"Chief, are you sure it's okay to go in like this?"
Valere, who had a thick beard, tried to control his tone to make his words less offensive.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Colin's judgment, but when faced with corpses shrouded in fog and with deformed corpses everywhere, it was really hard for him to believe that no more preparations were needed.
"No problem." Chief Colin answered briefly while facing the gray fog that covered the entire city-state. On the contrary, Derrick on the side looked troubled and answered Valier's question half nervously and half pioneeringly.
"As long as you don't scatter your exploration, be careful about monsters in the dark, don't touch those ruins, and don't easily believe in the ambiguous things in front of you, there shouldn't be any problems."
After hearing Derrick's words, everyone in Valier looked at each other and instinctively wanted to refute.
Not trusting what you see, not touching what you shouldn't touch, and being careful of the hidden darkness. It's not that they have never been exposed to these, but with all the various elements concentrated in one city-state, it is not a rational decision to continue exploring.
However, considering the authority that the chief had accumulated and the fact that another elder in the team did not express any objection, Valier and other ordinary members who knew nothing about the true meaning of this exploration had no choice but to give up, set up a formation, and follow Colin almost
At the same time, we stepped into an abandoned city-state.
The thick gray fog disappeared in an instant, and the creeping monster in the darkness slowly raised its head. The yellowed bones were still scattered on the surface, attracting everyone's attention.
Lovia opened her eyes for the first time.
She had remained silent since the disagreement between the exploration team just now, and just listened attentively to the sounds that were everywhere.
But now, besides the whispering voice of the great Creator, she caught a trace of unnoticeable restlessness.
While walking, Lovia looked around and saw that other companions were not aware of it. Even Colin did not notice that the sound was getting closer, and she moved forward almost blindly.
As the eighth sequence of the "Hanged Man" path, "The Listener" is always a sequence criticized by other churches and faiths.
This sequence is like the "cold-blooded one" of the "demon", which can forcibly change the minds of extraordinary people at a low sequence. This feature is so conspicuous that many people always forget it when talking about "listeners".
its own capabilities.
Listening is not only the enhancement of physical hearing, nor is it just listening to the ravings of great beings during acting, it is also the sensitivity to the sounds of mysticism. When trapped by illusions, powerful "listeners" can always find a breakthrough from the sounds.
, a violation was found.
The gray eyes were suddenly stained with blood, and Lovia was dazzled for a while. She felt that her vision and hearing were almost separated, and they were transmitting two completely different signals to the brain at the same time.
Visually, under the leadership of Colin, they were slowly approaching the hazy lighthouse hidden behind the fog; auditorily, the creepy noise was extremely close, and the sound of shadows and body movements made Lovia feel upset for a while.
.
"Stop."
The elder who didn't like to talk suddenly spoke up, startling the companions in front of him to look sideways.
I saw a huge silver armor rising from her body, and the blood-red spirit quickly filled the gaps in the armor, transforming into a huge knight, and slashed to the side without warning.
The silver giant sword fell to the ground boldly. Colin, who had a dark green symbol imprinted on the hole, looked stunned. Then he inserted the long sword into the ground and set off a storm. The light of morning shattered, and pieces of almost substantial fragments were swept down by the storm.
When the invisible thing was shattered, flesh and blood flew everywhere.
The other members of the Silver City exploration team reacted almost instantly and used their own methods to fill the gap left by the two elders' attacks.
These attacks were like stones sinking into the water. Although they could not cause any substantial impact, the ripples they caused briefly shattered the illusion. The scene of silent decay was revealed behind the scenes, and the monsters whose figures were glimpsed fled one after another.
Returning to the shadow, before Colin could see clearly, countless black threads intertwined with illusion and reality were hanging from the sky. Some of them hooked the fleeing monsters, some pulled the ripples, and some stretched towards Colin and others.
Seeing the black thread getting closer and closer, Colin calmly took out his pocket watch. The semicircular smooth white buckle covered the ground where the exploration team was standing. The black thread coming from high altitude made him dizzy for a moment, even though
The spirit threads of everyone in the team were right in front of them, but they could not reach the target. They could only helplessly twist and wander around, and finally returned to the place of origin angrily at the moment when the ripples were completely closed.
