Volume 26 Chapter 7

[ Chapter 7 - History of the Four Races]

Pabeura is a village located in the outskirts of the Forest of Life.

Since it is famous for its fruits with a very special taste, it became a major tourism destination.

"This forest gives a good feeling."

"Having our honeymoon here is a good thing."

Couples were walking while holding each other's hand.

The place is a popular vacation spot because of the scenery. Sunlight coming down through the tall trees at least 10 meters in height and small animals running around in the woods.

Rabbits, foxes and deer come down to the valley to drink water, and they do not run away when people get closer.

The normal predators, such as lions and bears are friendly. They mostly eat the food given by the travelers.

It is because the race controlling the forest are elves. They treat animals kindly and never hunt them so they don’t feel threatened by them. As humans have similar appearance with elves, animals treat them the same.

In the middle of Pabeura Village, Weed and Yurin appeared.

“Hmm, there are a lot of things that can be eaten here." Weed made a brief assessment when he saw the animals.

Yurin was even more excited.

"Oppa, I wouldn't mind eating anything since I'm hungry."

"I already ate a while ago. But I think I am already hungry."

They only see animals as food.

Weed and Yurin are indeed hungry.

There are quite a lot of elf guards under the trees of the forest.

In the stores, they sell elvish armor and weapons.The restaurants only serve fruit-based dishes. The inns and hotels are built on the trees.

There is a lot of armors and weapons for beginner in the stores where Weed can make much money from, but he went directly looking for Delia.

With his blacksmith skill, he can use any type of weapons. In fact, the same weapons or armor might be extremely hard to get elsewhere.

Of course, there are also shops that sell highly quality weapons and some that only sell luxury goods.

But for now, with Weed’s level, he can’t equip most of the good weapons. In addition, all the items here are highly overpriced.

"I came to learn about the oldest sculpture."

Delia, the elder Elf is sitting near the pond in the village center.

She is an elf with beautiful hair and it is difficult to guess her age.

"I am honored to be visited by a human sculptor. The Lord ofMorata, came to seek knowledge. We elves also love art, elves treat everybody equally, especially the adventurer who keeps the peace in the continent.”

For many reasons, Delia was very nice to Weed.

"Yes, the arts have guided me to come here and seek knowledge from the elves.”

"The oldest sculpture, the story is passed down from our ancestors. Humans are familiar with history, but they will forget what they don’t record, short lived orcs are not able to pass the story on and the dwarves have bad memories. Much of the story is forgotten, but from the elves, it is the most viable. Are you sure you want to hear?"

"Yes."

"It is when the four races lived together in the caves. This time, many sculptures were made.”

The images come again in front of Weed.

In the beginning of times, lots of monsters roamed the continent.

The food obtained by humans, elves, dwarves and orcs were prone to be stolen by the monsters.

They did not build a village, but they hid in the caves. Dwarves, who have incomparable digging talent, can connect several caves together and made good hiding places from the monsters.

Even when the world is full of violent monsters, thanks to competent orc warriors, they fend off the monster attacks.

"Alas Kya Oh."(T/L: first conversation)

Humans were the first to achieve learning a language, and taught the others.

As the races' population began to grow, they also learned to fight monsters. By united efforts, the monsters were no longer a big threat.

Orcs were great fighters, even though they fought monsters stronger than them, they did not retreat.

Elves, human and dwarves were very loyal to each other, they honor their friendship above all else.

Eventually they came out of the cave and settled near a river.

The first town in the Versailles continent, it was called ‘Ratzeburg ‘.

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- You have obtained information about civilization of Versailles Continent.

+ 15 Wisdom.

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" Ratzeburg....."

Because most of the history of the Versailles continent was not recorded anywhere, the story of the establishment of the first kingdom was lost in history.

A view of Ratzerburg City appeared in front of Weed.

The dwarves built their structures surrounded with solid wood fences.

The cities were lined with houses made of piles of dirt and stones, while elves often slept in the woods.

The houses of orcs and dwarves can be easily identified from the big difference of the entrance's size.

The wide plains is full of growing fruit trees and cereals. There are sparkling streams and the wind blew calmly.

And there were flocks of birds flying around.

Ttiring!

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The 'Origin of Sculpting' has been completed.

The story about the first sculpture was passed down from one generation to the next.

Perhaps the event really did happen.

- Quest reward: Can be obtained from Delia.

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Even when Weed completed the quest, he isn't happy at all.

As a Master Quest, this quest will be followed immediately by another chain quest.

Then Delia speaks.

