Chapter 245: The Hyena-mens Confidence (1/2)

Xi Wei and most of the Players were intending to ignore the problems on the Western Continent, and instead worked on individual developments, hence strengthening the foundation of the Church of Games.

Though they had said before that they all wanted to explore the new continent, their interest waned considerably after some of the other Players went out only to get killed.

After all, there were actually many ways they could develop—the Valley of the Tragic Dead and the Gray Fjord were far from being fully explored, whereas dungeons such as the Fishmen Island and the living dead cellar were refreshed daily.

In addition, reputation systems had been implemented on Lancaster and Tunaya, so not only could the Players carry out daily quests, they could also pit wits and brawn against the citizens there. Likewise, the Trinia Forests and its many arcana had yet to be explored.

Should the Players head out to Cromwell from the Unnamed Town, they could head towards the center of the Valla Empire by crossing the border at Sotimi. If they depart from Lancaster instead, they could head towards the Grand Duchy of Rominos by way of Codo Bosra…

Either way, the Players were not short of places to explore.

On the other hand, the relatively deceptive title ‘new continent’ notwithstanding, Players visiting the Western Continent even in short trips would find that the Hyena-men were simply everywhere. Not only were they unrewarding to kill, they love sneak attacks and fought most disgustingly—there was just nothing fun about it.

But even if you wouldn’t believe in the existence of the devil, the devil does believe in your existence.

There was no way that the appearance of so many humans at the Long Ears’ settlement could keep a secret from the Hyena-men in the first place. The only thing stopping them from making a move was that they didn’t know about the background of the Players.

Nonetheless, they assumed that the humans were nothing to brag about after they had managed to kill those Players who ventured out of the village. And with most of the other Players having left the Western Continent, the Hyena-men got the wrong idea that they could wipe out the humans, take their balls as evidence to appeal for recognition amongst the Grayclaw tribe.

Hence, they really sent out a squad that head out for the Long Ears’ village.

Still, one would have to give them credit as the most cunning of beasts… though that only applies to ‘beast’.

Like how adults would flatter a child, saying ‘Wow, so clever~’, the cleverness there didn’t mean that the child was actually clever, but that the child was still at the level of… a child.

And that was the same thing with the Hyena-men.

They might indeed appear intelligent and cunning compared to most nonhumans who were lacking in the brain department, they seemed to have reached the limits of their brainpower and could go no further as well.

For example, they simply didn’t consider other questions, such as ‘Why are so many humans appearing?’, ‘Why are they vanishing into thin air?’ or ‘If they can vanish into thin air, does that mean more humans could appear?’.

They didn’t even notice that the Long Ears suddenly had gained sufficient resources (mainly food) and hadn’t gone to sea for days.

And that was all there was to know about Hyena-men intelligence.

***

The Dark Tidal Coast had never been a safe place, which was why the sentries of the Long Ears’ village had never let down their guard.

That was why they immediately noticed the signs of the approaching pack of Hyena-men, and they quickly fired warning signals at the direction of the village.

There were also adventurous Players—led by Zonyan—who had stayed in the village, intent on exploring the new continent. They did not panic with what was happening, and started to scout out the enemy.

“There are almost five hundred of them…” A Spirit Swordsman said in confusion after recalling his Spirit Familiar which he had sent out for reconnaissance. “Most of them between level ten to twenty. There are some stronger than that, but those are mostly elites.”

As mentioned before, most Players could basically fight five Hyena-men at once thanks to their advantage in level and item.

There just around twenty Players who had hanged around the Long Ears’ village, and using that formula would mean they could fight around a hundred Hyena-men.