There are more and more people here, and the houses are getting denser and denser. The houses are arranged together and form a circle around the huge hole.
A large animal pen was built next to the canyon. When the shepherds were grazing, they could see groups of velvet dragons running out of the canyon. The round-spire granary was under construction, and carpenters were going up and down the ladders. It is prepared to store food for later use.
A large area of forest outside has been cut down, and in addition to farmland, plants that ride animals and poultry like to eat are planted. If you go further outside, you will gradually enter the scope of that weird vine-like influence, but for now, there is still Very useful.
The food crisis has also been solved. Daily necessities are taken care of by the caravan, and the two sealed objects of the Cowardly Lamp and the Gem Snail Cart maintain the connection between the passage and the outside world.
Helfas sat on the ground, folding his hands on his knees and looking at this place that came from nothing.
It is impossible to say that there is no pride in my heart.
“Having initially solved the problem of eating, living and housing, it’s time to consider another aspect.”
Helfas' current idea is to gather everyone's strength to fight or even seal the dangerous existences they will face directly. Not to mention the unknown horrors and weirdness outside, just the big monsters on the road in and out of the Full Moon Forest. Weird things, big and small, were like sharp swords hanging over their heads.
Even if there is a coward's light warning to avoid, there will often be hunters and incoming and outgoing teams disappearing on the way. Some can even know how they disappeared, and some just disappeared out of thin air, and no one knows where they went.
Not to mention that just dozens of miles away from the canyon, the terrifying and weird vines hanging in the jungle and the ground were so weird that even Helfas didn't dare to get close to take a look.
Helfas stood up and walked towards the hunter team's training ground.
Recently, he comes here whenever he has free time, even several times a day.
because.
Recently they are preparing to take action on a new weirdness.
It was a very dangerous monster entrenched on the road leading in and out of the Full Moon Forest. Many people had already disappeared near it when they passed that path.
Helfas and the hunter team spent several months and huge costs to collect information about the other party and determine the other party's danger level and specific scope of activities. At present, the characteristics and abilities of the other party have finally been successfully recorded bit by bit.
He decided to set out in a few days to seal this dangerous weirdness away.
As soon as I walked into the training ground, I saw a group of young men wrestling and fighting. They used their hands, legs, and tails. Sometimes the dragon man's tail was more flexible and dangerous than his hands and feet.
They also practice attacking each other with wooden sticks, which looks like a heated atmosphere.
Helfas walked into a nearby hut and looked from the back door to the front. He could see a wooden board hanging on the wall with a map engraved on it.
Several people who had just joined the hunter team were listening to a strong middle-aged man whistling, imitating the other person to put his fingers into his mouth, and learning how to blow the whistle loudly.
Some people were drooling all over the place, which looked a little funny.
The training ground was very busy. In addition to the training of physical fitness and combat skills, what was more important was the memory of the whistle, the terrain of the Full Moon Forest, and various dangerous areas and strange traces.
The middle-aged man blew a whistle, which was loud and harsh.
"Beep!"
"The sound is rapid and the station is broken. This means safety..."
"Beep...this means danger...the longer it lasts, the more urgent it becomes."
"Let me ask you, what do you do when you hear this sound?"
The middle-aged man raised a question at this time and asked the people below.
Someone immediately answered: "Go over and save people right away."
The middle-aged man above suddenly rushed down and slapped him on the back of the head.
"With your small body, who do you want to save? If no one else comes to save you, that's fine. Run away when you hear this sound."
The room immediately burst into laughter.
"besides……"
After learning how to whistle and remembering the meaning of the whistle, it is time to record the relatively mature route in and out of the Full Moon Forest.
When the middle-aged man in front of the room was telling this, he suddenly noticed Helfas behind him. He wanted to stop talking, but Helfas raised his hand to signal him to continue.
While Helfas was looking at the newcomers in the room, there was also a line of sight looking at him from outside.
A child was lying outside the wooden fence, looking inside through the gap, observing how the hunter team trained and the various facilities at the training ground.
Watching the heated wrestling and stick, spear throwing, bow and arrow training, and all kinds of strange facilities.
The child made a sound of surprise.
"Wow!"
Finally, the child's eyes caught sight of the man standing at the back of the room.
The moment he looked at the other person, the child saw the black-haired man turning his head to look at him keenly. Even though he was hiding behind the wooden fence, the other person's dark pupils were still faintly visible through the narrow gap. Same as him.
"ah!"
