Volume 3: The Crypt Chapter 9: Exogenous Linguistics
The Forest Tomb is a huge underground mausoleum, where the remains of warriors who fought against the last king Darendil and his powerful army two hundred years ago are buried. The hard granite is carved into two huge statues of sword-wielding warriors, who stand opposite each other and cross their swords in the air, forming a magnificent tomb gate. Behind the gate is a bottomless endless darkness. The extremely dim color seems to tell people who intend to enter the mausoleum: once you cross this gate, you will come to the land of eternal night controlled by the god of death, Tefli Milans.
Perhaps it was because the darkness in the mausoleum was too deep that my eyes could not adapt to it for a while. The moment I walked into the gate, I seemed to feel that I was passing through a huge curtain that could condense light. The scenery outside the gate and the darkness inside the gate became distorted in an instant, as if the space here was torn into pieces by a huge force and then pieced together again.
Although I just stepped through a door, I felt as if I had just passed through a long tunnel and came to a strange place that had nothing to do with what I had just experienced.
We followed the five people of Lifelong Persistence in Dreams into the mausoleum. When we passed through the gate, he was two steps ahead of me. I could grab his cloak with one hand. But once we entered the mausoleum, there were only five of us left, and there was no sign of the other adventure team.
"Hey, where are the five of them?" I asked in surprise.
"They are in another copy." Changgong Sheri said to me.
"Another one?" I was even more surprised. Can you imagine? Two groups of people walked into a door almost at the same time, but just because they were one step faster than us, they ran to the "other" place.
"You don't know what a 'copy' is, do you?" Seeing my ignorant expression, Chang Sanjiao looked at me as if he was admiring a rare animal.
I shook my head humbly and honestly.
"I'm really impressed by you. You actually come here to play without even knowing this. Sometimes I even doubt whether you are actually from Earth."
Earth? There doesn't seem to be such a region marked on my map. If we classify it by country, I am undoubtedly a Dramian, not a "Earthling" as the Yangtze River Delta calls it. So...
I shook my head again firmly.
Strangely, this completely normal reaction of mine seemed to completely frustrate Chang Sanjiao. He raised his hands and made an exaggerated gesture of giving up : "Okay, I'm defeated by you. This joke is not funny at all."
Finally, it was Changgong Sheri who told me that each adventure team would enter many identical copies, and the teams would not come into contact with each other until they walked out of the copies.
The dwarf priest explained it very clearly, and I understood it all at once. It turns out that the so-called "copy" is just a high-level, large-scale space magic.
The mausoleum was not as dark as it looked from the outside. There were many magic lamps hanging on the walls. Although the lights were dim, they were enough to see the scene inside the mausoleum: a huge screen wall faced the gate. Due to the passage of time, the oil paint on the screen wall had fallen off a lot. Many places seemed to have been smeared with large pieces of blood plasma, exuding a layer of dried dark red, making the whole painting mottled and gloomy, revealing an unspeakable gloomy feeling. On both sides of the screen wall were two side doors leading to the deeper part of the mausoleum.
On both sides of the hall between the screen wall and the gate, there are two rows of stone coffins neatly arranged. It seems that the sarcophagi have been moved by someone. The moss and dust on them have been smeared together, and the spider webs on them have been torn and are hanging on the edges of the coffins.
"Be careful, these coffins are full of vampires, they will crawl out as soon as we get close." Having experienced many life-and-death experiences here, Chang Sanjiao reminded us with lingering fear, "You wait here, I will slowly lead them over. Jeff, get ready to come up and fight the monsters; Krado, put up the totem first." At this point, he gave the Tauren Shaman a special inquiring look, signaling him to be ready.
The minotaur looked hesitantly at the sarcophagus lying beside him, then looked at Chang Sanjiao who was gesticulating, as if he wanted to say something, but he said nothing and nodded with a slightly hesitant expression.
The Yangtze River Delta naturally took his reaction as meaning "I understand" - what happened afterwards proved that this was just a regrettable misunderstanding.
