The faint fragrance, the wonderful touch, and something else...
Griffith lifted the quilt and looked up at the sky. The morning light has broken through the soft mist on the seaside. He rubbed his face, as if an evocative feeling was still surging in his heart.
I seemed to have missed something last night...
What is it? Forget it, I'm going to ask Kroger for potions class materials today.
During lunch break, Griffith knocked on the wooden door of the cabin.
"Look, who's here! Come in, my little friend." Kroger, who was as tall as a giant, immediately invited him into the house.
"Mr. Kroger, come and try these wines!" Griffith said while delivering the greeting gift. "Associate Professor Velonos made a list. The Potions course requires me to collect these supplementary materials within a week."
"Oh, are you looking for these things? You can find some at the edge of the Whispering Forest, but it's against school rules for you to go there."
If there is a professor or your leadership, then it must not be a violation of school rules, right? Griffith muttered to himself, waiting for the ranger to finish without saying a word.
Kroger took a sip of wine and continued: "Don't worry, kids, I will collect the materials. These magical plants are thirsty for the afterglow of the sunset, and are best found at dusk. If you are willing, can you come when I leave? Time to supervise these hired workers? I have a few new boys who will fight and cause trouble if they are not careful. Just leave the work to the hired workers. Our job is to supervise their work and protect them.
"The leader of this group of boys is named Root. He is a smart guy. For their safety, the school allows them to carry some weapons, so we cannot let them hurt each other, let alone let them enter the campus."
Griffith naturally understood this. The heavy school work at Homemonworth is very labor-intensive. Each professor and official has his or her own budget and personnel authority, which is specifically used to hire foreign workers they like to serve them.
Naturally, these outsiders must be strictly supervised, and they must not be allowed to offend the distinguished students. On the other hand, some jobs are very dangerous, and attacks by out-of-control magic equipment, familiars, and even mutant creatures in the forest often occur.
Griffith walked out of the hut and went to a nearby farm to watch the hired hands working from a distance. Although Kroger is not favored by the noble mages, he still has a lot of authority within the scope of his work, and the people he invites all seem to have flexible hands and feet and strong bodies.
They tended pumpkin patches, dewormed trees or mowed lawns. When they saw Griffith and the Homemonworth school badge flashing on his coat, most people looked away and continued to do their work. However, there were also a few people who secretly looked up at him from time to time.
…
Over the next week, Griffith began going to Kroger's cabin in time for dinner every day. The tall ranger carefully found many herbs and materials, which not only met the needs of the course, but also allowed Griffith to float away.
When there are no tasks, Griffith can review the day's lessons by himself and live quite relaxedly.
At dusk on the fourth day, Kroger, who had just finished dinner, hurriedly put his package on his back, picked up his heavy crossbow, opened the door and walked out. He had just reached the door when he remembered something, turned to the trainee knight and said: "Well, my friend, I have to go out to do something tonight, something personal. Can you help me guard the cabin? Before eight o'clock I'll be back."
Griffith stood up immediately, "Is there anything I need to pay attention to?"
The ranger scratched his head and looked at the hut where the employees lived outside: "It's nothing. Just don't let those ordinary people enter the Whispering Forest. They are all naughty. However, it shouldn't be difficult to subdue them with your strength!"
After saying this, Kroger seemed to let go of his worries and nodded and left without waiting for Griffith's reply.
Okay...it's only a few hours, so it should be fine.
In the past few days, in order to help the rangers at the edge of the Whispering Forest, Griffith applied to the school for small shields, swords, battle axes and heavy throwing guns to fight against large creatures. He looked at the neatly made bed and the guns stacked in the corner, nodded with satisfaction, raised his legs and put them on the wooden table to continue reading his book.
The late autumn sunset gradually sets in the west, and it doesn't take long for the sky to darken. Griffith flipped through the book leisurely. After a while, he felt thirsty, so he jumped off the chair and went to grab a spoonful of water from the water tank.
Through the narrow window of the hut, Griffith could see the neatly tended pumpkin patch and the longhouse where the hired workers lived. It was quiet and harmonious, like a picture of pastoral scenery.
