Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Natural armor, also known as armor skin, referred to a skin that was as tough as armor, and could also resist being sliced by a sword.

This was a very rare ability; except for those demon monsters who had a strong body, only hard-trained ascetics, or senior soldiers who had experienced countless battles, could have it.

When Sui Xiong made Gerrard’s face, he made him look very young, like a fledgling young giant, so no one would mistake him as an ascetic or senior soldier.

Since Gerrard was not either, there would only be the last possibility— this seemingly young bulky man had power comparable to a devil monster!

How could this not astound experienced people who knew of such talents?!

The chief guard of the temple of the God of Justice also could tell who had talents. Seeing Gerrard blocking the knife with his arm, he froze for a moment, but could not help but laugh.

“I underestimated you!” he laughed, with his white eyebrows quivering slightly. “So, are you interested in learning some advanced skills? For example, you could cut down several people by chopping once, or you would not need to recover after an attack before launching a second attack, and you could also use light weapons to produce the effects of heavy weapons, or use the heavy weapons to produce the effects of light weapons… and so on.”

Gerrard was very tempted by hearing this.

He was a seasoned adventurer, but also knew a lot of fighting skills, which were honestly quite common. He had only heard of, but had never seen, let alone learned, skills mentioned by the chief guard, such as “Tornado Attack”, “Chain Attack”, and “Will-controlled Weapon”.

For a soldier, the more advanced the fighting skills he knew, the more powerful he was. Each of those top warriors could beat legendary monsters by using only one knife, and could keep themselves safe even when faced with a mighty force. Their impeccable fighting strength was simply stunning.

If one could learn the skills that the chief guard had mentioned, perhaps he could become stronger, and would not need the special protection from a god whom he believed in, let alone being a burden of His Majesty…

Thinking of this, he became interested, and was about to agree to the advice of the old chief guard. But after a second thought, he swallowed what he was about to say.

The God he was serving was not a god known to the general public in this world, but a newborn god. However, to be an apprentice to others in order to learn skills would certainly require staying in the temple of God of Justice for a period of time. If others noticed anything about his lack of devotion to that god, wouldn’t it cause trouble to His Majesty?

He was horrified and politely declined the request.

The old chief guard, seeing him being originally interested, but giving up for whatever reason, could not help but feel sorry. However, as a believer in the God of Justice, he could not force others to learn from him. He told Gerrard to study at any time in the temple if he was interested, and he left disappointed.

As the old man was prestigious in the town, his failure in soliciting talents made others who were interested in Gerrard abandon their idea. This, thankfully, left Gerrard in peace at last. He wandered freely on the street, carrying a small bag, and unconsciously came to the front of a large wooden sign.

This wooden sign was erected on the square of the town center, so its location was extremely conspicuous. Large and small pieces of cloth with texts or illustrations were stuck on the sign. A very clever juvenile was guarding next to it. From time to time someone went to observe it carefully, and then went to ask that young person about the details. Some people also gave him one or two silver coins, so he had a good business.

“What are they doing?” Sui Xiong asked.

“Your Majesty, it is a column of wanted things. All kinds of big and small rewards, without being illicit, are released here. The guy is from the Association of Adventurers, and is responsible for early-stage contact. He also sells the news.” Gerrard was quite familiar with these things. After all, he himself had been a risk taker.

Sui Xiong roughly understood, and was curious about this system of employment. So he tried to observe the task list on the wooden sign. In a moment, he saw Gerrard’s head on a piece of cloth.

There were two pictures on it about Gerrard’s appearance from back before his death, one being the face, and the other being the portrait of his whole previous body. In general, the painter’s skill was very good; He accurately grasped Gerrard’s appearance by using a few strokes, so that people could easily identify him. Sui Xiong felt that the painter, if he were to travel to earth, could also survive by painting portraits in tourist spots, like one of his senior fellow classmates, who was also bald.

However, his senior fellow classmate, with the pen name of Hua Siyuan, had a stall on Tiananmen Square, so his skills would be extraordinary considering he had a stall in the central place of a big nation— he should be among the top painters on the street. In contrast, the portrait of this guy was at most at the level of luxurious platinum, and he could only have a stall in Badaling Great Walls, struggling to earn some money.

He could not help laughing at this thought.

“Your Majesty, what is so funny?” Gerrard asked.

Sui Xiong pointed out the piece of cloth to him; “Look, there is a wanted notice for you.”

Gerrard calmly said without the slightest surprise: “Yes, there should still be a wanted notice of me. Let me see… Haha! The reward has actually increased!”

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There were a few lines of words below the portrait on the piece of cloth, which roughly described—”Loon, bald, guilty of assaulting the aristocracy, wanted by the Kingdom of the Blue Moon. Reward— a thousand gold coins, receivable with his head or the verification of the Temple of the God of Commerce”.

