Chapter 678 Rune and Magic Well

Mia woke up from her bed and found herself in that strange and bizarre world again.

Above her head were drooping vines and fireflies tied with twine. This method of using insects to emit light was a unique way of lighting in the local area.

Mia walked out of the tree house and pushed open the rough hemp vines hanging at the door. Down below were layers of intertwined tree trunks, each of which could accommodate one or two people walking. Children ran and jumped flexibly on the trees, climbing and swinging flexibly by grabbing vines like monkeys.

There was a faint fishy smell in the air.

She looked up at the sky.

It was night, and the stars were shining in the sky, but they were dim and sparse, far less clear and bright than those in the Resurrection Kingdom.

Mia looked down again. Under the magic tree where people lived was a gray-black fog sea, as if there was always a fire burning on the ground, and thick smoke was constantly rising.

This was her third time to [Dagos].

The first time, Mia thought she was in a dream, which caused her to accidentally break her leg. The second time she entered, she read the few books and wooden tablets in the village, asked the elders in the village indirectly, and got to know the world beyond the stars.

"Xue Li, are you awake?"

She was greeted by a smiling old woman who looked about 70 or 80 years old. The old woman was hunched over and held a cane with a non-slip hook.

Mia said, "Just woke up, Grandma Qiao."

In this world, the body Mia used belonged to a girl named Xue Li, who was a hunter.

"There are not enough dried fruits and water, and the leaves of the magic tree are inedible. The children are very hungry. Can you go out to hunt?"

Grandma Qiao said, "Although your injuries have not recovered yet, I will let you go out...but the food reserves are really insufficient. Winter is coming soon, and it will be even more difficult to go out at that time."

"Okay."

Mia agreed immediately.

"Old Jello will go with you, be careful."

Mia nodded.

As the only four hunters in the village, every time they go out hunting, it is a life-and-death journey. The Tree Village requires two hunters to act together to take care of each other and rescue each other.

Back in the tree house, Mia began to pack her bag.

The hunter's tools include ropes, grappling hooks, masks, hunting knives and war bows.

The grappling hooks are composed of claws and special ropes, tied to the hunter's arm, and can be shot into the tree trunk at a long distance at any time, allowing hunters to grab the rope and swing to the next landing place.

The mask is composed of multiple layers of linen and herbal interlayers to reduce the inhalation of [death air].

Hunters need to enter the lower level of the tree village to hunt. The place close to the ground is filled with death air, and there are monsters everywhere. Humans who stay there for a long time will have convulsions, bleeding from the mouth and nose, and even coma and death.

That is why people live higher and higher to stay away from the death air that is constantly gushing and rising from the ground.

The hunting knife is as long as a forearm, with a thick back and a curved hook at the tip. This structure is convenient for chopping and splitting food and materials, and can also dig things between soil and stones.

Mia's war bow is made of elm wood. This is exclusive to women, while men use ash wood.

These two types of wood can carry the power of [Rune].

According to the experience of generations of use, elm wood is the most suitable for women, and ash wood is the most powerful for men.

After counting and packing, Mia tied the backpack for prey and walked out of the tree house.

Old Jello was already waiting outside fully armed.

He has gray hair and beard, and he is still forty years old. The children in the tree village call him Old Jello.

In this world called [Dages], people usually live less than fifty years old, and Old Jello is indeed an old man. There are very few people as long-lived as Grandma Qiao, and the old people of the same period as her have died decades ago.

"Go worship the gods first."

Jello took Mia all the way to a wide area on the tree. This is a huge branch with a statue standing in the center. Several old people are kneeling in front of it, chanting.

Before going out, hunters would worship the gods to pray for good luck.

Mia was not unfamiliar with this, because the Yao tribe also had such rituals and customs.

Everyone would worship the Yao God first, and then pray to other gods according to different inclinations and fields.

Some people worship the White God to pray for wealth, some believe in King Wuji and hope to be favored by the earth, some pray to the Ju God for wisdom, some praise the King of Light, some worship the Marshal of the Long Cavalry, and some fear the billions of incarnations...