"..."
Something is wrong!
At this moment, Griffith suddenly noticed something strange. He quickly put on his armor, grabbed the sword and spear beside him and rushed out.
Kroger's nine adult male employees lived in a longhouse not far away. Griffith saw them picking radishes, potatoes and pumpkins from the fields for dinner several times. After eating, they would play cards and rest in groups by the farm.
But tonight it was extremely quiet here, and the employees seemed to have disappeared along with the rangers.
Griffith quickly checked the road leading to the Homemon Watts campus. The magic barrier and alarm circle set up there to stop the hired workers were intact. They could not pass without the college's crest, and there were no signs of being triggered. He hurriedly turned around and ran towards the fence beside the Whispering Forest.
In the open space at the edge of the forest, the ranger had already erected a strong low wall as high as one person. Along the inside of the low wall is a specially cleared path. Even the weeds have been pulled out of the soft mud. If something crosses here, it will definitely leave footprints on the soil.
Sure enough, there was still a series of messy footsteps on the soil on the inside of the low wall. Judging from the footprints and the wet mud on the low wall, it seemed that the hired workers had not climbed over the low wall into the forest for a long time.
Griffith's first reaction was to immediately return to school to report. But the thought that followed stopped him.
In the hired workers' huts, he had seen them carrying two-handed swords, crossbows, giant axes and other weapons. They were not ordinary kind-hearted citizens. Maybe they came to apply for the job just waiting for such an opportunity to enter the forest.
What do they want to do? Griffith arranged his weapons and jumped over the low wall with a deep leap.
…
The footprints of the hired workers were clear and unmistakable. They had no plan to conceal their whereabouts and were heading towards a certain goal. Griffith didn't follow the tracks very far before he found suspicious signs near a wet depression.
Although this is the edge of the Whispering Forest, the sun is about to set at this time. The tall and dense dark black tree crowns above the head block the light, and the surrounding scenery can only be barely seen clearly.
A large fallen tree trunk suddenly appeared on the path. Near the rough wood, a strange and tall thorn grows here in an orderly manner, extending from the path where the hired workers pass to the woods on both sides. Griffith checked along the thorns and found that these plants were deliberately planted into a three-meter-thick ring, surrounding the depression in front.
Could this be grown by Kroger? Griffith used a dagger to cut the thorns in front of him, and was surprised to find that the plant was very tough and difficult to cut off. The thorns on the thorns are as hard and long as iron awls. If you try to climb over them without using tools, you will probably lose your life.
This is a prison.
Like the fence of a sheep pen on a farm, this patch of thorns is used to imprison some kind of creature. The only entrance and exit is the huge tree on the path where the hired workers left their footprints.
Griffith checked the fallen trees again and found fresh marks left by the axe, and the branches and leaves on the trunk showed no signs of withering. It seemed that the hired workers had just cut them down for use as a road bridge.
As for the interior of the thorn cage, there must be some hidden creature, and the employees may be trying to steal it.
interesting. Griffith stepped onto the giant tree, quickly crossed the thorns, and walked towards the inner forest.
Before walking far, a large pond appeared in the field of vision. There was a vague appearance of strange black fish in the water, revealing its sinister pale teeth toward Griffith on the shore.
Serrated scale fish. Griffith immediately recognized the fish in the pond and trembled involuntarily.
This strange fish lives in the swamps of the East and feeds on all living creatures. They reproduce extremely quickly and attack in hundreds or even thousands when foraging. Once upon a time, a heavily armored soldier from the Eastern Legion accidentally fell into the swamp where they lived. When he was rescued, he was already a pile of skeletons hanging with scrap metal, which took less than half a minute.
Griffith took two steps back and examined the water in a circle. He found that the pond was only about a hundred meters in diameter and was a closed puddle in the forest.
The Serrated Scale is greedy and brutal, with fleshy but fishy meat. It is the staple food of some of the more ferocious monsters in the swamp. With their food intake and reproduction speed, it is impossible for them to survive in such a small space for a long time. Someone must have kept them here. As for the purpose of raising these ferocious fish, they must be using them to feed some more ferocious creatures.