"For a long time, the story is passed down. But there is a limit to everything, not everybody knows about it. But now, you know the real story about the sculpture of the four races living together in the Ratzeburg."

"I think so."

Due to war, the human kingdoms in the continent were repeatedly built and destroyed.

The habitat of residents also changes depending on the movement of the monsters. This is why some forests were converted into plains.

In Royal Road, the Versailles Continent was created about ten million years ago!

It was the birth of each species and monsters. Nature, being caught in between, suffered major destruction.

Even so, the issue was a thing of the past.

Whenever humans, orcs, elves and dwarves build a village, it will be destroyed by monsters. It occurs over and over again more than tens of thousands of times, until the four races had a stable place to live. And it was just a few thousand years ago.

"It is hard to believe the story about Ratzeburg and it is almost impossible to recognize the sculpture. But it might be possible for the sculptor who can read the memories of the sculpture. And you are one of the few human sculptors who embrace the pathway of this art. Even the elves cannot tell whether the story about Ratzeburg is true or not. Would you clarify this?”

Ttiring!

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Ratzeburg City

A mythical city where the four races once lived together Currently nobody seems to know where the city is located. Find Ratzeburg City!

Difficulty: Master Quest Sculpting.

Quest Restrictions: Advance Level 8 in Sculpting. Requires [Sculptural Memories] .

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Master Sculptor Quests!

Weed replied confidently.

"I believe in the story of Ratzeburg and the four races living in peace, I'm looking forward to finding the city."

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- You have accepted the quest.

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Weed quietly watched the notification.

He expects to get rewarded for the first quest's completion.

'If I get an Elf Bow, it's a jackpot. But it isn't necessarily an elf bow. Any item that increases the elemental stat is also great. Or any equipment that increases affinity with nature. '

In fact, any equipment from the elves is precious.

Users who choose to pick non-human races, such as elves, have a disadvantage.

There are only a few blacksmiths in the elf village, and while hunting there is no specific equipment for elves.

And for newbie elves, they are in trouble once their equipment gets worn out.

That’s because it is hard to obtain new low level equipment.

Anyway, the elves basic physical, magical and elemental skills are pretty good . They usually have light leathers for equipment, and the elf is the race with the best archery attribute.

Delia resumes talking. Finally, the reward for the first quest ...

"I have a lot of fruit trees in my backyard. You can take as much as you want, I don’t really eat them."

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- You can harvest the fruit trees from Delia’s backyard.

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"Huck Huck!"

Weed's face was full of shock.

It is like going to a rich friend’s house looking forward for an expensive dinner, but he only serves ramen without egg. (Ramen is Korean Instant noodles)

"Okay. Then I will go and eat the fruits."

"Okay then, Great Sculptor. It is unreasonable for elves to ask your help about Ratzeburg City. You can give up the quest at any time.”

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- You can give up the quest.

If you abandon a quest, intimacy with Delia will be reduced and later, you need to start Master Sculptor Quest from the beginning.

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After spending time getting the quest and trying to solve it, he was not willing to give up here. Especially if he needed to start from scratch.

#

Weed and Yurin went to the backyard of Delia’s house

There were apples, pears, oranges, almonds, pomegranates, chestnuts, apricots, and autumn bamboo.

There were a lot of fruits on the branches of each kind of tree.

"Mmm. This is tasty."

"Oppa, these fruits are expensive."

"So let's pack everything."

The fruit here tasted a bit different from the other fruits from other trees not in the Forest of Life. Some travelers watched Weed and Yurin while passing by.

"Shakes!"

By shaking a tree, fallen fruits are picked up.

All fruits were picked up and placed into a backpack. When a backpack is full, another backpack is crafted with cloth and sewing skill.

And another backpack is filled with extra fruits. More backpacks were crafted until all fruits from the trees were gone.

While slicing and eating an apple, Weed said:

"We have to find Ratzeburg next.”

No clue has been given, and obtaining clues won’t be easy..

Even if he asked another elf or dwarf, it is unlikely he will obtain anything.

But from the vision of Ratzeburg City Weed had seen, there might be some clues he can trace.

"Some stones and the river might not have changed locations."

He tried to remember the material used for the construction of the stone buildings.

And Weed compared them to the stone sculptures he had seen across the continent.

"I just might be able to determine the rough scope of the area.”

The wide plains, the stone, the river and their distance from each other.

Considering all that, at least he can narrow down the scope a bit.

"I’m gonna need a clearer view to compare and analyze the location ..."

Weed needed to collect more information. What he had was not enough to guess the exact area.

However, Weed cannot decide the next destination and Yurin asked with hesitation.

