Welcome Back to the Beginner Zone

Etila suddenly stopped.

Ahead lay an expanse of open water, shimmering with faint ripples beneath the sunlight, deep green as jade.

Dead trees surrounded the shore. In a few quick moves, she grabbed the vines of a banyan tree and climbed up, hanging diagonally from a branch as she held the vines and looked into the distance. Then she let go and dropped down, dusting off her hands as she told the others, "Stop. Let's rest for a while."

The elf girl's voice was gentle, like the warm afternoon sun shining through the vines onto a desk. Amid drifting motes of dust, it was quiet, tranquil, and reassuring.

The others stopped as well. Jita let out a long breath, unfastened the leather straps of the huge book, and took it off his back. He leaned his slender body against a moss-covered rotten log and wiped away his sweat with the back of his hand. Beads of sweat ran down his thin arms, steam rising from him.

"You shouldn't have brought that stupid book in the first place," Tianlan said disapprovingly, constantly fanning herself with one hand. A rosy flush showed beneath her fair skin. "It's not even a real Grimoire. It's just a wooden model."

The height of summer had passed, but its lingering heat still clung to the land.

"But one day, I'll carry a real Grimoire," Jita replied brightly. "So I have to get used to its weight first."

"I give up on you. At least learn to cheat once in a while," Tianlan shook her head. "No one would know, would they?"

"I would know. Luo Yu would know. Miss Fuli would know. Sister Etila would know. So many people would know."

"But we'll help you keep it secret, right, Luo?" She looked at the trainee boy beside her.

But Luo Yu shook his head. "The Knight Order's rules say that during the pilgrimage, we have to supervise one another. It's my duty to report his performance to the examiner."

Tianlan looked at him in disbelief. "Aren't you friends? Can't you tell what matters more, your friend or the guild? Besides, their demands were unreasonable to begin with."

Luo Yu frowned but said nothing.

Tianlan refused to let it go. "Say something!"

Only then did he answer helplessly, "The supplementary clauses of the Suva Declaration are not suitable for every situation. As members of the Taboris Oak Knights, we understand better than rigid written rules what the guild needs."

The little French girl could not help reaching out to touch his forehead. "Are you crazy? You're not even part of the guild's management. It's just a Chosen qualification, yet look at what they've put you through." She turned around. "Ed, tell me. I'm right, aren't I?"

Fang Heng was nearby checking the Walker's condition. Hearing this, he could not help shaking his head.

In the end, he had accepted Etila's invitation and joined the party. However, Etila had really only invited him to travel with them back to Elpaxin. Fang Heng understood that they had probably seen his predicament and were offering him help in a more tactful way.

Operating near a city did not necessarily require an accompanying alchemist, especially since they were already on their return journey.

Of course, Etila was presumably also thanking him for helping them earlier. Otherwise, adventuring parties were generally cautious in the wilderness and would not readily accept a stranger.

Fang Heng wisely chose not to speak up in response to Tianlan's question. He had learned many things at Dawnstar, one of which was never to take a side when other people were arguing.

He said vaguely, "By the way, there's something I've been wanting to ask. Why did those people attack you?"

Seeing that he was not taking her side either, Tianlan deflated somewhat. She indignantly took a golden statue from her pack. "Wasn't it because of this thing?"

"Miss Fuli," Jita called softly, shaking his head at her.

Fang Heng looked at him strangely, and the little boy hurriedly lowered his head in fright.

Fang Heng had actually already recognized the statue. It was a Numenor Holy Statue, usually carved in the forms of feathered serpents, stags, and cats—the three animals the Numenor Elves considered the most magical. Great numbers had been unearthed from all manner of ruins and sacred temples, but they were usually stone. Gold ones were rare.

This thing could probably sell for tens of thousands of Liselle on the market, if sold to a native collector or an explorer interested in Numenor ruins. But it did not seem worth trading for tamed Red-brown Elephant-nose Beetles and Crushed Red Crystal.

After all, the former alone was no less valuable than this statue, and Crushed Red Crystal, which could induce insects into a frenzy through low-frequency resonance, was not cheap either.

"What's the big deal? It's just a worthless broken statue." Tianlan did not care for Jita's caution. Seeing him hunch his neck like an ostrich, she could not help feeling mischievous.

She padded over to him like a cat and pressed both hands against his chest. Jita shrieked, "Ah—!" and hurriedly covered his chest with both hands. His large, thick, clumsy glasses slipped down again.

"Ha ha." Tianlan looked delighted by her successful prank.

Jita's face turned blood-red, and he was on the verge of tears.

"Stop bullying Jita." Etila shot her an annoyed glare. "That statue is the objective of our journey. It can open the doors of the sacred temple in Traveler's Forest. Legend says the second obelisk lies beneath it." She walked back from the other side of the tree as she spoke.

