For a moment, Thales thought Tomdin was about to cry.
In the firelight, his upper and lower lips collided back and forth, the small eyes on his cheekbones blinked mistily, and the greasy hair on his forehead swayed slightly.
But the owner of the caravan took a sharp breath and stabilized his shaky image.
Tomdin curved his cheeks and forced out a most ugly smile.
"All right."
"You know what this reminds me of?"
Tomdin coughed, and the necklace hanging around his neck kept shaking: "In those war-torn years, my great-grandfather once fought under the 'Wise Lord' Mindis III. His Majesty the King told him during the banquet.
:The more difficulties we encounter, the more confidence we gain."
Quick Rope covered his forehead in pain and mouthed "Here we go again". Thales noticed that many people in Dante's sword made similar movements.
But Dean still looked at Tomdin calmly, his face as usual.
"Now, it's time for all of you and us to have more confidence," Tomdin tightened his belt, his protruding belly swaying elastically in the air, as if he thought this would give them
Some confidence:
"Good Dean, dear Dean, you know, I have always admired you, so I think your employment salary can be higher..."
Dean smiled.
"You didn't listen. What we lack is not confidence, but safety. This is not to say that we are driving up prices." Dean smiled politely, as if this was just the most ordinary negotiation: "We can't go any further. God knows what's ahead."
There is something waiting for us."
"The corpses in the camp were so fresh that even the yellow sand didn't have time to bury them. This shows that we are only one step away from the unknown danger. If you ask me, we should have considered turning back yesterday morning."
Tomdin was slightly startled.
"Dean, you promised me that I could come on this trip," the businessman's chest began to rise and fall, and he looked at Dean with wide eyes: "You can't let me return empty-handed and lose money! In that case, I won't even lose your money.
I can’t even afford the commission!”
Kuai Rope's eyes lit up.
"In this case, I suggest you deposit some money with the tavern owner Tampa next time. If you come back empty-handed like this, then he will pay you back... Uh, uh, uh..." But he didn't finish his words.
Kanze, a Northlander on the side, viciously covered his mouth and danced around with tears in his eyes, struggling helplessly.
"Things always change," Dean laughed uncontrollably at Tomdin: "So what you're saying is, compared to that, if we die outside, we don't have to pay the commission?"
Tomdin's face froze and he hesitated to speak.
Finally, he raised his finger and stared at Dean, his eyes full of uneasiness and anxiety as well as anger and anger that was not very well hidden.
"This is also related to your reputation, Dante's great sword!"
The caravan boss seemed to be unable to control his temper anymore, and he was quite angry: "What kind of mercenary and bodyguard are these?"
"I humbly asked you to come out, paid generously, and provided you with delicious food and drinks. I didn't even say anything more when you picked up garbage on the way, wasted resources, and increased the burden on the caravan..."
Tails raised his eyebrows and scratched his head as he picked up some rubbish on the way.
Where is the promised virtuous gentleman?
What about "shouldering responsibilities and being enthusiastic" as promised?
"And after you received the deposit, what you're best at is betraying your employer by betraying your employer halfway?"
"The whole Blade Tooth Dune will know!"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the mercenaries changed.
"Let me tell you, I originally planned to praise you in front of Baron Williams after this trip and try to reduce your taxes and venue rental fees. Now, should I go back and tell the Baron or other colleagues that you
I was so frightened by several corpses that I peed my pants, and I didn’t even have the most basic qualities.”
But Tomdin was interrupted.
"In the desert, you should never question your guide and protector, Fatty," McGee, who was sitting aside, said coldly, with slightly ferocious lines on his face: "You think of the desert too simply, believe me,
You might as well think about the fact that the coffins of those people who sleep forever in the desert are made of yellow sand, free of charge."
Tomdin was slightly startled, and subconsciously shrank back.
"Also, if you are really familiar with Baron Williams, businessman, to the extent that one sentence can determine our fate," the old hammer on the other side said calmly: "Why are you still afraid of going back to Blade Tooth Dunes?
