Chapter 33: There’s Something Off About You
Nolnos’s intelligence is not high, but that is compared to humans.
Its intelligence is roughly equivalent to that of a 10-year-old child, and it is inherently clever, requiring no command from Anse.
Anse was happy to have Quiet, silently pulling up Nolnos’s character card.
This was Nolnos’s most special feature; it had its own independent character card on the dice!
“It has experience and level, so can it level up?” He stroked the stubble on his chin, lost in thought.
He tried assigning some experience to Nolnos, but the character card remained completely still.
“There must be something different.”
After several attempts, he still had no clue and could only temporarily give up, focusing on hurrying along the road.
The weather was hot, the road difficult to travel, and he feared tiring Nolnos, so he stopped to rest multiple times.
He also used ray of frost to create some ice blocks, wrapped them in waterproof cloth to help everyone cool down.
Nolnos is a fey, able to draw energy from mana or nature spirits, with low requirements for food, but it can still get tired and needs proper rest and eating.
At lunchtime, it fell in love with raw crab meat, devouring over ten pounds by itself, and looked at Finn with much warmer eyes.
After Anse fed it the first ice block, it also fell in love with ice blocks.
While hurrying along the road, Anse had to feed it a few pieces every now and then.
With the man and horse interacting, neither felt tired, and time flew by.
The wilderness is vast; at first, they could still see waves of refugees and scattered corpses, but fewer and fewer people as they went, until by afternoon there were almost none.
After most of the day, Brat and the other were physically exhausted and dispirited, while only Anse and Nolnos remained energetic throughout.
Riding a horse was of course not tiring for him, and after escaping the life-or-death crisis, everything seemed interesting.
Unseen plants and flowers, unfamiliar beasts and birds, peculiar natural landscapes…
He had just crossed over a few days ago, full of novelty, and didn’t find it boring at all.
Brat glanced at the no-longer-blinding sun, listlessly asking: “How much farther to the west coast?”
“Over halfway, at most another twenty li.” Anse speculated.
The “li” he mentioned was Faerun’s distance unit, about thirty-two kilometers for twenty li.
Baldur’s Gate is a natural bay, about sixty or seventy kilometers from the river mouth, requiring over ten hours even on a medium-sized sailing ship.
Brat pointed to a patch of green shade in the south and asked: “Did we go off course? Is that the Cloak Forest?”
“Possibly an extension of the Cloak Forest.” Anse pulled out the map, not entirely sure.
“Should have stayed in the village ahead.” Brat was a bit regretful; they had seen two villages from afar along the way but hadn’t stopped.
“There’s a village ahead called Giant Red Deer Village.” Anse pointed at the map.
“Mm.” Finn nodded; Greyhawk had seen it too.
“How far?” Brat perked up.
“Just past that woodland.”
“Let’s go.”
The group followed Greyhawk’s guidance southwest for over ten minutes, passing through a sparse woodland, where a village appeared ahead, about a few dozen households.
“Good terrain.” Brat commented.
This area was flat and dry, without standing water, and the ground had clearly been hardened, indeed suitable for resting.
“Why is there no one?” Anse frowned slightly; it was too quiet here.
“Is this a deserted village?” Brat carefully surveyed the dilapidated, collapsed building cluster.
“Look.” Anse shook his head, pointing to the messy tracks, footprints, and wheel marks around them. “It might be a deserted village, but many people have definitely been here.”
Finn squatted on the ground, observed for a moment, and confirmed: “Some new, some old, and some from today.”
“Probably refugees.” Brat speculated. “After all, the map has this village.”
Anse looked at Finn beside him: “Any monsters or beasts around?”
“No monsters, no large beasts.” Finn shook his head.
“Let’s go in and look.”
Anse and the others rallied their spirits and entered the deserted village in combat formation.
However, aside from debris everywhere and dust covering everything, there were no corpses or miscellaneous things.
But for some reason, Anse always felt uneasy inside.
Just as they entered the village, a dark head poked out from the window of a distant wooden house: long snout, curved horns, black scales…
The group was startled and assumed combat stances.
“Seems like a dragonborn.” Brat reminded.
There were plenty of dragonborn in Baldur’s Gate, and everyone had seen them, but their appearance differed greatly from humans, so a sudden appearance was startling.
At this moment, the door of that wooden house opened, and several people came out; aside from that black dragonborn, the others were all humans.
These people were all armed and wore armor, mainly studded leather armor, similar in color and style, but there didn’t seem to be any spellcasters.
Anse’s holy symbol hidden in his bosom suddenly grew hot; his heart tightened, and he immediately gave the two an eye signal to be careful.
Perhaps fearing they would misunderstand, the black dragonborn approached empty-handed while the others stayed put.
“Hello.” The dragonborn’s voice was like clanging metal, deep and powerful, with a thunderous tail.
He looked Anse and Nolnos up and down, eyes full of surprise: “We come from Arallon, heading to Baldur’s Gate, resting here temporarily. Are you from Baldur’s Gate? We heard something happened there; how is it now?”
Arallon was the largest island in the Moonshadow Isles, across the sea from Baldur’s Gate.
Anse kept his expression calm: “The river mouth burst last night, flooding Rivertown District; we left in a hurry and don’t know the current situation.”
“I see.” The black dragonborn’s eyes swiveled; it was hard to read any expression on his lizard-like face. “We heard the City District of Baldur’s Gate collapsed with lots of underground creatures appearing; is that true?”
“I heard that too, but I haven’t seen it, so I dare not say recklessly.” Anse smiled faintly, still playing dumb.
During the conversation, he had already seen through the other’s information:
【Amn elite, dragonborn, level 3 barbarian berserker）】
Clearly, the other was lying!
The black dragonborn kept getting shut down by Anse; he knew he was being evasive but had no way around it.
He casually glanced around, pointing to the house behind him: “We’re staying in this wooden house; the other houses are empty, pick one yourselves.”
With that, he waved and turned to leave.
Anse narrowed his eyes; he still wanted to check more of their information, but the other left so quickly and decisively.
“Let’s go too.” Anse waved, and Nolnos strode off with long legs toward another village path.
The group hurried through the village without stopping.
“That dragonborn’s accent was off; sounded like from Amn.” Brat mused.
“How did you tell?” Anse slowed his pace; he knew Brat’s hometown was on the Dragon Coast, not close to Amn.
“I’ve been there; Amn is prosperous, but everything costs a fortune.” Brat shook his head regretfully.
“You’re very perceptive.” Anse praised. “The people and place are off; we’re not camping here.”
“I think so too.” Brat agreed.
“Mm.” Finn agreed as well.
After leaving the village, they faced a medium-sized lake, sparkling with waves, surrounded by dense vegetation, nice scenery.
Anse noticed obvious cultivation traces around the lake that had been abandoned for some reason.
The group skirted the north shore of the lake, crossed a tall grassy slope, and a temporary camp suddenly appeared before them.
Twenty or thirty tents were neatly scattered lakeside, with dozens of people bustling about: some clearing land, some fishing, and children and elders playing.
Thanks to all readers for your support and suggestions!
