Chapter 229: 229

“Well, for now……”

Leeha quickly took off his necklace. It was a fraudulent item that increased intimacy with the dark elves by 100%, but it had the penalty of decreasing the intimacy with the wood elves by 50%. In the dominion of the wood elves, he would not be able to say anything even if he got stabbed with a knife while recklessly wearing the necklace.

“Buying Tinto fruits, stems, and leaves! We will buy all of them at market price, so please come!”

“Looking for a 4-man party to catch the polluted zelkova tree, only those who can use a longbow and can shoot alternately!“

“Who wants to teach me a skill for the water spirit! Something that has a haste effect! I will pay you 10 gold.” 

Judging from their appearance which was tall, with pointed ears, and a slender body. And in terms of skills, magic, spirits, and bows.

Leeha was able to see all the types of wood elves at a single glance.

‘Of course, there were some warrior classes, but most of them were ranged damage dealers.’

There was no one who used a crossbow.

All of them had jobs using basic bows such as the composite bows and longbows, so he thought that this might be the most ‘game-like’ village.

Compared to the large buildings of the Shazrasian Federation, and the small buildings of Hell Anvil, the buildings of Elm had a modest feeling. Compared to the humans that gave off a sense of splendor, the calm pastel tones were rather unnatural because only the colors green and yellow were used.

Leeha headed to the pub, walking among the wood elves who mingled with the humans.

It was expected that, in any town, one must enter the pub first in order to collect basic information. However, Leeha, who had just left the warp gate and started walking, felt suspicious movements following him .

‘Two, no three.’

There were slow footsteps that followed him while keeping a distance.

One on the left, right, and rear. They were surrounding Leeha.

However, unlike the frontier, this was not a lawless area. It wasn’t like Leeha was going out of the town anytime soon. Leeha guessed that what they could do would be limited.

“Excuse me. Can we inspect you for a moment?”

“What?”

However, Leeha’s guess was completely wrong. As soon as the crowd lessened, they quickly approached and blocked Leeha’s escape route. They were fully armed wood elves.

“We are the guards of Elm. Please cooperate with us.”

“W-what’s going on?”

“We could feel the dark elves’ energy coming from you. We don’t want to see a cursed aura circulating in this sacred city.”

“Dark…… elf? What are you talking about?”

Why? As he spoke, Leeha looked at his own neck. Didn’t he take off that necklace already? However, the Elm guards did not come to inspect Leeha because of the necklace. A sword that looked like it was made from long leaves, an impressive fluttering blade pointed at Leeha’s bag. (ed: I don’t know how impressive a floppy leaf sword could be.)

“Can I check your bag for a moment?”

It was then that Leeha realized . It was not the necklace that was emanating the dark elves’ ‘energy’…….

‘Damn it, Kaztor’s Orb…”

He didn’t know he would get caught by something like this. As Leeha hesitated, the Elm guards become more agitated with him.

“Open it now.”

“In the autonomous city of Elm, if you reject the request of the Elm guards, we can take you away -”

“I will open it. Okay. You can open it. Why are you scaring me like that?”

He couldn’t fight here. And running away wasn’t an option either. And what about the wood elves? It was already a part of their description. They were a tree-loving race.

[The bargaining skill has been activated.]

[The chances of persuading the target have increased by 41%.]

With his skill expert bargaining level 6, Leeha nonchalantly opened his bag and took out an item.

“Look. Do you know what this is?”

“Hmm……? What is it?”

“No, wait…… this……”

It wasn’t Kaztor’s Crystal Ball. The size was about the same, but they were looking at a completely different item.

It wasn’t the dark elves’ crystal that glowed when near Kaztor’s lab, but it was the small dark turquoise fruit.

“Isn’t this…… [The Seed of the Polluted World Tree]?”

It was the first time the Elm guards saw it, but they were not ignorant. Leeha also continued with even more confidence now because he was aware of the basic settings of the world tree.

“Yes. The world tree! The home of the wood elves! However, it was a place that was defiled and corrupted and cannot be reached! It is one of the seeds of the world tree.”

