◎Letter from the Skeleton Mage◎

In the game of glances, Bruce admitted that he had finally lost.

"Damn it, isn't it enough for me to tell you?" He looked up at Xia Li angrily and cowardly, hoping that this human would disappear quickly!

"Well, go ahead." Xia Li took a half step back to give Bruce some breathing space.

"But you have to promise not to tell anyone! Otherwise," Bruce snorted fiercely at Big Nose, "whoever betrays Bruce will die a miserable death!"

"Okay, I promise."

If this could trigger another quest, Xia Li would be more than happy to do so. So how could she possibly tell anyone else about it? So she happily nodded.

Bruce coughed a few times in disbelief. He looked outside the store and found that there were only a few people on the street. So he took out a piece of iron sign from under the table and hung it on the door. The sign read "Closed for business today".

"Come on, follow me to the basement." After hanging up the sign and closing the door, Bruce finally said to her.

Xia Li followed Bruce through the blacksmith shop and into his backyard. There stood a large banyan tree. Its branches and leaves were unfortunately not lush, and its color was rather withered and yellow. However, it was still clear that it was a century-old tree.

Seeing that she was staring at the tree, Bruce suddenly put his hands on his hips proudly and said, "Isn't this tree beautiful?"

Xia Li: You call this beauty?

"Yeah, very beautiful." But she couldn't bear to expose Bruce's pride, so she responded against her will.

Such thick and sturdy trees are rarely seen in the royal city. Even if there were once, they were cut down by humans as the royal city continued to expand. So in a sense, this dilapidated banyan tree also has its own unique beauty.

Bruce, looking silly, obviously didn't notice her perfunctory response. His wrinkled face smoothed out at her praise. He swayed his head as he walked to the base of the tangled tree roots. "This is the tree of life we ​​depend on for survival. Of course it's beautiful!"

After saying that, he gently placed his big hands on the tree trunk, closed his eyes, and muttered something.

A green light quickly enveloped him, and he glared at Xia Li: "Come here quickly, you slow bastard!"

Xia Li walked quickly to his side, and the green light also merged her into it.

In the blink of an eye, the scene in front of him changed directly from Bruce's backyard to a slightly dim space.

Xia Li glanced at the map location in the upper left corner: [Area Map: Goblin Mine]

Goblins? Mines?

Xia Li looked carefully at the place where she was. Bruce called it a basement, but it was actually a large mine with old-fashioned mining lamps hanging on the walls. After Bruce came in and turned the engine a few times, the two rows of mining lamps on the wall lit up.

Once my vision cleared, I could see the contents of the mine more clearly: piles of wooden boxes, tangled ropes, and several tables pushed together. On the tables were wooden triangles, measuring tapes, goggles, geological hammers, and various other tools clearly related to geological research.

No wonder Bruce is short, has wrinkled features, and looks a little different from a human. It turns out that he was not a human from the beginning, but a goblin!

Goblins possess a high talent for numerical calculation and spatial geometry, and are the most skilled of all races in engineering and tool-making. While they often have short tempers, they are kind and honest by nature, and will not harbor unwarranted malice towards others.

However, just because Bruce has no ill will towards humans doesn't mean he has no opinions about them.

Xia Li thought for a moment and asked, "You're hiding in the royal city disguised as a human. Aren't you afraid that someone will discover you and report you one day?"

The laws of the Royal City stipulated that no non-humans were allowed to reside within the city. Anyone found to be a non-human would be immediately expelled. This was a rule established long ago, and it has been followed by successive queens to this day, unbroken.

However, Bruce didn't take her words to heart at all. He ran to the table, opened the drawers one by one, and searched for something while answering her: "I have lived in the royal city for more than a hundred years, and no one knows that I am a goblin."

Goblins have a longer lifespan than humans, generally living to around 200 years old.

Xia Li chuckled: "But now I know."

Bruce's rummaging suddenly stopped. He twisted his thick neck, his eyes wide as lightbulbs. "Didn't you promise me not to tell anyone?!"

"Yeah," Xia Li shrugged, "but what if one day I suddenly want to tell someone?"

"Damn you! You liar! I shouldn't have believed you so easily!" Bruce was furious and picked up the hammer on the table and smashed it at Xia Li.

Xia Li dodged the hammer with ease by moving to the side. "Don't worry, I was just joking. I won't tell anyone."

Of course she wouldn't tell him, not only because Bruce might be hiding a mission, but more importantly, she didn't want a blacksmith like Bruce to be driven out of the royal city. Who would they turn to when they needed to enhance their durability?

"Damn it, don't joke with me! I'll be angry!" Bruce glared at Xia Li angrily again. After getting Xia Li's repeated assurances, he turned back to the table and continued to search.

"What are you looking for?" Xia Li asked curiously.

"A letter." Bruce answered without looking up.

"What letter?"

"Oh, are you annoying? It's just a letter! Didn't you ask what my relationship is with that dead skeleton? He is my old friend. He sent me a letter a long time ago, but I can't find it now. It's so annoying. Stay away from me. You're delaying my train of thought." Bruce cursed, his head almost sticking into the drawer.

Xia Li had no choice but to stay away from him and look around somewhere else.

Suddenly, a piece of parchment with various designs drawn on it came into view.

She walked over and picked it up silently.

The back of the parchment was covered with various symbols and lines, which should be Bruce's draft. She couldn't understand it, so she turned it to the front.

The first paragraph caught her attention.

"Hello, my respected friend, Mr. Bruce. It's been a while since we last met. I wonder how you're doing in the royal city. I heard the Queen is investigating the alien races in the city again. You must hide your identity and never let anyone discover it! But I believe in Mr. Bruce's wisdom. You're so smart, you'll definitely find a way to get through this."