"So will we go back to Morata?"

"No, we’re not going back to Morata. This time, we'll stop at Vergo Fortress. Pale , Master and the other Geomchis are there as well. We can sell the fruit and have a meal with them."

"Ok. I’ll start drawing."

Sya Syak.

The fortress is precisely drawn.

She tried to draw a beautiful picture of the fortress. With her current Picture Teleportation level, she can use it even if the picture misses the minor details but she just enjoys doing it.

"Were you studying in the library a few days ago? I went to the library to give you a lunch box, but I didn't see you anywhere."

Shah sasha sya sya syak.

The speed of Yurin’s drawing became quick again.

#

Petrov is quite famous, only a few people in Vargo Fortress doesn’t know him.

The pictures he drew were real enough to scare the monsters!

Soon, his name might be known as the best painter in the continent.

Sometimes several TV companies did a broadcast about his paintings around the walls and the buildings in Vergo Fortress.

"I’m going to build a building here. Will you paint it when you have time?”

"Well, I will if your building suits my picture.”

"I’m looking forward to it.”

Architects who conducted the restoration of the fortress were looking forward to Petrov’s paintings.

Petrov is a rising star.

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Influence in Vergo Fortress

Lord Weed: 43,198.

Petrov the Aqualight Painter: 3,239.

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He is aiming to surpass Weed’s influence in Vergo Fortress no matter how long it takes.

But just by regaining the region after defeating the undead legion, Weed obtained tremendous amount of influence in Vargo. This also includes the strong loyalty of the soldiers and residents.

To surpass the influence of the Lord is not an easy goal to achieve in a short time.

Even though the residents enjoyed the arts, the influence gained from culture is rather slow.

"If this is too easy, it will be boring. Through my effort, I’m sure my objective will be achieved.."

Petrov’s pictures were well matched with the elements of the fortress, so that moment will come some day.

The day when people say Vargo Fortress, and rather than thinking ‘Weed The Sculptor’, users will think ‘Petrov the Painter' instead. Dreaming about this, Petrov is really excited.

"Eat, help yourself, there is a lot more."

"Woof Woof!"

He provided food, clothes and even shelter to the living sculptures.

Every time Petrov called Cerberus, it will come wiggling its tail like a normal dog.

Flying fairies in the Fortress also praise his painting.

- The picture was drawn very well.

- See my looks? Kya kaeruk*

- Draw a picture of me. Faster!

Kya kaeruk* [꺄르륵](sfx when joking/playing with baby,. This sounds effect will come a lot from the fairies trios, I'm not really sure how to translate to English but I will leave them be).

Fairies were resting on his shoulder while teasing and pulling pranks on him.

"My skills are suffering anywhere in the County. But I should not let it break my mood."

Petrov goes back to the fortress.

Fairies played tag around him. And with their ability, they kept passing through the pictures while Petrov is drawing.

There were also some high level users standing in line, hoping that Petrov can draw a picture for them.

When hearing about Petrov’s picture, thousands of people gathered to watch him drawing.

The crowd wasn't actually that big, but when a small group of people forms a crowd, more people will come just because they think something interesting happened and more and more people keep coming.

Since he wanted to maintain his high reputation, for every picture he draws, he's expecting an expensive payment for it.

Then there were three men with strong physique.

"I heard your drawing is good. I will pay you 20 gold. Would you draw us?"

Petrov let out a laugh.

"Where did you hear that huh.”

The rumor must be quite wrong, because the price for Petrov’s drawing is not just 20 gold.

It might be true for beginner painters, but for Petrov, his price is hundreds of gold. For him, it is ridiculous to receive such small amount.

"Geomchi Sahyeong, did you hear about our kid caught in a fight?"

"Yes I heard about it. He got the broken ribs and another two broken teeth."

Petrov heard the conversation between Geomchi,Geomchi3, and Geomchi7. He thought they were talking something about gang-related or organized crime.

"Well, that guy is really hot tempered."

"I don’t know him well. But our kid, he surrendered and got beaten.”

"Yeah, we should teach him better. Next time he will do the beating instead.”

Petrov can hear Geomchi's conversation who are passing by.

He can’t hear it clearly, but it is about their kid fighting with dangerous men, and got injured pretty badly. And it sounds like the Geomchis were planning on revenge or something.

"Break his arm and his leg, but leave his life intact"

"Smash his jaw, so he can’t eat."

"And about our kid, we need to give him proper education. I will hand this matter to you. Do not take this lightly." (Master/Geomchi)

"I will keep that in mind."

