Steal the Wager Tonight

A swarm of poisonous bees burst forth from the Forest, their buzzing wings creating a thunderous roar that sent chills down one's spine.

But Frieren remained unmoved, calmly raising her wand.

Suppressed, calming magic surged and flowed into the staff, drawing a silver-white magic circle.

[The Heat Flame Breath Magic]

The magic circle unleashed a fierce burst of flame that shot 20 meters away, turning the swarming swarm of poisonous bees into specks of Kakkō.

As flames swept across the swarm, the enormous Hive in the Forest was eventually engulfed in flames and fell completely still.

Shazo walked up, ignoring the Heat heat, and casually tore open the outer shell of the Hive, revealing the inner honeycomb filled with golden honey.

Under the intense heat, the honey released an amazing aroma, causing Shazo and Frieren to show expressions of utter intoxication.

The Little Elf loved sweets the most, so she hugged her magic wand and came over, took the Hive block that Shazo handed her, and took a big bite.

The warm honey was incredibly sweet, and Frieren happily squinted her eyes, savoring the ultimate sweetness with complete concentration.

Shazo Druid, who considered himself a proponent of the natural balance school, did not exterminate the Hive. Instead, he left the queen bee intact, one-tenth of the larvae about to hatch, and enough honey to feed them.

Then, Shazo Zuo cut off the remaining Hive and put it into a large bucket, then manually centrifuged it to separate the honey.

Beeswax and bee pupae:

Finally, he sealed the honey and beeswax separately, while coating the bee pupae with specially purchased flour and deep-frying them into a golden-brown delicacy.

At first, Frieren resisted; she was a noble elf, how could she eat Bug?

But the irresistible power of the Law of True Fragrance was hard to resist. Soon, the Little Elf succumbed to the deliciousness of the sweet, fried bee pupae and began to covet the remaining one-tenth of the bee pupae.

However, considering the possibility of turning back, Frieren gave up.

She's always moving forward, Frieren!

Not counting the part of the journey where Lord Shazo Zuo dragged her to destroy the Hive, that part was forced upon her!

As evening approached, fog rolled in on the road, turning the already dim visibility into complete darkness.

Frieren threw all the bee larvae in her hand into her mouth, clapped her hands, and raised her wand.

Elves possess night vision, so such dim vision would be completely unnatural, especially since there's hardly any dense fog at dusk.

Just as Frieren was on high alert, she heard someone call her name from behind.

"Frieren ----"

The voice was familiar; the image of her master automatically appeared in Frieren's mind.

The next moment, Flamme's figure appeared from the thick fog. She was so young and beautiful, with such a dashing and heroic temperament. She was exactly the Frieren left the deepest impression on Flamme when she killed three Demon Race and destroyed a small hill with one blow.

A look of longing and tenderness appeared in Frieren's eyes as she murmured, "Teacher----"

Flamme smiled and took a step closer, "Frieren, it's been a long time."

Frieren's voice trembled slightly with a sob. "Yes, it's been a long time, Ms. Flamme."

Flamme continued to approach, one step, two steps, three steps, until she was within reach. Suddenly, Frieren's magic wand activated the [Anti-Magic Beam], instantly piercing Flamme's chest and turning her into a twisted Shattering phantom.

After the illusion faded, a monster with a full head of white hair and blank facial features was revealed.

The monster's upper body was that of a male elf, but its lower body was a thick cloud of black smoke.

Because it was hit in a vital spot by the [Demon-Slaying Beam], it is now rapidly turning into ashes.

This scene perfectly matched Shazo's impression of how demons and Demon Race died. He smiled and asked, "Frieren, how did you recognize this demon?"

Frieren shook her head. "Mr. Shazo, I'm not stupid."

"My teacher has been dead for over a year. Even if she were still alive, she would look like an old woman with white hair. How could I possibly be fooled?"

"And----"

Shazo asked curiously, "And what?"

Frieren replied, "My teacher taught me not to greet people with my mouth, but with magical attacks."

"Those who can be blocked are naturally teachers; those who cannot are naturally demons."

This time, Shazo was dumbfounded. "----A very good idea."

