Chapter 399: The Players Return (1/2)

Woolsprout, the daughter of the Curly-Horns’ tribal chief did not differ much compared to the average Sheeple.

With her long blonde hair, white gown, and a little leather bag hanging off her waist, her looks were more on the side of charming and sweet instead of beautiful.

If one had to put their finger on it, she perhaps had a slight plump attractiveness from the perspective of a sheep’s proportions. However, she had the same volume of hair as a human, which was fewer than most Sheeple—her kind change coats periodically, and the Curly-Horns tribe often made clothes and fabrics out of the fur shed.

One should mention here that while only rams grow horns in nature, the Curly-Horns tribe grew horns as well without regard of gender (and was also their namesake). Still, male horns were longer sharper while female horns were quite tiny, appearing like an ornament and much more dainty.

“Sorry for the trouble.”

The young Sheeple who had learned about the specifics of the current situation bowed at the two Long-Ears. Her eyes were crystalline and her pupils a rare violet, just like a sparkling high-grade carnelian.

“It’s fine. And instead of observing meaningless gestures, we should get a move on.” Rangka had no idea why Laybit would agree to bring the Curly-Horns’ princess along their return home, but he could not decline now that it had happened, and merely grumbled, “Time waits for no lazy rabbit.”

The girl sensed Rangka’s impatience and so said nothing as she quietly followed them along on their return journey.

It was a dull journey until Rangka paused, seemingly sensing something.

“What is it?” Laybit asked in alarm.

Rangka picked out a single strand of fur from his hat, which was squirming and bending like a caterpillar, as if it was alive.

“This is a heartstring imbued with sorcery that your father gave me before we left.”

There were rarely any nonhumans who could use magic, and only shamans were capable of sorcery—aside from individuals who awaken their ancient bloodlines to obtain pseudo-magic.

Their sorcery resembled the divine arts of the various churches in the Eastern Continent, but because ancestral spirits were not actually gods and each tribe worshipped a different spirit, a corresponding god could not be created and only exists in the form of sprouts. That in turn left the nonhumans with an incomplete sacred arts system that eventually developed into sorcery—a special branch that did not require high divine energy, instead needing compatible conditions to activate, mainly through rituals or motions.

Swordtail Grayclaw’s dark sorcery and the Long-Ears’ martial sorcery were included in that domain. It was precisely because sorcery was equivalent to the magic of the Eastern Continent in the perspective of nonhumans that they consider it an ability their kind possessed. Therefore, while Swordtail’s dark sorcery does violate certain taboos, the other nonhumans did not protest too much when he used it to claim the spot as his tribe’s chief.

On the other hand, the Long-Ears’ shaman was very old and died when they moved to their new settlement. Moreover, there had yet to be a new shaman groomed and just a handful of candidates who could take the roll, which was why their elderly tribe chief had to play the role of shaman too.

Still, the Long Ears were no fools despite being vulnerable, and since the Players did not hold back, their tribe soon developed a method to communicate from across long distances.

Having been put on the backfoot because of that, the Long-Ears promptly asked the Players for details, but unfortunately that ability required conversion to the Church of Games, and they must become true believers too.

Even Rangka, one of the Long-Ears who had already planned to declare his faith in the God of Games, was unable to immediately forget his reverence towards his ancestors which had grown and accumulated over the years and simply shift his faith to a new entity, which was why there had yet to be any Long-Ears Players.

With the Players’ forums hence remaining unavailable, the Long-Ears chief had to give up and asked the Players about other ways to communicate over long distances.