The Creators: From Night City

Page 348

Chapter 712 Jordan Kuller

The guards on the city walls were still the same dashing Rogues, but there were many more tall warriors, their bodies encased in heavy metal armor, standing watch alongside them.

"Zul, welcome back. I heard about the battle in the Burial Grounds from the sisters who came back from their reconnaissance missions. It's hard to believe that you single-handedly wiped out the entire reinforcement army sent by Andariel." Kasha, who was in charge of security and guard duty, noticed the necromancer's return immediately. Without even going up the stairs, she jumped down from the wall and stood in front of him.

“I only held them off temporarily. If they hadn’t suddenly retreated, I wouldn’t have been able to hold them off for long.” Zul didn’t take credit. “Your battle against the demons is what’s really important. In comparison, I only did some supporting work.”

"Ha!" Kasha laughed heartily, waving at the camera next to the pass—a device whose mechanism she couldn't understand and which she could only regard as a spell like the Eye of a Mage—signaling the people in the security room behind to open the gate and let them through quickly.

"Thanks to Lord Sabur and his soldiers of Anti-Entropy, we were able to launch this inspiring counterattack." Kasha led the three of them through the heavily guarded pass.

The barbarian gazed at the heavy, intricate construction of the heavy machine guns, and at the 'Apostles' armed to the rump, eyes hidden, guns drawn, on high alert. He whispered to his newly acquainted companion, "I've never seen an army with such a high rate of armor. Even Westmarch's most elite paladin legion can't compare."

The mage, however, gazed intently into the interior of the apostles' armor, his fingers tracing the large purple gemstone at the head of his staff, and said meaningfully, "Don't just look at their surface steel; you must also learn to discern their inner essence."

"Not all paladins who use the holy light power taught by the higher heavens are such pure warriors."

"Are they all soldiers of [Anti-Entropy]?" Zul still maintained his unapproachable demeanor as he followed Kasha, but when he was with acquaintances, he was no longer as cold and distant as when they first met.

"Of course, thanks to them, the attacking demons were completely wiped out. Otherwise, probably less than one in ten people in the entire Rogue Encampment would have survived."

Kasha led the way, continuing, "Akara has reached an agreement with Lord Sabur, the Blind Sisters have temporarily allied with Anti-Entropy, and the camp has undergone a complete transformation. Zul, I'm sure you'll be quite surprised when the time comes."

Standing on the new road paved with quick-drying cement, looking at the new houses with modular hoisting components on both sides of the road, and then at the Anti-Entropy construction workers busy building on the site of the former Rogue Encampment, listening to the roar of various infrastructure machines in his ears, Zul rarely twitched the corners of his mouth and joked: "This already surprises me a lot."

The necromancer wasn't the only one surprised; the female mage and the barbarian were equally astonished by what they had seen and heard along the way.

From the Palicoes rushing past carrying or bearing various supplies on both sides of the road to the Edos-like people dressed in fine clothes patrolling the streets, they were all amazed.

These members of [Anti-Entropy] were simply not on the same level as the disheveled, even somewhat malnourished, Rogue Encampment exiles.

The former has a color saturation that is several times higher than the latter.

Not to mention the drones constantly hovering in the sky and the electric lights that illuminated the streets and alleys, which used no magic at all, making the female mage extremely curious.

“Welcome back to Rogue Encampment. As is customary, you’ll need to visit Akara first. Also, a friendly reminder: feel free to visit Anti-Entropy’s canteen when you have time.” Kasha pushed open the wooden door of the house in the center of the camp, but instead of going in, he gestured for the three to walk inside.

Akara's tent was not dismantled, but her office was moved to a spacious and bright command post.

When Zul and his two companions entered the room, Deka Kane was pointing out a book to Jiang Bing.

"The Horadrim did not discover runewords first. In fact, this in-depth development based on rune power was discovered and utilized by mages much earlier."

Kane stroked his gray beard. Thanks to the powerful logistical support capabilities of Anti-Entropy, although he was still wearing his robe, he was no longer filthy.

"The members of the Horadrim merely collected and studied it before standardizing and organizing it. In reality, all the runes and runewords discovered so far have been gathered by a powerful mage within the Horadrim into an artifact he created."

As expected, Jiang Bing nodded slowly and preemptively gave the answer he already knew: "Is it the Horadric Cube?"