Frieren observed it for a while, and even after the monster had completely turned to ashes, she still couldn't recognize what kind of monster it was.

So she asked, "Mr. Shazo, what kind of monster is this?"

Shazo replied, "I don't know. This kind of monster isn't listed in the Elf Race Monster Compendium. It must be a newly discovered monster species."

Frieren asked curiously, "Aren't the monsters fixed?"

"No," Shazo replied. "The types of monsters are constantly being updated. The Elf Race ' Monster Illustrated Catalogue ' records over 4,000 types of monsters, but at least 3,400 of them haven't appeared for 300 years."

"In response to the changes and development of the Elf Race, the monsters are also constantly changing."

Frieren nodded. "Mr. Shazo, if we encounter a new monster, what should we name it?"

Shazo replied, "There are no specific rules. You can name it yourself when you see it, and if you call it that many times, it will become an official name."

"Frieren, you can name it too."

"Me? Really?" Frieren was greatly surprised. "I'm an inexperienced Mage, can I really do it?"

Shazo Zuo nodded. "Of course!"

Frieren jumped up excitedly. "Okay, I'll definitely give it the most suitable name!"

The Little Elf kept thinking about it, even while eating, while sleeping, and still muttering to himself when he woke up in the morning.

As she packed her bags and continued on her journey, Frieren gazed at the thin morning mist and finally made up her mind. "I've decided, it will be called— Phantom Kageoni!"

↑↑ Phantom Kageoni ↑↑

Frieren declared, "Although I don't know what the Phantom Kageoni is trying to do, I figured it out very easily and it had to get close to me step by step, so it must not be good at long-range combat and is not a very dangerous monster."

"It's also very good at creating illusions, so that's why it's called that!"

Shazo Zuo chuckled, "This kind of monster isn't much of a threat to elves, but I feel like it was created specifically for humans."

Frieren asked in surprise, "Born for humanity?"

Shazo replied, "That's right. Human life is short, which makes their desires strong and their greed for profit extremely pronounced."

"But at the same time, their emotions are also very strong, especially their excessive attachment to lost love. Many times, even if they know it's fake, they will still deceive themselves and indulge in the illusion."

"I think it won't be long before this monster called the Phantom Kageoni shows its true danger."

Frieren nodded as if she understood, and followed Shazo forward.

The further south you go, the higher the temperature becomes, the denser the Forest, and the more concentrated human activity becomes along the riverbanks.

The last leg of Shazo and Frieren's journey involved traveling downstream on a homemade the Raft at an astonishing speed.

Because of this river, many boats come and go, and new monsters have appeared on the river.

This monster lurks in the water, attacking boats along the way, ambushing women washing clothes, children playing in the water, and even strong men coming to the river to fetch water.

Unable to defeat Frieren due to a lack of suitable magic, Shazo then took out a sword made of ice crystals.

The most exhilarating moment arrived when Shazo raised his ice sword high and slammed it down onto the water's surface. The crystal-clear blade shattered on the water, turning into flying ice shards.

For some reason, the sight of those snow-white shards flying everywhere was so satisfying.

The onlookers cheered in unison, "Bravo!"

But Shazo was the most thrilled, laughing heartily, "That was awesome!"

"I've been wanting to do this in public for ages! It feels so good!!"

The ice sword shattered, but the power within it was transferred to the monster through the water.

In Setsuna, the Sword Qi cleaved the demon into a pool of blood, so much so that no one knew what the demon actually looked like.

Frieren shook her head in disappointment and could only write in her notebook: The monsters lurking in the southern rivers are skilled at lurking underwater and Water Shot and humans on the riverbanks.

Since she hadn't seen what the monster looked like, Frieren could only vaguely name it: Underwater Demon.

After dealing with the monsters in the river, the journey continued without any further incidents until Shazo reached his destination, but it was no longer the place he remembered.

He made a bet with the Grand Patriarch at the mouth of this great river, which was then just a small town just beginning to prosper, but has now become a "big" city with stone walls.

Well, in Shazo's mind, a settlement of this level is at most a town, and has nothing to do with a city.

