Chapter 192: Bonfire Banquet, 600,000 Experience Points
2025-01-16 Author: Amnesty L
Stepping on the pile of sand, dyed red with blood.
Tang Zheng paused mid-turn, an astonished expression on the face covered by his Body Armament.
The situation just now had actually triggered a job!
He knew that in this otherworld, people could unexpectedly obtain jobs due to various factors like personal experience and living environment.
But this was the first time he had personally encountered it.
"A 'Unique' job... Did a job system like that even exist in YGGDRASIL?" Tang Zheng muttered softly to himself, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.
He raised his head.
He looked at Alar and the others not far away, who were still shouting endlessly, their faces filled with the joy and frenzy of surviving a catastrophe.
"Gray Armor Knight!"
"Gray Armor Knight!"
"…!"
"Gray Armor Knight!"
The loud shouts continued. No one seemed to want to stop, as if trying to use their heart-rending cries to dispel the despair that had long been suppressed within them.
The people living here had probably always lived in fear of death and the annihilation of their race.
"A 'Unique' job, born from the 'hope' of the people here and my own existence? This is truly an unimaginable discovery."
Tang Zheng took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over the information on his status panel. He vaguely understood how the job had appeared and the conditions to acquire it.
"What a pity."
Upon successfully acquiring the [Gray Armor Knight (Unique)] job, it was automatically absorbed by his [Genius] job, becoming one of the many basic jobs it could transform into.
This meant that even Tang Zheng himself, under the effects of the [Genius] trait, couldn't figure out what abilities the job possessed.
Kacha!
Tang Zheng turned around, the gray armor of his Body Armament scraping with a crisp sound as he raised his foot and stepped on the head of a dead Grey Dwarf.
Whoosh—
Tang Zheng raised his arm, lifting high the magic greatsword in his hand, which was reddened with blood.
Following this action, Alar and all the other humans stopped shouting and turned to him with gazes full of worship and fanaticism.
With a thought, the blood-stained gray armor of his Body Armament transformed into a cloud of gray mist and merged back into his body.
The blood that had stained the armor scattered as droplets, revealing Tang Zheng dressed in a tight, black outfit. The blade of his magic greatsword reflected a cold glint under the sunlight.
"Victory!"
Tang Zheng shouted to the people in the distance.
"Victory!"
"Victory!"
"Victory!"
"…!"
"Victory!"
The resounding shouts echoed across the area once more.
Night fell, and the sky above the oasis was dotted with countless stars.
A roaring bonfire burned brightly, casting a fiery red glow on the faces of everyone gathered around.
Men and women wearing earth-brown headscarves danced wildly around the bonfire. This was the traditional celebration and attire of the human tribe living here.
However, the gazes of most were gathered in awe upon a young, black-haired man not far away. Their tribe leader sat beside the young man, seemingly chatting about something.
At this moment, the table in front of Tang Zheng was laden with all sorts of strange and peculiar, yet fragrant, food.
"Lord Hero, this is salted bread made from the sand rice we grow ourselves, ground into powder and mixed with saltwood."
Alar's father, Tribe Leader Diyelong, his skin dark and tanned, sat in a kneeling position beside Tang Zheng, respectfully introducing the food on the table:
"This is Desert Thorn. It looks a bit dark, but that's because it's sun-dried before being roasted. It's very crisp."
"This is Sour Desert Soup, made from a unique plant found in our oasis. The dark specks on top are powdered saltwood. It's our most important plant for supplementing our salt intake."
Tribe Leader Diyelong spoke cautiously, afraid that the food on the table would be unpalatable to the Lord Hero who had saved their entire tribe.
In his eyes, Tang Zheng, who had single-handedly crushed the entire Grey Dwarf legion, must be just like his own father—an indescribably powerful existence who had stepped into the domain of a hero.
To be able to present nearly ten different kinds of food in a desert region with such a harsh living environment showed how much effort Tribe Leader Diyelong and the others had put in.
"There's no need to call me Lord Hero. My name is Tang."
Tang Zheng spoke again to correct the other's form of address. Tribe Leader Diyelong's constant use of the title "Hero" was making even him feel a bit embarrassed.
"This food is all very good."
Tang Zheng wasn't particularly picky about food, so he casually picked something up and took a few bites.
The taste was quite unique, and not at all unpleasant.
Ever since transmigrating to this world, Tang Zheng had spent most of his time in the wilderness and had never been demanding about food. As long as it wasn't bad, it was fine.
"Shoo!"
The goshawk, which was the transformed Ghoul Dog, feasted heartily on a piece of roasted scorpion meat, seeming very satisfied.
Tang Zheng reached out and patted the Ghoul Dog's wing, signaling it to be a bit quieter. A goshawk's way of eating was still somewhat different from a Ghoul Dog's.
The Ghoul Dog obviously hadn't fully adapted yet.
