operation.

He guessed that the three translucent Magic Shields surrounding her at this moment were likely provided by these few magic tools. When passing through White Stone Pass earlier, Jier had fought the 'King of the White Wall' entrenched there; the magic shield tool on that person had left a very deep impression on him, as his attacks at the time could barely break through the other party's protective magic.

And now, the lady before him had more than one magic protective tool on her, which was clearly even more troublesome. Moreover, listening to the content of her warning, she not only had defensive magic tools but also powerful magic tools capable of counterattacking, likely that necklace on her chest, because that thing was currently bringing Jier a continuous sense of crisis.

As for the Short Staff in the other party's right hand, it did not bring Jier any sense of danger, and the Dagger in her left hand was completely ignored by Jier.

Knowing that the other party was no amateur, Jier also slightly set aside the idea of fighting, but to ensure safety, he muttered a few words in a low voice; the Spirit Dog not far away had sensitive ears, heard what Jier said in a lowered voice, and immediately ran away.

"Uh, Sir? What did that divine power creation of yours go to do?"

Yamila raised the Short Staff in her right hand and asked nervously, but Jier waved his left hand: "It's nothing, let it do whatever it wants. Since you have deactivated your invisibility, I must also show some gesture."

After Jier finished speaking, he simply took off the Helmet he was wearing on his head in a few motions, revealing his young face.

Yamila raised her eyebrows; she had been calling him "Sir" repeatedly, but she had not expected the other party's face to be so young. Although she had guessed when she heard his voice earlier that this person should be a young Knight or a Knight-rank Warrior, she had not expected him to be this young.

Therefore, the wording in her subsequent speech also changed: "Hello, may I ask which church you are a priest of? Or a Knight of the church? Was that divine power creation just now the one that followed me and had a conflict with me at noon today?"

Jier sized up the other party, and while waiting for the Spirit Dog to scout the movements of the other party's magic creation, he decided to stall for time with her first.

"I am not a priest, nor am I a Knight of any church. As for my creation, indeed, it is a divine power creation; it is a Divine Gift Ability personally bestowed upon me by a certain god. But as for having a conflict? I do not think so."

Yamila lifted the hood on her head and said angrily: "Not a conflict? It caused me to lose at least several dozen Gold Coins! Do you know what this means?"

But Jier snorted coldly: "But at noon, it was your side that was unilaterally using force, right? Did my divine gift creation launch a single attack against you?"

Yamila's tone faltered; thinking about it carefully, it was indeed so, but she could not admit defeat verbally: "Sneaking up on a woman while invisible, doesn't that represent that it had the intention to attack? I was terrified at the time, and making a counterattack was only right!"

Jier curled his lips: "Sorry, that divine gift creation of mine is naturally invisible; no one else can see or touch it except me. To be honest, that you were able to discover it did indeed surprise me. As for it sneaking up on a woman, let alone that its own invisibility cannot be deactivated, weren't you also invisible at the time? I also want to ask you; you shouldn't be from the Saint Hors Kingdom, right? Secretly hiding your form here, what exactly are you trying to do?"

Yamila was embarrassed to say that she was secretly watching a room full of naked young men at the time, so she had to change the subject: "Don't worry about what I'm doing here; you still haven't answered me yet. Who are you? And who do you represent?"

"Who am I?"

Jier chewed on this sentence in his mouth, constantly thinking in his heart whether he should report his own name.

As long as he stated his identity, he would inevitably have to talk about the Agricultural God Church, and thus, the purpose of his trip would be brought out along with it. The other party would guess that his goal was to rescue the Changmai Village Villagers trapped in the Mine.

Jier was afraid that if the other party knew this, they would use the lives of those villagers to threaten him, and the situation would not be very good then.

But Jier looked up at the other party again; intuitively, Jier did not sense much danger or cold killing intent from her. He guessed that although the other party was a Mage? Magic Apprentice? who mastered magical power, she was not a bloodthirsty person.

And the other party was a woman, a young but not very beautiful woman (Jier only saw the mask Yamila wore on her face and did not see Yamila's true appearance), so her heart should not be that vicious and cold.

Moreover, he remembered the prophecy of Dashu Bi'ao at this moment; in the prophecy, the key to rescuing the Changmai Village Villagers lay with the 【Messenger of Flame】, and this person was most likely that so-called 【Messenger of Flame】.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Jier opened his mouth and said: "Before answering my identity, I want to ask you a question."

"This is unfair! It has been me answering questions all along!" Yamila shouted dissatisfiedly.

But Jier ignored her grievance and asked directly: "I ask you, are you the 【Messenger of Flame】?"

This question left Yamila bewildered; what did it mean? Was it some kind of code name? Or was it some secret password? When studying at the Magic Tower, she had read a few mystery stories in the library; those stories were mostly related to some eccentric Mages. These things were actually very popular among Magic Apprentices, and everyone said that after they achieved something in the future, they would definitely create some magic puzzles that people would talk about, to make things difficult for those who came after, letting those who came after know of their wisdom.

