Dimensional Codex - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: A Daring Thought
Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
Every world had their differences.
In the world of Diablo, what Fang Zheng could see was nothing but endless darkness, even during the day, the clouds above seemed to act like a huge coffin lid. It was suffocating.
Watching the horizon, there was only masses of dark forest, and as time went on, it felt as if the entire world was destroying itself before one’s very eyes. Barrenness, darkness, despair. Those were the themes of Diablo.
As for hope? This thing may have existed there, but the content of that idea was merely there to be destroyed.
This world, though, was looked completely different.
“Here?”
Inside the horse-drawn carriage, Fang Zheng looked ahead into the city. Using the body that once belonged to another, Fang Zheng soon understood that this city was called Kardas, meaning “Where the Starlight Shines Upon” in Elvish. The people of this country themselves called this place Starlight City.
This was a small city within the Holy Country, but even so, it was unique in Fang Zheng’s eyes.
The walls were nearly 20 meters high, made from marble as it surrounded the entire city. A beautiful river flowed through the middle of the city, a primary fisherman’s economy built on the lakes.
“Yes, sir. This is Starlight City.”
The driver said with a smile as Fang Zheng looked at the white palace in the center of the city. He looked at the World Book before him.
User: Fang Zheng
World Points: 5
Equipped Soulstone: Arthas
Buffs: King of the Undead (Sense toward undead raised by 50%, damage caused to undead increased by 50%, defense against undead raised by 50%)
Title: Holy Guardian
Strength: E (Butchering chickens shouldn’t be a problem)
Agility: D (It’s always better to run faster than others)
Constitution: E (Getting killed means you die)
Sense: E (Seeing and hearing are basic functions to you)
Attractiveness: D+ (Beauty is basic for strengthening of relationships and understanding)
Equipped Skill: Royal Crusader’s Arts (A)
Fang Zheng took a deep breath after carefully looking at his info.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Soon, the carriage started moving forward again.
“Fuu…”
Inside the carriage, Fang Zheng took a deep breath and closed his eyes, stabilizing his emotions. He’d calculated the time after leaving the Diablo world, and he’d been there for three days, with the time in the main world not even passing ten hours. Luckily, the enemy didn’t go tunnel vision on him, or he really might not have been able to escape.
After leaving the forest, the first thing Fang Zheng did was change his clothes in a nearby village, as well as hire a carriage to go to the nearest city. What made him relax was the fact that the people in the village hadn’t seen any wanted posters about the original owner of this body. The world may have on the surface looked like some normal middle-ages standard, but in reality, all Fang Zheng’s memories told him that the literacy of the civilizations here was not weaker than the world he belonged to originally.
Thinking back to that scary battle power, he thought that they might even be more advanced.
After all, in his original world, there wasn’t much else other than a nuke that could blast a planet down.
Fang Zheng had completely digested the memories of this body before he’d reached this city. At the same time, he had thought of what he should do as well.
Running away wasn’t possible. The Holy Country, Salex, was one of the four strongest countries of this world, with the other three being the leading Magical Country, Leon, and the country with the leading economy, Carlon. The Magical Country was the Country of Mages, and the Country of Wealth was the heaven of merchants and nobles. The final country, on the other hand, was the Country of Flame, Fanell.
According to his memories, the Holy Country Salex occupied almost one-fifth of this continent, with the most powerful army and holy priests. The reason why they were able to enjoy such a position today was because of the Tide of Chaos a thousand years ago. The king of this country led the humans and broke through the darkness and chaos’ destruction seal, protecting the world in the end. As such, this country was known as the Guardians of Humanity, the owner of this land. All the included lands and population weren’t much different from Fang Zheng’s own country before reincarnating. One could imagine just how hopeless Fang Zheng’s resistance against a country with such a large territory and population was.
Of course, if he could choose, he’d rather go to Carlon or Leon, but unfortunately that was difficult as well. Not talking about the fact that Fang Zheng was in a core area of the Holy Country, going to any country was a long and arduous journey, and would take a lot of time. Even if he got past the borders, he might not be accepted by these two countries at all. The Magical Country only accepted mages, and even merchants had to be qualified mages. The Country of Wealth, on the other hand, was more direct; you needed to be rich.
Fang Zheng, though, evidently was not rich. The Country of Flame? They were in a whole other continent, and he wouldn’t be able to get there at all. Even without the storms of the sea, he couldn’t just swim over there, could he?
As for magic… He didn’t know any.
While this world had other smaller countries apart from these four big ones, the dynamic was the same as with Fang Zheng’s original world. Small countries needed to listen when the big ones spoke… Oh, no.
At least in his old world, the smaller countries could keep their rights on the surface, but here… Well, they did have their own land and borders, didn’t they?
Judging by the current situation, Fang Zheng was unable to leave the Holy Country. Even if he did, he couldn’t ensure that he wouldn’t be captured by their hunters one day. Talking frankly, Fang Zheng himself didn’t have any irredeemable vendetta with Salex. It was just that he was too unlucky, getting into the wrong body at the wrong time.
