The Book of Hibernation

Dorin wanted to rush over to stop him, and grabbed him with both hands.None other than De Carlo.

DeCaro pressed Dorin against the body and whispered a soft "shh" in his ear.

Then, De Carlo stood up holding the stone wall, stumbled and ran forward.The dark shadows quickly chased after them.

That is, in the blink of an eye, all the hostages died in the passage.

Dorin counted silently.There were three shadows who launched the attack... no, there were four.One came out from the fork in the road just now, one appeared in front of them, and two came up from behind.

They patrolled the passage slowly, pacing, but they did not find Dorin.

Dorin was in the arms of the dead body.He was slender and completely retracted into the gap between the corpse and the stone wall, as if he was curled up and hugged by that corpse.

At first, Dorin wondered how these people could see in the dark.There is no light in the cave. In this case, the elves can see the outline of objects, but humans should not be able to see anything.

Now he was gradually realizing that they really couldn't see in the dark.They are just used to fighting in pure darkness.

At this time someone said: "There shouldn't be only so few people."

Another said: "They should have found out, so they withdrew early. These people didn't have time."

"How many mages do you have over there?"

"Four. Three indoors, and one ran out, and the scops owl intercepted him."

Dorin listened to their conversation and found out that the hunter of the dead also had a name.

"Screwed Owl" should be the name, or nickname, of one of them.Dead hunters also need to be called internally, but they never take the initiative to report their names in front of outsiders.

The hunter who spoke first said, "Well...the number is too small. They must have discovered it earlier."

Another person joined the conversation: "Could it be that person who leaked the news?"

"No. He can't know the location of this stronghold in advance, even if he wants to leak it, he can't. Besides, if he wants to help the necromancer, why should he cooperate with us?"

Dorin is wondering who this "he" is.At this time, footsteps came from the fork in the road again, and the hunters immediately became alert.

"Short owl." The person in the fork in the road reported himself.

So the hunters relaxed.

After reuniting with his companions, the hunter named Screech Owl said, "There's no one over there."

"Is the man he said among the prisoners?" asked the companion.

"Which one? Long ears or pointy ears?"

When the screech owl first uttered, Dorin felt that the sound was a bit familiar.After listening to a few more words, he remembered who this person was—the execution team was chasing after him, and he was running away with Xiao Niya in his arms. Suddenly, a hunter rushed out and knocked him to the ground, which allowed the execution team to arrest him. stopped him.The scops owl was the hunter.

The scops owl mentions "long ears or pointy ears".This is what many humans call pure blood elves and half elves.He must have meant Dorlin and Winter Thistle.

Another hunter said: "I touched their ears when I killed them. They are all human, they don't have pointed ears, neither male nor female."

"Are you sure, the mixed-race ears are small and not long?"

"I can tell."

The horned owl said: "Be careful. If you encounter a man with pointed ears, remember not to kill him. The female one doesn't matter."

"It doesn't matter if you really killed it. Even if you were killed by a necromancer, that person can't blame us."

"No. This raid was unsuccessful, and we will continue to work with him in the future. His family cannot be moved."

"That's right. What about the long ears? What to do if you encounter them?"

"He didn't mention it, and I didn't ask specifically," said the horned owl. "That's whatever, it's not very important. Alright, let's meet up first, search again and then evacuate. This time we can use the lantern."

Hearing the lantern, Dorin's heart tightened.Just now the hunters probably wanted to hide, so they acted in the dark all the time. If they wanted to search again under the condition of lighting, Duolin would not be able to hide.

And the hunter mentioned "confluence", which means that there are more than four or five hunters nearby, and there may be more outside.

Fortunately, the hunters did not light their lamps at once.Probably for the sake of convenience, they didn't bring lighting tools with them, so they had to go somewhere to get them first.

Judging from the sound of footsteps, these hunters walked away one after another.Duolin slowly came out from the corpse, crawled to the middle of the passage on hands and feet, and carefully judged the movement before he dared to stand up and walk.

Just now the hunters mentioned "don't kill Jian Er" and "don't touch his family".If Pointy Ears were Winter Thistle, then the "he" should be Lion.

It sounds like Ryan has some kind of cooperation with these hunters, and told the hunter not to hurt his brother.

Ryan did know the hunter named Horned Owl, and it was justifiable not to let him hurt his family... But these hunters would kill anyone they encountered, without distinguishing whether it was a necromancer or a hostage.This is definitely not an official action arranged by the city-state and the temple.