Just as the Yangtze River Delta was hiding its body and preparing to sneak forward...
"Ah..." The Minotaur Shaman named Klado suddenly became violent as if he had been injected with chicken blood. He took out his two-handed battle axe from his back, roared and rushed to the middle of a pile of sarcophagi, and smashed a sarcophagus into pieces with the battle axe. A vampire wearing black armor, pale skin, holding a long sword immediately stood up from the broken sarcophagus and fought with him with the sword. Around Klado, more vampires also climbed out of the sarcophagi and surrounded the reckless Minotaur Shaman in the center.
Krado used his brave and fierce performance to prove that he was a pure-blooded tauren, and at the same time, he was an out-and-out fool. His heroic feat was so dramatic that we could only stare at him in amazement, and there was no time for us to stop him. I couldn't even believe that this was really happening - the tauren shaman had no reason to show off his power like this. If it weren't for everyone showing an expression of disbelief and astonishment, I might have thought it was a fanatical hallucination.
It was not until the Tauren Shaman's life was half gone that Chang Sanjiao barely closed his jaw which was almost dislocated.
"What on earth does this madman want to do?" The Orc Rogue raised his hammer and dagger in annoyance, and quickly joined the battle while complaining.
"Oh my god, today I finally met someone who is more powerful than me!" Even our usually reckless and warlike dwarf priest Longbow Shooting Sun felt ashamed of himself at Krado's wild fighting posture. He couldn't help but exclaimed and released a healing wave for the Tauren in time.
Despite their large numbers and fierce momentum, this group of vampires did not pose much threat to us. These creatures walking in the dark are born with an evil skill called "blood extraction", which is somewhat similar to the "blood sucking" of vampire bats. It can convert the opponent's vitality into its own, but the power is obviously much greater. If a group of vampires use this trick on an opponent at the same time, it can indeed cause a fatal threat in a very short time. However, apart from this skill, the attack and defense power of these monsters in close combat are very ordinary, which does not match their reputation as "violent" warriors around level 30.
Moreover, these guys seemed to have a natural fear of fire, and even the lowest-level fire magic "Fire Bullet" would cause them considerable damage. Fire spells with scorching heat were continuously fired from Black Aurora's hands, illuminating the path to destruction for these dark people.
However, although our battle was orderly, it did not mean that Klado, who was surrounded by a large group of vampires, could deal with it calmly. The wild performance of the Tauren Shaman at the beginning attracted most of the vampires around him. I guess this strong, juicy and fat cow is very suitable for the diet of vampires. These pale anemic patients unanimously chose Klado as the first choice for "blood extraction". One after another, red magic beams that draw life force greedily shone on Klado's body. At the most spectacular moment, Klado's body even had as many as eight beams. The life tank on his head was like a coastline at low tide, drying up rapidly at an amazing speed. The reason why he has not been beaten into beef jerky is that in addition to our ability to interrupt the spells of these vampires in time, his decisive self-rescue behavior also bought some precious time for his lingering breath.
It is well known that the most important magic props that shamans rely on are totem poles made by themselves. These wooden poles carved into many different images have extraordinary power in the hands of shamans and can provide them with various valuable assistance in battle.
Krado may not be a rational adventurer, but he is undoubtedly a competent shaman. He chopped a weak vampire away with his axe, and then stomped his hooves wildly, performing the life-saving trick of "war trampling", shaking the enemies around him. He took the opportunity to wave his hand and heavily inserted a totem pole into the ground. The ground in the mausoleum is made of huge bluestone slabs, which is very solid. He actually inserted the totem pole with one hand. If he didn't become a shaman and turned to the construction industry, I think he would definitely be a good hand at tamping the foundation.
The totem pole he inserted is called "Life Totem", which can restore the vitality of the user and his companions within a certain range. The trapped Tauren Shaman relied on this thing to survive many dangerous situations. I guess if conditions permit, he might insert this kind of totem pole all over the ground like planting crops, but the cooling time of the totem skill makes him live in a miserable situation with only one life totem at a time.