However, in this world, the city in front of us is actually quite large, with a population of at least 50,000, second only to the Imperial Capital City where Frieren currently resides.

That largest city, known as the Imperial Capital, has a population of 80,000.

Seeing that Shazo was frowning and seemed quite frightened, Frieren asked curiously, "Lord Shazo, is there something wrong with this city?"

Shazo nodded and said, "There's a problem, a big problem."

"Frieren, can't you smell it?"

"That suffocating stench—"

"Don't remind me, Lord Shazo!" Frieren, who hadn't thought anything of it before, suddenly turned pale and covered her nose with both hands, but she still couldn't stop the stench from seeping in.

Hiccup

Shazo particularly dislikes modern human cities; there are too many factors that cause him to feel disgust.

For example, the city has an owner, and there are many nobles headed by the city lord, and each of them is a hateful, greedy, and vicious person.

For example, before human civilization developed public health, the problems of urinating and defecating anywhere, and the habit of sleeping in haystacks with domestic pigs, all caused Shazo's eyes and nose great suffering.

For example, the city gate in front of us----

"Halt!" The guards at the city gate stopped Shazo and Frieren. "Two elves, dressed in finery and carrying chests, your entrance fee is two silver coins each."

Dizzy from the stench and not wanting to cause trouble, Shazo paid a tax of two silver coins and then entered the wretched city.

After walking a long way, Frieren muttered, "I hate the city entry tax."

Shazo Zuo nodded. "Me too, that's why I rarely go into the city, it's too much trouble."

The two elves walked along, listening to the conversations of the humans around them, trying to gather as much information as possible.

Originally, this city was founded by believers to commemorate the First Grand Patriarch, and they called it the Holy Capital of the Descent of God.

Today, this is the main southern base of the Goddess Church, and every year a large number of outstanding Monk come here to practice asceticism.

Correcting misleading information.

Thanks to the convenient waterways and the abundant food brought by the rich water resources, Chengdu attracted a large population and merchants, making it as prosperous as the capital city.

Compared to the wooden houses in villages and ordinary towns, most of the buildings in the Holy Capital are made of stone, and the houses facing the street are even two or three stories high.

The bustling shops and the cries of vendors hawking their wares filled the air, but even more jarring was the thunderous sound of horses' hooves galloping through the crowd.

"Get out of the way!"

"His Excellency is about to depart. Anyone who blocks his path will be considered an assassin and killed on the spot!"

"Make way! Make way!"

"You're asking for it! Don't you want to live anymore?!"

Frieren covered her ears with her hands and muttered, "I hate nobles."

Shazo Zuo nodded and said, "Humanity has only been around for a short time, so it's normal for them to have a nouveau riche mentality and barbaric behavior."

"After a few hundred years of accumulation, things should be much better."

Following his memory, Shazo walked towards the small hill where he had made the bet with the Grand Patriarch.

Then he discovered that a magnificent Great Cathedral stood atop the small hill.

With the help of magic, humankind's architectural skills reached a very high level, with vertical pointed arches soaring straight up into the clouds like sharp spears.

The stained glass windows and numerous Gods beams depicting deities adorn the Church with extraordinary splendor, making it completely out of place with the surrounding buildings, as if it were products of two different eras.

Pilgrims come and go in a constant stream on the road leading down the mountain from the Great Cathedral.

The greatest advantage of architecture that surpasses contemporary standards is its ability to awe people; no one dares to defecate here. In addition, the high altitude and direct exposure to sea breezes greatly reduce the concentration of odors in the air.

Frieren lowered her hand from her nose and asked, "Lord Shazo, is this our destination?"

Shazo Zuo nodded. "This is it. I can feel it; the stakes I won are in this Church."

Frieren laughed, "It seems Lord Shazo can't just walk in and tell the human he's taking his bet."

Shazo said nonchalantly, "It's alright, I'll sneak in tonight and take the agreed-upon sword directly."

Frieren asked in surprise, "Isn't this stealing? Is it really okay?"

"Why not?" Shazo said confidently, "In this world, as long as I have a clear conscience, no one can stop me."