Star Forge Titan

"drink!"

With a roar, the dark golden light of "Reshaping the World" was once again lit up in the rock armor on Ivan's body, and a large number of stone spikes suddenly popped out forward like a forest of upright guns!

The white bear beast's soft waist, abdomen, and throat were instantly covered with dense blood holes, and even its two eyes were blinded by the rock fragments that flew everywhere after the stone spear broke.

ended.

Alvin made a final judgment on this battle in his mind.

The remaining rocks gathered towards him again, and the black-haired boy swung his right hand covered with a stone glove and hit the white bear beast's chin with an uppercut.

The enormous force not only shattered the bones, but also allowed the fragments of the stone spear that had been pierced earlier to continue to penetrate deeper, until the beast's underdeveloped brain was turned into a mess.

The white bear beast, which was huge and nearly three meters tall when standing up, stopped moving instantly as if struck by lightning. A stream of hot blood mist spurted upward from its mouth, and droplets of it sprinkled on the surface of the rock armor, causing a cloud of water vapor to rise.

The beast's strong body stood still, motionless, and after a few seconds it swayed slightly.

Then, the whole thing collapsed backwards like a collapsed city wall, raising a cloud of snow and mud.

It seems that my idea is correct.

Ivan, who ended the battle unscathed, nodded and made a secret judgment in his mind.

The skill he just used was the result of developing his talent over the past few days.

However, Ivan actually did use some tricks. The Star Forging Titan, the boss in the game, was his perfect role model.

Aside from the overly exaggerated third phase, the combat methods used in the boss's previous phases could be directly borrowed. It was precisely by using the first phase's form as a reference that he successfully deduced the combat technique known as 'Rock Armor'.

Although there is still a big gap between it and the one in my memory that is more than three meters tall, has hand-rubbed weapons and can launch rock missiles, the interim results achieved can already be applied in actual combat. Judging from the results of this battle alone, it can be said to be very effective.

Especially the Stone Spear Stab move that releases at the cost of temporarily removing the rock armor. It is entirely possible to develop an advanced version that uses metal armor as a consumable material in the future.

As you can imagine, the power is absolutely enormous.

However, it will probably be more expensive...

It was only then that the rookie mage Afrediya, who had just figured out what spell to use for support, threw the standard starting skill "Mage Armor" at Ivan, and at the same time began to recall the chanting incantations of other auxiliary spells.

Ivan was about to dispose of the White Bear's corpse when he suddenly felt a forcefield shield appear on his body. Forced to interrupt his work, he glanced back expressionlessly at the red-haired girl frantically finishing her spell.

Under his gaze, the girl lowered her head in shame.

Taking a deep breath, Ivan muttered to himself several times, "She's got a strong claim, so I have to keep her for the New Year." "Just think of it as training a new employee. We've all been newbies before, so just educate her slowly." Finally, he managed a faint smile.

Afrediya didn't have the courage to raise her head until she walked out of the woods with the bear skin she had just peeled off.

Because of the thick snow on the ground, even in good weather, the two of them were still not able to move forward quickly. Fortunately, after reaching the main trade route, they soon encountered a medium-sized caravan that was returning to Elrond from the ice field.

This caravan of more than a dozen cargo wagons was formed by the gathering of several small merchant teams. They did not have time to leave before the white tide came, so they had to set off now.

Since the white bear's fur has excellent thermal insulation properties and its hard scales are also excellent materials for making fine leather armor, it is still valuable even if it is not very complete.

In exchange, the fur-buying caravan not only agreed to give the two men a ride, but also gave them a bag of Elrond gold pounds, a considerable amount, to make up the difference for the fur and scales.

Of course, since Ivan was dressed as a hunter and Afrediya was wearing a formal dress, the merchants looked at the boy and girl with strange expressions, most of them thinking they were a young couple who ran away from home for some reason.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of jingling bells on the horses' necks, Alvin and Afrediya arrived safely at Flanders, a famous commercial city in the north of Elrond.

Chapter 12 Flanders

The commercial city of Flanders.

The northern city-states are directly under the jurisdiction of Lord Elrond and are not governed by the sword-wielding nobles, that is, the traditional territorial nobles.

Starting with the 41st Demon Lord, Elrond began to further strengthen centralization. Commercial cities like Flanders, directly responsible only to the Demon Lord and his appointed governor, were natural bases for reformists.

However, the previous assassination attempt left Afrediya unsure who the traitor was within her team. Therefore, she couldn't easily seek help from the reformists in the ordinary areas. Her best option was to quietly return to Avonmore without alerting anyone.

Just like being in a dark and dangerous jungle, both hunters and prey must make good use of the darkness around them to catch each other while protecting themselves.

"Come to think of it, this is my first time in Flanders." Afrediya jumped out of the carriage excitedly and looked around at the bustling streets.

As a commercial city, Flanders' market attracts a large population, including residents from surrounding villages, so the city is particularly bustling every day.

"Yeah, me too." Alvin looked around like a country boy who had just moved to the city.

