Chapter 195: The Guy Who Really Should Be Thanked

This wide raid of primeval forest at the foot of the Eagle’s Nest Mountains was so sparsely populated that even the dwarves who traveled to and from the area most often hadn’t really been able to make a walkable path through it.

But Grid looked confident, and kept moving forward with determined steps, over huge roots and over uneven, mounds of rotting leaves piled up like mud.

Jace was barely following the dwarf in front of him, and it just felt like his leg injury was getting a lot better.

However, he had also gotten a lot more comfortable with his shoulder in the past two days, applying the dressings and changing the bandages as requested by Dalaran’s apothecary, and the wounds were healing so fast that it even made him uncomfortable, as if he had been on some kind of hormonal medication.

Looking up, the ancient pines, with their oak canopies shading the sky, were incredibly dim, even in the daytime.

The two rested at night in caves low in the ground shaded by dense roots, keeping each other awake to keep watch, and that night finally finished the desserts Jace had packed in Dalaran.

Because of the time constraints and the fact that this forest looked quite dangerous, Grid decided to travel through the night and then get to the foot of the Eagle’s Nest as soon as possible before resting, and Jace agreed.

Though the dwarf wasn’t good at staying up late, he was instantly refreshed at the thought of the possibility of being surrounded and smothered by trolls.

The two had a sort of uneventful night, and by the time it was still light in the wee hours of the morning, Jace felt the air getting more and more humid.

“Is it going to rain, Grid?” He asked.

Grider had just climbed up a dirt hill high in front of him and turned around and said, “I don’t think so, Cintron is just a little wetter than Hillsbrad, Jace, that’s not surprising.”

Jace looked at Grider and suddenly looked over to see a frightening shadow rising from his back.

“Ger ……” He pointed behind him, and Grid slowly turned around as the giant figure emerged a little from the shade of the pines, and grew higher and higher, like a swelling gray cloud.

It was a monster over four meters tall, and it tilted its head back to look up at the sky, looking at this tree and that one moment, wobbling forward a couple of steps before it noticed the dwarf at its feet.

What amazed Jace the most was that this guy was so huge, fat and puffy, almost like a moving hill, but there was surprisingly little sound of footsteps when he walked, only the subtle movement of branches being snapped, and he couldn’t even drown out the sound of the cold wind blowing through the trees.

Jace even wondered if he’d been up all night and was sleepy and hallucinating, or if he’d eaten something wrong last night somehow.

But Grid also looked up, both eyes wide, proving that Jace was not the only one to see this thing.

Instead of touching the hammer, the dwarf just clutched the round shield, his body held in an odd position as if frozen, his hind legs already starting to shake from the uncomfortable movement. Seeing his behavior, Jace also stayed where he was, keeping as still as he could.

The creature took a step forward, finally revealing its entire body from behind the cliff head.

It was gray and white, with a patch of light brown feathers hanging around its neck, and an exaggerated parrot’s head at the very top, with a front beak the size of a medium-sized shield raised high, quivering up and down as its head bobbed, as if sniffing at something.

Behind its head, a pair of ancient tree-like antlers stretched out to either side, from which hung what looked like a woven charm, which had remnants of patch after patch of dead branches and fallen pine needles, some of which came off every time it swung its head a little.

It’s a lordly beast?

Jace realized why Dalaran’s Lords feather quill was selling so cheaply, he had a feeling that the Lords just stood next to Griddle and shook that one time, and the feathers that fell off would probably be enough for a year on their own.

That’s too big!

The lordly beast glanced down at the high slope where Grid stood, and seemed a little afraid of jumping straight down, so he took a step around to the far side, and walked down a gentle slope to the bottom, even tripping halfway down, like an awkward wild bear.

Although its feet looked like eagle claws, because they were too thick, at first glance they looked more like lions, except that instead of animal hair, they were covered with layers and layers of, scaly, hard brown skin.

After it came down, it moved step by step next to Jace, and Grider kept his eyes on Jace, shaking his head over and over, imploring him not to make any moves.

Still, the Lords saw Jace.

When the other got closer, he sniffed as if curious, then gave an unhappy baleful snort.

Jace felt the creature’s panting, ragged like an enraged wildebeest was staring at him at close range.

Its huge wings hidden on either side of its body poked forward as if to touch Jace, but in the end it didn’t really make contact.

At this point you could see the sharp claws underneath that were hidden by the feathers, each one was longer and thicker than Jace’s arm, and Jace knew that if he took a hit he would definitely not have a whole body left.

After all, this guy is taller than his own two, why is the lord beast here so big …… The game didn t feel so exaggerated.

What with the jackal chiefs, death knights, and orc shamans all being set off as weak in this moment, Jace finally understood why the dark elves of ancient times worshipped these monsters as if they were messengers of the gods.

Just as he was tensing up to the max, the lord opened his mouth.

“Smells, bad, but ……”

It …… spoke? And it’s speaking in a generic language? And with a questioning uptone?

With that said, it continued on deeper into the forest with a wobble until its back blended in with the black shade of the forest once more.

But what?

Why don’t you finish?

Is this a druid change? No, if it s a druid why doesn t it revert to its original form and be so stupid …… This should be a real lord beast.

That’s when Grid asked in surprise, “Why does it talk to you and not to me?”

“So you knew it would talk?!” Jess asked rhetorically.

“Of course the lords can talk ……” said Grider, “didn’t you know that?”

“I ……” said Jace, “so it has its own intelligence? Then why are we so scared when we mean no harm.”

“The lord is just bad-tempered, Jace.” Grid said, “He may not want to kill you if you give him a slap for some strange maneuver that upsets him, but he has absolutely no knowledge of our physical strength.”

“The lord’s presence is a good thing, though, because trolls or other bad intentions would never be seen around the lord, and these hulking monsters abhor those dark magics and vicious spell-casters …… If he seems to be in a good mood, it means that large swaths of the neighborhood are clean. “

“Uh ……” Jace glanced at his staff and asked, “Are you sure?”

All at once Grid understood what Jace meant as well, and he chuckled, “A lord is better at telling who’s bad than an Otterlake woman!”

“Don’t mention that, for what it’s worth, it scared the hell out of me just now.” Jess said, “I’ve rarely seen an animal that big standing in front of my face.”

Grid said, “This guy is a big one even in the lordly beasts, in the dwarven language we call them owl bears, just because although this thing looks like a bird, its whole body looks like a giant bear. Let s get going, if there are no trolls …… around, as long as we arrive at the foot of the Eagle’s Nest Mountain quickly, we don t have to worry about it.”

Encountering such a big guy cleared both of their sleepiness, and the rest of the way became less long.