Because of this added burden, Murphy had no choice but to camp nearby for the day.
In his original plan, he had been prepared to push in at least a dozen more miles into the forest until he had reached the original ruins of the elves. But then he thought about it and realized that If the ebony trees were in the vicinity of the elven ruins, then the groups of adventurers who had headed toward the old gathering grounds of the elves in search of valuable items would have already found the ebony trees by now. Moreover, this kind of tree was rather special, because its trunk was bluish-black, its bark was smooth, and its leaves were similar to that of a sycamore and had a dark green color.
Having thought of this, Murphy abandoned the idea of going any deeper into the forest.
He split up the General Guards into five different teams of four members each. Then he ordered them to split up and look for the ebony trees. With regard to the features of the ebony tree, Murphy had already informed them of this before their arrival. The General Guards had decent combative skills, and although they weren’t as good as the Spartan infantry, they were definitely much stronger than other units. The teams stayed rather close together, so they could still back each other if necessary. Thus, Murphy wasn’t that worried about them encountering any sort of danger.
As for Murphy himself, he ordered some of his men to stay behind and take care of the elf-like creature with the pair of clear white wings.
Murphy had no intention of giving up on her now since he had already halfway saved her.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The knights of the General Guards all carried with them some simple military supplies, such as tents and carpets.
By the time evening fell, all the soldiers who had gone out in search of the ebony trees had returned. They had gone searching for the ebony within a radius of five miles but didn’t find any trees that matched its features. This didn’t really bother Murphy that much. If the ebony trees could easily be found, then wouldn’t they have already been chopped down?
The tents had already been set up by the time everyone came back.
The soldiers divided themselves into three teams and took turns keeping watch. As for Murphy, even if he wanted to take part in duties like the night watch, the General Guards wouldn’t have allowed him to.
One of the soldiers who had gone in search of ebony had suffered a minor injury. He had been bitten by a poisonous snake in the forest. Fortunately, that soldier was quick-thinking and immediately cut open the wound with a long sword to squeeze out the poison and hadn’t suffered any major injuries. Besides that, the several skilled soldiers had also caught a few rabbits while looking for ebony, which left Murphy rather speechless. Had this group of guys really come here just to hunt?
Dinner was a hodgepodge of bread, dried meat, and fresh rabbit meat stewed in a pot.
It didn’t really look that appetizing, but it tasted pretty good. It was very fragrant, and the rabbit meat had been boiled until it had dissolved in the stew. It tasted good with some wild vegetables.
Before entering the forest, Murphy had gotten specific information from the experienced mercenaries on the things that were edible in the jungle and what things should never be eaten, no matter how desperate you were. He had also found out the places where one had to be careful, and the places that you should never venture into, and other information like this.
He was always meticulous.
Murphy always made detailed plans before doing something.
Murphy had dinner with the soldiers. Even during training days in the military camp, he would always have the same food as the soldiers. This was a kind of gesture a superior would make to his soldiers to show that he valued them, and this was the kind of attitude that he wanted to show toward his soldiers!
Values.
It was that simple, but many people didn’t have it.
With that being said, the soldiers still showed him respect. Just take eating for example. The soldiers would all wait until Murphy ate first before they started to dig in. This was the kind of respect that the soldiers had toward him, and this gesture showed the kind of respect they had for their lord.
During dinner, Murphy filled an extra bowl of soup. He didn’t know if that beautiful female who looked like an angel would wake up, but his consistent attentions to her led him to leave some additional food out. Although she couldn’t eat too much due to the injury, because of her blood loss, she still needed to replenish her lost nutrients. Drinking a bowl of thick soup was probably the best option. As of now, Murphy still felt quite close to this elf-like creature because she fit what Murphy imagined an angel would look like.
Everyone wishes they were a beautiful angel, don’t they?
It could be said that angels represented the human desire for beauty and flight.
In fact, Murphy had secretly stroked her feathers with his hands. They were soft, smooth, and really pleasant to touch.
It was roughly seven in the evening.
