As soon as he entered Armorana Lagoon, Sage caught sight of his first Armorana. In the distance a group of humanoids was fighting against a ten foot long fish that was covered in bright silvery scales. As Sage closed the distance he got a better look at the large hexagonal scales overlapping upon the fish’s flanks as well as the strange upward tilted lower jaw that made them look like they had armored visors over their faces. In a loose formation, four very different humanoids had surrounded the Armorana.

One of them was somewhat recognizable to Sage as a Monk like what one would see in the Eightfold Kingdom. The man was wearing a pale yellow cassaya and had a bald head and large prayer beads wrapped around one arm and hand. Sage had never been to the Eightfold Kingdom, but he’d met plenty of people who had migrated to the Dou and Shihu Kingdoms from them. Across from him was a person with what looked like plants and flowers growing out from their clothing and wrapped around their limbs. Their features were pretty androgynous and with so many leaves and spots of barky skin, it was hard to identify their gender.

There were two others, one of them was wearing a long robe with very wide sleeves. This person was surrounded by a globe of air and floating around without getting a speck of water onto his clothing. This person had a draconic snout and a scaled body, with sharp ridges and horns on their face. Next to them was a blue skinned woman with extremely thin lips. She threw her hand forward with a sidearm throwing motion and a pair of small objects flew out. These two objects grew rapidly in size, turning out to be what looked like a giant pair of dice. These dice even had the familiar system of pips that he remembered from Earth and not the characters that were on the dice he saw in the Cultivator world. The dice spun through the air and then stopped mid-way. They glowed with a golden light and then they stopped on a pair of fours. The four pips glowed brighter as the dice grew dimmer and then a projection of a gigantic spider-like beast appeared.

The spidery spirit pounced upon the Armorana, seeming unaffected by the water, yet when it wrapped a silken net around the large fish, the Armorana was trapped. It thrashed around within the silky cocoon, unable to escape but also far from immobilized. The plant-like person whipped one arm forward and a ribbon-like lash shot out and wrapped around the Armorana’s tail. With two of the group restraining the fish, the other two abandoned their formation and shot forward to attack the fish. The monk was first, shooting forward with a golden light upon his palm. He dodged the Fish’s snapping jaws and then slapped his hand against its forehead. The handprint shone with a dark light and the fish started to convulse, losing its coordination. Then the last member of the group said a word that sounded like gibberish, but the Heart’s Tongue translated it perfectly to Sage as ‘Ice Block’.

The sea water instantly froze, surrounding the Armorana with three feet of ice, blocking all of its motion and capturing it perfectly. The block of ice was glowing with a blue light and the flurry of frantic motion suddenly came to an abrupt stop. The vine that the tree person had released gave a wave and it swung the ice block over towards the monk who captured it into a Storage Ring. At the same time Draconic Sorcerer and the blue skinned woman with dice turned their attention towards where Sage was floating.

Sage immediately held up his hands, “Don’t worry, I don’t have any ill intentions. This is my first time here, I was just curious to see an Armorana in combat.”

He didn’t mention that he was also curious to learn more about these other people’s abilities. With his answer, three of them blinked in surprise. The monk finished storing the frozen Armorana and floated over to the other three while surrounded with a golden aura that held the water back. He didn’t seem to realize what was wrong, but then he saw the look on the faces of the other three.

“Ironvest, he spoke the same language as you do but I was able to understand it.”

Sage heard a similar statement from the three of them in three different languages. It seemed that the monk was acting as a translator for the group and had been surprised by his Heart’s Tongue. Sage gave the group a little salute, clasping one fist in the other and holding it up as he gave a short bow.

“I have a Magic Tool that can communicate with anything living.”

The monk suddenly smiled, “Ahh, that would explain it. We Cultivators usually act as a translator in many groups. Many of the other power systems don’t give any mental enhancement. It’s much more difficult for them to learn new languages.”

“Thank you for the tip.”

Sage hadn’t gathered enough information on the foreign groups. It seemed that the comprehensive improvements that a Cultivator gained with each rank were not all present in these different types of people. It seemed that Cultivation was not the only type of power system and these other groups had different rules they followed. That is until they reached their current levels of power where they started to utilize Laws just like Cultivators did. After that moment of confusion they let down their guard a little bit and shared some information with Sage. They already secured their Armorana so they were a little less worried, especially since it was four against one. It was only after they had chatted for a while that they suddenly realized they couldn’t tell how strong he was and they finally grew fearful. Realizing they were talking with a senior they were more polite and shared with him some of the local rumors and things to look out for. Then they carefully excused themselves and left him to explore.

They talked about some of the famous geniuses in the area and then also the biggest rumor at the moment. The Ghost Armorana. Most Armorana, like the one they’d just fought, utilized some form of Minor Law related to defense. There was also said to be a rare few that could also use their shiny scales to blind or incapacitate others. The Ghost Armorana on the other hand was said to be able to pass through attacks just like its namesake. The rumor of this fish’s feats had drawn some of the local big shots into the area to search for it. The group of four left before Sage could even ask for their names and they fled so quickly he felt embarrassed to chase after them to ask more questions.

Alas, it was hard for the strong to interact with the weak. The weak would always be fearful of being harmed or used, while the strong would never be able to relax when everyone around was always on edge. Sage swam past one of the Armorana while covered in his Jade Mantle. He corkscrewed in place and his arm shot out, emitting a saber sized blade from his wrist and chopping it down against an Armorana’s neck. There was a loud clang of metal on metal as the blade slipped into a joint and then slid grindingly along that seam. There was a rasping metal sound and then the Armorana’s head detached from its body. Despite being a rank lower than him, Sage still had to actually strike the neck joint in its scaled armor in order to decapitate it.

No wonder this fish is so popular. That is some impressive defense.