Volume 4 Chapter 31: Fantasy Continent
The next morning, Xiao Yi and I left Alexandria from the west gate and continued to advance inland to the west.
After running less than a hundred kilometers, a vast expanse of blue appeared before our eyes. This is the Aegean Sea, the birthplace of the splendid ancient Greek civilization and the site of countless beautiful and moving myths and legends!
In terms of the real map, this location is the junction of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, that is, the southern end of the Turkish Strait. Although Alexandria is already in the Western Continent, in terms of the continental plate, we still need to cross the strait to reach the other side of the real fantasy continent. There is a teleportation point in Alexandria that can connect with various inland cities, but since Xiao Yi and I are here for tourism, it is meaningless to take this shortcut. I asked Mohammed yesterday, and there is a ferry at the mouth of the strait. Xiao Yi and I naturally chose to take a boat to cross the sea and enjoy the charming scenery of the Aegean Sea.
In reality, this is a world-famous tourist destination, and it really lives up to its reputation! The sky is clear, the waves are endless, the blue water is clear and you can see the bottom. Under the water, countless colorful fish are swimming back and forth among the beautiful coral reefs. The beach is a moon-white sand beach, which is completely different from the yellow sand in the desert. The sea sand is delicate and soft. When you see it, you can't help but want to take off your shoes and taste the feeling of running freely on the beach. Waves of white waves rushed onto the beach, then slowly retreated, and the next wave of waves rushed up impatiently, making a sound of rushing. Standing on the beach, the whole person seems to be integrated into the sea and sky, feeling relaxed and happy, and the gentle sea breeze blows over, intoxicating.
There is a pier on the coast. Although it is crude, it is quite large. Dozens of people gathered on the pier. I think they are all travelers waiting to cross the sea. There are a few white sails in the sea, going or returning, which are the ferries. Xiao Yi and I came to the pier and asked about how to take a boat to cross the sea. It happened that a boat entered the port, so we followed the crowd and got on the boat.
This ship is also quite unique. It is extremely narrow and long, with a sharp bow that is good for cutting waves. There is no boat, and rows of seats are placed in the hull, which can only accommodate two people sitting side by side. However, there are fifty rows in front and back, which can accommodate hundreds of passengers. There is also an empty space at the rear of the hull to place the knight player's mount. The design is very reasonable. There is a round wooden mast erected on the bow, waist and stern of the ship. A triangular sail is opened on each mast to sail with the wind. The crew includes one captain, one helmsman, six sailors and two waiters, a total of ten people. From the shape of the ship, it looks very similar to the ancient Greek warship (that is, the deckless double-row warship used by Greek soldiers to cross the sea in the Trojan War), but this ship is single-layered and driven by sails instead of human oars.
With the help of Xiao Yi's translation, I talked about this topic with my fellow travelers with great interest. It turned out that there were no official ferries on the Aegean Sea, and these ships were all developed by the craftsmen among the players.
Western players are different from Eastern players. Many Western players do not enjoy fighting, leveling up, hunting for treasures, dominating, and competing for supremacy. They play games to pursue satisfaction that they cannot get in reality (in fact, killing monsters and PK also come from this mentality, but Chinese players are too focused on this aspect and are biased). For example, it is impossible for model enthusiasts in reality to build a big ship by themselves. Even if they are just making a model, if they want to make it more refined and larger, they need to invest a lot of time, energy, and money. But in the game, they find this kind of fun, designing their own ships, making them themselves, and driving them across the sea.
But even in Fantasy, it is not so easy to build a ship. It requires the cooperation of many people and many professions, such as designers, carpenters, blacksmiths, craftsmen, tailors, etc. At the beginning, they could only build things like canoes, but with the improvement of levels, the accumulation of experience and the acquisition of more advanced materials, they finally built a flying boat that can gallop on the sea. In Fantasy, the creations and inventions of this type of players also follow certain rules, from simple to complex, from small objects to large objects. In short, it is similar to reality, but the development of real civilization for thousands of years is condensed into a few years or months.
The ship we are on is called the Euclid Clipper. It has only been around for a week. It was developed by a player named Euclid based on the Caravelle, hence the name. Before this, the Caravelle was the first ship that could sail in the Mediterranean.
As I listened, I couldn't help but fall into deep thought. The differences between the East and the West are indeed huge!
In terms of intelligence, Eastern players are by no means inferior, but in the Eastern continent, the development of "technological civilization" is far behind that of the Western continent. There are also craftsmen in my Jinglei League, but so far they can only build small boats that can sail on rivers like Xianling River. Xiaoyi's Tianshui Pavilion is built on the East Sea, and they only have fishing boats that can fish near the coast. The reason for this gap is that on the one hand, there are too few Eastern players who choose non-combat professions such as craftsmen, and on the other hand, we lack large-scale cooperation.
