In the night.
In a small city.
"Brush! Brush!"
Anne Pangbo's whole body was wrapped in air, and she flew over the tops of various buildings at extremely fast speeds, escaping towards the city wall.
"Hoo-ho-"
Anne Pangbo gasped while running away, looking back behind her from time to time, as if some dangerous enemy was chasing her. Her expression was dignified and serious, and her face was slightly pale due to excessive consumption. The sweat oozing out wet the short bangs on her forehead and slid down her cheeks.
"Brush! Brush!"
Annie kept flying until she reached the city wall of the small town, which was no more than four meters high. After taking a look at the direction behind him to make sure that the enemy was not catching up, he stepped on the smooth surface of the city wall with one foot. As if he had stepped on a transparent brick, his whole body suddenly bounced up, like a lark crossing an unguarded city wall and landing lightly on the soft ground outside the city.
"call-"
After landing, Annie took a long breath, stood up straight, and was about to leave. However, before her feet could take a step forward, her body froze.
A cold voice sounded from behind her, as if she had been waiting for a long time, and said jokingly: "Hey, little girl, have you run away enough? Huh, do you really think that I can't catch you? In fact, I just want to Just see how much ability you have.
To be honest, in my opinion, your ability is quite good, but it is a pity that you have gone astray. A dignified first-level wizard didn't learn how to steal. Didn't he consider the consequences? I really don’t know how your parents and teachers educated you. Don’t you have any sense of shame? "
Anne blinked her eyes, moved her body slightly, and responded unceremoniously: "I'm afraid you are not qualified to educate me. As far as I know, the things I stole did not belong to you in the first place, but to you from It was stolen from others. I was stealing, you were robbing, I think my method was gentler, at least I didn't kill anyone in the process."
"Bold! Nonsense!" The ambusher was immediately furious, and a ball of flame suddenly shot up in the night and was about to fly towards Anne.
But before the flame could leave his hand, the attacker's body trembled violently, and a silver ice pick silently stabbed his heart. Then, as if the silver ice pick was alive, it penetrated into the body along the wound, divided into more than ten strands, and quickly stabbed the heart, brain and other vital parts.
The man's eyes widened, he twitched, and fell to the ground with a "pop" and turned into a corpse.
"Ta-ta-ta..."
Annie walked up to the corpse, glanced at the man and said, "Well, it's true that I'm talking nonsense. In fact, my methods have never been gentle, such as killing people now."
"But then again, you asked for this. You had the chance to kill me, but you thought that the high-level strength of a first-level wizard could steadily crush me, so you didn't rush to do it. Instead, you talked a lot of nonsense and gave me I have a chance—didn’t your companions tell you that I was in danger?”
After speaking, Annie shook her head, took out a map from her arms, looked at it a few times in the moonlight, and sighed: "Well, I didn't find any valuable clues here, but I got into trouble. . Then, this time I want to try my chance to go further afield, or maybe just here."
"Newburgh."
Annie squinted her eyes and read out a place name on the map.
…
The night passed quickly and day came.
Daytime, noon.
In the mountainous area of the Sika Kingdom, there is a mountain and a clearing on the mountainside.
A young man and a bald wizard stood silently, staring at a pile of large and small gray-brown ores on the ground.
The young man is Gro - once the prince of the Emerald Kingdom, his current identity is the mid-level manager of the Moro Mine. As for the wizard level... he is an unshakable third-level wizard apprentice.
The bald wizard is Gro's immediate boss and the manager of the mine - Ta Men. The wizard level is the first level of the second level wizard.
Gro and Tamen kept looking at the pile of gray-brown ore on the ground, their expressions were not very good. Grotto frowned, as if he had encountered something more desperate than his inability to upgrade to a formal wizard, while Tamen pursed his lips tightly, and the wrinkles on his forehead merged into the character "Chuan".
One minute, two minutes, three minutes...
The two of them stared at the ore for three minutes. Finally, Tamen spoke first, sighed and looked at Gro and asked, "Gero, is this the ore mined from the newly opened No. 9 mine?"
"Yes, Master Tamen." Gro said with a nod, "It was just mined this morning. According to the miners below, when mined deeper, the quality is almost the same - they all carry subtle corrosive energy. .”
After a pause, Ge Luo looked at Tamen with some worry and said: "It can be seen, Mr. Tamen, that the intensity of the corrosive energy of the ores mined now is much higher than that of the ores originally mined. The decrease has been reduced to a level that can be barely accepted, at least... it will not easily cause discomfort to the miners.
It's just... Having said that, the influence does exist after all, and a lot of the ores we sell are supplied to wizard organizations, so it is difficult not to let them discover this situation. so… "
"So, we have to close the mine again and prepare to open a new one?" Tamen glanced at Gro and asked.
"This..." Gro hesitated. Hearing something in his hesitation, he turned his head and looked to one side.
"Ta-ta-ta..."
There were footsteps, and the figure of a young woman appeared, it was Nancy.
Her current identity is the senior steward of the Moro Mine, and her wizard level is an intermediate first-level wizard.
"Why are you here?" Gro said, slightly surprised when he saw Nancy appear.
"Is there something wrong, Nancy?" the bald wizard Tamen also asked.
Nancy didn't explain much, walked up to the two of them, stretched out her hand, and revealed an object in her palm. It was a small piece of gray-brown ore, exactly the same as the one on the ground.
"This is..." The bald wizard Tamen raised his eyebrows, as if he had guessed something, and his eyes slowly widened.
"This was just mined by the miners in Mine No. 3." Nancy said. She paused for a moment, as if to give Tamen and Groo time to react, and then explained, "Yes, it is our largest mine currently. Hole, this thing has also appeared. The corrosive energy intensity is much lower, but don’t think of treating our customers as fools. If we dare to sell this thing to them, they will definitely dare to turn against us - we have already cooperated with them It’s been a long time. If we really do this, the gains outweigh the losses, so we must find a way.”
"What should we do?" the bald wizard Tamen asked in a muffled voice, "Our mine obviously has a large amount of high-quality ore, many of which can be provided to wizards as low-level extraordinary materials. People have always been jealous. Now, because of this inexplicable corrosive energy, the output has been greatly reduced, and because of the continuous opening of new mines, the cost is getting higher and higher. If this continues, I am afraid that it will go bankrupt."
"Master Tamen, I want to try my luck at the border." Nancy said suddenly.
"Huh? What do you mean?" The bald wizard was confused, and Gro also looked at Nancy curiously.
Nancy took a breath and explained: "On the border between the Sika Kingdom and the Soma Alliance, there is a city called Newburg. An annual gathering will be held soon, and a large number of merchants from both countries will be attracted.
I am going to take the newly mined ore and try my luck somewhere - there is no need to think about selling it to our old customers, but if I am lucky and meet a suitable new customer, maybe I can sell it to him. "
Gro understood somewhat, his eyes brightened, and he looked at Nancy and said, "So, you are looking for those special customers who don't care much about corrosive energy?"
Nancy glanced at Gro and said: "You don't have to say it so tactfully, you can be more direct. Yes, I am just going to Newburgh to see if there is anyone there who is willing to buy these impure ores."
"Well… "
…