Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 779 - 44 Alcmene’s Foresight_1

Chapter 779: Chapter 44 Alcmene’s Foresight_1

"There’s no leisure here at all, hiss, there are lots of game to deal with, we must rest in place for once, hiss hiss." Graneer explained: "Most of our children have taken their game and left, hiss. They will prepare their game near the water sources far from the camp, hiss hiss. Though we did this to bait the Marsh Stalkers, the harvest was unexpectedly good, hiss. With so much game, we won’t be able to go back to the tribe unless we deal with them."

"You all are rather carefree," Pannis said, "but be vigilant recently, the emergence of these three Marsh Stalkers is no coincidence. It might be related to a cult that worships the Grimreaper, Danacus. Besides undead mages in this cult, there’s just a bunch of undead. They’ve been wandering around recently, offering living creatures as a sacrifice to Danacus. Perhaps they have some designs against you. We have encountered these kinds of transformed creatures elsewhere. After their death, they undergo Undead Transformation rapidly, making them even more troublesome than when they were alive. I think, they too were brought here by the undead, though their motive remains unclear."

"The undead? Hiss, impossible," Graneer vehemently shook his head saying, "Absolutely impossible for it to be the undead, hiss, they can’t accomplish this, hiss hiss, anyone else is possible, anyone but the undead."

"Oh?" Pannis wasn’t displeased with Graneer’s firm denial. The old Lizardman, Graneer wasn’t a particularly stubborn fellow. If a dwarf had said this, Pannis might have attributed it to a dwarf’s stubbornness. But the Lizardmen don’t have this shortcoming, hence Pannis asked, frowning, "Can you explain why?"

"Hiss hiss, well..." Graneer hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Alright, hiss hiss, as you are eventually going to meet the High Priest, even if I don’t tell you, you’ll learn of it from the High Priest anyway. So, I shall tell you. It’s been a hundred years since the High Priest has left the swamp. Do you know why?"

"Does it have something to do with the undead?" An array of speculations surfaced in Pannis’s mind all at once, but none of them seemed plausible. Hence, he abandoned his conjectures and asked, "Be frank with me, what exactly has Alcmene been doing for the past hundred years?"

"The matters date back to the war a hundred years ago, hiss." Graneer’s voice seemed to be filled with nostalgia as he narrated, "When you all left then, the High Priest issued a call to arms through the Temple of the Hunting Goddess. Most of our people didn’t understand, they thought this had nothing to do with the swamp and that the undead wouldn’t be able to enter the swamp through thousands of kilometers high steep slopes of the Sighing Desert. Even if they managed to get into the swamp, they wouldn’t be able to reach our homes by going through the Southern Marshes. Yet, due to the High Priest’s high prestige, everyone responded to the call, formed a large Throwing Spear Troop, and joined the alliance composed of various races at that time. I remember they joined forces with fourteen mage corps from the Kingdom of Mages and defended the front line of the Country of Sand along with Falar’s legion of knights. It wasn’t my team, but I think I haven’t remembered wrongly."

"Yes, you remembered correctly. The Throwing Spear Troop was indeed steadfast at the front line of the Country of Sand." Pannis nodded and said, "But, how is this related to our topic?"

"Hiss hiss, it is related, of course." Graneer explained, "Although part of the hunters were dispatched, the High Priest did not disband the remaining hunters who were assembled but not sent to the expedition. Instead, because of his prestige, he managed to centralize and train them. To be honest, even I was skeptical and dissatisfied with his actions back then. After all, ever since the War of Gods, there was no precedent of a High Priest controlling military forces in our history. As it turned out, the foresight of the High Priest was unmatched by us."

"Oh? Did the undead come?" Pannis easily guessed Graneer’s point, "Directly into the swamp?"

"Yes, hiss. They climbed the Pandora Mountains, more than five thousand meters high, passed through the perilous Southern Marshes and directly appeared in the Northern Swamp." Graneer said with a sigh, "Thousands of years of peace made us dull. We thought it would be impossible for living beings to invade the swamp through this route. But we have overlooked a very crucial point, against our opponents, the undead, who lack divine wisdom and don’t know what fatigue is, no harsh environment holds meaning. Not a thing could halt them, thereby they managed to cross the Southern Marshes with ease. Even Jack could not obstruct their path."

"Who’s Jack?" A curious Lina whispered into Pannis’s ear, "Is he a swamp person too?"

