Arcane Journey

Chapter 79 Murloc Town
The town of Slobudor sits on the shore of a huge cave lake.

The north and south borders of the town are separated from the outside world by a high wall made of nets. Suspension bridges and platforms are randomly interspersed in the town, and the floor structures carved out of stalactite columns are connected to each other, forming a kind of mutual interpenetration. public space.

The kuo-toa murlocs here, in addition to trading with other Underdark races, also provide shipping and navigation services. It is not an exaggeration to call it the largest underground port in the nearby area.

Under the escort of the murloc high priest team, Brian and others came to the gate of the town.

Although their hands were all bound, and Kou Tao was surrounded by heavily armed supervisors, what bound their hands was a kind of soft fish gut, and as long as he exerted a little force, he could easily break free.

In this way, if the opponent dared to show a little hostility, he could pull out a pistol in an instant and let him die on the spot.

After all, the strength of the high priest of the murloc in front of him is only around level 10, and he has not yet reached the exemplary level.

Taking advantage of his unpreparedness, he is still very confident in dealing with a murloc of this level.

Of course, he doesn't mind helping them win the war of faith if everything goes according to plan.

Brian looked at the surrounding environment. The north and south sides of the town were separated by stone walls, and the walls of these walls were also woven with heavy fishing nets with sharp bone structures.

In front of the gate, which was only about two meters high, four Kou Tao pushers holding sticks saluted the high priest respectfully, and then made way for the passage.

Seeing this situation, he realized that the high priest should not have lost control of the small town of Slobudor for the time being.

Then he exchanged glances with Hesaiah beside him, followed the high priest's footsteps without any hesitation, and entered through a gate in the middle of the wall.

The huge caves are not as brightly lit as the cities of the drow elves. Most of the dim light in the town comes from the glands of some glowing fungi, corals, and cave fish.

It looks more like it is shrouded in a dim curtain, which makes people feel depressed unconsciously.

Brian was not surprised by this.

After all, the Kou Tao murlocs are afraid of too bright light, and anyone approaching them with too strong light will cause hostility.

The murlocs in the town are busy with their own affairs, mending fishing nets, repairing boats, or sharpening harpoons, etc.

When they saw the high priest leading a group of people passing by, they just raised their heads and took a look, and then went about their own business.

Brian still has a good understanding of the habits of the Kou Tao murlocs.

In their daily communication, besides words, they like to use a lot of gestures.

They don't have a straight back and tend to make quick and sudden movements.

When talking to others, he will keep pacing and circling around the other person.

What's even more ridiculous is that Kou Tao Yuren priests usually don't stand on the podium to give lectures to apprentices, but walk while speaking, and the apprentices follow behind like a school of fish.

The leader of the Kou Tao Yuren likes to set up a tall image in front of his subordinates. When there is no high platform for the leader to speak, the leader will directly stand on the body of his companion lying on the ground.

But when it comes to living, people with higher status tend to live in the lower floors of buildings that they think are safe. This may also be related to their water-loving habits.

In the small town at this time, apart from the busy Kou Tao murloc civilians and patrolling soldiers, there are also many murlocs who look like they have lost their souls, wandering around the town aimlessly.

"Don't worry about it, they are sleepwalking." Brian saw a kuo-toa fishman walking slowly around Sisaiah, which made her a little unsure what to do.

So he lifted his foot and kicked it aside.

The sleepwalking murloc shuddered violently, woke up from his sleep, turned over and got up from the ground, staring at Brian with big silver-black eyes and grinning.

In the end, the high priest handed it over with a look, and ran away desperately holding his buttocks in fright.

The kuo-toa don't have eyelids, so they don't blink, which makes them look like they're awake when they're asleep, plus they sleepwalk a lot, which always causes confusion.

When they passed the pier, Brian found six kuo-toa murloc keelboats moored here, and five patrol teams were patrolling back and forth by the lake.

Each team is composed of a Kou Tao spurr and three Kou Tao supervisors.

