Late at night, Victor and his party were "escorted" by several guards back to the rental house. Maddie used the key to open the copper lock, pushed the door open and walked into the square living room. Immediately afterwards, Victor took Ruth and Jessica into the house. Harvey was last. He first glanced back at several Water Snake Town guards standing not far away, and then slammed the wooden door shut, making a "clang" sound in the quiet street.
No one likes to be under surveillance. Harvey came to the window and found that the guards were still guarding the rental house. He said angrily: "What does the death of the mayor have to do with us? These idiots don't catch that Ethaniel, but they stare at us!"
Maddie picked up the flint and lit the candle on the table, letting the light illuminate the living room, and said without looking back: "I think the mayor was killed, and the white-haired boy is also suspected... He, Butler Iseniel, and the mayor Mrs. Christine may be an accomplice. Because he behaved so strangely, it seemed that he deliberately kept all the party guests in the small garden and prevented us from going to Mayor Middleton... I noticed that when Rhine appeared, the mayor The chief butler, Ethaniel, was just about to leave. Rhine stared at Ethaniel’s back... If this is not a coincidence, Rhine should know Ethaniel, but they did not greet each other and pretended to be strangers. "
"Also, Rhine first used the information about the wolf girl to seduce everyone's appetite and stop those guests who wanted to leave. Then, he molested the mayor's beautiful slave girl in front of everyone to divert others' attention. As a result, He didn’t reveal the information about the Wolf Shepherd Girl at all, and Mayor Middleton died..."
"Someone has come in." Victor suddenly interrupted Maddie who was talking.
Maddie followed Victor's gaze and moved her gaze to the closet against the wall. She walked over with a candle and found a clear palm print on the surface of the closet.
The palm print is slender and small, looking like a child's left hand print. McGrady made vague gestures with his left hand, and his expression gradually became weird.
Based on his rich scouting experience, he estimated that the owner of the fingerprint was 1.3 meters tall and about 10 years old. However, the location of the fingerprint was only one meter away from the stone tile floor. The owner of the fingerprint should have been holding the closet with his left hand while keeping a distance between the body and the closet.
If he (she) wants to take something in the closet, he or she can just take it from a height of about one meter. There is no need to hold the closet with his left hand and leave his or her fingerprints.
In other words, the thief deliberately pressed his left palm print on the closet?
Harvey also walked to the closet, lowering his head to look for footprints or something on the ground. Victor crossed his legs, sat on the chair and said, "Don't look for it. Apart from that fingerprint, the thief left no other traces in the living room."
Maddie thought for a while, activated the secret blood ability of the dark hunter, gained a keen sense comparable to that of a beast, and smelled a familiar scent on the handprint.
This extraordinary ability is the difference between professionals and ordinary half-elves.
Maddie turned her head and said in surprise: "It seems to be Stephanie, the tailor's assistant... I also thought about accepting her as a disciple, but she is actually a thief?"
Harvey said with a stern expression: "Stephanie, I remember you said that she has a rare agility talent. Now it seems that she is more than just a thief, right?"
Maddie shook her head with some disappointment, and then said: "Check quickly and see if there is anything missing in the house."
He and Harvey carefully checked upstairs and downstairs, returned to the living room, and reported to Victor: "Nothing was lost, but Stephanie took away 10 silver coins and 23 copper coins, and the remaining change was still there. place. She didn’t take it.”
Victor and the others went to an open-air party together, taking all the most valuable things with them, leaving only the inconvenient refining tools, medicinal raw materials, and about 60 gold pagodas in change in the rented house.
More than 60 golden pagodas are just small change, but they can also be considered a huge sum of money for ordinary adventurers. Stephanie only stole 10 silver coins and 23 copper coins during the burglary, but the rest of the money was left untouched?
Harvey and Maddie were confused, but they clearly felt that everything that happened these days was weird.
"Sir, I have a bad feeling."
Maddie said anxiously: "The caravan manager, the thief leader, the tailor, the little girl, the head of the Adventurer's Guild, and Mayor Middleton of Water Snake Town. They seem to have joined forces to set a trap for us... "
"The mayor is dead. He was killed." Harvey interrupted.
"Yes, the mayor we saw was a corpse." Maddie turned to Harvey and asked: "But, are you sure that the corpse is Mayor Middleton?"
Harvey paused for a moment, then whispered softly after a moment: "Then you can't be sure that the corpse is not the mayor."
"Well, that's true, but why do we need to prove whether the deceased is Middleton? We don't know the entire Water Snake Town."
