042 'The Old Man in the Alley' (seeking further reading)
After coming out of Angelina's simple but very neat cabin, Woody went straight to the dock area.
Now the bridge from the slum area to the other side has been completely blocked. If he doesn't want to attract too much attention, going back through the dock area is his only option.
The dock area has not taken any defensive measures against the slums. In their view, the bosses in the council just want to separate the slums through this move.
Because in this case, every year when the Bavialo tax collector comes, they can openly state that the population in the slums does not fall within the scope of the kingdom's taxation, so they can pay less land use fees.
In the past, many city-states affiliated with the Kingdom of Bavialo would not dare to use such a blatant tax avoidance method.
However, as the royal power of this country declines, and many nearby city-states are seeking independence recently, it is said that an independent alliance will be established to compete with the Southern Federation.
The Palermo Parliament justly used the excuse of an infected person to completely seal off the slums, as if they wanted to use this move to test the Bavialo royal family as a chess piece.
After all, is there only one death among infected people in the past few months? Is it some shady cultists or other crazy spell casters who use human bodies for experiments? Anyway, they are targeting the weak slum residents, and they are
what is the relationship.
This is the idea that most people hold, even if they want to stop it.
After seeing that this man's figure has changed from thin to strong, wearing a weather-beaten black hunting suit, two battle-scarred long swords on his back, and the temperament exuding from this blindfolded black-haired young man, I was very moved.
They couldn't help but retreat.
Although the man's eyes could not be clearly seen, none of the dock thugs guarding the door were just looking for food. They were very decisive and did not get entangled if they could not be provoked. They all obediently made way for the mysterious hunter.
Woody felt nothing. He just wanted to reach the trade area as soon as possible, and then go to the secret shop there to prepare before going to find Grandia.
At this time, Palermo's nightlife has just begun, and the courtesan who is good at navigating various aristocratic balls will definitely not be absent.
Although the dance lasted three hours, she could leave midway at any time, so he had to seize the time to prepare everything.
It has been almost a week since he came to this world, and the pressure caused by the curse has kept him awake at night.
Tonight must come to an end. It will be difficult to get rid of the curse of the ancient evil until it is deeply ingrained.
The fastest and most effective way is to directly cut off his "upline", an inconspicuous "branch" of the "corruption mother tree", so that the causal connection between him and Him becomes a rootless tree.
.
He also doesn't have to worry that the Corruption Tree will notice him for killing this cultist.
After all, do towering trees care about the leaves they shed every day due to strong winds?
…
But Woody encountered an episode when passing through the dock area. Originally, he was trying to take a shortcut to the avenue through this alley, but was blocked by an old man with a short stature and a skinny face.
"Kid, do you have any food?"
The old man was about sixty or seventy years old. He had gray hair, brown shriveled skin, and cloudy eyes, indicating that his eyesight was extremely poor. He seemed to be unable to see the road under his feet, and he was trembling.
But what is even more worrying is that under his half-clothed linen shirt, his saggy dark skin is exposed, with dense white abscesses and black-red cysts covering half of his chest.
Woody is exceptionally familiar.
It was the blasphemous curse that he wanted to solve. The old man in front of him was obviously infected. However, according to his vitality, it is estimated that he would not survive for three days at most before his internal organs could not supply the nutrients needed by the cysts in his body and they would explode.
, and then turned into the rotten monster that was in the trade area this morning.
"Yes, what do you want to eat?"
Woody didn't show any disgust in his eyes. Even when the old man's hands, whose nails were full of dirt and black mud, touched his clothes, he looked calm and didn't seem to dislike it at all.
"Anything, as long as it's edible."
"Okay, but you have to wait for me. I don't have it on hand right now. Do you want to follow me to get it? Or I bring it back to you."
When Woody said this, under the ribbon covering his eyes, the demon hunter's alienated eyes were looking at the infected old man.
The old man's face still looked miserable, and he said in a trembling voice.
"I'll wait for you here! I'm so hungry that I can't walk, and if I go out they will drive me away, and they may also harm you..."
"good!"
Woody responded in a deep voice, and then drifted away under the old man's gaze.
After leaving the alley completely, Woody immediately ran to the nearest tavern and walked to the bar to buy the quickest clam soup and a few pieces of soft white bread. After the waiter packed everything, Woody
Di hurried back to the alley.
Naturally, he was not empathizing with the old man because he was infected with the Shameless Curse just like him, but he was already more than 80% sure that the old man just now was not a human being.
But a real giant dragon.
Compared with the stories about the colored dragons that are sung by the bards and do all kinds of evil, Woody also knows that there is a kind of dragon that corresponds to the colored dragons, and that is the metal dragon family.
Gold dragon, silver dragon, bronze dragon, brass dragon and red copper dragon.
They are different from the red dragons and blue dragons who frequently destroy city states for money. They yearn more for peace and order.
And some metal dragons will spend a long time maintaining peace and justice in the world.
Among them, the golden dragon is the most popular, they are eager to defeat evildoers and kill or judge them.
Although they often engage in self-imposed missions to promote goodness, that is, to define justice from the dragon's perspective.
But that doesn't stop them from being the sworn enemies of evil and despicable behavior.
If the old man just now was really a "fishing law enforcement officer" to judge his degree of good and evil, then his actions should not only increase his bad feelings, but also some good feelings.
But Woody thought about a deeper level, that is, whether it was aware of the curse on him, so he took the initiative to contact him, hoping to learn the real culprit behind the scenes.
If this is the case, then yourself...
Unfortunately, when Woody returned to the alley carrying the food, the original ragged old man had disappeared.
But Woody knew that it was definitely observing him in the dark.
Therefore, he did not deliberately pretend to be very concerned about looking for it, but pretended to look at it with a confused face, hesitated for a while, put the food in his hand in a corner, and left.
Not long after, a row of data information popped up in the personal panel.
——"Negotiation successful."
——"You successfully passed the test of a young bronze dragon, and he developed a faint affection and curiosity for you."
——"Negotiation +1, Speech +1."
Although it wasn't much, Woody still breathed a sigh of relief.
At least his guess was correct.
So the question now is, if the bronze dragon wants to investigate the curse, will it follow him...