His confident answer did not receive Deckard Kane's approval. The old sage merely looked at Jiang Bing with surprise, but did not express his agreement: "I did not expect that Lord Sabur would also know about the 'Hradim Cube', but what I am talking about is not it. It is actually just a substitute for this artifact."

Deckard Kane's words unexpectedly caught Jiang Bing's attention. He never imagined that the 'Hradim Cube' he had been longing for was just a substitute.

"However, you are not wrong either. The Horadric Cube does indeed contain all the runes and all the runic words that the Horadric has explored. If you only want to obtain knowledge of the Way of the Runes, it can indeed meet your needs."

"What is the name of that divine artifact?"

Jiang Bing was clearly interested in the genuine product that Deckard Kane had mentioned.

The Horadrim survivor stroked his lips and scratched his head, seemingly finding it difficult to make a decision.

But in the end, he turned to a certain page of his thick Deckard Kane diary.

“I have spent many years sorting through historical images and traveling to many places to find knowledge related to the Horadrim. To be honest, over the years, there have been very few people who have both disgusted and admired me, and Jotun Kuller is one of them.”

“Jordan Kuller?” Jiang Bing searched his memories, confirming that the other party did not exist in his mind.

In reality, he had only played Diablo II, so naturally he wouldn't have any information about the characters appearing in the third generation.

“Zortun Kulle was one of the seven powerful founders of the Horadrim,” Deckard Cain showed Jiang Bing the diary. It contained a portrait of Zortun Kulle. To be honest, he wasn’t very good-looking. Jiang Bing glanced at it and only remembered the man’s shiny forehead.

"Jordan Kuller?" A surprised female voice came from the doorway.

Chapter 713 The Magic Box

Jiang Bing and Deckard Kane looked up together and found that the speaker was a woman. She was wearing an exotic green robe, a high-end gold headdress inlaid with rubies, and a long magic wand in her hand. She was the female mage Isendra.

"Zortun Kuller of the Ennard family, the greatest alchemist in history?"

“My esteemed mage, I never expected you to know these things.” Deckard Kane was quite polite to intellectuals.

Isendra stepped forward and politely nodded to Jiang Bing and Akara before solemnly answering Deekason's question.

“Isendra, a member of the Zan Isen clan, I saw records of him in the library when I was studying at the Sare Sanctuary. His name is as famous as the many works he created, but I am sure that the book does not record that he ever created a divine artifact as you described.”

"Actually, it does exist, but this history was sealed away by the other mages of the Horadrim."

Deecard Kane felt that these old stories no longer needed to be hidden in the current situation, and that information about Zoltun Kuller was not considered top secret among mages. Anyone who wanted to investigate could find clues, so he simply revealed everything he knew.

Kane, the "magic box," turned another page of the diary, but this page only had a square drawn hastily in ink, without any explanation or details.

“In the early days of the Horadrim’s pursuit of the three Prime Evils who had been banished from Hell to Sanctuary, they realized that the Prime Evils were still not strong enough and needed the help of other forces. So Kule gathered the precious knowledge of all the mage clans in the Horadrim organization and combined all the knowledge he had to develop a new device called ‘The Magic Box’.”

Deekka Kane gently stroked the patterns on the pages with his fingers, as if touching the artifact itself across history.

"The Horadrim realized the necessity of this item, and the mages, almost pooling the strength of the entire organization, forged it within a few weeks under the leadership of Zoltun Kulle. This artifact lived up to expectations; it could reforge, extract, melt, and imbue all magical items with various powers, and could even mass-produce powerful magical tools and alchemical items. With the 'Magic Box' in hand, the overall strength of the Horadrim quickly experienced a leap forward."

"And then?" Jiang Bing became interested after hearing Deckard Kane's explanation. This thing sounded like a 'youthful version' of the 'Ether Furnace'.

"Gradually, the Pandora's Box became the center of the Horadrim's operations, but the other founders discovered that they were slowly becoming dependent on it. Once this became a habit, the entire Horadrim would be bound to these small 'Pandora's Boxes. If the 'Pandora's Boxes' were damaged, stolen, or simply corrupted by demons, the entire organization could fall into depravity and disintegrate in a short period of time. After reaching this conclusion, the Horadrim leaders discussed the matter and decided to hide the Pandora's Boxes."

Deckard Kane sighed, as if regretting that he would never have the chance to see the artifact.

"So I guess the place where this thing is hidden is top secret, even you, the last successor of the Horadrim, don't know it, right?" Jiang Bing looked completely unsurprised; the tone of this story was too classic.

