Lurios listened to these words, his emotions stirred.

"Come, let's talk in the room." Vercingetorix enthusiastically grasped Lurios's arm and led him into the living room, then dismissed the others.

When only the two of them remained in the hall, Lurios coughed lightly and said, "That day, your uncle led the troops to raid the camp, I was captured by them. Your uncle urged me to surrender. After I refused, he sold me and other captured tribesmen to Roman slave traders.

We were escorted to Inner Gaul (which is the Northern Italy Province) and sold at a slave market in a town called Ravenna. A few days later, I was bought by a merchant who claimed to be from the Roman Illyria Province...

The merchant took us, dozens of comrades including me, eastward by carriage, getting further and further from our homeland. I thought about escaping, but there were more than a dozen fully armed guards watching over the entire group. I was constantly hungry with no opportunity to flee...

When the group crossed the Adriatic Bay and entered the territory of the Illyria Province, those guards did not take us to any Roman-controlled coastal towns but instead directly led us over the eastern mountains...

It was only then they told us they were not citizens of a Roman-governed province but from the Nix Tribe in the mountains. The reason they bought us was to prevent us from continuing to be enslaved by the Romans, so we could gain freedom and become tribesmen of their tribe—"

Vercingetorix, who was listening intently, couldn't help but interrupt, "What kind of people is this Nix Tribe?"

"At that time, they told us the Nix Tribe was a mixed tribe composed of Illyrians, Celts, and a few other races who had been enslaved by the Romans. Their leader, Maximus, although an Illyrian, is the reincarnation of the offspring of the Danu Goddess, deeply blessed by the Goddess—"

Vercingetorix interrupted him in astonishment, "Wait, what did you say?! That tribe's leader is the offspring of the Danu Goddess?! Are you sure you are referring to the Danu Goddess familiar to us Gauls?!"

"It is precisely our revered Danu Goddess!" Lurios emphasized, "We were also surprised to hear this, and they also said that it was because the Danu Goddess had given their Leader Maximus an oracle to save all the Gauls enslaved by the Romans. Leader Maximus ordered them to disguise themselves as merchants from the Illyria Province, using the money they had worked hard to earn, to buy our Gaulish compatriots in large numbers from the Inner Gaul slave market...

At that time, we did not entirely believe what they said, but we knew we were already far from home. Even if we managed to escape, powerful Romans and other unfamiliar tribes stood in the way of returning home. It was more probable to fall back into Roman hands and suffer even more brutal punishment—"

As he spoke, Lurios's left hand caressed a noticeable scar on his right shoulder, where a slave's mark was branded.

"...We started cooperating with those guards to cross the mountains. Although the mountain paths were long and difficult to walk, it was apparent they were prepared. Every segment of the paths had a camp where we could rest and replenish, so there were basically no illnesses or people collapsing from exhaustion.

After about ten days, we crossed the mountains and entered the territory of an Illyrian tribe called the Alde, an ally of the Nix Tribe.

Later, I learned that the Alde Tribe had been so weakened that they were entirely dependent on the Nix Tribe, allowing us to travel unimpeded within the Alde's territory and receive excellent hospitality. Soon, we boarded a ship and sailed north into the Nix Tribe's lands. After a few days of sailing, we entered a wider river, then another even larger river... finally reaching the central town of the Nix Tribe—Yeriboli (meaning Holy City, on the north bank of the Delaware River's middle course).

During this journey, we passed through several Nix towns, all bustling and prosperous. I also saw that both riverbanks were flat and vast lands cultivated into fields, where tribesmen were using cattle and horses to plow; riverside roads resembled Roman roads—wide, flat, solid, and crowded with people. Oh, and they had built many bridges over the river, high enough for ships to pass below...

For a while, I thought those guards were deceiving us, that this so-called Nix Tribe was actually Roman-controlled land. But I later realized I was wrong; the Nix Tribe not only didn't belong to Rome but also had a grudge against it!—"

Vercingetorix's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help asking, "Lurios, are you saying this powerful and wealthy... Nix Tribe has a grudge against the Romans?!"

Lurios didn't answer directly but asked back, "Vercingetorix, do you know when the Nix Tribe was established?"

