"Magic?" When people say words that they are not familiar with but whose underlying meaning they have only heard of, they often sound mysterious, like an old woman on the street trying to sell you a magical crystal that can detect your destiny. .
When spoken by a professional, it is just a single word in an entire paragraph.
"Yes, everything in the world must have magic power flowing in it. You human magicians are individuals with naturally abundant magic power in their bodies. After hard training, they have learned to use the magic power in their bodies to mobilize elements and produce natural phenomena." Horno used She said this in a rather fast tone. Although she tried hard to speak plainly, it was still confusing to most mercenaries and knights.
"Human magicians believe that only animals are affected by magic. This is a misconception caused by ignorance." She said this without any scruples. Although she did not mean this, she mocked all human magicians for being the same. fact. But even if there is indeed a human magician in the team at this moment, he can only swallow his dissatisfaction in his heart. After all, the magic of elves and humans are almost on two levels.
"Magic power exists everywhere in the world, and sometimes it appears in the form of crystals due to the operation of natural forces." Orno paused, and the firelight after the meal flickered to illuminate her serious little face: "This kind of crystallization , you humans call it magic crystal, and the magic crystal that exists in a large area is called magic crystal mine."
"If the magic crystal mine exists in the shallower layer of the earth's surface, just below the soil layer -" She turned back, and everyone followed Horno's movements and looked at the tall swaying weeds.
"If the roots of plants are directly exposed to soil contaminated by excessive amounts of magic crystal minerals, they will become necrotic as if they were over-fertilized. But the plants that survive will change." Horno said, and Mira's eyes suddenly lit up. A moment: "Then the beast that ate these plants"
"Yes." Horno nodded: "Beasts are instinctively attracted by magic. There is a certain kind of beast in an area that after eating the affected plants, its body will undergo certain changes due to the influence of magic."
"This change was subtle at first, and when they instinctively realized that they were becoming faster and stronger, they made their offspring develop the habit of eating this plant. Over time, over many generations, they were gradually affected by the magic. After the influence, a monster born with abundant magic power that can instinctively cause magical phenomena was born."
"Well, if we eat these, will we become magicians--" Experience and knowledge are different, and what we think about is different. Another lower-level mercenary next to Moreau looked greedily at the remaining people around him. That food. Obviously, for people like them who have reached middle age but have not yet made a name for themselves, life-changing accidental treasure hunting like this is what they really care about.
"Impossible." Horno denied directly.
"The amount of magic power obtained by eating plants affected by magic power is very small. Measured in human time, even if 30 human years persist in eating every day, the magic power pool that will be changed will be different if a person has no talent at the beginning. , it has only become enough to release a human illumination technique."
"This is used to change the bloodline and genes of an entire family. It will take at least several human centuries." She said.
The elves' emotional indifference and lack of understanding of human society were fully revealed at this moment. This matter should have remained a secret forever, because according to Horno, there are obviously magic crystal mines underground in this area, whether it is to dig the magic crystal mine or plant more plants on it and then By eating them to change the genes of the entire family, this place will obviously become a treasure land that only powerful people are qualified to fight for.
And now all the more than 40 people in this team share this secret.
Uncle Mario shuddered, realizing that knowing this might not be a good thing. The more short-sighted mercenaries are still thinking about how to enrich their own pockets and obtain as many plants here as possible. They have even begun to think about whether the weeds here can enter spirits. Their attainments in magic far exceed that of human magicians. They have already It does not stay at the level of "how to use", or even exceeds "how to use efficiently", but has entered the research level of "analyzing causes".
Therefore, the knowledge that came out of Horno's mouth, which she took as a matter of course, was extremely valuable information to the entire team.
But it is precisely because of this that a seasoned businessman like Uncle Mario feels that one is bigger than the other.
Because there are still about thirty nobles in the team.
Be powerful, occupy the divided territory, establish a family, and use the resources of the place for your own use. When nobles like Constantine heard this, they must have had such a plan in mind.