The child, who had his hands on the wood, was suddenly frightened and took several steps back.
His expression was tense, then he turned around and ran away, disappearing without a trace.
Helfas saw that it was a child and didn't care.
For the children in the tribe, the training ground is indeed a very mysterious place. There are often children peeking outside. However, the hunters at the training ground sometimes train dangerous weapons such as bows and arrows and spear throwing, so they will Drive them away.
But that’s how children are, the more you don’t let them see it, the more you tell them of the danger.
The more they want to get closer to danger.
After everything was over, Helfas walked into the house and talked with the middle-aged man.
The other party is the leader of the hunter team and one of the first people to come here.
He asked: "Are you ready? Action will take place in a few days."
"The caravan will be back by then, and the merchant will bring her sealed artifacts to participate in this sealing."
The middle-aged man nodded: "It's ready, don't worry!"
"However, Lord Helfas, there have been some problems on the road leading in and out of the Full Moon Forest recently."
The middle-aged man turned to face the map board, pointed to a place near the big hole and said.
"The original road cannot be walked because the weird roots of the giant vines sometimes sweep over here, which is very dangerous."
Helfas asked: "Did something go wrong? Has its power increased, or has it moved?"
The middle-aged man said: "It's not clear yet."
Helfas stepped forward and pointed to a place in the Full Moon Forest.
"Go here from now on. I've walked here before and it was very safe."
"Even on a full moon night, the opponent's power still hasn't completely covered us."
"It's just that the tunnel road is not easy to walk, and it's still pitch black."
There is a cave and tunnel.
When Helfas first arrived here with the young dragon man from the Weaving Tribe, he stayed in this cave and the other party told him that he could walk directly through it.
——
The child ran back to the place where he lived, closed the door nervously and hid on the bed panting.
This is obviously a bunk bed connected to one another, and the beds are not big. It seems that the people living here should be some children.
But at this moment, he was the only one in the room.
He was a little nervous and a little excited.
He spread his hands on the bed and looked at the roof above his head. He was breathing heavily, his forehead was sweating and his face was red.
There was disbelief in his eyes as he muttered softly.
"Training for hunting weirdos..."
"They can really hunt weirdos, it's really amazing."
"Weird... so scary..."
He rested for a while and then ran out again. He carefully crossed the canyon and came to the edge of the farmland outside.
A group of children were peeling breadfruit shells and helping with farm work. He squeezed in and was immediately noticed.
"You ran to the training ground and took a peek again?"
"How's it going? What did you see?"
"You're going to get caught one day."
"You'll be finished by then."
The child said: "I saw Lord Helfas, he seemed to have seen me."
When he said this, the crowd exploded.
"Then you're screwed. You got caught peeking."
"Lord Helfas will punish you."
"Let you run over and take a peek."
"You're going to be kicked out."
The other children started making noises, and the child who had just peeked suddenly became nervous. He lowered his head and did not dare to speak, and stared blankly at the ground.
After a while, tears flowed down.
In the evening.
Helfas sat at the door looking at the sun and thinking about something at the same time.
Suddenly, he saw a "sneaky" figure.
A child was hiding in a corner of the house and secretly watching him, but he didn't dare to come over at all. When he realized that Helfas had seen him, he immediately turned around and wanted to run away.
Helfas waved and said to him.
"come over."
The child immediately stopped but unlike the speed with which he ran away, he moved sideways when he came over.
He didn't dare to face Helfas, nor did he dare to raise his head, as if he was about to face some terrible trial.
Before Helfas could speak, the child suddenly wiped away tears and said while crying.
"Lord Helfas, please don't drive me out."
He asked: "Why are you kicked out?"
Child: "I peeped at the hunters training and the other kids said I would be kicked out."
The black-haired man pursed his lips: "You did something wrong, but you won't be kicked out."
The child raised his head with red eyes: "Really?"
The black-haired man asked: "Why are you peeking at the training?"
The child said: "I want to be a hunter in the future."
Helfas: "It's not that easy to be a hunter. Our hunters are not just for hunting wild beasts."
The child raised his head, wiped away his tears, and his expression became serious: "I know, we still have to deal with the weirdness in the forest."
Helfas laughed: "It is very dangerous to fight against weirdness, and it is not something ordinary people can do. It requires mastering many abilities."
"Is there anything special about you?"
The child put his hand into his mouth and blew hard.
"Look, I can also blow the whistle."
Helfas couldn't help but laugh and shook his head.
"It's not enough to just be able to whistle."