"
Kuai Sheng, who finally broke free from Kanze's clutches, smiled: "Or tell the story about your noble ancestor having a drink with the king, maybe the baron will be surprised and he will diligently compensate you for your losses?"
Tomdin was choked and couldn't speak. He just pointed at McGee and Old Hammer: "You..."
"Okay boys," the silent captain Luisa coughed, raised her hands, and spoke with a smile like a peacemaker: "We don't have to be so stiff, I promise we will have a good way to solve this matter.
Damn it, right?"
She looked at Dean with a smile and winked.
Finally, Dean sighed and touched his bald head.
"Okay then, let's, um, let's find a compromise."
Tomdin seemed to have found a savior and looked at Louisa gratefully.
"Captain Dent! I knew you were reasonable..."
Louisa waved her hand.
"Twenty or thirty miles in a certain direction, we will encounter a remote oasis stronghold that few people know about. There is a small tribe stationed there," Dean said softly, "We know their leader.
, In fact, we are very familiar with each other, we are talking and laughing as brothers, and they should have moved to a nearby place during this season."
Mikey sneered.
"You can trade some goods there, exchange for some desert specialties, replenish water and food, sell at least part of the overstock, and then decide on the next step, how about that?"
Tomdin was slightly startled.
"Wait, the tribe of the Bone Man is nearby?"
Thales was startled when he heard this, and the water bag in his hand trembled.
His surprise was the same as Tomdine's.
Desolate Bone Man?
A familiar face appeared in front of my eyes, and the most impressive thing among them was that person's red eyes.
But Dean didn't let him continue: "If you are worried, Sepp, that tribe... they know the situation nearby well, at least better than us. Ask them, and we will know what the situation is now.
Is there a terrorist killer appearing in the desert or are the sand bandits killing each other out of boredom, and then we decide whether we continue walking or..."
Tomdin waved his hands anxiously: "But those are the Bone Man! Those man-eating bastards...how do you know, how can you guarantee..."
Mikey slowly stood up and walked to him.
"Because that's the tribe I came from," the warrior with his face painted with black lines gently tapped Tomdin's belly: "Don't worry."
Mikey chewed his teeth, his eyes like arrows:
"As a 'man-eating bastard', I will tell them in advance: you can't eat it."
The owner of the caravan turned pale, took a step back in fright, and fell to the ground.
Kuaisheng chuckled.
Thales was stunned.
Barren Bone Man.
Desolate Bone Man?
He looked hard at Mikey, especially into the latter's eyes.
But those are a pair of ordinary brown eyes.
"Desolate bones..."
Tomdin subconsciously looked at the other mercenaries, only to find that they were all looking at him with confused expressions, and couldn't help but tremble slightly.
"nearby?"
"Now, you know why we can come and go freely in the desert," Dean sighed: "This is our biggest secret, sir, we have a Barren Bone Man as our guide."
Tomdin shivered again.
Louisa helped Tomtin up and smiled apologetically at him.
"Then...we will go to that tribe tomorrow..."
A smile instantly appeared on Tomdin's face.
"Ahem, I understand!"
The owner of the caravan chuckled, looking somewhat reluctant: "We will return tomorrow! Tomorrow, tomorrow!"
Before he finished speaking, he crawled on the ground to set up camp, as if there were eight hungry wolves behind his butt.
Dante's swords laughed easily.
Thales sat in the corner, silent.
"But we all know that there is no Desolate Bone Tribe there," Old Hammer helplessly shook his head and patted McGee who sat down again: "And that's the supply point we planned to go to, isn't it."
"That's right." Dean shrugged and pursed his lips at Tomdin's back.
"But he doesn't know."
There was another burst of hearty laughter in the camp.
"The problem is solved. There is no need to worry about searching those corpses anymore. To be honest, there are a few exiles among the dead sand bandits. I even recognized them as people from the Shalalun tribe. Some people have at least two brake marks on their bodies. Shi Dao has won twenty fights, and may even be a guy in the extreme realm," Dean sighed:
"It's hard to imagine what killed them."
