Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 305 - 17: The Stolen Item_1

Chapter 305: Chapter 17: The Stolen Item_1

The moment Pannis finished speaking, almost everyone’s eyes were fixated on him. However, he displayed a baffling attitude of ’why are you all looking at me’, that left everyone speechless. He was completely oblivious to the conscious mannerism expected of a Silver Rank professional.

"I need to consider this, I think we all need some time to digest what we have learnt today." Instead of directly addressing Pannis’s proposal, Teresa turned to the Duke of Winston, "Your Grace, could you allow everyone two days to consider? During this period, we can all collect information, consult survivors, inspect bodies and so on, without engaging in substantial actions. We will decide after two days."

"Absolutely." The Duke of Winston replied readily, "I have prepared accommodations for everyone’s rest. You all can..."

"That won’t be necessary." Muir interjected, shaking his head, "I believe, everyone would prefer to stay at the temple for easy exchange of information."

"Indeed." Teresa smiled at the Duke of Winston, "Thanks for your consideration, Your Grace. If you don’t mind, we would like to return to the temple first."

"Phew, finally the official business is over." Disregarding the pleasantries being exchanged around him, Pannis stretched out leisurely, "Let’s go, we should return too."

"You behaved exceptionally reliable today." Lina expressed her astonishment, "I am surprised you didn’t cause a ruckus during the meeting."

"Hey, I never mess around when handling serious matters." Pannis retorted, seemingly displeased.

"Yes, indeed, but never serious after finishing the matters." Just as Lina finished her sarcastic comment, she found that Pannis had already run away.

"Hey, Miss." Pannis approached Marcia who had just awoken from a doze. One of the features of the War God Church was the tendency to use muscles and fists instead of the brain for thinking. In the eyes of the War God’s believers, problems that could be solved with fists were no problems at all. If a problem could not be solved with the fist, one should strive to make it so, and then solve it. This was the thinking style of the War God Church and Marcia as a member was accustomed to this. So while everyone was attentively listening to each other speak, she could not understand anything and was dozing off. When Pannis woke her up, the first thing she saw were Pannis’s eyes, gently gazing at her as he leaned against a table, "Since you are so bored, how about I treat you to lunch?"

"You..!" Lina clenched her fists and approached Pannis, who she was glaring at from behind, "Just after you had been declared unwholesome, you have already started."

"Okay." A drowsy Marcia rubbed her eyes. Her face, usually radiant with wild beauty, was now displaying a rare dazed look, but hearing the words ’having lunch’, she immediately agreed.

"After the meal, how about we look for a serene place where there are no people, engage in some sweaty physical encounter and also talk about life and dreams?" Pannis drew closer to Marcia and suggested softly.

"Bastard, you better behave yourself and don’t cause trouble for our newly acquainted friend." Despite the urge to swing her fist at Pannis in front of everyone, Lina held back and whispered angrily at him. But before she could finish, Marcia’s eyes had already lit up.

"That’s great, you really are a passionate friend." Now wide awake, Marcia stared with her eyes wide open, bursting with excitement, "You not only invited me for lunch, but you also want to have a competition? Let’s go, right now."

"A competition? Wait, there seems to be a misunderstanding." Pannis, being pulled by Marcia towards the exit, interjected, "Don’t you advocate peace? Don’t you loathe fighting?"

"Competitions are just sports, not fights." Marcia responded matter-of-factly, "I used to play like this with the magical beasts in the wilderness. Back at the temple these past few months, there were no chances to move about, you saw my difficulty and proactively offered help."

"Wait, I didn’t mean that. Lina, Lina, help me explain please." Pannis, who was being dragged away, cried out to Lina, pleading for help.

"Sweaty physical encounters, huh." Lina sighed and shook her head, "You even dare to mention this to a follower of the War God Church. May your journey be safe, dear Mr. Pannis."

On the afternoon of the meeting, without waiting for anyone else’s decision, Lina was the first to dismiss the two Silver Rank helpers sent by the main temple. Despite the pair’s repeated protests that they were not afraid of danger and would rather die than leave, Lina flatly refused them. As Lina put it, if they really tangled with the Deities, even those of Gold Rank would struggle, let alone Silver Ranks like them. It was pure suicide. Whether or not they wanted to court death was their own business, but whether she wished to watch them die needlessly was her concern.

After dismissing their reluctant assistants, the two did not rush to commence their investigation. Instead, they leisurely spent the afternoon in the temple chatting with Cynthia, and in the evening, they dined with Muir and Marcia. According to Pannis’s thinking, these were two free helpers: one was too lazy to think for herself and would listen to anything so long as there were good relations and no ill intent, and the other was considered a friend. Of course, it was important to strengthen the relationship to avoid being isolated in the event of a sudden battle.

