Sword of Dawn

"Is it a child?" Knight Philip frowned. He never expected that "lurking" in the jungle, sneaking around would be such a child who looked like he was in his early teens—and he didn't have any power fluctuations on his body. Knight's rules The training about helping the weak made his face slightly calm, but the military training the knight received made him dare not take his hands off the hilt, "Don't be afraid—come slowly."

The child suddenly yelled "Ah" in horror, then turned around and ran away.

"You are carrying such a big sword. If you don't run away, you will be a ghost!" Amber glanced at Philip like a fool, and then the figure flashed into the shadows. After a while, the direction of the child's escape was transmitted. There was a short exclamation, and then the shade in front of Gao Wen squirmed, and Amber emerged from the shadows holding the child by the collar—the shadow talent at the ghost level is good, this guy just follows him when he runs. Like any door.

The child was easily captured by Amber, and probably experienced a short trip to the Shadow Realm in the middle, which made him completely frightened and stunned, and he really forgot to run away, but his fear increased sharply because of this, So much so that Gao Wen felt that he might be frightened and cry in the next second - but the child just strained his face, pursed his lips, and in the end he forcibly did not cry, but just looked at the stranger in front of him in fear.

"Don't be afraid," Amber quickly took advantage of this moment to comfort the child, "We are not good people..."

Gawain immediately glared at the shame of all things.

"Ah, no, we are not bad people," Amber quickly changed her words, and then explained to Gao Wen apologetically, "The previous occupational diseases have not been corrected..."

"We won't hurt you," Knight Philip put his hand on the little boy's head, "Look, I am a knight, and I will protect you."

The little boy trembled from fright at first, but after hearing Philip's words, he calmed down a little and nodded with a vague understanding.

Gawain took advantage of this moment and said, "Are you a child from a nearby family? Why are you wandering in the woods?"

But the little boy was taken aback by Gao Wen, a burly man with a height of two meters and a Chinese face, and backed away repeatedly.

"Don't be afraid, he is my lord," Knight Philip said quickly, "he is an upright and kind man."

At this time, Amber saw that the little boy hadn't spoken from the beginning to the end, and couldn't help muttering: "Isn't he a mute?"

Just as Gao Wen wanted to say that there was no basis for not blinding BB, he saw Pittman frowned next to him, and then the old druid stepped forward and pinched the little boy's chin, opened his mouth and took a closer look.

"His tongue was cut off," the old Druid let go of his hand, and said after a moment of silence, "and it has been cut off for at least two years."

What Gao Wen wanted to say was suddenly choked in his chest. He didn't know what the expression on his face changed at that moment, he only knew that when Amber looked at him, he shrank his head suddenly, and then he suppressed his anger: "So Little child, what crime would you have your tongue cut off?!"

Even the barbaric and backward medieval laws would not cut off the tongues of children under the age of 14—even the Church of the Blood God, known for its iron-blooded cruelty, believed that children of this age were "incapable of speaking sins"!

Pittman shook his head: "The tongue-cutting technique is skillful, and there are traces of using magic to deal with it. It's not a crime punished, but a dumb boy servant, most likely a slave of a big businessman—those big businessmen often do this, and they use dumb boy servants as slaves. Personal servants, because they can neither speak nor write, unless they meet an extraordinary person who knows soul spells, they will never reveal the secrets of their masters."

Gao Wen: "..."

He didn't know what he should say at this moment, but before he could speak, the little mute who had his tongue cut off made a movement—he suddenly stared at Knight Philip's breastplate, and then grabbed the young knight's arm , while pointing at a certain place on the breastplate, he shouted "ahh".

Philip was at a loss for a while, but this young and promising Mr. Cavalier had no experience in dealing with children. He opened his hands to indicate that he didn't understand what the other person meant, but Gawain noticed what the child was pointing at: "You Have you seen this emblem?"

"Ah... ah!" The little mute nodded again and again, pointing more forcefully at the thing on Philip's breastplate.

That is the emblem of the Cecil family.

Gao Wen's heart moved, and he instantly connected certain things, and immediately asked: "Where did you see it?!"

The little mute gestured wildly, made an indistinct sound, but was completely unable to communicate with others, so he appeared extremely anxious. Finally, the child simply jumped onto a nearby stone, stood on a high place and pointed at someone. Direction, gestures desperately.

Then he jumped down, grabbed Gawain's hand, and shook it vigorously.

