When Jose regained consciousness once more, he found himself in Starry River Square again. It was not much different from when he had last left it; the Phoenix statue and Jin Ke La statue still stood tall.
"Huh?"
Jose looked at the statues and sensed that something was off. The two statues were still the same size as him, even though he had grown by a full half over the past three years.
He soon stopped dwelling on the issue of size. This space was inherently unbelievable, so a few strange phenomena were hardly surprising.
Before long, another starlit statue appeared on the pale marble square. Above its square pedestal floated an abstract hollow eye, woven from the Arabic numerals "0" and "1."
Any individual part of the statue looked like a chaotic jumble of numbers, but taken as a whole, it possessed a unique abstract beauty.
He looked at the description on the pedestal:
Data Vision: F Ruler: A small burrow, the beginning of rule. --He who would wear the crown must bear its weight. Are you ready?
When his fingertip touched the statue, glowing green "0"s and "1"s surged from within the eye. The torrent of data rushed into Jose's eyes, making them sting.
"Ugh."
In reality, the red dragon's eyeballs rolled violently beneath his closed lids. After a while, he opened his sore eyes.
A red dragon's eyes were structured similarly to a snake's. Their eyeballs were lava-red, with vertical diamond-shaped golden pupils in the middle that expanded or contracted depending on the light.
Normally, as long as there was no dirt in them, a dragon's vision was no different from a human's. But now, rows of green numbers appeared across Jose's retinas.
"So it really is digitized."
He discovered that no matter where he looked, a set of data automatically appeared on his retinas.
Distance: 41 m Temperature: 31°C Wind speed: 3 km/h ...
Rows upon rows of green data cascaded through his vision like a waterfall, clearly labeling things he had not noticed before. Jose felt his teeth ache. Did this mean that whenever he looked at girls in the future...
Height: 168 cm Bust: 32 Waist: 21 Hips: 34 ...
This was amazing! ()
"Emmm... Height: 158 cm; bust: 38; waist: 37; hips: 39. A one-to-one-to-one ratio... What kind of heavenly figure is this?!"
"Master, what did you say?"
"Huh?!" Jose abruptly snapped awake and saw who it was. "Nothing. Erh Gouzi, what do you need?"
Ergou automatically ignored that strange form of address. "It's like this. The more I thought about it after coming back, the angrier I got. I discussed it with my brother, and we plan to take revenge on the Graytail Centaur Tribe. Ideally, we can seize their food stores."
"Master, the Graytail Centaurs are the largest native tribe nearby. They have ties to human merchants and trade their plundered goods for supplies. They have accumulated a great deal of food. If we pull this off, we won't have to worry about food for two years. They also have many horses, cattle, and sheep, so your food problem will be solved as well. It kills two birds with one stone."
"Centaurs... Emmm... Let me think," Jose said, stroking his chin as he recalled the records on centaurs from the Dragon Heritage.
The Tydanore Continent was home to many races. Some had evolved naturally, such as humans, elves, and orcs; others were products of magical energy, such as beastmen, Gray Dwarves, and Dark Elves.
A considerable number were also the work of dragons, such as kobolds, half-dragons, and many strange supernatural creatures.
Whether evil or good, the species above were all native products of Tydanore's natural evolution. Centaurs, however, were different. Their birth was connected to the devils of the Nine Hells.
More than five thousand years ago, during the Third Era, the Elven Dynasty that ruled the continent had reached its peak before declining and splitting apart. The elven civil war nearly engulfed the entire Tydanore Continent. The scent of war and death seeped past the Plane Barrier, drawing the attention of watchers from the outer planes, including devils skilled at corrupting hearts and minds.
During that chaotic age, the devils orchestrated scheme after scheme. Countless heroes and races were tempted into darkness, and among those who fell were the centaurs' ancestors—the horsemen.
The horsemen had originally been a supernatural race of the good alignment. Upon reaching adulthood, they possessed high-level strength. They were guardians of the forest and friends of nature.
When he heard that his people had fallen, the Horseman King of the time was deeply heartbroken and swore to save them.
The Horseman King successfully expelled the devils' influence from the fallen horsemen, sparing them from plunging into the abyss. Unfortunately, he had been too late.
The devils' corrupting power had taken root in their bloodlines and souls, making it impossible to remove. The fallen horsemen began a long degeneration, eventually evolving into the centaurs of today.
Compared to the horsemen, centaurs had shrunk drastically. Their skin had changed from holy snow-white to ugly dark brown, and their once righteous and kind nature had been reversed, making them brutal and cunning.
Everything in the world came with gains and losses.
Centaurs had lost their powerful bodies and the magic to protect nature, but they were compensated with fertility. Today, they could be found throughout the grasslands, where they were notorious bandits.
"How large is the Graytail Centaur Tribe?"
"More than thirteen hundred centaurs, approximately."
According to human standards for classifying monster tribes, fifty members constituted a small tribe, five hundred a medium tribe, five thousand a large tribe, fifty thousand a super-large tribe, and five hundred thousand was a small nation.
A medium centaur tribe with more than thirteen hundred members, where every citizen was a warrior, was not weak.
"No. There are too many centaurs. Kobolds cannot pursue centaurs across the grasslands. Even if we win, we cannot kill them all. Those who escape will expose my existence. And don't forget, they have a Khan and elite centaurs."
Like all races, centaurs had a certain chance of ancestral reversion. The degree varied from individual to individual, and the deeper the reversion, the stronger they were.
According to human scholars, if a medium tribe of around five hundred members did not have a mid-level powerhouse overseeing it, it would likely split apart as low-level elites fought for power.
In other words, the Graytail Centaur Tribe had at least one mid-level Khan, along with a dozen or so elite centaurs possessing low-level strength. The Bloodtooth Tribe at its peak might have been able to fight them, but now? Better forget it.
"My servants, revenge requires patience. As for food, I will find a solution."
In truth, the food crisis that was severe enough to determine the tribe's survival was nothing to Jose.
His confidence did not come from the all-encompassing Dragon Heritage, but from the knowledge he had learned in his previous life. A lush primeval forest would never lack food.
He planned to take a walk outside, test the new ability he had just acquired, and solve his followers' food crisis while he was at it.
But before leaving, he needed to understand what forces were nearby, so he raised his question.
"Respected Master, the five surrounding hills all belong to the Bloodtooth Tribe. Beyond them are three Gnoll tribes, as well as three Kobold tribes that split off from the Bloodtooth Tribe. To avoid war, we generally do not hunt across the border..." Ergou said as he sketched a rough map on the ground to help Jose understand.
Before long, Jose had gained a general understanding of the forces around his territory. None of them could threaten him—at least, not based on the information he currently had.
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