Chapter 8: Conspiracies and Such Look Really Troublesome, I Just Want to Slaughter People
This was a silvery-white, unknown egg-shaped object. It was embedded near the heart of the giant beast, swelling and contracting with the wash of purple blood, emitting a faint fluorescent glow all around it.
Joshua grabbed it with one hand and yanked it out abruptly. A "pop" sound was heard, and the silver egg was caught in his palm, pulsating vigorously.
Standing in a pool of blood, the headless corpse of the giant beast before him twitched violently due to the removal of this silver-white egg. But the warrior turned the egg-shaped object over and over, examining it several times. Apart from discovering a row of tight suction cups on its back and a tube-like stinger that seemed to be for sucking blood, he found no other obvious features. With his years of experience, he couldn't identify the origin of this thing, nor could he even recall anything similar.
"How strange. I originally thought this mammoth giant beast had the Mad Dragon Virus enter its brain, and a Black Erosion Dragon larva had already gestated inside its body, which was why it was so frenzied, charging at the city as if it were simply seeking death. But I never expected... what is this thing?"
Squeezing it slightly, Joshua found that although this silver egg looked delicate and fragile, it was actually very tough inside. The force he had just used, though not great, was enough to crush a handful of walnuts barehanded—if such things existed in this world—which was definitely not a hardness that could exist inside a normal creature. "An egg of some creature? A parasitic organism? Growing near the heart and with a tube—it can't possibly be a tumor, can it?"
Guessing was useless. After pondering for a while, Joshua finally remembered that he still had the system. So he immediately called upon it and, without a second thought, cheerfully cast an identification spell on it.
"Abyssal Deep Sea Demon Dragon... I remember it's a subordinate race of the Five-Colored Dragons. After the Five-Colored Dragon God was struck down from outside the world into the material plane by the Metal Dragon God and the God of Justice, because it helped incite the Mad Dragon Calamity, it was completely exterminated by the Metal Dragons in alliance with the church forces on the Far Sea Holy Mountain."
Frowning, Joshua found the reason he didn't know what this thing was—the Abyssal Deep Sea Demon Dragon race, in his previous life before he had even gone out to sea, had been wiped out due to this epic storyline. He had never killed a single one, so how could he remember such a monster?
But if that was the case, the confusion only grew greater. Why would a hunting method of a deep-sea race appear inside a mammoth giant beast in the Northern Black Forest? And it had been modified by a higher lifeform... Wait!
Too much information flooded in, and a thread suddenly flashed through the warrior's mind, connecting many scattered pieces of information.
Black Erosion Dragon, Mad Dragon Virus, Black Tide... Five-Colored Dragons, Abyssal Deep Sea Demon Dragon, the future Mad Dragon Calamity...
Why did the God of Justice intervene to help the Metal Dragon God defeat its archenemy, strike the Five-Colored Dragon God down to the mortal world, and, in alliance with the other six gods of humanity, mercilessly exterminate any race related to it?
Why were the Five-Colored Dragons from the Star Realm able to drive a large number of Primordial Realm Dragons, inciting the Mad Dragon Calamity that swept across the entire world?
The inspiration was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't grasp it. At this moment, Joshua couldn't help but regret not reading more high-quality analytical posts on the forum about this aspect back then. Otherwise, he wouldn't be in this state now, half-understanding and half-bewildered, making him anxious.
But this was actually normal. Besides the lore enthusiasts, who would bother to think about the ins and outs of an epic quest in a game? Knowing the general plot was enough. In fact, Joshua himself had only decided to play this game because of the eighteen-plus level of bloody combat that could be unlocked in the Continent of Strife. And there were also many people who just wanted to look at the scenery. Delving into the internal logic of a game's storyline? It was really too much to ask of people like them.
"I should change my way of thinking. This world has already changed too much because of my existence, and it can no longer be used as a basis for inference."
If he hadn't transmigrated...
Without the experience of a former Legendary warrior, it was unclear whether the original Joshua could have survived the orc battlefield. But if he had lived, he would probably still be fighting with that cheap uncle, Danila, for the title of Count. If that were the case, the Black Forest Fortress, lacking a Gold-rank guardian, would definitely fall when attacked by the Black Tide and Gold-rank giant beasts. Then tens of thousands of frenzied beasts would pour into the Moldavia Territory, causing heavy casualties, and even the main city might be breached. The other Northern territories would likely not be spared either.
And the Saint Lawrence Cathedral was the largest church of the God of Might and Justice in the North, and most of the Northern populace were its followers. No matter how detached the gods were from worldly affairs, they couldn't remain indifferent to such losses.
After all, besides the North, the southern frontier and central regions of the Empire had also suffered considerable losses due to the frenzied Black Tide caused by the Mad Dragon Virus. They had even mobilized the army to seal off all checkpoints, exterminating magical beasts district by district.
"If that chaotic Black Erosion Dragon was a biological weapon experiment by the Star Realm Five-Colored Dragons to control the Primordial Realm Dragons, rather than being driven out by the Heaven-Returning Dragon..."
That was possible, but the warrior needed more evidence to confirm his guess. He figured that if he just killed that chaotic Black Erosion Dragon, wherever it was hiding, and checked whether there were similar modification traces of the Abyssal Deep Sea Demon Dragon in its body, he could determine whether everything was as he suspected.
"Interesting... It seems that what is called history was completely changed from the very first day I arrived in this world."
Shaking his head, Joshua decided to put this matter aside for now and think it over carefully later. He turned the giant sword in his hand back into a tiny model and inserted it into a groove on his waist. Holding the still-pulsating Abyssal Deep Sea Derivative in his left hand, he grabbed the tusk of the giant beast that had died with its eyes open, dragging the massive head toward the fortress.
As he walked, his pressure spread, and the surrounding magical beasts instinctively retreated. Many beast leaders, after a low howl, led large groups of their kind scurrying back into the Black Forest. Even the magical beasts that were still climbing the city walls on the other side of the fortress quickly retreated, not daring to advance further.
Just as a fortress without a Gold-rank expert could be easily breached by a Gold-rank giant beast, a magical beast tide without a Gold-rank magical beast could also be easily scattered and repelled by a single Gold-rank expert. The instinct ingrained in the bones of these monsters told them that this was the time to retreat. Unlike the mammoth giant beast that was parasitized and deeply infected, although these magical beasts were frenzied, they weren't suicidal.
Thus, a few minutes later, the originally chaotic battlefield was left with only a field of corpses and ruins. Joshua stood on a hillside covered with the bodies of many frenzied beasts. He raised the head of the Gold-rank giant beast, showing it to the city guards on the fortress wall.
A moment of silence.
Then, cheers erupted like a tidal wave.
...