Players’ NPC daddy

"You're so skilled!" The dwarf Hawkins patted his forehead and pointed to the stove beside him. "I know you Soul Eaters need a bed to rest, so you need to forge it yourself."

"However, to make it, you need at least a [High-level Blacksmith], but since you have dwarven blood, it should be easy."

"I'm only [Blacksmith Level 4]."

"You are a dwarf! What else can a dwarf do if not forge iron?" The dwarf Hawkins was so angry that his beard stood up, and he looked quite angry at the later generations for not learning their lesson.

"You can also shout 'Strength' and smash the enemy with an iron hammer, or you can shout 'Because of strength, therefore strength' and smash the enemy with a magic hammer." Marika described to the dwarf Hawkins the power dwarves and the strength and wisdom dwarves born among the strangers.

"Damn strangers, they actually ruined the reputation of the dwarves!" If there was a favorability bar, the dwarf Hawkins' favorability towards the group of strangers he had never met would have dropped significantly.

"He actually chose Intelligence! Dwarves don't need Intelligence at all! It won't help with blacksmithing!"

While Hawkins hammered the ground and cursed the stranger in the ancient dwarven dialect, Marika had already walked to the forge and picked up the hammer.

"You need to become a [High-Level Blacksmith] to build a shelter strong enough to hide from the Valkyries."

"I know." Marika looked at the hammer in her hand, then handed it to the dwarf Hawkins.

"You build it."

"what!?"

Chapter 375 Cats and Snakes, the Lifelong Enemies of Birds

Mekingiod City, the city of cats, is a place where everyone can enjoy the pure, lazy sun-bathing cats.

But today's cats were a little strange. They stood on the eaves of the buildings in Mekingjod City like some kind of guardian statues, all looking in one direction.

Blaze arrives in Mekingiod City.

"It seems they already know we are coming." Blaze jumped off the chicken. Countless cats were squatting on the walls of Mekingiod, looking down at them.

"Honestly, it's not a good idea to go after this guy."

On the way, Chicken told Blazer about their target: the Ouroboros. In short, it was an extremely large snake, so large that it could encircle the world and hold its tail in its mouth. Furthermore, the Ouroboros was a venomous snake. Legend has it that if its venom was dripped into a river, after seven days and seven nights, the entire world would be devoid of any living things.

It is a poison so deadly that it can even kill gods.

Blaze then asked if the poison could be used to kill the second-generation Cyclops. Chicken sighed regretfully, saying that there were no such good things in the world, and then explained in detail the blessing on the second-generation Cyclops.

Those who swear not to harm him will not be able to harm him.

The mother of the second-generation one-eyed man is a god and also a prophet.

As the wife of the First One-Eye, she enjoyed immense power, but unfortunately, that was the Age of the Gods, and her authority was limited to the World Tree. Forcing all creatures to refrain from harming the Second One-Eye was impossible; the neighboring gods would simply ignore her.

So she sat on the throne of the One-Eye, possessing the power to know everything in the universe and the privilege to observe everything in the universe. She concluded that the underlying structure.

She doesn't need to force everything in the world, she just needs to make the lowest things swear.

The Ouroboros was undoubtedly an incomparably terrifying monster, even gods paled before it. The Second One-Eye's mother was powerless to coerce the Ouroboros. All she had to do was get an ordinary snake to agree, because the blessing woven from the First One-Eye's throne only required a single concept, a single representation.

[Snakes] cannot harm the Second-Generation Cyclops, no matter if it's Ouroboros or Hydra, no matter if it's ordinary snake venom or the venom that can kill gods.

[Humans] cannot harm the Second Generation One-Eye, no matter if they are humans created by the gods, humans born naturally, or humans from another world.

It was even easier to prevent the gods from harming the second-generation One-Eye. The second-generation One-Eye's mother swore not to harm the second-generation One-Eye, and from then on the gods were unable to harm the second-generation One-Eye.

