Chapter 218:157 Giant Serpent Tribe
When Dean McKenzie emerged from the Bone Tomb, Old Six had reluctantly brought the carriage out.
However, when Dean saw the “carriage”, he was dumbstruck.
“Are you telling me this thing is a carriage?”
Dean slapped the giant coffin that was two meters long, one and a half meters wide and high, and stared at Old Six.
Old Six’s Pupil Fire flickered, defiantly managing to justify it.
How could it not be considered one?
“Who makes carriages like this?
Can someone even sit in this thing, hey!
Just as Dean was grumbling, he suddenly noticed the coffin, or rather, the carriage had attribute points.
Name: Old Six’s Special Carriage
Category: Mobile Building
Level: Junior (3-Star)
Effects: Movement speed increases with travel time (1% per minute) (up to 200%!), comfort level increased by 200, intimidation increased by 200
ps: A knight pulling a coffin, are you scared?
Staring at these attributes, Dean suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
“Fine, a coffin it is then!”
Afterward, Dean hitched this thing onto Old Seven’s warhorse, laid down inside
it, and let Old Seven pull him around.
Over on Old Seven’s side, fearing that Dean would try and snatch the little mare again, the moment the coffin was hitched up, off he sped.
As Old Seven started running, he discovered that pulling this coffin didn’t slow him down, but instead increased his speed.
Furthermore, the longer he ran, the faster he became.
This made Old Seven even more excited, it gave him a sense of speed.
So, an intriguing scene emerged on Rouge. A perfect quality Skeleton Knight was pulling a massive coffin at an unbelievably fast pace.
Fast as a flash!
Prodigiously imposing!
Scaring half to death countless of cute little plants and children along the way.
With a relentless momentum, Dean plunged into the Ten Thousand Mountains of the South Barbarian.
The tens of thousands of miles of distance took less than four days to traverse while Dean was laid inside the coffin.
Although Dean was inside the coffin for these four days, he was aware of the outside situation.
On one hand, because Old Seven was his skeleton, and on the other hand, because of Old Six’s excellent craftsmanship.
This coffin that appeared completely sealed, in reality, allowed one to see the outside.
So, if not to say Dean had a complete understanding of the outside world, at least he was very well-informed.
As soon as they reached the South Barbarian border, Dean immediately had Old
Seven stop and let him out, and then he brought out Old Eight.
Since they’ve arrived, Dean certainly planned to integrate with the locals.
After all, he was a human, a social animal. He might not necessarily interact with people, but he couldn’t separate from society.
Dean was no exception.
He might be a recluse till the ends of the earth, but he couldn’t break off from society completely.
Not to mention far-off matters, he hadn’t gathered all the materials for his fourth-turn promotion.
in his Promotion Temple, Dean had tried and figured out the materials needed
for his four-turn Hell Mode.
Currently, he was still missing three items.
These were the Wraith Gem, Rotten Heart, and The Immortal’s Body
respectively.
All three items had to be at least gold-quality items of the fourth-turn.
All were hard to find. If Dean were to look for them himself, he didn’t know when he would find them.
Dean could only hope to find them in the marketplaces within South Barbarian territory.
As far as Dean knew, there were quite a few large and small marketplaces in the South Barbarian territory, dealing not only with products from the Ten Thousand Mountains but also with items transported from various other places. With luck, Dean could find what he was looking for in these markets. Now, Dean’s main task was to familiarise himself with the surroundings and locate these marketplaces.
For gathering information, Dean of course relied on Old Eight.
After sending him out, it took the little guy half a day to scout out the area within twenty miles before reporting back to Dean with a mix of gestures and drawings.
“What are these gestures supposed to mean?
I don’t get it, I don’t understand at all!”
This time Dean wasn’t messing with Old Eight, he genuinely didn’t understand what Old Eight was gesturing.
The main issue was that after Old Eight’s failed translation attempt last time, he solemnly redeveloped a new way to communicate, believing that the new method would surely make Dean understand. But instead, Dean just sapped him back to his old method of translation.
Feeling wronged, Old Eight translated everything once again using the old method, which Dean finally understood.
■■Why didn’t you do this from the start? You’ve just been wasting time there making all those nonsensical gestures!”
“No more of these confusing gimmicks next time, translating is all I’m good for, everything else is too exhausting!”
Dean McKenzie encouraged while patting Old Eight’s shoulder. Having his shoulder patted, Old Eight started questioning his very existence. Upon receiving information from Old Eight, Dean McKenzie headed straight in the southwest direction, and not far off, he spotted a tribe.
A tribe where modern aesthetics and primitiveness intertwined.
The tribal gate was a colossal snake’s head, a good ten meters high, with its mouth wide open.