“That’s right,” Deckard Kane shook his head with a wry smile.

"Of all the Horadric members, only Kule opposed the decision, but in order to prevent anyone from coveting the 'Box,' the task of hiding the Box was secretly carried out by a powerful barbarian. He did a good job, and even in the last moment before Kule was corrupted and sealed by the Horadric, he was unable to retrieve the work."

"Excellent!" Jiang Bing almost clapped loudly.

"Let's get back to the Horadric Cube."

“Actually, I’m not sure of its location either.” Kane blushed slightly, a rare occurrence for him.

"After sealing away the Lord of Destruction, the Horadric Cube was hidden by the mages of the Horadric. Its location should be in the Alanoc Desert, not far from the Tomb of Tal Rasha, but the exact location is not recorded in detail in the records left by my ancestor Jared Cain."

"However, I suspect that the person who hid the Pandora's Box was Rodament."

To be honest, Deckard Cain's knowledge is absolutely worthy of his reputation. In Jiang Bing's memory, the Horadric Cube should be hidden in an ancient tomb in the Alanok Desert, and its location is indeed recorded on the Horadric Scroll buried with Rhodament.

In other words, the conclusion Kane deduced from the vast amount of data is most likely true.

"So if we want to reach Dar Gowin and find the Pandora's Box, we must eliminate Andariel and capture the East Gate Fortress," Jiang Bing said, stroking his chin.

"Snapped"

Kane closed his diary and suggested, "In fact, with Lord Sabur's strength, he could also choose to cross the Kanduras Mountains first and avoid the East Gate Fortress."

The Candulas Mountains, running north-south, lie between Alarok and Tristram, and their depth is no less than that of the Himalayas. However, as Kane said, this distance is not a problem for Jiang Bing at all.

The monastery occupied by Andariel could only block the main force from traveling together; there was really nothing that could be done about the elite squad's alternative route.

Just as Jiang Bing was considering the possibility of this suggestion, the female mage suddenly spoke up: "I do not recommend doing this, Lord Sabur. We think we are running out of time."

She waved her staff and pointed to the location of the Eastern Blind Monastery. "I was originally planning to travel to Westmarch, but as I passed by, the darkness that loomed over the Eastern Gate Fortress caught my attention. In the days that have passed since I came here, the darkness over the Eastern Gate Fortress has grown thicker and thicker."

At this point, Isendra's expression turned solemn, and she said earnestly, "To be honest, before coming to the camp, my companions and I took a stroll around the monastery and found that dark magic from all directions was slowly converging there. I believe that Andariel is holed up in the monastery, keeping his doors closed, because he is definitely carrying out some kind of evil ritual that connects to hell. If we let this go unchecked, we may be met with an endless army of demons pouring out of hell."

“We must take the initiative,” the barbarian said at the right moment. Although his warrior’s intuition was not as sensitive as the female mage’s sense of elemental perception, he could still sense something unusual.

"So it's a time-limited mission after all," Jiang Bing thought to himself after hearing the female mage's opinion.

Chapter 714 Observations in the Cafeteria

However, he still believed what the other party said. After all, the dark magic above the monastery was so dense that it had gathered into dark clouds. Given Andariel's character, it was hard to believe that she would behave herself and not cause any trouble.

“A great battle has just ended, and the Rogge and Lord Sabur’s soldiers all need time to rest.” Akara handed the three of them hot tea at the right moment.

"The Blind Sisters' desire to reclaim the monastery is stronger than anyone else's, but we must be cautious about this matter."

"Moreover, not only is the power of the Demon King of Pain growing, but our strength is also increasing. During this period, there will definitely be righteous people like the two of you who will be drawn here by the darkness, and we will also have reinforcements."

Akara's words were reasonable and well-founded, so the mage and the barbarian could only agree.

"You two guests who have come from afar, please rest well at the camp. After all, only by being fully rested can you better fight against the demons." In a brief encounter, the nun had already completed her 'political review'.

"We can't do anything else for now, but we can still provide you with clean food, fresh water, and comfortable beds."

“This is enough,” the female mage quickly said in thanks.

The barbarians' behavior had absolutely nothing to do with barbarity.

He nodded slightly: "Thank you for your generosity."

Akara then gestured for the two to look at Jiang Bing: "If you want to express your gratitude, thank Lord Sabur. He provided the vast majority of the supplies in the camp."