All the tree villages in [Dagos] believe in [The Thousand-Faced God].

Mia stood in front of the statue and looked ahead.

The Thousand-Faced God sat on a tall throne, wearing a wide-brimmed hat with wide wings on both sides of the hat.

A large crow rested on each of his left and right shoulders, and the beaks of the two birds were facing his ears, as if whispering to the gods. At his feet lay two wolves, and the two beasts were loyally scanning the four directions.

The Thousand-Faced God leaned on a spear and looked down at the world from his throne. His blurred face made it hard to tell whether he was contemptuous, majestic or cold.

Jello knelt in front of the wooden statue: "Omnipotent Thousand-Faced God, please bless us with good luck. May we be able to harvest prey and return safely this time."

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Mia also prayed like the old hunter.

This Thousand-Faced God is the only god in Dagoth, but in local history, he has never appeared since the Great Disaster.

According to word of mouth and woodcut records, a long time ago, people still lived on the ground, and every large settlement had a magic well. Residents could use magic bottles to fill magic energy to supply each household with heating and cooking, as well as to drive the [Rune].

Two giant crows flew around the world every day, and then reported everything they saw and heard to the Thousand-Faced God without reservation - the two birds on the shoulders of the statue.

That was the most glorious golden age of [Dagos]. Gods shrouded the sky, all things flourished, and there was vitality.

After an ordinary day, the giant crow disappeared in the sky and never appeared again.

The gods never responded from then on.

In the long and terrifying godless era, people ushered in a great catastrophe. The blowout of the underground magic well made the whole world full of monsters, and the death air covered the entire earth.

To avoid monsters and death air, some people climbed up the big trees that grew wildly in the flood of magic wells, and others drilled deep underground.

Even so, the Dagos people still believed in this Thousand-Faced God.

They believe that one day in the future, He will return like lightning. The departure of the Thousand-Faced God is to test the courage and tenacity of the Dagos people, and when He comes back, the whole world will be recast with glory and become stronger than ever before.

In the past, the Thousand-Faced God had shown kindness and love to this place, and the Rune Rune was the treasure He bestowed.

…

Mia followed the old hunter Jello and jumped with vines and hooks all the way, landing under the tree.

Originally, Mia was not good at running and climbing in the wild. She was a student at the United Friendship University, mainly studying mathematics and astronomy, and was taught by the famous demon lecturer Yuan Qing.

The owner of this body, Xueli, although she was only fifteen or sixteen years old, had amazing physical fitness, both strength and flexibility, and was not much inferior to those athletes trained in [Kuafu Chasing the Sun].

Whether walking or running, it was more of a physical inertia, and Mia only needed to follow the muscle memory of the body.

If there was a shortcoming, it was that Xueli's mind worked too slowly.

In the past, Mia could immediately calculate mathematical problems, or various deductions based on conditions, but it was particularly difficult to calculate with this body.

Xueli's talent was all in her body, and her hands were faster than her brain.

Old Jello warned: "Xueli, you still have to be careful with your legs, although you have always recovered quickly. But try not to fight with those monsters, use a war bow, and don't get close."

Mia nodded: "I still feel that my body is not very good, you can shoot arrows later."

"Okay."

According to Grandma Qiao and others, Xueli is a cheerful, talkative and courageous hunter. They are very surprised by Xueli's silence after being injured. The villagers could hardly imagine that in this body, there was another person from a distant world.

The two hunters entered the hunting area, pulled up the masks on their necks, and found a hidden area to search for prey.

There was already gray fog lingering here, and the visibility was much lower than before.

After waiting for a while, a shadow came not far away.

The two hunters did not move at all.

The newcomer stopped to look around from time to time. It slowly approached and its appearance was revealed.

It was a large lizard with a gray keratin layer. It was about two adults long. Its limbs crawled on the ground. There was a single horn on the tip of its nose that was bent upward.

It was a [Horned Lizard].

Good luck.

The Horned Lizard was a less dangerous prey. It was not afraid of toxins, had thick skin and flesh, and was an irresistible natural enemy for most insect monsters. But for the hunters of Dagus, as long as they could hit its eyes, they could get the prey.

