The fire in the village still caused quite a shock in this area.
At first, an oil lamp knocked over in Dick's room became the source. At that time, the servants were gathering in the warehouse to steal wine and failed to rescue him in time. By the time they arrived, the flames had already engulfed the door. In panic, someone mistook a barrel of ale for water and tried to use it to extinguish the flames. The result was predictable.
After two hours of frantic efforts to put out the fire, the fire finally engulfed the entire house of the Foer family. The fire illuminated the entire village as if it were daytime, and it burned for half the night before gradually extinguishing.
Afterwards, the royal capital sent people to investigate.
As a witness to the entire incident and the owner of the house, Dick Foer swore that it was Grant, that bastard! He said that after Grant became a mage, he broke into his room, tortured him inhumanely, robbed him of all the gold coins, and set fire to the entire house.
As a result, the Foer family issued a strong condemnation and stated that they would cooperate with the church to capture Grant, who was wanted.
And under investigation.
"Did you see the direction he ran away from?" the priest asked Dick with concern.
"I can see clearly, it's the north." Dick replied through gritted teeth, "He went all the way north, and soon he ran out of sight."
So, on the day of the incident, the church sent out paladins to conduct a careful search all the way north along the village. However, the strange thing is that they chased all the way to the Scaife Mountains, but never found "Grant".
Therefore, the matter was left undisturbed. And this village fire incident can only become a topic of conversation after dinner, and is gradually forgotten by people.
As for the other protagonist in the incident, Benjamin, who has never been discovered and is wanted under the name "Grant".
—Where has he hidden
In fact, he didn't run far that night.
After running all the way north and out of Dick's sight, he immediately tore off a piece of cloth, used it as a turban to wrap his head, took a detour, and returned to the area.
The fire had not spread yet, but many onlookers had already appeared around the house. Just like that, Benjamin took a bucket of water from a nearby well, pretended to be in a hurry, and rushed into the house with the water.
The servant guarding the door thought he was an enthusiastic member of the public putting out the fire, and showed gratitude in his eyes without any intention of stopping him.
So, Benjamin took advantage of the chaos and sneaked into the warehouse, poured out the water, and robbed the food while everyone's attention was attracted by the fire.
He put the stolen food in a bucket, carried the bucket, and ran out of the house.
Then, he shouted to the people around him: "Go to the well to get water to put out the fire! One well is not enough. I will also go to Pearl Lake to get water!"
The onlookers were moved, and some even gave Benjamin a thumbs up.
"This young man is so energetic. He is willing to run to fetch water from a place as far away as Pearl Lake. If I give birth to a daughter, I will definitely marry her to him in the future!"
Therefore, no one noticed that his barrel was actually full of dry bread.
Later, the fire spread uncontrollably and engulfed the house. The crowd also panicked and hurriedly put out the fire. As a result, no one remembered the "good Samaritan" who said he was going to Pearl Lake to collect water.
Can't blame them for their poor memory. There is no way, there are too many people coming to the village these days. In such a mixed bag, no one can remember anyone.
As for Benjamin, at this moment, he has taken the bucket of food and entered the "Soul Flame" relic at the bottom of Pearl Lake according to the method Michelle said.
The process of entering is rather troublesome. He first threw several large rocks into the bucket to cover the food. Then, he took a deep breath, jumped into the lake with the bucket, and let the weight of the stone carry him down.
After quickly sinking to the bottom of the lake, he found the pile of rocks that Michelle was talking about. He pushed the stone away hard, and a hole appeared at the bottom of the lake. The suction force that emerged instantly formed a vortex, sucking him and the surrounding water in.
The surrounding stones were also driven by the whirlpool and rolled back around the entrance of the cave, gradually covering the entrance of the cave again.
Benjamin, on the other hand, was rushed into an underground cave by the fast current, along with some rocks, a few fish that jumped randomly, and his large bucket of food.
Because the whole process was quite sudden, Benjamin was dizzy in the water. After being rushed into the cave, he was defenseless and fell to the ground.
"Hiss, it really hurts..."
After calming down, he got up from the ground, shook off the wet clothes on his body, rubbed his left arm that was so painful from the fall, and couldn't help but sigh.
Then, he raised his head and began to observe the surrounding environment.
This is a rather dark cave. Because it is at the bottom of Pearl Lake, there is no light source, and it is almost impossible to see anything here. However, in the darkness, the walls of the cave emitted a faint fluorescent light, which prevented Benjamin from becoming blind.
If you look carefully, you can see dense moss clinging to the walls. Some mosses are greener in color and some are more bluish in color. Looking around, the walls and ceiling of the entire cave look like an abstract camouflage painting of blue and green. The psychedelic light spots criss-crossed and extended toward the deep darkness ahead.
Benjamin felt like he had entered a strange realm like space or the deep sea.
After hesitating for a while, he used the slight fluorescence to find the barrel rolled aside. He threw away the stones in the bucket, filtered out all the water, and examined it carefully for a while.
… It’s okay, the bread is a little soaked, but it’s still edible.
After confirming this, Benjamin felt relieved. Then, he took a deep breath, took the bucket, and began to walk along the stretch of blue-green fluorescence toward the depths of the cave.
To be honest, this cave is so mysterious that Benjamin is a little worried that a strange creature will pop out around every corner. Therefore, he took out his pistol, turned off the safety, and held it with his other hand, ready to shoot at any time.
Fortunately, before jumping into the lake, he wrapped the pistol and bullets in wolfskin three layers inside and three outside. The time in the water was also relatively short. When I took it out now, I saw that the gun was still dry and could be used. Otherwise, he really has no fighting ability at all.
For various reasons, Benjamin walked more carefully and not very fast. In this way, about fifteen minutes later, without any incident, he came to a place similar to a cave hall.
The space here is extremely wide, like a large underground square. There was also less moss on the walls, but when he looked up, the fluorescent moss covered the rock walls of the ceiling with an unprecedented density.
On the wide rock wall above our heads, blue and green blocks of color gather into arcs of light, reflecting each other's colors. In a daze, he even thought he saw a starry sky.
Taking a deep breath, Benjamin recovered from the shock and continued to look forward.
Then, he saw a stone emitting fiery red light in the center of the cave hall.
"That is… "
Benjamin couldn't help but frown.
It's not accurate to say it's a stone, it's more like a strange crystal. It has a regular dodecahedron shape, emits red light from the inside out, and looks extremely transparent. The originally cool and humid cave seemed to have a hint of heat under the red light.