Fang Heng instinctively wanted to ask whether her younger brother had been found there, but before the words left his mouth, he realized it would be inappropriate and obediently kept quiet.

Still, if this statue was the key to an important quest, then it was indeed valuable enough to be coveted. Its worth depended on how generous the quest's rewards were. If the obelisk was truly connected to the Numenor Elves' Holy Grail, this key certainly carried considerable weight.

But it was only one of them, after all. Otherwise, even the Major Guilds would probably have been unable to resist making a move.

"Ed, this statue is actually what the Black Goat Merchant Group wants," Tianlan added at that moment.

At the same time, she was holding Jita's heavy glasses and placing them back on his nose. With a push from her fingertip, he looked at her through tear-filled eyes.

Fang Heng thought the other party truly did not look like a boy. He shook his head and asked, "The Black Goat Merchant Group?"

"One of the merchant groups under the Kaolin Merchant Alliance. Their president is a hateful, greedy, deceitful nouveau riche. They say that when he was young, he got permits to transport arms and Magic Devices through nepotism, then made a fortune from the Battle of Bayne. In short, he's an arms dealer—"

Tianlan soothed her companion for a few moments before continuing, "His real name is Rune-Linxius. He has a lot of influence in Elpaxin, though he does not actually live here. Of course, merchants mostly consider the Sea of Clouds their home, but his mansion and family are all in Goland, the royal capital of Kaolin."

"He mainly uses his business to influence the areas around Rainbow Bay. But starting twenty years ago, this guy began staying at Traveler's Camp for a period every late summer, only leaving before the winter solstice. He's been acting suspiciously, and no one knows what he's doing. I suspect he knew long ago that there was an obelisk beneath this place."

It was clear that Tianlan had a terrible impression of this man. Fang Heng did know of the Kaolin Merchant Alliance, one of the three major merchant alliances of Kaolin-Ishurian. It controlled ninety percent of the trade around the Sea of Clouds.

But he did not know much about this Black Goat Merchant Group. After all, the Kaolin Merchant Alliance had over a hundred merchant associations and groups of varying sizes. Chosen who were not interested in commerce would not pay attention to such matters.

This also showed that Tianlan was at least qualified as the party's logistics officer. Fang Heng thought she must have dealt with that hateful, greedy, deceitful nouveau riche quite often.

"Then how much is the reward for this quest?" Fang Heng looked curiously at Etila. He thought that after obtaining the statue, the elf lady would first investigate the obelisk, since it concerned the mysterious cause of her brother's death, rather than complete some merchant group's quest.

That clearly did not make sense.

"About a hundred thousand Liselle, plus a Wisdom Fruit. That guy's offer is pretty generous," Tianlan impatiently waved her hand, as though she were swatting away flies at the mention of him.

That reward was indeed substantial. The Jefflitte Redcoats had tricked Dawnstar into delivering themselves to their deaths and had only paid around two hundred thousand in reward. Of course, that was two-thirds of the deposit, but presumably no one would be able to collect the remaining third afterward.

Not to mention the Wisdom Fruit. A Wisdom Fruit was essentially an experience page. It also only worked the first time it was used, though it was lower-tier, providing twenty-five thousand first-tier experience.

Although the experience came in the form of random skills and knowledge, it was still something most people could only hope to encounter. It was especially useful to newcomers, effectively speeding up their growth.

Even Fang Heng felt a little tempted upon hearing it.

But he was still puzzled. "But aren't you trainees? Miss Etila... doesn't seem to need any of this either?"

"Ha, that's because those rewards I mentioned are for ordinary people. For us, and for Sister Etila, that miserly bastard wouldn't give us even a copper coin."

"Why?" Fang Heng was startled.

"Because Mr. Kid's body was discovered by an adventuring party under that man," Tianlan answered angrily. "Only he knows what really happened back then. He promised to trade that information for this, on the condition that we help him find this statue for free."

"He also told you where the statue was?"

"Yeah. How else could we possibly have found it?"

Fang Heng felt that something was wrong. "Then why didn't he take it himself?"

"How would I know?" Tianlan's expression changed, and she suddenly asked, "Wait, Sister Etila, who was the first person to pick up the statue back then?"

Etila instinctively looked toward the Paparal crossbowman lying unconscious on the ground nearby.

Fang Heng had already walked over. He rolled up the man's sleeve and looked. His plump right arm was pale and clean, with nothing on it. Then he checked the left arm and, sure enough, found a black mark coiled there like a snake.

"A curse!" Tianlan cried out, gritting her teeth. "That damned, hateful arms dealer."

"Don't worry," Fang Heng answered. "It's only a simple Feathered Serpent Curse. It brings misfortune to its victim, but has no other effect. It will dissipate on its own after a certain period of time."

