Chapter 534
Goblins and Trolls
Eivass took the information provided by the trolls very seriously. He didn’t speak with them on the crowded street but instead led the trolls to a more secluded area. Considering that coffee was basically imported from the Southern Continent, Eivass didn’t take them to a coffee shop. Instead, he took them to a restaurant run by Star Antimony people, booked a private room, and ordered a large amount of roasted pork – half a pig in total.
The trolls were clearly flattered. Even in the Church, or among elves, trolls were not treated with much patience, let alone with equal respect.
“I know something about your history,” Eivass replied calmly to the stammering questions of the young troll priest. “I can trade with you. But it’s best not to try to deceive me.”
Of course, Eivass didn’t actually know much about the troll race. After all, players never ventured into the Southern Continent back then, and they were completely ignorant of the land where trolls and goblins were born. He did know troll history, but only their origins, and was clueless about their culture, customs, and politics – if troll civilization truly had such things.
For example, trolls and goblins were species born in the same era and in adjacent regions. These races, with their rough, thick skin like rhinoceros, prominent ears, and hooked noses, although some were extremely tall with fangs, and some extremely short with fine, flat teeth, were essentially close relatives. Even their birth had the same cause: the “Creation” by the Beast Lord. Trolls were beastly races created by the Beast Lord to imitate giants, and goblins were beastly races created by the Beast Lord to imitate dwarves.
The Path of Love had the ability to create, like a womb nurturing life. Witches created werewolves, Children of the Moon created new Children of the Moon, and the essence dripping from the moon could also create phantom demons known as “yokai.” The original fairies were sprites born from mountains, lakes, and forests. When the Path of Love was still called the Beast Path, the Beast Lord also possessed such an ability. He had created at least a hundred species of beasts – the first twenty, created with great care, were called “Noble Breeds”; the countless strange and grotesque ones in between were called “Inferior Breeds”; and the last twenty were simple imitations of existing species. Today, less than a tenth of these created species remain, but a few still survive.
The Southern Continent was the Beast Lord’s “culture dish.” He threw all his creations together. After the “forbidden fruit,” they completely lost control. After a hundred years of extreme chaos, they each occupied a territory. In the melee combat of low-level extraordinary beings, physique often played a decisive role in combat power. The nearly five-fold height difference between trolls and goblins meant that the possibility of goblins resisting trolls was even smaller than humans resisting giants. However, goblins were intelligent, so they were recruited as slaves by the trolls… The current troll language and various sacrificial rituals all came from goblin creation.
Soon, these more intelligent and cunning goblins learned to navigate. They escaped the Southern Continent controlled by trolls and scattered to various continents. Through trade, research, and the theft and imitation of other races’ skills, goblins quickly grew and became a force to be reckoned with. Most importantly, goblins and trolls had one thing in common – their bloodlines were highly infectious. Regardless of mixed blood or gender, children born to goblins were goblins, and children born to trolls were trolls. It often took eight to nine generations of continuous bloodline immersion to gradually dilute some of their racial characteristics. This obvious commonality made the goblins scattered around the world unusually united.
Logically, trolls were an optimized version of giants. The Beast Lord deliberately reduced their size and strengthened their vitality so they wouldn’t compete for food. However, the optimized trolls took a completely different path from the original giants… they became complacent. Because of their powerful physique, rough skin, vitality so strong that they wouldn’t die even with their heads cut off, their ability to kill all wild beasts with their bare hands, their immunity to most poisons, and their innate mastery of “witchcraft” and “curses,” trolls were basically immune to most diseases, fearing neither rain nor insects whose bites couldn’t penetrate their skin. And such a terrifying race lived in large groups.
With such a powerful race in fertile tropical rainforests, they had no natural enemies. Because of this, trolls didn’t understand farming, building, or animal husbandry. Their only means of obtaining meat was through hunting. Since the tropical rainforest was rich enough, it could easily sustain these trolls. Thus, after more than a thousand years, trolls had never gone extinct on the Southern Continent, but their civilization remained at a primitive societal level.
However, the goblins returned. Through more powerful technological products, trained path abilities, and accumulated wealth, they took over the Southern Continent and became the trolls’ masters. But goblins did not have their own nations, so their actions were not unified… Some goblins traded with troll tribes for fragments of ancient technology, while others robbed or deceived them. It was the same with plantations and troll trade; some trolls were forcibly captured, some were sold by their own kind, some left voluntarily, and some were innocently deceived. To this day, a few powerful troll tribes still lurked in the depths of the Southern Continent, generally hostile to goblin merchants.
And the trolls who were clearly not slaves but could learn human languages could only be from the priestly class within these troll tribes. If they could see the wanted poster and obtain a blood-stained pursuit mark, it meant that the one who attempted to hunt Eivass came from the Southern Continent – from that barbaric land filled with terrifying beasts, and even monsters that had not yet become extinct, inhabited by goblins and trolls.
…It seems that after the Beast Lord abandoned the trolls, some trolls turned to Bear Heavenly Envoy? While waiting for the starving trolls to devour their meal, Eivass propped his chin and pondered. It was reasonable. For this race lacking wisdom and accustomed to violence, it was not surprising they would believe in the Supreme Heaven that ruled the path of power. After all, even elves rarely proselytized in the Southern Continent. Eivass even doubted if trolls knew that there were nine Pillar Gods, and that Bear Heavenly Envoy was no longer part of the Supreme Heaven…
Soon, the three trolls were full. These three strong beings, with an average height of over two and a half meters and bulging muscles, were full after eating only half a pig, having seemingly starved for a long time… And the pig wasn’t even that big. Of course, there was also a possibility that they dared not eat too much in an unfamiliar environment for fear of losing vigilance; on the other hand, it also showed the traces of modification from the Beast Lord. Compared to giants, trolls required far less food than giants of comparable proportion.
“Can you tell me now?” Eivass rested his right hand on his staff and said leisurely, “What do you want me to do? Why must it be me? — Also, about the wanted order for me. Remember to tell me everything.”
“We came to the Church to rescue my grandfather,” the dark-skinned troll replied. “He was captured.”
“Your grandfather?” Eivass became slightly interested. “Was he captured by the boss of that shop we just passed?” According to the hereditary characteristics of the priestly class, his ability to learn human languages meant he was at least one of the first children of a High Priest. Therefore, his grandfather should also be a former High Priest. How could such a powerful extraordinary being be captured by goblins? They had just intercepted Eivass at the entrance of the goblin shop… Could it be that they had been lurking at the entrance of this shop, wanting to say something but not daring to enter?
“Not goblins. Humans.” The troll emphasized. “It was… humans.” He gestured, pointing to Eivass, then to the diners outside. Then he picked up the stone and said intermittently, “This… he also gave us. Asked us to curse you. He’d return my grandpa. He… didn’t keep his promise. He took my grandpa away and brought him to the Church. Someone told me. We’re smart, we didn’t curse. Father said… forget it. I said I wanted him, I wanted him, so I followed.” After communicating with him for a while, Eivass gradually understood. A famous powerful man in their homeland ventured deep into the Southern Continent and captured an old priest. Then he gave the blood of Eivass to other ritualists in their tribe, asking them to curse Eivass in exchange for the old man back. However, these trolls were not entirely foolish – especially the priests; their ability to learn multiple languages indicated they had some brains. His father dared not provoke that human and didn’t plan to get him back, but he was stubborn about rescuing his grandfather and sneaked onto a cargo ship to stow away. He jumped off the ship and swam over when they were almost there. They had originally intended to rescue the person themselves, but these three trolls were young. After arriving in the Church, they couldn’t speak to the locals, couldn’t understand the landmarks, and had no idea where the person was. So they decided to hunt Eivass… Since Eivass was the enemy of that man, he might know his whereabouts. Eivass’s evaluation was: a little bit of brain, but not completely, but still some.
“…Could it be remnants of Noble Red?” Eivass narrowed his eyes and muttered. “Humans… humans who serve Bear Heavenly Envoy?” In the eyes of giants, humans were food. Would that bear truly have human believers…
(End of this chapter)
