Aethel and Parker

"I know some," Tata said, holding out the dagger with both hands. "And Mr. Knight, I was also nearby when you were browsing the community."

Fang Heng was a little surprised. He took the dagger and asked honestly, "So, can you understand our existence?"

"Yes, although to most people you're just some strange outsiders," Tata replied. "But regarding your origins, what you are in relation to this world, and your organizations and relationships with each other, it's actually not a secret here—this world's understanding of you is probably deeper than you imagine."

"Why do you say that?"

Tata shook his head. "I'm not sure either, this is just my inference. Because knowledge and memory tell me so, and my knowledge and memory come from the Great Silver Library. Every book there has an author, do you understand?"

Fang Heng understood.

He had to admit that what was said was impactful. He realized people might underestimate the native inhabitants of this world. While they might be limited by their means and unable to travel to Earth, it didn't stop them from thinking and analyzing, from guessing the answer that was infinitely close to the truth.

After all, no matter where you go, there will never be a shortage of truly wise individuals.

He put the Walker back and looked at the dagger in his hand. "...Trainees. How should I put it? In our world, not everyone has the chance to become a Chosen. Only a lucky few are selected. These people are often reserves groomed by the Major Guilds and the military for the future. They receive long-term knowledge and training related to Aethelria, hence they are called trainees."

"Lucky few..."

Fang Heng nodded seriously.

The fairy patted her wings, flew up, and sat on his left shoulder. "It sounds more like professional apprentices."

"Yes, apprentices," Fang Heng said, leading her towards the Dragon-feather Emu's corpse. He raised his left hand, showing her the inscription on the dagger. "See? This is a trainee dagger. The insignia on it was designed on Earth. It's an item trainees must carry when entering Aethelria."

"So those people are trainees?"

"Perhaps not all of them," Fang Heng stopped beside the Dragon-feather Emu's corpse and replied. "Trainees from Major Guilds usually enter this world as tourists. They have a three-month internship here, but tourists have no self-preservation capabilities, so they might have hired other adventurers."

As he spoke, he flipped over the giant bird's corpse.

Although Aethelria is an information-based world, it's not a real game, so absurd things like monsters dropping equipment don't exist. Of course, these magical creatures do have some valuable materials.

The most valuable part of the Dragon-feather Emu was its glands and sacs that secreted and stored flammable liquid. This flammable liquid could be used to manufacture Level IV Catalysts, explosives and igniters of D-grade or higher, and as a supplementary material for Fire Core Crystals, but unfortunately, they were damaged.

A pungent chemical odor filled the air.

Next in value was its scaly hide with dragon blood lineage, a high-quality primary material for leather armor below Tier 2, but it needed to be stripped intact and promptly tanned to be valuable. Fang Heng didn't have the skill for that.

Finally, Fang Heng only collected some stiff feathers, seventeen complete tail feathers in total. He couldn't use them himself, but he could sell them to a bow maker. Dragon-feather Emus were relatively rare creatures, and fire-element stiff feathers could fetch a decent price. Besides, even if they weren't worth much, given Fang Heng's current financial situation, he would take anything he could get.

Tata watched him put the tail feathers into his pocket before continuing, "So, is this dagger important to them?"

"This dagger represents their trainee status. With it, they can receive some feasible assistance from other Chosen."

Fang Heng looked at the dagger. "It is quite important. If the dagger was lost here, the owner might have encountered some trouble." He looked ahead again. "In any case, let's go up and take a look."

The swamp had become quite deep here. Tall reeds and cattails obscured the surrounding view, but tracking became easier. Ahead was a passage through a flattened patch of tall grass.

It was obvious at a glance that someone had passed through here—

Strangely, there were many other traces around, as if many things had chased them through here. There also seemed to be a peculiar smell in the air. Fang Heng sniffed, then bent down to pick up a broken blade of grass and sniffed it. A more pungent odor lingered on it.

"The smell of sulfur," Tata answered.

Fang Heng nodded. Humans would certainly not leave such a smell. He became slightly more alert and continued forward. The man and the fairy pushed aside the reeds and entered the depths of the swamp from that direction.

Before they had walked far, two Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles appeared ahead.

