Chapter 17: The Gift From Ahriman
Editor: Atlas Studios
Before sunset, the Goblin Shrine, Campfire, and Tower were all built. The Goblin Slaves, who were crying after being hit by whips, had even repaired the damaged walls. They all looked at Xiao Yu, afraid that this Goblin tyrant would kill them in a rage.
Good. The players would not come over here at night for leveling, hence he should go to the shrine and pray to see if he could learn a new spell or something. After all, that was what Xiao Yu wanted to see the most.
He ordered his men to guard their posts and brought a Goblin Slave to the Goblin Shrine.
Although it was called a shrine, it was actually a small tower built of wood and stone. The construction technology was very poor. There was a red stone statue with a very weird shape placed in the hall of the tower. It looked very abstract—30% like a human and 70% like a red ice cream cone.
Xiao Yu thought. "What kind of god is this? The Goblin race is feeble enough, and even the god they believe in is so weird. But anyway, it's still a god. Whether I can have a bright future in the camp depends on today."
As he thought this, Xiao Yu knelt down in front of the statue and began to pray. The process of praying was very simple—he only had to use the praying skill of the shrine and offer sacrifices. However, in order to make everything perfect, Xiao Yu spoke to the air in a formal way and then lifted the poor Goblin Slave to the altar in front of the statue.
The sacrifice could be animals too, but it was not easy to catch one in the middle of the night. Because these Goblin Slaves had become useless for now, Xiao Yu had just grabbed one to use as a sacrifice. It seemed that the Goblins believed in Ahriman, since sacrifice was needed. While Xiao Yu was thinking, the body of the Goblin Slave was ignited with a flame all of a sudden. The flame quickly burned from the inside out. Soon, the Goblin Slave was burnt to ashes as he screamed. Xiao Yu was shocked.
With the disappearance of the flame, the red statue was on fire. Xiao Yu suddenly felt that the statue looked familiar as it burned.
At this time, a voice suddenly sounded.
Carax (Unknown Creature) asked, "Tiny Goblin, are you summoning me?"
Carax? Why was this name so familiar? Wait a minute, wasn't that the Demonic Blaze Overlord that lived at the Lava Mountains? When he associated this with how the Goblin Slave was burnt to death, he was pretty certain about it.
Xiao Yu was speechless. He knew this Carax. Like him, he was a Demonic Blaze Overlord of the Fire Elemental Plane. However, he was not a player, hence there was barely any communication between them.
Here we have to introduce the level differences of Elemental Creatures. The lowest level was the Elemental Spirit, the newly born units like the small Goblins, and they were only level 1.
After completing the trial, Elemental Spirits could advance to normal Elemental Creatures, such as Fire Elementals, Molten Golems, and Flame Lizardmen. At this stage, they were still in the normal Summoned Creature Mode. After some progression, they could advance to Flame Elemental and Rage Molten Golem, which belonged to the Elite Mode (Summoned Creatures had no Rare Elite Mode).
Most of the progression of Elemental Creatures ended here, but if they were lucky enough to accomplish some amazing events, they could advance to strong, giant monsters such as Fire Elemental Elder, Magma Giant, and Flame Lizardman Elder, which belonged to the Boss Mode. Of course, they were only normal small Bosses, which could be regarded as the main Boss in a five-man dungeon. But in 40-man team dungeons, they were only small elite monsters.
Without a doubt, this kind of thing was not absolute, as the strength difference of the Elemental Creatures of this level was the biggest.
If the Fire Elemental Elder advanced again, it could become a Fire Elemental Overlord, which was the final form of the Elemental Creatures—the final Boss Mode. It could control a large number of Elemental Creatures to serve him and become the Boss in a team dungeon.
Of course, the final Bosses were classified into different levels. The lowest level was a final Boss with One Skeleton Level. The higher the number of skeletons, the stronger it was.
In addition, there was also a title of Elemental King, but it was merely a title. Normally, the Elemental King was selected from a group of Elemental Overlords. These were Demonic Blaze Overlord Iagnaros, an Eight Skeleton Level final Boss, and others, such as the Six Skeleton Level Wind Elemental King Orakir, the Seven Skeleton Level Water Elemental King Neptulon, and the Seven Skeleton Level Earth Elemental King Salazan.
This Carax was a Four Skeleton Level Demonic Blaze Overlord, whose strength was not much different from that of Xiao Yu previously.
Nobody expected it to pretend to be a god. Damn, no wonder the Chief Goblin used spells but not divine spells. It could not teach divine spells because it was not even a god. Everything was clear now.
But it was cool that it could use the altar to communicate with its believers. "Why didn't I have this function? Does it require Four Skeleton Levels or other special conditions to activate?"
He thought this but did not say it out loud. There was no benefit in saying it. Besides, it might have killed him with a fireball if he said things like "Hi, Carax. I'm Lagrios. We've had dinner together".
Hence, he shook off the weird thought from his mind and said respectfully, "Mighty God, your loyal servant prays for your help. Our camp was destroyed badly. The previous chief was killed by Adventurers. Although I have inherited his position, I am weak. Now is a critical moment for our camp. I hope you, our mighty god, can give me a spell so I can have the power to protect the horde."
Carax (Unknown Creature) said, "Silly Goblin, I've already told you to stay out of trouble, hide, and wait for my order. But something like this still happened. I really should burn you all to ashes."
Xiao Yu showed a frightened expression immediately, but he was not feeling nervous inside. It sounded like there was something for him to do. Maybe this time he could get what he wanted.
As he expected, Carax was angry, but finally it said, "But I'm merciful. Considering that the mission assigned to you has not been completed, I'll give you strength in order for you to better complete this mission. Now accept my gift."
System prompt message: Carax (Unknown Creature), blessed you with Flame Mark. Do you accept?
Flame Mark: This marking contains some Fire Power of Carax.
"Accept. Why not?" Although Xiao Yu knew that this mark was unlikely to be something good, he did not have many choices as a Monster Mode player. After all, they would not have many chances to encounter all kinds of events like the Adventurers. If he refused, he might be burned to ashes immediately by Carax. Then that would be the end of the story. Carax was not an Adventurer, and if he was killed by the plot, all his efforts in these two days would be wasted.
Xiao Yu would never refuse such a blessing.
-- Gift
received