"How could I know? I just learned the name Nix Tribe from you," Vercingetorix found Lurios's question somewhat amusing.

"Eighteen years ago!" Lurios emphasized, speaking solemnly, "Eighteen years ago, Leader Maximus, with the help of the Aldeans, established the Nix Tribe. Over these eighteen years, the Nix Tribe defeated the Pannonian Tribe Alliance, which almost destroyed the Alde Tribe, and fully occupied their lands. Then they defeated the even stronger Boyi people and the Taurisci, annexing their lands as well.

They even defeated the Germans, who made us Gauls fearful. Now, the Nix Tribe's territory is much larger than our entire Southern Gaul region. It is precisely because of the Nix Tribe's strength that other surrounding tribes sought alliances with it, and even the powerful Dacians formed an alliance with Nicos..."

Vercingetorix listened in amazement. If it weren't for the fact that the speaker was Lurios, he would definitely have thought the other was boasting.

Vercingetorix had seen extremely powerful forces before; Caesar only took a few years to make the entire Gaul region bow down, supported by the continuous backing of the entire Roman world. However, according to Lurios, the Nix Tribe was established with the assistance of the nearly vanquished Aldeans by the Pannonians. What could they rely on?

Thinking of this, Vercingetorix directly asked, "What did the Nix Tribe rely on to defeat these powerful enemies?"

Lurios anticipated Vercingetorix's question. He gazed at his companion, with a nervous yet expectant look, but slowed his speech to ensure each word reached his ears clearly: "What did the Nix Tribe rely on to defeat so many powerful enemies in just a little over a decade? When Leader Maximus assigned me to find you, he revealed a secret the Nix Tribe had kept for years and required me to swear to the Danu Goddess, not to tell anyone else except you!—"

"Rest assured! I promise too, I won't tell this secret to anyone!" Vercingetorix seemed to understand why Lurios wanted to speak with him privately, and he made a solemn promise.

Receiving the promised response, Lurios solemnly said, "Leader Maximus told me he was once a Roman slave. Unwilling to endure enslavement, he followed Spartacus and those gladiators to instigate a revolt in Rome's Campania Region, organizing other slaves and poor people to resist the Romans—"

"Ah? Spartacus!" Vercingetorix exclaimed.

The Avelli often traded with the Romans, so, of course, he had heard of Spartacus's great rebellion that disturbed all of Italy. Recently, he even occasionally thought of this event to inspire himself, but he hadn't expected one of the participants to be the Nix Tribe's leader, making him even more interested in what Lurios would say next.

"...Leader Maximus led a separate team following Spartacus, winning multiple victories against the Romans. However, as Spartacus and others were unwilling to leave Italy, he had to lead his team over the mountains alone, entering the Aldeans' territory, eventually establishing the Nix Tribe.

He had over ten thousand subordinates at that time, most being robust warriors, all equipped with weapons and armor captured from the Romans. They could proficiently utilize Roman tactics and possessed rich combat experience and strict discipline...

And the Pannonians, completely ignorant of them, thought they would be as easily defeated as the Aldeans, so they underestimated the enemy, resulting in consecutive losses that allowed the Nix to secure a foothold..."

Vercingetorix's expression turned a little bleak, as he thought how the situation of the Gauls fighting the Romans in the past few years was somewhat similar to what Lurios described.

"...Once the Nix Tribe secured a foothold, they could continuously defeat other powerful tribes, expanding their tribe into one of the most powerful forces on that vast Great River Plain in just a little over a decade. There is another crucial reason—"

Lurios's voice suddenly escalated: "That is the blessing of the Danu Goddess! Because Leader Maximus is the offspring of the Danu Goddess, she has continually blessed the entire Nix Tribe!

She continuously imparted knowledge unknown in our world to Leader Maximus in dreams, enabling the tribesmen of the Nix Tribe to use this knowledge, allowing their fields to yield far more crops than ours, enabling their workshops to produce more, cheaper, yet better goods, and enabling their craftsmen to create some extremely terrifying weapons we've never seen before...

Therefore, the Nix Army is incredibly strong, and the populace is extremely wealthy. The other tribes there, even if they have more tribesmen and larger territories, can't possibly compete with them!..."

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