Gao Wen: "You know where it is, let us go with you?"

The little mute nodded vigorously, with a pleading look on his face.

Gao Wen exchanged glances with the people around him, and decided to follow the child without much thought.

Of course, he thought a lot, such as whether this is a trap set by the cultists, such as whether the child in front of him was instigated and coerced to do so, after all, those cultists with broken brains can do anything Yes, but anyway - there are dangers that have to be faced, especially when there is no other way to do it now, and following the child to see the specifics is the only option.

They quickly left the main gate of Tanzania Town, followed the little boy into the woods, and turned south along the flow of the White Water River for a short distance. As they walked, Gawain suddenly realized that the boy was going to take him Where to go--

Going down this road, there is only one place that can be called a "landmark", and that is the "Goring Mill" located in the southwest of Tanzan Town. The property of the Leslie family has been in disrepair for a long time and has been abandoned. There are many unemployed people living near the mill—but now the atmosphere in the town is so tense, the reckless thieves nearby may have escaped far away.

Sure enough, after walking along the path in the woods for a short time, they heard the sound of the river slapping the river bank, and then walked outside the forest, a water mill with traditional Ansu style appeared in front of them.

"Ah-ah!" The little mute raised his finger and pointed in the direction of the mill, and then pointed to the emblem on Philip's chest, indicating that the person with this emblem was in the mill.

The group of four observed the surrounding terrain, then raised their vigilance and walked towards the mill.

They were halfway there when they heard Knight Byron's angry voice from the mill: "You're back! You're back! How many times have I said that! Get out of here, go south, along the river Go to the Cecils, go to them for protection! Or just throw me out in the open and burn me! Don't stay with me anyway! Are you not only dumb, but deaf?! "

Chapter 0125 The Encounter of Knight Byron

Hearing the angry scolding coming from the mill, the thought flashed in Gao Wen's mind that it really was so, and then he ran forward quickly with the others.

The gate of the mill was pushed open, and the outside sun suddenly shone into the dim place. Between the bright band of the sun and the shadow of the straw stack, the Knight of Byron was lying crookedly, still full of dignity. Yelling non-stop: "If you were my attendant, I would definitely kick your stupid head! You little brainless bastard! You don't want to die! You... Your Excellency the Duke?!"

Knight Byron finally got used to the sudden light. He tilted his head and looked towards the gate. There was a tall figure standing in the bright background. Then the tall figure walked in, followed by three people.

The little mute was the last to follow.

"You're quite energetic," Gawain greeted Knight Byron who was lying in the haystack, "We were guessing about your life and death, but we didn't expect you to still have the energy to scold the street here - scolding outside It can be heard tens of meters away."

As he spoke, he walked forward, but just halfway there, he heard Byron shouting loudly: "My lord, don't come close! I'm cursed by the cultists' sorcery! I don't know if this thing will It will spread!"

Gawain frowned. Of course he could guess and see that Knight Byron was not in the right condition, otherwise the other party wouldn't be lying in this place cursing, but he didn't realize that the knight was in the dark until he got used to the dim light in the mill. The appearance of the middle-aged knight was strange.

A black-green pattern spread along Byron's skin, and it is estimated that it has covered most of his body. Those fine lines can be seen on his exposed arms, hands, and neck, and some lines have even extended to him. Near the eye sockets, it looks like exposed veins.

In addition, a lot of trauma can be seen on his body, including half of his face that is swollen.

Knight Philip took a breath: "Damn... what's going on?"

"I found the cultist, but he also found me," Byron pouted, but his body was completely stiff. It seemed that only his head was the only movable part of his body left. "The details in the middle are a long story. In a nutshell, I didn't win the battle... Your Excellency Duke, are you also here to investigate the cult members? How did you know what happened here?"

"A serf turned into a living bomb on the pier, it was done by the Society of the End of Everything," Gao Wen said casually, "and before you sent any news back, we knew something happened here—you just lie down and don't move , it might be helpful."

"Don't waste your time, that cultist is very powerful. I can feel that his sorcery is not only eroding my flesh and blood, but also eroding my spirit. Now I see that you all have seven or eight double images..."

Pittman came out from behind Gawain, and casually taunted while walking towards Byron, "Don't make up your mind, your double image is because your eyes are swollen—it's just a simple nerve curse."

While speaking, the old druid knelt down beside the middle-aged knight, and began to check the spread of the curse power, while Gawain, who was standing behind, heaved a sigh of relief when he saw it: "It can be saved, right?" ?”

