Before Kalinge came, many people in Heishu Village had read this letter.
They agreed: something must be wrong with the elves in the mountains, and they must have been beaten, maimed, coerced, tortured by demons, or worse, possessed by demons or something.
Kalinger asked the poet why he made such a guess, and the poet said that in fact, the ancestors in their village knew that there was an elf in the mountains. In the memory of the old people, the elf was gentle, elegant and personable, definitely not the current temperament.
Temperament is still a trivial matter, not a major evidence. More importantly, people in their village have seen letters written by elves a long time ago, and the font on the letter is completely different from today's font.
It was decades ago that the last letter was delivered to the village.
That letter is now also kept in the "Singing House" shop. When the poet was telling these things, the female shopkeeper went to the back and brought the old letter.
The paper of the old credit is more formal, and the owner has it sealed and framed in a picture frame. Kalinger took a look and found that the font was indeed different.
The cursing letters have neat and beautiful fonts, but the old letters don’t look so good, soft, crooked, and loose. Although it can be seen that they were written by adults, they will give people a sloppy and lazy feeling, which is different from today’s letters. The font is completely two styles.
Not a single swear word in the old letters. At the beginning, there are some simple greetings. Below is a list of many book titles. At the end, it is said that these books should be able to be mailed from other places to the territory within a month, but the villagers need to go to the city to pick them up and bring them back. I gave out some addresses and names, and asked the recipients to visit them when they were free.
Finally, the letter writer wished the store a smooth operation, and stated that there was no need to reply to the letter. If they had any questions, they should contact one of the addresses listed above, and someone would convey it on their behalf.
"This letter was written many years ago. It is said that it was sent by a bird," the poet explained. "It was sent to the village chief at that time. Now the old village chief has passed away long ago."
Kalinger asked: "The letter mentioned wishing the business a smooth operation, referring to your store?"
The poet nodded.
"What kind of store do you sell here?"
The poet said: "It's actually a library, and it also sells some snacks."
library? ? Kalinger was shocked once again. He looked back at the area on the other side. The rows of bookshelves really had the atmosphere of a small library.
Seeing Kalinger's expression, the poet's mother laughed.
She proudly holds the framed letter. As the owner of the store, this time she took the initiative to undertake the task of explaining.
The owner said that this "library" was built with the help of the mountain elves. The story started much longer ago, when the owner's mother's father was a child.
Since then, the villagers have known that the nearby hills are inhabited by elven mages. Everyone was curious about it, but no one had ever seen him or her.
One day, a box of books suddenly appeared at the entrance of Heishu Village, and a note was left in the box, to the effect that these books were unwanted after sorting things out, and it would be a pity to burn them, so they were given to Heishu Village. disposal.
Some people think that the books were sent by cultural people in the city, while others think that they were sent by elves in the mountains. Anyway, Heishu Village left the book behind.
It's not because they love reading so much, but because the box and the books inside are exquisite, looking mysterious and interesting to keep.
At that time, the "Song House" was a tavern and hotel, and the business was extremely poor. Black Tree Village is not on the commercial road, and there is no charming scenery nearby, and few tourists pass by.
The village chief decided to store all the books in the "Singing Hut". He considered: the books are given to the whole village, it is inappropriate for him to leave them alone, and there is no place in their house to put so many books, it is best to put the books in a tavern and hotel with a large enough area, so that The whole village can see it.
Since then, books have been sent to the village every once in a while. Sometimes the crates appeared out of nowhere in the countryside, and sometimes they were loaded in horse-drawn carriages and brought from the city.
The books that appeared in the boxes in the suburbs were all old books, and the bibliographies were not regular; the ones brought in from the city were new books, and the driver said that these were paid and ordered by others, and asked him to deliver them directly to Heishu Village.
In the past few years, there have been three pharmacists, seven or eight scribes, and countless members of the city guard in Heishu Village. They basically all went to work in the city, and some of them even joined the territorial knights; In the past ten years, there have been two spellcasters in the village, and now one is studying at a school by the sea, and the other is not a mage, but has become a refiner, and is doing business with the spellcasting material team...
