Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 60 I Want to Fly Higher (Bonus Chapter)
The journey back to Baldur's Gate was almost entirely calm and uneventful, except for the two burrowing bugs that greeted us as we passed through the insect-infested village at the mouth of the Chongza River.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yuan was no longer the naive newbie he once was, but the bug was still the same bug.

Whether it's the insect's ferocious and terrifying appearance, its shiny and frightening mandibles, or its deadly acid spray, in the eyes of someone who has seen a lot and been to many places, it's nothing more than that.

With a nimble sideways leap, dodging the incoming acid, Zhang Yuan swiftly rushed to the burrowing worm. Just as the worm attempted to use its mandibles to clamp down on its opponent, Zhang Yuan precisely pierced the gap in its carapace below its mouth with his longsword.

He drew his sword, turned around, and distanced himself from the insect. The burrowing insect frantically waved its mandibles and forepaws in pain, but only managed to grab air. The culprit had already escaped several meters away.

Seeing that it couldn't defeat its opponent, the insect, its eyes already bloodshot, opened its huge mouth to the sky, preparing to unleash the ancestral ultimate move of the burrowing warriors: Acid Rain Waterfall.

Seeing such a familiar scene, how could Zhang Yuan not know what the insect on the other side was trying to do? He took two steps forward, pushed off with his thighs, and leaped into the air.

At this moment, Zhang Yuan's body was almost parallel to the ground, and he kicked the insect like a rocket, using his feet as arrowheads.

Just as the burrowing worm was still brewing its acid, a flying kick landed on its own chin. This powerful blow sent its entire head tilting backward, and apart from coughing up a mouthful of acid like phlegm, the rest of the phlegm and sauerkraut were forced back into its stomach.

With his ultimate ability interrupted, the bug no longer posed a deadly threat. Zhang Yuan, having gotten up, took two steps and was back in front of the Burrowing Bug. He didn't expect to kill it with one blow, but instead took advantage of the bug's weakness in turning around to slowly whittle it down.

However, the digging worm, facing a dire situation, was not the kind of stubborn fool. It still managed to slip away. After being stabbed twice by Zhang Yuan, the digging worm began to panic. It shrank back into its burrow to prepare for a more thorough plan.

Zhang Yuan didn't try to stop it; he couldn't stop it anyway, and it might even provoke the other dog into a desperate act, spitting phlegm in its face.

Sheathing his longsword, he leisurely summoned Xiao Xiao. The man and the stone looked around like they were playing whack-a-mole, searching for any sign of the creature.

He glanced at Nancy and saw that she had already dealt with her opponent and was watching the situation with her arms crossed, a burrowing worm lying dead at her feet.

Looks like I've been outdone. But why would a man need to be so quick?
Fortunately, the burrowing worm probably felt lonely being all alone underground, because it soon poked its head out onto the surface, its two antennae spinning wildly, looking like an electric fan.

Before the insect could figure out what was going on, the enemy it was looking for delivered itself to its doorstep.

Zhang Yuanjian didn't even need to do anything. He simply pointed with his hand, and Xiao Xiao, who had received the order, ran to the insect, grabbed the insect's two mandibles with both hands, and, ignoring the insect's desperate struggle, activated the skill: Throw!

For countless years, generation after generation, the burrowing insects have been digging for food in the soil, at most burrowing out of the ground to watch the birds fly by in the sky.

But what does that have to do with them? The burrowing insects, whose concept of the sky is so vague, are destined to never understand the feelings of birds.

However, today, for the first time in thousands of years, a great pioneer among burrowing insects has dared to be the first insect to try the taste of flight.

Despite being forced, despite its constant sharp screech throughout to express its fear, and despite its less-than-graceful landing.

However, it went up into the sky and landed on the ground intact; well, the body was indeed intact.

But this is insignificant compared to its groundbreaking and earth-shattering achievement of pioneering the history of burrowing worms; it is merely a trivial flaw.