"【Messenger of Flame】?"

She began to guess; speaking of flame, her country, the Re-gan Kingdom—the Ophirine Kingdom—was indeed related to fire in the impression of surrounding countries, not only because her country suffered from fire disasters all year round, but also because there were many special soldiers in the army who used fire-prevention and arson equipment. Those were the Refining Qi in the army, and their combat power was not low; even Magic Apprentices would find it troublesome to fight them.

And a messenger, that would always have to deliver some letters or items, right? Immediately, she thought of herself; wasn't she here this time to deliver the 【Lizardman Transformation Potion】 to the cooperating Knight Hartna? And she had to follow the agreement to bring back the metal minerals re-mined and smelted from the abandoned Mine here, to replenish these metal supplies into the kingdom's army as soon as possible before the new round of war.

Although she did not know much about war, she also knew that the more metal supplies the army had, the better the weapons and equipment the soldiers would be, and the more they would be able to win battles.

And as long as the war was won, her teacher could reap great benefits in this war, and the lives of her and her fellow apprentices would likely be much better.

But it was hard to say; her teacher was a stingy and miserly person, and he would likely still demand the money that should be paid at that time. "Learning magic is expensive"—her teacher always kept this sentence on his lips, saying it to them, and mercilessly collected large sums of money from them, the Magic Apprentices, for research.

"If I am the Messenger of Flame, what will you do? If I am not, what will you do?" Yamila answered like this.

Jier sighed: "Sigh, I see we have fallen into a strange circle of answering questions with questions."

"It was you who started it! Don't blame me!" Yamila shouted loudly.

Jier waved his left hand, signaling her to calm down, so he gave up asking and said: "Alright, my name is Qiao-Jier, from the Northwest Province of the Saint Hors Kingdom."

After speaking, Jier tilted his chin at Yamila, signaling the other party to speak as well.

Yamila hummed, hesitated for a moment, and said: "I am Yamila Aosiding, from the Ophirine Kingdom. Heh, my country is currently in a state of war with your country, young mysterious warrior. What do you think? Do you want to draw your sword against me?"

When she said the last part, there was even a hint of teasing in her tone.

Jier retorted unceremoniously: "Is that so? But how is it that I heard it was only the Southern Province of the Saint Hors Kingdom that was at war with your country? Would you like to look at a map and compare the sizes of the two countries?"

Yamila sighed inwardly and stopped speaking.

Because she knew that compared to the Saint Hors Kingdom, her country, the Ophirine Kingdom, was somewhat too small. Although they had won against the Southern Province Noble Coalition last year, that was merely a temporary coalition formed by some nobles in the border regions of the Southern Province. Moving into this year, after the territorial nobles of the entire Southern Province had dispatched their troops, the pressure on their side was also immense!

Because according to the intelligence she had gathered before setting out, the Southern Province Noble Coalition of the Saint Hors Kingdom had already gathered over one hundred thousand people, while on their side, the number of troops was less than forty thousand. These forty thousand were already almost the entire army of their Kingdom, yet the Southern Province Noble Coalition of the Saint Hors Kingdom seemed to still be continuously gathering troops from various places.

Her teacher had told them, the apprentices close to him, more than once that even among the upper echelons of the Ophirine Kingdom Army, there was a general reluctance to continue the war. They felt that using the currently occupied territories to negotiate, trading away some areas that were difficult to defend, and trading back some essential mountain passes in the negotiations to stabilize the occupied regions would be enough.

Because the reason for inciting the war in the beginning was, after all, the discovery of many mineral veins in various regions of the Southern Mountains. And now, the largest few mines among them were already under the control of their Ophirine Kingdom; stopping here and quitting while ahead was already quite good.

At least, the nobles within the Kingdom thought so.

But her teacher, as well as the King of the Kingdom, had always advocated for continuing the war because they could obtain more benefits from the war.

Most of the newly occupied land belonged to the royal family, while the Kingdom's nobles had to wait until after the war for the King to grant them new fiefs and territories. And her teacher also held a large share of the profits from the mines in the newly occupied lands; these continuous benefits would be transformed into various rare resources, expensive trade knowledge, and finally into the technical strength and military power mastered by a Mage.

Seeing the other party become sullen from his question, Jier curled his lips and continued: "Then, are you a messenger of flame? You come from the Ophirine Kingdom, where the air is dry and it is said that fires are frequent, which is why it is also called the Re-gan Kingdom, the Kingdom of Flame? This young lady who uses Magic, is your trip here to fulfill the duties of a messenger? Could you be more honest? I have no intention of using force; compared to force, I prefer to use communication to exchange, or even trade."

"Trade?"

Upon hearing that there might be profit to be made, Yamila immediately asked.

And Jier also understood in his heart, guessing that the other party was a greedy person, or at least, valued profit more.

This was good; if the other party were a fellow full of talk about honor, it would have been harder to deal with.

"Yes, trade. Are you interested in making a trade with me?" Jier asked, spreading his hands.

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