The documents that the God of Redemption gave to Sui Xiong included the geography of the continent, some remarkable existence that deserved our attention, and, above all, the knowledge that gods should understand:
What was God?; how to be a god; what were the principles of building a Holy Kingdom?; how to choose clergymen; what was the acquisition and use of divine power?; what was the relationship between godhood and combat effectiveness?
A new god with their holy pedigree would definitely ask these questions to their predecessors or superiors. But for those gods who fought alone or started from scratch, these questions were secrets that were unattainable and unspoken. The God of Redemption obviously did not conceal this but rather passed on the life experience she accumulated in the long years in a detailed way to Sui Xiong. The experience turned out to be beneficial to Sui because it had rich content, detailed descriptions, and many informative examples.
A few days later, when he fully understood the documents and memorized the relatively more important ones, he was no longer at the stage of being a stranger in a strange place, and he became a stranger who had a relatively accurate understanding of this world so as to travel around confidently.
Then, he took Palin and began their journey to the four northwestern towns.
The first destination was Dragon-roar Town— completing the task of expelling the evil dragon meant a reward of five thousand gold coins. This money would help a lot in building the Village of Pioneers.
The Dragon-roar Town was the north-most one among the four northwestern towns. Its name derived from the dragon "Arctic Tyrant" living in the depth of the nearby mountains.
Decades ago, before the dragon came there, the town was called "Hunter's Town" because the main output was from hunting in the nearby mountains, and there were many professional hunters in the village.
The "Arctic Tyrant", although powerful and horrible, didn't have a combative aggressiveness. Until now, the main source of income for Dragon-roar Town was still hunting demon beasts in the mountains. This had not been greatly affected by the dragon in the mountains.
Of course, every few years, the bluish-white dragon with scales as smooth and cold as ice attacked the town. Its purpose was certainly not to eat people or to destroy but to extort gold coins.
This dragon seemed to take Dragon-roar Town as a large ATM machine - a machine that required face scanning without actual verification, and had an account with an unlimited balance. It was as arrogant as some mammonish ladies who went straight to a high-end restaurant, and bought a set of Chanel products after the meal. However, Dragon-roar Town was not an overbearing president who carried around a set of Centurion cards with no overdraft nor a second-generation rich woman that could spend tens of millions merely on entertainment, but it was just an ordinary town.
For the people in this town, maybe that dragon which looted on a regular basis was an abominable tax collector?
Aside from the dragon's looting, Dragon-roar Town was generally quite peaceful. The most interesting thing in the town was that sometimes there would be strong hunters pursuing powerful demon beasts and dissecting them outside the town.
At that time, not only in the four northwestern towns but also on the whole continent there were famous scenes, so there were often curious people who did not hesitate to travel to Dragon-roar Town to see such scenes despite the difficult travel.
When Sui Xiong and Palin came to town, the hunters' team just killed an Aron dragon. The dissection had entered its second day, and it was expected to be fully completed in one more.
Even though the monster was dead and on its belly, its remains were still probably taller than Gerrard on the ground. Its remains were placed on the huge square outside the town. The square was prepared specifically for the dissection of prey, and it took the church of the God of Hunting almost ten years to complete. This square, almost half the size of the town, was completely covered by bluish black slabs of stone, and every slab was engraved with the sacred sign of the God of Hunting. There were also sacred rituals for sacrifice and enchantments. As long as the prey was carried here, it would no longer rot and people could rest assured and dissect it slowly. Even for prey that had slightly decayed, they could appeal to the priests of the God of Hunting who could cast magic to restore its body; the wonderful magic art was unique to the God of Hunting and an important part of the income of the churches under his command.
The dead monster, which was bigger than a big house, was lying on the slab on its belly, and several senior hunters, along with a group of young people, were busy dissecting it bit by bit using sharp knives. There were also anxious businessmen waiting there with their vans. Seeing it from afar, Sui Xiong could not help but laugh.
"This place is thriving and full of vitality!"
"Indeed, people in Dragon-roar Town are more confident and energetic than the rest of the three towns, probably because people lacking in courage and self-confidence could not live in such a places as they have been fighting demon beasts for years."
What he said was right, but he missed an important reason: the town had been attacked by a dragon every few years, and the power of the dragon was terrifying. People who could withstand it and were not scared off often had a very strong heart and extremely resilient nerves.
They thought, "I have even seen the dragon attack us, so what can I be scared of?"
So people in Dragon-roar Town people probably had a kind of optimism with a little self-abandonment. They were all optimistic and straightforward with a smile on their face all day long.
Since Gerrard would maintain the order of the pioneers and train his staff, Palin became Sui Xiong's guide. The young mage liked those hunters who could hunt large demon beasts by virtue of their courage and wisdom, so he talked to them with much appreciation.
Here you could see armed hunters everywhere on the streets. Hunting in the mountains which were haunted by demon beasts made reliable equipment indispensable, so there were the largest trading venues of weapons and armor in the four northwestern towns. As long as they had enough money, it couldn't be said that they couldn't buy weapons powerful enough to be used to fight against dragons and even the legendary Dragon Slayer Sword.
As for those who thought that holding a dragon knife enabled them to slay the dragon, they'd better die early and be more careful in their next life rather than harm society now.
"Is there a Dragon Slayer Sword being sold here?" Hearing Palin ask, Sui Xiong could not help but curiously respond, "Shouldn't the Dragon Slayer Sword be given to us free of charge if we click its link?"