"No, Jack is the mightiest lord of the Southern Marshes, a semi-divine nine-headed hydra." Pannis explained in a whisper too, "One of the few exceptions among magical beasts, belonging to a small group of magical beasts that possess wisdom. We had several friendly transactions with it in the past. The specific method was to first take the goods and then have a friendly discussion, then leave some goods we wanted to trade."

"Sounds like a robbery." Lina twitched her mouth, "Moreover, a robbery in the name of exchange."

"As long as you get the general idea, yes." Pannis solemnly nodded, no longer paying attention to Lina who was sneering at him with the whites of her eyes. He continued asking, "The entry of the undead must have inflicted considerable losses, isn’t it?"

"Sss, good thing the High Priest foresaw this," Graneer shook his head and said, "After the Undead entered the Northern Swamp, sss, my Lord sent out a remaining squad that had not yet disbanded to attack the enemy, ssssss, providing enough time for the various tribes to evacuate and play hide and seek with the enemy in the swamp, sss, allowing the environment and magical beasts to deplete the power of the Undead until your final victory, sss, the Undead lost their power and turned into dry bones. But even then, ssssss, many of our race still died in that war. "

"And then what happened?" Pannis inquired, "What did Alcmene do?"

"Worried about an imminent Undead invasion, sss, and about the Undead swallowed by the marsh restoring their strength, my Lord made a decision," Graneer’s tone was very reverent: "My Lord, using arcane methods and borrowing the power of the Goddess, ssssss, set up a boundary around the entire Southern Marshes. The boundary is specifically for the Undead, whenever death energy emerges, a warning would appear at the altar of the Temple of the Hunting Goddess."

"Sss, this kind of boundary is very powerful." Vivian unconsciously started to copy the lizards’ speech habits and said with their characteristics, "Even with divine power to help, sss-spat-spat, I mean, even with divine power, it’s still hard to cover such a large range."

"Sss, it’s indeed very hard," the old lizardman said with a flick of his tongue, "So it took the High Priest many years to complete it, ssssss, and even after completion, she was unable to leave the swamp because the newly built boundary is weakest for the first hundred years, sss, requiring constant maintenance."

"With her vitality?" Pannis’s face turned complicated, as if he had figured something out, he said in a low voice, "Perhaps, even her soul?"

"Sss, yes, perhaps her soul too." Graneer sighed deeply, "Why else do you think the High Priest is revered by everyone? And why do you think the High Priest aged so quickly? Ssssss, she’s just two hundred years old and already showing signs of age, sss, I’m guessing it’s because of the strain of maintaining the large-scale boundary. But, ssssss, it’s said that the boundary is now completely stable and no longer needs her to maintain it, which means, sss, that she is finally free, no longer bound by this cage woven with duty."

"What are you guys talking about? Sss." Galantis’s face changed, her tail almost stood up, her vertical pupil narrowed to a line, and she asked through gritted teeth, "What’s happened to mom, sss, and what about her soul, what’s going on."

"Don’t worry." Pannis patted the smooth top of the Lizard Lady’s head and comforted, "This kind of soul consumption is not fatal. Although it can weaken the soul, with enough rest, it can be restored."

"But, it will affect her lifespan, sss." Galantis’s voice took on a whiny tone, "No wonder mom always looks so tired, sob, I shouldn’t have left her these past two years."

"Don’t worry so much, remember, Alcmene is a master herbalist, she’ll have enough ways to solve her own physical problems. Trust me, if you don’t believe me, wait until you see her and ask her yourself, right?" Pannis stroked Galantis’s head, calming down the somewhat agitated Lizard Lady before continuing to ask, "So, as long as this boundary exists, any excessive death energy can be sensed by the temple side?"

"Yes, sss, that is the role of the boundary." Graneer confirmed, "That’s why I said that these three Marsh Stalkers could not have been brought over by the Undead, sss, they could never have entered the marsh unnoticed."

"That is strange indeed," Pannis stroked his chin, his eyebrows furrowed in thought and said, "This kind of modified magical beast is definitely related to those Divine Servants. Could they have found a way to avoid the boundary’s surveillance? Or did we overlook something in our assumptions?"

"Sss, I don’t know about that," Graneer said, "You might as well wait until you meet the High Priest and ask her directly, sss."

"Okay." Pannis nodded his head. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to qidian.com to recommend and subscribe. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)