Chapter 101: A place of extreme wood (1/2)

Chapter 101: A place of extreme wood

The group followed carefully behind the old forest troll priest towards recessed terrain, finally stopping beside a river after a half day’s time and passing through a broken section of mountain rock.

There was a river in the back and primitive houses made of wood all around there. There were also a few simple traps set up and several weird, towering trees. When they arrived, the original demon, that had been keeping an eye on the dwarves had to come back due to the distance between Han Shuo and the dwarves becoming too large. It circled this area and started surveying the various corners.

Leveraging the increased field of vision with the three original demons, Han Shuo discovered that this was an extremely large area. He made a rough calculation that there were several hundred huts here. It looked like this was the hideout of the forest trolls. Many green-skinned forest trolls clutched weapons in their hands, whether they were children or females, and were being trained by a strong forest troll warrior.

From the elves’ description earlier, Han Shuo understood that the forest trolls were born with a natural inclination for raiding and looting. There was no such thing as self providing and self sufficiency in their lives. Whether food, drink, or items of use, they all naturally thought that these items should be earned through stealing. They, who worshipped the demon of raiding Datara, also treated children and women as a training target as this would increase their strength during raids.

When the old priest arrived, he used the language of the forest trolls to call something out loudly. All the forest trolls in the tribe, whether children, the elderly, or females, excitedly ripped off the pockets on their body and waved them in the air, calling out, “Datara, Datara!”

After continuing in this fashion for a while, the old priest finally continued conversing with Han Shuo in the language of the humans, “Come, I will take the great Datara and his liaison to the sacred grounds.”

“Mm, hurry up. The great Datara is impatient.” Han Shuo said with a darkened face.

The forest trolls continued carrying the little skeleton and Han Shuo continued on foot. Several troll warriors pushed in several wooden rafts from afar. Han Shuo and the little skeleton walked towards the wooden rafts when indicated by the old priest. Afterwards, some of the forest trolls paddled their wooden oars and set out for the river current.

The wooden rafts advanced slowly, docking at a patch of swampy earth after roughly half an hour. Han Shuo followed the old priest up the shore and discovered that all the trees here were towering and extremely large. The vibrant growth of the grass and shrubbery was enough to drown a person, and even the weeds here grew with great vigor.

The plants and trees on all sides seemed to be growing quite well, and a bizarre presence seemed to permeate the air. Pushing past the thick shrubbery, several troll warriors led the way. The old priest pointed out the road and Han Shuo followed behind him, heading for an even deeper part of the area.

As he made his way deeper, a feeling grew within Han Shuo that something was amiss, as if he’d heard of this place somewhere. He finally stopped in front of a tall house that looked like it was being hauled upwards by a towering, huge tree with this bemused mindset.

The thickly leafed branches of five to six very tall trees were intertwined, with the entwined branches supporting a large house in midair. The plants were growing exceptionally well around it, and there were also some bizarre flowers bearing some strange and exotic fruit.

Looking around the surroundings and blanking for quite a bit, Han Shuo’s heart shook and he suddenly cried out in astonishment, “A place of extreme wood. Haha, this is actually a place of extreme wood! No wonder all the plants have developed so perfectly. So this is the case!”

A naturally formed place of extreme wood. The presence of the element of wood within it was much more dense than in other places. All the plants and trees that grew in a place of extreme wood were naturally much more luxuriant than in other places. Although the forest trolls worshipped the demon of raiding, Datara, it was said in legends that they were a race evolved from trees, and so they had a natural affinity for wood.

“The air here is clearer than anywhere else. Our ancestors searched for many years before discovering this place, and so built the palace of the sacred ground here. The stone statue of Datara was erected for worship inside. There are tributes offered to the great Datara every year in hopes that the great one will ensure our successful raids.” The old priest genuflected piously towards the house hovering in mid air and said all this softly.

After thinking for a while, the old priest seemed to think that this was inappropriate and immediately started bowing down to the little skeleton. He spoke some gobbledegook to the troll warriors lifting the little skeleton’s carriage. The troll warriors lowered the carriage and indicated for the little skeleton to depart from the carriage.

At this moment, Han Shuo was thinking of how his wood elite zombie was already at hand and was incredibly excited. He’d actually forgotten to continue giving orders to the little skeleton. The old priest made a number of sincere requests and discovered that the little skeleton was still sitting motionless within the carriage. His brow tightly knit together, he sank to his knees in front of Han Shuo. “Liaison, why doesn’t the great Datara descend from the carriage? Have we done something wrong?”

The old priest’s words immediately startled Han Shuo from his daydream. He turned his head and discovered that the little skeleton was lying there lazily, as if he’d fallen asleep. Han Shuo gave an order and the little skeleton’s legs straightened, standing up abruptly and looked around with his shiny skull, the bone dagger in his hand.

“Datara was contemplating just now and didn’t hear your calls. Come, we go up now!” Han Shuo snickered inwardly but spoke seriously to the old priest.

Timidly nodding his head, the old priest didn’t dare to ask anything else. He walked to the back of one of the towering trees and started climbing up after pulling down a soft ladder, woven from tree branches. Han Shuo followed behind the old priest and climbed up, also making use of the soft ladder.

The little skeleton walked out from within the carriage and moved to somewhere in the distance before Han Shuo had a chance to give orders to the little skeleton. What happened next was something out of everyone’s expectation as it made use of the momentum from charging forward, extended both leg bones, and flew into the sky when the seven bone spurs on its back flapped around randomly. It landed in front of the door to the big house in the sky before Han Shuo and the old priest reached it.

His body wavering in front of the big house, the little skeleton slowly regained his footing and shook his head. He then pulled open the door and entered the house, with pilipala sounds of items being rifled through sounding out.