The spirit of cooperation and exploration and innovation of Western players is something we cannot match and is something we should learn from. Their development is still limited now, and this kind of clipper ship is still far from a truly large ocean ship that can sail long distances. But since they have built ships that can sail on inland seas, soon their goal will be to turn to the vast ocean. If we don't work hard and catch up, will we have to experience the pain of being attacked and plundered by Westerners with their powerful ships and guns one day?
Seeing that I was silent, Xiao Yi guessed my worries. Not wanting me to be unhappy during the trip, she changed the subject and talked about the geography and customs of the fantasy continent. Soon I let go of my worries. There was no point in worrying now anyway. It was better to collect more information about the Western continent.
We were lucky, the wind was favorable and the clipper ship was sailing very fast. We reached the other side at noon. Everyone got off the ship and each person paid five gold coins for the crossing (a mount also cost five gold coins, so I paid a total of fifteen gold coins). Well, this ferry could earn thousands of gold coins from two round trips a day, so it was a good business.
Xiao Yi and I finally set foot on the land of the fantasy continent. We rode on unicorns and headed for our second destination after arriving in the west: the holy city of Athens!
In the afterglow of the setting sun, the Olympic Temple shines brightly. This is not the few ruins in reality. In the dream, the original appearance of the temple has been restored. The white marble building is full of ancient Greek art style, which makes Xiao Yi and I linger.
Xiao Yi and I stayed in Athens for two days, visiting many places of interest. We listened to the waves of the Gulf of Aulis and recalled the magnificence of the Trojan War in Homer's epic. We went to the Temple of Aphrodite to pray and ask the goddess of love to bless our love. We went to the Olympic Stadium to watch the gladiatorial performances by players dressed as gods and heroes in ancient Greek mythology... These were the two most romantic days of our honeymoon.
Two days later, we had to set off. After all, we couldn't leave the gang for too long, and there were still many cities in the Fantasy Continent that we hadn't visited!
On the way to Rome, we passed a mountain - Mount Erymantus. The mountain was not short, and there was white snow on the top.
But Xiao Yi and I have seen all kinds of mountains and ridges along the way. It is not difficult for us to climb this small mountain, so we did not take it seriously. We chatted and laughed as we climbed the mountain. We also encountered some monsters in the mountain, but we killed them! The types of monsters here may be different from those in the Cang Continent, but they are not necessarily stronger. With our skills, we can easily deal with them.
Unexpectedly, just when they reached the top of the mountain and were about to go down, they suddenly saw four figures on the snow, fighting fiercely around a huge wild boar.
The four people were a warrior and a dark wizard of the demon clan, both of them were men, and the other two were women, an elf thief and a priest of the gods.
I saw the wild boar charging left and right very bravely. The warrior was the main force among the four and blocked most of the wild boar's attacks. However, he seemed to have poor skills and attacked very slowly. It took him a long time to chop out a sword. Maybe he was a meat shield warrior.
But the dark wizard was also very weak. He fired three balls of hellfire, but none of them hit the wild boar, and instead hit the snow nearby.
The thief's attack power was not strong, so he waved a dagger in front of the wild boar, as if to tease it, but the wild boar was determined to attack the warrior and ignored the thief.
The sacrifice was fairly standard, with blessings, protection and healing spells added to the warrior in turn to help him resist the wild boar's fierce attack.
I saw that the four of us seemed to be unable to deal with this monster, so I rode forward a few steps and shouted, "Excuse me... Can I help you?"
Several people were fighting and didn't have time to answer me, but they were startled by my shouting. When they were distracted for a moment, the wild boar broke out and rushed towards Xiao Yi and me! We were shocked and didn't care about anything else. We immediately fought back. Xiao Yi used the Thunder Breaker, and a thick blue electric light shot directly at the wild boar's back, sparks flew, and the wild boar howled miserably, and a large area of fur on its back was charred. The wild boar seemed to have no intention of fighting with us. It turned 90 degrees and was about to escape from the side. I rode my horse to catch up, and the Tiger Soul slashed it with a knife, leaving a bloody mark on its thigh.
The wild boar was furious, and was provoked by me. It turned its head and bit me, and its fangs pierced my calf, deducting more than 500 HP from me. I was overjoyed. With such attack power, it seemed to be a D-level boss. How could I miss the prey that came to my door? The tiger soul shook, and the Hundred Splitting Thorns were released!
But just as I made my move, I heard a loud shout: "Don't kill it! Stop!" The voice sounded very anxious.
I was stunned for a moment, but the move had already been made and it was too late to stop. The man shouted a few more times. Although I could speak a little English, he spoke so quickly and urgently that I could not understand him.
Fortunately, there was Xiao Yi, a translator who was not inferior to me. She quickly whispered in my ear: "Stop it! This pig is related to the mission. You can't kill it!"
At this time, I had used up all my skills of the Hundred Ripping Stabs. After listening to Xiao Yi's words, I naturally stopped attacking with my sword. Fortunately, the wild boar was a type of monster with thick skin and long blood. It was not killed by my heavy blows, but was only seriously injured.