"If he thinks he is that strong just by beating our kid, we will teach him what 'strong' really means. Beat him until he can no longer move. "

"In the future, I don’t want the same mistake to happen again." (Master/Geomchi)

As the Geomchis talk, the distance between the Geomchis and Petrov was coming closer and closer. It seemed that their conversation has reached their end.

"Oh, painter. Are you busy right now??"

"No, I'm not busy."

"For 20 gold, can you draw a picture of us? Or is it not enough?"

"No, no, it’s a good amount of money. I'll draw right now."

Petrov stopped all his other painting and started drawing pictures of Geomchis.

#

Weed and Yurin appeared at the central tower.

The process of repairing and restoring Vergo Fortress could be seen everywhere.

The building that broke during the battle. The repair and restoration of the fortress is at its peak, with the walls getting higher and thicker everyday.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the whole fortress is a big construction site.

"What a waste of money..."

He was spending all his tax money to repair Vargo Fortress and the surrounding hills to their original magnificent form.

In the movies, novels, poetry, and drama, this is a tragedy that will cause sadness, when you had to spend your money needlessly.

Just thinking about the whole cost of reconstruction of the whole fortress can make your nose bleed.

Compared to Morata, the development is not bad.

Reconstruction work done in some sites of the fortress that started earlier were already completed. The users usually concentrated in this area especially, the area with a romantic scene.

There are also some users at the gate waiting for their fellow users to go hunting.

- The lord is back, kya kareu (again, those fairies )

- He is back?

- Troll, he is the troll! My lover from Roseinheim Kingdom.

Fairies came out and started playing around Weed’s collar. Multiple fairies are surrounding him.

Yurin raised her fingers and played with three to four of the fairies.

"First, I need to meet the Geomchis.”

Weed visited the usual place where the Geomchis have their meal.

The Geomchis were preparing food in the shade of the buildings that were under reconstruction.

"I had a good meal thanks to you humans."

"Yes, thank you for the good food, but it'd be even better if there were some beer.”

The barbarians and dwarves were acquainted with the Geomchis.

Dwarves and Barbarians in the fortress get along very well. As a matter of fact, they have a lot in common.

Geomchi’s skill of swordsmanship is worthy of dwarves respect. Because of their similar tough physique and high strength like the Barbarians, they quickly become hunting companions.

"There are quite difficult monsters to kill...."

"I will go and cut down the monsters."

"Warriors that complete the dungeons will be recognized as town champions. It is going to be an amazing honor to any man."

"Dungeon, I’m coming!"

From hunting and killing, Geomchis and barbarians were really suited for each other.

Drinking beer and purchasing weapons from dwarves greatly increase intimacy between them.

The dwarves and barbarians consider the fortress as their home, since they are the earliest to come and stay there after the battle.

Including Pale,Romuna,Haryeong, Irene and Maylon, there were about 800 men altogether, ready to eat.

At that time, Weed and Yurin arrived.

"Geomchis! Are you never tired of eating?”

"Weed!"

"I will prepare for a grand dinner."

Weed made preparations for the dinner, not just because they were his Master from Donjang, but to show gratitude for fighting the undead army under Bar Khan.

"Geomchis, you will regret it if you don’t eat my food."

The real food situation in the fortress is, even if the whole Morata’s food production is given to these people, it wouldn’t be sufficient. But since the barbarians were very active in hunting, they brought back about 4000 kg of meat.

"I think this is enough. Everybody will get to eat about 5kg of meat."

Normal people can’t eat more than 1kg of meat. It Is because they are full or tired of chewing. But for Geomchis, they are ignorant. What they know is only to fight and eat. Nothing else matters.

"As the Lord, I'm wondering about the military status of Vargo Fortress.”

There are many people in the fort and are quite committed to the restoration construction.

Providing meals for them once in a while will make them happy and motivate them to work even harder.

"Region Information window!"

Vergo Fortress

The region once belonged to the Arpenian Empire. Until recently, the place was inhabited by the Undead Legion under the rule of Demoph Bar Khan. The fortress is/was most likely to be destroyed due to endless attacks of monsters. Under rule of Lord Weed, the recovery of Vergo Fortress is at a miraculous rate .

