Half Elf Ranger

Chapter 428 The Temple of Knowledge
Winter City.

The bright sun shone on the white marble of the stately houses in the aristocratic quarters, and it shone equally on the shabby huts and damaged tents of the slums.

Thorne led Anderina on the muddy dirt road in the slum.

There are some poor poor people on the side of the road. Their faces are yellow, their eyes are dull, and they wear tattered clothes, as if they are walking dead.

When they saw the figures of Thorn and Andrina walking towards them, the timid ones hid in the shadows, while the bolder ones stretched out slightly trembling, skinny hands to them.

Their arms are so thin that they cannot hold their hands up for a few seconds.

Thorne gestured to the sorceress who was surrounded by a cloak with his eyes, and then pulled her away at a faster pace.

"Where are we going?" As the disgusting smell decreased a lot, Andelina, who covered her mouth and nose lightly, finally couldn't help asking Thorne who had been silent all the way.

"Let's go to the lower city to have a look." Thorne stopped and replied.

"What are you doing there?" Anderina's small face hidden in the hood was stunned for a moment, as if she remembered something, she immediately became interested and asked.

"Actually, I don't know. I just feel that there is something waiting for me there. I want to go and see what it is." Thorne was silent for a while, shrugged helplessly, and said to her with a smile.

He's telling the truth.

The purpose of coming to Cold Winter City is to be attracted by the light of the Wizard Tower.

As for what to do here, in fact, he is also very confused. He can only walk straight towards the lower city like when he first arrived in Winter City.

It was the same at the beginning, the first person he met when he arrived in the lower city was the old man who taught him the Nine Swords, so he planned to go there again to see if there were any important discoveries.

Of course, he still has to take Anderina to the Wizard's Tower, which can be regarded as completing their itinerary this time.

"Okay, I just went back to have a look. Last time I left in a hurry, I didn't have time to take away a lot of things." Anderina smiled slightly, and told Thorn her thoughts.

"Don't have such high expectations, maybe your tavern has already been turned into ruins." Thorne patted her little hand and hit her untimely.

"How do you know if you don't go and see?" Anderina snorted softly, and replied not very concerned.

Thorne smiled, but did not answer, but looked at the surrounding environment.

In the shadow of a hut he saw a woman hanging her laundry to dry, and when the woman noticed him and Andrina, she took care to hide in a darker place.

Thorn understood why she was like this, because in this slum where he had been, the two of them were strangers, and their clothes were too expensive and too mysterious for this slum.

Therefore, in this kind of place, strangers usually represent danger, which is an instinctive means of self-protection for them.

Of course, this doesn't mean that some stunned youths from the Thieves Guild won't stand up and demand protection money from them, but they prefer to bully outsiders.

"Thorn, have you noticed that many people in other parts of Winter City are packing up and leaving here, why don't the people in the slums have such awareness." Andrina is also looking at the surrounding environment, I couldn't help but ask my inner doubts.

Because she saw a little girl wearing all kinds of patched clothes appearing not far ahead, and she was playing with a toy similar to a bamboo dragonfly in her hand. Happy, with a face full of joy that represents happiness and contentment.

"They have nowhere to go except here." Following Anderina's gaze, Thorn also noticed the child not far away.

The child was about eleven or twelve years old, and although he looked malnourished, he was quite handsome.

He looked at it for a while, his expression changed, and he walked over with Anderina.

"Little friend, it's so dangerous outside, aren't you afraid of encountering bad guys?" Thorn walked up to the little girl, bent over and asked with a smile.

Although he didn't know much about the dirty deals in the slums, he at least knew that at this time, a child, especially a girl, would definitely be dangerous if he appeared here.

"I'm not afraid. There is a paladin elder sister here to protect us, and no one dares to bully me." The little girl looked at Anderina twice more with her big bright eyes, and then disappeared into the alley with cheerful steps. .

Sister paladin?
Thorne froze for a moment, and the paladin girl who bid farewell to him half a year ago appeared in his mind inexplicably.

Then, the two moved on.

As long as they pass through the slums, they will reach their destination, the lower city near the Sea of ​​Glory.

"Where are you coming from, where are you going?" Suddenly, a young man's voice came from the shadow of the alleyway, his voice was full of jerky pride, and also had a trembling fear.

Immediately afterwards, a tall and thin young man blocked the way of the two of them, holding a notched iron sword in his hand, which was covered with ash from the bottom of the pot.

I saw him waving his chaotic 'swordsmanship' in the air like a neurotic, as if this could bring him great courage.

"Where are you coming from! Where are you going!" Seeing that the two were silent, the boy said even louder, pointing his sword at both ends of the alleyway at the same time.

Thorn shook his head slightly, motioning for Anderina to retreat behind him.