It is worth mentioning that the shape of this totem pole is obviously derived from certain allusions about fertility worship in shamanism. The tall and thick pole seems to symbolize the continuous inheritance of life. It is very appropriate to use it as a totem symbol of restoring vitality.
As expected of the Minotaur, who are known for their sturdy physique, I'm afraid only they are qualified to make their totems so huge and exaggerated. During the battle, I actually had this slightly inferiority complex in my mind.
However, even with the help of the life totem's restorative power, Krado's situation was still not optimistic. He was always in danger under the siege of many vampires. However, the tauren's reckless and belligerent nature made the shaman more and more courageous. He couldn't even contain his excitement. He raised his head with one horn broken and shouted loudly, venting his rough fighting passion:
"Hurry up and teach me, I can't stand it anymore..." (Hurry up and save me, I can't stand it anymore...)
I guess this kind of shouting sound is a unique national traditional custom of the Tauren race. It is completely different from any common language I have heard on the continent before. It is pronounced with unique flat tongue sounds and nasal resonance, which makes me fully feel the generous and high-spirited bravery of the Tauren shaman.
The reactions of the Yangtze River Delta and the Longbow Shooting Sun to Crado's heroic battle cry were unexpectedly strong. They were all stunned and looked at each other in confusion.
"Do you understand what he is saying?" asked Changgong Sheri.
"I can tell..." Chang Sanjiao thought for a moment with some hesitation, "...what he said...seems to be Cantonese, or Guangdong dialect."
"Nonsense, of course I know that's Cantonese. What I want to know is what exactly does he want to do?"
Chang Sanjiao shrugged with an idiotic look on his face.
The two people in silence...
After a moment, they seemed to suddenly remember something, and turned their heads to the Black Aurora who was casting a spell behind them, and asked hurriedly:
"Hey, do you know what he's talking about?"
Our magician companion threw out a powerful flaming spear, then shook his head innocently:
"Sorry, I don't know what he's talking about." (Sorry, I don't know what he's talking about either.)
Black Aurora's answer was brief and clear. Like Crado, he seemed to use the native dialect unique to the elves. Although the two languages have very different pronunciations and grammatical habits, for us, they have a very significant similarity, that is: we didn't understand a word!
"Oh my god!" Chang Sanjiao looked like he was about to faint.
"Pfft, Shanghai people!" Changgong Sheri seemed to have the idea of using his own head to test the strength of the mausoleum wall at this inappropriate time.
"What the hell are you doing? Why don't you come and save me? I'm running out of blood!" (What are you doing? Why don't you come and save me! I'm running out of blood!) At this moment, Klado called out again. At this time, I vaguely felt that things didn't seem to be as I imagined. Klado's call was shrill and panicked. It didn't sound like he was expressing his fanatical and heroic emotions, but more like expressing some more urgent wishes to us.
"I think..." I kicked away a vampire that pounced on me and expressed my opinion while panting, "...he seems to want us to rescue him quickly..."
"Hey, Jeffrey Ritz, do you understand Cantonese?" Chang Delta looked at me happily and asked.
This is the first time I know that the racial dialect of the Tauren is called "Cantonese", let alone "understand" it.
"I don't understand 'Cantonese'..." I shook my head, denying the Yangtze River Delta's guess, and then pointed in the direction of Klatuo and said to them: "...but...I can see...his situation seems to be very bad."
In the direction my finger pointed, the life tank on Krado's head was almost completely vacuumed. I didn't think these vampires needed to use any tricks of "blood extraction". Even a mosquito's slight bite would be enough to kill him.
"I'm so tired! You're killing me!" (Fuck you, you're killing me...) Just as I was pointing at Krado, a vampire cooperated very well and stabbed Krado in the butt with a sword. We only heard an inexplicable scream, and then we saw the mighty and strong body of the Minotaur Shaman finally fell limply to the ground.