In order for this plan to proceed smoothly and for the resources to be prevented from being acquired by larger and more powerful nobles and smoothly fall into one's own hands, it is of course best to keep this information and knowledge within one's own core circle of interests.
Uncle Mario looked to the side.
Most of the more than thirty nobles are lower-level knights. They are subordinates of Constantine, the knight commander, and his loyal people.
Miss Margaret is his relative and sister, and Filippo and Ferruccio are also related to them.
So these nobles all belong to one group, while his own businessmen and mercenaries including Henry and Mira belong to another group.
Not on their team, not their business. This sounds very free and like having many choices, but since people are wandering in society, sometimes they have no choice but to choose which side to stand on.
If you don't become one of them, how can you ensure that you won't sell this information to other nobles and increase their competition?
The Lamanites had as many idioms related to keeping secrets as they had secrets.
Sayings such as "The best way to get three people to keep a secret is to kill two of them." and "An arrow through the heart is better than ten thousand taels of gold." all reveal how important sharing a secret is. Danger.
Although they are still in the wilderness and under threat, once these things are over, they may be forced to choose a side.
"With me, or with coffins and maggots?"
A passage of words caused many people in the team to start thinking wildly. Horno obviously did not realize that this would happen. Although the elf was indifferent, she was not slow. She noticed the change in the attitudes of these people but did not know what to do.
Only Henry still stayed on the same level as her. The sage spoke slowly, and pointed out the key points with a sudden burst of blood: "What you want to say is that there may be monsters nearby, right?"
"——" A simple word drew everyone's attention back.
The city of Katigali was abandoned more than two thousand years ago. Such a long time was enough for the local beasts to transform into monsters.
"Ipaximo Enstariye, Zaloxion." Constantine sighed, and Henry on the side raised his eyebrows and translated his sentence into modern Lamani: "Just out of the tiger's mouth, and again Into the wolf's den."
"Alas -" Everyone nodded in agreement.
"But, it could also be a harmless monster, right?" Among the melancholy, only the white-haired Luoan girl said this.
The air suddenly became silent, Henry looked at her calmly, and Constantine looked at Mira with a little surprise. Margaret next to her was stunned for a moment, then lowered her head and began to think deeply.
"It would be great, Ms. Mercenary, it would be great if it was." Uncle Mario sighed. To survive the fierce natural competition and transform into a monster, even a simple herbivore must have a ferocious temperament. .
Her thoughts sounded quite naive, not at all like those of an adventurer who had experienced many things.
But it is precisely because of this that it becomes so precious.
Anyone can do this out of ignorance and embrace happiness and hope for everything. But as time goes by, many people will lose this mentality in the end, because the reality does not allow them to have expectations.
If life is not beautiful and it may not get better, holding on to the expectation that everything will get better will only make your fall worse.
Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, those who always smile and always hold hope are often successful people who have a smooth life and have never encountered any setbacks. This type of people often behave very badly when they encounter setbacks and things that go against their expectations. Compared with people who have a rough life, they are more fragile and prone to collapse in the face of pressure.
Is her life smooth sailing?
The answer is obviously no.
Born in the exile era after the fall of the Roan Kingdom, he suffered criticism and discrimination, and finally lost his parents because of these things. From the beginning, Mira's life had nothing to do with positive words such as smoothness and beauty. Even after meeting Henry, she lived a rough life and even had to cut off her long hair for the convenience of fighting. Because holding the sword also has a hard callus, it is very different from the aristocratic girls of the same age.
She is indeed living a better life now, and she does have power that she could not even imagine before, but this is not because of Lao Shenzi's extraordinary luck, but purely because of the girl's down-to-earth hard work.
Even if life is hard, you will never give up and never forget the taste of hope.
Her heart is pure white.
It is not because the fragile "blank" of knowing nothing about everything in the world will be polluted by what we experience later and turn into other colors of white.
Mira's white face is like light, just like her eyes that are always shining with brilliance. It is an extremely incandescent light and a strong personal existence. No matter what she experiences, it will only be dyed by herself. into your own color.