"No matter how savagely everything grows at the end of the day, it was born out of druids, especially curse spells, almost can find the corresponding druid exorcism spells," Pittman took out incense from his bag He said to the ritual woodcarving, "To be honest, I'm afraid I'm no match against the person who cast this spell, but I may not be able to deal with the curse left by him—it seems that the person who did it looks down on you, Mr. Knight. "

Byron was startled when he heard the words, his eyes were vicissitudes, and he sighed softly: "That guy probably started to despise me when he knocked me away..."

By the looks of it, he must be fine.

After confirming that the curse was resolved and that Pittman had the ability to control the spread of corrosion, Gawain squatted down beside Byron: "What is the situation in Tanzania now? The town is under martial law, and we can't touch it at all."

"It should start three days ago," Knight Byron took a deep breath, and said slowly, "everything was normal before that, nothing happened in the town, only Viscount Andrew bought a batch of servants, which is considered news , but three days ago, a martial law order suddenly came out in the castle, saying that it was discovered that cultists had mixed into the town, and everyone was temporarily prohibited from entering and leaving the town—you know, at that time, I had already started contacting the second batch of slave traders, and I was contacting a group of merchant ships, and the martial law ban would cause a lot of trouble, so I went to the castle and planned to find that Viscount Andrew to issue a charter. Not good, I found some clues of cultists."

"The martial law was indeed issued in the castle, and the town was indeed mixed with cultists, but in fact the whole thing was a conspiracy. The cultists were in the castle and personally controlled Viscount Andrew to issue the martial law. I'm leaving When I entered the castle hall, I felt a filthy smell. When I talked with Viscount Andrew, I heard a secret whisper in his voice that did not belong to him. I realized that the situation was not good, so I prepared to proceed like an upright knight. Righteous retreat - as a result, I was discovered by a guy in a black robe just halfway through the retreat. The cultist probably hadn't finished controlling the entire castle and Viscount Andrew, so he let me in carelessly , and of course he can't allow me to leave..."

Gawain ignored the shameless parts of what this upright knight said, and asked with a frown, "How did you escape?"

According to Pittman's judgment before, he knew that the person who sneaked into Tanzanian Town was most likely a fourth- to fifth-level Doomsday cultist, and this level had already reached the middle level. Although Knight Byron was the peak of the third-level knight, even It can be said that he is partially exposed to the power of a mid-level profession, but he is still a low-level knight—of course he is considered a master in such a small rural place, but the gap between him and a mid-level cultist is too great.

It may be understandable that he could temporarily save his life and escape in the encounter, but he was already deeply trapped in the castle at that time, and the castle had become a half lair of cultists. In this case, how he escaped from the castle is more difficult to understand.

Pittman has already started the exorcism ritual. He uses incense and druid spells to neutralize the filthy power in Knight Byron's body. At the same time, he pretends to be pious and whispers BB to the gods of nature, while Byron's face is obviously better. He got up, exerted more strength, and continued: "During the fight, I was hit by the magic of the cultists and fell into a cave behind the castle. There was a pool of water in that cave, and I was able to save I found that there was an underground tunnel connected to the water pool: it turned out that there was also a tunnel system underground in Tanzan Town. The cultist probably thought I fell to my death, or maybe he was busy doing other things, so he didn’t pursue it, but I drilled underground for a whole day and night before I found the correct way out...the exit is right next to this mill."

Gao Wen and the others looked at each other, and Amber couldn't help but mutter: "This is really fate... It's as if good luck is fake."

"There are many underground tunnel systems in the south, most of which were built by me, such as the passage network under Cecil Territory. But I don't know about the underground tunnels in Tanzania Town." Gao Wen frowned, "... Maybe it was built by people after my first death."

Knight Philip thought: "If this tunnel exists, maybe we can sneak into Viscount Andrew's castle along the tunnel?"

"It seems like a good idea," Gawain nodded, and then looked at Byron: "What happens next? What's going on with this child?"

The mute child who brought everyone over stood quietly near the haystack, looking at this side with curiosity and a hint of guard. Byron gave the child a complicated look, and sighed softly: "At that time, I came from the tunnel. When I came out, I found that the curse on my body had already occurred. I originally wanted to go back to the territory to report the situation, but I was worried that the curse would spread. It's very problematic, and I can't get to the territory at all. But I didn't expect that when I was in a daze, I would actually walk into this mill and be saved by this child.

