Chapter 20: The Relic Tablet (Please keep reading!)

"Half?"

Hearing this, Kana couldn't help but extract the information he once knew regarding this quest chain from his memory.

It was from a long time ago, but since it was the very first quest triggered by players related to the Genesis Stone, some of the memories remained quite vivid.

This was a unique quest.

After completing all the side quests for the "Blue Spot" Murloc tribe, gaining a certain amount of reputation, and possessing the Archeologist profession, one could obtain half a tablet from the tribe's leader—the Murloc Prophet.

When obtaining the tablet, the Murloc Prophet would tell certain stories.

An Archeologist could extract clues from these stories.

The clues pointed to the region where [Bloodweep Town] was located.

At that point in time, the difficulty of this quest lay in obtaining the tablet and reaching the ruins in [Bloodweep Town].

During the first few months of the server launch, the recommended level for [Bloodweep Town] was 4–5.

This quest was triggered just one month after the server opened.

But regardless, the quest was completed.

The player party that accepted this quest found the entrance to the ruins below the riverbank.

Through certain maneuvers, they opened a stone door.

They obtained the equipment and items inside.

Among them was a [Genesis Stone Fragment (Small)].

In the game back then, Kana also knew the captain of the party that triggered the quest—that person was the Archeologist.

Both of them were players who enjoyed digging deep into the plot, background stories, and various settings.

They had discussed this quest back then.

According to him, he had speculated at the time that half of the ruins remained, but he simply didn't know how to get there because they lacked a key item.

When they first obtained the half-tablet, they thought the quest was to find the other half, as that made more logical sense since they only had half.

As it turned out, they didn't find the tablet, but they found the ruins instead, and half a tablet was enough to open them.

Since they had opened them and the quest was completed, there was nothing else to be done.

However, the other half of the ruins that could not be opened with only half a tablet did indeed exist.

That was the extent of what he knew.

In other words, the other half of the tablet required to open the other half of the ruins was now obtainable.

"What do you need me to do?" Since the Murloc Elder had said this, he certainly hoped for help.

"Over there, in those woods, there are big rats with pointed ears. They have been harassing us, stealing our eggs, and the other half was also stolen by them previously."

The Murloc Elder pointed in a certain direction.

The surrounding Murlocs also began to chatter, appearing very angry.

"If you can drive them away, or teach them a lesson, this tablet is yours. You might even be able to get the other half from them."

After saying this, the Murloc Prophet directly shoved the tablet into Kana's hands.

Huh? Giving the reward first?

Holding the tablet in his arms, Kana was momentarily bewildered.

He looked at the Murloc Prophet's crooked, seemingly unintelligent eyes. They seemed to be saying: *Go on, what are you standing there for?*

"Ahem, could you tell me where you obtained this tablet?"

Hearing this, the Murloc Prophet simply pointed his coral staff toward the distant riverbank.

"Under the water over there, there is a cave beneath the water. Do you want me to lead you, human friend?"

Kana shook his head. "Not for now, thank you."

He picked up the tablet and handed it directly to Aliris behind him, asking her to hold it.

Kana looked seriously at the Murloc Prophet in front of him and asked, "Prophet, you should be able to see it, right? The darkness is spreading. You should lead your tribe away from here."

The Prophet looked at Kana with his large, crooked eyes. "Human friend, I have already seen it. We are already preparing to leave. You should also leave this place quickly."

"Then why are you asking me to clear out those rats?"

"Because they are very annoying, and you need the other half."

Kana nodded slightly, thinking deeply.

"Then we shall take our leave. We will come back later."

With that, Kana turned and led the group away.

As soon as they left.

Aliris asked impatiently, "Why can that Murloc talk?"

Black and the others also tilted their ears to listen.

"Because he is a Murloc Prophet. You can think of him as a Mage; he might not be smart, but he's not just a commoner."

"A Mage?" Aliris was somewhat confused. After thinking for a moment, she asked, "The ones in stories who perform magic tricks?"

Hearing this, Kana paused his steps and turned back to look at them.

Not just Aliris, but even Black had a look of confusion in his eyes.

Clearly, they had no concrete concept of what a Mage was.

Kana tapped his own head; he had almost forgotten that this country was both free and xenophobic.

The flow of mana in the region where this country was located was quite barren. Forget mages; there weren't even many magic-related creatures.

Coupled with the royal family's exclusionary policies, no mage was willing to come to this godforsaken place.

As for the Murloc Prophet, no matter how smart he was, he had no concept of large-scale mana flow.

He only knew that it was safe for Murlocs in this area and that there were few dangerous creatures in the water; that was enough for him.

The mana-barren areas of this world could almost all be viewed as being caused by peculiar reasons.

For instance, in this country, one could undoubtedly pin the blame on the royal family.

They had concentrated the mana in the royal capital.

"Just think of him as a hybrid. Didn't you see that his appearance is different from other Murlocs? He is a hybrid of a Murloc and a Mana Frog."

"A Mana Frog?"

"A type of monster. No need to look into it deeply."

What Kana cared more about was that the Murloc seemed to be exactly as described in the background settings, possessing a certain foresight of the future.

Forget it, this game had all sorts of prophecies; there was no shortage of "charlatan" characters who could foresee the future.

What he should care about now were the pointed-eared rats.

He turned and asked, "Black, have you encountered these pointed-eared rats in town?"

Black shook his head. "I haven't been back for a while, so I don't know the specific situation."

Regarding the pointed-eared rats, Kana strongly suspected they were a race within the game.

Ratmen with pointed ears—a typical evil race.

Generally, they would appear around settlements of various intelligent lifeforms to engage in robbery, theft, and slaughter.

Since the Murloc Prophet said it happened recently.

Then it shouldn't have been more than a month or two. If it had been longer than that, the Murloc wouldn't remember clearly.

If it exceeded a month or two, Murlocs lost the concept of specific time; he might think it was something that happened a long time ago.

Thinking this way, it suddenly became clear why there was no record of the other half of the tablet.

Because at that time, the Murloc Prophet only had half a tablet left, so he could only recall matters regarding that half.

If he had arrived half a month later, perhaps he wouldn't have known about the other half of the tablet either.

"Then let's head back to town first to find out what's going on."

Returning to the shore, they took a fisherman's small boat back to the opposite bank and made their way all the way to the town.

By the time they reached the town, the sun had already set.

After some thought, he decided to ask the Mayor and others about the situation tomorrow morning.

They returned to their lodgings.

"Your Highness, are you going to explore that ruin?"

During their conversation today, Aliris, Black, and the others had been listening from behind.

Having heard a Murloc speak for the first time, they could be said to have been listening very intently.

"Black will definitely tell the Count about today's events. Won't there be a problem?"

Aliris was somewhat worried.

She didn't know whether the Count was a good person or a bad one.

Kana smiled and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. The Count isn't in the mood to care about us right now. As long as we don't cause trouble or leak information, he will turn a blind eye to whatever we do."

Moreover, even if they took Black and the others into the ruins, it wouldn't be an issue.

Because they wouldn't be able to see the uniqueness of the Genesis Stone; in their eyes, it might just be a gemstone.

The Genesis Stone possessed a series of innate abilities, such as anti-divination, anti-prophecy, and anti-reconnaissance.

Within a human body, unless it reached a certain level, you wouldn't discover it without a certain amount of strength.

And if it were exposed outwardly, it would be even harder to detect.

Except for one type of person: those who had already used the Genesis Stone.

And aside from the Genesis Stone, there weren't actually many valuable items left in those ruins.

Even if Black reported it, the Count wouldn't care.

(End of Chapter)