Could it be...
Griffith can probably guess what kind of monster the owner here will be.
At this moment, an earth-shattering roar came from the forest. The roar was ferocious and angry, filled with an ancient and terrifying aura of prehistoric times, and even the strange fish in the pond in front of them were frightened to the point of boiling.
Griffith's heart skipped a beat, and he was frightened by the roar and fell into chaos for a short time. But fortunately, there was no direct threat around him. He regained his composure within a moment, and his eyes narrowed in thought.
This is the roar of the mountain monster.
This large, extremely strong and fierce monster lives in the high mountains in the southeast of the Sea of Tranquility. It is said to be the hybrid descendant of the Behemoth and one of the most powerful creatures in the world. They are more than four meters tall, have skin as hard as steel and terrifying strength. They can pull out the trunks of centuries-old giant trees in the forest and use them as weapons. They are almost immune to damage from blunt objects. Only ballistae and heavy-throwing guns can effectively damage their bodies. Body.
The mountain monster has relatively low intelligence and looks like a walking mountain of flesh. But if you ignore it, you will pay a heavy price. They possess agility and explosive power that are disproportionate to their size, and can quickly grab and tear enemies who attack them into pieces. Compared with mountain monsters, goblin trolls are just an inferior subspecies, too weak to be worth mentioning.
When Griffith guessed that there was a monster hidden in this thorn cage, he had already predicted what would appear, but he did not expect it to be such a terrifying monster as the mountain monster. He quickly recalled the abilities of this monster and realized that even the most common mountain monster has more than three extraordinary characteristics, including but not limited to:
Heartbreaking. The roar emitted by the mountain monster when hunting can cause instinctive fear in small creatures, causing short-term dizziness and a certain chance of running away due to fear, followed by a movement slowdown of no less than ten seconds. This ability allows the monster to prey on dangerous serrated scale fish.
Terrifying power. The mountain monster can crush hard rocks or pull out trees with huge roots, and use them as weapons to throw or wave; its attacks have a concussive effect, and human armor cannot defend against its attacks. If hit, it will cause damage to internal organs and Internal bleeding.
Burst shooting. Although the mountain monster is not a creature good at long-range attacks, it can accurately and continuously throw rocks and trees to attack in a very short period of time, with extremely high accuracy and a wide range of splash damage.
Some mountain monsters have other types of powers after training, which is beyond the scope of Griffith's knowledge. Just its powerful body and the above three abilities have made the mountain monster superior to most monsters and beasts, becoming another kind of existence——
"Legendary creature!"
In a one-on-one situation at close range, even world-famous knights and mages have to consider whether they can survive from the hands of the mountain monster.
The roar just stopped, followed by waves of human screams, and even an earthquake that shook the earth.
It's the hired hands.
Griffith was a little confused. The environment here was obviously designed by a strong man who could control all the mountain monsters. It was specially built to raise mountain monsters for a short period of time. So what are these foreign employees? How do you know the secret of the mountain monster, and why do you dare to challenge this ferocious beast?
The screams in the forest began to become more terrifying. Griffith hurriedly smeared himself with the wet mud from the pond, took off the throwing gun from his back, and groped towards the place where the sound came from.
Under a big tree not far from the pond, Griffith first discovered a hired worker. Broken pieces of wood and metal were stuck in this man's body, and he could vaguely tell that they were parts of a heavy crossbow. The left half of his body looked like a peach that had been stepped on, with flesh and blood squeezed into a ball.
The heavy crossbow can cause damage to the eyes and some weak points of the mountain monster at the appropriate angle and distance. The hired workers obviously arranged the heavy crossbowman ambush for this purpose, and most of them succeeded. But the shooter did not escape the revenge of the mountain monster. Griffith searched around and found a huge rock not far away with traces of flesh and blood on it. It should have been used by the mountain monster to attack the shooter.
It's getting late. The moonlight shines on the open space at the edge of the Whispering Forest, as if admiring the tragedy in the forest.