During dinner, only Marcia ate happily. Being part of the church’s combat department, she had a high monthly income, but she also had a large appetite. The food provided by the church was free but not tasty nor diverse. She always had to control her food intake to balance her expenses when she dined out. Hence, she was always unhappy. Now, having the opportunity to eat as much as she wants, she was determined to have her fill.

Of course, as an adult, Marcia, though pure-hearted and peace-loving, understood many things. She clearly recognized why Pannis and Lina were trying to strengthen their relationship with her. Not only Pannis and Lina, but also she as a representative, faced the same demands. Moreover, having lived in the wilderness for many years and constantly accompanied by magical beasts, she developed beast-like intuitions, feeling instinctively that there was no harm in being friends with the two. Therefore, she simply let her guard down and enjoyed her free dinner.

Marcia may have been enjoying her meal, but the other three did not focus their energy on the food. Instead, they continued discussing some newly acquired information. Even with Pannis’s vast experience and power, he couldn’t help but feel burdened when faced with issues related to the Deities. If he was still the strongest Demigod of the human race and if his comrades still consisted of the old team, he would not feel pressured against any opponent below deity level. But now, his comrades were Lina, and further away, Catherine and Vivian. If he really had to face those opponents whose power was comparable to Demigods and who possessed some divine characteristics, Pannis had no confidence that he could ensure everyone’s safety. Under such pressure, although he didn’t show it outwardly, he had already heightened his alertness level to the highest, trying every means to see the path ahead clearly and avoid excessive risks.

"I paid a visit to the survivor who woke up this afternoon," Muir said, looking worried. "Just as you predicted, I didn’t get any substantive information."

"That was easy to guess." Pannis shrugged, cutting the meat on his plate into thin strips as he spoke. "They’re just ordinary people, not professionals, so there’re many things they can’t sense. Things like the strength of the opponent’s rank, the intensity of Array energy, and so on. We can’t get to know these things from them. Visiting them would only yield information everyone already knows, so it’s completely unnecessary."

"Still, one thing is certain - the two people you mentioned at noon, the ones you encountered in the Shining Forest, and the two people you observed through the Eye of the Mage in the Crying Cave did not appear this time," Muir said. "This presumably indicates that the strength of their organization is even greater than we imagined. This time, they publicly claimed that the survivors were expelled after intense conflict. But in fact, the case was broken by a patrol team, the strongest of which was of the Upper Bronze Rank. But he was smart enough to promptly send out a distress signal representing the most urgent situation when he noticed something was wrong. According to the laws of the Duke of Winston, unless the distance to the surrounding towns is too long, over a hundred reinforcement troops must arrive quickly within ten minutes of the signal, with the reinforcement troops reaching at least five hundred within half an hour. It’s because they saw this signal that they did not have time to destroy the Array and confirm the death of all victims before retreating. Moreover, they didn’t retreat in a hurry. They completely ignored the patrol team hiding far away and calmly packed up all their things before leaving. According to the leader of the patrol team, there were only five enemies, but it’s very likely that they were two Legendary Ranks assisted by three Gold Ranks. If we include the Legendary Rank you encountered in the Shining Forest, the opponents in Neville’s force would have at least three Legends. It’s already a considerable force, and with our current strength, we cannot possibly win."

"So our primary mission is to investigate, not to fight head-on," Pannis said. "By the way, have you checked the bodies?"

"I have. I checked them after visiting the survivors," Muir said. "The victims had, in all regards - appearance, organs, bones, muscles, blood vessels - all aged."

"I see," Pannis nodded. "Then I’m afraid there might be some issues with your theory. What they had stolen wasn’t their lifespan."

"Why?" Muir asked. "What’s your reasoning?"

"Suppose if lifespan can be stolen," Pannis said. "If you were supposed to live until two thousand, but I stole one thousand and three hundred years of your life. In this case, you should die instantly, not age before you die. That’s because what’s being stolen is the lifespan you haven’t lived through, not forcing you to live through this lifespan quickly."

"Er..." Muir hesitated then said, "That makes sense, but if it’s not lifespan, what do you think it is?"

"I have an immature idea," Pannis said, recalling. "An old friend once mentioned to me, that in the First Epoch of the Deities’ Era, people were more proficient in Time magic."

"You’re saying what they had stolen was time?" Muir almost jumped up and exclaimed in surprise. "That’s even more impossible than stealing lifespan. How is time stolen?"

"Perhaps the Deities had a way? I’m not sure, that’s why I said it’s an immature idea," Pannis hesitated. "Maybe after a while, I might need to make a trip to the Kingdom of Mages, asking that old friend if such a possibility exists, or you could let Her Majesty the Queen inquire about it."

"I will try," Muir said. "Even so, I still find it unlikely."

"We’ll see when the time comes," Pannis stated. "Let’s deal with the recollection the day after tomorrow, then handle the following exploration work. Let’s hope there won’t be any surprises." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote, or offer a monthly ticket at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)