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ArabicArknights: Soul Knights of Terra — Chapter 31
Chapter 31: Appearance Anxiety
“Little Talulah, you were far too impulsive just now. That creature actually harbored no malicious intent…”
Alina spoke softly, her breath pluming into white mist in the freezing air as she tried to comfort her frantic friend. Her chest still heaved slightly from the adrenaline of the sudden abduction, but her voice remained as gentle as ever.
“You are telling me that creature had no malicious intent?” The white-haired dragon girl, clad in a crisp, sharp military uniform, furrowed her brows deeply. “The way it snatched you up and carried you off into the dark did not look like the actions of a good person at all!”
“It is fine, Little Talulah,” Alina smiled, reaching out to soothe the dragon girl’s lingering anxiety. “Was I not sent back completely unharmed? And look, I even received a gift.” She patted the fabric of her pocket with a soft, reassuring rhythm.
“That is absolutely no excuse for it to abduct you!” Talulah’s tone remained unyielding, though the slight, involuntary trembling of her gloved hands betrayed the sheer terror she had just experienced. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? A monster like that suddenly tearing out of the shadows and taking you away! I almost…”
“Little Talulah~”
Alina’s voice melted into a warm, teasing cadence. She reached out and grabbed Talulah’s arm, shaking it gently with a hint of playfulness.
“Wh-what are you doing…”
The fierce, imposing aura Talulah had been forcefully maintaining instantly collapsed. Her rigid posture relaxed involuntarily, and the harsh edge in her tone softened into something much more vulnerable.
“Do not be angry anymore. That was truly just a misunderstanding. And…” Alina reached into her inner pocket and retrieved a walnut-sized, pitch-black seed. “The other party only had its pet search for food because of the starving children at home. It even gave me this as payment for the trouble.”
Talulah’s sharp gaze immediately locked onto the strangely shaped seed. Her brow furrowed even tighter as she took it from Alina’s palm, turning it over to examine the unnatural texture.
Alina noticed the sudden shift to a deadly serious expression and asked in confusion, “This seed… is there a problem with it?”
“Alina, you mentioned before… that this seed was compressed from several black, living trees?”
“Yes,” Alina nodded, recalling the shocking, surreal scene she had witnessed. “Is it not incredible? It is exactly like the witchcraft from the old legends.”
‘No… it is not a legend.’ Talulah thought to herself, her jaw tightening. At the very least, she had once been forced to absorb certain forbidden knowledge under the suffocating tutelage of Kashchey.
Twisted, giant trees that seemed to possess life and flesh… A description like that sounded exactly like the grotesque handiwork of the Scavengers.
Talulah shook her head vigorously, casting the dark thought out of her mind. How could the Scavengers possibly penetrate this deep into the remote, frozen heartland of the Ursus tundra? Their range of activity had no business extending this far north.
Perhaps… this was merely some rare, highly peculiar manifestation of Originium Arts?
Talulah’s thoughts drifted involuntarily back to her brief, violent clash with the black beast just a short while ago. Although she had been firmly in control of the tempo at the start, at a certain moment, that Shadow Wolf seemed to have suddenly received some kind of massive, unnatural enhancement.
It had completely ignored the terrifying heat of her scorching flames. Even when her blade struck true, the creature’s hide had become absurdly dense, making it difficult to leave a crippling wound. She could only watch helplessly as it forced its way through the snowstorm, weathering her relentless attacks with brute force.
And that appearance… was such a creature really a mere creation of Originium Arts?
Talulah stared at the quiet, unassuming seed in her palm, a trace of heavy gloom quietly creeping into her chest.
“Little Talulah… Little Talulah!”
Alina’s worried call pulled Talulah back from her chaotic, spiraling thoughts. She blinked, regaining her composure as she met the clear, pure eyes of the Elaphia girl standing before her.
“What is wrong, Little Talulah? You have looked completely absent-minded for a while now,” Alina asked softly, reaching up to gently brush a layer of accumulating snow off Talulah’s shoulder.
“It is nothing,” Talulah shook her head, forcing a reassuring mask onto her face. “I am just a bit puzzled. The origin of this thing is far too unusual.”
She pondered for a moment longer, then handed the seed back to Alina, her tone dropping into absolute solemnity. “Alina, after we get home, put this away immediately. Do not carry it with you, and definitely do not use it lightly.”
“Are you worried about…” Alina let the sentence trail off, but Talulah understood the unspoken question perfectly.
“Yes,” Talulah nodded firmly. “Even if what the other party said about using it when in danger is true, an object of unknown origin inherently carries uncontrollable risks.”