"What is 'click'? And why should a Dragon Slayer Sword be given to us free of charge?"
Sui Xiong let out a few giggles and urged Palin to quickly go to the arms shop. He would like to see the Dragon Slayer Sword in this world.
Dragon-roar Town had several arms shop, and Palin went directly to the largest one, impressively named "Dragon Slayer Sword."
As soon as he entered, he saw a giant chopper hung on a big pillar that supported the roof. The chopper was wider and taller than him.
"Hey, this is the Dragon Slayer Sword."
The black bone bracelet on his wrist glistened because Sui Xiong used the strength of his soul and tried to analyze the structure of this sword for copying it in the future.
However, he soon regrettably found that this knife was not anything special. It was nothing more than a bigger, heavier knife made with finer materials and engraved with a few magic formations. That was all.
"Is this knife a sample or a genuine one?" He could not help but ask.
Palin asked the attendants at the arms shop, and the man surely guaranteed that the knife was genuine and definitely a Dragon Slayer Sword.
So Sui Xiong scrutinized it from the inside out again.
Definitely an ordinary knife!
It was true that it used very good materials— the finest stainless steel, and it was well-designed. There was not even a bubble hidden inside the blade. Sui Xiong could even clearly figure out the technique of hammering and quenching it underwent. Indeed it involved a lot of consideration, but with only such attributes, it could be called a Dragon Slayer Sword?
Was it just because of the enchantment on the blade?
This knife had a total of four kinds of magic enchantment: sharpness, solidness and rapidity were constant; gravity change was activated by the user temporarily and nothing more.
And these four magic enchantments made a large steel knife a Dragon Slayer Sword?
Sui Xiong tut-tutted, "Merchants are the same in terms of bragging no matter the world! They are the same in saying thing like 'Antarctic people are not afraid of coldness', and 'Dragon Slayer Sword'...!"
"Your Majesty, do you think this knife is fake?" Palin asked curiously.
"How to put it... If Gerrard took this knife— let's assume he would use knives in addition to axes— it would be possible for him to slay a dragon. But the crux of slaying the dragon is not about the knife, but about Gerrard. Cowards like Rhode might have scurried off like frightened rats when encountering a giant dragon, even if they were given ten such knives. He would also throw the knife in order to run faster!"
"In this case, the knife is actually not bad, but it is a little bit exaggerated..." Palin said. "Perhaps the artisan that created the knife just hoped its reputation could attract the true legendary strong men who could repel and even kill the dragon?"
"Maybe." Sui Xiong lost interest in this exaggerated knife and gazed on other weapons in the shop.
Looking closely, this shop actually had a lot of good weapons. If the request was not for slaying a dragon, a lot of things could meet the standard.
For example, he soon fixed his eye on a long dagger made of a special material called "Ice Iron." Several external enchantments made it sharper, more solid and faster when wielded. It could also produce phantoms when being wielded, so as to confuse the enemy's sight.
If this was the case, it was not sufficient for it to enter Sui Xiong's sight. The dagger had a hidden mystery - its interior was inlaid with a magic nucleus of the demon beast "Red Flame Rhinoceros" with a fire attribute. The dagger, through its magic formation, could activate a strong power of fire when necessary, and this time the dagger became a buffer like a hilt.
In other words, it was not only a sharp dagger containing the power of cold ice but also could turn into a flame sword when necessary. This change was absolutely beyond the enemy's expectation, and in actual combat, it was most likely for it to have surprising results, and winning with one action was also easy.
Rhode, the new follower of Sui Xiong, didn't have a good career. As the vice chairman of the Association of Thieves, he carried a long dagger only made of stainless steel with the effect of "sharpness." It was nothing compared to the dagger named "Soul of Ice" even combined with the effect of enchantment due to its ordinary material and non-brilliant skill that was employed to make it. It was quite possible that his dagger would be cut off after a frontal collision of two weapons. Their further changes and flames were also totally different and incommensurable.
There were no supergiant tomahawks that Gerrard used in stock, so Sui Xiong intended to help the abject Rhode prepare a handy weapon so that the poorly skilled surveyor would not be killed by skeletons.
In his view, in addition to the gods, creatures that deserved a description of "poorly skilled" temporarily included only the giant unicorn whale he saw in the sea and the four-faced monster that he ate shortly before. According to his ideal, his early believers should at least reach that level before he could be comfortable.
A poorly skilled man could not slay a dragon even with a dragon-slayer, but he could only be slain by the dragon. That said, it was not right hopping from the theory that weapons decided everything directly to spiritual atom bomb because after all the Buddha should rely on a gold exterior and people on clothes.
"Is it necessary to buy a weapon for Rhode? Clearly, that guy seeks Your Majesty's patronage for his benefit, and he is not pious at all!" Palin was immediately outraged when he learned about what Sui Xiong meant to do.
In his opinion, only piety deserved the reward of God.
However, Sui Xiong did not think so. He was a man from the earth, and to be more detailed, Chinese. The attitude of the Chinese towards belief was "I believe in a god and the god will give me benefits as a fair exchange." Rhode really believed in him and was still serving him. These days he was extremely busy. Even now, he was still busy working.
Sui Xiong had seen his efforts. It was human nature to want some rewards.
The gods in this world, however, required believers to put in a lot of work unconditionally and assessed the level of belief only according to piety. He did not agree with this approach!