Looking back now, when these people were young, they spent every day in the "Singing Hut", reading picture books first, and then letting the accountant or poet in the store teach them how to read.
To this day, there are still very few tourists staying in the "Happy Song Hut". It is no longer a tavern, but has completely become the library of the whole village. Despite this, more customers are willing to come now. The female shopkeeper has learned a lot of novel dishes and drinks from books outside. Sometimes, people who live in nearby cities will go to Heishu Village just to Taste a glass of seasonal special drinks carefully prepared by the owner.
All this is thanks to the elves back then. Although none of the villagers had seen him.
In recent years, the elves have stopped sending books. Heishu Village doesn't mind, they have already learned to go outside to buy goods by themselves, and no longer rely on free old books.
What the villagers really care about is that the presence of elves is getting weaker and weaker, but there are more and more horror stories in the mountains...
They even wondered if the elves were dead? Or left
Maybe, no one is protecting the inverted mage tower now, so the demons in the tower are slowly recovering.
After hearing this, Kalinger fully understood what was going on in this store. It is no longer a tavern, but it has inherited the name of the tavern. Thinking about it this way, it is estimated that the "resident bard" is essentially an enlightenment teacher for children.
Both the shopkeeper and the poet spoke without much focus, and Kalinger had to sum it up himself.
In Kalinger's view, the attitude of the writer is not important, but the handwriting is suspicious, and even the inconsistency of the handwriting is understandable. Maybe there is more than one elf in the forest... What is really important is that you can see from the various details. It can be seen that both the former letter writer and the current letter writer are very concerned about Heishu Village. Under this premise, the former is leisurely and calm, not worrying much about safety issues, while the latter is already irritable to the point of exploding.
"Okay, let's do this first. I'll go and have a look." Kalinger returned the curse letter to the poet and stood up.
"Look at what?"
"Go to the mountains and have a look."
The poet and the shopkeeper turned pale with fright, and hurried over to stop Kalinger who was going to get the cloak.
"How can you go now?" said the poet. "It's already dark. It's not wise to go into the mountains at this time... Even if you want to go, you have to wait until tomorrow!"
Kalinger took off the cloak that hung by the door. "The monsters are more active after dark, right?"
"Yes, yes, so..."
"So, the night is also a great opportunity for bounty hunters."
===============================
Kallinger did not ride a horse. Before leaving, he untied an extra dagger and an axe from the horse's back, and hung them on the spare belt on his back waist.
He kept heading southwest, passed the sentry post in the field, and walked towards the mountain road with more and more dense forests. Heishu Village was originally located at the foot of the mountain, and there was no clear dividing line between the top and bottom of the mountain.
The mountain forest is very dark during the day, and even a ray of moonlight cannot penetrate at night. Even though it had rained at dusk, the ground in the mountain was not muddy, which showed that the canopy of the trees covered the sky and the sun, forming a protective shield.
The dark and tangled ground did not hinder Kalinger's speed, and he quickly reached the halfway up the mountain where he could see the warning.
It was true in that irascible letter that anyone who wasn't blind would be able to see the warnings.
Trees are full of wooden signs, stone monuments stand in the middle of all the paths that can barely be walked, countless grass ropes hang from the branches, and the ropes are full of warning words... All kinds of warning signs stretch over a huge range, even from different paths. When you go up the mountain, you will definitely be able to see a few.
Although it is night now, the text on the warning signs are all very clear. Because there is a faint firefly light overflowing from the cracks in the trees, flickering and illuminating the text within the range.
Kalinger watched the fireflies. They are obviously not little creatures in nature, but products of magic. The villagers did not mention it, probably because no one dared to go up the mountain at night.
This mage is really careful and thoughtful, even the night lighting is ready.
Kalinger bypassed the warning object and continued to go deep into the forest, with his palm pressed against the side of the sheath.
The warning area forms a buffer zone, and it takes a long time to leave. Kalinger thought that it would get darker and darker, but it was the opposite.
The soft light from the tall canopy was very dim at first, like fragments of starlight cast by the gaps in the trees. The more you went forward, the light gradually became stronger, and the naked eye could see all directions clearly.