The reason why mistletoe was missed was simply because the second-generation one-eyed mother had a bad memory and forgot to ask.

"Shouldn't the gods of that era be fighting each other? The birth of an invincible being like the Second One-Eye would surely invite encirclement and suppression, wouldn't it?"

"You have to understand that every family has its own problems. The World Tree itself is full of contradictions, almost to the point of self-destruction without any external threats. The other gods are similar. How could they care less about the affairs of the second-generation One-Eye?"

The chicken showed a smiling expression, and it was obvious that the habit of watching the fun was cultivated a long time ago.

"By the way, the reason I don't recommend going after Ouroboros is because it's very dangerous. To put it bluntly, if the second-generation One-Eye hadn't usurped the throne, this guy and his siblings would have been involved in the destruction of the World Tree."

"Brother? Another snake?" Blaze asked casually, paying the entrance fee to Mekingjord. However, because the chicken had grown to the size of a mount, he had to pay for the mount and a pass.

"No, its brothers and sisters are wolves and gods."

"...The world you gods live in is so weird." Blaze found it hard to imagine that three completely different species could be blood-related family members.

Even the Age of Gods only had vague rumors about this era, let alone the Age of the Gods. However, judging by the elves from the Age of the Gods who occasionally made surprising statements, it was undoubtedly a time of great variety.

"There's also an eight-legged horse, but that creature is of a lower caliber, merely a product of passion. The three Ouroboros siblings, on the other hand, were created with the sole purpose of bringing destruction to the world."

The chicken shivered uncomfortably. Countless cats were watching them as they moved along the eaves. The cats gathered in increasing numbers, forming a giant black shadow.

Chicken lowered his voice and whispered, "Honestly, we should consider finding Ouroboros as a last resort. We should first look for the Stranger. Perhaps they have some magical prop that can get us directly to Asgard."

Blaze stopped and looked at the chicken very seriously. He found that the chicken's eyes were evasive.

This was fear, not the fear of death, but the fear Marika had when she saw the mouse. Incidentally, both he and the mouse were terrified at that time because Marika was slapping the ground with her hands that could make diamonds.

"You can't handle Ouroboros," Blaze concluded.

The chicken was silent for a moment, turned its head away, and shouted in despair.

"Do you know what the most terrifying species for birds is? Cats and snakes. Ouroboros is simply the combination of all my fears... or hell!"

"I don't mind. Cats are cute, and snakes... are delicious." Blaze waved his hand and came to the strongman competition venue where he last met Ouroboros.

Almost all the cats gathered here, their eyes reflecting the figures of Blaze and the chicken, as if cutting Blaze and the chicken into tens of thousands of pieces.

The scene was unexpectedly horrifying, especially since the cats were staring at Blaze in silence.

But Blaze knew that this was just an illusion, an illusion caused by the huge gap in strength between the two sides. Just like the Titan evil god in the past, it never had any hostility towards the creatures on the ground, it was just walking.

"I want to talk to you, uh... who can be considered the cat boss?"

Blaze turned in circles, unsure which cat to look at. Just then, a quest icon popped up in the blessing.

[Challenge Mission: Cat's Eyes Lead to Hell/Difficulty A]

Blaze had heard the stranger talk about some challenging quests related to the "mini-games," like "Catch me and I'll make you laugh," which would allow him to enter the real quest. Clearly, if he wanted to meet Ouroboros, he had to complete this challenge.

Among tens of thousands of cats, find a pair of eyes that can lead to the location of Ouroboros.

Chapter 376 Make a fortune

Finding the right one among tens of thousands of cats seemed like a difficult task, but Blazer had plenty of perseverance and could patiently check each one.

Difficulty A is just like that.

But the problem arose at this moment. The Ouroboros' incarnations left leisurely the moment the challenge began, with no intention of staying where they were.

