Chapter 853 First Floor ~ Miragul
With the elf and the moonlight rabbit in action, finding the river was effortless for them. Within one hour, they found the wide yet shallow river. The river was just around their calf deep. In the next half an hour, they found a settlement upstream.
"Human settlement?" Zhang Mengyao furrowed her brow slightly. "What about the area around the settlement? Is there still no monster or beast outside there?"
"I don't find any monster or beast around there, but just humans. Maybe the settlement is still inside the safe zone?" Legion Commander Moonsong replied. He led the search by himself along with Virion to make sure their first expedition as an official Tarrior of the Tang Empire ended with a satisfying result.
"Hmmm…." Zhang Mengyao did not rush to the settlement even though that place might be their chance to get more information about the first floor. "What about the village condition?"
Moonsong was a little bit confused as to why Zhang Mengyao wanted to know the village's condition, but he still answered, "The village is well maintained, and the residents look peaceful and happy." He had observed the settlement for a while to identify the possibility of the residents being hostile to outsiders. After that observation, he concluded the villagers might not be hostile and welcome them if they explained the situation.
"What about farms? Do they have farms? Or do you see they have nets to catch the fish in the river? Or do they have the equipment to hunt?" Zhang Mengyao asked for more detailed information about the village. "No, they should not have the equipment since this is a safe zone with no monster and beast."
The question was weird for sure, but Moonsong recalled what he had seen from the village. He quickly realized Supreme General Zhang Mengyao's intention by asking that. He recalled what he saw from the village and started to feel suspicious about the village too. "No, I don't see the farm. They don't have livestock either, and I am not sure about the nets for fishing. I will send, no, I will go by myself to check everything." Moonsong excused himself and left with his nine subordinates to get more info about the village.
"What's so weird about the village?" Lu An asked as he did not understand what they were talking about. Lu An had the least experienced among the leaders despite his position and power. He could not pinpoint what was so suspicious about the village.
"It's not weird at a glance, but if you look into it with details, the village looks suspicious," Yeon Hee replied to Lu An in a small voice. "We are in an area with no monsters and beasts. Considering this is a dimensional tower, this is weird already. Then we found the village, but they don't have a permanent source for the food. They don't have farms and don't breed the livestock, no beast around to hunt. The only source for the food is the river, but if they don't have the nets to catch the fish too, don't you feel weird about it? Especially if they are humans."
After hearing that, Lu An quickly caught what was so suspicious about the village. He imagined himself eating the fish for his entire life, and he did not think that was possible.
*** ***
Moonsong arrived at the spot where he could watch the entire village from the top. He was on top of the tree, but he made sure the residents of the settlement could not see him. His eyes focused on the side that was close to the river. Yes, the village was exactly next to the river, so if there was equipment to catch the fish, it should be in that area. However, the village was so weird because it looked like the village and the river were cut off as if people rarely went to the river. Of course, he could not find the nets he was looking for, not even a fishing pole.
The doubt and suspicion inside him rose up in his heart. He then observed the people inside the village. He saw people were talking to each other. They were all smiling and laughing as if they were living their happiest life. He became even more suspicious as he felt the scene before him was unreal. This was too perfect to be real.
"How is it? Do you find the nets or any tools for fishing inside their houses?" Moonsong asked Revalor, who had just come over. The former Elven King had eyesight that was much sharper than any of them, so he should be able to see what was inside these people's houses.
"Let's back off for now. I will tell you my discovery on the way back," Revalor immediately proposed to retreat as soon as he came to Moonsong.
*** ***
"Their houses are empty, let alone nets or fishing poles; there is nothing inside their houses. No table, chair, and even bed, nothing. The house is more like a square room; it just looked like a house from outside," Revalor reported what he found to Zhang Mengyao. "This is just my suspicion, but I think they are from the demon race, Miragul. The demon with no physical figure, but they have the ability to influence our vision. They influence our vision, so we will look at them as humans."
"Ah!" Moonsong recalled the battle against the demon that invaded the Ortis Continent. He remembered the demon that could change their figures that cost a lot of lives from their side.
"Alert everyone! Get ready to fight!" Zhang Mengyao immediately called out. "If they influence your vision, that means they are aware of our presence." She then looked at Moonsong and Revalor, "Tell me more about this Miragul! We need to know more about them. What about their fighting ability?"
"They are weak in terms of battle prowess, but they rely on their dark mana to poison us. Their dark mana is a lethal poison to the other races, so we must be careful about that," Revalor replied with a solemn face.
"Hohoho…. I don't know that the new players will know about us," creepy laughter rang in the air.
Zhang Mengyao and the others stood up and looked toward the voice. To everyone's surprise, they found an old man with a long white beard, wearing a black robe. The old man was just ten meters away from them, none of them noticed his presence, and the old man managed to pass the perimeter defense without being noticed.
"This robe is quite useful; none of you notice me until I speak," The old man had a smug expression on his face.
Revalor did not bother to entertain the old man with the chat as he took out the bow from his inventory. He formed a mana arrow and aimed at the old man. Without a doubt, the old man was Miragul.
"Unfortunately, you are too late, strong elf," The old man smirked, "You have been surrounded! We will have a delicious meal!" As soon as the old man finished his words, Revalor shot the arrow. The arrow blinked and pierced the old man's head. Despite being on the brink of death, the old man still had a smile on his face. The old man's body turned into a black lump in the next five seconds. It was clear that the old man was not human but a demon.
Pssshhhh!
After the death of the first Miragul, the black gas suddenly spread out. They realized Miragul had sneaked so close into the formation that there were over fifty of Miragul in the defensive line. They turned the black mana into dark gas, spreading it out everywhere.
"Kang Xue!" Zhang Mengyao immediately called out.
Swoosh!
Kang Xue jumped into the black gas as her body shone. Her figure turned into light, and when she arrived in the middle of the black gas, the light burst out from her body. The blinding light caused everyone to close their eyes. It was like a flashbang but lacked the ring in their ears. The blinding light lasted for half a minute, and by the time everyone opened their eyes, the black gas had disappeared.
Everyone was alerted and immediately searched for Miragul, but more than fifty Miragul disappeared. They saw the spear made of light, piercing the ground with a black lump in its middle. Looking at this, everyone realized that Marshal Kang Xue had defeated all Miragul within thirty seconds.
"If you get poisoned, immediately return to the medical team!" Kang Xue shouted. The black gas managed to spread slightly before she neutralized it, so she thought some of the Tarriors might get poisoned. After giving them instruction and making sure there was no more Miragul around them, Kang Xue returned to Zhang Mengyao.
"Should we retreat, or do you want to annihilate this Miragul?" Kang Xue found out that the demon was not that high-level as she could kill them with one hit. On top of that, her class, Master of Light, was the nemesis for the creature with dark mana. She was confident to fight the demon.
"You can go and help Lu An," Zhang Mengyao waved her hand helplessly. During the blinding light, she activated [Envisage]. During that time, Lu An had gone to Miragul village by himself.
Without saying anything, Kang Xue left the group and headed toward the village, "I will also bring the reinforcement to assist Sir Lu An and Marshal Kang Xue," Legion Commander Moonsong immediately asked for permission from Zhang Mengyao.
"Hmm, go ahead. I will check over our people here. You can go with the Luminous Legion," Zhang Mengyao nodded and headed toward the medical team.
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