Ten days passed in a flash.
Regrettably, since the death of Earl Will's daughter was involved, the military department must absolutely ensure the integrity and reliability of the investigation report, so the military achievements that Lei Luo expected have yet to come.
Guard the altar for 10 days and get 3 points of military merit.
Even if you want to exchange for the Fire Heart wand, which requires the least amount of military merit, you need to complete 20 on-duty missions, which is 200 days, and more than half a year has passed.
Not to mention that the upgrade assessment time has already passed, and even a bottle of d-type body quenching agent cannot be exchanged.
This is also because Lei Luo, as a 'magician', belongs to the scarce personnel in the fortress, and it is relatively easy to earn military merit. The difficulty for ordinary soldiers to earn military merit is almost several times that of Lei Luo!
Fortunately, through the 10-day mission of guarding the altar, Lei Luo not only clarified his future pursuit of truth knowledge, but also the research on energy runes can be regarded as the first glimpse of the door. When it comes to altars and refining magic tools in the future , It is not ignorant, and learning is more effective.
Shirahoshi and Yulia went out to perform a secret surveillance mission, which was beyond the contact range of the magic mirror.
Xiao Kang's job as a logistics material inspector is really lucrative, and I don't know what this guy promised to the ghost old man, but he got such a job that can only be obtained by making connections, so he won't go out with Lei Luo Adventure mission.
Helpless, Lei Luo had no choice but to be alone, and after thousands of choices, he accepted the task of "investigating the death incident in Heiyan Mountain".
Black Rock Mountain, located at the foot of the Furnace Mountain Range, has a remote town.
Generally speaking, although it belongs to the territory of the Principality of Grande, it has hardly paid a single silver coin to the Principality. It is a remote place that even the Principality of Sealand is too lazy to harass.
If it wasn't during the war, the fortress needed to unite all forces to fight against the Principality of Sealand. In normal times, even if the residents of Black Rock Mountain were all dead, the fortress would never send an investigator or release a related mission.
"Dear Master Wen Lai, I am Lei Luo, a first-year student of the Grand Academy of Natural Sciences, and this is my mission scroll."
Lei Luo saluted the elderly scholar respectfully, looking like a shy student at school.
Master Wen Lai is a magician consultant who has been stationed in the Furnace Fortress for a long time. He is quite old, but he still only has a degree as a natural scholar.
But in Furnace Fortress, he has already stepped into the ranks of mid-level officers.
In terms of titles, Master Wen Lai's status is even higher than that of ordinary viscounts.
Lei Luo's mission on this trip is to follow Master Wen Lai, as an investigation assistant, to investigate the mysterious deaths of the residents of Heiyan Mountain.
"Um."
Master Wen Lai was wearing a black dragon-pattern robe, leaning on a ruby wand, and riding a mutated red-eyed goat monster on his crotch mount.
"I heard that the Academy of Sciences has issued a task about military merit assessment?"
Lei Luo respectfully said: "Yes, for three months, I will be a second-year student after the assessment."
"Keep the necessary humility and learn more from the soldiers here. They are all elites who have come out of the mountains of corpses and blood. They can teach you many things that you can't learn in the academy, such as... killing! Hehe, don't be afraid, To treat this kind of thing rationally, just treat it as an anatomy of a special specimen."
The old man comforted Lei Luo.
Lei Luo smiled shyly again and didn't say much.
Beside Master Wen Lai, there were seven soldiers in total, just like the soldiers of the Principality of Sealand who hijacked the airship. They were fully armed and elite. Knowing how powerful these soldiers were, Lei Luo came to the captain and said humbly: "Hi, my name is Lei Luo , and please take care of everyone along the way."
The team leader was a man in his thirties, and he was secretly relieved to see that Lei Luo was not as arrogant as the previous little guys.
It would be really troublesome to offend these St. Granburg magicians, not to mention their own influence in the fortress tower, they may themselves be the dignitaries of some family, and there have been such precedents in the fortress before.
"Mr. Magician, you are welcome. You can call me Ivan. Along the way, we will do our best to be responsible for the safety of you and the master, and assist you in completing the investigation."
After a while, several people left the majestic gate of the fortress, walked on a remote path, and disappeared into the vast mountains.
The lonely journey of a few hourglass hours is quite peaceful.
"After crossing this mountain, you will arrive at Black Rock. I heard that the barbarians there are very bloodthirsty. Before the Forge Fortress was established, many travelers who passed here were eaten by those guys. Later, because of the belief in the Temple of Wisdom Enlightenment, and then gradually become a citizen of the principality."
All the way in the mountains, no one was riding a horse, only Master Wen Lai's mutated goat monster was walking on the ground.
Finally arrived at Black Rock Mountain.
Looking around, there are red and black rocks everywhere, as if they have been drenched in blood. The vegetation is sparse and pitiful. At first glance, it is a barren land with strong folk customs. Everyone stopped for a while, looking at the surrounding environment indefinitely. .
"careful!"
Suddenly, the longbow knight at the back of the team yelled, but a piece of gravel fell from the steep ridge.
After the center avoided it in a panic, he looked up and saw nothing, it was just an ordinary landslide, only the archer showed a little panic.
