After staring at Rhodes for a while, the mayor replied: "If you are not so anxious, a business group will come to the town in a few days, and you can follow them to the City of Lament."
Rhodes stood outside the mansion. After listening to the mayor's words, he seemed to have thought of something, so he said: "There doesn't seem to be a freelance chamber of commerce in this small town."
The mayor replied: "There are not many people in the town, but they still have to live. Many basic supplies need the help of the business group to transport them."
The mayor's speech was not fast, and he was not impatient because of being tested by the outside necromancer. Instead, he used a soothing tone. When answering Rhodes' questions, he kept staring into Rhodes' eyes.
After listening to the mayor's explanation, Rhodes became more sure of his thoughts, and then asked the mayor: "I want to leave immediately. Does the mayor have a map of the area?"
The mayor replied: "You should understand the value of maps. If you need someone to guide you, maybe you can find experienced people in the town."
Rhodes did not choose to refute. After a moment of silence, Rhodes said to the mayor: "Then, I won't bother the mayor."
After hearing this, the mayor reminded Rhodes: "The only hotel in the town is at the back of the town, in front of the forest at the back. If you plan to stay in the town and wait for the arrival of the business group, you can Rest there for a few days."
Although Rhodes noticed something, he didn't say anything. He just nodded to the mayor and then said nothing.
The butler walked out of the mansion, turned around, closed the door, and led Rhodes back to the path he came from.
Unlike before entering the mansion, Rhodes had been thinking over and over again about the mayor's words when he returned from the path. Although he did not fully grasp the mayor's strength, he had a general understanding.
The mayor was extremely cautious in his words and did not reveal any key information. However, due to the asymmetry of intelligence, Rhodes still saw a lot of clues just through the conversation between the two.
Through several answers from the mayor, Rhodes realized that the mayor seemed to want him to stay in the town. Even though he expressed his intention to get the map and leave immediately, the mayor refused to hand it over to him because of the extremely high value of the map.
Under normal circumstances, even if the price of the map is high, the mayor will not refuse it flatly. Instead, he will put forward various conditions to Rhodes and let Rhodes pay a certain price to get the map.
But at this time, the mayor did not give Rhodes any chance and directly refused to provide the map. At the end, the mayor seemed kind enough to tell Rhodes the location of the hotel, but in fact it was more of a hint that Rhodes would stay in the town.
Since there is no freelance chamber of commerce in the town, it is destined that the town's business will be difficult to develop, and not many business groups will choose to come to this town.
Weak business groups will be afraid of encountering danger in the town and will not choose to go here. As for the powerful business groups, if they are transporting basic materials, they will not value the benefits gained in the town and will not choose to come to this town.
As for what the mayor said that a business group would arrive in a few days, Rhodes could only think that either this was just a simple statement from the mayor, or that the business group had made an agreement with the mayor in advance.
If this business group really had an agreement with the mayor in advance, it would arrive within a few days or so, and the business group's ultimate goal is the City of Screams...
Rhodes felt it was a coincidence, but an idea occupied Rhodes' mind so hard that he had to believe it.
The original Silver Seal Merchant Group probably went to this town on purpose before heading to the City of Lament.
As for what agreement the merchant leader User originally had with the mayor here, Rhodes couldn't simply deduce it. But if this guess is correct, the mayor wants him to stay here because he wants to get benefits from killing him with the help of the Silver Seal Merchant Group.
The corpse of a necromancer, even if it is only at the apprentice level, can create a third-level ghost if handled properly.
It's a pity that although the mayor had a good idea, he obviously didn't know that Rhodes joined the Silver Seal Merchant Group first and almost completely disintegrated the entire business group with his own strength.
If the mayor wants to hold Rhodes back and waits for the arrival of the Silver Seal Merchant Group, it can only mean that the mayor's strength is worse than Rhodes originally thought, or that the mayor's strength has certain limitations.
Before entering the mansion, Rhodes did not take back the Soul Crystal from the vampire, but asked the vampire to put the Soul Crystal in his pocket. The mayor could also feel the death energy emanating from the vampire.