To his surprise, the bustling and bustling pier in his imagination became quiet, except for the kuo-tao murlocs, he couldn't see any other underground races.

This made him realize that the other races who came here were probably sacrificed by the followers of the father of the deep sea.

He secretly remembered the location of this place, and if an unexpected accident happened, he didn't mind grabbing a keel boat and fleeing here.

About half an hour later, led by the murloc high priest, they passed by the altar of 'Mother of the Sea' Bribodup.

A nine-foot-tall statue stands here.

The figure roughly carves a humanoid female form from the stem of a Zeke wood shiitake mushroom.

Her head and front paws resemble a giant albino crayfish.

These two halves are bound with gut and give off a strong stench of rotting shellfish.

Seashells, colored stones, mushrooms and rotting fish are piled at the feet of the statues, while garlands of flowers hang around their necks.

Four devout kuo-tao murlocs circled slowly around the statue to guard them.

Several other people circled around, and looked up at the statue from time to time, chanting words while worshiping.

In fact, the Kou Tao fish people originally had no gods.

The gods they worship are actually their crazy creations. By chance, after gaining enough believers' power, the gods of the Kuu Tao Yuren can actually manifest themselves.

It is said that the image of Kou Tao's spirit is inspired by the miracles that result from it, so it often seems quite random and absurd.

The most venerated of these self-created gods is Bri Bodup, the 'mother of the sea', a human female with a shell draped over her shoulders and the head and claws of a crayfish.

The image of "Mother of the Sea" Bribodup is the product of the Kou Tao murlocs repairing human statues with various carapaces.

The exquisite image of the restored handicraft suddenly convinced all the Kou Tao Yu people, so a god was born.

In other words, the gods of the Kou Tao Yu people were produced by themselves through the realization of their beliefs.

At this time, groups of Kou Tao fishmen appeared near the altar from time to time, looking devoutly at the "Mother of the Sea" Bribodup, offering their own sacrifices, or taking an item near the altar , to pray for protection.

For the Kou Tao murlocs, taking a sacrifice from the altar is also a way of expressing their devotion to the goddess.

Because the 'Mother of the Sea' Bribodup is a goddess of scavengers, whether you drop items to her or take items from here, it can be used as a tribute to her.

As for the Kou Tao murloc, personal items that are close to the body are more likely to please the goddess.

Therefore, more sacrifices are often made than are taken.

Accumulated over time, the altar at this moment looks like a garbage recycling bin, full of various shells, bones, fungi, and rotten underground garbage such as shrimp soldiers and crab generals.

"Brian, do you notice something is wrong?"

When Bryan was checking the altar of 'Mother of the Sea' Bribodup, Hesaiah looked at the high priest of the murloc suspiciously, leaned towards him, and said through magic voice transmission:
"Why do I feel that this murloc priest doesn't seem to have any respect for the gods they believe in, and when they pass by the altar, they don't even look at it."

"I have noticed." Brian nodded slightly, and said to her, "It seems that the whole thing is not as simple as imagined, so be vigilant and don't fall into their trap."

He and Hesaiah exchanged glances, and immediately lingered on the Kou Tao fishmen warriors guarding the altar.

He noticed that these Kou Tao murloc fighters were very vigilant towards everyone who passed by, even the murloc high priest was no exception.

One of the leading Kou Tao murloc instigators even locked his vigilant gaze on the murloc high priest until he was covered by the crowd and disappeared from sight before retracting.

With doubts, Brian followed the murloc high priest to a hut not far from the altar.

The first thing that catches the eye is a cabinet full of various treasures in the high priest's room.

From the types of items, it can be seen that they should all be found from some unlucky travelers or from the depths of the dark lake.

Since the trading currency in the Underdark is mainly gems, there are so many jewels in the cabinet at this moment, it is too beautiful to behold.

"Ok?"

Suddenly, Brian noticed a distinctive sapphire among the pile of gems.

Immediately afterwards, a look of joy floated across his expression.

He found that there was actually a black sapphire inside.