Louisa smiled gently at him: "Don't worry, we will return tomorrow."
Thales huddled in the corner silently, looking at the team suspiciously, his eyes passing over McGee from time to time.
Louisa noticed Thales' eyes.
"Don't mind, Huaiya, don't be too surprised, I know what you are thinking," Louisa said thoughtfully: "The desolate bones have green faces and fangs, and they specialize in eating human flesh..."
Everyone's eyes turned around, making Thales immediately feel embarrassed.
Old Hammer even started laughing.
The female captain shook her head: "First of all, the so-called Desolate Bone Tribe does not exist, and we are not going to visit any tribe."
Kuaisheng showed his big white teeth: "Just kidding."
Thales reluctantly twitched the corner of his mouth.
He cleared his throat and thought he should say something: "Okay, of course, but you just said, Mikey..."
Louisa smiled and said: "Yes, Mikey is a Bone Man. Have you seen the lines on his face? Those are war marks, one of the proofs of the Bone Man. Obviously, he does not eat people, and the Bone Man does not No……"
"No, not all," Mikey snorted, seeming to be rather disdainful, with a cold look:
"It's just that my tribe doesn't eat people."
Thales was stunned again.
"Fuck you, Mikey," Old Hammer grunted and took a bite of food:
"Every sentence is like telling a ghost story."
Thales still felt a little embarrassed, after all, he was in someone else's camp, but Louisa's smile made him feel relieved, but Dean stared at him thoughtfully, which made the prince quite uneasy.
He turned to the fast rope.
"So, what I heard..."
"Oh, forget what you heard," Old Hammer sighed and swallowed his food: "Crazy, violent, people cannibalizing people... People outside the desert always describe this place as you know, some people are too lazy to distinguish, There was no way to distinguish between them, so we just made haste, spread rumors, and lumped all human beings who were forced or voluntarily living in the desert into desolate bones, and even included foreign sand bandits and thugs."
Thales' brows rose and fell as he heard this.
"Of course, I doubt if any of them have ever seen the truly difficult and terrifying kind of Barren Skeleton Man."
Old Hammer hummed softly: "Even in the desert war, the real Desolate Bone Man is not something you can see just because you want to see it."
Dean spoke, and his calm voice made everyone slowly quiet down and listen to him.
"I know your confusion, Huai Ya, and I also know how rumors about the Bone Man are spread outside, but you don't have to be afraid that the desert is huge, and the Bone Man is not a simple and clear race," the bald mercenary said politely.
McGee said: "Their history is probably not much shorter than that of the desert, and their species are not much less diverse than the animals in the desert."
"Some tribes are vigilant and xenophobic, some are willing to entertain guests, some are cruel and warlike, some are friendly and peaceful, some are sparsely populated, and some are so powerful that they dare to compete with orcs, and even go to the two major
If you look at the scenery at the borders of powerful countries, they are all very different, that’s how it is.”
Thales nodded with understanding.
"But I heard that all the Desolate Bones people...all have red eyes?"
At that moment, Mikey raised his head with cold eyes.
"red?"
Facing the other party's unkind eyes, Thales' heart moved.
Did he say the wrong thing?
"Many soldiers heard this too," Dean said with a smile, "Obviously, they have never encountered real Bone Man or not encountered many of them."
But this time, McGee interrupted.
"No, red-eyed skeletons do exist."
The Desolate Skeleton Man raised his head, the black lines on his face looming in the firelight, and faced Thales: "Have you seen it?"
The tone is aggressive.
Thales scratched his head.
"I've met... I've met people who have heard of them," Thales hesitated for a moment: "Just like you."
Mikey looked at Thales without moving his eyes for a long time.
"Only a small number of Desolate Bones people have eyes like that," he said slowly, and even the other mercenaries were listening to him carefully: "They are the descendants of the ancestors. In your words, they are probably the descendants of the Desolate Bones.
of nobility.”