Lining alongside the snake’s head gate was a metal fence stretching several kilometers, encircling the entire tribe.
According to the information provided by Old Eight, the strongest entity in this tribe should be at the Fifth-turn level.
There was a small market inside, where other members of the Alliance like Dean McKenzie were trading.
The mentality towards foreigners differed among the South Barbarian tribes. Some tribes actively embraced foreigners, seeking knowledge from them to advance the tribe. Yet, some tribes were extremely wary of outsiders. If one rashly ventured into the territory of the second kind, they’d either be banished or killed on the spot.
Apparently, the tribe in front of Dean McKenzie was on the more liberal side. As Dean approached, he saw two gatekeepers standing under the snake heads. One on the left wore animal skins and went bare-armed, exuding a wild aura, while the other dressed in Alliance clothes.
The stark contrast between wildness and civilization presented quite a spectacle.
Upon spotting Dean McKenzie approaching, the one in Alliance attire came over and asked in the Alliance’s language, “Is this your first time visiting our Giant Serpent Tribe?”
“Yes!”
“If you wish to enter our Giant Serpent Tribe, you’ll need to register. Here’s the form!”
He spoke and handed Dean McKenzie a form.
Upon inspection, Dean McKenzie found the form consisted of routine questions.
Name, gender, age, affiliation, profession, level…
Dean McKenzie was familiar with such forms.
He filled in “Bruce Hodge” for the name, male for his gender, age 28, warrior for his profession, level 80. For the affiliated force, Dean McKenzie simply wrote ‘Prefer not to say’.
While Dean McKenzie didn’t take the form filling too seriously, the staff who collected it was similarly cavalier. After verifying that Dean McKenzie was indeed a warrior and was at level 80 using a tool, the staff simply charged him one Gold coin and gave him a wooden badge. That was it.
“You may enter and exit the tribal market freely with this badge. Please stay within the market unless necessary, or it may lead to unwanted misunderstandings!”
“Alright”
Then the Alliance guy called over a kid who led Dean McKenzie into their tribal market.
Throughout the journey, Dean McKenzie took in everything around him. The unique architecture of the Giant Serpent Tribe and its people! Dean realized that the Barbarians and the Alliance people were fairly similar. They had a slightly deeper skin tone, bronzed, with a hint of wildness. Other than that, there was no notable difference.
The kid leading Dean around was as vivacious as they come.
He constantly babbled on, asking Dean about the outside world, insatiably curious about everything beyond his world.
From the child’s relentless curiosity and energy, it was clear to Dean that he had been well taken care of by his tribe.
So when the boy started fantasizing excessively about the Alliance, Dean promptly threw cold water on his dreams, “The Alliance does have its perks, but there are also many villains who love to eat children.
Especially sturdy and resilient ones like you, you’ll taste delicious when roasted!”
The terrifying words, coupled with a menacing tone, left the little boy crying a river.
Dean McKenzie felt extremely awkward throughout.
It wasn’t until he bought the boy a few steamed buns that the crying abated.
Right, the moment the buns arrived, the boy was all smiles.
Dean couldn’t help but suspect he’d been swindled.
But Dean McKenzie didn’t mind this behavior.
Having seen so much darkness in the Alliance, even the mischievous behavior of the children, which would have annoyed him in his pre-transmigration life, felt endearing here among the South Barbarians.
Upon reaching the marketplace, the little fella led Dean McKenzie to a tavern, where a pretty girl with a striking resemblance to the boy came out to greet Dean McKenzie.
With a glimpse, Dean McKenzie noticed the boy acting all obedient, adoringly addressing the girl as ‘sister’ and even offered his delicious buns to her. It became quite clear to Dean whose tavern this was.
Nonetheless, Dean McKenzie ended up staying at this small tavern.
One reason was that the tavern was jointly managed by a mother and her two children who were quite delightful. Another was that despite its dimensions, the tavern was nicely decorated and offered pretty good value for money. At one Silver Coin per night, Dean McKenzie decided to stay.
After settling in, Dean McKenzie wandered around the market alone.
The Giant Serpent Tribe’s market wasn’t large, merely a few thousand square meters.
Despite being leisurely in his explore, it only took two or three hours for Dean McKenzie to complete a full round.
After this exploration, Dean McKenzie was, however, a bit disappointed.
He found that the primary customers in this market seemed to be the ones below the Third-turn level. There was hardly anything for the Fourth-turn level.
“It seems unlikely to find my materials in this market. But to be fair, I didn t expect to find any in this market, to begin with!”
Dean McKenzie came to this market partially to try his luck but primarily to settle here and further explore the South Barbarian region using this market as a gateway.
Upon reaching a new place, the first order of business for Dean McKenzie, heeding the advice of Anthony, was always to familiarize himself with the area!