The fish-man's egg looks small from a distance, but in fact it is the size of a basketball in another plane, and the root is connected to a fixed rope like an umbilical cord, the gray-white fixed rope is very strong, and many thin tendons are scattered at the end of the fish-man egg, covering the entire egg, and the soul of the other world reaches out and pulls it, and finds that the other end of it is deeply embedded in the dark black stone, and with his strength, he can't even pull it out for the first time. Of course, he didn't want to pull it out, who knows what it would do, and he didn't want to ruin a living little life because of his curiosity.

The surface of the fish-man's eggs is smooth and elastic, the skin is translucent, thin and flexible, through which you can see the gelatinous gel like fish skin jelly, the gelatin contains luminous components, the light of the fish-man eggs comes, the soul of the other world revolves around it, his fingers gently caress one of them, and he is surprised to find that it is actually warm.

- Be careful, said the lich.

A harpoon flew almost against the mage's cheek - the resistance of the water was much greater than that of the air, but the speed of the harpoon seemed to be completely unaffected by it, and the black-haired spellcaster did not dodge the attack as if it were in hundreds of deep waters, and not only dodged the unannounced attack, but also grabbed the murder weapon that attacked him with his backhand - the steel harpoon was deliberately coated with iron powder, so that it was difficult to find it in the deep black water, and it had six sharp teeth, each with ominous barbs.

But this may not be a harbinger of a small war, but at best a warning, because after a series of fluctuations, no less than fifty fish-people emerge from the deep darkness - the fish-people are not as sweet and cute as the mermaids in the other plane, and in terms of appearance, they can even be said to be a little ugly and fierce - their upper bodies and faces are quite similar to those of humans. It's just that the facial features are flattened, especially the fin-like outer ears, which can be said to cling to their triangular skulls, and there are no obvious scales on their skin, but they look like dolphins or killer whales, gray in color. Otherworldly spirits presumably to ensure that predators don't find them in the water all at once - fish in deep water are generally not too bright unless they are poisonous or spiky.

They have five rows of horizontal cleft cheeks, their necks are very thick, and the muscles of their arms and chests are quite impressive, and in proportion to them are the lower half of their bodies, and the soul of the other world remembers that he saw two fishmen selling seaweed for purifying water in the square market of Cape Fort, and the idea of fish people having tails may not be realized, so they have separated legs, but compared to the relatively smooth upper body skin, their leg skin can only be described as rough- Cremar's sharp eyes could see the tiny scales. It's the kind of sharp scales that sharks have on their bodies, which feel like they are caressing a large piece of solid stone sandpaper, and their feet are as wide as a fish's tail, and they have no toes, and they look like flat pieces, except for the terrible hooks growing at the ends, like those crooked nails.

"You shouldn't be here," said one of the fishmen. His voice sounded like that of a human old man, hoarse, low, and slow. "This place belongs to us. He also looked like an old man, with whitish scales, broad cleft cheeks, a thin and cuffy body, and he needed the support of a fish-man to barely "stand firm".

"If I'm not mistaken," the otherworldly soul politely replied. "I'm the owner of the side island. ”

"The side islands have had many owners," said the old fish-man, the folds more densely furrowed than the others shaking as he spoke, "but they all know that the bottom of the Poseidon's eye is a fish-man." He shook his feet, "We've been here longer than humans, and we're in the service of the lords of the Eastern Crown. ”

"I hadn't heard of it before I came here. ”

"Maybe they forgot. The old fish-man said slowly, "But now I can relay this contract to you in detail—you have given us a place to lay eggs, and we can guarantee that there will be no disgusting snake people on your island." ”

"Snake people?"

The surprise of the black-haired spellcaster misled the fish-people, who thought that the new owner of the side island had never seen or heard of the snake people, and although they were confused by this (a spellcaster should understand the value of a snake man), he patiently spread the knowledge to Kremar - The Dragonfire Islands were a paradise for snake people when humans had not yet set foot in them, but a thousand years ago humans left the continent because of a great catastrophe and came here, snake people are both cunning and vicious, but these two cannot be compared with humans in any way, snake people quickly disappeared into the dense juice, and the rest was not raised by humans to become dog-like hunters became a page in the recipe - The snake people were more like snakes than people, they didn't have legs but snake tails below the waist, and when the hungry mercenaries killed a snake man, they quickly learned how to stew their enemies into a fat hot soup,

But there are still some snake people who sneak into the deep jungle village to survive, they often drag away those slaves, although the flesh and blood of these slaves have a bad smell of medicine, but it is easy to catch, even the young snake people who have just been born for two or three years and the old, slow old snake people can easily catch them, which makes the "bridle" and the eunuchs very headache, and the advantage of the side island is that it has the "eye of the sea god" Although they spend most of their life in the sea, they must lay eggs in fresh water, wait for the eggs to hatch and become small fish-people before returning to the sea - most of the fish-people are looking for safe spawning sites at the estuaries of Silver Falls and several other rivers, but the water under Silver Falls is turbulent, which is not conducive to the growth of fish eggs, and the estuaries of other rivers gather a lot of humans, who will salvage fish eggs and sell them as a delicacy.