Murphy sat in front of the bonfire and chatted with the soldiers. This was something he would do occasionally, and most of the time he was the one who did the talking while the soldiers did the listening. Murphy talked about a variety of things. Sometimes he would talk about the future direction of the town’s development. Other times he would talk about the stress he felt during the day. Occasionally he would ask the soldiers how they were doing or teach them how to count. It didn’t really bother him whether or not the knights from the General Guards understood him. He just felt like talking. If they understood him, that was great. If not, then that was fine too.
If one of them worked hard to become a general in the future, then all the things that Murphy said would be of use to them.
Today, Murphy was casually talking about a couple of things, but he didn’t go on.
The soldiers were exhausted after an entire day of traveling.
Due to the fact that it was the start of summer, there was no need to worry about the cold when camping outside. This made preparations so much simpler. Other than the people who were keeping watch at night, a majority of the people had already gone to sleep. Murphy was the only one with a tent. Most of the other soldiers spread out the carpet and slept on the ground. Before they left, Murphy had brought his insect repellent powder along with him. As long as he sprinkled the powder around the campsite, then there was no need to worry about insects even coming near them.
As he was sprinkling the powder, Murphy realized that he had forgotten to leave some for the people who were guarding the horses.
It was highly unlikely that those soldiers would have a good time tonight.
As he was thinking about this, he could hear some noises coming from inside the tent. It seemed that the unconscious elf-like creature had already woken up.
The wounded always got preferential treatment, so Murphy had let her have his tent.
After entering the tent, Murphy realized that she was asleep, but it was obvious that she was pretending, as she was breathing heavily, and it was clear that she was feeling nervous.
Murphy walked a little bit closer, keeping a distance of 50 centimeters away from her. This position was good enough if he had to pull away quickly. He slowly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and asked softly: “Are you awake? If you’ve already woken up, then come and have some food. You’ve lost a lot of blood. You have to replenish your energy.”
Although she was really pretty, Murphy didn’t let his guard down because of that.
Though he had saved her, Murphy wasn’t naïve enough to think that the other party would be grateful to him. In this world, there were too many people who repaid kindness with ingratitude. Those who were unsuspecting were bound to suffer.
After realizing that Murphy could tell that she was pretending to be asleep, the elf-like creature lying on the ground slowly opened her eyes.
They were a pair of eyes that resembled rubies. Their color was different from the eyes of other creatures. It was as if they had some bizarre powerful charm that easily and instantly attracted people. She turned her head and looked at Murphy, opened her mouth, and spoke in a strange language.
This was bad!
There was a language barrier!
Murphy was stunned and a little bit dazed. He could understand the human language in this world. After arriving in this world, he seemed to pick it up easily. The human language spoken in this world was like a combination of Latin and English. It wasn’t too abstract, nor was it too difficult to understand. However, Murphy couldn’t understand a single thing that the elf-like creature was saying.
Seeing that Murphy was confused, the beautiful elf-like creature stayed silent for a moment. Then, afterward, with a not so well-practiced slight elvish accent, she asked softly: “Human, are you the one who saved me?”
Her voice was really beautiful and had a certain charm to it.
Her accent was a little like the pleasant-sounding smooth Wu dialect. However, Murphy was used to it and could tell that this kind of beautiful creature seemed to have a kind of innate charm.
There was no need to mention that other than the language of the ancient titans, almost all intelligent creatures’ languages were derived from the ancient elven language. This meant that the language used by a vast majority of intelligent races in the mainland was composed of 26 rune letters as syllables. Hence, there was a commonality among them. This was also related to the fact that the ancient elves were the race with the highest level of civilization development, and a majority of the races, in one way or another, had learned something from the ancient elves.
“I guess you could say that,” Murphy said, waving his hands and sitting down right next to her.
Now that they could communicate, there was no longer a problem.
“Thank you,” the elf-like creature said softly. Her pure white wings quivered.
“You’re welcome,” Murphy said, nodding his head. As if he just remembered something, he dusted off his bottom and stood up, saying: “You must be hungry. I’ll get you something to eat.”
After he said this, Murphy walked out of the tent.
By then the soup was already cold. He picked up the bowl, looked at her, and laughed. He was ready to reheat the soup since there was a bonfire outside. It wouldn’t be too much of a hassle.