The whole environment was illuminated into a faint luminous blue, like being in a forest under the sea.
Kalinge sighed. He had no time to appreciate the beautiful scenery, and something was approaching diagonally behind his body.
He had already noticed that breath, but he didn't turn around, nor did he change his pace.
A trace of scarlet suddenly flashed in the depths of the bushes ahead. Kalinger's eyes keenly caught the dancing light, locked on it, and saw it climbing up from behind a big tree and disappearing soundlessly among the branches and leaves.
A breeze blew through, rustling the whole forest.
Kalinger flicked off his hood and pulled out the long machete at his waist. At the same moment, a black shadow swooped towards him from the tree crown above his head.
The long knife brought out an arc-shaped halo, cutting off the shadow's straight downward path, and the monster let out a howl, and swept out backwards.
Kalinge did not pursue, but turned around suddenly, facing the bloody mouth that rushed up from behind. The silver light of the long knife flashed again, and a foul-smelling black liquid splashed on Kalinger's cloak.
Now he could see the two monsters clearly. The sneak attack from behind was a black coyote-like animal with blood-red eyes and overly inflated chest and neck muscles. What jumped down from the canopy was an astonishingly large rodent. Its head resembled some kind of rat, and its whole body had lost all its hair. The texture of its skin was like burning charcoal. Light.
The two monsters adjusted their posture, and rushed towards Kalinger again. This time, they no longer attacked silently, but let out ferocious roars while showing their fangs.
Kalinger tackled the hairless one first, stabbing it in the throat as it tried to jump again, and then twisting its body, flung the rat-shaped monster towards the pounced black coyote. The mouse-shaped monster slid away from the tip of the knife and landed on the ground without moving. The coyote knocked off its body, and just about to charge forward, Kalinger had already jumped on top of its head, slashing diagonally with the knife, and the coyote paralyzed silently. On the ground, only a thin layer of fur connects the head to the neck.
"This can't be considered a demon." Kalinger muttered.
He didn't put away his weapon, but continued walking forward with the knife in his hand. The long scimitar was stained with black blood, but it dripped off quickly, and the blade reflected the blue light in the forest, exuding a chill.
There are more noises in the forest. The things lurking in the dark became more and more restless, gathering from all directions.
Kalingam counted five seconds, and a black beast jumped out from the right. Immediately afterwards, another one appeared in the same direction, and several pairs of red eyes also appeared in the dark on the other side.
After killing three beasts in succession, Kalinger rushed towards the fourth one. At this moment, a sound of rustling footsteps approached from behind him, forming a fan shape.
Kalinge jumped up on the spot, dodging the approaching monster, and at the same time grabbed a thick enough branch, turned over and hung on it.
Just now behind him was a group of little fluffy things, said to be insects too big, said to be rabbits and mice but too small. Those things failed to touch him, but they were not in a hurry to chase after them. Instead, they jumped directly onto the larger monster and began to gnaw wildly.
Kalinger observed carefully and saw that those little things were not of the same kind of creatures at all, some were like caterpillars enlarged countless times, and some were like ants with spikes.
The large monster fell to the ground with a howl, and at the same time, other smaller monsters began to climb the tree. Kalinge simply jumped down from the tree, and the little monster that had climbed halfway fell back to the ground with a thud.
As Kalinger pondered "whether it's too inefficient to step on them," a white light appeared on the ground.
Light bursts from the distant dense forest and spreads rapidly in the form of branches, like lightning on the ground. Wherever the lightning went, there was a whistling sound between the grass and tree roots.
The little monsters in front of Kalinger's eyes were sliced by the light one by one, as if being chopped by the sharpest knife. A thin layer of heat radiated from the cut surface of the corpse, and not a single drop of blood spilled out.
The forest was instantly quiet, and the sound of the vegetation shaking completely disappeared. After a while, there was another commotion, and then it gradually returned to calm.
Kalinger looked in the direction of the source of the light. Something was watching him over there, too.
The two sides confronted each other for a while, and he simply walked over. There was a grinding sound in the bushes, and with a pop, a huge spider stood up from the bushes.