He looked at the unconscious Paparal crossbowman and thought that this unlucky mark seemed remarkably effective.

"The rest is fine," Fang Heng added. "During this period, you'd better keep him away from things like lotteries and treasure chests. The effects of this curse mark are really obvious."

Hearing that the problem was not serious, Tianlan relaxed a little. "Hmph, it serves him right. Sister Etila clearly said we should inspect it first, but he froze the moment he saw treasure. And he's just a little short-armed guy."

"Thanks, Ed." Etila nodded to him as well.

Fang Heng scratched his head. This was the first time his Second World knowledge had come in handy. Come to think of it, there were indeed many Numenor Elves' ruins in the Second World too. That was rather strange.

"But I won't let that damned arms dealer off," the little French girl added hatefully.

Fang Heng was pessimistic about that. He felt that Tianlan would have a hard time putting those words into practice. Since the other party had expected them to bring back the statue, there was no way he had not considered these possibilities beforehand.

Scarpe was extremely skilled at this sort of tactic—using the stick first, then offering a sweet reward. Fang Heng had suffered under it before.

But he wisely kept his mouth shut.

Fang Heng suddenly felt that he was no longer the clueless young boy he used to be. At least now he understood how to weigh pros and cons. That was all thanks to Miss Scarpe's patient instruction.

"So are we heading to Traveler's Camp now?" he asked again.

He had noticed long ago that the party was traveling in the wrong direction. In theory, they should have headed south all the way to reach Elpaxin, but this party had been moving east since morning.

"Don't worry," Etila told him gently. "We're only going there to rest for a while. We'll soon set out for Elpaxin."

Fang Heng shook his head. He was not in a hurry; he had only been asking. Besides, he was very curious about Traveler's Camp. The camp was actually quite famous. Rather than a camp, it was more like an inn between Traveler's Forest and Elpaxin.

A very large inn.

"Yeah, Ed," Tianlan urged from the side. "Traveler's Camp is actually really interesting. Besides, we have to return to our 'base' before we can head to Elpaxin."

"Base?"

The little French girl winked at him playfully. "That's Luo Yu's masterpiece. You'll see soon enough."

Traveler's Forest was actually an extension of Egonen Forest.

It had another, more formal name: Traveler's Swamp, because in the past this swamp lay along the necessary route between Elpaxin and another city of the Seven Cities of Rainbow Bay, Charter City.

By the time the group arrived at the edge of the swamp, it was dusk. The swamp was even darker and more unfathomable, filled with thick fog. A dilapidated boardwalk stretched deep into the mist, with scattered points of firelight visible in the distance.

Traveler's Camp was actually not far from here. Tianlan told him that the lights in the fog were wind lamps hung by people from the camp, so the boardwalk was maintained.

Fang Heng realized that if he had not met Etila and the others, he would never have dreamed that a civilized camp lay only a day's journey away. He felt deeply fortunate.

As they drew closer, a crooked signpost stood beside the boardwalk. Its bark had peeled away and it was covered in moss. Three place names had been carved into it crookedly with a dagger:

'Traveler's Camp'

'Traveler's Path'

'Traveler's Swamp'

Traveler's Path was actually the overland road leading to Charter City. However, ever since air transport had become convenient, the road had been abandoned for a long time. Now, adventurers mostly used it as a shortcut into Traveler's Swamp.

Fang Heng also saw several crosses made from bound logs not far away. Unnamed adventurers lay buried beneath them, most likely laid to rest by companions or passing travelers.

The owners of these graves had either returned to reality or completely returned to the embrace of this world.

For ordinary people, passing these graves signified leaving Elpaxin's beginner area and entering a more dangerous high-level region. But for Fang Heng, it felt somewhat strange—

Because he had effectively come from a high-level region and finally returned to the beginner area.

So when he saw that signpost, he truly could not help letting out a long breath.

He had finally returned to where he belonged.

First, I would like to thank Fallen Swordsman for becoming a league leader. Since the book is still in its new-release period, I'll save the extra chapters until after it goes premium. Just remember that for me.

Second, the supporting-character signup post is now open. Anyone interested can go apply. For supporting characters, I will prioritize the needs of the story and character settings. Some may alter your character backgrounds and appearances, but your IDs should be retained. In addition, readers who write thoughtful long reviews or discuss the plot in the review section or forum will receive priority consideration. I also hope everyone will discuss and imagine Aethelria's setting and plot more.

Also, thanks to a reminder from reader "Li Ao," I realized that applying the damage bonuses provided by weapons and strength to dodge damage was indeed not very realistic. From now on, they will instead be treated as additional accuracy modifiers provided by weapons—this is an added setting—and melee accuracy modifiers provided by strength itself.

I'll post the reader group again for those who did not see it: 116533817