The elf-like creature lay in the blanket and stared at Murphy. There was a quizzical look in her eyes as she stared at him. It was as if she were a little surprised and weirded out. She slowly lifted her slender white hands and gently touched her wound. She saw the bow-knot that Murphy had tied in front of her chest and couldn’t help but whisper: “This knot is so ugly! What a strange human indeed…”
Evanna was a harpy. Or, to be more precise, she was a “winged man.”
Harpies originally belonged to a group of high elves and were apart of the family of night elves. Similar to the Naga enchantress, they were elves that had been cursed by the ancient elves due to their betrayal in the First Era. It has to be mentioned here that the elves were collateral relatives of the night elves, but the former’s bloodline wasn’t that pure.
The curse led to the elves’ current state of being harpies, and because of that, their mindsets dramatically changed!
They became cunning and cruel.
There weren’t any males in their ethnic group because of the curse, and they could only rely on themselves for reproduction.
A long period of time followed.
The harpies were exiled to the underground world. In the underground world’s tough environment, the bunch of elves that had been cursed became stronger, and they eventually evolved and became a new ethnic group.
All this continued into the Second Era!
In the Second Era, possibly because of the tremendous changes the world was undergoing, or because the number of ancient elves had dwindled, the curse from the First Era had grown weaker.
The earliest mutation occurred in the high-level harpy high priest!
Relying on the power of magic, the first batch broke free from the curse of the previous era. They reverted back to their elf-like appearance, and using the power of magic, they split up their arms and wings. They became a new race that had both wings and an elf-like appearance.
They were powerful and rare!
It was similar to the emergence of the high gnolls from the gnolls.
These harpy priests, who had broken free from the curse, formed a new ethnic group. They didn’t want to have any connection to the elf race, so they were known as the winged man race!
In the underground world, the powerful and rare winged man creatures were the leaders of the harpies. Most of them held the position of high priest of the ethnic group, and some of them had even become queens.
Not many creatures could withstand days without sunshine, rain, dew, and nature.
After breaking free from the curse, the winged man race reverted back to some of the habits that they originally had as high elves. They couldn’t tolerate the dark days of the underground world and wanted to return above ground. They wanted to have a piece of soil to live and breathe on!
However, their enemies, the elves, who had exiled them to the underground world, wouldn’t allow this.
Evanna was a harpy queen. She was the leader of the harpy ethnic group in the underground world in the Karazan Mountains. As a winged man who had slowly reverted back to the habits of the higher elves, she could no longer stand the dark days she spent in the underground world.
She too desired to go to the surface from time to time and enjoy the sun and rain. She wanted to enjoy the freedom of flying.
Evanna was planning something. Or it was probably better to say that the entire race of winged man was planning something!
They wanted to let more than two hundred thousand harpies living in the underground world return to the surface! They wanted to live in the sun again! They wanted the other races to recognize their existence! And for that, they were ready to give their lives and face off in war!!!
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Murphy quickly returned.
He carried a bowl of piping hot meat broth and carefully entered the tent.
Gently, he helped up the harpy queen Evanna and handed a spoon to her. “Can you feed yourself?” he asked.
The beautiful winged man felt a strange feeling when he touched her. As a race that only consisted of females, males were uncommon and a rare plaything. This human next to her was strange. He seemed rather unique, and there was something really special about him.
The harpy queen Evanna wanted to reach out and take the bowl, but just as she lifted her fingers, they lost their strength and immediately fell back down.
She was way too weak.
She barely had any strength left because of her severe injuries and massive blood loss. Moreover, in her body, the elemental energy that the arrows had left behind had yet to dissipate. This energy weakened her body and prevented her from condensing her magical powers.
God d*mn that moonwalker! She had almost killed her!
“You can’t move? Then let me feed you,” Murphy said, holding onto her so she could lean on him, and then filled the spoon with soup and delivered it to the harpy queen Evanna’s mouth.
Fortunately, back when Murphy’s mum had fallen ill, he had attended to her just like this. Otherwise, this would have felt really strange and unfamiliar to him.
The harpy queen looked at the spoon being delivered to her mouth and was slightly stunned. She was a little astounded, but she eventually slowly opened her mouth…