The fish-people in the area around the side islands can climb up the crevices at the bottom of the islands and dive into the lake to spawn, which is not only quiet, but also has a good harvest of fish - the same fish that the black-haired spellcaster had seen before, these are freshwater fish. The bone spurs are small and numerous, and the fat is not as fat as the saltwater fish in the outside world, but they have nothing to be wary of except for speed, which is very suitable for small fish people to try their teeth and claws for the first time, and they can also minimize the distance when they return to the sea, so the fish people have a contract with the owners of the previous side islands. The contract states that the Fishmen will help the owners of the side islands drive away the wild Snake Folk and that they must be allowed to spawn in the Poseidon's Eye without any disturbance.

"But this contract doesn't seem to say that you can own this place. The Otherworldly Spirit said that he was actually a little embarrassed after touching someone's "child", and that if it weren't for the lich's insistence that he stay, he might have been in his room by now: "You can lay eggs here, but that's all." ”

"Humans are always so greedy," the old fish-man muttered in the language of the fish-men, "the fish-men are not rich," he replied - in the lingua franca, "we may be able to find you some tourmaline, and amber ......," he said. While staring at the new owner of the side island with his cloudy eyes, this master may be more dangerous than any of the previous masters, because the other masters are mortals, and unless they have to, they don't want to dive to such a depth just to see the fish-man's eggs, although they have asked the fish-people to give: "You want to taste the fish-man eggs?"

For a moment, a soul from another plane almost let its gluttonous heart leap out of its lips. Thankfully, it stopped in time, but that didn't stop it from fantasizing about the smell of fish-man roe - though it was also a little disgusting. Because this feeling is a bit similar to eating chicken chicks and pink mice.

- Like eggs, said the lich.

――What?

-- It's just a big egg.

――Have you ever eaten?

- By chance, as a reward, said the lich, but don't think it's a good thing, the fish-man is a thief of the sea. Their lies are more abundant than the foam in the sea.

――How do you say that?

- Do as I say, the lich commanded.

The fish-people were very dissatisfied with the new contract proposed by the new owner of the side island, and one by one they shook their heads and slapped their feet in turn (in the case of the fish-people this means wrath), "This is impossible. "We are not humans, we are not snake people, we are not employed, we are not raised, and you want loyalty that we cannot provide." ”

"So you're going to choose a new spawning ground?"

"You can't do this, this is given to us by the lord of the Eastern Crown," said the old fishman, "and you don't have the right to veto it." ”

"It's a pity that he gave it to me, and the whole of it," said the black-haired spellcaster, "and he didn't mention that some of them needed to be removed." ”

"We can give you more mermaid eggs, the price of mermaid eggs on the mainland is 500 gold coins each, you can also use it to exchange for some of the things you need. ”

"But I'm not short of gold," said the Otherworldly Spirit, and then he paused for the message the lich had given him, "And not everyone has ever been fooled by you - these fish-man eggs are worthless in the eyes of some, they have no life. ”

"I don't understand what you're talking about. The old fish-man said softly.

The lich smiled slightly in the sea of consciousness, he was a little worried that the souls of the other plane would not be able to grasp what he meant, but it could be said that it immediately understood the mystery: "These are unfertilized eggs. He said, causing a slight fluster, "For you, or for those who really need the eggs, the unfertilized egg has no meaning, it's just an unprocessed piece of meat," he said, "Your real children are not these...... Ovum. ”

"I don't understand what you're talking about. The old fishman insisted.

The soul of the other world no longer said anything, but stretched out his finger and cast a small spell before all the fish-people could react, the spell shook the ground, lifted a dark stone out of its original position, and fell into the outstretched hand of the spellcaster, the fish-people immediately panicked, and several of them even threw harpoons, but the black-haired spellcaster disappeared in a flash, some of the harpoons pierced the fish eggs, some pierced more stones, and the fish-people let out a cry of grief.

"These are your children. The otherworldly spirit said, holding out his hand, and it was only then that the fishmen realized that his spell had caused the harpoons to fail to really pierce the stones—the eggs had cracked quite a bit, and the water smelled faintly fishy, but the fishmen's expressions were relaxed, as if the broken eggs had nothing to do with them.

The old fish-man has been staring at the "stone" in the caster's hand, it looks like a stone, cold, irregular edges and corners, and it is heavy in the hand, but as long as you compare it with the real stone, you can immediately detect the clues, in any case, its weight is much lighter than the stone.

-- It's really wonderful, the souls of the other world praise that the eggs of the fish people are like some fish, they are fertilized in vitro, and the unfertilized eggs are just food in the eyes of the fish people, and disguise - they use those shiny unfertilized eggs to hide the fertilized eggs that can hatch small fishmen, and when humans or other creatures are confused by the unfertilized eggs, their fertilized eggs have been coagulated into black lumps of body fluids and sunk to the bottom of the water. If it weren't for the fact that the Lich had been deceived in this regard, he would probably be confused by the attitude of these fishmen today.

The resolute reluctance of these fish-people to sign a new contract is also based on the idea that if the new owner of the side island does not know about the fish-people, then he may turn a blind eye to the things that are most important to the fish-people, and the fish-people can still use this freshwater spawning ground if they are cautious.

"Think about it," said the black-haired spellcaster, "I only ask you to work for me for one year." ”

"We agreed," said the old fishermen, "but only for a year." ”

"Deal. The soul of the other world said lightly.

&&&

As she soaked in the bath, she jumped to her feet, "It's too hot!" she shouted as she glared at the water. (To be continued.) )