This extremely rare sapphire is a deep, intense black with blue or white highlights.

Most of these jewels come from the Underdark, especially the great rifts of the underworld or deep underground rivers.

If you want to get black sapphires in the surface world, you can only go to the deep country of the gray dwarves to find them.

Although this kind of gemstone is not favored by nobles due to its deep color, the water elemental energy it contains is an indispensable material for wizards to make powerful water-attribute magic equipment.

For Brian, its real role is to be one of the four gemstones used to guide the energy of the element plane when building the wizard tower element pool.

The reason why he chose to return to the surface from the city of Aldus of the gray dwarves.

Taking advantage of the chaos to attract a group of gray dwarves was only one of his ostensible goals, and searching for black sapphires was also part of his plan.

To his surprise, he accidentally found this gem here.

In this case, he has collected half of the four energy gems in the element pool.

Brian didn't know how much the black sapphire was worth in the hearts of the Kou Tao Yuren. If he didn't know the goods, he might be able to get them easily.

If they knew the true value of the gemstone, it was impossible for him to afford it with his current financial resources.

This made him have to start thinking ahead about a way to definitely get gems.

If it doesn't work, he will grab it directly.

Although there are nearly a thousand Kou Tao murlocs in the whole town, and there are more than a hundred murloc priests, large and small, and it is quite difficult to obtain them by force, but Brian knows that the whole town is about to into a major crisis.

At that time, he can run over and take it away.

Just as Brian was thinking about how to take away the owner's belongings, a Kuo Tao murloc spurr who was as tall and strong as a murloc monk walked in.

Brian looked up and found that this gloomy murloc warrior was the one who had been keeping his vigilant eyes on the murloc priest when he passed the altar.

This made him faintly feel something bad.

"Father, I don't agree with your approach."

The Kou Tao murloc instigator gave Bryan and the others a bad look, and said loudly in the underground lingua franca full of protest, "I firmly oppose letting any outsiders interfere in inter-ethnic belief issues, they are not trustworthy at all!"

"All of this is the guidance of the goddess, Gelu Geluge, my child." The high priest of the murloc waved his hand forcefully, stopping his words, "We can only abide by the will of the goddess and not violate it."

"Since it is the will of the goddess, then I will not object to your plan."

Hearing the high priest mentioning the goddess, Gelugelug's tone softened, and then he said very firmly, "However, as a loyal believer of the goddess, I will not participate in your plan."

After Kou Tao's instigator finished speaking, he glanced at Brian and the others with hostility, and left angrily.

Brian looked thoughtfully at the back of Supervisor Kou Tao leaving.

He faintly felt that perhaps in this seemingly quiet town, there was more than just a conflict between two belief forces hidden.

With the departure of Kou Tao's instigator, they began to rest in the room while refining the details of the plan with the high priest.

About an hour later, a Kou Tao supervisor appeared outside the room with twelve Kou Tao murloc warriors holding sticks.

After the high priest of the murloc, Pru Prupin, let the supervisor into the house and told him the details of the escort operation, Brian and the others were escorted again to the Altar of the Deep Sea Father near the pier.

When he was about to reach the altar of the father of the deep sea, the high priest of the mother of the sea, Pru Prupin, stepped forward, walked through the altar alone, and walked towards the waiting for him.

"The time has come, my child."

He said to the Kou Tao murloc, "This is the sacrifice we prepared for Li Mogugen, the father of the deep sea. Let us accept your miracle together."

The high priest of the murloc pointed to Brian and the others, "Aren't you willing to accept all this?"

"A wise decision, my father."

The young high priest came out from a dark corner. She was wearing a dark red robe and a string of filthy shell ornaments hung around her neck. She raised her head proudly and greeted the high priest of the Mother of Sea with cold eyes:

"In the name of the father of the deep sea, I accept your sacrifice. Their blood will nourish our god and make him stronger!"

"Let blood and death be dedicated to the father of the deep sea!"

The surrounding Kou Tao murlocs raised their fists high and cheered.

(End of this chapter)