Rhodes could feel the palpitating atmosphere inside the mayor's mansion. Whether it was the perceptual warning brought by the reconnaissance technique or Rhodes' instinctive reaction, they all believed that there was a powerful undead creature in the mansion.
But if the mayor is really powerful, he will not let himself leave easily.
Rhodes concluded that this aura should come from a creature specially designed for defense. Although these creatures are powerful, they have many limitations and usually cannot leave a certain range.
In his words, although the mayor did not try to introduce himself into the mansion, he only arranged two rows of skeleton warriors to stand in the hall, just to prevent any abnormalities from being discovered.
If Rhodes directly enters the mansion to attack after seeing the Skeleton Warrior, he will obviously be attacked by this defensive creature. Fortunately, Rhodes had seen this kind of creature in his previous life, and just through subtle feelings, he discovered the abnormality and chose to leave temporarily.
Following the butler in front, Rhodes and the vampire arrived at the entrance. The housekeeper originally wanted to continue leading the way and take Rhodes to the hotel mentioned by the mayor, but Rhodes waved his hand to stop him and walked towards the back of the town alone.
That's where the mayor said the hotel was.
After this test, although it was only a few words, Rhodes almost completely found out the mayor's situation.
Rhodes couldn't help but be a little confused. After he understood these situations, it was as if something connected them all together. The original doubts disappeared completely, and these answers seemed to appear in his mind on their own.
At this time, if Rhodes can open the attribute panel, he will see that the hero's specialty column in the second row, although it still shows: Unawakened (1/3), is flashing violently at this time.
Rhodes was obviously unaware of this, but while observing the surrounding situation, he headed to the hotel the mayor mentioned.
Rhodes obviously had no intention of leaving just like that. Since he had already figured out most of the mayor's information, he only had to wait for the mayor to reveal his flaws.
If the mayor's trump card is the defensive creature in the mansion, then Rhodes only needs to wait for the mayor to come outside the mansion and kill the residents before he can fight him.
Except for the unknown types of defensive creatures, the rest of the low-level undead creatures are not much of a threat to Rhodes except for some trouble.
The mayor obviously didn't know that the business group he was expecting had disappeared. If he knew that no reinforcements would arrive, the mayor would obviously be more anxious than Rhodes.
Seeing that the residents of the town had not yet fled, Rhodes knew that although the town was rich in death energy, the creation of undead creatures was not known to all residents, at least not the entire town was aware of it.
The town's residents will be horrified by the disappearance of others, but they won't all flee.
Rhodes knew that even when creating undead creatures, the mayor was doing it secretly and did not arrest all the residents at the beginning.
Rhodes was not surprised by what the mayor did. Even if the mayor did not take action against these townspeople, since this place is close to the border, waiting for the war to start, other necromancers would come here and convert all the people here into Undead creatures.
According to Rhodes' perception, the concentration of death energy contained in the mayor's mansion is not much different from the previous grave where the vampire slept. The mayor can kill all these residents and then pile them up in the mansion for rapid transformation.
Since Rhodes still didn't know why the mayor didn't choose this method to improve his strength, Rhodes didn't directly attack the residents here. Instead, he chose to go to the hotel here and wait for the arrival of night.
If the mayor chooses to capture the residents of the town at night and transform them, Rhodes can kill the undead creatures sent by the mayor, weaken the mayor's strength, and confine the mayor to the mansion.
When the mayor's strength drops to a certain level, Rhodes can forcefully attack even if there are guardian creatures in the mansion.
Rhodes came to a building. Compared with other surrounding buildings, this house was several times taller, but it was still much smaller than the mayor's mansion.
Arriving at the door of the hotel in the town, Rhodes walked in.
At this time, a sleepy old man was sitting at the counter in the hotel, and he was not aware of Rhode's arrival for a moment.
Rhodes looked inside the hotel. The first floor was supposed to be a restaurant. It was empty at the moment. There were only a few tables and chairs with some dust on them. It was obvious that the owner of the hotel had no intention of cleaning the place.
