It took Claude more than half an hour to go around the small valley and to the big pool. Although he came down the hillside, he could not find any trace of the girl and the big black wolf in the woods. I had to start looking for traces from the edge of the pool.
He came to the place where the girl was wearing a bear skin and followed the bear's paw prints. It was almost evening, very gloomy, and it was very dark in the woods. Claude had no choice but to cast a Pearl of Light in his hand and use the light to find their traces. This is an uninhabited place in the mountains and forests, and Claude can cast spells openly without worrying about being discovered.
Perhaps the girl in bearskin left many traces in this dense mountain forest because she was too panicked. Claude followed the traces out of the woods and found that the bear's paw prints came out of the woods, climbed over a small hillside, and disappeared into a woods ahead. In the distance, several wolf howls were heard. It was probably the big black wolf that had discovered that Claude was following them.
Claude had an intuition that the girl and the big black wolf should be in the woods in front of them, and that should be where they were hiding. Extinguishing the Pearl of Light in his hand, Claude walked towards the gloomy woods.
This small forest is a bit sparse, unlike the forest on the hillside next to the pool, which is full of evergreen trees. Because the leaves of many trees have not yet grown, the light is still good and the ground can be vaguely seen. Claude walked in, only taking a dozen steps, and when he stepped on a rock, there was a sudden "pop" sound, and a black smoke appeared in the air, hitting Claude's face.
Claude retreated quickly and retreated outside the woods in a flash, watching the black smoke spread in the air, covering an area of about two or three square meters, blocking his way. I twitched my neck and took a whiff. It was an extremely foul and unpleasant smell. It was very nauseating and I even felt dizzy immediately.
This is poisonous smoke. I probably stepped into some kind of trap. This should be a warning and precaution set up by the hiding people at the border of the woods to drive away wild beasts and uninvited guests like myself. However, this poisonous smoke was easy to deal with. Claude took a few steps back, first took a few breaths of fresh air, and then thought carefully about it. He directly drew a magic talisman array in mid-air and cast an air shield. Then he slapped a long-range arrow protection on his body.
Mrs. Maria has always thought that the air shield spell is useless. Its effect is to isolate the air and temperature. At most, it can only help herself survive five minutes longer than others in the event of a fire. This may be because Mrs. Maria's living environment is relatively superior and she will not encounter many difficult moments that require the use of spells.
But Claude is different. He believes that there are no useless spells, just improper use. An air shield like this is enough for me to pass through the area covered by poisonous smoke in front of me. Within five minutes, it wouldn't matter even if he encountered a few more poisonous smoke traps.
A total of three poisonous smoke traps were triggered, and Claude left the outer edge of the woods and entered the interior of the woods. But what was strange to Claude was that he had never seen any other kind of trap except the poison smoke trap, so he cast another Exploring Eye. When he looked forward, Claude was shocked.
What surprised Claude was that the woods in front were densely packed with magic marks. Many of them were slowly disappearing, and some were recent. There were obvious magic marks left by spells cast within a day. Looking back, there were very few magic marks on the outer edge of the woods, but the magic marks left on the three poisonous smoke traps he had just touched were particularly conspicuous.
So the obvious magic marks that day must have been traps. Claude avoided these magic marks and continued walking deeper into the woods. There are obvious traces of human activities here. For example, this row of small shrubs should be artificially grown blueberries. Claude had seen this kind of dwarf blueberry tree at his farm in Bailu Town.
There was a clearing in front of him, covered with mostly melted ice and snow. Claude turned around a few trees and came to the edge of the clearing. He saw that in the center of the clearing was a large oak tree, and a small dilapidated shack was built under the oak tree. In front of the shack, stood the big black wolf, staring at Claude coming out of the woods.
After a few low growls, the big black wolf rushed toward Claude like a bolt of lightning.
"Click", Claude cast a mental shock spell. Compared with casting it on people, this mental shock spell was too effective for beasts. The big black wolf stumbled during the sprint, stumbled two steps forward, and looked at Claude three or four meters away. His eyes were a little confused, as if he didn't understand what he was here to do. He turned around twice and looked at Claude with a fierce look in his eyes again.
"Papa" Claude cast another mental shock. The big black wolf shook his head, slowly came over and sniffed Claude's trousers, then turned around and ran back. Claude watched the big black wolf run to the side of the dilapidated shack, and then he discovered that the girl in bearskin had appeared beside the shack at some point, holding a spear in her hand.
"Hey, I don't mean any harm, I'm also a magician, can I meet your elders?" Claude raised his hands and shouted.
The girl ignored Claude. She took off the bearskin she was wearing, and she was already wearing clothes at some point. However, the clothes seemed to be made of various furs, some of which looked like those of a disciple of the Beggar Clan. Sack suit. She bent down and petted the big black wolf that ran back, and then pointed at Claude. The big black wolf growled at Claude a few times and pounced again.
"Pa-ta" and "pa-ta" were two more mental shocks. The big black wolf sniffed Claude's trousers again and ran back.
"Don't let it come again, I'm afraid it will make it an idiot." Claude shouted: "I really don't have any bad intentions, I just want to get to know you. I know you are the same as me and don't want others to know you." identity, but I am also a magician, so it shouldn’t matter.”
It seemed to be related, because the girl flew towards him with a spear, her posture clearly meant to poke a few holes in Claude's body.
"Cough, cough, this is not the way to treat guests." Claude dodged to avoid the girl's spear. Perhaps after entering the army, Claude was not outstanding in dealing with veterans who were proficient in fighting skills, but it was very easy to deal with the girl with a spear in front of him.
