Star Forge Titan

"We're here." The carriage stopped and the white-haired girl nodded slightly to Boshia, then took out a special key that emitted magical light.

Insert the key into the keyhole on the side of the car, and three circular magic arrays that are intertwined with each other will float outward. As the key turns in an orderly manner, the three circular magic arrays suspended around the keyhole will shrink from the outside to the inside in sequence, until they interlock and nest into a more complex independent magic array.

Click, the magic lock opened, the white-haired girl pushed open the car door first, quickly glanced around to confirm that everything was correct, then bowed slightly to signal Bo Xia to get out of the car.

The half-elf obediently stepped out of the carriage, and was greatly surprised by what she saw. The ground beneath her feet was made of steel, as were the walls blocking her way, and even the roof covering her head.

The iron-gray color in his eyes made Boshia speechless for a moment.

"Welcome to the Mobile Temple - Arubion." A cold voice came from the front.

Before Boxia could say anything, he heard the white-haired girl who had a stern face the whole time jogging over excitedly.

"Lady Diana, why are you in charge of strategic duty today?" The girl was so excited, in stark contrast to her cold appearance along the way, which made Boxia stunned.

"My Jihadi Mech was temporarily sent for maintenance. So, I took over some routine work from Ms. Celestine." The visitor explained briefly.

"Ah, you are worthy of being Lady Diana. Even though she is only temporarily seconded here, she can still maintain such a sense of responsibility. She is truly a model of a paladin." The white-haired girl wrung her hands together, her eyes flickering and almost glowing.

"You're too kind." The visitor called Diana was also a young girl. Her hair was different from that of other paladins of the Temple of Knowledge. Her hair was a vibrant silver color, as bright as melted pure silver.

Thinking about the other party's identity, Boshia was led across the steel plank road, and then walked into a conversation room with a very simple decoration style.

After sitting down, Diana stared into Boshia's eyes and spoke slowly in a voice without any fluctuation.

"Grand Knight Commander Lady Celestine has entrusted me with full authority for this meeting."

"Ms. Messenger, let's talk about how to carry out a saturation capture."

Thus, talks between the Genoese Confederation and the Paladin Order directly under the Temple of Knowledge began.

On the other side, the leisurely duo who were also riding in a carriage just finished their short trip.

"It's been a long time since I last came here." Afrediya stretched and then turned her gaze to the strange city-state with towers in front of her.

"Evan, let's first...what are you doing?" As soon as the Demon King turned around, he saw that the person he called had run to the nearest newsstand.

"Oh, nothing." Alvin smiled and touched his pocket, then his smile froze.

"Fleur, do you have any change?"

"Huh?" It was obvious that the Demon King didn't bring any change either.

"Well...it's not a big deal." Ignoring the increasingly frowned brow of the newsstand owner in front of him, Alvin shrugged.

With the help of his clothes pockets as a cover, he calmly took out a few pieces of gold ore from the spiritual space. They were gifts given by the dwarves when they left, and they were the most inconspicuous part of the many mineral gifts.

Alvin pinched out a few fresh Genoa gold coins with his bare hands and bought the latest issues of all the newspapers in one go.

"Well, let me see your dark little secret."

Chapter 171: One Thousand Towers, One Scene

The City of a Thousand Towers, this city-state with a long history has achieved absolute neutrality due to geographical, political and other factors, and there has been no war for more than a hundred years.

Such a long period of peace has made this place extremely urbanized. Tall tower buildings can be seen everywhere, like a gray forest composed of hundreds of towers.

Among them are towering wizard towers, massive stones piled into towering "mountains." Such wonders could not be achieved by human effort alone. Clearly, magic played a crucial role in this process. For example, the massive stones that form the foundations of these buildings, providing crucial support, were all shaped and lifted with the power of magic.

But magic isn't omnipotent, and the cost of maintaining it long-term is prohibitively high. Therefore, most towers have a tapered shape, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, to create a more stable load-bearing structure.

Most of the towers are connected by wide overpasses. The widest of them is almost as wide as a four-lane modern highway. There is even a large public carriage that can carry dozens of people traveling back and forth on it. Pedestrians mostly walk on both sides of the overpass. Some towers close to the overpass even have balconies with doors on the corresponding outer walls, transforming them into street shops to sell various goods.