A heart that radiates its own brilliance firmly, and always sticks to who you are no matter what the situation is.
This girl, who is already over 1.7 meters tall and looks a little too slender, although her appearance is completely different, inside she is still exactly the same as the petite Luo An Loli from the beginning.
She is who she is and no one else.
At first, Henry became interested in disturbing things because of some familiar things, but later on he was really attracted to him, so much so that he decided to accept this disciple because of Mira's ego, not anyone else. influence on anyone.
This is the reason why the sage chose to partner with her, and why she was able to overcome the dream caused by the witch.
There are three ways to escape from the dream. Henry did not integrate from the beginning, Constantine resisted with extreme means, and Mira finished the entire dream.
It's over, the dream that was supposed to last forever under the control of magic.
Constantine, Margaret and Horno, who had their own thoughts, looked at Henry and Mira, but in the end they couldn't say anything.
The originally cheerful dinner ended in a dull atmosphere after learning about the new threat.
The lush weeds make the field of vision narrow, but for experienced adventurers, the method of vigilance never stops at sight. The merchants took out some leather bells that were supposed to be commodities from the pile of goods, and tied them with ropes to the lower half of the weeds that were more than one person tall.
Although it is at the edge of the forest, the wind here is not very strong due to the season. When it blows, it can only shake the upper half of the weeds, while the lower half requires more force to stir.
As soon as anyone or anything tried to get close to their camp, the bell would ring, and the night watchers would quickly wake everyone else up. Weapons and armor were placed beside them, and they were prepared for any response before they began to recover from the fatigue caused by the long journey.
Eat and drink well, and have a dreamless night.
For all the things that city residents take for granted, the group only felt that the last time they had such a comfortable and refreshing feeling was as far away as they had experienced in their previous life.
No matter what, they finally spent a peaceful night. Perhaps it was also a legacy of the ancient Mobigas. Several horses were left nearby. When they woke up in the morning, they found that they were missing. After searching, they found that they had found edible horse grass nearby. At this time, It can be regarded as solving the supply problem on another level.
Although the situation should be considered an emergency, leaving these horses and any more food that may be around and continuing on is likely to be something you will regret later.
So everyone spent the whole morning and noon on guard, clearing the way, and looking for food. However, luck seemed not to come to them this time. In the end, they only found a few potato plants, and two of them were... poisonous. After picking off the leaves and rubbing them on the skin, you will feel itching and pain after a while. The rhizome below needs to be soaked in stream water for a long time before it can be treated.
Neither time nor resources are sufficient.
The fresh water stored is only enough for more than 40 people to drink for two days. Not to mention long-term soaking and cleaning, there is not even enough for washing. So they just threw away all the poisonous potatoes.
After another short period of trekking, at around 3:00 in the afternoon, the forward mercenaries split open the last bush, and suddenly the view suddenly opened up.
"This is really unique." Horno sighed softly, and the other two women also raised their heads and looked at the ancient city of Katigali shining in the sun.
After two thousand years, it should have disappeared long ago according to common sense. However, despite being covered with a large number of green plants, Katigali has even maintained its appearance relatively intact.
"The moss and vines spreading on the surface of the city-state have become quite strong due to the effect of magic. It is like a net that surrounds the entire city-state and maintains the overall structure." After a little observation, Horno said came to this conclusion.
The elves are naturally attracted to the natural landscape, but the knights, mercenaries and other human members focus on something completely different from her.
"It's the traces of battle." Henry dismounted and looked at the entire area. You can easily judge the signs of biological activity here, because the vegetation here is much shorter than that on the Baka Ancient Trail. , if viewed from above, the ground near Katigali City will look as obvious as the bald head of a middle-aged man.
It is obviously the result of some creature occupying this place as its home base and often moving around nearby.
Based on Horno's speculation, they obviously broke into the territory of a magical beast.
However, there was silence all around. The reason could not be related to the black bodily fluids of the ghouls that everyone on the ground was already familiar with.
"Be ready for battle."
"Damn it, I forgot that besides the undead, there are also these fast-running ghosts around here."