He grabbed the spear and twisted it, and the spear changed hands. He threw the spear far away, grabbed the girl's shoulders, and avoided her biting teeth: "Hey, hey, why are you still here?" Bite with your teeth, you are not a dog."
Pushing clockwise, the girl rushed forward a few steps and fell to the ground. She got up and ran towards the place where the spear was thrown.
Claude was about to speak when he saw the big black wolf rushing towards him again with red eyes: "Is it over yet?"
"Pa ta", another mental shock, the big black wolf turned around and chased his own tail.
The girl ran to the spear, but did not pick it up. Instead, she turned to face Claude. Claude thought he could talk properly, but to his surprise, the girl drew her hands in the air a few times and muttered something.
No, Claude was shocked. This was casting a spell. Just as he was about to dodge, he saw two long green vines suddenly appeared on the ground. They quickly climbed up Claude's body along his feet. The force of the ears entangled Claude like a rice dumpling, and he could no longer move. The girl then leaned over to pick up the spear on the ground.
Well, this spell is really good. It entangles the enemy and then stabs him with a spear. It is like using Claude as a straw target for practice assassination.
Just because his whole body was wrapped in vines and he couldn't move, it didn't mean that Claude couldn't use spells. He cast the spell silently, thinking about the hand of the mage. Anyway, when using this spell, the whole body cannot move, so this will be suitable. First, he blocked the girl's sprint with his mage's hand, broke the spear and threw it farther, and then pressed the girl's neck, causing the girl to pass out.
Then he used the hands of the mage to tear off the vines wrapped around his body. Just because he couldn't muster the strength to be entangled by the vines transformed by this spell did not mean that the hands of the mage could not pull these vines away. By the time he was able to move, the big black wolf over there had already woken up, but it was indeed very smart and understood that it would gain nothing by running over to attack Claude, so it would get dizzy every time. So this time he just yelled at Claude a few times, then ran to the unconscious girl with a whimper, and pressed his head against the girl, hoping that she would wake up.
Claude suddenly felt like an adult bullying a child. He had been having trouble with the big black wolf and this young mage for a long time. Why didn't her family come out of the shack? Could it be that she was not at home or had difficulty moving, maybe when she went in? Want to plot against myself
Since entering the woods, it seems that there are only two kinds of spells that I have encountered. One is the poisonous smoke trap, and the other is the vine entanglement spell cast by this young mage. The other ones are not very powerful except for driving the big black wolf. A spell that surprised me. For a wild magician, this seems a bit too simple. There should be at least seven basic spells. Could it be that like myself, the others are just runes for experimentation and research? Spells, not combat spells
Claude walked towards the dilapidated shack under the oak tree. As soon as he reached the door, he heard the big black wolf behind him roaring and charging towards him again. Yes, you are loyal, but you are a wolf, not a big black dog guarding the house.
Claude didn't want to give this big black wolf that was loyal to his family another mental shock. He might actually make this big black wolf an idiot. I happened to see a bundle of hemp rope placed under the shack, so I stood still and saw another mage's hand. One mage's hand held down the charging big black wolf, and the other mage's hand picked up the bundle of hemp rope and tied up the big black wolf. After tying it up, the big black wolf could only roar "Woo!" Voice.
Listening carefully, there was no movement in the shack, not even breathing. It seems that the young mage's family is not inside. Gently pushing open the dilapidated wooden door of the shack, he cast a Pearl of Light. It was clear at a glance that the area inside was only six or seven square meters.
There is a bed made of piled firewood. The reason why it can be seen as a bed is because there is a patchwork of furs on these dead branches, mostly the furs of small animals such as rabbits and squirrels. There is a hay nest next to it, which should belong to the big black wolf. There was also a broken table with three legs, with a wooden stick tied to the missing leg.
The color has faded, leaving only the original color of the wood. On top of the table is placed the basket that the village elder and the old lady delivered to the grove last night. Next to it are a wooden mortar and pestle for pounding medicine, as well as two medicine pots. A wooden shelf is nailed to the wooden wall above the table. On the shelf are five or six small jars, as well as those containing honey and ointment yesterday. The jars are identical.
There is also a small black iron brazier with a big hole next to the table. There is unextinguished firewood that has been burned to half of the charcoal. This is probably the only source of heat for heating in winter, and there is no fear of being smoked to death. But looking at the leaky wooden walls and the thatched roof of the shack, Claude thought to himself that these were natural vents, so there was no need to worry about being suffocated inside.
There seemed to be a small room on the other side of the small bed. Claude went over and saw that it was just a small compartment with a wooden barrel inside. The smell should be a convenient place at night. Turning around, Claude was startled by a human head hanging on the wooden wall. When he looked carefully, it was an old, ugly leather mask with a few strands of long white hair hanging on it.
Obviously, this young mage does not have any family. The layout of the shack shows that she lives here alone with a big black wolf. Her life is very difficult, no wonder she is willing to trade ointment and honey with the villagers of Squirrel Village for food.
Claude came out of the shack, and the young mage had woken up from her coma. She watched Claude approaching with a wary look on her face, and sat on the ground and kept backing away.
"You live here alone?" Claude asked with a smile that he thought was friendly.
The girl said nothing, stared at Claude with hostility, and slowly moved back.
Unable to communicate, Claude stood up, returned to the shack, took out all the food from his backpack and placed it on the ground. There was also an oilcloth inside, for paving the floor. Claude thought about it and took it out and placed it on the ground.
"Take it and use it. I will come to see you when I have time in the future." Claude walked out of the woods.