Dorin leaned on the wall and moved carefully.

He remembered that when he was in Harbor City, he was caught by Anaconda's younger brother and locked in the basement of a big house.Lane came to rescue him, at that point Lane just knocked out the guards, not killed them.

Dorin didn't want to deliberately recall this incident.Now the passage was pitch black, giving him the illusion that he was in a dream, and the scene at that time automatically appeared in front of his eyes.

At that time, Ryan stood in the night, and the moonlight plated silver on the long golden hair, making Dorin a little dazed.

Dorin shook his head, pushing away the memory and focusing on the present moment.

He had to find a way to escape outside before the dead hunters found it.After escaping, you can't relax your vigilance.I don't know how many hunters there are, and there may be others patrolling nearby.

It's not just necromancers they're targeting.I'm afraid they were going to kill the necromancer and the hostages together.

The only thing that made Dolin feel relieved was that, judging from the hunter's conversation just now, they didn't meet anyone with sharp ears.Winter Thistle and Doris should both be alive.

===========================================

March pushed aside the golem and walked in.Her face was ashen, her steps were a little sloppy, and there was still thin sweat on her forehead.

Winter Ji raised her head from the book, saw her expression, and roughly guessed what was going on.

March said in a deep voice: "We found the holy emblem of the day patroller."

Winter Thistle asked, "Really? What kind?"

"The size of a palm, the kind used for ritual prayers. Only the pendant, without the bead chain."

Winter Thistle frowned: "Are you sure you found it from the supplies? You seem to have kidnapped a knight, is it that knight's thing?"

"That knight," March shook his head, "after we caught him, we threw away all his equipment, including the holy emblem he wore next to his body. Everything on him must be disposed of, the characteristics of the standard equipment of a knight Obviously, it is easy to be tracked by positioning spells. Moreover, the temple knights do not wear ritual holy emblems when they go out. This kind of thing needs to be worn outside the sacrificial robes, which is different from the simple holy emblems when they go out to fight."

Winter Thistle nodded.Indeed.

Not long ago, Dongji told the middle-aged mage to go to Sanyue quickly and told them to search for the supplies carefully.Fortunately, the mage paid attention to Dong Ji's words, hurried to another hiding place, and relayed Dong Ji's words to Sanyue and several other mages.

March immediately understood what Winter Thistle meant.

Before this, the necromancers were also worried that there would be some mechanism hidden in the materials, so they used magic to detect these things.They've checked spells in action, they've checked residual fluctuations, they've checked for poison reactions... but it didn't occur to them that traps could be set against them without using any magic items.

After some urgent action, they found a holy symbol of the day patrol.

Such things should not appear in the materials.This holy emblem did not fall in by accident, it was put in deliberately.

There is a spell called copying and finding objects, which is a low-level skill and can be cast by mages at the apprentice level.This spell can be used to locate a specific item, first get its exact coordinates, and then find it with the azimuth circle or compass.

Since this is a low-level spell, it certainly has very obvious shortcomings and limitations: first, the target must be inanimate, and of course it cannot be a corpse, nor a magic item; second, the caster must have personally touched that item, and cannot Imagine only relying on other people's descriptions. The more familiar the caster is with the target, the more accurate the spell will be; also, the target object cannot be unprocessed or rough-processed natural objects, and spells cannot be used to find raw wood, minerals, and agricultural products. Wait, strictly speaking, crude products can also be used as targets, but it is almost impossible to find them. High-quality targets need to have rich and clear details, preferably crafts and the like.

The spell requires the caster to have physically touched the target, so the necromancer's belongings cannot be targeted.

Roughly processed items are not easy to find, and things with non-unique characteristics are not easy to find, so food, seeds, raw materials, sacks, etc. in the materials cannot be used as targets.

A holy emblem was included in the supplies.It is the target of a trace find object spell.

The necromancers realized that something was wrong and immediately began to transfer.Time was running out, some mages escaped with hostages, and some didn't make it in time.

Before they found the holy symbol, the dead hunters had already located this hideout.Among the hunters, there are also people who know low-level arcane arts.

March talked about the dead hunter.Winter Thistle asked, "Have you confirmed it? Was it done by the dead hunter?"

March said: "It's confirmed, it's the hunter of the dead. A few other people and I met the hunter directly in the forest. They really came prepared, so many people popped up all at once..."

"How did you escape?" After asking, Dong Ji realized that this question was redundant.After all, March brought the Sworn Enemy.

really.March said lightly: "I was responsible for protecting the others from escaping. Father and Emer killed all the hunters who were chasing them."

