Reliable Sun Brother

"Want to touch it?"

Sithran carefully touched the Summoning Mark. A golden phantom suddenly appeared on it, scaring her into jumping back.

As soon as she stopped touching the Summoning Mark, the golden phantom immediately disappeared.

"You can even see the Collaborator's appearance."

She touched the Summoning Mark again, carefully examining the person's face.

His build looked like a male's. Why "looked like"? Because the person was wearing Full Armor, making it impossible to see their face or determine their gender.

This armor didn't look particularly valuable. It was a common style. In his right hand, he held a Lance, and in his left, a Great Shield that looked very reassuring.

His name was displayed above his head: Mareda.

"I haven't heard of this person," Sithran chose to summon. "Aren't you an Adventurer?"

After a moment of waiting, a flash of golden special effects passed, and Mareda, entirely golden, made his grand entrance!

"Hey!"

He greeted her with a grand gesture as soon as he appeared. He seemed like a warm and cheerful person. Such a person definitely wouldn't do despicable things like ambushing others, right?

Of course, this Mareda was also Gong Qiying's disguise.

The inspiration for this appearance came from an enemy NPC in Dark Souls II, everyone's friend, Mareda.

After all, Gong Qiying's current appearance was that of a ghoul, so he couldn't show his true face.

"Hello, my name is Sithran."

Sithran circled around Gong Qiying, marveling. So, summoned helpers turned into golden Spirit Bodies. They looked so cool.

"Are you also an Adventurer? Why did you draw a Summoning Mark here?"

Having finally encountered something novel, she wanted to understand it thoroughly.

Gong Qiying hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time either, and he seemed very excited at the moment.

"No, no, I'm not an Adventurer. I'm just traveling and training myself."

"As for the Summoning Mark, you need a tool called a 'hook finger'. Drawing a Summoning Mark on the ground with a hook finger allows you to be seen by someone who has used the Summoning Finger Medicine."

Sithran immediately leaned forward and pressed, "Where can I get a hook finger?"

After speaking, she realized her mistake and quickly added, "I can offer you a reward in exchange for the information."

Gong Qiying shook his head and said enthusiastically, "No reward is needed. We're all people struggling in the Dungeon. Mutual help is basic common sense."

This is truly encountering a good person.

Sithran hadn't heard the phrase "mutual help" from a stranger in a long time. Adventurers nowadays were afraid others would get benefits from the Dungeon before them. If they didn't try to trick you upon meeting, it was already good. If they could even offer a casual pointer, they'd be considered a great benefactor.

Her favorability towards Gong Qiying rose significantly.

Gong Qiying pointed to a distant fortress and said, "Exit through the back door of the fortress, enter the village there, pass through a large number of enemies, and you can pick up the hooked finger by a cliff in the village. Not far from the hooked finger, you can enter the next area, which seems to be a giant tree hollow."

"Whoa," Sithran's eyes widened. "Are you saying you've already cleared that disgusting village?"

Gong Qiying nodded noncommittally. In Sithran's eyes, this was the composure of a strong person.

In an instant, the image and status of "Mareda" in her heart improved.

Sithran's gaze was fervent, as if she had found a treasure. "Can I ask you to guide me through the village? I'll prepare a reward too. Just name your price!"

She thought Gong Qiying would seize the opportunity to ask for a reward, but he just shook his head and said, "I really don't need a reward. If you want to repay me, just talk to me. I actually haven't talked to anyone in a long time and don't know much about the outside world, cough cough, about some news."

"Leave it to me, I watch the news every day."

Not long after, the golden Gong Qiying and Sithran walked side-by-side in the swamp. But upon closer inspection, it was actually Sithran who was following him.

In the swamp, Gong Qiying displayed unparalleled proficiency. He could often find paths to avoid monsters, and even hidden shortcuts leading directly to Beacon Fires. These were paths that Sithran and her companions had never discovered.

Even more cleverly, Gong Qiying seemed to know the monsters' perception range, able to dodge them at the extreme limit and walk right past them as if no one was there, much to Sithran's admiration.

"You must have explored here for a long time, right?"

"I just explored a bit more seriously."

This was the demeanor of a master!

Sithran admired everyone stronger than her. Regardless of strength, just in terms of Dungeon exploration ability, Gong Qiying's skills far surpassed hers.

Sithran believed she would never have been able to discover those tricky hidden shortcuts. They were hidden too deeply.

And during their time together, Gong Qiying gradually filled his information database.

Before, he only knew there was a Bed City nearby, a place where Adventurers lived. Now, from Sithran, he learned about the main members of the House of Bede and their respective characteristics. For example, Charon was a big oaf, Verde was a sissy, and Sali was outright a beautiful effeminate boy.

These evaluations carried quite a subjective impression.

He then learned more about the Power Tiers of this world: Low, Mid, High, King, Saint, Legend. A very simple grading system. There was no upper limit to the professions one could learn in a lifetime. As long as one had talent and time, they could keep learning, with basically no restrictions.

Even weapons, items, magic, and so on could be graded using this simple and crude system. The world's settings were too easy to understand.

Although Sithran was puzzled why Gong Qiying would ask such obvious questions, she was only puzzled. The reliability Gong Qiying displayed made her completely dismiss the possibility of him being a monster.

Joking aside, how could a low-intelligence monster learn human language?

Besides this basic knowledge, Gong Qiying also learned some information that was useless for now, such as gossip about the president of the Adventurer's Guild.

The top combat power in human society seemed to be a mage named Kowid, who was the Royal Family's magic advisor. His strength had long reached the legendary level, but he hadn't appeared in public for decades. Some rumored he was already dead.

The place where elves lived was called the Elf Forest. The ruler, the Elf Queen, also possessed legendary strength. However, elves mostly loved peace, so they lived in seclusion in the beautiful forest.

Dwarves liked to live in the mountains. They were extremely talented in forging and brewing, which fit the outside world's stereotype of them. They gathered under the Dwarf King and were also a force to be reckoned with.

The vast amount of information obtained today left Gong Qiying quite satisfied, so satisfied that he wanted to let out a burp.

In a short while, they arrived at the entrance of the fortress.

"They opened the gate this quickly?" Sithran's gaze towards him had changed from respect to admiration. She had never seen anyone clear the Poisonous Swamp so quickly before!

"Prepare your weapons, we're about to start fighting."

Begging, begging, this flop author asks for monthly and recommendation tickets.