The quick rope appeared again: "Are you sure you're not an albino?"
Old Hammer slapped him from behind, causing Kuaisheng to scream.
"Descendant of the ancestor?" Thales ignored the fast rope and asked doubtfully.
Mikey narrowed his eyes and answered his doubts: "Red Eyes... It is said that they are the origin of the Desolate Bones. They are the bloodline left by the first generation of Desolate Bones who settled in the desert. They will receive preferential treatment no matter which tribe they belong to. They are born with
Tribal sacrifice.”
Therefore, Thales frowned slightly in his heart: The secret cadre with red eyes, Raphael Lindbergh... is the so-called "descendant of the ancestor"?
The origin of the Bone Man?
Quick Rope stepped in at this moment: "But what I heard is that those red eyes are proof that the Bone Man made a deal with the devil?"
Mikey frowned.
"Devil?" Thales was surprised again.
"Yes, I heard what the old sailor said about the demons living underground." Kuaisheng raised his hands and said ferociously: "Evil, terrifying, insidious, and chaotic demons are always thinking about them.
Come and cause trouble on the ground.”
Quick Rope said: "According to legend, the Desolate Bones were a race abandoned by God, so they made a deal with the devil in hell, the enemy of God, and became the devil's servants on earth. They gained the power to stay in the land of death and became the great giants.
The most frightening existence in the desert next to the orcs... So, Huaiya, this world is very dangerous. As the saying goes, fate is impermanent. We must use appropriate methods to cherish our lives and make them valuable.
Value, for example..."
Thales curled up the corners of his mouth in embarrassment, knowing what the other person was going to say.
Fortunately, before the fast rope could continue, Old Hammer slapped his face into the sand with his words.
"Come on, the rumors stop with the wise. Almost all the Barren Skeletons worship the Desert God. They even built sacred altars and influenced a large number of outsiders. They have nothing to do with the devil.
Just ask Mikey." Old Hammer said silently.
McGee shrugged.
Kuaisheng raised his head unconvinced and spat out a mouthful of sand: "How do you know? Have you seen it?"
"how could I know?"
Old Hammer put down the food and smiled: "Didn't I tell you, I am a star person. I was born in the Western Wilderness Territory, right in the Heroic Soul Castle."
"So, I have indeed seen it, and I have seen a lot of it."
Thales raised his eyebrows. It had been too long since he had heard these familiar names of stars and places.
"When I was young, I was a soldier of the Falkenhaus family. During the Year of Blood, I was recruited to guard the Blade Tooth Sand Dunes. During the Desert War, I also followed the king's army into the desert and fought in the Battle of the Altar.
"Hey, that was a great battle," Old Hammer showed a nostalgic look: "But since then, I have discovered that I can only swing a hammer, but I can't support my family with just farming and the meager rewards from recruiting soldiers. I think
I used to enlist in the royal family's standing army, and I heard that their salaries were higher."
Quick Rope blinked in surprise.
Thales also looked at her blankly.
This bearded uncle... is actually a veteran of the stars...
"But fate played a trick on me. In the end, I came to work as a mercenary."
The old hammer turned his head and smiled: "Then he became brothers with a desolate skeleton man."
"I'm not familiar with you." Mikey beside him replied abruptly.
"Who said that!" Old Hammer laughed loudly, hugged McGee fiercely, strangled his neck with his elbow, and shook him back and forth: "I am the benefactor who saved your life!"
"Damn it... let go!" Mikey looked ugly, as if he had eaten shit, but he was not angry or having an attack, he was just struggling for life.
"But, he can't save your life every time," Kuaisheng sighed and spread his hands to pretend to be helpless: "So I suggest, Mikey, you might as well deposit some money to the tavern owner... Wow...
"
This time, without anyone reminding him, Kanze, a Northlander, pushed the fast rope's head into the sand.
"Sorry," the leader of the team, Louisa, pressed her head helplessly, pretending not to see the mercenaries fighting, and smiled sheepishly at Thales: "This is our daily life, you know, they
I’m usually under too much pressure.”
