Azure Scepter

Page 9

“Since we’re going to die anyway, we might as well be happy. It would be unwise to be sad at this point. My dad always says that whether you’re happy or sad, you’re still going to live one day. So why not have some fun before you die?”

“Pretending to be cheerful isn’t real cheerfulness; no one can be this calm in the face of death,” Trier thought to himself.

Despite his inner grumbling, Trier still said, "Insightful opinion."

“Oh, thank you for the compliment,” said the tailor. “Since I’m about to die, could you tell me a story, old dwarf? Your lute is certainly not just for show, is it? I’d like to hear the story of White the smooth talker.”

White the smooth talker?

Trier pondered the word carefully, and the next moment, a hidden thought suddenly flooded his mind.

My mind raced, and a fleeting inspiration, like a chain, pierced through my doubts and pinned them together.

He suddenly understood why there were so many Silent Spellcasters in Beaver Town, and he also understood what was going on with this completely illogical heavy fog today.

"Don't even think about it, we're short on time," the dwarf flatly refused.

"Why don't you tell me about it? I'd like to hear it too."

The paladin suddenly spoke.

The dwarf stared wide-eyed, almost wondering if he had misheard.

He had initially thought the paladin was as reliable as a silent rock, but he hadn't expected him to be such a capricious and impractical person.

“Anyway, the story is short, isn’t it?” Trier glanced meaningfully at the tailor.

“A young man of taste,” the tailor chuckled. “Come on, dear dwarf.”

Helpless, the dwarf took out a lute from his backpack, tuned it briefly, and then cleared his throat: "Ahem."

The melodious and gentle tune echoed in the thick fog.

"Trier, what are you doing?" Futia emerged from the shadows behind the tailor and asked in surprise.

The paladin said, "Let's listen to a story together."

Although the dwarves are very rugged in appearance, their singing voices are harmonious with rhythm, clear and melodious:

Spring goes and autumn comes, evil dragons invade. Wheat ears wither and deer disappear.

"White the tailor, a silver-tongued man. He went to the king and lied about slaying a dragon."

"White is short, which makes the king suspicious."

"You cunning dragon, what can you do?"

"White the Clever Speaker" is a classic fairy tale about a down-on-his-luck tailor named White who claims to have four special talents, enough to slay a dragon. He then uses the art of language to deceive the king and lure the dragon out of the kingdom, ultimately saving the Kingdom of Orco.

In the story, White told the king four lies, and when the king became suspicious, he swore that everything he said was true.

These four boastful lies are:

Chapter 14 Holy Emblem

In the story, White told the king four lies, and when the king became suspicious, he swore that everything he said was true.

The four boastful lies are: He once spoke with the sun, and the sun gave him eagle-like eyesight.

The blood of the frost giant flowed in his veins, but his heart could not bear such power.

The Silver Wizard, the guardian of knowledge, had once instructed him, revealing the dragon's fatal weakness, but this knowledge was beyond words.

Finally, he pledged his allegiance to the king and vowed to fight forever to protect the kingdom.

Although this fairy tale is absurd, it is based on a historical story.

As far as Trier knows, the prototype of the king in the fairy tale is Loseweg, the founding monarch of the Kingdom of Orco, who is now an evil lich.

The dragon in the story wasn't tricked away by the tailor White—the dragon was severely injured by Lorsewie's "Sacrifice" axe, which blew its head off, and then it was chased down by a highly professional dragon-slaying team until it was forced to flee.

White, on the other hand, was a famous bard at the time.

He wrote this fairy tale poem, but in the story, he took all the credit for Rosevie's and Rosevie's achievements.

However, as time went on, the author's image in the story changed significantly: from a wise and brave adventurer who was good at everything, to a tailor who relied on deception and trickery to walk a tightrope.

Trier was very familiar with the story and knew the historical events behind it, so he didn't listen carefully.

He began to carefully observe the tailor opposite him. The tailor seemed to be listening with great interest, and when he heard the part about how the tailor White tricked the dragon, he couldn't stop laughing.

“It really is it.” Trier confirmed the other party’s identity completely, “Olius, the Copper Dragon.”

—The talkative and always-smiling tailor in front of me is the prototype of the evil dragon in the story, a robust bronze dragon that has lived for hundreds of years.

In its youth, it nested in the Southern Duchy, where the Duke was a madman who loved to play pranks on other people's lives—for example, killing other people's children, cooking them into a broth and feeding it to their parents, and then asking others how it tasted.

The Duke of the South once made this kind of hardcore hellish joke at the head of the Copper Dragon, so the Copper Dragon used its Maniacal Laughter spell to make the joke-loving Duke laugh to death.