“Where did you get such a thing? Did you buy it?”

The Elm guards looked at Leeha with half-doubt, and half-surpise. He didn’t expect to get their trust buy showing it, but their expressions had softened.

Leeha answered, thinking that the feud between dark elves and wood elves was much worse than he expected.

“Where did I get it? Of course the world tree’s seed that was germinated from the polluted world tree was obtained by hunting. And now, I am studying this seed to find a way to restore the world tree into its original state- huh…….” 

It was because the Elm guards didn’t believe him……

“You got it through hunting?”

“The plants germinated from the seeds of the world tree spread across the continent will never be weak, so when you say you hunted it…… I’m sorry, but with your skills, it’s almost impossible-”

“Its impossible? Impossible you say?”

Leeha took out the Black Bass and pulled the bolt. As soon as he aimed, the Elm guards flinched and retreated.

Before they could react, Leeha pointed to the top of a spire in the distance. (ed: I thought he said this place was a modest town? Also is it really okay to desttroy stuff in town Leeha)

“Do you see that?”

At a distance of 470m, something small enough that it would be hard to see with the naked eye of normal users was shining on top of the spire.

The heads of the Elm guards turned at the same time. Of course, there was no way that the NPCs acting as knights would not be able to find it.

“The spire’s wind gauge? Yes, of course-”

The wind speed was 3m/s, the wind direction was southwest, the ballistic effect was insignificant.

His judgement was quick and his shooting was even quicker.

Baaang—!

“What do you see? I can’t see it.”

When the sound rang, the Elm guards drew their swords, but that was it. Leeha picked up the dropped cartridge case and put the Black Bass back into its case.

“What, how……?”

The eyes of the Elm guards turned to the top of the spire. The weather gauge and the small flagpole, which had been flapping slowly until just now, had already been destroyed and disappeared. Seeing their bewildered expression, Leeha immediately continued talking.

“I am someone who wants to correct the pollution of the world tree for the prosperity of the wood elves, and in the process I had a brief squabble with the dark elves. It is very disappointing to hear that you doubt my abilities even after seeing the polluted world tree seed. What, do I have to show it to you again? How can I test my skills for you guys again?”

While the Elm guards were still at loss for words, Leeha quickly spat out the rest of his words like a door to door salesmen.

The skill he just showed gave weight to his scolding of the wood elf NPCs.

“No. We apologize for inconviniencing you.”

“We are very sorry.”

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The Elm guards gave the Seed of the Polluted World Tree back to Leeha and bowed their heads deeply. A chuckle escaped from Leeha’s mouth but they didn’t notice.

“Wait, that’s it? No, if you’re really sorry, can I ask you for a favor?”

If he had the Elm guards, why would he need to go to the pub? The wood elves listened to Leeha.

********

“It is here.”

“Thank you.”

“We are very grateful. We look forward to your efforts toward the World Tree in the future.”

The Elm guards politely bowed toward Leeha and went back. He now had this kind of relationship with the NPCs, compared to when they were about to arrest him a few minutes ago.

‘As expected, I am pretty good at bargaining. And the spire as well…’

Maybe because his strength had increased, now he was able to demonstrate a pretty stable skill even in the ‘standing and shoot’ posture.

He thought that it would take quite a while due to the length and weight of the gun, but…….

‘My arms still shake after three or four shots, but I guess it’s good enough. In the real world, it would have still been impossible.’

Even if one had enough strength, it was difficult to stand and aim with a gun weighing 12kg.

There was a reason for Luger’s non-standard posture with [Cobalt Blue Python]’s ‘bombardment’. That gun weighed a lot more than Leeha’s Black Bass.

Knock, knock, knock.

Anyway, after many twists and turns, Leeha was guided to an old house in the suburbs of Elm. After knocking on the door, a young wood elf appeared.

“Who are you?”

“Hello. I came to see the elder who participated in the second Human-Demon war. Is that senior living here with you?”

“I live alone……”

“Huh?”

At most, he looked like was in his early 30s. He looks only two years older than the Elm guards?

