"Do you believe a devil's words?" Gavin turned around and consoled him, "He only picks out words that are beneficial to himself. Why didn't he say that there are many spells to control souls in this world to make people commit crimes?" Matters of the heart? Again, before we investigate everything clearly, we should not jump to any conclusions to avoid misunderstanding the good people or letting the bad people go."
"Sir's fair and calm way of dealing with things is really worth learning from me." Janela said apologetically, "And this is not entirely bad news. At least all the food was not burned, and some of it was stolen by those food thieves. If we can pull them out in our hands, maybe we can get some of them back."
"I'm afraid it's difficult." The dog demon said again, "I smell the scent of hobgoblins, orcs and jackals here, but there are no humans. Not far away is Thunder Peak."
The Golden Wheatsheaf Monastery is located in the west of the Misty Valley, relatively close to Thunder Peak. The back mountain where they are now is not facing the Cormanso Forest, but the Snow-capped Thunder Peak, which is known as the land of beasts. The giant peak, like a majestic giant, stands not far away.
This monastery is at the intersection with the Helm of Pyle Town, a small fortress a few kilometers away, guarding the west gate of Misty Valley.
"You mean those food thieves are monsters from Thunder Peak?" Janella said thoughtfully, "Could this be done by the Storm King from Thunder Peak? ?”
"Storm King?"
"In recent years, the monsters in Thunder Peak have tended to unite. From time to time, small groups of goblin troops will emerge from it, under the banner of the Storm King, demanding tribute from us, but they are all defeated by our Misty Valley Cavalry. .
Not only were we in the Misty Valley harassed by this goblin tribe, but similar small groups of monster troops appeared in the Deep Forest Valley and the High Valley.
Legend has it that the Storm King is a powerful and evil cloud giant warlock. He built a black fortress on Thunder Peak and is building a monster army of his own.
We once sent out reconnaissance rangers, but there were too many monsters in Thunder Peak and they were too powerful. They could not get into it, but one thing is certain. The monsters there have indeed stopped fighting each other, and there are signs of joining forces. On the mountainside of Thunder Peak, the shadow of a black fortress was seen.
If you want to build an army, food is essential. "The information given by Janilla was somewhat vague.
Let alone ordinary people, even for extraordinary professionals, the Thunder Peak Mountains is an extremely dangerous place.
In terms of area, the Thunder Peak Mountains are not as good as the neighboring Storm Cape Mountains. However, in terms of the steep terrain and the complexity of the mountains, the Storm Cape Mountains cannot match them. Thunder Peak is the number one peak in a radius of thousands of kilometers. The snow here is covered all year round. Not transformed.
There is an older and more terrifying legend about this place. It is said that the reason why this place is covered with ice and snow all year round is because a terrifying ancient evil thing is sealed here. Once he is released, he will seal the entire Faerûn continent with ice.
In addition, it is also surrounded by the Great Forest of Cormanzo, the Hurek Forest of Cormyr, and the Guangze Swamp. It is difficult to use large-scale troops here to completely eliminate the monster tribes here.
We can only allow monsters to breed here. After far exceeding the capacity of this place, swarms of monsters will emerge and eliminate them where humans have the upper hand. This process will inevitably cost a lot of blood.
In comparison, Misty Valley is the least invaded by these monsters, because the main peak of Thunder Peak is on their side. Even for those monsters, Thunder Peak is difficult to climb, and drilling into the Cormanso Forest is not what they want. like.
In comparison, the high valley, bow valley and deep forest valley adjacent to the more open and flat southern end are better targets for invasion. Sometimes they even set their sights on Cormyr, but such fools usually die quickly.
"I'll find out soon," Gavin asked the Dog Demon, "Are their breath locks locked? Can they be tracked?"
The dog demon has an ability called infinite tracking. As long as it locks on someone's breath, it can hold on to it as long as they are in the same plane. It is best used to perform this kind of task.
"Locked." The dog demon's orange eyes flickered involuntarily, as if he was hesitant to speak.
"If you have anything to say, just say it quickly. Don't hide it." Gavin had already fully figured out this evil subordinate who followed him for the first time.
"This..." the dog demon said slowly, "I have some private matters that I need to discuss with the lord. It is a matter where my personal ability has reached a bottleneck."
"You devils still have bottlenecks in your personal abilities?" Gavin said in surprise, "Can't you become stronger as long as you keep eating souls?"
The dog demon pretended that I would not answer this question if outsiders were present.
Janella took the initiative and said, "I'll search elsewhere to see if I can find any other clues."
"Okay." Gavin did not forcibly order the dog demon. Although the opponent looked like a monster, his intelligence was so high that even many legendary mages would be defeated. He was more clever than a lotus root. His personal issues were fake and there were other inconveniences. Let Janella know that the discovery is true.
Sure enough, after Janella walked away, the dog demon immediately said in a very low voice: "Lord, in these breaths, I found the smell of an acquaintance."