The child stopped talking again and lowered his head a little disappointed, as if his ideal had failed.
Helfas: "You want to become a hunter so much?"
The child nodded slowly: "Yes!"
Helfas said: "Then let's start with courage!"
The child raised his head: "Courage?"
He said: "If you want to fight the weird, you must at least be able to face the weird without retreating!"
Helfas told him.
"In a few days, we'll be back with a freak."
"If you dare to face that terrifying monster outside the canyon without closing your eyes, I will let you be a hunter in the future."
Under the evening sun, the child walked back.
He walked slowly at first, then started running quickly.
He ran and jumped, as if dancing, and even stretched his hands high behind him.
Helfas called the agricultural officer, and he asked about the child just now.
"What's the matter with that kid? He always seems to be alone?"
The farmer seemed to know the child: "The mother died on the way here, and it is said that she disappeared near the swamp."
Children in this era don't know who their father is, because they grew up with their mother, and they followed their mother's orders and were cared for by their mother.
Therefore, even in the hunting team, most of the people responsible for combat and force are men, but the leaders are usually women.
For such a migrant child, losing his mother means losing everything to rely on.
Helfas nodded: "Are there many children like this?"
Farmer: "There are quite a few."
He then asked: "How do we usually place children like this?"
The agricultural officer told Helfas: "We built a house for them to live in, and we usually let them help with things in the farmland and eat with us."
Helfas nodded: "That's good."
He stood up, feeling a little relieved and feeling that he had done something right.
"You did a great job on this."
The agricultural officer was a little excited, but he had a word with Helfas when he left.
"By the way, Lord Helfas!"
"There's not enough water."
"As farmland expands, more irrigation water is needed. We now have to walk long distances to get water, which is very inconvenient and dangerous."
"And as the population increases, more places need water."
Helfas: "Don't worry, it will be solved soon."
——
On this day, Helfas summoned everyone in the hunter team.
In addition, the members of the caravan also returned yesterday. At this moment, the merchant and his sons were waiting outside the canyon in a gem snail car.
After gathering all available fighting forces, the group set out.
Passing through the farmland, we came to the foot of a mountain peak and entered a tall cave.
Go through the tunnel and come out the other end.
Helfas sits at the very top of the volute.
It was very high there, even higher than some trees. From the perspective of sitting on it, he could faintly see all the movement around him, and the sunlight could shine directly on him.
Today, the strange thing they have to solve is named Black Marsh by Helfas.
This is also the second time that the hunter team has hunted monsters, and it is also the first time that they have collected information on their own and independently started to seal the monsters.
Under the sun, Helfas unrolled his scroll.
It not only contains information about the black swamp, but also a simple drawing of its shape. Its main form is a ball of black mud, which usually lives in the water and looks like a black swamp.
Characteristic 1: Can create water flow out of thin air and control the water flow. The water flow can trap people or even drown them.
Characteristic 2: Eat human corpses to create black humanoid puppets that can make sounds to seduce passers-by.
Helfas memorized all the information about the strange thing, and even opened his mouth to simulate the sealing spell, thinking about the details of the whole process.
Soon, they arrived in front of the black swamp.
"Pour down the magic fire oil."
The leader of the hunter team arranged for people to go to various locations and pour down the jars of grease. The greasy stuff spread along the water surface, giving off a choking smell.
Helfas has become proficient in extracting oil from the biphasic demonic insects in the form of trees, and has gradually normalized this method of strengthening attack methods.
With the experience of dealing with Hongsnail last time, the hunter team seemed much calmer this time.
Seeing that they were ready, Helfas immediately laid out the ritual stone slabs, and then summoned the form of the Biphasic Demonic Insect and rushed into the swamp.
"boom!"
The target to be dealt with this time is obviously much sharper than Hongshuai.
As soon as Helfas showed his power, a loud noise erupted in the swamp.
Something is coming out.
It tears through the water, trying to escape.
But what followed was a fire burning into the sky. The flames that could not be extinguished by water directly caused the entire swamp to boil, and also covered the entire swamp.
Large swaths of water vapor billowed up and evaporated towards the sky.
The monster immediately shrank back and fled back to the depths of the water.
But the water is no less peaceful.
A huge insect was looking for it, and the two monsters were fighting fiercely below, causing the small swamp to roll like a sea in a storm.
Finally, a group of black monsters couldn't bear it and rushed out again.
And a huge demonic insect was biting its body fiercely, and followed it out of the burning water.