Farmers with horns and well-developed muscles pushed carts into the city to sell their own crops. Laborers with arms hanging below their knees and covered with black hair carried several large boxes at a time to transport luggage for the merchants. Messengers with thick legs with reverse joints ran and jumped between the houses at a very fast speed.

Besides ordinary people, one could see various lower-level demons everywhere, similar to those who had undergone mild Elrond's mystical transformation. It was actually harder to distinguish higher-level demons, as they didn't look much different from ordinary humans.

This was the first time Alvin had seen such a scene. Although he had had similar experiences in the game, due to the limitations of full immersion technology, those memories were more like scenes seen in dreams and lacked a sense of reality.

When he truly saw the city of the Palladia world with his own eyes, the cries of vendors, the cheers around acrobats, and all kinds of life all came to Alvin at once, making him feel for the first time that this world was so real, and not a dream from which he could not wake up for the time being.

Of course, perhaps the most real thing is the bright color in front of us.

Noticing his gaze, Afrediya lifted her skirt and spun around.

"What's wrong? Is it inappropriate?" The red-haired girl asked hesitantly and shyly.

"No, it looks very nice." Alvin said with a smile.

Afrediya's cheeks flushed slightly. At this moment, she had changed into an inconspicuous civilian outfit, which Ivan had specially purchased from the caravan before entering the city.

A simple headband made of white linen covered her red hair and the curls behind her ears. Underneath her body was a lake blue linen blouse, and outside it was a woolen tube dress dyed a simple dark blue, and a warm white woolen coat.

This outfit made the once noble princess look like the daughter of a middle-class citizen with some assets, but her fair and smooth hands showed that she was not an ordinary citizen who needed to work.

Fortunately, just like the veil on Afrediya's face, this flaw can be covered with gloves, and the embroidered sleeves that match the gloves may be the most valuable clothing on her at the moment.

Yes, in this era before productivity had achieved great development, a pair of detachable and embroidered sleeves was already a somewhat luxurious garment for ordinary people, usually only worn during festivals or gatherings.

Even centuries ago, neighboring Linde enacted a special law prohibiting commoners' wives from owning more than four pairs of sleeves.

Similarly, Alvin was no longer dressed like a mountain hunter.

Under a black fur felt hat and a smoky gray short cloak that just reached his waist was a white wool coat and a long linen sweater, and around his waist was a leather belt that looked pretty decent.

Apart from his height which was still somewhat noticeable, this outfit made him look no different from any other young man seen around the city.

As for the height, there was nothing that could be done about it. Afrediya could use a veil to cover up her overly eye-catching appearance, but he couldn't just walk while squatting.

Fortunately, the people in northern Elrond are generally not short in height. The black-haired boy is 1.85 meters tall, which is certainly not short, but he is not so exaggerated that he is one in a million.

The more he thought about the possibility that his body shape might be even more different from that of an ordinary person after the ceremony, the more headache he felt. Perhaps in the future he could consider looking for equipment with constant secondary change spells.

However, considering that the necromancer had seen his appearance through the skeleton, he used a few tricks taught by his friend who used to play the thief profession to make some changes to his facial features before entering the city.

As a result, unless someone sees him in person, it would be difficult to quickly identify him based on a description or portrait alone.

Not long after entering the city, Alvin's eyes changed slightly. He saw a few seemingly ordinary guys standing at the busy street corner.

Although their clothes and appearance were no different from other citizens, Alvin smelled a familiar scent from these people, which was the unique temperament of people who often engaged in battle.

Mercenaries, thieves, robbers, they don't seem to have anything to do with these professions.

Then there is only one answer left.

These people are spies of a certain force, and they are looking for certain specific targets.

At this moment, the only specific target that met these conditions was Afredia, who was beside him.

Incidentally, the targeted individual was currently standing in front of a juggler performing a ball-catching show with a group of children, watching the show with great interest.

He walked up silently and grabbed Afrediya's arm. Seeing the latter's reluctant expression, Ivan half-pulled and half-dragged her away from the crowd.

"You must have seen many better performances like this at palace banquets before." The black-haired boy asked in a low voice with a toothache expression on his face.

"Mood, the important thing is mood. It's completely different from that time." Afrediya winked at him, looking particularly excited.

The eldest princess, who had almost never left the palace except during her study abroad, was obviously very interested in the bustling market.

"Let's go over there and take a look." Subconsciously holding the boy's hand, she turned and walked towards the puppet troupe not far away.

"Okay." Alvin shrugged. To be honest, he was quite interested in this ancient market with a novel feeling.

Moreover, if you think about it from another perspective, the enemy spies probably wouldn't have thought that the eldest princess would stroll around the market in such an ordinary way. In a sense, this might be a better disguise.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that although the gazes of those suspicious people lingered on them, they soon looked at the crowd again, so Alvin was even more certain of this.

So, when Afrediya finally stopped walking after getting tired and sat down to rest on a bench by the fountain square in the city center, he leaned over to the girl's ear and whispered his discovery.