"who?"
"Delila."
"High priest of the immortal Nemesis?"
"That's her."
"This thing is getting more and more interesting." There was no trace of shock or anger on Gavin's face. On the contrary, the corner of his mouth was slightly pursed, revealing a hint of excitement.
Finally caught the fox by the tail again.
Now not only are the believers of the Immortal Furies obsessed with taking revenge on Gavin, Gavin is also thinking about them and stripping more valuable things from their bodies.
Although he killed the most powerful corpse spider elf last time, due to Gavin's lack of skills, the necromancer Dilila who was the instigator and his other powerful servant Undead Knight escaped, and even his home base of Blood Horn was destroyed. No more, hide yourself deeper.
However, Gavin knew that they had not escaped, and were still hovering around him, waiting for an opportunity to take revenge.
Combining the information in his hands, Gavin couldn't help but come up with an extremely bold hypothesis.
Burning the granary of the Golden Wheat Sheaf Monastery and leaving his own breath here is probably a new plot laid out for himself by the treacherous High Priest of the Immortal Nemesis.
She has personally seen her own strength. Even if she borrows part of the power of the Immortal Vengeance, there is no way to kill her, let alone that she will soon successfully bring the conqueror's army to its destination, just by herself. If she doesn't have the strength, then it's even more hopeless. She can only use external force.
There are many evil forces around her that can lend her strength, and they all conflict with Gavin, such as the Zhentarim and the merchants of Sembia.
However, for Dilila, these two forces are too powerful. When they get there, it is not certain who controls whom, and they are definitely not the first choice.
After many calculations, the monsters in the Thunder Peak Mountains were her only choice. She had probably taken refuge with the so-called Storm King and actively advised him to steal the Golden Wheatsheaf Monastery. Food, because she calculated that she would have to buy a lot of food after bringing so many immigrants to the valley.
Stealing the food in advance will kill two birds with one stone.
First of all, she can use the stolen food as a ladder for her advancement and prove her worth to the Storm King.
As Janela just said, food is indispensable for any force that wants to grow and recruit countless subordinates, and monsters are no exception.
Secondly, she used this food to draw her attention to the Storm King, thereby triggering a conflict between the two parties. No matter who wins or loses, she can sit back and watch coldly, no longer like the last time. , charging on the front line.
The devil had obviously thought of this, but the dog devil understood his attitude towards him, so he did not dare to make any assumptions. Therefore, he pushed Patriarch Janella away and presented him with all the information in his hands, asking him to Come to it on your own.
It has to be said that all devils are born to be masters in understanding people's thoughts.
"Very good, you did a good job this time." Gavin fully affirmed the dog demon, "Your next task is to keep an eye on Dilila's line. It doesn't matter how much food they stole. Never mind where the food ends up.
Collect as much information as possible about that Storm King. If necessary, you can disclose some of my information to them in exchange for their trust. I don’t think I need to teach you how to do it specifically. "
Grain, a daily consumable, has entered a state of consumption the moment it leaves the grain depot.
The possibility of getting them back is slim, so rather than doing this, it is better to recover the losses in other ways.
For example, the high priest of the Immortal Nemesis, or the Storm King in the Thunder Peak Mountains.
After hearing the news about the Storm King from Janella's mouth, Gavin was not afraid, but felt a little secretly happy.
If you want a group of outsiders to integrate into the local people as quickly as possible, what could be easier than a joint resistance against foreign invasion?
Although there are evil Sembian merchants in the south, their merchant characteristics determine that they are better at intrigues and intrigues than large-scale wars.
Whether it was the young red dragon attacking the Land of Three Rivers, or the goblin frontier dark forces uniting to besiege the conqueror's army, they were hiding behind the scenes, using money to clear the way, and they themselves never came to the surface.
The great invasion of the Tukan nomads attracted all the energy of these profit-seeking businessmen. They scoured the world for strategic materials and resold them on the front lines to make huge war fortunes. For the time being, they had no time to pay attention to Gavin.
It's not that they didn't care about Gavin, but the methods they adopted were relatively mild, such as sending envoys to the conqueror's army to try to negotiate a peace and win over Gavin.
Gavin took a cold approach and left the Sambian envoy there without saying anything about seeing or not seeing him.
For another example, they used their influence in the valley to sow discord and spread rumors, trying to arouse the fear of the conqueror's army in Bow Valley, Taser Valley, Deep Forest Valley, Feather Valley and Plowing Valley, and create a desire to resist.
Because of the addition of these more than 40,000 people, the Battle Valley has become the largest valley in the entire valley, and Gavin has gained a reputation along the way, and the Lord of Scar Valley, Rashan, has learned from his mistakes.
It is false to say that the rulers of the surrounding subdivided valleys are not worried. Thanks to the past six months, Gavin has established a good reputation among the ordinary people here, especially his selfless flood fighting and rescue work, which has brought his reputation to a higher level. There was no way for the valleys to unite directly and keep the conqueror's army at bay.