"Wow!"
The Biphasic Demonic Insect tore off a large piece of the opponent's body, while the remaining large piece was still trying to escape.
But at this time, the business official who had been waiting next to him drove up on a gem snail car.
Her job is to prevent weirdos from escaping.
Sometimes it's easy to defeat a monster, but it's harder to keep it trapped or running away.
Fortunately, Helfas was well prepared this time, and the cards in his hand were completely different from before.
"slow!"
The strong woman sat between the two tentacles of the red snail monster, looking at the escaping black mud ball. The two tentacles first retracted, and then slowly started to move.
There was no sound, but an invisible wave spread.
And the strange black swamp that looked extremely ferocious slowed down immediately.
Helfas controlled the Biphasic Demonic Insect and stepped forward again, dragging it directly into the shore.
The demonic insect breathed out fire.
The members of the hunter team on the side continued to add magic fire oil.
The weird thing wanted to escape, but was unable to struggle out under the power of the gem snail car. It could only twist its body slowly and feebly.
Its mud-like body was dried bit by bit, cracked, and then burned into a ball.
It even feels like it's going to be burned to stone.
It was at this time that Helfas started the ritual and began to chant the incantation.
"In the name of Ji Zhu, the strange things in front of you are sealed."
"..."
at last.
A ray of light falls from the sky,
The beam of light suppressed the weird body and swallowed it completely.
Then a black-gray kettle appeared in the light and slowly fell down.
[Sealed Artifact: Pot of Black Swamp]
[Ability 1: You can continuously create clean water, and you can also control the water flow to attack others. 】
[Ability 2: Can pour out a black mire to trap the enemy. The person who is eaten will turn into a talking puppet. 】
After seeing this scene, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and then burst into cheers.
It started by shouting success and win.
At the back, the cheers turned into a name.
"Herfas!"
"Herfas!"
"Herfas..."
Helfas stepped forward and picked up the black-gray kettle, holding it high, and everyone cheered even more intensely.
When returning, just before arriving home.
Helfas asked everyone to tidy up their appearance and form a neat line.
"Release the Black Marsh."
"Then you take out a net and trap it so it looks like it's prey."
"Tell everyone that this man-eating monster was sealed by us, and tell everyone of our achievements."
“It also lets everyone know that being weird isn’t so scary.”
Helfas stood in front of the team, looked at all the hunters, and expressed his expectations.
"From now on, you are no longer hunters."
The hunters lined up and looked around, not knowing how to answer.
Finally, the middle-aged man who was the captain spoke: "Then what are we?"
Helfas said: "You are witchers."
He said it again: "Hunt monsters and weird people."
In an instant, all the hunters' eyes looked different.
They looked at the black-haired man in front of them and muttered the word witcher, and suddenly felt that they seemed to be a little different.
Even though they are still their former selves, after being given a special name, they are no longer ordinary.
From today on, they are no longer ordinary, they will create an unprecedented history.
Helfas poured out the Pot of Black Marsh.
A black monster emerged and was caught motionless in a net by the hunter team.
They held their heads high and dragged their nets toward the canyon beyond.
And in front of the canyon.
It was already a sea of people.
Almost everyone ran out, looking at the returning team and shouting.
"Look, I'm back."
"Lord Helfas is back with the hunters."
"What are they dragging?"
"It's so big, what is that?"
"It's a monster, it's weird."
Not only adults came, but also many children.
The children stood on the edge of the farmland, watching the mighty team dragging the strange thing that seemed to have no breath but still looked extremely scary slowly approaching.
Some children covered their eyes in fear, and some looked at the monster curiously. While they wanted to step forward to take a closer look, their bodies moved back involuntarily.
One of the children stood on the side of the road, staring hard at the team and the strange black thing.
He was also very scared, but he still stood by the road with all his strength.
As the team approached, his expression suddenly changed.
He recognized it.
That was the weirdness that ate his mother.
He still remembered the dark swamp. His thirsty mother wanted to get some water, but she was swept up by a ball of water, and then was eaten by the darkness under the water.
At this moment, the weird thing was dragged by the net and exposed to the sun.
He saw a black shadow standing by the water, waving to him.
"Child, I am mother."
"I'm mom...I'm..."
His voice was hoarse, like the worst nightmare.
"Weird...defeated."
in his eyes.
In the sunshine, those dragging the nets were as tall as golden statues.
And the black-haired man walking at the front of the crowd seemed to have a layer of sacred color invisible to him. ()