But even so, Tang Zheng had no intention of making the Ghoul Dog exit its goshawk form. After all, it was his magic power that was being consumed.
Concealing his own abilities had always been one of Tang Zheng's principles, and he needed to be especially careful with the details.
Seeing that Tang Zheng was reasonably satisfied, Tribe Leader Diyelong finally let out a small sigh of relief.
"What's the situation with the Grey Dwarves? How many troops do they have left?" Tang Zheng asked the crucial question after eating some food.
The 5,000-strong Grey Dwarf legion, though routed, had not been completely wiped out. A few Grey Dwarf soldiers had escaped, a situation that naturally needed to be guarded against.
Would the Grey Dwarves send reinforcements?
Among his gains this time, aside from unexpectedly acquiring a "Unique" basic job, his experience points had skyrocketed.
[Experience Slot: 782,262 / 120,000]
He had nearly annihilated the 5,000-strong Grey Dwarf legion in one go, to the point that his sword-swinging arms still felt numb and sore.
But at the same time, his experience had shot up by more than 600,000 in one fell swoop!
"The Grey Dwarves occupy the largest oasis in this Death Valley. They have a population of around twenty thousand, more than four times that of our human tribe."
As Tribe Leader Diyelong spoke, his voice still held a trace of fear.
More than four times the population—this wasn't just a difference in numbers. The disparity in the number of strong individuals, able-bodied adults, and so on, meant the two sides weren't in the same league.
Following the death of their human tribe's strongest member, Tribe Leader Diyelong had already braced himself for annihilation by the Grey Dwarves. It wasn't just him; everyone in the entire tribe was already prepared for death.
Just like the name of this "Despair Valley."
Every single day, they all lived in despair, simply awaiting the arrival of death.
Flee this oasis?
Without a water source, survival in this vast desert was impossible. It would merely be trading one form of death for another.
Even now, though they had achieved victory, nearly a thousand tribesmen had died, and the number of injured was even greater.
"Your Excellency Tang!"
"If not for your appearance, our tribe would have likely been wiped out! I have failed my father, and I have failed all my tribesmen."
Tribe Leader Diyelong suddenly bent over and kowtowed heavily on the ground before Tang Zheng, starting to wail loudly.
He clearly seemed to be a very resilient and serious middle-aged tribe leader, so his sudden wailing made Tang Zheng feel a bit uncomfortable.
Just as he was about to reach out and help Tribe Leader Diyelong up.
The other humans who had been watching them while dancing around the bonfire all fell to their knees at this moment, bowing their heads toward Tang Zheng.
The sounds of sobbing and crying filled the air.
At the sudden scene, the corner of Tang Zheng's eye twitched, and the hand he had extended to help Tribe Leader Diyelong up paused in mid-air.
An atmosphere of sorrow spread through the air.
The joyous atmosphere from before seemed to vanish in an instant!
Looking at this scene, Tang Zheng's expression gradually became calm as he swept his impassive gaze over everyone. "How unsightly."
"So, do you usually solve your problems by crying?!"
"The people I saved were a group of humans who would bite a chunk of flesh from their enemies even if it meant death!"
"You were able to seize an oasis in a place like this and survive here, and you didn't do it by crying, did you?"
His level voice echoed in the air.
Tribe Leader Diyelong immediately raised his head, wiped the tears from his face, and gave Tang Zheng a respectful nod. "Forgive my rudeness."
Immediately after, Tribe Leader Diyelong turned his head toward his tribesmen, who were still kneeling on the ground, took a sharp breath, and bellowed, "Haven't you cried enough?!"
"I, your Tribe Leader, am not dead yet, and our race hasn't been exterminated!"
"What's there to be sad about! Is there anyone here whose family hasn't lost someone? Haven't enough of our people died already?!"
"Now get back to dancing! Dance!"
The furious roar echoed through the oasis, and even the steadily burning bonfire seemed to flare in response.
One by one, with flushed faces, everyone scrambled up from the ground. The flames of the bonfire burned more fiercely, and their dancing became even more frenzied.
"I've made a fool of myself, Lord Hero… Your Excellency Tang."
Tribe Leader Diyelong turned back, looking at Tang Zheng with some unease. Just after saying the words "Lord Hero," he felt Tang Zheng's gaze and hastily corrected himself, continuing in a low voice:
"The forces the Grey Dwarves could deploy have been eliminated by you, my lord. With your help, the Grey Dwarf race won't invade our territory for at least ten years."
Looking at Tribe Leader Diyelong, who had recovered so quickly, Tang Zheng gave him a deep look. Anyone who could become a tribe leader certainly had some ability.
The Grey Dwarves had a total population of around twenty thousand. To send five thousand soldiers at once could indeed be described as going all-out. They clearly intended to annihilate the human tribe in one fell swoop and completely occupy this oasis.
As for the remaining fifteen thousand, converting half of them into a fighting force shouldn't be a problem, but after this incident…
(end of chapter)