“One thousand gold coins are equivalent to one hundred thousand copper coins, which is a large amount of money! What did you do to end up with such a massive price on your head?”

“When I was still an adventurer, I used a pseudonym; Loon. Most of us adventurers used pseudonyms to avoid trouble. At that time we had a team of six adventurers, and we were all good friends. After an adventure, a companion’s leg was broken because a devil monster bit him, so we needed to make a sum of money for him to receive treatment for his leg in the temple of God. That was why we took on the illegal task of smuggling weapons. But when the task was completed, the employers not only refused pay us, but also wanted to kill us. My teammates all died, except me,” Gerrard summed up the past experience of conspiracy, betrayal, anger, and blood with words as simply as possible, “A nobleman died in the battle… This must be the reason they are still after me.”

Sui Xiong was silent for a short time and responded, “You did well! Are any of your old rivalries still alive?”

“No, no enmity will remain any longer than a day among we adventurers.”

“Excellent!”

Gerrard scratched his head and put on an honest smile.

“Your Majesty, I suggest that you look at these tasks, some of which might be suitable for us,” he advised. “To establish a temple, to promote integrity and honesty, to train holy staff, these mean spending money.”

“I told you earlier that I was not God, and there is no need to spend this money…”

“You’ll spend it sooner or later, and it’s fine to be prepared.”

Seeing that Gerrard was stubborn, Sui Xiong had no idea of any solution. As a powerful boss, what he feared most was a subordinate who was loyal but stubborn— One couldn’t hit him or convince him, especially when he said things like “boss, I am here to benefit you!” as if he was ready to die to serve his country. Except for crazy people, such as the Yangdi emperor of the Sui dynasty, even those “great emperors” could only shake their heads, sigh, and make concessions.

As they were idle, finding something to pass the time was not bad.

Since the decision to complete some tasks to make money was made, of course, Sui Xiong looked directly towards the highest paid task. He saw on the top of the reward column a seemingly old piece with no pattern, but only a few lines of words.

“Kill the Shadow Devil. Be proved by the magic nucleus, and have the notarization jointly issued by every temple of God. Reward— one hundred thousand gold coins, plus two additional tailored high-level magic items. Once verified, the magic nucleus belongs to the killer.”

“This task is good; one hundred thousand gold coins!”

Gerrard glanced at it and shook his head, “Shadow Devil was the most famous monster in the eastern part of the Ashes Woods, and it is at the very least a legendary monster, who is likely to be a demigod. There are many ways to make money, why should we risk our lives fighting with a demigod for money?”

“Demigod … A very powerful being, right?” Sui Xiong could not help but be a little interested, because after his space-traveling, he had not encountered a truly evenly matched opponent yet.

According to Gerrard’s words, he estimated that he was probably also a strong man at the demigod level. Demigod vs demigod; it would certainly be an excellent fight.

“Your Majesty, we really do not need to provoke that guy!” Gerrard was anxious, “It’s not worth it! Even if you want to find and confront a rival, you might as well fight with ‘Skeleton Devourer’, because he is who you can confront. Shadow Devil, on the other hand, is a famous evil, and he will definitely plot something insidious!”

Sui Xiong, sighing, stopped talking about this topic. He got it; if he had insisted on fighting with that shadow devil, perhaps Gerrard would have chosen suicide over trying to stop him.

He thought—”What to do with an excessively loyal subordinate? It’s urgent, I am waiting for answers online.”

Oh… There was no Internet here!

Sui Xiong simply omitted this task, and found that there were some other high-priced tasks on the column, one of which appeared to be good—

“Expel the evil dragon, ‘Arctic Tyrant’, who lives in the mountain range near Dragon-roar Town. After you deport it, you should go to the dragon cave for confirmation by bringing with you three holy staffs from three different temples, including the God of Justice. The reward for the task is 5000 gold coins. In addition, if you do not need reinforcements, you could enjoy all the treasure of the dragon cave.”

Gerrard did not object to this task. As far as he knew, the dragon was mostly bullying the weak, but afraid of the powerful. Since His Majesty, “Void Mask”, was powerful, he could expel the evil dragon and force it to change its residence, as long as he did not grab the treasure in the cave. In general, it was not hard to earn these five thousand gold coins.

Paying a silver coin, they acquired some information from a member of the Association of Adventurers, and became sure of the approximate location of the dragon’s cave. Then, after Gerrard bought some necessities for living in the wild, they were ready to leave Pyroxene Town for Dragon-roar Town.

However, he had not been far away from Pyroxene Town when he stopped.

A carriage fallen on the ground, and a group of chaotic businessmen stopped them.