Just as someone was preparing to come up with more, more eloquent words to enthusiastically praise this great burrowing worm.

"How long are you going to stare at this bug's corpse? Let's get going. I want to get to Baldur's Gate before dark," Nancy urged in his ear.

"Wait a minute, Nancy, could you do me a favor and peel these shells off?" Someone had long had his eye on the burrowing worm's shell, but back then he was just a newcomer and had no say in the matter, so he could only watch as the shells were discarded.

Nancy, however, didn't understand his thinking either: "Chanelm, the burrowing worm's shell is indeed tough and lightweight, but how many people have you seen wear burrowing worm armor? It's not that they don't want to, the key is that only a very few master blacksmiths have mastered this craft, and others simply can't handle this thing." "It's true that few people can handle it, but it's not that no one can handle this shell. As far as I know, there happens to be a master blacksmith in Belgost who is good at handling this kind of thing. If we take it back, we can have two more high-quality suits of armor in the future. At the very least, we can sell it to him and make a profit, right?" the man argued logically.

After hearing Zhang Yuan's words, Nancy was a little skeptical, but after all, he was her partner and they had worked well together before, so it wouldn't hurt to help him with such a small matter.

"This thing is quite heavy. Don't regret it if others treat it as trash." Nancy, who was taking out her longsword to pry open the insect's shell, reminded Zhang Yuan while being careful not to get splashed with the insect's bodily fluids.

"On another note, now that we've found Gavial, the King will surely reward you handsomely. Why would you care about this insect shell?"

Faced with Nancy's teasing, Zhang Yuan retorted confidently, "Even a mosquito's leg is meat, let alone such a big bug?"

Nancy, too lazy to argue with that shameless miser, focused on her shell-cracking work, while the clueless guy could only chat with Garrick on the side.

"How does it feel to go from a wandering poet to the son of a duke?"

"I feel a bit lost. It seems like everything I've experienced and worked so hard for has been meaningless. Of course, it's not that I don't want to see the Grand Duke. On the contrary, I've thought about it many times before: how wonderful it would be if I had parents too."

Garrick stared blankly at his hands, rubbing the pair of angel stone rings incessantly. Yes, a pair. Nancy had found quite a few pieces of jewelry that she had forcibly taken from Garrick on Sylvia's corpse.

This caused someone who learned of the matter to be extremely frustrated, feeling that they had missed out on a huge windfall.

The troubadour began again in his sleepy, dreamlike tone: "But I haven't figured out how to face a father I've never met, and I don't understand what identity I should live as in the future."

He's truly oblivious to his good fortune, a melodramatic little intellectual who's just making a fuss over nothing. Someone couldn't help but feel contempt for him.

In order to persuade (or rather, deceive) this jealous guy, Zhang Yuan began to think of ways to feed him toxic motivational speeches.

"To be honest, in my opinion, all your so-called achievements and efforts so far are worthless and worthless in the face of the identity of the son of the Flame Fist Grand Duke, because once you become the son of the Grand Duke, you don't need any so-called efforts at all."

"Secondly, your father has already made a real appearance. What's the point of thinking about other things? Anyway, I'm going to bring you to the Grand Duke. If you dare to refuse the Grand Duke, that's your problem."

"Besides, you haven't figured out how to face your father, do you think Grand Duke Flame Fist has figured out how to face you, his son? This is not a simple process for either of them. Don't think that you alone can build a new father-son relationship."

“But I don’t know if I can play this role well.” Garrick was still somewhat hesitant.

"Why don't you give it a try? How will you know you can't do it if you don't try?"

"..."

Just as Garrick was rolling his eyes, choked by this malicious and toxic chicken soup, Nancy next to him couldn't stand it anymore.

"Shut up, stop using these fallacies and heresies to poison other people's children."

"He's nineteen years old already, is he still considered a child?"

"Okay, so you don't want this insect shell, right? Here, you can deal with it yourself."

"No, sister, I was wrong, I was wrong, okay?"

(End of this chapter)