As a result, the copper dragon was wanted throughout the kingdom, since the impact of killing the duke in public was too terrible.

Queen Lothrae demanded that the bronze dragon surrender and accept a just trial, promising him a fair judgment; but the proud dragon resolutely refused—what happened next is the historical prototype of the story told in "White the Speaker".

The copper dragon suffered a permanent, unhealable injury from being struck by Lorsewi's axe with a lesser artifact, rendering it far weaker than a normal adult dragon. It harbored a deep hatred for Lorsewi because of this, but due to its kind nature (and fear), it did not retaliate against others, instead fleeing far away to hide.

In the original history, after the lich became the enemy of the world, Aurelius fully embodied the spirit of kicking a man when he's down. He fanatically organized and participated in various actions to fight the lich, but ultimately he inadvertently fell into the lich's trap and was resurrected by necromancy after death and enslaved as a ghost dragon.

There are many spellcasters from the Silent Whisperers in Beaver Town, and they are very likely here to slay the dragon.

"Why did this dragon stop us?" Trier began to ponder. "Why would it ask to hear the story of White the Clever Speaker?"

"Is it because it's worried that there are cult members among us, so it doesn't dare to reveal its identity, but still wants to send some kind of message?"

"What kind of information is this?"

As the music descended in pitch, the dwarf's voice grew increasingly low—the story was drawing to a close.

When the last note fell silent, Foutia, who had been completely absorbed in the story, suddenly awoke to find it fascinating. She had never heard the story before.

"Brilliant!" the tailor clapped. "Words and wisdom are sometimes far more useful than swords and magic. Thank you for fulfilling the last wish of this dying man."

"Are you still going to follow this road?" Aulis took off his deerstalker hat, revealing a bald head. "How about we consider taking a different route? But whichever way you go, I suggest you go towards the shrine to the north."

“You haven’t left the house, how do you know the north is safe? The town’s guards suffered heavy casualties there yesterday!” The dwarf’s human wife stepped past her husband and stood opposite the tailor.

Aulis winked at his dwarf wife, then stuck out his tongue in a show of defiance when no one else was looking: “If you insist on going this way, I have a gift for you—as a reward for your lovely husband’s outstanding performance.”

“This is very suspicious, Trier,” Fythia whispered. “He may have gone completely insane.”

The tailor reached into the tattered pocket of his coat, rummaged around for a moment, and then pulled out a silver badge engraved with acanthus flowers between his two fingers.

The silver badge was now emitting a milky white glow.

Trier's pupils contracted slightly as he recognized what the other person was holding—a paladin's emblem.

The term "holy emblem" refers to a sacred badge. Priests and paladins typically require holy emblems to cast divine spells; they function as a spell-casting focus.

In the game, Paladins can unleash some divine spells starting at level 3, but apart from casting Holy Slash and Divine Sense which do not require a Holy Symbol, casting any other divine spell requires a Holy Symbol as an aid.

Since Trier had no intention of continuing to advance his paladin rank, he didn't care that he hadn't found the holy symbol in Cord's tomb.

It's best to have one, but it doesn't matter if you don't—that's Trier's mindset. If the situation is urgent, he might even build one himself.

“I found this on the ground. Sometimes it emits a strange light, like it is now.” The tailor held up the emblem. “It’s sparkling and looks beautiful, so I wanted to give it to you.”

“Accepting gifts from strangers comes with risks, as the story of the traveler Hippo has long revealed,” said the dwarf blacksmith’s wife.

The blacksmith put away his lute and refused to accept the tailor's inexplicable gift.

Trier took the emblem from the tailor's hands, and a thought struck him:

[Item Name: Korde's Holy Symbol]

[Item Level: Rare]

[Item Description: A silver holy emblem engraved with the symbol of the Church of Radiant Light. It is said to be the emblem of the legendary paladin Kord, emitting a milky-white light when facing evil, as if issuing a warning.]

[Equipment Requirements: Paladin/Priest/Good Faction Druid]

[Equipment Effect: When evil is present within 20 meters, it emits a milky white light, similar to a paladin's "Divine Sense"; when the holder is a paladin, the daily usage of Divine Sense is increased by 1; when the holder is a paladin who has sworn an oath of vengeance, the daily usage of Holy Slash gains an additional number of uses based on the Sense bonus.]

[Inscription: Only through fear can one become brave.]

"It was picked up from the ground in the tomb of Cord, wasn't it?" Trier thought to himself. "No wonder I couldn't find the Holy Symbol; it was picked up by this bronze dragon."

"The emblem is now glowing, proving that evil exists within 20 meters."

"There are two possibilities. Either there is evil among us, or there are hidden spirits around us."

