——4E, 201, the last month of seeding, 17th, 14:00——
The wind is freezing and the snow is flying.
Since Tianji Province is originally on a plateau, the Hanluo Mountain Peak is only more than 200 meters higher than Ximu Town, and the surface is completely covered with snow. Although the harsh environment makes it difficult for Arthur, who is wearing armor, to move, it is also difficult.
This makes it less easy for the bandits in the abandoned sentry tower ahead to spot him.
As a province that has been in constant war since ancient times, Skyrim Province must have sentry towers and fortresses built at most pass crossings. However, due to the loss of strategic significance of certain locations, some defensive buildings at less critical locations will be gradually abandoned and then replaced by
Robbers occupy.
Obviously, this sentry tower was built to defend the destination of Arthur's trip, the Hanluo Temple. It was likely that in ancient times, that place was a very important place for both warring parties.
Arthur, whose hair and armor had been dyed white by the wind and snow, was hiding behind a huge rock near the abandoned watchtower, carefully observing the watchtower and the number and equipment of the bandits.
This is a common three-story archery sentry tower. The bottom floor is a weapons depot, the middle floor is the guard's living quarters, and the top floor is an open-air observation tower and shooting position. However, after being occupied by bandits, the defense cannot be as rigorous as the regular army.
Se only saw a bandit guarding the gate outside the sentry tower. It must be said that the Nords are very cold-resistant and have strong physiques. This bandit was actually shirtless.
If there is any difference between these robbers and the beasts that Arthur has been hunting, it is that they will surrender. For example, the robbers in the coal mine, although they look fierce, were seriously injured by Arthur, Hadava and Larov.
They will squat on the ground and beg for mercy. At this time, they can be captured and sent to the guards to collect the bounty. They should then be sent to work in some places such as mines or construction sites, or they may run away again to other places.
Become a robber somewhere.
Arthur hunched over and approached the robber who was watching the wind from behind, and then struck the iron helmet on his head with a sword. The muffled sound disappeared in the wind and snow. The robber turned around half a circle, as if he wanted to touch the weapon, but the next moment
His eyes rolled white and he fell to the ground shaking.
There was no need to cause trouble. Arthur looked at the silent sentry tower, casually took away a few gold coins carried by the bandit, bypassed the sentry tower and continued towards the Hanluo Mountain Peak.
————
The reason why Hanluo Peak got its name is because there is a huge "Hanluo Temple" embedded in the mountain wall near the top of the mountain. Although it is called a temple, it is actually a Nord's tomb.
Maybe no one does that now, but the tradition of the Nords in ancient times was to embalm the body after death, wrap it in a shroud, and bury it in a sarcophagus of varying sizes. Those with high status may have exclusive access to the coffin.
Or a tomb, while those with lower status have to share the tomb with other deceased people. Those with lower status will not even have a coffin, and the corpse will be placed randomly in the grooves dug in the wall.
In addition, since the Nords also have the custom of burying valuables in sacrifices, in order to prevent theft, they will set up various fatal mechanisms in various tombs, and finally seal the surface and build tombs or temples. Such large-scale tombs
It can be found almost in most places in Skyrim, and has basically become a gathering place for tomb robbers.
After arriving at the top of the mountain, what Arthur saw was a bandit camp built near the main entrance of the temple with more than a dozen people. Judging from the size of the campfire and the age of the fur tents, it should have been established for a long time, and
The sentry tower on the mountainside should also be occupied by their people.
For such a large bandit camp, Ximu Town has never heard of their existence. This can only prove that these bandits have obtained a lot of benefits from Hanluo Temple and are too lazy to rob ordinary passers-by. The group from the coal mine pit
It's just my own misfortune.
Arthur remained concealed and approached the camp. Because the constellation representing "stealth" lit up another star, he approached the camp without being noticed at all. He stopped behind an animal skin tent and quietly observed the people gathered around the campfire.
The bandits nearby could avoid the wind and snow here, and there were sentry towers on the mountainside for warning. The bandits wearing various leather armors were not too vigilant.
"Everything that can be looted from this temple has been plundered. Should we move to another place?" Arthur heard a robber say.
"Hell, we didn't even get into the first floor," the other robber replied.
"Unless we have a way to deal with that spider." Another robber answered.
"Perhaps the swift Makur can avoid the spider. He rushed in directly with the golden dragon claw." The robbers said, "Let's wait a little longer. If he brings out something good, we can't let him take it all."
"Dang Cang." "Who is it!" "Someone is here!"
When Arthur heard the keyword, he accidentally kicked over an iron can. Now, no matter how bright the stars were, it was useless. He had no choice but to pull out the steel two-handed sword behind him and face the searching robbers.