In a sense, the entire overpass is almost indistinguishable from the bustling streets on the ground.

At this moment, Alvin and Frey were shopping, or rather, walking on the overpass.

"Are you looking for something?" Frey looked around with a strange look.

"In a sense, that's true." Alvin nodded, but his eyes were scanning the shops, or balconies, on both sides.

After entering the city, the boy's behavior struck Fleur as very strange. He first bought a stack of today's newspapers, read them all in five minutes, then immediately dragged her on a rented flying carpet and began to wander the city. The Demon King only had time to cast a simple spell to reduce his presence before being swept into this aimless and unexpected journey.

Oh, and while flying carpets are relatively expensive magical equipment, they're not uncommon here. The City of a Thousand Towers' unique structure and vast mages make various magical flying props the fastest and most convenient means of transportation. From cheap broomsticks to pricey hand-woven carpets, mages and other transcendental beings can be seen navigating these flying props throughout the city, even ordinary couriers delivering packages on broomsticks.

To this end, the City of Thousand Towers has even established special traffic safety flight regulations, restricting people from switching flight routes and altitudes at will to avoid flight accidents.

Incidentally, the best-selling magic items in the City of Thousand Towers are actually amulets with built-in slow-descent or feather-fall spells. Furthermore, the main sections of important overpasses are equipped with special emergency magical devices to prevent falls and falling objects.

"Actually, I'm playing a game of cops and robbers." Alvin smiled and counted the number of flower pots placed at the sixth window of the third row across the overpass.

"I don't understand." Fulei glared at him bluntly.

"Well, I'm not good at playing tricks on others." The savage Titan from the North spoke frankly about his own shortcomings.

"Indeed, this is easy to see... haha." As Afrediya spoke, she recalled her past experiences and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"So, this time I don't plan to 'play' the conspiracy game that those guys are best at." Alvin spread his hands indifferently. A lot of information has already appeared on the cheap notebook he just bought.

"So what are you going to do?" Fulei came closer with her eyes wide open with curiosity, with the expression 'I'm curious' written all over her face.

"Take notepad and send out arrest warrants one by one." Alvin jokingly raised the notebook in his hand.

"Hey? I've been meaning to ask you this before. How do you confirm their true identities? Even the Temple of Knowledge, which is best at dealing with demonic invasions, has trouble dealing with the hidden identities of the Dark Whisperers."

"That's... well... the secret. It's a legitimate method, no shady means or tricks involved." Torturing an enemy in a virtual game is also legitimate, right? Ivan thought.

"Huh?" Afrediya raised her eyebrows and glanced around. Seeing that the magic to reduce the presence was running smoothly, the demon king with dragon horns on his head actually hugged the young Titan's arm, rubbing his plump body against him like a cat and acting coquettishly.

"Speak up~Speak up~"

"No, it's not the right time yet." Alvin was not at all... Although he was seriously shaken, he still didn't say the reason.

"It won't work if I tell you about it."

"I do not believe."

"Tsk, how can you be so unreasonable, woman?" Alvin was at a loss for words and subconsciously even spoke in dialect. The version converted into Xuma language sounded inexplicably funny.

"Wow, before I got her, she called me sweetheart, and now she calls me bitch and cries like that." Frey raised her hands to cover her face, her shoulders twitching, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but rise.

"Don't pretend to cry, I can see it. Besides, it was obviously not me who started it first." Glancing at the other person, Alvin couldn't help but recall the drunk devil who shouted "Let me have some!" that night.

Although he couldn't be sure whether Frey was really drunk at that time, the dragoness's aura was extremely terrifying or even ninety percent fierce.

But there are some things that cannot be said directly even if they are known. Before Ivan finished speaking, he saw Afrediya stop sobbing immediately.

The girl raised her head expressionlessly, her beautiful red lips moved slightly, and then she grinned with a mouth full of dragon-like sharp teeth.

"Hmm? Fleur, what are you doing? Why are your teeth pointy? Hey? Why are they still glowing?"

“…I’ll bite you to death!”

"Wait, these teeth can break my defense. Three layers, three layers, let go!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!"

……

The essence of most conspiracies, including the "war" between young men and women, lies in manipulating information gaps, a tactic particularly excelled by the followers of the Dark Whisperers. Furthermore, they adapt to local circumstances. For example, in the City of Thousand Towers, a city of wizards with a highly developed magical civilization, the followers of the Dark Whisperers make extensive use of non-magical methods like these to convey information, highlighting their cunning and insidious nature.