This was not an illusion. The frowning Colin did see traces of emotions in the movements of those threads. And it was not just him. Lovia, who believed more in hearing at this time, also frowned slightly and hesitantly covered her chest with her palms.
.
"Is this an illusion?" Another member of the team, Joshua, who was wearing blood-red gloves, pinched himself hard, took out a short knife, and made a cut on his forearm.
But other than the blood gushing out, which only added a bit of fishy smell to the air, there were no other changes.
"It seems that as long as we are in the illusion, we will not be harmed by monsters..." Valier said uncertainly, trying to get the approval of others.
Colin's frown relaxed a little, and his eyes fixed on the place where the ripples appeared just now moved away and looked at the silent Lovia.
"The sound is much quieter, and the monsters are far away from here..." Lovia's slightly hoarse voice hesitated, "It is also possible that they are controlled by the thread of the spirit body and cannot make a sound."
"Spirit thread?" Joshua repeated the unfamiliar words, and his hand stopped applying medicine to the scratches on his forearm.
Colin nodded slowly and explained at the same time:
"This is an ability mastered by the 'divineer' path. Powerful illusions are also a major feature of the high-sequence 'divineer'."
"But these powers may have been combined with the dark environment and mutated. At least I didn't notice it before the monster approached."
Lovia thought for a moment and added:
"It's possible."
Those illusions are indeed well integrated with the nearby darkness, and there are almost no flaws except for hearing.
Colin, who was holding a pocket watch in his hand, looked at his companions who were on alert and discussing in low voices. His eyes moved into the air, towards the bell tower behind the fog.
Different from the previous attempts, the bright starlight did not appear again on the bell tower this time, and even if the pocket watch left by Amon was exposed, it did not cause any changes.
The previous inference was correct. The city gang was divided into two parts. Although the sealed artifact that existed secretly had the power to touch the remaining parts of the city-state, it was difficult to react as violently to the other half.
Colin was calculating the gains and losses. He didn't even realize that the left hand holding the pocket watch was tightened to the limit, and the joints turned white.
"Keep exploring."
...
In the "White Oak" bar where local adventurers and pirates gather in Bayam.
Daniz finally got a chance to take a breather and sipped his beer, but he didn't dare to drink more. He had to carefully wipe off the alcohol stuck to his fake beard to avoid losing his disguise.
Different from the past, with Gehrman's strong assistance, he has become the most wanted target of the Church of Storms and the Byam Colonial Government, second only to several pirate generals.
Damn madman, if he hadn't insisted on asking me to report something to the Church of Storms, why would I have needed to go out for a drink and spend more than half an hour pretending?
Within a week, his bounty has increased from 3,000 pounds to 4,500 pounds, but the order has remained the same. Now I don’t know who is the punishment of the Church of Storms. Even other powerful pirates will be very hungry when they see him.
The dog saw the meat and wanted to eat it alive.
If you think about it carefully, since you followed this madman named Hermann, the only benefits you have gained are sharing the reward of 500 pounds, and knowing the whereabouts of the main material for the next sequence of "The Arsonist".
Hermann slaughtered an entire team of "hunters" in Banxi, including many "conspirators"!
I just don’t know if that guy will sell it to me... Daniz looked at the bathroom of the bar and saw that Herman hadn’t come out yet. He lowered his head again and calculated how many houses he needed to sell.
Collect enough money for the main materials.
Of course, this famous pirate did some calculations and finally came to the conclusion that selling his head was the fastest way to raise money.
"No one came just now."
Klein, with a grim look on his face, sat across from Daniz. Listening to the well-known pirate's dutiful report, he looked around unabashedly.
"Lucien Novi is here?"
"Of course not..." Daniz caught a glimpse of the cold light in Klein's eyes and hurriedly explained, "I mean, of course I don't know about a little person like him, but from the place you described, there are also nearby
According to pirate rumors, female pirates who are good at using plants often visit this bar recently."
"You know, although there are many extraordinary people on the sea, they are still a minority. Sequence Seven who are good at fighting can serve as captains on ordinary pirate ships. Thinking about it this way, it is not incomprehensible that that woman often comes here without deliberately concealing her characteristics.
"
I remember you are also Sequence Seven... Klein glanced at Daniz, knowing that his strength should not be regarded as a general knowledge, he tapped his fingers and looked in the direction of the bar.
"Who's the boss here?"