"Huh? The whole town is against us? This is too exaggerated..." Harvey said with a face full of surprise, but his voice was weaker, and he was a little lacking in confidence.
Maddie sighed and said: "I find it incredible too, but let's think about it. We borrowed the Iron Rhino Caravan's carriage to sneak into Water Snake Town, and the caravan clerk immediately betrayed our information to the Thieves Guild; you hired a tailor to make clothes, and the tailor Bring a thief to the door; the manager of the Iron Rhino Caravan invited us to attend the mayor's open-air party, and the thief sneaked into the house while we were out; the thief took nothing except a small amount of silver coins, and deliberately left a fingerprint?"
"Not to mention that we went to a party, but the mayor died... The mayor's wife that you wanted to get to know disappeared?"
He paused for a moment and then added: "What you want to do failed to happen, but our home was visited by thieves."
Victor raised his eyebrows and asked, "What does this mean?"
McGrady replied with a dignified attitude: "I think it can explain two problems. First, we have been completely and completely exposed... Water Snake Town reminds me of Braun Town. The location is relatively remote and there are not many residents in the town. , everyone knows each other, and even if there are cross-border business travelers, they are basically old faces familiar to the townspeople. And we are strangers who broke into Water Snake Town. But Water Snake Town is better informed than Braun Town... I think about it now, that Lina back then Why should the amnesiac Wiltok be hidden in Braun Town? Isn’t it because Braun Town is located in a remote location, has little information, and is protected by the Tower Cave and the Hemo tribe? "
"...Lina may think that Lord Victor will be exposed even if he hides in the heart of the alliance."
"Do you remember Lena's appearance?" Maddie tilted her head and asked Harvey. Without waiting for the other party's answer, she continued: "Lena has an ordinary appearance, a gentle and educated voice, and a noble temperament. Bottom said that she disguised herself with makeup and hid it. My true face... Well, we and Cole are all a bunch of ignorant country bumpkins. We always thought that Cole's exquisite disguise skills could change Lord Victor's appearance. But who knew that the famous highland family didn't master it better? Disguise? At least Lina knows the disguise, but she didn’t disguise the adults. She must think that no matter what kind of disguise is effective on the adults, because the adults are very conspicuous, very conspicuous..."
With that said, Maddie gestured to her height, meaning that Victor's perfect figure was the most conspicuous symbol.
"White-haired Rhine said that Lord Victor was a fugitive from the Nightingale family, and everyone else thought so too. The worst thing is that Lord Victor was indeed of noble birth and had terrible enemies. Even though his life experience has nothing to do with the Nightingale family. , and it cannot withstand the careful investigation of the city-state parliament!"
"Then, the second problem is that we are trapped in Water Snake Town!"
"The captain of the guard kept saying that he wanted to track down the bandit spies, and ordered the entire Water Snake Town to be sealed off, waiting for reinforcements from Fallen Leaf City... Humph, his excuse was exactly the same as Mayor Middleton's reason for inviting us to the party." Maddie sneered, and then fell silent. Speechless.
Since losing the ability to protect himself, the chief scout of Braun Town has changed from his past talkative habits and has become careful and cautious. When attending the outdoor party, he, Ruth and Jessica did not speak. Ruth and Jessica are really stupid, but Maddie is always observing and thinking.
Therefore, McGrady may be more accurate in his judgment of the situation than Victor and Harvey.
The cause of the death of the mayor, the spies of the bandits, and other messy things have nothing to do with them, but it is a fact that they are trapped in Water Snake Town, waiting for the reinforcements from Luoye City to investigate.
Maddie hoped that Victor would make up his mind quickly, whether it was escaping from Water Snake Town or not just waiting for death.
Unfortunately, Victor's mind is not on this right now.
"I'm going to bed. Make arrangements for Ruth and Jessica, and you guys can rest too. If you have anything else, we'll talk about it tomorrow." Victor left Maddie and Harvey looking at each other, as well as Ruth and Jessica who were in a daze. Card, got up and went upstairs, entered the bedroom on the second floor, ran the golden toad secret formula, and soon entered a dormant state.
In an instant, Victor reappeared in the small garden of the mayor's mansion. The place is lined with green trees, and the wooden frame is covered with wisteria. There is a long table under the vines, and there are fruit brews chilled with well water, several plates of fresh fruits, and kebabs with the aroma of fat.
Victor picked up a plump pecan from the table, put it in his mouth and took a bite. He felt that the flesh was crispy, sweet and juicy. Its texture and taste are no different from real pecans.