All in all, trouble is predictable.
It is absolutely not possible to resort to force for other subdivisions of the valley. Once this is done, it will suit the wishes of the Sambian businessmen and allow them to label themselves a tyrant and invader, which will be the same as their original The drama against the Lord of Rashan - the alliance between external Sembian merchants, dark intelligence network and the Kingdom of Cormyr, internal instigation to manipulate the Vale Division Alliance to nip it in the cradle.
But if a more powerful and violent monster kingdom rises next to it, far beyond the capacity of other valleys, will they unite around themselves, a kind-hearted member of the valley? It is self-evident that we should seek shelter from those evil and greedy businessmen in Sambia.
Why do those powerful generals like to raise bandits?
Only when there are powerful enemies outside can they maintain the existence of the army.
If all enemies are eradicated and eliminated, they will become the biggest threat to the entire kingdom and even the throne, and they will naturally become targets.
Although the Valley is not a kingdom, the situation is similar.
If the existence of the Storm King and their army of evil monsters in the Thunder Peak Mountains is confirmed, Gavin can legitimately maintain the complete structure of the Conqueror's Army in the Land of Three Rivers and be ready to deal with emergencies at any time.
The dog demon couldn't help but grinned, licked his nose, and said with unconcealable excitement in his eyes: "Understood, I promise to find out the background of this Storm King."
As one of the first group of old people to follow Gavin, he had already figured out his behavior style.
When the other party starts to make plans, it means that the war is not far away.
As someone who was born in Shura Field, what he likes most is the aura of war.
It has to be said that although the other party is a human, he has the demeanor of a Shura field lord. There is never a lack of war around him, and his growth rate is due to his war.
After leaving this task to the dog demon, Gavin stopped asking any more questions. The other party was a good player in this aspect and had his own way of integrating into monsters. His identity as a devil was an added bonus in this matter. sub-item, even if many people know that he has been loyal to him.
Because devils will not be loyal to anyone sincerely, they are only loyal to themselves, betrayal and betrayal are commonplace for them, as long as they have more benefits.
"Tell me, what do you mean when you just said that your personal strength has reached a bottleneck?"
Every word spoken by these devils has multiple layers of meaning, including some that seem like excuses, but also have their own meaning.
This is the personal strength bottleneck that the dog demon mentioned.
In fact, Gavin also clearly felt that the growth of the dog demon had almost stagnated recently.
Dog Devil
Vitality: 252 (Hit Dice: 19D10+152)
Alignment: Lawful evil
Size: extra large
Attributes: Strength 24, Agility 18, Constitution 22, Intelligence 22, Perception 22, Charisma 23
Spell-like abilities: Use at will—levitation, misdirection, projection.
Once per day—Charm Monster, Charm Person, Any Door, and Extreme Fear.
Special abilities: Gnating (there is a certain chance of eating the enemy's soul, making it impossible to resurrect), changing shape (goblin or wolf), moving without a trace, sensitive sense of smell, damage reduction 15/+1, power burst ( Extraordinary strength reward), Teleportation (extraordinary intelligence reward, once a day), Infinite Tracking (extraordinary perception reward, after locking someone's breath, as long as they are in the same plane, you can track them at infinite distances), Permanent Charm (charming reward) , you can permanently charm goblins or wolf creatures and make them loyal to you, once a day), swallow them alive (extraordinary physical bonus, your gnawing skills will not only take effect on the dead, but also on enemies who are in a weak state. It takes effect, not only has a chance to completely eat the enemy's soul, but also restores one's own vitality in proportion)
Compared to the beginning, his life dice and attributes have been greatly improved, especially the inner attributes, which have reached an astonishing degree.
But there is still no way to cover up the weakness of his overall strength. Compared with those quasi-legendary humanoid creatures with the same Hit Dice, as long as their equipment is slightly better, he will have to flee.
Gavin had always thought that this was because there had been fewer conflicts and wars around him recently, and there were not so many powerful enemies for him to gnaw on. Now it seems that it is not that simple.
"I have reached the growth limit of the dog demon. It is difficult for gnawing to bring me additional growth. Even if I increase my life dice, it will not bring more enhancements and abilities." The dog demon answered truthfully.
Gavin said thoughtfully: "I'm afraid this situation is not unique to you, right? All devils and devils have this characteristic, right?"
It is not difficult to understand that everything in the world has a growth limit.
There are mortal things, and those devils and angels are no exception, including those extremely powerful giants and dragons.
It's just that their growth limit is much higher than that of ordinary things. Many can grow all the way to the extraordinary, and some can grow all the way to the legendary. The former is called an extraordinary species, and the latter is a legendary species.
The dog demon is a pseudo-legendary species. It is just one step away from becoming a legend, and it has already reached its limit.
Gavin asked: "How did you break this growth ceiling?"
(End of chapter)