"What?" Daniz couldn't keep up with the other person's train of thought and couldn't help but be stunned.
Seeing no response, Klein simply stood up and walked straight to the bar. He managed to pass between several pirates who were talking and squeezed past the strong man who was buying drinks. His reckless behavior had already attracted a lot of attention.
The person looked towards the bar.
Feeling the gaze behind him, Klein slowly raised the corner of his mouth. He looked at the bartender with his palm trying to touch the bottom of the table. He took a step forward, grabbed the other person's wrist in advance, and clasped it on the bartender's head.
It was smashed down at once.
boom!
The noisy bar suddenly became quiet.
The sound of the bartender's head hitting the table violently shook the entire bar, and many guests squatted down as a reflex, showing their great experience.
When they discovered that there were no gunshots or fireballs flying around, they tentatively poked their heads out from under the table. They only paused for a second, and the shouts of people who were just watching the excitement resounded throughout the bar.
The pirates and adventurers cheered, expecting more intense conflicts to break out.
"Kill him!" He was already drunk.
"Hold that bastard down or he'll run away!" This was the bar owner's extremely angry shout.
"Madman, definitely a madman..." This is Danitz - he is not afraid that Gehrman Sparrow will fall here, but he is worried that in the panic, his true face will be exposed, attracting the punisher,
It ruined the captain's life.
In the midst of all the commotion, Klein looked coldly at the sullen boss on the second floor of the bar. He gently touched the palm of his hand covering the bartender's face, and the bruises on the unconscious bartender's cheeks quietly disappeared, while his legs became red and swollen.
The adventurer dressed in black walked towards the second floor step by step. His calm and calm steps and the maliciousness he inadvertently released shocked everyone around him. The whole bar quickly became quiet again, watching in silence as the adventurer stepped over a group of people with incontinence.
The bar bouncer, ignoring the gun pointed at him, walked up to the boss who had already been unable to move.
He glanced at the two strong men beside the boss, and the platinum-gold light suffused the two children. Just looking at them made the two men nearly two meters tall faint and fall to the ground.
"Are you the boss here?"
"Yes..." The bar owner held the table behind his hands, his trembling legs and feet shaking like noodles.
"Do you know this guy?"
A sketch was placed in front of the boss. For a moment, the boss seemed to have returned to the night when he was threatened by the female pirate on the paper. While he was angry about his bad luck, he was also so frightened that he could hardly take care of himself. His trembling lips could not say a word.
Words come.
It seemed that he had gone too far... Klein resisted the urge to sigh, "Creep Hungry" closed the open mouth in his palm, and the shadow of the cane clenched in his right hand faded away.
"Do you know this person?" he asked again.
"I know, I know!" the boss shouted, feeling the pressure on his shoulders lessen slightly, and his forehead was wet with cold sweat.
He seized the opportunity and told almost everything he knew. He ignored the frightened pirates and adventurers in the bar. The more he talked, the more his reason suppressed by fear returned, and he realized what he had done.
Something happened, and the hands and feet that were struggling to support him instantly lost their last bit of strength and collapsed.
It's over, that woman will definitely kill me, she can definitely do it...Suddenly, the boss looked up, met the cold eyes of the strange adventurer in front of him, and slowly opened his mouth to the limit.
"Which pirate here has killed anyone?"
The cold-faced adventurer suddenly asked an incomprehensible question, which made the empty-minded boss freeze in place like a statue.
What pirate has never killed someone?
Faced with this question that was almost nonsense, the boss somehow squeezed out some energy, hesitated for a while, and pointed a trembling finger at a pirate with whom he usually had a bad relationship and who did not possess any strange abilities.
The pirate who was pointed out was instantly furious, but in an instant an indescribable terror locked onto him.
At the last moment of his life, he only remembered that he was stared at by a pair of warm brown eyes, and then the boiling shadows and the illusory mouth pulled out his muscles, bones, flesh and blood. The wave of shadows faded away, leaving only a puddle of mud on the floor.
Like rotten meat.
A wide range of illusions covered all this, and the satisfied "creeping hunger" was no longer unbridled. Klein also seized this opportunity, grabbed Daniz's collar, and disappeared through the door of the bar.
When everyone in the bar came to their senses, they saw red, white, and yellow mixed meat all over the floor, and the nearest pirates vomited.