Fang Heng exerted almost all his strength to defeat these beetles, which were about the size of calves, and then he understood the source of the sulfur smell. Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles were typical fire-element creatures. They liked to live in underground caves, coexisting with lava and sulfur.

"But why would these things appear in this place?" Fang Heng couldn't help but feel puzzled. He remembered that Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles rarely left underground, let alone appeared near water sources.

They were naturally averse to water—

"The Dragon-feather Emu is also a fire-element creature, Mr. Knight," Tata reminded him.

"Yes, I was just suspecting that," he said, looking around doubtfully. "Although Dragon-feather Emus do live in swamps, they generally prefer to nest on drier high ground."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a strange sound from ahead.

"Huh," Fang Heng stopped and asked, "Tata, did you hear something?"

Tata shook his head.

But a moment later, a clearer angry shout came from the forest ahead. This time, both of them heard it clearly—it was the sound of fighting. Fang Heng and Tata exchanged glances and ran in that direction without thinking.

He didn't run more than a few steps before he felt solid ground under his feet.

The forest became dry again in this direction. Geyser vents and wisps of white steam appeared in the distance. Fang Heng finally understood why so many fire-element creatures appeared nearby; there was clearly abundant geothermal energy underground in this area.

But this still didn't explain why the Elephant-nose Beetles were on the surface.

The sounds of fighting were becoming more intense. Ahead was a dense thicket of fishbone trees. Fang Heng stepped forward and parted the branches, finally seeing the scene beyond the bushes.

Then he gasped—

"Did these people stumble upon an Elephant-nose Beetle nest?"

The thought instinctively crossed his mind. What greeted his eyes was a clearing in the forest. Seventeen or eighteen Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles were attacking five adventurers in the center of the clearing as if in a frenzy.

There was a pile of large rocks there. Although the adventurers occupied the high ground on the rocks, they were in a precarious situation due to the overwhelming numerical disadvantage.

Not to mention that among the five adventurers, three were trainees with no combat capability.

Fang Heng recognized the status of the three trainees at a glance—they had no conspicuous Battle Gear, nor were they armored or carrying Magic Furnaces. They were clearly typical tourists.

The three trainees were not old, two males and one female. The oldest boy might have been younger than him, around sixteen years old, with an East Asian face. He was cautiously shielding everyone at the front.

The other boy was quite thin, also with black hair, which was very soft and almost drooped over his head. He wore a pair of round-rimmed glasses, large and clumsy, with lenses as thick as the bottom of a glass bottle, obscuring a third of his face and revealing only a pointed chin below.

He had red lips and white teeth, and his slender eyebrows were delicate, almost feminine. However, he was indeed wearing a man's dark brown velvet robe that trailed all the way to the ground, looking almost a size too big. He seemed to be the youngest of the three, looking no older than fourteen. His hands clutched a large book tightly, and he was protected at the rear by the other two.

Seeing this, Fang Heng couldn't help but feel a good impression of these three trainees. People who knew how to stand up for their companions, in his opinion, couldn't have a bad heart.

As for the last girl—the only one of the three who didn't have an East Asian face—she had neat, light blonde hair cut just above her ears, wore pretty earrings, and had a smattering of fine freckles across her nose. Her face was round. While not stunningly beautiful, she gave off an overall impression of warmth and cuteness, full of youthful energy.

Fighting desperately in front of these three trainees were likely the adventurers they had hired.

There were only two of them.

One was an elf girl with wheat-colored skin, appearing to be seventeen or eighteen at most. She was dressed as a hunter, with a short bow on her back—though she wasn't using it. Instead, she held a long spear in both hands, her body low like a coiled leopard ready to pounce.

The elf girl had exceptionally beautiful light green eyes. The depths of her gaze were incredibly lively, as if she could always pinpoint the enemy's exact movements at the last moment and strike accordingly. With one spear thrust, she sent a charging elephant-nose beetle flying.

Her movements were both cautious and perfect. Her body was supple, allowing her to maximize the power of her core, making her seem like a taut whip. At times, Fang Heng almost thought she would break her slender waist.

But in a flash, she turned danger into safety. She moved nimbly backward, dodging the elephant-nose beetle's fiery breath. Between stillness and motion, she displayed the beauty of power and agility to its fullest.