"He is a mute, probably a servant of a chamber of commerce owner in the city. Because of the inexplicable martial law, he was trapped outside the town. I lay here for two days, and he went to find me food and water, otherwise I would Probably can't resist this time."

Pittman finished talking to the gods of nature, and looked up at Byron: "The first thing we heard about you when we came here was scolding people."

"I can't help it, the curse on me has begun to get out of control," the middle-aged knight showed an ugly smile, "I could barely suppress it at first, but then I felt more and more that it would infect others, but this child is not at all I don't understand this... I chased him several times, explained to him what a curse is, and once I wanted to climb out and jump into the river to die, but when I got to the river, I remembered that the lower reaches were Cecilland— In the end, when I was hesitating by the river, I was discovered by this child, and he dragged me back with force."

"It can't be seen that he is quite strong." Pittman finished the exorcism ceremony, and while packing up his ritual props, he turned his head and glanced at the little mute, and said casually, "Looks thin and small."

After speaking, the old Druid stood up and nodded slightly to Gawain: "The curse is no longer a problem."

Gawain looked at Byron: "Can you still stand up and lead the way?"

"Although I really want to lie down again," Knight Byron moved his arm, "but it seems that solving the threat of the cultists is the most important thing at this time. No problem, I feel that I have recovered [-]% to [-]% gone."

Gawain nodded: "Okay, you take a break, we can use the underground passage you found to sneak into the town."

"But there is still a problem," Amber suddenly said at this time, she pointed to the mute child standing by the haystack, "What about this child?"

"I definitely can't bring him in," Gao Wen frowned, "but just leave it like this..."

He thought for a moment, and felt that he couldn't just put the dumb child aside like this, so he came to the side of the little boy and squatted down.

The latter took half a step back in fright, but still raised his head and looked straight at Gawain.

"We are going to do something," Gawain said slowly, looking into the child's eyes, "Can you wait here for three days? If we come back within three days, you can go with us. If we don't come back, you Just go south along the river, to a camp near the river bank, and seek refuge with the people there."

Then he took out a talisman from his arms and stuffed it into the child's hand: "Take this, and they will take you in."

The mute child took the amulet and nodded slowly.

Chapter 0126 What is buried in this land

"This is the entrance."

After a short rest, Knight Byron, who had regained some of his strength, led Gawain and his party to the woods near Goring's Mill, and found the entrance and exit of the tunnel under a raised soil slope - the entrance was not big. It is hidden between the stones and tree roots at the base of the slope, and the outside has been covered by overgrown vines and fallen leaves. If it weren't for the guidance of Knight Byron, anyone who passes by here will probably ignore it subconsciously.

When Byron left the tunnel, he destroyed part of the plants covering the entrance of the cave. Although he did some re-covering work after that, he could still see the traces of people coming in and out.Pittman squatted down in front of the cave entrance, observed the situation inside, and judged: "This should not be an exit. It may be that the earthquake or the roots of the giant tree opened the cracks in the ground, and this cave was connected to the tunnel below. stand up."

While talking, the old man said casually with a smile: "There are really many things buried underground in the south."

Gao Wen suddenly felt that there was something in the old boy's words: "You included me too!"

Pittman laughed twice, and then took out a small magic spar from his arms. He injected a little magic power to make it emit a bright and constant light, then threw it into the hole, and said to Gawain, "You go up first!" " gesture: "This is the time for you to go out."

Gawain shrugged, stopped Philip Knight who wanted to go down first, and jumped down first.

He felt that he was stepping on a layer of soft and damp rotten leaves and rotten branches, surrounded by a narrow space of earth and stone, and the light from the magic spar that fell on the ground illuminated the surroundings, allowing him to see the situation deeper : In front of it is a winding and downward-sloping ramp, with no traces of artificial processing, but more like what the old druid said, it is connected to a deeper artificial tunnel due to natural factors.

He picked up the magic spar, shook it twice to signal the safety below, and then took the lead to walk forward.

After a while, Amber's breath followed. The half-elf thief obviously felt at home after entering this kind of underground space. While happily turning the precious dagger in her hand, she looked around curiously: "This place has been extending downward."

"If it's really the 'combat tunnels' that were dug back then, then they must be very deep," Gao Wen said casually, "after all, there are often demon tides leaking from the surface, if you don't dig deeper, people who take refuge in the tunnels People are vulnerable."