She paused, straightening her back as the wind whipped around them, her voice ringing out with resonant, unshakeable power. “Besides… with me by your side, anyone who wants to hurt you must first step over my corpse! My sword and fire will clear away all threats for you!”
Watching Talulah’s earnest, fiercely protective expression, Alina could not hold back a bright, airy laugh. “Alright, alright, alright~ Our Little Talulah is the most amazing~”
“Geez! I am being serious!”
Talulah grumbled with slight dissatisfaction, her cheeks flushing slightly against the cold, but she reached out and gripped Alina’s hand tightly. The two girls smiled at each other, their bond a warm anchor against the biting frost, and began to trudge forward toward the distant village.
However, after taking only a few steps, Talulah suddenly whipped her head back. Her sharp, draconic gaze pierced through the distant horizon, cutting through the blurred veil of wind and snow behind them.
There, she saw it.
An unusually tall, twisted black tree, standing like a silent, ancient sentinel alone atop the vast snowy plains. At the ends of its branches, which resembled a grotesque fusion of deer antlers and withered claws, several clusters of cold, faint light flickered in the storm, burning like will-o’-the-wisps in a forgotten graveyard.
Alarm bells screamed in Talulah’s mind. She knew the terrain of this tundra perfectly; there was absolutely no such conspicuous, strange tree when they had walked this path earlier!
“Little Talulah?”
Alina noticed the sudden rigidity in her friend’s posture and looked in the direction of her gaze, but saw nothing but a vast, empty expanse of white wind and snow.
Talulah did not answer. She raised a hand, signaling for Alina to stay completely quiet. She turned her head back to lock onto the anomaly again—but it was gone. The snowy plain was completely empty, as if the terrifying silhouette had been nothing more than a trick of the light.
Talulah’s pupils constricted into vertical slits. She immediately pulled Alina behind her back and drew her sword in one fluid, desperate motion. Scorching, blinding flames erupted from her body, and a massive, circular wave of fire rapidly expanded in all directions.
The high-temperature ring of fire instantly evaporated the falling snow and melted a massive crater into the frozen earth, revealing the black permafrost beneath and forming a perfectly clear field of vision.
“What is wrong, Little Talulah!?”
Talulah remained silent. She nervously scanned the massive area cleared by her flames, extending her senses to their absolute limit to search for any hidden heat sources.
Nothing. Aside from the two of them, there were no other life forms, no abnormal heat signatures, nothing but the howling wind.
But… that silhouette was definitely not a hallucination!
“What is wrong, Little Talulah?” Alina asked again, her voice trembling slightly from the sudden display of power.
Talulah swallowed the heavy unease rising in her throat, and the roaring flames swirling around her blade slowly receded into embers.
“It is fine, Alina. It might have just been some wild beasts wandering nearby. I have already scared them off.” She reached back and patted Alina’s hand gently, soothing the terrified girl. “Do not worry. Let us hurry back to the village.”
Alina looked at Talulah’s feigned calm expression and pushed her own doubts down. “…Okay.”
The two did not linger a second longer. They quickened their pace, practically running through the snow toward the safety of the village.
Far behind them, amidst the blinding wind and snow, the ‘tree’ slowly rose from the deep shadows, its glowing eyes gazing quietly at the retreating backs of the two girls. Once they finally disappeared over the edge of the horizon, the towering figure spoke a single word.
“Home.”
With a faint, soundless flash of light, the massive, imposing figure of the Wendigo reappeared within the familiar stone walls of the Forge.
“Looks like they are just friends… I must have been overthinking the situation.” Third muttered to himself, his heavy deer skull shaking slightly. The heartwarming, protective scene between the two girls made him realize that his earlier paranoia had been somewhat unnecessary.
The Shadow Wolf at his feet immediately leaned against his leg, letting out a fawning, high-pitched whine. It wagged its tail desperately, trying to declare that it had strictly followed orders this time and had not caused any actual trouble.
Third reached down, his massive, clawed hand skillfully rubbing the Shadow Wolf’s head. “I understand. It is not your fault.”
Combining the girls’ reactions with the Shadow Wolf’s instinctive attack posture when it first manifested, Third could roughly deduce exactly how the situation had spiraled out of control. The way the massive wolf had emerged directly from the shadows was likely far too terrifying, causing that white-haired dragon girl to mistake it for a lethal attacker. The clash was an inevitable misunderstanding.
“After all…”
Third looked down at his own monstrous, skeletal hands, then at the ferocious, shadow-dripping beast beside him. A hint of dry bitterness rose in his chest. “With our current appearance, we really do not look like the good guys. Being treated as horrifying monsters… is only reasonable.”
