Chapter 382: Dark Tide Fishmen |
"I... I don't know what you're talking about."
"No matter, I'll help you remember slowly." Mogu gave a faint smile, the corners of his mouth curling up to reveal dense, sharp teeth.
"Were they the ones watching us just now?" Qin Ziwen walked over from the side, glanced at Mogu's appearance, and smiled.
"Judging by their looks, they seem a bit like fish-men." Mogu lifted the small dwarves in his hand.
In his grasp, these two little dwarves seemed to have given up resistance, their hands placed flat at their sides, their expressions sorrowful.
Qin Ziwen brought the torch closer.
Under the torchlight's illumination, he noticed faint, dense white scale patterns behind the ears of the small dwarves before him. The connecting areas between their palms and webbed feet had structures similar to fish-men.
Mogu wasn't wrong; these little dwarves really were fish-men.
To be precise, they were a subspecies of fish-men.
The dwarf on the right, however, hurriedly begged for mercy: "I'll tell you everything, I only ask that you spare my life."
The dwarf on the left turned its head in disbelief.
"Noble fish-man lord, if I speak, I will be a traitor to my tribe. There will be no place for me in this world. I only ask that you, my lord, can take me in." The dwarf on the right said without hesitation.
Mogu simply said, "That depends on whether your answers are worth it."
"Traitor!" The dwarf on the left cursed angrily.
The dwarf on the right lowered its head, its expression unclear: "Lantu, your brother is the captain of our tribe's hunting team. Your grandfather is a tribal elder. You don't understand; you've always eaten better food than me since childhood. You can die for the tribe, but I won't."
"They are humans, we are fish-men. Given what we've done, Lanxie, do you think they will believe us?" Lantu said bitterly, suddenly feeling his companion was somewhat unfamiliar. He had known him for decades yet had never seen his true face.
Lanxie said, "Isn't the lord who captured us a fish-man? Lantu, you, like the other tribesmen, hold too deep a malice towards humans. In truth, there is no real enmity between us and humans or other non-human races."
Qin Ziwen spoke with interest: "Can you control these giant leeches?"
"Noble lord, could you ask the other lord to put me down? His hand is too heavy; it's making it hard for me to breathe." Lanxie smiled bitterly.
Mogu placed the fish-man in his hand on the ground.
Lanxie landed on the ground, rubbed his chest, took a long, deep breath, and then said, "Lord, in truth, we cannot control these giant leeches. What we can do is guide them. These giant leeches have a leader. We control their leader, and then through the leader, we command the leeches."
Qin Ziwen thought of the Giant Aphid Rhinoceros Beetle and its Belly Aphid Spiders, and those swarms of Black Beetles.
In this underground world, it seemed many creatures lived in group-based societies.
"Then make these giant leeches stop attacking."
"Can't stop them." Lanxie shook his head. "These giant leeches have very low intelligence. They can only understand very simple commands. Like this attack, the role of Lantu and me was to guide them forward. That's also why we only attacked this human settlement and didn't assault two places at once."
"What are their weaknesses?"
Lanxie said, "They fear fire, and they also fear Green Salt. The Green Salt stone mine is above water. Your tribe has many weapons made from Green Salt stone."
"Traitor!" Lantu glared furiously. He still wanted to speak, but Mogu flicked his finger, striking the back of Lantu's head. Lantu instantly fainted.
"Alright, now we won't be disturbed. Continue, I'm listening." Qin Ziwen looked at Lanxie.
This insect disaster was originally thought to be a natural calamity, but it turned out to be man-made.
Fish-men were behind it, guiding it.
He had to figure out the origins of these fish-men and what other cards they held.
Otherwise, if their target became his residential complex next time, it could be very troublesome.
"How can we stop this insect tide?"
"Get the Giant Leech King to come, stop those leeches outside that haven't entered yet, and then kill all the leeches that have entered the settlement. As long as enough leeches die, they will become fearful."
Qin Ziwu couldn't help but say, "Didn't you say they have low intelligence?"
Lanxie sighed. "Low intelligence, so they fear death when they face it."
Lanxie recounted his origins.
After listening, Qin Ziwen gained a deeper understanding of these fish-men.
This was a fish-man tribe living in the underground caverns. They called themselves the Dark Tide Fish-men.
These two were ordered to come here to hunt humans who had descended into this world.
The fish-man tribe lived further beyond the southern underground lake, a distance of two earth-hours from here.
Earth-hour was the time unit of the Dark Tide Fish-men. Because they lived underground, they divided time into four earth-hours based on the frequency of the earth's core vibrations, constantly cycling: initial hour, middle hour, later hour, and final hour.
Based on comparison, one earth-hour was roughly equivalent to three hours.
"Six hours on foot... indeed not close, but not far either."
"When did you discover us?"
Lanxie said, "Our tribe sends tribesmen out hunting every day. There are many tributaries and hidden passages in this underground area; there's no place we cannot find.
Actually, besides here, we discovered another human settlement. According to the tribesman who returned to report, after finding the other human settlement, he located a Black Beetle nest nearby and sprinkled yellow powder into it. If nothing unexpected happened, after being disturbed by the yellow powder, the Black Beetles would riot, attacking nearby creatures indiscriminately."
Qin Ziwen's face remained expressionless, but he secretly made a mental note.
So the Black Beetles were also man-made disasters.
No wonder the Black Beetle attack came so suddenly; the residential complex was attacked not long after landing.
"Lord, I know what you want to ask. Actually, I don't know why the tribe ordered us to attack humans either." Lanxie paused, then continued: "However, I do know that every so often, we need to deliver all the ore mined during that period to the water cave behind the tribe. That place is a tribal forbidden area; we are forbidden from entering.
Also, over the years, our tribe has destroyed quite a few human settlements, but all those settlements ultimately vanished completely."
Qin Ziwen finally asked: "If you don't return, what will your tribe do next?"
Lanxie was silent for a moment, then said sincerely: "Lord, if tribesmen sent out on missions fail to return for a long time, according to the tribe's usual practices, they will investigate the situation thoroughly, then mobilize the entire tribe to destroy the enemy, leaving no survivors."
Lanxie took a deep breath and continued: "Moreover, the tribe possesses many things more terrifying than giant leeches. Giant leeches are just one of the tribe's weapons, specifically used to deal with enemies near water bodies. Keeping me alive, my lord, I can be of greater use."