The evolution function of the Dream Arena completely replicates the environment of the mayor's mansion, which is not an accurate description. At least the sky is still shrouded in profound darkness, without the sun and moon, but the small garden maintains visible light.
The so-called "light source" is actually a unique manifestation of the perception of the wind element.
Everything the air element perceives is visible, touchable, sniffable, and familiar to Victor's vision.
Apart from Victor, there is no other living creature in Nuoda's mansion or courtyard, not even the most common mosquitoes or flies. The vitality brought by trees, flowers and plants seems false and weird. But these would not cause any hindrance to Victor. He left the garden and walked directly into the largest two-story villa in the mayor's residence.
The layout of this building made of bricks and wood is similar to the mayor's residence in Braun Town. The first floor is a large living room, servant's room, kitchen, and a basement for storing supplies; the second floor is the mayor's living room and study room. , small living room, and three guest rooms.
Middleton died in the living room on the second floor. If that was really Middleton... Even if it wasn't, it didn't matter. Victor was the only living person in the whole villa, and he could always find valuable clues here.
The possessions in the house mean nothing, the information is what counts.
Victor found all the books, account books, and letters in the house and flipped through them. The content of these written records is complex and complicated, and it requires induction and comparison to extract useful information. But that didn't matter, Victor had plenty of time to get the job done. After sleeping for 10 hours, he can gain 150 hours of evolution time in the Dream Arena.
However, Victor was more interested in another place. He browsed through the books and letters he found and found nothing that needed special attention. He left the villa and came to a barn on the east side of the courtyard.
There is an entrance to the basement in the corner of the barn, but it is firmly blocked by a strong iron grille.
Victor took out a large number of keys he found in the villa, tried several times, and finally succeeded in unlocking the iron lock and entering the basement.
The basement was filled with sundries, old barrels, broken hoes, dusty ropes... they were all crowded together and there was no place to stay. The air is still turbid and stuffy. It must be that no one has come in to clean it for a long time. It is a utility room used to store used tools.
Victor stepped on the debris and purposefully walked to a wall in the basement. He used brute force to push down the heavy closet. A hole was immediately revealed behind it, and cold wind poured out of the hole and poured into the cramped ground. room.
Victor's spirit was lifted, and he thought to himself: Thanks to the white-haired Rhine, I don't know if he has the ability to discover this secret door.
After the death of Mayor Middleton, the bounty hunter Rhine wandered around the mayor's mansion, seemingly looking for something. Victor followed Rhine and stayed at multiple locations for more than 5 minutes. The evolutionary function of the Dream Arena continuously reproduced the space environment with a radius of 180 meters based on the perception of the wind element.
Victor didn't know there was such a secret space in the mayor's mansion before he went into hibernation. As soon as he entered the dream arena, his mind received the environmental information sensed by the wind element.
He naturally mastered the secret door hidden in the basement.
After entering the secret door and walking down the artificial rock steps for more than ten meters, Victor felt that the surrounding environment suddenly became clear. It turned out to be a natural underground cave. The stalactites are like long swords, hanging or standing; some resemble melons, fruits, and wild beasts; others are shaped like waterfalls or flowing clouds in the sky.
Victor seems to be in a fantasy country with all kinds of strange things and magnificent colors.
Although the scenery of the underground cave is beautiful, its internal environment is extremely complex. It is a super large underground maze.
Who would have thought that there would be such an underground maze beneath Water Snake Town?
The evolution of the Dream Arena is a god-like ability. Even so, the wind element perception did not completely replicate the internal environment of the underground cave. The rich darkness within Victor's sight is the perceived boundary. Even if he lights a torch, it cannot be illuminated. Unless he wakes up, he finds different nodes in Water Snake Town and stays there for more than five minutes to expand the wind element's perception. scope.
However, Victor could hear the sound of underground rivers rushing and felt the flow of air, indicating that the underground cave must have many exits connected to the outside world.
The area of the cave is beyond imagination. With water and air, large-scale life can be nurtured, and there must be unpredictable dangers.
How dare the Middletons open up underground caves with dozens of private guards under their command?
They don't have the ability to sense the wind element. How many lives must they sacrifice to explore the dangerous underground world?
Why do the Middletons explore the underground world in secret?
The artificially dug step passage extends forward, and there are cleverly designed traps on both sides of the passage that take advantage of the complex environment.
There is no doubt that the secrets of the Middleton family are at the other end of the passage, and their secrets will be invisible to Victor.