“However…”
Third fell into deep thought, his glowing eyes narrowing. He was intimately clear about the Shadow Wolf’s base strength. Even without the raw enhancement of his Frost Ember Wolf Assault skill, the beast’s physical capabilities were more than enough to tear through most conventional threats.
But according to the vague, instinctual feedback the wolf had transmitted through their bond, that girl who looked like a simple village resident had actually managed to suppress his summon for a time?
“Can even a random village girl go head-to-head with my summoned creature?” Third’s voice held a heavy trace of disbelief. “Is the baseline power level of this world truly this absurd?”
If the residents of a single, remote settlement possessed such terrifying combat strength, the overall threat level of this world was far higher than he had initially estimated.
“I still need to become stronger…”
Third muttered in a low, resonant voice, clenching his fist and feeling the immense, ancient power coursing through his Wendigo body. ‘If I can become stronger, I can protect everyone. When Eldest inevitably loses control of his temper, I can manage the situation. Such an ordinary person like me… after possessing this body, has also become this powerful. Then, could I be…’
“That is right… I am no longer ordinary.” Third composed himself, shaking off the lingering doubts, and turned his attention to the stone table to check the spoils from his recent trip to the Dungeon.
The shadows at his feet squirmed, bubbling like boiling pitch, before spitting out several items onto the floor. The first thing that caught his eye was a long sword that was pitch black all over. The blade seemed to actively absorb the ambient light of the Forge, carrying a strange, heavy sense of tranquility.
Third picked it up, feeling its unnatural weight, and stared in flat disbelief for a moment. “Void Sword…”
He instantly recognized this weapon. It was quite famous, and highly specific, back in the game.
Its raw physical damage was not outstanding among similar melee weapons, but its true value lay entirely in its special effect—it could actively release a localized gravitational wave, forcibly dragging surrounding enemies toward the wielder. Under specific tactical systems, especially when combined with the chaotic enhancement factors found in Evil King Mode, it could exert an effect that elevated it to the status of a crowd-control artifact.
The weapon quality in their old world was strictly divided from bottom to top: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Red, and the mythical Divine Transformation level.
But unlike many traditional systems, a higher color quality here was not an absolute symbol of strength. There were Red-tier weapons that players openly mocked as trash, and among the lower-quality tiers, there were hidden artifacts that performed with devastating efficiency.
The Void Sword resting in his hand was one such tactical masterpiece, despite only being a Blue-quality item.
“But…”
Third flicked the pitch-black blade gently with his fingertip, listening to the dull, echoing hum it produced. “This is not Evil King Mode. Where am I supposed to find those specific enhancement factors out here in reality…”
In a real, lethal combat environment, actively dragging a horde of enemies directly toward your own body was not necessarily a brilliant survival strategy. For Third, whose entire combat style revolved around controlling summoned creatures from a safe distance to push the frontline forward, this sword was practically a death sentence.
“I will leave it for Fourth to research. Let us see if that vampire can develop any novel uses for it.” Third shook his head and stuffed the highly situational artifact back into his shadow space.
He organized the remaining items, his gaze sweeping over the meager pile resting on the Forge, and fell into a long, heavy silence.
Biomass x 4. Magic Fragment – Blue x 2. Iron Ore x 2.
Looking at this pathetic haul, Third grimaced. Although the drop rate of Dungeon bosses back in the game was notoriously stingy, this was pushing it. For such a massive, terrifying boss, wasn’t leaving just this tiny handful of junk in the treasure chest a bit unreasonable?
Cursing his own terrible luck, he swept the crafting materials to the side. Holding onto a final, desperate glimmer of hope, he checked the last item—the currency drop. He reached into the squirming darkness and pulled out a heavy object that shimmered with a dim, solid golden light.
“What the heck is this…”
Looking at the heavy red gold brick resting in his palm, Third was completely lost. “A gold brick? Was there ever such a thing in the game?”
Third tilted his heavy, antlered head back and let out a long, exhausted sigh at the stone ceiling. “Could you not just give me Blue Coins instead… How am I supposed to use this thing out here…”
Just as Third was agonizing over his useless loot, Second’s frantic voice suddenly rang out inside the mental network.
[Second: Are you guys done yet! The child has woken up!]
[Fourth: So fast!]
[Eldest: Coming immediately.]
[Third: Coming.]
After firing off a quick reply in the group, Third heavily pushed himself away from the Forge and slowly walked toward the exit.
“Take it one step at a time, I suppose…”
[Rhodes’s Note: Blue Coins are the universal currency within the Soul Knight system, used for character upgrades, purchasing skins, and forging weapons/armor. Evil King Mode refers to a specific, high-difficulty challenge mode in the game that applies random buffs and debuffs (factors) to the player and enemies.]