Re: Evolution Online Chapter 244: Searching For Nothing?

Chapter 244: Searching For Nothing?

After a few hours of journey, Liam and Talon finally arrived at the easternmost parts of the kingdom.
Soon, they would be landing in the border regions, the rough location that the King had talked about.
"He couldn't have lied to me right?"
The image of the beautiful trap king of the Gresh kingdom floated across Liam's mind, as he pondered over this possibility.
His problem was that all the areas in this zone were filled with high-level beasts and dangerous entities. Not to mention everything roamed around in groups.
If he accidentally aggroed one beast, then all the others would respond as well.
So Liam really hoped that the trap King had told him the correct information and not led him astray.
Otherwise, he would have to waste a considerable amount of time here, fighting beasts and monsters above his level.
Not that he couldn't win somehow and preserve his life, but it would simply take a lot of time to do so.
Normally, quests would be straightforward at least in terms of location. However, he was in this predicament only because this was actually not the location of his own kingdom quest.
Rather he had come here following the clues he had obtained about Kouske's kingdom quest.
During their conversation, because of Liam beating around the bush purposefully, the King had let slip this small nugget of information.
Somewhere on this vast stretch of borderlands between the Gresh Kingdom and the Thunderbolt Kingdom lay a cave, a hut, or a burrow that contained the necromancy inheritance or at least clues to it.
It wasn't much but it was enough to go on.
Liam whistled, signaling Talon to drop him off here and hide in the nearby area. Flying from here onwards was a bit dangerous. They would be shot down if they were sighted.
Just like the Gresh Kingdom, the Thunderbolt kingdom was also a human kingdom.
However, unlike the Gresh kingdom, there were orcs that lived here along with humans. The humans living in these lands were also bigger, stronger, and barbaric.
People in other kingdoms, human NPCs, typically referred to them as barbarians and they ostracized and looked down upon the natives of this land.
The rumor was that the people living here originated from terrible brutality. In the past, when the orcs invaded these lands, they raped and plundered to their heart's content.
So the men and women living in this kingdom were considered as mixed-race and descendants of the orcs.
They also had stronger, taller, and thicker figures with several orcish features.
As the war continued on, slowly, the mixed-race community called barbarians started becoming more and the number of human beings reduced.
Eventually, some parts of these lands were occupied by the orcs and some by barbarians, and some sort of peace was established.
Afterward, a barbarian also managed to unify the different settlements, establishing the Thunderbolt kingdom. These people were powerful warriors and also nature brawlers.
They used nature magic like shamans to complement their physical strength and fighting methods. They were able to cast spells like mages and fight like warriors.
Their reproductive rate was also significantly higher just like orcs and demons so they had the numbers to boost their strength as well.
So using this upper hand, they managed to defend their kingdom all these years and held their own against several types of enemies.
And now Liam was near their territory.
Apart from vicious beasts in the borderlands between the two kingdoms, Liam also had to watch out for these barbarians. They were ruthless savages.
Because of his human-like appearance, if he ever got caught in their hands, he would be mercilessly raped and killed.
To make matters worse, they watched their borders like hawks manning both the land and the sky. They would never let anyone fly above their land and immediately shoot them down.
This was why Liam already dismounted Talon at a good distance and then started covering the rest of the land on foot.
He used the semi-epic ranked sword in his hand to cut through the thorns and brambles and traversed across the rough unruly terrain, searching blindly for any clues that could get him closer to the necromancy inheritance.
Liam had to admit. It was far easier to steal the fate of those who had stumbled upon lucky occurrences rather than others who had worked their way towards it.
Particularly this guy Kouske… He was like a leech, not letting go of what rightfully belonged to him.
Kouske had somehow managed to trigger the event, unlock the nether realm, and finally even got the kingdom quest.
The only thing that he lacked right now was overall strength and power which he would also inevitably obtain in a few days, sooner if he manages to capture a garrison as well.
He would then attempt this quest, probably with his team of super experts, and easily get the inheritance using which he will be able to command an army of undead.
He would once again stand at the top as he was destined to be.
Liam, however, had no plans to let him sail smoothly into the sunset to his destiny, becoming one of the great experts of their world.
He was determined to snatch away whatever belonged to Kouske. He had a perfect affinity to the nether, so if anyone was suited for this inheritance, it was him, not Kouske.
"I wonder what that guy's affinity is…" Liam quietly mumbled while his feet continued moving forward and his eyes searched the surroundings.
He had started at the far south of the borderlands and systemically moved towards the north.
Once he reached the other end of the border, then he would again be moving to the south, searching the entire border between the two countries systematically in a grid-like fashion.
This grid started away from the Thunderbolt kingdom, first searching the zones within the Gresh kingdom, and then he would have to slowly encroach and search the lands of the barbarians as well.
As far as he knew, the inheritance could lie on either side, so he couldn't take any chances.
Thus, Liam continued the slow painful grind, searching the border area between the two kingdoms.
At times, he felt as if he was searching for a needle in a haystack but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Powerful inheritances and priceless treasures were as rare as virgins after a frat party.
Thankfully, the frequent notifications continuously chiming in, announcing the steady increase of his experience bar helped him not lose his mind searching in this vast wilderness.