"I seem to have seen a human-shaped black-haired monster just spying on us from above. Although I was hundreds of meters away, I didn't see it clearly, but I can still feel the bone-piercing coldness. It is definitely not an illusion!"
A humanoid black-haired monster
Everyone looked at Master Wen Lai one after another, but Master Wen Lai just frowned and didn't express anything.
"Maybe some kind of monster?"
Lei Luo guessed the true identity of the monster that the archer said, but suddenly noticed something, and said in surprise: "It seems to be too quiet here! Even the chirping of birds and insects has disappeared."
After being told by Lei Luo, everyone suddenly noticed the appalling eerie quietness of the people in Zhou. Thinking about the narration of this panicked archer, they couldn't help but feel chills behind their backs, as if they were being stared at by something terrible, shuddering Feel.
"It's winter now, and this place is so desolate. It's likely that there are some special magnetic fields under the mountains. It's normal that there are no birds and insects."
Master Wen Lai looked at Lei Luo and said, "Are you scared?"
"No, no."
Lei Luo hurriedly said: "I just feel that it is not normal. I am responsible for assisting the master in this mission. I will go wherever the master goes."
As a naturalist, the strength of this master Wen Lai is naturally not comparable to that of Lei Luo.
Although Master Wen Lai's bachelor's degree is relatively low, he is at least a second-level energy magnetic field.
As far as Lei Luo knows, the second-level energy magnetic field is a kind of gasified advanced energy, also known as an energy force field. In addition to boosting academic power to a certain extent, it also has the ability to release the protective layer of the energy shield independently. The ability is astonishingly strong and lasts for quite a long time. I am afraid that the energy shield on the balloon airship is not as strong as it.
After all, the area of a scholar's energy shield is much smaller, and the defense strength per unit area is naturally better.
Everyone took a deep breath and continued to move forward.
For some reason, Lei Luo's right eyelid twitched wildly, and his heart felt inexplicably anxious, as if these red-black rocks were filled with horror and ominous atmosphere, and there were countless pairs of eyes staring at him coldly in the shadows, looking at him as he turned his head. , These eyes flickered again in the dark.
After half an hourglass time.
From a distance, everyone saw the small town built on the mountainside.
The houses in the town are also made of nearby red-black rocks. From a distance, there are about a hundred huts, and you can even see the Church of the Goddess of Wisdom, which is the tallest building in the town, although it is simple.
Ivan took out the binoculars, frowned and said, "No one."
However, when he turned around, he was surprised to find that the magic apprentice who joined the team last used his weird magic to create two bubbles, and formed a larger telescope with paper tubes, which seemed to be able to observe more clearly .
After a while, the magic apprentice also shook his head with a heavy heart, and silently looked at Master Brunei.
Looking up at the sky, it was already in the evening, the sky had completely darkened, the clouds were dense, and it seemed that there might be a heavy rainstorm at any time.
Baa...
The red-eyed goat monster under his crotch screamed anxiously. After a moment of silence, Master Brunei said firmly and lowly: "Go on."
No one said much, the whole team was eerily quiet, only the sound of their feet stepping on the stones could be heard, it seemed that everyone was frightened by the weird atmosphere here.
Master Wen Lai and Lei Luo felt some indescribable uneasiness, but as scholars, they must seek truth from facts. This investigation task is to investigate the unknown situation of Heiyan Mountain, and they must not be overwhelmed by some possible dangers. , I was so frightened that I hurriedly retreated.
"Damn it! No wonder the mission rewards are 5~20 points of military merit based on the investigation results. It turns out that the people in the military department have already noticed some dangers that may exist here, and they are ignorant."
Thinking about how he should face the unknown danger, under Lei Luo's sleeve robe, he held the energy shield scroll tightly with one hand, and took out the fan of the wind kite with the other hand.
Finally, everyone walked into the town.
Sure enough, there is no one!
The town was eerily quiet, but there were no obvious traces of battle. Everyone took action one after another. Amidst the friction and collision of metal armor, they searched from house to house. However, the more they searched, the colder their hearts became. After a while, they regrouped Together.
"The food is still there, but all the livestock and people are gone, not even a dog!"
"It's like... everyone suddenly disappeared overnight. Could it be a wizard?"
"It didn't disappear overnight, but in batches! There was a temporary fortress there. They must have been terrified and knew they couldn't escape, so they were desperately waiting for help in the fortress... You should go and see for yourself. Bar."
With a heavy tone, everyone followed the soldier.
After a while, everyone came to a house that was temporarily reinforced with stones. There were many traces of human activities around it. This was obviously the last place for people in the town to hold on.
Walking into the inside of the fortress, everyone was immediately smelled by the smell of feces and urine inside. Master Wen Lai's expression did not change at all, and he walked in the front without saying a word.
On the black stone wall on the second floor of the house, there are countless blood paw prints, telling the fear of the dead during their lifetime.
"In the last period, they were completely frightened by something. They didn't even dare to go out of the house. They shit and pissed in the room, but they were still killed by the thing they feared. Moreover, the thing they feared should come from Break through the inside of this room, then rush to the second floor, and kill them one by one in this enclosed space."
Captain Ivan's tone was heavy, and everyone seemed to be able to feel the despair of the last survivors in this room.
However…
Apart from the countless bloody paw prints on the wall on the second floor, there is not even a single bone in this huge fortress