But, this didn’t mean that he could just go to their palace and say how they’ve got the wrong guy, the original owner of this body was dead and he was just a reincarnated soul.
They wouldn’t just nod their heads and say sorry for the misunderstanding. No matter what, it was a fact that he’d kill a couple knights, and from the memories of Williams, these knights, while not too high in status, weren’t too low either.
They wouldn’t make Salex go to the ends of the earth for them, but they would still do something.
In Fang Zheng’s mind, the transportation system for different worlds was on cooldown, and the next opening would be in another 15 days. He couldn’t just stay in the wilderness for that long, playing hide and seek with the Holy Country.
And so, after much thought, he decided on an idea.
A dangerous idea.
And so, here he was.
“We’ve arrived, sir.”
The driver spoke as the carriage came to a slow stop. Fang Zheng took a deep breath and adjusted his clothes before opening the door and walking out.
The first thing he saw was a two-story stone structure; it looked like it had been quite some years, and it wasn’t a very grand place. At least there were only two normal sentries at the door, looking calm. The place didn’t seem too populated either.
Fang Zheng knew, though, that this was the first step of his adventure.
This was the town hall.
His footsteps echoed as he walked in. Looking forward, he couldn’t see many people in here, except for an old man resting his head on the table, sleeping. He couldn’t blame him, this was a small city, and there wasn’t much going on.
He cleared his throat and walked to the counter, tapping the surface.
Hearing that, the old man jerked up suddenly and adjusted his posture, staring at Fang Zheng with wide-open eyes. He was about to scold him when he saw the material he was wearing. He speedily adjusted his position even more.
“Hello, sir, how can I help you?”
“I hope to stay in this city for a while, please help me register.”
Looking at the reaction, Fang Zheng smiled to himself. Getting this high-quality clothing cost quite a lot, but this was the most famous craftsmanship of this city, made with many good cloth pieces. It cost him almost one-third of his money.
Though he didn’t feel much pain there, his past experience told him that people judged based on appearance, and they looked at your clothes. If you looked elegant and well dressed, it didn’t matter if you were a horrible bastard. At the very least, the first impression wouldn’t be bad.
If he were to come here with normal clothes, this old man wouldn’t be this polite for sure. He’d be mumbling or scolding him a bit, and if he were a petty person, he might even have some hostility toward the village-boy-looking customer, causing some trouble for his own satisfaction.
But now, before he could understand who Fang Zheng was, the old man did his job honestly.
“No problem, sir.”
Fang Zheng made the old man a bit nervous for now. He swallowed as he saw the formal clothing and the Skybreaker sword on his back.
“Please, give me your documents.”
“Here.”
With that, he took out some documents and handed them over. These cost quite a bit of money and effort as well. Luckily for him, the original owner of this body was quite a proper cultist, at least with good connections when it came to these underground things. It was because of this that Fang Zheng could locate the Thieves’ Guild and get this ‘authentic’ identification after considerable payment.
Of course, this was naturally a proper identification pass, stating where the possessor was coming from, where he was going, along with affiliations. These were all made with special magic, so it wasn’t possible to forget it at all.
But, that didn’t mean it was impossible to get it.
With enough monetary compensation, then ‘losing’ a document or two wasn’t much of a big deal, was it?
“Mister Fang Zheng, from White Silver Country… Hm…”
The old man put on his monocle and looked over the letters and print. He cleared his throat and looked up at him.
“May I ask why you’ve come here?”
“I’ve come to seek guidance from the Goddess of Law.”
As he spoke, he put a finger on his forehead and tapped it lightly, a prayer gesture of a believer.
“I want to strengthen my determination with the vows to the holy.”
“Alright, I understand.”
The old man wasn’t surprised at all by the answer. The Holy Country was the source of faith, and many believers from other countries would come here for that purpose. Put simply, most people thought of the teachings and beliefs of the Holy Country as ‘proper’ and were more inclined to listen to the Goddess of Law’s words.
Of course, anyone with education knew that this was nonsense, but you couldn’t stop people from going to a holy church to pray after coming all this way, could you?
The old man naturally had experience with this, and so he fully finished the documentation soon and got another form to fill out. He picked up the stamp beside him and with some effort, pressed it onto the paper.
“Alright, young man, you can use this document to go to the astrology room. You know what to do.”
“Of course, thank you.”
Fang Zheng nodded with a smile after hearing these words. He took the document and put some silver coins on the counter. Coins that the old man secretly put into his pocket as his smile became even more passionate.
“I am called Fan De, if you have anything you need, you can come find me. I’ll help you with anything I can.”
“Thank you.”
Fang Zheng nodded and took the document before leaving.
A cold look flashed in his eyes after turning around. The first step was complete.
What came next was the most dangerous part.