Sweep across.
Although Arthur is better at weapons such as bows, hand axes and shields that are convenient for hunting, the familiarity with the two-handed sword seems to come from his soul. The illusion is that the constellation with the pattern of the giant sword in both hands has been illuminated when clearing the coal mine.
Three stars lit up, and when there was no one else standing in the camp except him, the fourth star also lit up.
"Huh..." Arthur kicked the tin can that led to his discovery, and looked at the corpses strewn in the bandit camp: "There are no witnesses, so this infiltration is successful."
————
"Zhizhi——"
Arthur casually chopped down the two rushing snow rats and continued down the dilapidated tomb corridor of the temple.
As the robbers said, the funerary objects on the surface of this temple have been plundered by them, and some simple mechanisms have been completely destroyed. However, the traces of those destructive searches suddenly disappeared in front of a tomb covered with a large number of spider webs.
Still, Arthur could vaguely hear the crawling sound of spiders behind the webs. There was no doubt that this place was regarded as a nest by frost spiders, and the bandits who were not strong in combat naturally did not dare to go deeper.
"Is there anyone? Anyone is welcome. Come and save me. I am willing to give you half of the treasure - Oh! The Holy Spirit is above! It is coming again."
After Arthur cut through several layers of spider webs, a sharp cry for help came from ahead. The other party seemed to hear him breaking through the spider webs and became louder, but at the same time, there was also a muffled sound of something huge landing on the ground.
The robbers outside didn't notice the dragon flying by at all, and the only clue was the golden dragon claw. But if this guy was caught by a spider, who released the dragon?
Arthur broke through the last layer of spider web, and as expected saw a thin robber tightly bound by the spider web, and the huge frost spider in front of him.
Compared with the ones killed in the bear cave before, this spider was obviously three or four times larger, and it reacted extremely quickly. It turned around and sprayed a puff of venom directly at Arthur, but it missed completely.
Arthur rolled directly, swung his sword and cut off half of the big spider's three legs. Then, while it lost balance, he jumped high and directly inserted the two-handed sword into the spider's head and quickly pulled it out. The spider screamed, green poisonous
Blood sprayed everywhere, but it only hit the leather buckler that Arthur had blocked in front of him in time - it was the one he had brought with him when he raided the bandit camp.
"We should talk now." Arthur used the spider's corrosive blood to melt away the spider web that bound the skinny robber.
"Who will give you the treasure?" As soon as the robber was freed from his shackles, he jumped out of the spider web and ran directly into the depths of the tomb.
"Hey, wait!" Arthur clearly saw that he was holding something that looked like a claw in his hand, and he dropped his shield and followed closely.
Since this robber was called "Swift" by his accomplices, he did run fast enough. He almost got rid of Arthur in the complex tomb, but when he got carried away, he stepped on a floor trap.
, was knocked away by the door mechanism that suddenly bounced over, and hit the wall of the simple tomb hard. He looked at Arthur who was chasing him and backed away, but he didn't notice someone's eyes behind him with blue flames.
The "man" raised his sword high towards him.
choke--
Arthur swung his sword in time and stopped the long sword that was about to cut him in half. Then he saw that it was the mummy of an ancient Nord, waving the long sword it was buried with and trying to attack.
Macul, but his movements were completely out of order. Arthur knocked it down with two swords, and the blue fire in the eyes of the mummy was extinguished.
"Help, help -" Arthur was thinking about how the corpse could be resurrected. The thin robber took the opportunity to sneak away, but almost immediately, he fled back crawling, followed by several swaying bodies.
Among the Nord mummies, there are not only those wielding one-handed swords, but also two-handed axes and bows and arrows.
"What is this? Did you make it?" Although these mummies look scary, they are actually vulnerable. Arthur stepped forward and knocked them down with a few swords. The corpse drawing the bow even fell down with a single impact.
Then he frowned and asked Markul, who was too timid to run any more.
"That's a corpse, a ghoul!" Makur's voice changed its tone: "The dragon returns, the dead awaken, the end of the world——"
"Did you see that dragon? And what's going on at the end of the world?" Arthur had no idea about fragile monsters like ghouls, but he was very interested in another sentence.
"Morning, I saw that huge black dragon in the morning. It passed over the top of the mountain and headed towards the direction of Xueman. But those idiots didn't believe me no matter what I said, so they had to try their luck with the dragon claw -
"He seemed to be afraid that another corpse would appear. He followed Arthur closely and answered all questions: "That is the ancient legend of Nord. When Alduin, the Devourer of Worlds, returned, the dead in the grave
Everyone will wake up, and the world will be destroyed."
The end of the world seems... very familiar, Arthur thought with a frown.