Mia saw that Old Jello had already pulled the ash bow and aimed the sharp arrow at the enemy.

There were two magic horns at both ends of the bow, and the [Rune] - "Uruznid Sulisaz" was engraved on the bow.

This is actually a three-part phrase.

Uruz represents the male user and is the call of the Rune.

Ned points to "binding" and "oppression" to confirm the continuous effect of power.

Surisaz is "thorns and thorns", which condenses the external form of power.

Combined, it is to confirm the male user, determine the power characteristics as a way to entangle and bind the enemy, and to unfold it by piercing.

The magic horns at both ends of the string groove are specially made energy storage containers. They are sealed and stored in magic bottles to obtain a certain amount of magic energy, and then used to promote runes.

When Mia saw this magical prop for the first time, she was very puzzled.

This is an incredibly powerful technology. But in this world, people can only apply it to a few limited props such as war bows, grappling hooks, magic bottles, etc. The development of both magic energy and runes has been in a long-term stagnation, even worse than before the catastrophe.

Now, she gradually understands.

To understand and apply 24 runes, various basic knowledge needs to be coordinated.

Including the most basic linguistics, logic, theology, mathematics, casting and smelting, materials and engineering, etc. If it were in the Yao Clan, with elemental theory and crystal construction techniques as theoretical experimental support, and then using the [Crystal Construction Phase Dissociation Cannon] for field testing, it would be possible to gradually complete the deciphering and development of new combinations.

Mia also wanted to learn the Rune and bring it back to the Yao Clan civilization, so she was well prepared this time.

But in today's Dagus, there is no soil for further development of technology.

They can only use the old method passed down by their ancestors, using the simplest and most common combinations to use the Rune.

At this time, the eyes of the old hunter holding the war bow turned white, and his whole body was integrated with the power of the runes.

call out!

After the sound broke through the air, the horned lizard's head shook violently and let out a hissing roar.

It desperately shook its head that was hit by the arrow, its body kept twisting on the ground, and it opened its mouth and growled at the surroundings, as if to threaten the lurking enemies.

Old Jero just calmly and steadily drew his bow again and aimed at the target.

call out!

The horned lizard's injured left eye was shot again, and it flopped wildly on the ground.

Then Old Jero and Mia added two arrows each. Mia shot the horned lizard in the nostril, while Old Zero specifically attacked the eyes.

The horned lizard lay limply on the ground, just breathing heavily.

"Walk."

Old Jero led Mia around behind the horned lizard. He took out his hunting knife and slashed at the tail of the horned lizard, and Mia did the same. The two hunters quickly cut off a two-arm-long section of tail.

They picked up the tail and quickly evacuated towards the way they came.

If you have enough time and energy, you can kill the horned lizard. But other predators are likely to appear along the way, which is extremely dangerous for hunters.

The hunter's job is to capture the meat of his prey, not to kill it.

"Uruznid Surisaz" can not only pierce the enemy, but also temporarily restrain the enemy.

It is much easier to cut off the tail of a horned lizard, and the tail bone, meat, and cuticles are all useful food and materials.

Not long after the two escaped, the horned lizard was suddenly pulled underground by something, leaving only a sunken hill on the ground.

Mia and old Jero were so angry that they dared not speak out.

After confirming that there was no problem, the two began to look for other food and materials.

When the mask turned black and dropped particles, the two hunters immediately turned back. This is a sign of danger. If you stay there any longer, the dead air will break through the protection of the mask and enter your mouth and nose, causing bleeding and more serious internal damage.

…

Mia and Old Jero each carried a bag and displayed their harvest in front of the statue.

The children gathered around the strong and powerful long tail. The long tail of the horned lizard was still shaking slowly, and its cross section showed bright red and tight fleshy texture and solid white bones.

"What a big lizard tail! Sydney is still so awesome!"

"There is broth to drink this winter!"

"I really want to eat it now..."

…

The old men weighed the meat, stored it, and then began to focus on other things.

Old Jero's bag contained several common herbs, a bunch of edible roots, a few large firefly eggs, some flints for fire, and sharp gravels for tools.