She doesn't call the swearers the swearers, but still calls them by their identities in life.Winter Ji noticed this and couldn't help but sigh silently.

Sensing his expression, March was a little displeased: "You're done asking? Let me ask you, how did you know there was something wrong with this batch of supplies?"

Winter Thistle said: "Because I heard that the supplies you get are all in small portions, which can be put into the hollow from the neck of the golem. They don't use large containers such as crates."

"What does this mean?"

Winter Thistle didn't answer directly, but asked, "You intercepted the Carlos family's caravan. Were they carrying goods at that time?"

March was not personally involved in this matter, but he knew the general process.She recalled that the caravan of the Carlos family did bring goods, not too much, including water purification stones, brown sugar, salt, dried peppercorns, tea powder, solid pigments, rough flint and a small amount of gold.Except the gold was on the merchants, everything else was packed in barrels and chests, and transported in wagons,  …

March suddenly realized.

The supplies they necromancers require are also crude materials and grain and oil items. Under normal circumstances, such items should be shipped directly from a warehouse somewhere, and there is no need to disassemble them into small sizes for daily retail sales. .

The city-state obviously didn't know about golem transport, so it was impossible to prepare small items for stuffing things into the golem's neck.

Then, they have only one purpose in doing this: the small package is easy to open and then repacked, so that it is convenient to carry the holy emblem.

The whole box and barrel are usually sealed with nails or wax sheets. It is troublesome to stuff things inside. After opening, you have to seal it again. It is easy to be seen during operation, and it is easy to leave traces after sealing; small items It's very convenient, open the lid, throw the holy emblem in, close the lid, and that's it.

After receiving something, the necromancer will definitely cast a spell to detect it.But they can only detect spell fluctuations, and cannot detect non-magic items of unknown form.

After the incident, the necromancer left the holy emblem in place and did not take it away.That hiding place can only be completely abandoned.

Sanyue said to herself: "It seems that the Fesisites don't attach much importance to the hostage's life... What's the use of negotiating."

Winter Thistle immediately said, "No, I don't think that's what Fessisit meant. They really want to check your location, but they probably don't want to launch a surprise attack."

Sanyue was stunned for a while, then looked at Dongji: "You... didn't you know this a long time ago?"

"Of course I don't know!"

Before Winter Thistle could finish speaking, San Yue approached him slowly with anger on her face, tiny black spell ripples flickered on her drooping fingertips.At the same time, the golem at the door also turned around and approached with her.

Winter Thistle stood up in fright, and retreated towards the corner.

March stopped: "Come back, sit down."

Winter Ji said: "Then you have to listen to me carefully, I will explain it clearly to you, don't be impulsive."

"I haven't done anything yet. Sit down."

Winter Thistle moved to the table and sat back on the chair.

He said: "You also said that it was a group of dead hunters who launched the raid, not the city-state guard or the execution team of the temple. This is very abnormal. You should also know that the city-state of Fesisit does not welcome dead hunters. They will also clash, and it is almost impossible to cooperate. More importantly, the execution squad has official permission to operate in the forest. If the city-state really wants to raid you, why not the execution squad? Wouldn't it be more justifiable? ?"

"This is indeed a suspicious point," March said, "but it's hard to say. After all, the materials were prepared by the Fesisites and shipped out of their warehouse. They have seen the things with their own eyes. Don't they know that there is a problem with the small portion packaging? ?”

Winter Thistle said: "I think they know. They know that the caravan is full of small items, and they should also know that there are holy symbols inside... That is to say, the thing about carrying the holy symbols is probably the temple, the city-state and the chamber of commerce. It was negotiated."

This statement made March both angry and confused.You just said that the city-state didn't want to launch a surprise attack, but now you say that they did it together?

Winter Ji saw the anger in March's eyes, and hurriedly continued: "They really want to know where you are hiding, because they always want to get as much information as possible, and this is all because they hope to successfully complete the final Transaction. For example, if you suddenly change your mind, don’t want the dark clouds, and don’t want those captured necromancers, and you kill the hostages and run away after getting the supplies... What should you do? City-state party I'm also afraid that you won't keep your promise."

Hearing this, March laughed out loud: "I really want to do this. It's a pity that other people don't do it."

Winter Thistle said: "In short, this raid should not be ordered by the city-state, but because someone cooperated with the dead hunters in private, which allowed the hunters to find one of your hiding places."

March stroked her chin in thought.