Thales looked at the group of friendly mercenaries in stunned silence.
The atmosphere of this team suddenly made him feel very novel.
This is the most harmonious team he has ever seen: the beggars in the abandoned house can only tremble in helplessness, the private soldiers in Mindis Hall can only obey coldly, and Nicolai's white-knife guards are all iron-blooded.
Brotherhood, and no matter Gilbert, Yodel, Jini or Putilai, there is always an unspeakable sense of alienation between them.
To talk about the closest thing, well... Thales thought of Ada, Wyatt and Rolf, and suddenly felt that their relationship was quite similar to the people in front of him.
Kuaisheng spat out the sand in his mouth for the second time and gritted his teeth: "Bah, I thought... Um, maybe, maybe Desert God is originally a demon in hell?"
"Be careful," said McGee, who broke away from Old Hammer's arms with a cold look on his face: "In the desert, many people die from heat and hunger and thirst, but more people die from lack of awe and excessive arrogance."
Quick Rope winked at Thales and made a "Here we go again" look.
Old Hammer smiled: "Come on, Quick Rope, stop spreading hearsay rumors. A bard passing by the washout once swore to me: There is a giant dragon in the desert, nicknamed 'Warm Heart'
Girl! Giant dragon, do you believe it? Those legendary things that are meant to deceive children are still 'heartwarming'..."
Kuaisheng's expression changed.
"But dragons are not legends," Thales joined the discussion in a low voice: "It is said that Exeter was founded by a dragon, and the noble rulers of Longxiao City are still proud of it."
"Yes!" Kuai Sheng found supporters, his morale increased greatly, and he vowed: "There are people from the north in the tavern. I heard from them that five or six years ago, a giant dragon came to Exeter.
Xiaocheng, fighting against the legendary disaster..."
Thales coughed slightly, lowered his head and concentrated on his water bag.
"Disaster? Do you still believe this?" Old Hammer smiled happily: "Are you sure you didn't meet the priests of Mingye Temple? Those nagging drama queens?"
"Ha, a group of drunken Northlanders. You know their moral character. After drinking a few glasses of horse urine, they started talking nonsense. Who knows whether they saw a giant dragon or a mammoth with wings? Maybe it was just to
Cover up the death of the king and make up some legends..."
"Hey!" This time, the big man Kanze, who had been silent all this time, raised his hand dissatisfied: "Don't forget there are people from the North here!"
"Hammer, be somewhat awe-stricken about things you don't understand." Dean, who was sitting aside, looked at the chatter of his companions and just smiled alone, like a father watching his children playing: "We are still in the desert.
, maybe I’m not lucky enough to meet that ‘warm-hearted girl’ tomorrow?”
"Then I'll fuck her," Old Hammer shrugged: "My dream since childhood is to become a dragon knight!"
Louisa snorted contemptuously: "Before that, finish your food Dragon Knight! And Mikey, and you, Quick Rope, don't think that a rookie can be lazy, and then go outside to follow the breeze, the fire is still
There are Haken, Pangjia and others taking turns!”
"Hey, what about Dean? He also has to work shifts!" Quick Rope raised his hands in protest: "Why don't you rush him?"
Dean shrugged.
Louisa smiled mysteriously.
Seeing the captain's smile, Kuaisheng felt a little panicked.
"As for Dean, he has already had a hard day today, whether he was checking around or negotiating," Louisa said gently: "So, dear Quick Rope, you sleep less today and take his turn."
The fast rope wailed, the mercenaries laughed, and the air inside and outside the camp was suddenly filled with joy.
Thales took a bite of food and silently watched their interaction, suddenly feeling a sense of quiet comfort in his heart.
This is a mercenary.
It looks... not bad?
At this moment, he suddenly noticed a pair of eyes falling on him. Thales thought it was Mikey who was quite unfriendly to him, but he was wrong.
Not a barren man.
It's Dean.
The bald mercenary looked at him silently, and looked at Thales who was eating his meal strangely.