The sloping downward passage continued for a short period, and the surrounding area began to become wide and dry. Gawain noticed that the soil and natural gravel on both sides of the passage were gradually decreasing, replaced by artificially processed support beams, stone bricks, and soil. The solid wall treated by elemental spells, and the ground became straight as it continued to move forward, and it no longer continued to slope downward.

Looking at the surrounding scene, Gao Wen's brows gradually frowned.

And Amber also noticed the abnormality immediately. She stopped fiddling with the dagger, ran to a nearby wall, carefully observed the material of the latter and the patterns on the wall, and then ran back to the high school in surprise. Beside Wen: "That's not right... The style of this place is different from the tunnels we walked through when we ran out of your tomb..."

"That's right, it's different. These are not the underground fortifications in the south that I presided over." Gawain held up the magic spar and illuminated the surrounding walls and ground. At that time, I was wondering, because there was no development plan in this area back then, and no one should have developed it for a long time after my death... Who would build tunnels here..."

Amber frowned: "If you look carefully, it looks a bit like the ruins in the Dark Mountains?"

Gao Wen finally realized suddenly, and realized where the vague sense of familiarity in his memory came from.

The architectural style and materials of this underground passage are very close to the giant ruins in the dark mountains!

Knight Byron himself was also very surprised. He looked around carefully, wondering: "It really...it looks very similar. I was so dazed by the curse that I didn't see it at all!"

"The underground facilities left over from the Xinghuo era actually exist here..." Gao Wen's heart fluctuated for a while, "So the ruins in the Dark Mountains are just part of a large group of ruins? Or..."

A bolder idea came to his mind: Could it be that the fortress buried in the dark mountains is connected with the underground passage in this place? !

These ancient passages crossed a large area of ​​land on the north side of the mountain range, crossed the Baishui River and the forest area in the north of the mountain, and formed a complete stretch? !

However, the bold guesses in Gawain's mind did not last long. He quickly shook his head and thought that these ideas were unlikely: Even if the Gondor Empire was extremely powerful back then, its productivity was limited. It is far away, with mountains and rivers in the middle and other intricate terrains. How easy is it to build a facility group of this scale underground?

Although to be honest, if the Gondor Empire is really determined to recklessly penetrate this land, it is not impossible to use the power of the whole country to establish such an "underground city-state" underground near the Dark Mountains, but Gawain really can't figure out what is going on here. What is worthy of their crazy investment, and it is still a secret project to invest so much, the people in Gondor and the people of later generations are completely unaware of it...

Could it be... is it related to the human experiments mentioned by Nicholas Dan, and the so-called "sinisterness"?

"Hey, hey, what are you thinking about?" Gawain's thoughts were interrupted by a voice suddenly ringing in his ear. When he came back to his senses, he saw Amber shaking vigorously in front of his eyes, and the face of the half-elf lady was also close. Come over, "Are you distracted on this occasion?"

"No, it's nothing." Gawain quickly collected his thoughts and temporarily put aside those speculations: now is really not the time to think about them. "Judging from the location, we should have reached the bottom of the riverbed of the Baishui River."

"Really?" Amber looked up in disbelief, the "stone" vault above was dry and solid, without the slightest drop of water, and could not hear the sound of the river flowing, "My God...then this The place is really deep enough, how did those people manage to open such a tunnel under the river bed..."

"I'm more curious about how he can accurately judge the position in this situation." Pittman secretly glanced at Gao Wen, muttering.

Amber's ears twitched, and she opened her mouth and said, "You don't need to ask, they have been buried in the ground for more than 700 years, and they are professional... Oh, it hurts!"

Gawain twisted Amber's ear, and then ignored the guy, signaling Byron Knight to continue leading the way.

At the same time, he looked at the composition of the team he brought, and suddenly felt a little cold in his heart——

An elf thief who is the shame of all things, a druid who is good at cooking soup and selling fake medicines, and an old fritter knight who can say that he is so righteous when he runs away. There are a total of five members in the team, and three of them have the wrong style of painting. From this point of view, in addition to his ability to stabilize morale with a Chinese face, the serious and silent Philip Cavalier who followed beside him may be the only remaining conscience of the entire Cecil Action Team...

He was thinking about it when he saw Knight Philip suddenly turned his head and asked Byron seriously: "By the way, Byron, is the 'just retreat' you mentioned earlier a knight skill that I don't know?"

Everyone: "..."