Seeing that March has calmed down, Winter Thistle has also relaxed a little.He tentatively asked: "So... what do you want to do next?"

March said: "They broke the contract first. The next time the hostages are exchanged, as a warning, we should return some corpses to them."

Winter Ji hurriedly said, "No, it's best not to. Listen to me..."

Sanyue interrupted him: "I meant to return their corpses, but I didn't say that I would continue to kill hostages. You can't imagine, we haven't done it yet, and the dead hunters have already killed several hostages for us. Now the living There are not many hostages left."

After speaking, she looked at Winter Thistle.

She had expected Winter Thistle to be surprised, but Winter Thistle wasn't.

Winter Thistle said: "Even if a hostage is killed, you cannot return the body to the city-state. When exchanging hostages next time, you should pick some who are still alive and send them back. The second exchange must be completed smoothly. Say someone is dead, pretend they're alive, pretend the rest are going to be released at the last exchange."

March had no objection.She stared at Winter Thistle, waiting for him to continue.

Winter Thistle said again: "The person who arranged the sneak attack was acting in secret. He will definitely not stand up and admit his actions. Once you hand over the body, even if you claim to have encountered a sneak attack and say that you did not kill the hostages, you are dead hunters." Killed... the city-state will probably not believe it. If they are provoked, they will probably give up the deal and start rounding up you. Even if the city-state wants to restrain themselves, the execution team will fight you on the spot in accordance with the doctrine ...I don't want these situations to happen. It doesn't do anybody any good."

"Isn't it good for you too?" March asked.

Winter Thistle said, "Of course. If you stop the hostage exchange, I have no chance of finishing my research."

When he said this, Dongji had a self-deprecating smile on his face.

Looking at him in March, she was a little confused for a moment.

I don't know if he is pretending to be indifferent but actually wants to protect the hostages, or if he really doesn't care about the so-called morality and justice, but is just eager to complete this experiment.

The former is more like the winter thistle in her impression, like the winter thistle she knew in Harbor City; while the latter is not difficult to understand, as long as it is a researcher who is obsessed with arcana, it is inevitable to have such thoughts.

While thinking, March only looked down at the things on Winter Thistle's table.Books and scrolls are spread everywhere, and the calculation paper is densely written.

March picked up a piece of paper and looked at it. From the deduction and calculation of these fragmentary magic circles, it can be seen that Winter Ji has indeed discovered something from the magic of witchcraft. He is trying to form and refine the soul of blood alchemy. A combination of enchanting and forging techniques commonly used by masters.

Sanyue can understand parts from ancient documents, but she doesn't know much about enchantment, so she can only understand a general direction.But even if he only looked at the surface, he knew that if Winter Ji wanted to continue to study the chimerism, deduction on paper was no longer enough.He desperately needed real experimental instruments.

March nodded: "Actually, your thoughts are similar to mine. Tomorrow you will go to Hammer Village as originally planned, and talk to them about the future."

"Okay." Winter Thistle's tensed shoulders also relaxed.

"Be careful what you say and do, don't let them see something wrong."

"I see."

March thought for a while and asked, "Do you have any clues about the person who arranged the raid without authorization?"

Winter Thistle said, "I can't think of that for a moment. I can see."

"Are you really unable to think of it, or are you unwilling to say it?"

Winter Thistle lowered her head slightly, but did not answer.March noticed him biting his lip lightly.

Since he didn't want to say it, March said it for him: "Actually, the characteristics of this person are quite obvious. He is currently in Hammer Village, and he knows the pastor and the people of the city-state council. He should be very trustworthy at ordinary times, and he can He is very vigilant and keen, so he was able to inquire about the content of the city-state's internal negotiations in time... and then he was able to disclose these to the hunter. In addition, this person has another very strange characteristic-he cares about you very much. Just Like the anaconda, and your knight brother."

Winter Thistle's shoulders slumped. "why would you say so……"

March smiled and said: "If the city-state wants to know our situation, they can have people follow you, but they don't. Because they are afraid that the stalkers will conflict with you, and they are also afraid that we think you brought the enemy on purpose, then we It would hurt you. The person who arranged the raid could use you as a breach, could hide things on you, but he didn't do that, he chose to use that batch of supplies... It's enough to see that he cares about you."

She walked to the door, turned her back to Winter Thistle and said, "So, is this person an anaconda or a Lion... Can you think of who it is?"

Winter Thistle pondered, but did not answer.Sanyue smiled lightly, didn't ask any more questions, waved her hand and left.