I saw those people rushing up and catching up with the wild boar, surrounding it. One of them shouted something excitedly, and several people worked together. In a short while, they tied up the wild boar, dragged it horizontally and vertically on the snow, and walked towards us.
Both sides greeted each other and used their given names - I only now realized that the little English I learned in school was of almost no use when it came to practical use. It was just an ordinary conversation, but I could barely understand a few words. Oh , I really don't know where all the knowledge I learned in the CET-4 and CET-6 went?
Well, anyway, my good wife is fluent in foreign languages. With her around, I don’t have to worry about language problems even if I go to Congo in Africa.
The four people on the opposite side are named Fretsk, Return of the Demon, Moriarty and Edna. They are here to complete the Hercules mission, which is a serial mission. In Greek mythology, the ancient hero Hercules made twelve great achievements in his life. This mission requires players to imitate Hercules' behavior and complete the twelve achievements one by one. One of them is to capture the wild boar on Mount Erymanthos alive.
According to legend, this wild boar was originally a sacred object used to worship Artemis, but it destroyed crops in the Erymantus area and caused great harm, so King Eurystheus of Mycenae asked Hercules to capture the wild boar alive.
Compared to the other twelve feats, such as skinning the Nemean Lion, killing the nine-headed Hydra, etc., this task is relatively easy, because the Erymanthian Boar is only a D-level Boss, not a very powerful monster (Hydra is a B-level Boss). In today's Fantasy, although masters who can fight D-level Boss alone are still extremely rare, it is very common to send three or five ordinary masters to defeat a D-level Boss. These four people are all masters above level 50, and Fretesk is as high as level 53. He is almost a character who can make it into the list, and he should have no problem fighting the wild boar alone. This time four of them come together, and the key is that the task requires capturing the wild boar alive, which is a bit troublesome!
I said ashamedly, "I didn't expect that I acted rashly and almost ruined your plan. I'm really sorry. Fortunately, I didn't really kill the wild boar. Congratulations on your successful mission."
Fretsk laughed and said, "You are ignorant of the situation. We should not be surprised if you help us out of kindness. In fact, I have to thank you very much. If you hadn't seriously injured the wild boar, we wouldn't have been able to capture it so . You are worthy of being the number one master of Fantasy. You can easily injure a D-level Boss. I am confident that my skills are not low. After seeing your skills, I am really ashamed of myself!"
But... my reputation as the best martial artist in Fantasy has really spread far and wide overseas. It seems that after that martial arts competition, people will recognize me if they say my name anywhere in Fantasy.
The six of us chatted and laughed as we walked down the mountain together. After communicating with each other more on the way, I realized that this Fretsk was no simple person. He was the president of a well-known and large guild called "Hand of God" in the Western Continent!
When I heard that the Hand of God had more than 100,000 members, I couldn't help but be amazed. Unexpectedly, Fretsk said indifferently: "My guild is just average on the continent. Compared with the Crusaders and Caesar's Legion, it is less than a quarter of their size."
Oh my god, a guild of 400,000 or 500,000 people, what does that mean? The largest gang on the Cang Continent today only has about 150,000 people!
A sense of oppression rose in my heart. My Jinglei League only has more than 20,000 people, but how many affairs do I have to deal with to manage such a small number of people? Although I am a hands-off boss, just looking at the busy figures of profiteers and lonely people, I know that it is definitely a very hard job. And as the size of the gang expands, the increase in affairs is not proportional, but geometric! But according to Fretsk, a guild of more than 100,000 people is the most common in the Western Continent, not small or large, and he, as the president, has time to do tasks, so it is obvious that his affairs are not busy.
Is it because Fretsk has many capable people under him, or is he good at managing his subordinates? As the conversation continued, I rejected this view. Frey is a rough and unsophisticated person, and I just asked him a few questions and got a clear picture of how he managed the guild. God's Hand has very simple rules and few management personnel. If it is placed in the Cang Continent, it is just the management model of a small gang of a few hundred people!
However, the quality of Western players is indeed high. They are very particular about civility and politeness. There are rarely any conflicts between them. If there is a war between guilds, they will issue a challenge openly. Moreover, guild members obey management. Basically, if there is something to be done, just give an order and the people below will carry it out seriously.
But in the Thunder Alliance, there are many trivial matters to deal with every day: uneven distribution of treasures among alliance members, someone stealing monsters, vicious competition among certain businesses in the base, and mobilization is required to organize military training... This is because the quality of the members of the Thunder Alliance is very good among the players in the Eastern Continent, so we can successfully implement various regulations within the alliance. It would be even more difficult to manage other gangs!
Western Continent, one day I will face your challenge - As early as the beginning of the establishment of the Crusaders, they have said that they will unify the fantasy world. When that day comes, can the Thunder Alliance hold on? Can the Eastern Continent hold on?