It was about a person's height, black in color, with a round body supported by twig-like legs. After a closer look, Kalinger was sure it wasn't a spider. It has only four legs and no head.
Black spiders don't have any attack moves. It has no eyes, but Kalinger still has the sense of being watched.
"It's a trap golem, I recognize it," Kalinger said, looking at the spider. "Is the caster around? I want to talk to you."
"Come closer, please."
The golem actually made a sound. It's not a human voice, it's a very rigid voice. You can't tell the tone, or even the gender and age of the speaker. It just rigidly connects the pronunciation of each word.
Kalinger hesitated. The golem spoke again: "Please come closer, please come closer."
So Kalinger walked over. When he got closer, the four legs of the golem were folded and shortened a little, and the height of the round body dropped to the height of the human chest.
Kalinger looked down and saw a red dot at the top of the sphere.
"Click here," the golem's stiff voice said, "click here to make a call."
It's fun. So Kalinger pressed his index finger up. The golem made a voice: "Please wait, don't move your finger. Please wait... It's connected, you can move your finger."
Kalinger moved his finger away according to the prompt, and asked tentatively, "Uh, am I talking to a living person?"
The golem replied: "You actually ran into the mountains at night? Do you want to die, or do you want to die a particularly miserable death? You don't seem to be from Heishu Village. Who are you?"
The tone of the voice was still rigid, but Kalinger could feel the change of mood.
This is not the preset sound, it should be the caster who connected his consciousness and talked to him through the golem's sound system.
Kalinger ignored the sarcasm and just introduced himself: "I'm a bounty hunter, just call me Kalinger."
The other party was silent for a moment. If the opponent is a mage, he will definitely understand the difference between a bounty hunter and an ordinary hunter.
"The gang of mentally retarded people from Black Tree Village invited you here?" The golem spoke again, uttering harsh words in a steady tone, "If you want to live until tomorrow, then listen to me and be honest. Now, This structure will guide you and send you down the mountain, keep your eyes open, don’t get sleepy, don’t run around, keep up, I guarantee your safety.”
Kalinger said, "No, I'm not leaving. I'm here to finish my work, how can I leave before I finish my work?"
"Do you think you're pretty good? The bounty hunter is amazing? You're just a dragon slayer?"
"People in the village say you are an elf mage," Kalinger said with a smile, "I see you are busy and tired, don't you need help? I want to see you, let's talk about this place What happened, let's cooperate."
The voice of the golem increased its speed: "Cooperate ass! You don't know what to do? Do you have a wife? Do you have a mother? You can kill yourself, don't you think about others? Just now you met What I got was only a very low-level alien infection body, only three, you think you will be very powerful if you win the battle, don’t you? If you wander around the mountains when you have nothing to do, you may encounter thirty or three hundred They can completely tear you into three hundred pieces, and then your wife and your mother will sew you up for three days and three nights before they can bury you!"
For the third time tonight, Kalinger was deeply shaken.
Everyone said that the group of mages was mean, quick-thinking, and eloquent, and it seemed to be true.
This mage...how is he so cultured? How can you speak so civilized, so elegant
The golem moved its slender legs and turned, trying to make Kallinger follow. But Kalinger is not. Instead of following the golem, he continued up the hill.
The golem hurriedly followed up, urging Kalinger down the mountain, bursting out particularly elegant words and sentences in a flat tone.
Kalinger ignored it and just walked on.
In the deep mountains, there is no obvious path under the feet. Kalinger kept using his long scimitar to sweep away the obstructing branches, and walked less than half a mile to a relatively open forest glade.
The open space is not big, only dozens of steps away. With the magic lighting on the canopy, Kalinger saw a figure emerging from the opposite woods.
The man was wearing a gray-blue long cloak, with a slender figure, and a few strands of cool-colored blond hair were exposed under the hood. A crystal pendulum hangs from his wide cuffs, and the pendulum is wrapped in a warm light that is rarely seen in the forest.
"Master Your Excellency, good evening." Kalinge smiled and walked towards him.
TBC