Now the difficulty has really increased. Finding tens of thousands of cats in the huge city of Mekingjod and confirming their eyes is an almost impossible task.

So Blaze did what everyone did when they had this problem: stand still, and the Stranger would come and solve the problem.

Honestly, Blazer had a rough time with this, as the Stranger never spoke to him. Although he seemed to be making some progress now, the psychological scar of being "SKIPped" whenever the Stranger opened his mouth still lingered.

Fortunately, Blaze was more popular than he had imagined. He just leaned against the wall with his arms folded for a while, and immediately a stranger came to talk to him.

"Oh, stranger, I've got some problems." Blaze began in the standard format, coughed, and lowered his voice, trying to create the feeling that there was something else going on.

"I wonder if you would be willing to give me 10 gold coins. In return, I am willing to teach you a skill."

Isn't this strange? Why didn't they mention catching the cat? Missions require payment; how could they just leave the work to strangers? But Blaze had just spent a lot of money from the Hermes Traveling Hat, and he was broke and couldn't afford to pay.

So Blazer decided to make some money first, teach skills with 10 gold coins as tuition, and then hire strangers to catch cats with 1 gold coin as reward.

If possible, Blaze wants to teach [Pankrasin]. It is not a bad thing to make the stranger stronger, but unfortunately the learning process of [Pankrasin] is extremely cumbersome, so what needs to be taught is the teachable skills that Blaze obtained after obtaining [Night Watchman] and [Lantern Bearer].

Some skills are bound to classes, while others can only be unlocked by the corresponding class, but other classes meet the requirements. In this case, the "Teach Skill" function is derived. However, it seems that there is no way for strangers to directly teach skills, and they can only create skill books through prop crafting.

What Blaze could teach the stranger was [Soul Shock], a simple and practical skill that required very little intelligence, agility, strength, and faith, and could be used to attack ghost-type monsters.

Blaze originally thought that there wouldn't be many strangers coming, but when he heard that 10 gold coins could be exchanged for a skill, more and more strangers came. It seemed that the first stranger who learned the skill announced it.

The strangers were roughly divided into two categories: those who wanted to touch him and those who wanted his skills. It was said that in order to improve efficiency, the strangers had already negotiated that each person would only have less than 2 or 3 seconds.

After a day, Blaze's armor had been polished and waxed, and his wealth increased to hundreds of thousands of gold coins in an instant.

This was a huge profit, but fortunately Blazer had strong self-control and stopped in time. He knew that more foreigners would arrive the next day, and this was the time to officially start the plan.

"Stranger, please help me capture the cat from Mekingiod City. In return, I will give you 2 gold coins and the skill [Soul Shock].

In an instant, the city of Mekingiod was in chaos. Blaze originally didn't know how long it would take to search, and he had to mark and confirm the challenge tasks one by one. However, with the help of strangers, including the preparations of the previous day, it took him a total of one and a half days to complete it.

Finally, Blaze held a black cat by the scruff of its neck and waved to thank the stranger for his help.

Not only did he complete the challenge, but he also earned hundreds of thousands of gold coins and cured his psychological trauma. It can be said that he killed three birds with one stone.

But he didn't know that the skills he casually taught would have terrible effects if they fell into the hands of strangers, that is, players.

Soul Shock, at first glance, appears to be a skill used to attack ghostly enemies. However, players are quite curious about this unprecedented skill, taught by the special NPC Black Beast Knight Blaze, who unlocks multiple, massive maps. Some with ample skill points even maxed it out immediately after learning it.

Faced with this skill that consumes very little MP, players would use [Soul Shock] on almost everything they saw. With such frequent use, they discovered the magical power of this skill.

First of all, when exploring underground mazes or ruins, you don't need to be wary of biological traps. With a single [Soul Shock], all those monsters were knocked down.

Secondly, Soul Shock's definition of soul is extremely ambiguous, practically translating to something like "everything possesses a spirit." The lower the intelligence of a monster, the greater its impact. With increased proficiency, Soul Shock can even distort magical attacks.