The girl's level wasn't high, possibly not even a second-tier profession, around level seven or eight. However, her combat experience far surpassed any Chosen Fang Heng had seen at this level.

It was simply incomparable—

To the point where Fang Heng could only describe the huntress's brilliant combat with three words.

Predator.

Yes, in the eyes of others, the elf girl was like a true jungle predator.

As for the other person, he was rather comical. He was a Paparal, a type of halfling. Unlike the nomadic tall halflings, Paparals had their own settlements and culture. They were a rather likable race, mainly due to their optimistic and cheerful, yet somewhat serious nature, and of course, their appearance.

A typical Paparal would be like this.

They ate seven meals a day: breakfast, a mid-morning snack and tea after a walk, a main meal, afternoon tea, dinner, evening social activities, and a pre-bedtime snack.

Yes, Paparals loved life, but even more, they loved good food, gatherings, and music. A Paparal couldn't live without music.

Their homeland, Sangshak, was the most festive and song-filled place in all of Giant Tree Hills. Paparal law stipulated that over three hundred days of the year were festival celebrations. They certainly loved work, but when a festival arrived, they would drop everything, put on their finest formal wear, and attend various banquets.

Of course, this formal attire must include a respectable hat.

A Paparal without a hat was incomplete.

They had large, pointed ears, cute, slightly chubby round faces, smiling eyes, and almost invisible little noses. Even their tallest individuals were less than half Fang Heng's height, needing to stand on tiptoe to reach an ordinary person's waist. However, Paparals disliked being mocked for their height—which was said to be one reason they liked to wear tall, long hats.

They were gentle folk, disliking war and adventure, and they were afraid of the cold—very afraid of the cold. Fang Heng hadn't expected to see a Paparal in this place, as it was said they never appeared in places where it snowed in winter.

But upon closer inspection, he realized this one was a Chosen.

The reason was simple.

The individual wasn't wearing a decent hat and had goggles perched on his light silver hair. For a Paparal, this wasn't just undignified; it was practically heresy.

The person's plump, short hands held a heavy crossbow almost as tall as himself. He struggled to drag it onto a rock, and facing the beetle's relentless advance, he kept cranking the handle, drawing the bowstring, squinting one eye to aim, shooting with both hands—but there was no sense of killing intent, only a comically endearing appearance.

Fang Heng truly couldn't understand why anyone would choose a Paparal for a combat profession, or what mindset would lead to such a choice. This race's arms were so short they couldn't even reach the top of their own heads, and they only had four stubby fingers.

But that guy clearly had his own ideas.

He kept retreating, kept shooting, and his little leather boots finally stepped to the edge of the giant rock.

"Jump," Fang Heng mentally urged him. Not far behind the Paparal was another giant rock, and he could easily jump onto it to continue shooting.

But the guy actually missed his footing, flipped backward, let go of his heavy crossbow, and fell off, tumbling like a ball.

He landed squarely from a two-meter-high rock, sprawling on his back, and immediately lost consciousness. Of course, a two-meter rock might not be much for an ordinary person, but for a Paparal, it was likely a bit too high.

"Parker!" Fang Heng heard the elf huntress cry out urgently.

So his name was Parker, Fang Heng thought. He was about to command his Walker to rush forward and rescue him, but Miss Tata suddenly flew up, grabbed his hair, and yanked him back.

"Walker, charge—!"

In pain, Fang Heng leaned to the side in that direction, causing the Walker to charge forward and headbutt a tree stump.

"Ta, Miss Tata?"

Fang Heng raised his head, about to ask what was happening, but as he tilted his head, he happened to see the other side of the battlefield. Several white feathers were swaying—and several people were hidden beneath them.

Seeing this, Fang Heng's anger flared.

The Jefflitte Redcoats—

What a coincidence, running into them like this.

A few friends came yesterday, and we played too late into the night. My apologies, I'll be earlier tomorrow for sure.

Also, I forgot. The group for the new book is temporarily: 116533817. I'll irregularly post artwork related to the work in the group, including maps and concept art, as well as other settings that can't be included in the main work.