"The latter possibility is very low, because the copper dragon has excellent perception and it is unlikely that it would fail to detect the hidden undead, and it is unlikely that it would come out to meet us when there are undead around."

"If there is evil among us, it could be cultists, people in the final stages of the blood plague infection, or people who are inherently evil but have no connection to the Silent Whisperers, such as serial killers."

“The Holy Symbol’s effective range is 20 meters, so it’s easy to find out using the process of elimination.” Trier’s mind raced. “No, that method is too inefficient. There’s a better way: our current positions are close to a straight line, so we just need to throw the Holy Symbol and see where it goes out to determine who the evil person is.”

“The emblem can emit light, so the fog can be ignored in terms of obstructing the view – this method is feasible.”

With this thought in mind, he quickly scanned everyone's positions, then quickly scanned the street, then closed his eyes and, at an extremely fast speed, mentally moved everyone's positions twenty meters along the street, as if creating a model. Then, using his memory and imagination, he found the relevant landmarks.

"Broken sword—young soldier; rubble—copper sergeant; withered tree—Fodia; charred corpse—me; window—copper dragon; shattered shield—dwarf."

Trier opened his eyes and then gently tossed out the holy symbol.

Chapter 15 Copper Dragon

Trier gently tossed out the holy symbol.

A milky white halo pierced through the mist, swirling and drawing an arc in the air.

The paladin's gaze followed the glowing emblem intently; in his intense focus, time seemed to slow down.

In the first instant, the holy symbol streaked across the broken sword and the rubble beside it like a white comet, still shining brightly; in the second instant, it pierced through the withered tree with a whooshing sound, flew over the corpse beneath it, and shone like a lighthouse in the mist.

He didn't throw the emblem with much force. So after it passed the window, the emblem, like a rocket that had run out of fuel, languished and fell listlessly to the ground.

Finally, with a crisp jingle, the emblem struck the ground, then bounced up and fell back down in the dust.

It landed precisely two meters behind the shattered shield and had stopped shining.

"What are you doing!" The dwarf's wife turned around in surprise, instinctively taking a few steps back.

—The emblem is shining again.

“Alright, the evil one in the team has been found,” Trier thought. “However, there’s a problem with this method: if there’s more than one evil person in the team, then this method won’t be able to detect it.”

"But the impact will be minimal; just remain vigilant."

Amidst the astonished gazes of the five people and the dragon, the paladin walked over nonchalantly, bent down to pick up the holy emblem, and then returned.

The bronze dragon unconsciously opened its mouth, its two thick eyebrows almost reaching the top of its bald head.

It thought its behavior was already capricious and unpredictable enough, but it didn't expect that the paladin in front of it was even better in this respect!

"This is a complete madman!" Olius thought to himself, utterly baffled by the paladin's behavior.

The other person first accepted the gift, then suddenly threw it away, and finally picked it up nonchalantly—what is he trying to do? Does he even want it?

Aulis cleared his throat and glanced at the re-glowing holy emblem: "It seems you don't particularly like this gift..."

"—To shine again?"

Suddenly, the clever bronze dragon understood, and its words came to an abrupt halt.

"I see," it murmured to itself.

Trier carefully put away the holy emblem and said to the bronze dragon without changing his expression, "Thank you for your gift."

Then, he took a golden dragon from his backpack and handed it to the dwarf blacksmith.

The copper dragon's gift was for the dwarves, not for himself. Although the dwarves didn't want it, Trier didn't want them to suffer a loss.

A gold dragon has very high purchasing power.

In *Azure Scepter*, different regions and countries issue different currencies with varying metal contents. Furthermore, the metal content of even a single currency within a single country can change over time.

Generally speaking, due to widespread financial difficulties, newly issued coins always contain less precious metals—so that minters can use the same amount of precious metals to mint more currency, thereby acquiring more resources in a short period of time through inflation.

Therefore, there is no fixed exchange rate for gold, silver, and copper coins in the game; their exchange rates often fluctuate greatly depending on the changing situation.

The gold dragon that Trill gave to the dwarven blacksmith was a gold dragon that circulated in the Kingdom of Ork. This gold coin was minted during the time of "Greenhead" Mason and its gold content was approximately 0.88. In other words, Trill gave the dwarf more than 3.13 grams of gold.

When Aulis saw the gold coins, his eyes almost shot out flames.

"This is too much!" the dwarf blacksmith said, refusing the offer while clenching the golden dragon in his palm.

Trier glanced at the dwarf blacksmith's wife and found that she seemed normal.

Although he already knew the dwarf's wife was evil, he did not intend to deal with her immediately for three reasons: