The Shepherds Are Dense – Chapter 611

Chapter 610
Where to Go
Whom to Kill
How Many to Kill?
Eivass woke up to a series of rocking motions and clear musical notes.
…It felt as if he were on a ship.
Eivass felt a slight headache…
It even reminded him of the feeling he got waking up the day after a hangover in his past life.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw he was lying on a dry and simple bed. Sunlight streamed through the window onto the blanket.
—The thin cotton blanket was covered with a pure white silk of elven style, without any decorations. The room he was in was small, perhaps less than ten square meters. Besides the bed he was lying on, there was only a wardrobe and a desk with cabinets.
Documents were pressed down with a stamp on the desk, and various small ornaments were placed on the cabinets.
A reddish-brown crystal cup, with a rough texture like bark and seemingly for drinking water; a palm-sized golden music box, its lid open, revealing a small figure made of rubies dancing intricately… the song was coming from this. And a square piece of white crystal, inside which was a short animation like a “photo” or a “golem” preserved in the crystal shard.
Eivass first closed the music box, which seemed to be acting as an alarm clock. Then he extended his rough yet powerful right hand and picked up the “dynamic photo.”
The protagonist in it was undoubtedly a youth with a brilliant smile and bright golden hair.
He draped his arm around the neck of his female companion, embracing her intimately like “good buddies,” and gave a thumbs-up to the “camera,” seeming to say something. His hair sparkled in the sunlight, and his pupils shone with a blue-green radiance like turquoise.
His ears were pointed and long. Among all the elves Eivass had seen, his ears were at least as long as those of the “Pure White” Saintess or Cardinal Matilda.
The female companion he embraced had long, straight black hair.
She had ominous scarlet pupils, which, when hanging down, obscured half of her eye, giving her a rather gloomy aura. But what caught Eivass’s eye the most were the two long dragon horns on her forehead.
They were curved dragon horns similar to Lixia’s.
【This is me… and Fafnir】
A thought popped into Eivass’s mind.
Is this… me?
Eivass paused slightly.
—Wait, is this really me?
Self-doubt was like a sharp blade, prying open a small crack in his memory.
And like the egg liquid flowing out after an eggshell is cracked, Eivass instantly remembered everything.
Did this Ascension Ritual even have a waiting room? Was he just thrown in here with his eyes closed?
…Ah, right. This was a solo queue this time.
If there’s no dungeon to wait for, then there’s no need to wait for everyone in the waiting room. And this time there was no “Host” at all, because the Lord of Scales and Feathers was presiding personally…
Only after realizing who he was did Eivass finally hear the ritual announcement from the Lord of Scales and Feathers.
Unlike the hoarse and unpleasant voice from Eivass’s first Ascension Ritual, this time the Lord of Scales and Feathers used a voice that was mysterious and mature, just like when He appeared before Eivass:
“You are Helchin Dragonflame, the renowned White Knight.”
“As a ‘Mediator,’ you walk through human kingdoms, acting righteously and judging right from wrong by your own will. Your name has spread far and wide with the wind, and humans respect you greatly.”
“But one day, a person you brought to justice shouted, ‘If you like meddling so much, why don’t you go deal with the Giants? They eat more in a day than we kill in a month!'”
“—You know what Giants are. They are the favored children and blood descendants of the Supreme Heaven of the Pillar Gods, born powerful, beings who can wrestle with dragons.”
“That barbaric and warlike race does not revere the Nine Pillar Gods, but only the Supreme Heaven. They determine the order of the Pillar Gods by force and regard the Supreme Heaven as the most powerful supreme god.
“The Supreme Heaven is also the most violent Pillar God, and for thousands of years, only He has personally punished the disrespectful. But because of this, some people do regard the Supreme Heaven as the ‘one true god,’ which is one of the main difficulties in the evangelism of the Church of the Nine Pillars God… because only the Supreme Heaven frequently displays miracles, known to all races.”
“But you also found this matter very tricky. Because Giants are very powerful; they can almost reach the Fifth Tier after adulthood. Giants are not gregarious creatures, yet they possess the terrifying ‘Skinless Ones.’ Even the Pope’s Guards, in pairs, can hardly contend with one Skinless One.
“Although this matter involves a Pillar God, Giants, and a formidable enemy—you believe that this matter is unavoidable. While some humans eat snake people, bird people, and lizardmen, only Giants take this kind of consumption for granted.
“—And as you investigate, you discover with outrage that besides humans, the Giant’s diet also includes elves. To be precise, Giants eat all races, even their own kind. The conquered become slaves, the defeated become food, and to Giants, slaves are reserve food. If Giants were not trapped by the infinite food of the ‘Demon Cauldron’ and gathered in Avalon, they would have become a race that brings endless disaster.
“Therefore, you decide to bid farewell to your pregnant wife and embark on an adventurous investigation on Avalon Island with your retinue. Your wife is also your mount, Fafnir, a dragon. As a ‘Dragon Knight,’ you have lost your mount, so your strength will be greatly diminished; thus, you temporarily requisitioned a Pegasus as a combat supplement.
“These retinue members are not your subordinates, but friends who were moved by your righteousness during your past chivalrous deeds and voluntarily followed you. Their races include elves, humans, lizardmen, snake people, goblins, and even dwarves—a total of forty-eight people, who arrived at Avalon with you by boat.
“And one of your secrets is… you are actually a born prophet who can receive fragments of the future from dreams. When you arrived at Arctos and woke up from a dream, you already learned… that you would die here this time. And the Giant Priests also saw this future, and they will come to capture you.
“What will you do?”
As the Lord of Scales and Feathers finished his announcement, the Lord of Scales and Feathers’s mission appeared before Eivass.
【Mandatory Mission—】
【Continue to play as Helchin Dragonflame without anyone seeing through or exposing you (Points: 100)】
【Survive (Points: 100)】
【Bonus Mission—】
【Giant Slayer: Kill a Giant of a higher tier than yourself (Points: 100)】
【Giant Butcher: Kill all Giants at the ‘breast,’ ‘sirloin,’ and ‘rib’ gathering points (Points: 500)】
【Great Enemy of Giants: Go to the Shrine and kill three Giant Priests of ‘cervical vertebra’ level or higher (Points: 500)】
【Giants Must Die: Collectively kill one hundred Giants (Points: 500)】
【Skinless and Heartless: Go to the Royal Court and kill a Skinless One (Points: 1000)】
【Wildfire Burns Again: Go to the Shrine and kill a ‘Skull’ level Giant Priest (Points: 1000)】
【Hatred of the Royal Court: Go to the Royal Court and kill or gravely wound the Giant King (Points: 2000)】
【Blasphemer: Go to the Royal Court and dismantle the Sacred Statue of the Supreme Heaven worshipped by the Royal Court (Points: 2000)】
“Holy crap!”
Eivass exclaimed in surprise, “Boss is awesome!”
In all the time he had been in this world, he had never seen such clean, simple, and straightforward mission requirements.
—Where to go, what to kill, how many to kill.
Nothing else, completely empty.
He finally understood why the Lord of Scales and Feathers was so confident that this Ascension Ritual would lure the Bear Heavenly Envoy.
The person Eivass was playing this time was none other than the elven hero “Sir Helchin” whom he had seen in Eagle Cape Village before, who later turned into the King of the Wild Hunt after death!
He was probably the most hated person by the Giants.
In a sense, he was the first person to question, “Why can man-eating Giants exist?”, the first to ask, “Even if it’s always been this way, is it right?”, and also the first to attempt to overthrow the rule of the Giant Royal Court. It was from him that humans began to realize that “Giants were actually resistible.”
Before this, humans had only regarded Giants as a race of gods that must be revered and propitiated with their own kind to avoid destruction—even Evil Gods were still gods.
This Ascension Ritual was all about killing Giants and nothing else. No puzzles, no intellectual battles, and no pitfalls based on role-playing—although he had to maintain the role-play, if he just ran away, Helchin’s retinue wouldn’t be able to catch him.
But… I have a small problem, Boss.
Eivass re-examined the mission, a trace of doubt about his new boss’s plan appearing.
…Are we just fishing like this?
Won’t the Bear Heavenly Envoy know that something is wrong?
Can this really lure him?
Update complete, meow!
(End of this chapter)