Because the elements that constitute magical damage also have souls.

During the period when [Soul Shock] became popular, [If I say you have a soul, you have a soul] was the players' catchphrase.

Unfortunately, Blaze didn't mention teaching skills again, so if you want to learn [Soul Shock], you can only ask those who have the skills to make a skill book.

Back to the topic, Blaze caught the special cat. The reason why it was special was that if you looked closely, you would find that only this black cat had normal eyes, while the other cats had snake pupils.

【Cat's eyes lead to hell】

If we take it literally, the cat's eyes are simply a portal to hell. Of course, the hell here should refer to the Ouroboros, not the Eldorado that the elves call hell.

Blaze contacted Chiron as usual, took a look at Herbie's condition, bought the props, and raised the black cat after being fully prepared.

[Challenge Mission: Cat's Eyes Lead to Hell/Completed]

"Meow~"

The black cat opened its eyes wide, its sapphire-like pupils emitting swirling points of light. The light slowly spun, forming a deep vortex.

Blaze's feet were empty, and he fell straight down. This was the feeling of teleportation, but the difference was that the previous teleportation was a horizontal movement, but this time it was a downward teleportation.

It is not difficult to imagine where this "hell" is located.

When Blaze opened his eyes again, he was already in a damp and dark environment.

World Quest: Meeting the Great Tree Part 4

Helm

Chapter 377 Restoring the Great Tree

[World Mission], as the name suggests, is a mission related to the world situation.

Returning the great soul is the world's mission. After completing the corresponding tasks of [Sagittarius] and [Leo], the world will not have undergone earth-shaking changes, but the changes are still amazing.

Two of the three Hundred Births Rivers left behind after the death of the Titan Evil God have disappeared. Although the monsters around the newly appeared [Midsummer Galaxy] and [Daytime Winter River] are not weaker than the Hundred Births Rivers, the overall situation is still stable and improving.

Almost every world quest Blazer encountered told him what the quest's objective was, or, like the Arcadia Secret, had a direction in its name.

However, the world quest "Visit the Great Tree" only has the name, nothing else. It seems that it is only there to tell the recipient what the place is called.

It was unimaginable that this world quest might be related to the World Tree. But beyond that, Blaze knew nothing about it. It was like a whole thing had been forcibly erased, leaving the entire quest feeling incredibly fragmented, something he had to piece together on his own.

Perhaps it would take nine visits to the Great Tree to discover its secrets.

"Blaze, we may have come to an extraordinary place." Chicken said solemnly.

"I know." Blaze nodded and said at the same time as Chicken.

"Helm/In the belly of the Ouroboros."

"what?!"

Blaze and Chicken both showed surprised expressions.

It took them a while to comprehend the situation. First, this was both the belly of the Ouroboros and the underworld of Helheim. This gave them a clear understanding of the size of the Ouroboros. Part of the World Tree, part of the earth, was actually inside the Ouroboros' belly.

Even if the Titan stood up straight, he would probably be no taller than the Ouroboros with its mouth open.

But in this way, Blaze believed that Ouroboros could create a rainbow like a bridge. When the Titan God died, the blood that spurted out also turned into a huge rainbow, but that rainbow turned into seven monsters that escaped.

"Helm's Underworld is the World Tree's realm of the dead. Each group of gods has its own world of the dead, used to collect the souls of their creations. But the World Tree's realm of the dead, that is, Helm's Underworld, how should I put it..." Chicken hesitated for a long time and whispered, "It's like a trash can."

"The most noble souls within the World Tree are those who died in battle. They can enjoy wine and food all day long in the golden palace, fighting and seeking pleasure all day long. Others who die of old age or illness are thrown here. I would have come here too, but because the world began to turn upside down at that time, Helm's underworld lost its function, so I can stay in the crown of the Tree of Life."