But, but they encountered the 'open' one.

Even more powerful than a working brain is, of course, a bright mind. Ivan had already encountered many such tasks in Virtual Paladin. Although he considered himself not good at playing tricks on others, he knew the answer and worked backwards to solve the problem, which was not too difficult for most people with reasonable intelligence.

Since you have chosen to start, you must of course follow through to the end.

After filling up half his notebook, Ivan finally closed it. Now, 99% of the city's underground network of codetalkers had been recorded. Then, Afrediya dragged him to a small, unassuming restaurant in the heart of the City of a Thousand Towers.

"I loved coming here when I was in school. Their Genoese cuisine is very authentic." Pointing to a not very tall and even a bit short and fat tower in front of her, Frey's face showed a nostalgic expression.

"It doesn't look like a place where the noble Demon King would come." Ivan, with neat circular teeth marks on his face and forehead, said in feigned surprise.

"I wasn't a demon king yet." Frey elbowed him unhappily, and then was hugged.

The small restaurant is built on the top of a low tower. Compared with the top floors of bustling skybridge towers, the space is usually much wider, so most of them are built as green parks or gardens, and a few are extremely luxurious and expensive private courtyards.

But that also depends on what kind of tower it is. The city of a thousand towers has been undergoing increasing urbanization over the years, so most of the lower towers can only enjoy sunlight for a small part of the day. Therefore, lower towers themselves mean cheaper rents. It is conceivable that most restaurants built here will not be too high-end.

As for the ground floor, due to the towers blocking each other, there is not much sunlight all year round. In addition, due to the intertwined intrusion of the ground floor supporting structure after years of expansion, it is almost a shadow maze built of bricks and rock slabs.

Walking into the not-so-high-end restaurant, Alvin actually didn't feel disgusted. He wasn't that pretentious before he traveled through time, so naturally, he wouldn't develop any new problems after traveling through time.

Anyway, it is unlikely that Titan would get food poisoning, and this fly-infested restaurant might be more unique.

However, the appearance of the chef in the store is indeed a bit surprising.

It was a crocodile, an albino crocodile wearing a chef's hat.

Chapter 172 Crocodile Restaurant

Alvin was stunned.

After crossing over, he had beaten many monsters. He had also seen various sub-human races in the Great Wilderness Forest before, and was surrounded by a large group of cat and insect friends for a long time.

But the sight of a living crocodile standing upright on its hind legs, roasting a fire and cutting onions by the stove still made him feel very fantastical from the bottom of his heart. Oh, the place I am in now is a fantasy world, so it's okay.

The crocodile chef in front of us is more than two meters tall when standing upright, which is considered large in the entire crocodile family.

Adult crocodiles of all species can average up to three meters in length from head to tail. Even the Yangtze alligator, known for its Wang O snow cakes (not really, don't throw them in the alligator pond), averages 1.5 to 2.1 meters. Considering the crocodile chef in front of us stands on its hind legs, including its tail, its actual length is at least four meters, perhaps even closer to five meters (the tail accounts for more than half of its total body length).

As far as I can remember, only the saltwater crocodile can reach this level when it reaches adulthood, with larger individuals having records of growing to seven or eight meters.

It's no wonder this seemingly small restaurant is located on the top floor of a tower. Even in a relatively low tower, the rent for the top floor is much higher than that of an ordinary shop on the side. However, the height of an ordinary shop is not suitable for a chef over two meters tall to run around in the restaurant.

"Udonna, do you remember me?" Frey took the initiative to step forward and greeted her.

Upon hearing its own name, the albino crocodile looked up in surprise. God knows how that scaly face managed to express such shock.

After recognizing the human face, Crocodile Udonna could not believe what she was seeing. Her transparent nictitating membrane and eyelids blinked repeatedly. She subconsciously dropped the kitchen knife and raised her hand (claw) to rub her eyes hard.

But she obviously forgot what ingredients she was processing just now, and immediately burst into a series of terrible screams because of her hands (claws) that had cut onions.

Surprisingly, its, or her voice is not as rough as it looks. Although it is a little low-pitched, it is definitely not unpleasant. Some low-frequency vibrato that is not like that of a human sounds similar to the cry of a cow.