In fact, Akara was being a bit conservative. All the necessities for the Rogue Encampment were provided by Anti-Entropy. The number of exiles in the Rogue Encampment was pitifully small. When calculating the amount of supplies, Chief Gloria didn't even bother to prepare two separate plans and just included it in the calculation.

After all, how much can a few hundred people eat?

Of course, this is also someone's way of winning people's hearts. After all, the combat power of the Rogues is enviable. Deepening cooperation will make it easier to negotiate when it comes to asking for people.

Having said all that, the three wisely got up to take their leave, especially Zul, whose body had been completely exhausted by the series of battles. Although he appeared to be sitting there perfectly fine, he was actually completely drained and desperately needed rest.

As Ethan DeLa rose from his seat, he vaguely heard Deekka Kane chatting with Jiang Bing.

"Lord Sabur, you may not believe it, but I feel like I've made contact with the High Heavens. I think I dreamed of angels last night."

Which angel?

"He claims to be righteous..."

The following sentences became unclear as the female mage left the house.

"Alright, what are your plans next?" Zul asked the other two, his arms crossed, his face pale.

The "canteen" barbarian's name is concise and to the point, and he can eat a lot.

The canteen that Kasha mentioned was actually a very large metal shed. The space, built with a steel frame and alloy panels, was quite spacious. Although it was somewhat rudimentary, it provided adequate shelter from the wind and rain.

The three were assigned to the combat unit, so their meal standard was one level higher than that of ordinary exiled civilians. After arriving at the canteen, they were led by logistics staff who were waiting there to pass through the bustling restaurant hall and arrive at the combat personnel's exclusive dining area—a small brick house shaped like a cat's head.

The male Edos-like man led the three to the door, tapped a few times on a machine, completed a simple facial recognition scan for them, and gave them nearly three days' worth of 'meal vouchers'.

Ten tickets per person.

These red Level 1 meal allowance coupons are printed with exquisite detail. The dark red main color is inlaid with gold trim. Made of an unknown metal, the 8cm x 5cm coupon shape feels very high-quality in the hand and looks like a work of art.

Seeing the big picture from small details, the three of them, holding these recently produced receipts in their hands, unanimously sensed a glimpse of the formidable power of the [Anti-Entropy] organization.

However, this thing is actually stamped out using an integrated machine tool, which requires no technical expertise. Hundreds or thousands of these can be produced in minutes on an assembly line.

Driven by curiosity about "entropy reversal," the three exchanged glances, filled with anticipation for the upcoming meal.

Lifting the curtain woven from some unknown kind of dry grass, the warmth of a campfire mixed with the rich aroma of food wafted into the three people's noses, instantly awakening the desire in their stomachs, and a feeling of hunger instantly overwhelmed them.

This is a kitchen with an exotic feel.

Directly opposite the door and most conspicuously positioned is a large fire pit, upon which sits a multi-tiered stone oven and a soup pot taller than a person.

The flames are burning fiercely.

A large, humanoid cat was standing in front of the fire pit, vigorously stirring the soup ladle in the pot, while several other Palicoes were standing on a special shelf, constantly turning the meat patties in the oven with special tongs.

That intoxicating aroma comes from this.

Surrounding the fire pit was a circle of seats for dining, which was just as lively, but the number of diners was much smaller. Most of them were handsome Edos-like people and tall 'Apostles', as well as groups of three or five Rogues, and a few exiles who had been assigned to the combat ranks.

Wearing a brown vest and a short chef's hat, the kitchen helper, a cat, led the three to an empty seat. Before the three could speak, the cat spread out its furry paws at them and began to curl up.

Its body language was quite obvious, so the three extraordinary individuals tacitly slapped a 'meal voucher' into each other's hands, and the female mage Isendra even took the opportunity to touch the cat's fluffy palm.

The cafeteria here doesn't allow ordering food; what you eat depends entirely on the ingredients supplied by the logistics department that day and the mood of the head chef, 'Fat Orange'.

This is also to standardize the supply and reduce logistical pressure.

The cats happily carried away their 'meal allowance tickets'. The logistics department would give these feline cats a certain amount of extra allowance for each meal they completed.

Many of the Palicoes responsible for logistics have families to support. Apart from those Palicoes who crave adventure, a considerable number of them leave their homes to work at [Anti-Entropy] mainly for the high wages they can send back home to supplement their family income.

After all, not all Palicoes can become hunters' partners, and they can earn a considerable reward simply by hunting.