Chapter 620: Chapter 527: The Two Ends of the Space-Time Gate and the Jet Fighter
“How should these people be dealt with, Master Rafael?” Yoland asked.
The captured halflings looked very thin, and with their short stature, they resembled impoverished children, staring at them in terror, incessantly squeaking in what seemed like some sort of pattern.
Yoland guessed it must be a language they could not understand.
“I’ll leave them to you, Tika!” Rafael turned to the Spiritual Energy Wizard, who was communicating with a demon bat.
Tika immediately stepped forward, grabbed one of the halflings’ heads, and cast “Memory Retrieval.”
The rest of the halflings were terrified, their faces turned pale, and their cries grew even louder.
About five minutes later, having finished probing the memories, Tika reopened his eyes, and the halfling’s incomprehensible speech gradually became clear and understandable.
“Release Maka, humans, or the High Priest will not forgive you!” “Great Moon God, please save us…”
Tika scanned the halflings, some terrified, others earnestly praying, and spoke dismissively.
Although Tika’s newly learned indigenous language was very rough, the halflings understood him, and all threats, curses, and prayers came to an abrupt halt, everyone staring at him with eyes full of terror and despair.
Tika paid them no more attention but instead turned around to report to Rafael. “Master, these people are indigenous natives, worshipers of the Moon Goddess Diana.”
“The deceased god?” Rafael glanced at the halflings and continued to ask, “Then why did they coincidentally appear here?”
“It’s no coincidence, actually. This halfling settlement has been shadowing this area for years,” Tika explained.
Rafael paused, his face showing a moment of surprise before he quickly recovered. “Is it because of the church’s expedition force?”
Tika nodded. In this cold, dark foreign land, procuring food was a significant issue, and the church’s expedition force always left behind plenty of remnants and blood from cleaning up nearby monsters.
The ample food and scent of blood attracted not only other monsters but also this tribe of halflings, who, although very weak, had the advantage of intelligence!
They took advantage during the time window before powerful monsters entered the valley and after the church’s expedition force left, conducting post-battle scavenging, which provided enough food for the entire tribe for several months or even a year or two.
This low-risk, high-reward way of gathering food had driven the starving halflings deeply into the trap, but they had no idea when the next expedition force would arrive and dared not rashly approach these beings more ferocious and dangerous than monsters, let alone enter the stronghold through the Space-Time Gate.
Therefore, they sent several scouts to keep constant vigil here, waiting for the next great harvest!
It’s worth mentioning that the tribe didn’t send four scouts, but five; one halfling scout had already gone to inform others upon detecting disturbances at the Space-Time Gate!
“Isn’t this precisely what Lynn the Speaker referred to as ‘waiting for the hare by the tree trunk’?” Rafael could hardly help but smile wryly; now that they had wiped out the church, those halflings would wait in vain forever without the expedition force coming again unless they entered again to gather information about the Lord of the Undead.
“Is there any other important information in his mind? Especially about the Lord of the Undead…” Rafael asked again.
“Unfortunately not,” Tika shook his head regretfully and continued, “But I did see some low-level undead creatures in his memories, far across these mountains. These people know too little… I think their High Priest definitely knows more.”
“Then go find that High Priest,” Rafael said decisively.
From the behavior of the few people in front, it seemed that this halfling community didn’t have any strong individuals, otherwise they wouldn’t have fallen to the point of living off scavenging.
The only noteworthy figure was that High Priest, but without the protection of their deity, the priest might not even be able to perform Divine Arts—probably just a facade.
Rafael estimated that with ample food and absolute power, they completely had the capability to control this tribe.
In some sense, their luck was quite good… although they had faced an attack by two “Sand Worms” upon entering, it had also led them to a deep understanding of this world.
Thinking this, Rafael’s previously furrowed brows suddenly relaxed, and he felt confident about the plans for this exploration of a foreign land.
“Tika, write a report and throw it along with this halfling through the other side of the Space-Time Gate; that way, we won’t need to send anyone back for the time being,” Rafael instructed thoughtfully. Since a halfling had already gone back to inform the others, they must depart immediately to block the tribe’s movements to prevent them from escaping or relocating.
According to the original plan, if electromagnetic communication couldn’t be received, three of their nine people would need to return within one day to the Space-Time Gate and report back in turn, depending on the situation to decide whether to send more reinforcements.