Montenegro's hometown, Tirurag, is a remote village on the edge of Tirulag Lake. On the other side of the lake is the national border with Ser.
Regarding Leatherman and Searle, I don’t know when the hatred between these two countries dates back.
Therefore, although the two countries are currently in an armistice period, frictions of various sizes on the border do occur from time to time.
Therefore, when Sherlock and Montenegro arrived, they were immediately surrounded by a group of villagers armed with crude weapons.
"Who are you?" the man who looked like the village chief asked.
"I'm Montenegro, Uncle Luger." Heishan lifted his hood.
"Black Mountain?" The village chief did not believe it easily: "This year's Ice and Snow Festival has already passed, how can you come back."
"I came here with a witch's guest." Heishan explained.
"The witch's guest?"
"Witch!"
"Why is it a witch again?"
"The witch's guests, they can't be in the same group."
"So what if we are in a group? We can't hand over the tear crystal anyway."
"But disobeying a witch's orders is a capital offense."
"Die, die!"
When the villagers heard about the witch, they started talking one after another, with disgust and fear rarely showing on their faces.
This is very strange for Leatherman, who is a man whose ordinary people all admire witches.
"I am really Qi Heishan. Did I burn your beard when I was a child?" Heishan felt that the atmosphere in the village was not right.
Village chief Luge must have confirmed Heishan's identity and put away his hostility: "Heishan, why did you come back suddenly? Do you know?"
"What do you know?" Heishan suddenly realized: "Where's my Eminem, why isn't she here?"
"Hey!" Village Chief Luge sighed: "Go back and see for yourself."
Before Hei Shan finished listening, he pushed through the crowd and rushed into the village.
Sherlock wanted to go together, but unexpectedly he was stopped by the villagers again, but his attitude changed 180°.
"Sir, the amount of tear crystals you need is too large. We really can't get it together in such a short time. Please give us a few more days of grace." The village chief knelt on the ground and begged.
Then, all the villagers behind him knelt down.
From just a few words from the villagers, Sherlock had roughly guessed what happened in this village.
If nothing else, this should be a small plot mission.
It's just that it involves witches, so he must be cautious.
After first persuading the villagers and understanding the recent events in the village in detail, Sherlock already had a plan in mind.
The story is not unusual, it is that a witch asked the villagers of Tilurag to hand over 100 tear crystals within a month.
Tear crystals are a specialty of Tilurag Lake. They are formed from the tears of the sea nymphs who live in the lake and are cultivated by the lake water all year round.
Originally, the women in this village had the habit of collecting tear crystals in exchange for money. They had more or less some inventory at home, so it was not difficult to scrape together 100 yuan.
However, this is the third time this year that the witch has come to collect the tear crystals.
The first two times had drained the village's stock. This third time, they worked hard to collect for a month, but they couldn't get enough.
Even in order to collect tear crystals in the lake, many people suffered frostbite.
Heishan's mother's legs froze to death because she stayed at the bottom of the lake for too long.
If the people traveling with him hadn't discovered it early, he might have died.
"Is that person really a witch? Have you confirmed her identity?" Sherlock still didn't believe that a witch would dare to do such a thing.
In Leatherman, although witches control the power of life and death over all ordinary people, they are restricted by the Witch Alliance and they rarely abuse this power.
"I have identified her mask, it should be correct." Village Chief Luge said.
"Is that so..." Sherlock was still dubious.
The black iron mask is the most important symbol of witches. Not only is it made of special materials and the manufacturing process is complex, it is also enchanted with exclusive special effects, making it almost impossible for outsiders to imitate it.
But whether she is a witch or not, you need to see it with your own eyes.
…
Two days later, scheduled delivery date.
Sherlock and Hei Shan secretly hid in a guard tower nearby, quietly waiting for the arrival of the witch.
"Sherlock, if it is really a witch, what should we do?" Heishan asked anxiously.
"Then try to find a way to make sense. If the truth still doesn't make sense..."
"You're not going to kill her, are you?" Heishan looked horrified.
"Why, you don't dare?"
"me……"
"Don't worry." Sherlock patted Montenegro on the shoulder: "I have some friendship with Chihiro Nakamura. If I really can't, I'll ask her for help."
Heishan breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."
The two chatted for a while, and the witch everyone had been waiting for finally appeared.
Wearing a black iron mask, a black robe, a magic whip around his waist, and an ice crystal-shaped magic ring on the middle finger of his left hand, which is indeed the standard equipment of a witch, and is accompanied by a group of Leatherman Berserkers.
In the Vision of Truth, the profession displayed by the other party is indeed that of Haslan Witch.
"Montenegro, do you see anything wrong?" Based on appearance alone, Sherlock couldn't see anything unusual.
Heishan shook his head: "You are really a witch, I have to go down quickly to meet you."
"You'd better stay here for a while, and I'll go check it out before talking." After saying this, Sherlock turned into Black Mountain and walked away.
At this time, because there were not enough tear crystals, the witch named Mulma had already drawn out her magic whip and was preparing to teach these villagers a lesson.
The long whip swung in a huge arc in the air, and just when it was about to hit Luger, a figure suddenly jumped out and held the long whip in his hand.
"Your Excellency Mulma, these villagers really can't collect more tear crystals, why don't you give them some time?" Sherlock said.
"Who are you?" Witch Mulma asked sternly: "You dare to block the witch's decision."
"My name is Black Mountain. I was invited by the Supreme Witch to study in the Leatherman area." Sherlock tried.