Looking at the scale of the hotel and the rest of the scene, Rhodes realized that in addition to being used as a hotel, this place had also been used as a tavern for town residents to entertain themselves. It should be one of the few places where town residents could move around. .
Rhodes walked to the counter on the first floor and tapped twice.
The old man who had been dozing off suddenly woke up and looked at Rhodes in front of him with a look of surprise. It was obviously because no one had been here for a long time and someone suddenly came to the door.
"I want to rest here for a few nights." Before the old man could react, Rhodes stated his purpose.
After hearing this, the old man confirmed Rhode's purpose and said: "I'm sorry... No one has been here for a long time. I didn't expect to meet guests today. For two rooms, four silver coins a day. Every morning and evening There will be some food provided.”
Rhodes nodded, took out a gold coin and placed it on the table, saying, "Within one room, there is no need for food."
The old man took out a key from under the counter and handed it to Rhodes. At the same time, he held the gold coin in his hand and didn't say much.
Rhodes took the key and walked to the room on the second floor.
Looking at Rhodes walking towards the second floor, the old man opened his mouth, as if he wanted to remind Rhodes something, but in the end he said nothing, put the gold coins in his pocket, and sat back down.
Rhodes walked up to the second floor, came to his room, found a place to sit down, and began to meditate.
Since he may need to fight, and his spell ability has improved a lot, Rhodes did not choose deep meditation that consumes mana. Instead, he wanted to rely on shallow meditation to restore some energy and improve his mental state slightly. Waiting With the arrival of evening.
While Rhodes was meditating, the vampire didn't need much rest. He just stood aside and held the Soul Crystal in his hand.
… …
At night, as if he noticed something, Rhodes ended his meditation that lasted for a long time and opened his eyes. On the side, the vampire felt Rhodes' strange movement and looked at Rhodes.
Rhodes quickly stood up, took the vampire with him, and walked out of his room.
The surroundings were dark, and Rhodes quickly walked downstairs. At this time, because the sky was getting dark, the original old man had obviously rested, and there was no one downstairs.
Rhodes walked to the door of the hotel, took off the wooden bolt on the door, and walked out.
As soon as he walked out of the door, Rhodes noticed something was wrong. When he was in the forest, no matter how tall the trees were or how dark the surrounding environment was, there would always be starlight shining through the trees and shining on the ground. But now, when he came outside the door Rhodes, only to find that there was very little light around him.
Even in the dense forest of Eli, the light around Rhodes was brighter than it is now.
Rhodes looked up at the sky. At this time, there was no light in the sky, but a layer of dark clouds. It was this layer of black clouds that blocked all the stars in the sky, preventing Rhodes from seeing clearly the scene in the distance.
"Dark sky..."
Seeing this dark cloud, Rhodes seemed to recall something.
This layer of black clouds was like the dark sky that Rhodes had seen in the large cities in Dia. Because these cities are shrouded in darkness, the sun cannot be seen all day long, and it is difficult to distinguish between day and night in the city.
At this time, this layer of black clouds undoubtedly reminded Rhodes of the dark sky he had seen before. But Rhodes didn't know why a large number of black clouds similar to the dark sky were produced here. According to the overall level of this town, it was impossible to create a dark sky anyway.
Rhodes tried to sense the dark sky in the sky and sensed a strong magical energy. If it were not released by a mage, it could only be made with magic props.
If the mayor had the power to create a dark canopy that enveloped the entire town, he would not have let him leave when Rhodes went to test it, but would have killed him directly.
At this moment, before he had time to think too much, Rhodes suddenly sensed the danger and dodged to the side. A creature appeared behind Rhodes, and Rhodes just avoided its attack.
On the side, the vampire saw Rhodes being attacked and immediately rushed forward, attacking the creature together.
Even though the surrounding light was dim, Rhodes still looked carefully in the direction of the creature through the eagle eye technique. The tattered cloth robe, the skull-like face, floating and dodging in the air at will when attacking, is the third-level creature, the ghost.
(End of chapter)