Chapter Twenty: The Relic Tablet (Please continue reading!)
“Half?”
Upon hearing this, Kana couldn’t help but retrieve from his memory the information he once knew about this quest chain.
Though it was from long ago, it was the first quest triggered by players related to the Creation Stone, so some memories remained quite vivid.
This was a unique quest.
After completing all the side quests for the Blue-Spotted Murloc tribe, gaining a certain level of goodwill, and having the archaeology secondary profession,
one could receive half a tablet from the tribe’s leader—the Murloc Seer.
When obtaining the tablet, the Seer would recount some stories.
The archaeologist could extract clues from these tales.
The clues pointed toward the region where Bloodtear Town was located.
At the time, the difficulty of this quest lay in acquiring the tablet and then reaching Bloodtear Town to find the ruins.
In the first few months after the server's launch, Bloodtear Town's recommended level was 4 to 5.
When the quest was triggered, it was only a month into the server opening.
But regardless, the quest was completed.
The player team who accepted the quest found the entrance to the ruins below the riverbank.
Through certain operations, they opened a stone door
and obtained the equipment inside.
Among these was a small fragment of the Creation Stone.
Kana, back in the game, also knew the captain of the team that triggered the quest—the archaeologist.
Both were players who enjoyed delving deeply into the story, background, and various settings.
They had discussed the quest back then.
According to him, he suspected that the ruins had another half, but they didn’t know how to access it, lacking a key item.
When they first received half the tablet, they initially thought the quest was to find the other half, as that was more logical—they only held one half.
In the end, they didn’t find the other half of the tablet but instead discovered the ruins, and half the tablet was enough to unlock the ruins.
Since the ruins were opened and the quest completed, there was nothing more to do.
But the other half of the tablet and the unopened half of the ruins did indeed exist.
That was all he knew.
In other words, the other half of the ruins that couldn’t be opened back then required the other half of the tablet, which is now obtainable.
“What do you need me to do?” The Murloc Elder, having said this, obviously hoped Kana would help him.
“Over there, in those woods, there are big-eared giant rats.
They’ve been harassing us, stealing our eggs, and they also took the other half earlier.”
The Elder pointed in a direction.
The nearby Murlocs began chattering angrily.
“If you can drive them away or teach them a lesson,
this tablet will be yours, and you might even get the other half from them.”
With that, the Murloc Seer handed the tablet directly to Kana.
Huh? Giving the reward first?
Holding the tablet in his arms, Kana was momentarily puzzled.
He looked at the Murloc Seer, whose crooked, not-too-bright eyes seemed to say: Hurry up, what are you waiting for?
“Uh, could you tell me where you got this tablet?”
Hearing this, the Seer pointed with his coral staff toward the distant riverbank.
“There’s a cave underwater over there.
Want me to take you there, human friend?”
Kana shook his head. “Not for now, thank you.”
He handed the tablet to Aliris behind him to hold.
Kana seriously looked at the Murloc Seer and asked, “Seer, you can see it, right? Darkness is spreading. You should lead your tribe to leave this place.”
The Seer looked at Kana with his large, crooked eyes. “Human friend, I have seen it. We are already preparing to leave. You should leave soon, too.”
“Then why do you want me to deal with those rats?”
“Because they’re a nuisance, and you need the other half.”
Kana nodded thoughtfully.
“Then we’ll take our leave first. We’ll come back later.”
With that, Kana turned and left with his companions.
As soon as they left,
Aliris couldn’t help but ask, “Why can the Murloc talk?”
Black and the others also strained to listen.
“Because he’s a Murloc Seer. You can think of him as a mage—if he weren’t smart, he wouldn’t be a mage.”
“A mage?” Aliris looked puzzled, thinking for a moment. “Like those who perform tricks in stories?”
Hearing this, Kana stopped and turned to look at them.
Not only Aliris but even Black’s eyes showed some confusion.
Clearly, they had no concrete concept of mages.
Kana patted his own head; he had almost forgotten this country was both free and xenophobic.
The flow of magical power in this region was quite barren; let alone mages, even magical creatures were scarce.
Moreover, the royal family’s policy of excluding rival powers meant no mage wanted to come to this godforsaken place.
As for the Murloc Seer, no matter how smart he was, he had little understanding of magical power flow.
He only knew that Murlocs were safe here, and there were few dangerous creatures in the water—that was enough.
The magic-poor zones in this world are almost all caused by peculiar reasons.
For this country, without a doubt, the blame could be pinned on the royal family again.
They concentrated the magic in the capital.
“You can just think of him as a hybrid. Haven’t you noticed he looks different from other Murlocs?
He’s a hybrid of a Murloc and a magic frog.”
“Magic frog?”
“A kind of monster, no need to go into detail.”
Kana cared more that this Murloc seemed to possess the kind of future-sensing ability described in the background setting.
Forget it; the game was full of prophecies and seers who could foresee the future.
What mattered now was the big-eared rats.
He turned and asked, “Black, have you ever encountered these big-eared rats in town?”
Black shook his head. “I’ve been away for a while, so I don’t know the current situation.”
Kana strongly suspected the big-eared rats were the ratmen from the game—a typical evil race.
Usually, they appeared around settlements of intelligent beings, committing robbery, theft, and murder.
Since the Murloc Seer said it was recently,
it shouldn’t have been more than one or two months ago, because if it was longer, the Murloc wouldn’t remember clearly.
After one or two months, Murlocs lose specific time concepts; they’d think it happened long ago.
Thinking this way, it became clear why there was no record of the other half of the tablet.
Because the Seer only had half the tablet then, he could only recall matters related to that half.
If Kana had come half a month later, he might not have learned about the other half at all.
“Let’s return to town first and gather some information.”
They went back to the shore, took a fisherman’s small boat across the river, and returned to the town.
By the time they arrived, the sun had already set.
After some thought, Kana decided to ask the mayor and others about the situation the next morning.
Back at their residence,
“Your Highness, are you going to explore that ruin?”
During their conversation today, Aliris and Black had been listening carefully behind them.
It was their first time hearing a Murloc speak, and they paid close attention.
“Black will definitely report today’s events to the Count. Is that okay?”
Aliris was somewhat worried.
She didn’t know if the Count was a good or bad person.
Kana smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry. The Count has no mood to bother with us now. As long as we don’t cause trouble or leak information, he’ll pretend not to see anything.”
Moreover, even if they brought Black and the others into the ruins later, it wouldn’t be a problem.
They wouldn’t recognize the Creation Stone’s significance; to them, it might just be a gem.
The Creation Stone possesses innate abilities that counter divination, prophecy, reconnaissance, and more.
Inside a human body, without sufficient power or strength, one would never detect it.
If it appeared openly, it would be even harder to notice.
Except for one kind of person—those who have already used the Creation Stone.
Besides the Creation Stone, the remaining valuable items in the ruins were actually not many.
Even if Black reported it, the Count wouldn’t care.