But what Mia brought back was in a different style.

"Xueli, what is this?" An old man pointed to the eye-catching and heavy slate in his bag.

"This is a record stone tablet. There are more than a dozen others near a mountain col below."

Mia said: "According to the drawing record above, there is a magic well not far from the magic tree, and a huge monster lives under the magic well. Although the description is very simple, it is very realistic to the general environment around it and can find correspondences with it. landmark."

She pointed to the slate.

There is a well carved on the stone slab, and under the mouth of the well is a huge snake-like thing, which seems to be sleeping.

"The magic well should be related to this monster, so the flooding and gushing of the magic well may also be related to it."

"Oh, so that's it."

Another person asked about something: "This skin is really complete."

Mia carefully unfolded the piece of animal skin and explained: "This leather has been tanned and is a tool that has been artificially processed. A red pigment is used on it, which should be a powder ground from some kind of stone, mixed with grease to make a simple ink."

The old people came over one after another.

A group of little red people are drawn on the skin, running around, while a winding red snake is hunting them everywhere and swallowing them into its belly.

There is a strange rune painted underneath.

""Evaz"...destruction and creation." Grandma Qiao squinted her eyes: "It seems to be asking for help. This should be a request for help from someone underground. I hope we can see it."

"As expected, they were still attacked by monsters... There was nowhere to hide on the ground, and there was only a dead end underground."

"It's a pity. May their souls rest in peace."

One of the children looked at Mia: "Xueli, I feel like you have become different recently. You seem to be a lot smarter! Did the injury last time make you change so much? Have you been inspired by the gods?"

Mia thought to herself that she had indeed received a revelation from the gods. It's just Yao, not the gods here.

"I was just thinking that living a better life might involve more than just hunting," she said.

Grandma Qiao looked at her: "Then what should we do?"

Facing the elder's inquiry, Mia was not timid at all: "This world is in danger and may be destroyed at any time. If we want to survive, we must leave here."

"Well, everyone knows that no matter how tall a tree grows, it cannot break away from the earth. Birds will always return to the ground."

"Yeah, there's nothing we can do about it."

The old people sighed.

Granny Qiao looked at Mia: "Continue to express your thoughts."

Mia was silent for a while.

"I think we need new gods to lead us away."

Everyone looked at each other.

"Sydney, you..."

Mia is prepared for all kinds of disasters and accusations.

But this step must be taken, otherwise the worsening dead air here will continue to rise. The magic tree is being bitten by various monsters, and its vines and roots can hardly protect against all attackers. Sooner or later, there will be a day when either the magic tree collapses or the monsters below completely climb up the tree.

The old eyes of Grandma Qiao sharpened: "Do you know how to worship other gods?"

"Have other gods descended here?"

"Xue Li, tell me quickly."

The old people talked about it.

This... seems to be different from what I thought.

Everyone seems to accept other gods in the same way.

"I have indeed received the grace and inspiration of a great god. He is the master of thousands of worlds, and his divine power spreads across mountains and oceans. Demons and the main gods are also loyal to him, and unstoppable natural disasters are also crawling at his feet. As long as you believe in him, offer loyalty and humility to him, you can get the rescue of the Yao civilization..."

Mia talked about the various miracles of God Yao.

The old people and children in the tree village were extremely excited!

"Let's build the statue of the great Yao! We have to give it a try!"

Mia understood.

In a desperate world, everyone's desire to survive can break all the rules and regulations, and they will grasp any little hope.

Mia used her knowledge of mathematics and geometry, plus the sketching required by the school, to draw the construction drawings of the Yao statue.

Everyone began to work on the statue.

…

After being busy until she was exhausted, Mia wrote a diary on the bark of the tree at the head of the bed, leaving it for Xueli to read when she came back.

She sat on the bed and looked at the dark sky outside the tree hole.

The stars were dim.

On the other side of the world, I don't know what Xueli, who occupied my body, is doing now.

Today is the key topic report day...my graduation assessment...

Thinking of this, Mia felt a sharp pain in her brain.

I hope she doesn't mess up too badly.