Chapter 506: These Two Days

Chapter 506: These Two Days

Green Hair was a troublemaker. Although his troublemaking in adventures brought some benefits, like discovering many details others easily missed, and it wasn’t used to trick people, but in daily life, this trait was a bit much. So, it was better Fred didn’t know his reaction. This gloomy berserker seemed very quiet on the surface, but after two days of contact, Oss understood—this guy’s so-called silence was only superficial.

He still had a particularly fierce heart inside, especially obvious during fights. All that quiet, steady, and calm stuff? Total lies!!

“Stop gossiping about people behind their backs; it’s not good.” Oss stopped Green from continuing to babble. If no one heard, fine, but if someone did… yuck!

As for why they could leave this place during the day without much burden, leaving Dan Marina alone here, the reason was simple: Zheng Yichen was right next door. There was no safer place than this, so of course they left without any pressure.

“That female knight, hmm, probably wanted to fight but couldn’t find a suitable opponent. Too bad no one came to pick a fight.”

“Eh? Is that so? Looking at her build, she seems like the type who wouldn’t like being idle either.” After listening to Dan Marina’s words, Green couldn’t help but speak up again. He then glanced at the single room nearby, which still had no movement, making Green curious. “Has Brother Dragon still not come out?”

“Seems to have something important going on.”

“Important?” Garcia asked suspiciously.

Dan Marina waved her hand. “I don’t know. After all, he’s a dragon and I’m human…”

Garcia didn’t say more. Zheng Yichen seemed very approachable, but he was ultimately a dragon, not a human. This racial gap didn’t seem like much of a barrier in ordinary matters, but when it came to things that needed secrecy, it was a different story.

Just as they were talking about today’s adventure in the Stone Forest, Zheng Yichen walked out of the single room. “Yo ho, everyone seems in good spirits!”

Zheng Yichen, who had just come out, greeted them warmly. Green guiltily looked away, thinking to himself: this dragon wouldn’t have been eavesdropping just now, would he? Although he had said a lot, he kept calling him “Brother Dragon” left and right, so there shouldn’t be a problem… but whether there was a problem or not was up to the dragon.

“How was today’s adventure harvest?”

“Just average.” Oss replied. Without Zheng Yichen, they couldn’t just breeze through like they did yesterday. Also, during fights, they had to be extra careful to avoid accidentally getting injured and infected by the Flesh Seed. Getting injured and infected by the Flesh Seed had a certain chance; for example, blunt injuries wouldn’t infect, or the chance was very low. But if injured by a Human Form in close combat, you’d likely get infected.

So, being cautious enough, they didn’t explore very quickly. During this time, they even encountered another mercenary team. The two sides had a little friction. Exploration quests—you always worry about running into peers. Running into peers means your exploration gains will be split.

And since it was exploration, in the early stages, it was natural to start with simpler areas. The Stone Forest exploration was still in its early stages. Running into people from The Church was one thing, but running into peers? Friction was inevitable. However, given the terrible environment, friction was mostly verbal; not many actually fought, regardless of which side was stronger or weaker.

Conflict meant possibly damaging stone pillars maliciously. At that point, whether one side was stronger or weaker didn’t matter. Wanting to go down together was ridiculously easy in the Stone Forest. So such friction was just cursing at each other. Fred was quiet and definitely wouldn’t curse—a berserker just charged ahead to slash, slash, slash. Taunting? Not needed!

If you didn’t come over, he’d go over. As for Garcia… he was a pleasant, faithful person, so he didn’t join in the cursing either. Oss… well, before he became a cultist, he was just an ordinary person in the slum, making a living through odd jobs and part-time work in the slum… what kind of part-time work?

The kind that took money from other people’s pockets!

Different from outright robbery, their kind of part-time work was more technical. Of course, it was also “safer” than outright robbery. More technical ones, if discovered, could lead to trouble, like getting beaten up—pretty dangerous. But that was just how things were in the slum. To survive, you had to do many things. Even Oss knew doing that back then wasn’t good.

But to survive, even if it wasn’t good, you had to do it.

So, the main force in the friction and cursing battle was Green. Green was an old hand in the adventuring world. His youthful appearance hid the age of an older “veteran.” With much experience, his cursing battles were rich. He alone cursed so fiercely that the other mercenary team couldn’t lift their heads, even getting furious enough to want to fight. But between life and futile rage, life was more important. A few ill-timed Soul Spirits popped out and interrupted the cursing battle. Then, over a dozen Human Forms passed by, saw them, and immediately got interested. Oh, you’re cursing so fiercely, looks like you’re about to fight—let us join in!