Immediately, the red-haired girl's eyes became sharp, but she quickly lowered her head to hide it.

"Are you sure?" Afrediya asked quietly, looking at the fried almonds wrapped in a handkerchief without any expression.

"Well, their disguise is not very clever. It is probably just used to attract attention on the surface. There are probably more professional people hiding in secret." Alvin smiled slightly. He had come into contact with real intelligence personnel in the game. In comparison, the performance of these spies was simply poor.

However, considering that it is still the year 1885 in the new calendar and each country has not yet completed the important changes before its rise, it seems normal for this situation to occur.

Later, the Elrond Demon Kingdom, which launched the skeleton craze, directly used the Wandering Knights or Day Banshees as regular scout troops.

"Then what should we do? Pretend to be ordinary people coming to the market and leave?" Afrediya asked nervously but not panicked.

"They probably haven't discovered us yet. Changing our movements at random would only expose us." Alvin sat calmly beside the girl.

"Besides, humans can't live in the air. As long as we continue to approach Avonmore, it's only a matter of time before our whereabouts are exposed."

“Indeed, if the white tide hadn’t cleared away all traces, they might have already found us.” Afrediya sighed softly.

"Frankly speaking, with my current strength, I don't have the confidence to escort you to Avonmore safely, and the only black market nearby is Flanders, which is most likely to buy all those magic materials at once." Alvin slowly glanced at the crowd around the square.

"I'm sorry, I'm not good at fighting. When I was studying abroad in the City of Thousand Towers, I mainly studied subjects like economics and sociology." Afrediya said a little embarrassedly.

"Ha, those old-fashioned guys. If you don't pass the test to become a member of the Obelisk, even if you want to learn advanced magic knowledge, they may not be willing to teach you." Ivan snorted in a strange tone.

Back then, he also wanted to be a wizard, but...

"..." Hearing this, Afrediya couldn't help but look at the black-haired boy with a strange look.

If he was really an ordinary barbarian on the northern ice field, why would he talk in this tone about the great wizards thousands of miles away who usually never leave the Wizard Tower 365 days a year, as if he had dealt with them for a long time.

What a mysterious and strange guy...

Afrediya couldn't help but murmur in her heart.

"Come to think of it, this is your first time in Flanders, right? So how do we enter the black market? And where will we get the funds to purchase the materials? The money from selling polar bear hides isn't enough, is it?" The red-haired girl thoughtfully pointed out several major problems the two were facing.

"Don't worry." Alvin's eyes rested on a man selling pigeon feed in the corner of the square.

"Mimir will tell me."

Hearing this answer, Afrediya couldn't help but glare at him unhappily.

"Next time, just say it was Fujin and Wuni who told you."

"Please spare me, I don't want to be made into a skewer with a spear by that furry lover." Ivan shrugged.

"Furry lover?" Afrediya was stunned for a moment, then she realized with astonishment who he was referring to.

Odin, the great god who is said to ride two demonic wolves and has the two mythical birds of 'thought' Fujin and 'memory' Muni on his shoulders, was actually described by the other party as... a fur lover?

Of course, most of the nobles in the northern demon kingdom of Elrond are not too fanatical about their faith, but it is a bit too unscrupulous to talk about the almighty god Odin in such a joking tone.

Before she could say anything, Afrediya saw Ivan stand up and walk towards the man who was selling pigeon feed to tourists in the corner of the square.

"Half a copper penny a bag of feed." The man lying on the bench with his face covered by a straw hat said without looking up.

At his feet was a small wooden table, on which were wrapped handfuls of feed made from cheap food scraps such as husks and bran, each in a paper bag.

"Midnight makes people think more clearly." Alvin said without thinking.

The man's movements changed slightly. He slowly pushed up the straw hat covering his face and looked at the tall and handsome black-haired boy in front of him with sharp eyes that were not like those of a peddler.

Recalling his experience in the game, Alvin even missed the conversations that used various cryptic terms.

So, he calmly endured the other person's scrutiny and spoke again.

"Garm, I need to cross the Gjoer River and enter Hel's Gate for business."

Hearing this, Afrediya's expression grew even more peculiar. The three names mentioned were all related to Hela, the goddess of death. This ruler of darkness and the underworld was also the guardian of all the hidden secrets of the mortal world.

To enter the underworld where she is, one must spend nine days and nine nights crossing the rugged road, cross the Gioir River full of poisonous water and ice, cross the Gate of Hel guarded by the blood hound Garm, and finally push open the Gate of Hela that only the dead can enter.

What were they talking about? Princess Afrediya was a little curious, but she quickly guessed that it must be related to the black market.

A secret market naturally requires respect for the guardian of the hidden secrets and corresponding sacrificial acts, which means hiding the secrets better.

After Alvin said that, the man selling pigeon feed was silent for a while.

"Who are you? We won't welcome newcomers into the market without the ferryman's introduction."

"Oh? What if I am the messenger of Hermes?" Alvin continued.

Hermes? The God of Commerce? Afrediya pondered this question, but remained silent and listened.