Military Force: 432 Economic Power: 268 Culture : 192 Technology: 71 Religious Influence: 67 Local Politics: 7 Influence on surrounding areas: 11% Influence of Nilfheim Empire: 2.9% (influence of the military, the economy, culture, technology, religion, population)

Other detail about the regionUrban Development: 33 Sanitation: 24 Public Security: 41%

Residents of Morata and other residents from the northern province believe in their lord. Outstanding achievements in development and restoration of houses, road, wall, etc. Major restoration and maintenance of Vergo fortress is finished. The region is still at risk from monsters. By repeated invasion of monsters, the combat experience of soldiers increase rapidly. The soldiers are excellent in archery. Because of the extremely dangerous security situation outside the fortress, residents are unable to start the production activity. Development of agriculture, cattle breeding and mining are recommended. As the facilities of the fortress are restored, quality of life and satisfaction is improved greatly. The monsters from outside cause wariness for the residents, but the residents believe in the sturdy wall of the fort for their safety. The trade in the region is conducted with fairies, elves, dwarves and barbarians. The tax collected is mostly from the trade. The land is lacking of art, culture and architecture. Local religion is Freya. The faith of resident is firm. Placing a shrine will promote religious activity.

Specialties: None.

Population: 6892

Monthly tax revenue: 24 978 gold. Region operational expenditures: Military: 47% Recovery and repairs operations: 34% Commissioned on Monster Subjugation: 19%

The development rate of Vargo far surpass Morata.

In a short time, the economy of Vergo Fortress is almost equal with Morata . With current progress, the economic scale will be even larger.

Even though different races have put up their markets here, there is still some problem such as poor public security and high difficulty hunting ground.

But if public security is high, people will come and the development will be even faster.

Weed thought it was a good opportunity to not just rule over one region, but two!

"That means more tax for me.”

Considering the fact that reconstruction of Vergo Fortress is still underway, the overall development is unbelievably fast.

By defeating the Undead Legion, he obtained a land with lots of rare buildings.

What’s more, when the wall reconstruction is finished, it will protect the residents from monster attacks.

"Lord Command!"

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As a lord, you can give and force commands on the residents.

Continuous forceful command will decrease loyalty and can cause public disorder.

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"Distribute the meats from the storage warehouse."

This will apply to the meat from all warehouses and storage-related buildings.

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Are you sure you want to distribute the meat stored for emergency to the residents?

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"Yes. Let them eat."

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Under Lord’s authority, the meat is distributed.

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The warehouse that stored the meats were opened. The residents came and grabbed as much meat as they want.

Most of the meat was piled up from hunting.

Weed alone took a pile of meat of about 20 meters height.

For ordinary people, they don’t take much because just eating can make them sick of it, but Geomchis, they are never sick of eating meat.

"Fsss, roasted meat..."

"Waah, I’m almost crying."

"As expected of Weed."

"The Lord thanks us for reconstruction on Vargo Fortress."

The people are very grateful.

Irene come to Weed and asked.

"Well, well, all meats from the warehouse were gone. So what is the food for tomorrow?”

"Enjoy the moment. Tomorrow we will figure something out."

"Huh?"

"There is famous saying: enjoy the present, leave tomorrow for tomorrow."

"......"

Of course, Weed just made that up.

Anyway, thanks to the distribution of the meat, a party took place in Vargo Fortress.

Merchants, together with adventurers who were planning to leave for hunting, set up fires and grilled the meat.

More than 10 thousand users who participated in repairing and reconstruction of Vergo Fortress came together. It is a rare sight, to see that many people set up multiple camp fires, eating together, and having fun.

Weed set up his food booth and quickly prepares all kind of meat-based dishes. He cooks in large amounts, one dish can satisfy about ten people.

Weed uses multiple large bowls. The users can smell his cooking.

“The dish smells good. His cooking skill must be very high indeed.”

" I’m going to marry a man that can prepare good food. Or at least make breakfast. "

"And Weed even finished his cooking in a short time."

Even though the dish is almost purely based on meat, the users can’t guess what will come out of Weed’s cooking.

Despite the instructors and practitioners impatience, the Geomchis behaved themselves and waited until Weed finished cooking.

By using multiple large bowls at once, with his expertise, Weed can prepare a large amount of food in a short time.

He also added the various fruit he got from Delia and fish he got from Zephyr.

It was too obvious, the users cannot hold their hunger any longer, if they got to see and smell Weed’s cooking. They are not actually hungry, they just had the desire to eat.

The users are drooling just by watching Weed and his cooking..

The user smelled the great aroma from Weed’s dish and when he added other spices, the smell got even better!

While waiting for their turn, they just watched other users who got the dish before them. And when they ate, the taste and aroma were irresistible. The ingredients are well mixed with each other, especially because Weed slices the meat very well.

The effect is like; this is the last food you will want to eat in your life!

Geomchis are eating with the noise of their fork.

"Lets eat!"

"Thanks for the food!"

And there, a meat festival is held in Vargo fortress.