Mulma was obviously stunned for a moment, but then he snorted angrily: "How dare you use the name of the Supreme Witch to swindle. It seems that you are going to die."
"Really?" Sherlock asked with a smile: "I think you are just using the name of witch to deceive."
Just as Mulma was about to retort, she felt a detection spell shine on her body, followed by a system prompt that the thought detection failed.
Oops, she was discovered. She reacted immediately and immediately shouted: "Kill this liar for me."
"Who sent you?" Sherlock continued to ask while dodging the attacks of several berserker warriors.
After using the thought detection of the Prescient Eye, this time cannot be wasted like this.
"I won't tell you." Mulma roared, as if he wanted to use this method to close his mind.
"It's not up to you!" Sherlock felt that he had discovered a big secret, and quickly continued to ask: "What is your entire plan?"
When Mulma saw that several berserkers couldn't even touch each other's clothes, she was angry and resentful: "Montenegro, just wait for me."
After saying that, she quit the game directly.
That's right, Mulma is a player. She finally raised Serge's reputation to respect and received this S-level mission.
Unexpectedly, he failed in the end and was disrupted by Sherlock.
In order to prevent more information from being leaked, she could only choose to force quit the game.
Of course, in this way, the secret is kept, but death and downgrades are inevitable.
In the game, seeing Mulma suddenly losing his mind, Sherlock had no choice but to target the remaining Berserker players.
It's a pity that although these berserkers are also players, they are obviously just minions, and the tasks they get are just to cooperate with Mulma's actions.
Without getting more useful information, Sherlock stopped holding on.
Of course, the professions of these eight berserkers were also disguised. In fact, they were just players of over forty levels. He took one of two swords and sent them all back to the city for free.
After the battle, the villagers slowly gathered together again.
Montenegro asked worriedly: "Sherlock, are they really liars?"
"Well, except for witches, have you ever seen anyone dare to stand in the same row as a witch or even stand in front of her?" This was a flaw that Sherlock suddenly discovered after he got closer.
During the few days he came to Leatherman, he was deeply touched by the class system here.
It’s just a matter of position;
Among the colleagues, except for the witch, the rest can only stand in the latter position;
When facing a witch, you should bend down and keep your gaze as close as possible to the witch's calves.
These rules of conduct have been deeply ingrained in the hearts of Leatherman residents.
But the berserkers just now not only stood casually, but also showed no respect for the witches.
This situation only occurs to players and outsiders.
When Sherlock first used the Truth Sight to observe, he saw that the attributes of these people showed that they were all NPCs, so they could only be foreigners pretending to be witches.
Therefore, he decisively used thought detection and opened the eye of prediction.
He thought it was just a few people cheating here, but the real result surprised him.
These people are all players, and they are also Serge's spies.
Their mission is to go to the remote areas of Leatherman to tarnish the reputation of witches and cause riots in Leatherman.
This accident caused a game between the two countries.
As a Harper from the good camp, Sherlock is naturally resistant to dealing with Sere and the red-robed mage from the evil camp. In this matter, he must be on the side of Leatherman and the Witch Alliance.
After telling Chihiro Nakamura the news, he analyzed the whole story of the incident several times and discovered several problems.
It’s not surprising that the player pretending to be a witch has superb transformation skills, but the equipment she wears that symbolizes her identity as a witch is worthy of scrutiny.
Especially this black iron mask.
Black Iron Mask (Excellent, Rare Object): Intelligence 4, casting speed 30%, immune to detection spells, exclusive item for Haslan Witch.
This came from the player named Mulma, and Black Mountain has identified it to be the same as the black iron mask made by their wizard.
But according to Chihiro Nakamura and Montenegro, this mask cannot be imitated by outsiders.
If it wasn't imitated by outsiders, would it be...
"Sherlock!" Heishan came over and solemnly pleaded: "Can you not say anything about the black iron mask for the time being?"
"Have you thought of it too?" Sherlock asked.
Montenegro did not deny: "But I don't believe that anyone in Verimoni would do such a thing!"
"If it's a defector like Homid..."
"Homid is only a very small minority. Verimoni will always be loyal to the Witches Union and Leatherman."
Sherlock believed that Montenegro did not need to show loyalty to an outsider at this time, so he was even more confused: "Do you really not hate witches at all?"
"It is the witch who guards Leatherman and protects us from the nomads in the north and the Sers in the south."
Seeing the piety on Montenegro's face, Sherlock had a better understanding of Leatherman's social system.
The fact that the ruling system of the Witches Alliance can last for such a long time may not be without reason.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone until the truth comes out." Sherlock said
"Thank you." Heishan said and took out two things: "I think you might be able to use them."
The ice crystal ring and the command whip are the other two things needed to symbolize the identity of the witch.
"How did you know?" Sherlock asked in surprise.
"I'm not a fool." Heishan said solemnly: "I just hope you don't use them to harm witches."
"Don't worry." Sherlock said with a smile: "I just want to find something to ensure that I try not to hurt any witches."
Heishan nodded and agreed: "Also, this is the tear crystal the village chief asked me to give to you as a thank you gift for saving the village." Heishan handed over another small cloth bag.
"So many!" There are at least 50 tear crystals in this small bag.
"Without you, these would have been taken away by that fake witch."
"Well, I do need these things."
Sherlock accepted the tear crystal, said goodbye to Black Mountain and Tilurag, and rushed to the Forest of Ghosts alone.