With someone breaking up the fight, other matters naturally became simpler. The cursing battle ended, and everyone went their separate ways.

“Sounds exciting.” Lena’s eyes lit up, and she expressed regret at missing such an event. “Tomorrow, can I…”

“No!” Oss said bluntly. As exploration of those easier areas progressed, the chances of Professionals meeting during exploration would keep increasing. After all, the outer ring of the Stone Forest was the largest. Next time they met people, it might not be solvable with just a cursing battle. Green, this green-haired guy, had a really poisonous mouth. The other side hadn’t planned to fight at first, but he stubbornly made that person so angry they were ready to go all out in a life-or-death fight.

Next time, it wasn’t clear if there would be anyone to break up the fight. Without Zheng Yichen around, bringing Dan Marina would definitely be the most unwise choice. If no conflict arose, fine, but once conflict broke out, the only woman in the team could easily be targeted—after all, perceived as weak. And even if it wasn’t physical conflict, in a cursing battle, having an extra woman would also be a disadvantage.

Unless the woman was that manly knight from before. Speaking of which, from knowing Lena until now, Oss thought carefully—he had never heard her say a single curse word… not one. So, was this typical of noble children? Nobles… he had learned from some novels on the Forum that some nobles cursed even more viciously, even dragging ancestors into it, and for the sake of profit, could escalate the cursing battle further.

What was the reason? Oh, right, once nobles truly fought, things would head in a terrible direction. In operations besides fighting, problems were small. So every qualified noble was a cursing battle expert? If you couldn’t fight, of course you had to practice your verbal skills.

Hmm, that’s how novels described it. Below, there were many comments saying it was slander. Being a noble wasn’t like being a nouveau riche; they had class too… well, okay, though they generally didn’t curse, when fighting for interests and getting really heated with rival nobles, they would indeed curse. Even if they couldn’t win, they had to stand their ground. Losing interests but winning the battle? Even if unhappy, you wouldn’t feel so terrible you wanted to vomit blood.

Anyway, there were many replies; Oss didn’t know which were true and which false. Thinking about it now, maybe Lena was also a seasoned cursing battle expert… Oh, the possibility seemed low. There was a statistics thread on the Magic Weapon Forum, a “survey” mainly about how well nobles cursed. Reliability was temporarily unknown, but the statistical result was that nobles skilled in cursing battles were mostly concentrated in middle-aged and older stages.

Lena was so young; she probably wasn’t good at so-called cursing battles.

“But I’m really strong…”

“…” Oss’s mouth twitched. Damn, could she really be hiding her skills? He imagined Lena with hands on hips cursing at a bunch of guys—this would totally ruin her image! Must not happen! The goddess should continue being a goddess properly, not thinking about ruining her image all the time.

“Fighting is unavoidable, so for safety, you’d better stay at the Quarantine Camp.” Oss said seriously. Following Zheng Yichen was fine; with him around, even if they met other Professionals in the Stone Forest, it didn’t matter. After all, they wouldn’t dare fight, and if they cursed at a dragon… did they not want to live?

“Can’t Connor come along?”

“…” So, you’re planning a one-sided cursing session?!

“I accepted a quest from The Church these two days, researching something, so unless it’s something major, basically don’t look for me.” Zheng Yichen immediately said. While Oss was imagining Dan Marina in a one-sided cursing scene, Zheng Yichen couldn’t help but think too. Witches lived so long; there was nothing they hadn’t seen, so they were probably very skilled at cursing too. But precisely because they lived so long, they probably couldn’t be bothered to curse.

Look at Loris, Irene, and Qin—Zheng Yichen thought the same as Oss; he had never heard them say any curse words. Annie, due to her unique nature, had a particularly young mindset, so occasionally saying some was normal. Dan Marina… you couldn’t view her with normal logic. So imagining her in a verbal battle… no, cursing battle—thinking about it well, it didn’t seem too outrageous?

So, better nip her idea in the bud early. That image was just too beautiful to think about.

“Hey, Brother Dragon, what you’re doing is about the Flesh Seed, right? Can it be resolved these two days?” Green’s eyes moved slightly, keenly picking up some important information revealed in Zheng Yichen’s words. Highlight: these two days!

“Depends on progress, but even if slower, it should be within these two days. As for effectiveness… would you like to try it first?”

Oss was startled. These words sounded like something Zheng Yichen had said before, to his old pals…