Of course he was a wood elf. And an NPC as well. It meant living in a different dimension from the human’s concept of time.

“Ah, that, uh, are you that old?”

“I’m an old man, I am already over 350 years old, so that’s kind of true. In any case, come in.”

“350 years old……. You sure look young.”

“You’re exaggerating. Come on in.”

Praising one’s looks seemed to work regardless of their race. The wood elf smiled and guided Leeha.

“Right, what did you come to see me for?”

“There’s one thing I would like to ask you.”

“Hmmm, and what would that be?”

“In the previous war …… you were part of the pursuers right? The pursuing party to chase after the fragment of the demon king as well as the retreating army of the demon king.”

“That’s right. Speed and stealth were an essential part of that mission, so many were not able to go, and I have been honored to pursue them as a representative of the wood elves. Among those who fought at that time, a plaque was given to the most outstanding wood elf-”

With just a few words, the character of the wood elf was shown. Leeha worked hard to match the wood elf’s rhythm by adding sounds of confirmation time and again.

“Just looking at the data, we could see how important the role of wood elves was in the pursuit at that time.”

“Hmm, the humans……. For some reason, I’m worried that I have overly praised what I did. In fact, it was a rather insignificant role.”

“Your too humble”. But what Leeha really wanted to say, I don’t really give a damn about even a single line from your story. but Leeha strongly held back those words.

Leeha only brought up his true purpose after giving the wood elf enough time to brag.

“Actually, I also wanted to ask you about the chase at the sea.”

“The sea? What about it?”

“In our records, it said that …… an unknown force stopped the pursuit from 5 to 6 nautical miles.”

“Oh, yes, even looking back at it now, it was an absurd inccident. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the first time I saw the power of the [Matan’s Shooter].”

Matan’s Shooter! Leeha’s expression became serious.

“Was that really the Matan’s Shooter?”

“Even the greatest wood elf magician cannot shoot at that distance. They would not be able to put enough mana. Of course, I heard that an Archmage was able to devastate a city with magic, but that is just a legend. And the magic was a meteor shower from the sky.” 

(ed: In theory the meteor shower magic thing sounds cool but I’m pretty sure if you were to apply a little logic. A meteor shower should do a little bit more than just destroy a city.)

It was a overly long speech but Leeha understood the important parts.

“In other words, we didn’t feel any mana, and there was no magic that could be shot as far as 10km away-”

“It is certain that the unknown enemy was the [Matan’s Shooter].”

“Is the identity of [Matan’s Shooter] a dark elf?”

As soon as he heard the question, the wood elf’s expression hardened. It was completely different from the way he had been proud of himself with a smile on his face.

“I know that wood elves do not lie. Much less a wonderful person like you would give me a false answer-”

“Of course. I am not that kind of elf.”

The wood elf slowly leaned back on the sofa and opened his mouth again.

“……I am not really sure.”

“Yes?”

As soon as Leeha heard the wood elf’s hesitant answer, Leeha answered back with confusion.

“At that time, I was sure that the [Matan’s Shooter] was a dark elf, but now that I think about it, I don’t know.”

“But from our records-”

“I obviously said that. I said……. I mean there’s nothing that could have such evil energy but a dark elf. It’s a little different from the meaning “Matan’s Shooter” if its a dark elf…”

The wood elf shrugged off his words.

Leeha felt like the answer came from a politician.

“Sir, are you saying that [Matan’s Shooter] may not be a dark elf?”

“It could be a dark elf, but I am not 100% sure -to say the least- anyway, I don’t know what kind of existence it was. The only thing that I am certain of is that his two shots came from a distance of 10km.”

“In other words, the person who shot from a 10km distance was not a dark elf.”

“Well, if you have to interpret it tenaciously, that’s what it means……. Cough, cough.”

The wood elf coughed, meaning “Do you really have to keep doing that?”. Looking at his face, Leeha was convinced.

‘As expected.’

[Matan’s Shooter] was not a dark elf.

If that is the case.

Who else could it be?

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