Super Righteous Player
Chapter 628 - 169: The Wine of Noxus_1

Chapter 628: Chapter 169: The Wine of Noxus_1

"...What, they’ve already left?"

Lin Yiyi asked unwillingly, "When exactly was it?"

"It was not long ago."

The dwarven bartender with braided, date-red whiskers wiped a glass while he slightly lifted his head to recall, "About two or three days ago..."

This phase of the main quest involved collecting intelligence on the grand map. It was a comparatively relaxed stage.

So the players formed squads of four, light and swift, embarking on a free journey across the entire Underworld.

They dispersed nightmares to level up and activate teleportation nodes, all while pursuing the captain of the Ship in Stone, Selicia.

The offline play group led by Lin Yiyi with four members---including Sì Ànmó, Jiu’er, and Xitan Pulan---was the first to obtain valid intelligence.

Because at first, they had simply aimed to activate the "southernmost teleportation node" and thus had reached the utmost southern part of the Dennisiowa Kingdom, below the "Haoyun Corner."

The Dennisiowa Kingdom is a large island nation.

Its southernmost point used to be called "Dragon Hunting Peninsula."

During the era of the Bloody Wars, it was blasted into the sea by a Gold-ranked destructive Wizard, leaving only a tiny northern tip intact. This happened to be a complete town with surrounding farmlands... Hence, the town was later renamed "Haoyun Corner."

Because the entire peninsula had sunk, nearly all of its residents died at sea or in the explosion... except for this lucky town that managed to escape unharmed, even miraculously without a single casualty.

This could definitely be considered "luck."

After the Great Barrier of the United Kingdom started operating, Haoyun Corner became the known southernmost part of the civilized world.

Among the four nations of the surface world, the United Kingdom is the "most fragmented" one while Winter is the most intact. Although Winter is just a duchy, its size is actually the largest.

Winter even borders The Holy Nation directly to the east, and it’s a mere 30 nautical miles from Frostwater Harbor to the southwest. This strait is also naturally formed---of course, back when the imperial capital was still around, it was just a river.

The reason Winter is only a duchy is merely that, after the sudden death of the emperor and the stability following the end of the Bloody Wars, the Grand Duke of Winter continued to adhere to the traditions of the duchy without seizing the opportunity to declare himself king.

Like the present Dennisiowa Kingdom, they also began as a duchy.

If the lands of the four current nations were put together, they would somewhat resemble the shape of a handle. Noah occupies the largest and most fertile land in the northwest corner and several fragmented islands in the east and south.

The United Kingdom holds the largest islands to the south of Noah, as well as a vertical "large island."

This large island is the Dennisiowa Kingdom.

The trenches that serve as the borders between Noah and the United Kingdom, and between Noah and Winter, weren’t natural nor were these the borders they initially circled out.

It was during the Bloody Wars that they were forcibly blasted out by destructive Wizards.

As the nation with the most destructive Wizards, the United Kingdom also suffered the most assassinations of destructive Wizards.

---Hence, they were the nation with the most fragmented territory.

The main part of the United Kingdom is the "handle" to the left of the "big handle." Many of those fragmented islands were blown directly from the main island.

The trench between them and Noah also wasn’t as wide in the past...

It was blasted wide by the Wizards from both sides bombarding each other. Some parts once belonged to Noah, and some to the United Kingdom. Dennisiowa people are best known for their transboundary bombardment warfare.

Dennisiowa people believe that yield solves all problems---if it doesn’t solve them, then it’s probably just because the yield isn’t high enough.

Destroying the Wizard’s core concept of "deterrence brings peace" is also typical Dennisiowan thought.

Even if not a Witch, the average Dennisiowan holds this belief.

Like the dwarf tavern manager before Lin Yiyi and her group—this was the first dwarf community that the players had discovered.

Although they now live underground, they still retain Dennisiowan tradition. For example, the dwarfs drinking in the tavern, as well as those with red hair, each carrying a gun... It’s downright terrifying.

In fact, although the underground kingdom isn’t subordinate to the section above ground.

Whether in terms of customs or traditions, the underground section clearly inherits from the city directly above it.

After moving from under the Winter Duchy to under Dennisiowa, the most noticeable change was the "gun ownership rate" surged by more than 300%.

In the Sporogenesis Mill, firearms exist only as a secondary weapon.

Because they are loud and not at all discreet... and with slow reloading, insufficient accuracy, and high risk of friendly fire, generally only supervisors use them—in their hands, the greatest function is to fire warning shots for deterrence.

But in the underground area of Dennisiowa—in a mid-sized town named "Saltpeter Ranch," the situation is entirely different.

Even the elderly and children here will certainly carry weapons, with firearms as the top priority... Even if not carrying a gun, they will still carry crossbows, daggers, and hand axes.

In Sporogenesis Mill, even if people carry weapons, they will hide them secretly. Everyone wears thick clothing to conceal how much wealth and how many weapons they have.

Yet here in Saltpeter Ranch, everyone would rather go bare-armed, openly displaying their guns and wealth.

Lin Yiyi even saw the man who made the Wizard slayer sub-plugin, "Eck Shattered," and special ornaments like those seen on The Unfallen Shield—big gold chains like mahjong tiles.

—Those were special products of the region.

There were even shops dedicated to selling these items. There were gold-plated styles, bronze styles, and of course, real gold ones—the different characters written on the mahjong tiles seemed to carry different meanings.

Like tattoos, they even indicated different statuses.

Depending on the level of status... the type available for purchase was different as well.

Dennisiowans seemed to believe that one’s wealth was also a form of power. They would show off all their power as much as possible.

The players even saw a peculiar type of clothing—with a gun pouch on the forearm, just to stuff a gun in there. Like a special mechanism in a spring-loaded sleeve, but on the outside instead of the inside of the arm.

And the proportion of Transcendents here was also noticeably higher... Of course, they weren’t sure if there were any who were "dressed up" as Transcendents mixed in.

According to Dennisiowan custom, such individuals would inevitably exist.

This custom even made Lin Yiyi and her group immediately identifiable as "outsiders" as soon as they arrived here.

At first, it made their progress difficult.

It wasn’t just a simple matter of shunning outsiders.

It was more serious... everyone was deliberately bullying the weak.

By the way.

The reason Lin Yiyi and her companions could enter the tavern safely to gather information... was mainly because Jiu’er had been completely infuriated by bandits who kept bothering them.

She picked up her axe, charged over, and with a single mighty slash, bisected three adult men trying to rob them. Then, unfazed, she took a close-range shot, countered with a crippling strike, and performed an amputation surgery below the eyebrows of the last man, a suspected bronze-tier Hunter.

—After that, their way was immediately clear.