Andrina pulled down the hood on her head a few times, trying to hide her face in the shadows as much as possible, and then quietly watched Thorne's performance.

However, to her surprise, he didn't choose to do it. Instead, he took out a gold coin from his pocket and threw it at the feet of the arrogant young man.

When this young man, who usually drank water from the sewer and found food by eating garbage, could not hide his surprise and excitement when he saw such a shining treasure, but he quickly regained his composure and once again looked at it with a superior attitude. Thorne, who was tossing the gold coin, scolded: "It's not enough!"

Thorn threw another gold coin at his feet, and the coin happened to stand upright on the muddy dirt road. He spread his hands with a helpless expression: "That's all."

"If I search you and find out that's not the case at all, don't blame me for being rude." The young man threatened viciously.

However, he was silent for a while looking at Thorn's figure, and finally retracted his raised steps, suddenly chose to bend down to pick up the two gold coins thrown on the ground, and said loudly: "I tell you, next time you should bring more gold coins." Come to me with the money, get out now!"

After finishing speaking, he was the first to disappear into the shadow of the alleyway.

"Let's go." Thorne continued to walk ahead and lead the way.

"Thorn, I want to go to the temple area." Andrina hesitated, and proposed to Thorne the thought that flashed in her mind.

"No problem, I will go with you, the Temple of Knowledge?" Thorne replied without thinking, and then confirmed.

"Hmm." Andrina smiled as she met Thorne's gaze.

Temple District, the temple of Oghma, the god of knowledge.

This temple shrouded in divine light is like a library, full of acolytes of research knowledge and all kinds of books, maps, and scrolls.

There is a strong atmosphere of books everywhere, as if to make people indulge in the ocean of knowledge.

"Welcome back again, Ms. Anderina, may the God of Knowledge protect you." Seeing the two people walking into the hall of the temple, a senior priest of the Temple of Knowledge was startled and immediately greeted them.

"Hello, Archbishop Sanrod, praise the God of Knowledge." Andrina bowed slightly and saluted.

Thorn, who was following behind, looked at each other lightly.

It is a priest in a white shirt and trousers, and a brocade waistcoat, whose sleeves, though wide, are tied at the wrists.

What surprised him the most was that the brocade vest of the other party depicted many hieroglyphs, symbols, runes, and symbols of magical power and arcane meaning. All markers are stitched together.

Oghma.

A god of inspiration, invention, and knowledge, also known as the Namer and Lord of Lore.

He is an absolutely neutral deity with powerful divine power.

It is said that among the believers of Oghma, the god of knowledge, there is a myth about the creation of the world.

Shortly after the creation of the entire Toril universe and the birth of the Mother Earth, a traveler (planeswalker?) ventured to this place from an extremely distant land.

When this traveler came to this world, he found that this new world was chaotic, and many new concepts were still changing and forming, and these changing concepts desperately needed to be settled and fixed.

So the traveler defined and named each concept in the following long years.The name given by the traveler produced power, fixing all the originally elusive concepts of transformation, and this formed the materialized natural world.

This traveler is Oghma, the god of knowledge, the binder of all knowledge, who brings order to the chaotic world.

This legend also explains why Oghma is called the Namer.

Thorne followed Andrina's footsteps to the statue of the God of Knowledge. Although he didn't believe in the god, out of respect, he bowed to him, then bowed his head slightly, and waited in place.

Anderina gave him a deep salute, and murmured a recitation in her mouth:
"Ideas have no weight, but they can shake mountains. Ideas have no rights, but they can command thousands. Ideas have no power, but they can destroy empires. Before anything can exist, ideas must exist. Knowledge is the greatest power of mortals. , Arming oneself should be knowledge, not scrap metal. Power itself is not terrible, what is terrible is its owner..."

I do not know how long it has been……

Thorn, who had remained silent all this time, walked out together under Anderina's gesture.

The senior priest of the God of Knowledge stared at the backs of the two leaving, and paid more attention to Thorne for a moment, then turned around and stood in front of the statue of Oghma and began to pray devoutly.

"The age of contempt is coming, and the wrath and vengeance of the godslayers will come."

During the devout prayers of the senior priest, after an unknown amount of time, a faint voice from the bottom of his heart awakened the priest.

"My lord!"

The high-ranking priest showed surprise, and immediately knelt down to the statue.

"Inheritance of knowledge is more important than anything else, take them away quickly..."

At this time, the tall statue was vaguely coated with a layer of golden light. Even if the high-level priest bowed his head, he still felt a pair of majestic eyes as if he was watching from the distant kingdom of God.

"Leave quickly..." As the golden light of the statue gradually dimmed, the senior priest looked at everything around him with nostalgia, and smiled bitterly.

…………

(End of this chapter)