Seeing this, Xia Li couldn't help laughing.

Smart? Goblins are indeed smart, but it's obvious that all their smarts are used in engineering. Bruce knows nothing about interpersonal communication. Even such important information as his being a goblin was revealed by her threats.

Fortunately, she's a good person and won't tell on Brouce. Xia Li boasted with satisfaction and then looked down.

"By the way, do you remember the child we found on Scarlet Island? You always said he was too thin and not cute enough, but I think as long as he grows up healthy, that's enough; appearance doesn't matter. He can crawl on the ground now and even calls me, but it's a pity that I don't allow him to call me that. After all, I'm not his biological father, and I still hope he can leave the word 'Dad' to his real relatives. I drew his portrait on the back of this letter. Mr. Bruce, take a look. Isn't he much cuter than before?"

Isn't the back of the letter... covered in Bruce's sketches...?

Xia Li turned the parchment over and twisted it with her fingertips. The draft drawn on the parchment showed signs of slight peeling, so she increased the strength and rubbed the parchment repeatedly.

"Damn it! Where's the letter from the dead skeleton? Why can't I find it?"

Over there, Bruce was still searching frantically. Xia Li didn't plan to call him yet and continued to read the letter with her head down.

Soon the draft on the back of the parchment was almost crumpled up by her, Bruce's handwriting was rubbed off, and the portrait originally drawn on the parchment appeared.

On the paper was a picture of a beautiful child's face, not at all like what Bruce and the Skeleton Mage had said about it being less than cute. With sparkling eyes, long eyelashes, a pointed chin, and a small mole on the left side of his nose, this child was a beauty no matter how you looked at it.

Xia Li looked at it for a while but couldn't figure out what it was, so she turned it over to the front.

The Skeleton Mage rambled on and on about a lot of stuff in the middle, but most of it was about what he heard and saw in life, nothing special. Xia Li read on and her eyes fell on the last paragraph.

"...Mr. Bruce, I consider you a friend worthy of trust and respect. I have a premonition that something is about to happen, and I'm afraid it's not safe for me to keep the ring with me. So I plan to come to the Royal City in person and hand the ring to you. I hope you can keep it safe for me and never let it appear on the Shia continent again."

"You bastard, you actually read the letter behind my back!"

It wasn't until Xia Li finished reading the last paragraph that the slow-witted Bruce realized she had already found the letter. He staggered over, snatched it away, glanced at its contents, and finally pointed at the last paragraph and said, "See, I wasn't lying to you! I told you it's safer to trust me than anyone else. We goblins are the most trustworthy race!"

"Yes, the most trustworthy, and then the magic ring was snatched away by Valikiro?" Xia Li teased him.

Bruce's ears flushed red, and the pride that had risen in the previous second immediately disappeared without a trace. "That...that was an accident! It was all that human's fault. He lied to me and said he wanted to visit my basement, but he actually knocked me out in the basement and stole the magic ring from the box!"

Although goblins have bad tempers, most of them are kind and honest by nature. Xia Li is not surprised at all that they were deceived by cunning humans.

As for the human being Bruce was talking about, it should be Valichiro from more than fifty years ago.

But now the undead has been destroyed, the magic ring has been taken back by her, and it is about to be returned to its place (although not by her own will).

Xia Li thought about it, still a little curious: "Why do you say the Dharma Ring is dangerous? Why doesn't the Skeleton Mage want to see it appear on the Xia Continent?"

"Oh, why do you have so many questions!" Bruce was a little impatient. He stuffed the letter into the bottom drawer of the table and said as he stuffed it, "I don't know why it's dangerous. Anyway, whatever the dead skeleton says is what it is! If you want to know, why not find the reason yourself!"

【Branch: Let’s investigate the Skeleton Ring】

Side quest!

Xia Li looked at the task pop-up box with joy. This was the first side quest she had received!

Miracles contains countless side quests, each a small part of the larger storyline. Completing these quests also earns players rewards, but since the rewards aren't as generous as completing career quests or Royal City quests within the same timeframe, most players aren't keen on taking them. Even if they do, they often put them aside, waiting for a free moment to tackle them.

However, Xia Li really likes these side quests. Unlike the monotonous main quests, by completing one side quest after another, she can deepen her understanding of the Shia continent, the royal city, and even the queen.

With this understanding, Xia Li felt as if she was living in a world with flesh and blood, not just a virtual game.

In reality, she had nothing but a shabby house. She had never experienced the love and care between people, and of course she rarely took the initiative to care for others. Even when the aunt next door was eaten by a star beast, she didn't feel a ripple in her heart.

Sometimes she felt that life still needed a little spice, and for her, miracles were the spice under her cold personality.

"What are you daydreaming about? I've shown you the letter, why don't you get out of my studio right now." Bruce pushed her unhappily, but of course, it was just a light push and he didn't dare to use too much force.

The two returned to the ground. Xia Li stood under the banyan tree, looking at the withered branches and leaves above her head. Suddenly, she asked, "You said this banyan tree is your tree of life?"

Bruce: "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Xia Li: "So this was your home before?"

Bruce's eyelids twitched.

Xia Li caught his subtle expression: "Am I right again?"

Bruce, who was always noisy, suddenly lowered his eyes: "Yes, you are right again." His voice also dropped.

He walked over to the banyan tree and gently stroked its trunk. "A long time ago, different races inhabited the Shia continent: the beautiful elves, the silent undead, the skeletons, and even our hardworking and intelligent goblins. Each race had its own territory, and they lived independently without interfering with each other. And here."

Bruce stomped the ground and said, "This was once the living territory of us goblins. This big banyan tree is the tree of life that has nurtured generations of goblins."

-over-