After Annan and Nefertari arrived at Cinder Barren, they did not begin exploring immediately but looked for Longjing Tea’s group resting in residence.
Annan had granted freedom to Husky and Ah Dian, allowing them to continue to work and play as they pleased.
Although the two girls were interested in Annan’s purpose of coming here, he wanted to avoid taking them along for the time being.
They are not even a transcender, yet send them to challenge the world boss directly.
Isn’t that just causing trouble without reason?
Although there was no pressure to resurrect players of this level and nothing was lost from their death, they would still get in the way.
At least for the time being, they could not be of help either.
As for Nefertari, Annan noticed she was friendly to the girl Ah Dian and asked where she lived.
She may want to introduce Ah Dian to her teacher.
That’s pretty good.
So Annan asked Nefertari to reside at another residence dedicated to the players: Ah Dian and the rest. Just when Annan peeked at Thirteenth Fragrance and Husky from the backend interface, he saw an empty room on their side.
Annan felt that the two girls were quite different from each other, one being a simpleton and the other a fool. Perhaps this contrast could stimulate Naifertari’s maternal instincts and create a favorable impression. Meanwhile, Thirteenth Fragrance was particularly eloquent and a proper member of society, even a former host. His sociability formed a solid contrast to Husky and Ah Dian.
If all goes well, these three people should be able to gain Nefertari’s rapport.
After these three new players became transcenders, Annan could send them all to Bone Farm through Nefertari’s connection.
Gaining an apprenticeship to a Gold Rank Wizard was not an easy task. There must be a test.
However, the barrier of entry might lower a little with Nefertari’s connection.
From Nefertari’s point of view, the old man seemed to have a good temper, and the greatest advantage was that he liked to be a teacher. Moreover, he was older and more knowledgeable, so he should be open to the students’ choices to go their separate ways.
At least there would be no such situation as Benjamin, who thought the students were “not pure enough”, so he killed the students.
After all, most transcenders still hoped to change their fate and obtain wealth, status, and a life of ease and comfort after advancing to the Silver Rank and reaching the pinnacle of their talents.
After all, transcenders with an immense desire to ascend to Gold Rank were a minority.
—If he could not handle this fact, he would have died of anger long ago.
He certainly would not live that long.
However, since Nefertari went to the other residence, Annan was finally able to recover from the identity of “Ghirlandaio” and took a little rest with the main body.
Before Annan progressed to the Silver Rank, he still liked to use the “Ghirlandaio” to make his move. At least the body of a healthy and robust adult without illness or injury was much easier to utilize than the body of a fourteen-year-old child.
It was not because “Ghirlandaio” had a robust strength and solid constitution. On the contrary, Annan mainly felt that walking with longer arms and legs was more convenient.
But after Annan acquired the “Victory Knight” profession specialized in will…or rather, after his Will attribute exceeded 40 points, Annan felt a significant sense of harmony between his soul and body.
This sense of harmony between body and soul was the key to combating the curse. However, it also made Annan feel awkward when using the curse substitute “Ghirlandaio”, even though it was not quite noticeable.
Generally speaking, it felt like putting on newly bought shoes.
You would feel a little uncomfortable when you switch to a new shoe. After that, you would adapt quickly, and nothing would happen if you did not put our attention to it. However, you would feel that something was not right again after landing your focus on it.
It could be an illusion, but Annan felt increasingly uneasy as he approached the Cinder Barren. It was as if something was drawing him to this place.
The feeling was like forgetting whether you had locked the door when leaving the house or whether you had turned off the gas valve of the stove.
It was like worrying about something but forgetting about it at the same time. It was as though he would miss out on something important if he did not come to Cinder Barren.
Annan took his intuition seriously.
As mentioned before, his intuition had always been accurate. And now that some of his emotions had been shielded, his intuition became more accurate.
Especially…
After Annan turned back into his original body, the strange, spiritual tugging feeling suddenly disappeared.
This abnormality aroused Annan’s vigilance.
Before investigating, it was better to maintain this state and wait quietly for a few days.
Annan made up his mind.
When Longjing Tea and the others opened the door and saw Annan in the main body, they were startled.
As a matter of fact, the news that Annan Austere-Winter was the heir of Austere-Winter’s Grand Duke had already been spread last month.
Until then, Dmitri’s disinheritance was only a secret in the upper echelons of various countries.
The Guardian Deity of Austere-Winter Dukedom was the Deity of “Tradition”. If nothing else, it must be primogeniture – in which case, all eyes would be on Dmitri.
If Annan and Maria were walking down the street, as long as they did not have a few Winter’s Hands behind them, they would not be noticed as “the child of Austere-Winter’s Grand Duke”. But no matter where Dmitri appeared, he would be immediately recognized as “His Royal Highness Dmitri”.
So when Dmitri met Ghirlandaio for the first time, he was not surprised that Ghirlandaio called his name.
But now, with the news that Annan was about to succeed to the throne, the attention had transferred to Annan.
Ordinary people at the bottom certainly did not care who the next successor from other countries was. They might not even be able to tell which “generation” the person was from, and they might not even know what the political system of other countries was and whether there was a king.
Just like in the past at Freezing Water Port, the people had no idea what “Don Juan Geraint” looked like. At most, they knew that “he may have blue eyes” before giving Annan a chance to impersonate him.
But then Annan discovered that the people from Freezing Water Port did not even know what King Noah looked like! More than 80% of Freezing Water Port people did not even know the Roseburg’s Viscount in the next city!
In this era without civilian copiers and the Internet, even if the price of paper was relatively low, it was by no means easy to deliver many “high-resolution” accurate portraits of a person.
However, the transcenders and ritualists with more accessible access to information from the upper echelons, nobles, and intelligence brokers had now received Annan’s portrait.
It was like Dmitri would be tracked by intelligence personnel in real-time no matter where he went… It was like a reality show. Wherever he went, there would be prying eyes behind him.
In this world, it was not easy to quickly deliver accurate information, but it was easy to track a person.
If such informants or ritualists saw Annan’s face, the portrait of “Annan·Austere-Winter in Cinder Barren” would be sold directly to Noah’s capital within a week.
Annan did not care less about it, but the players were more nervous than him.
Delicious Wind Goose made a silent gesture and nervously stuck his head out the door.
He opened his eyes, and his pupils were sharp as he scanned left and right.
Then, he carried Annan up and ran straight into the room. The door shut instantly with a bang.
“Seal the windows!” He immediately whispered instructions to the Child behind him.
The Child nodded seriously.
Several pots of vines placed by the window exploded, sealing the window airtight in the blink of an eye.
If a passer-by sees Annan’s back, they might mistakenly think that this family had kidnapped a passing child; if they did not see Annan and witness such an exaggerated scene, they probably thought there was some underground organization here, trading in secret.
Why are you so experienced at this?
Annan could not help complaining in his heart.