"You are still so reckless. Don't you have a nictitating membrane? And you always brag that you are never afraid of cutting onions and that you are the best onion-cutting crocodile among the chef apprentices." Although she was joking, Afrediya quickly used magic to summon water to help the crocodile Udonna wash away the onion juice on her eyes.

"Frei, why are you here!?!"

The crocodile Udonna was obviously a good-tempered one. She was not angry at all about what happened just now, nor did she care about Frey's teasing. Instead, she happily opened her arms and her bloody mouth to her long-lost friend, revealing her upper and lower rows of sharp teeth without any concealment.

She smiled so happily that she didn't even care that the 'small' (compared to her body size) chef's hat on her head fell to the ground.

Indeed, Crocodile Udonna had a pleasant voice and spoke gently. Judging from her attitude towards Fleur, she was probably a down-to-earth person who valued friendship.

But honestly, if you don't listen to what she says, this look is quite scary to most people. Didn't you see that those diners were so scared that they almost ran away without paying?

As an albino crocodile, Udonna's scales are smooth and strong, close to beige near the joints, and pure white elsewhere. This is one of the few features that makes her appearance slightly softer.

If a white crocodile and a black crocodile appear at the same time, most people would probably think that the white crocodile is slightly, perhaps, or maybe a little bit safer.

But that's just one point. This crocodile chef, wearing an oversized chef's uniform, has iron-like prismatic scales all over his body, and curved and sharp claws at the end of his limbs. Even if he is unarmed, he can be regarded as a warrior wearing heavy armor and holding a sword, fully armed from head to toe, and can easily kill a van full of ordinary people.

"Ivan, let me introduce you. This is Ulona Waqia·Gelulu·Guoye Hailu, a good friend I met when I was studying abroad in the City of Thousand Towers." Afrediya, who had a huge body disproportion, walked over with Udonna. The heavy crocodile chef made the floor squeak as he walked, but his expression was full of curiosity.

"Well, my name is a bit difficult to pronounce. My friends usually call me Udonna, so you can call me that too." The crocodile chef extended his hand and shook hands with Ivan in a familiar manner, showing a calmness that was in stark contrast to his previous reckless behavior.

"Hello, I'm Alvin, Alvin Elian, Frey's..." The boy paused. This was his first time falling in love in both his past and present lives, so he was naturally a little shy.

"Hehehe, that's the kind of relationship we have." Afrediya hugged Ivan's arm, the smile on her face so bright that it almost glowed.

After looking the two of them back and forth, Udonna raised her hand and tapped her palm.

"Wow, this is really touching. Fleur, the top student who said she was going to marry a magician, has actually found a partner to lay eggs with."

"Don't talk nonsense. These are all mistakes you made when you were young." Afrediya covered Ivan's ears with her hands and glared at Udonna fiercely.

The three of them found a table and sat down. Since it was past dinner time, the small restaurant was not very busy. The few customers who were there hurriedly chose to pay the bill and leave early because of Udonna's "too" enthusiastic welcome.

"I seem to have caused you some trouble." Afrediya sighed.

"It's okay, I'm used to it." Putting the two chairs side by side, Udonna sat down and took out her pipe, which fell between her teeth.

Because there were people present, she didn't actually light the pipe, but just sniffed the aroma of the tobacco with an expression of great enjoyment.

Through Frey's introduction, Ivan learned that Udonna wasn't an orc, but a highly intelligent upright crocodile accidentally created by a certain archmage in the City of Thousand Towers after an experiment went awry. The mage's apprentice who cared for Udonna at the time was Afredia, a Northern demon shunned by ordinary people, a mutant experimental animal so awkwardly tantamount to not even being human, yet they became a close friend.

Later, Frey also helped Udonna obtain residency rights and civil rights that most subhuman races have.

Despite being exceptionally strong and possessing remarkable magical talent, Udonna, who was gentle and disliked fighting, did not become an adventurer or any other kind of combatant. Instead, she became an apprentice to a Genoese chef and learned the most authentic Genoese cuisine from him.

"So, you're a graduate now? I remember your teacher was quite old-fashioned." Afrediya asked curiously.

"In a sense, I guess so." Udonna's expression was a little strange, and the pure steel pipe stuck between her teeth made a creaking sound.