With memories of the past, Thor cautiously navigated the alleys that crisscrossed him.

He lowered his head slightly, only half of his nose and the corners of his mouth were slightly pursed under the wide hood, and his hands hidden under the cloak clenched the dagger at his waist to ensure that he could show his weapon and do what he could in the event of an emergency.

This makes Thor's whole person look a little mysterious, like an inscrutable magician, and like a devout believer who is walking towards God's guidance.

The lanes are not a single straight line, sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, sometimes winding, and occasionally intersections.

In the past, except for the usual trivial things like murder and robbery, there were always all kinds of strange rumors about these lanes.

Some say that piles of gold coins are buried under a certain pool of garbage, and others say that women and children often cry from the depths of the alley, but they don't seem to be human voices.

In Saul's limited memory, there were always poor people in ragged clothes huddled in the alleys, and from time to time a rugged man could be seen holding a woman who had negotiated a price against the wall.

Occasionally, someone would hide in the dark, and when the enemy passed by, he would suddenly jump out and put a broken pocket on the other's head, and then calmly beat the other's head with a blacksmith's hammer into a shape that he was satisfied with.

Today, after the famine, these people are gone.

The air in the alleyways was filthy, with the smell of feces and decay.

As his footsteps migrated, something kept coming into Thor's field of vision.

A tattered crockpot in the corner, a cracked slurry basin, a beach of stagnant water and garbage, or a dead body of flies and insects.

These things are not clear in the gray background, and at first they seem to be just a blur of black shadows, and it often takes a distance of about three or four steps to see the general outline.

Instead of concentrating on distinguishing everything he sees, Thor is more focused on pricking up his ears to catch the various sounds. Past experience has taught him that hearing may be more reliable than vision in this environment.

From time to time there would be a variety of small noises in the darkness, hallucinating and flickering, like gnawing sounds, like the friction of something dragging on the ground. Listen carefully, but there is only an oppressive silence.

The most tiring thing about going out to search is not the distance, but the mental pressure.

Every time I walk alone in the dark, my heart will involuntarily fall into a state of restlessness, as if it wants to jump out of my throat at any moment, or rush in my chest as if I can't find a way out.

As the silence around him drowned itself out like a tidal wave, Thor always felt that after he passed, countless pairs of scarlet eyes would light up in the darkness behind him, and something was ready to pounce on him and commit the oldest sin with the latest methods.

Uncontrollable hallucinations and autosuggestion keep the spirit like a tight bowstring, ready to break at any moment.

“！”

A vague black shadow suddenly flew through Thor's field of vision, silently and fleetingly.

Thor's whole body trembled suddenly, and at the same time he quickly flashed his dagger in front of him, and in his panic, he cut a gap in his beloved cloak.

This sudden moment made him feel as if his heart, which was still beating wildly, was suddenly captured, clenched, and almost pinched by an invisible hand.

“...... Damn it!"

After a suffocating wait in place, Thor cursed inwardly, slowly relieving himself from his sculptural stiffness.

Dogs always like to express their emotions by barking, which makes them as conspicuous as unclothed beauties after famine.

Most of the dogs in Grey Curtain have gone into someone else's belly these days, but there is no doubt that there are certainly some low-key cats that have survived.

It was clearly a cat just now, and judging by the fact that it was still in a sturdy state, the guy seemed to be doing well.

Just as Thor wiped his cold sweat and was about to move on, his eyes suddenly widened in horror, and he suddenly covered his subconsciously open mouth, and his whole person trembled a little.

On the ground in front of them, a dark shadow was moving through Thul's field of vision at an unfast or slow pace, and a moment later disappeared into the wall on the side of the alleyway.

The shadow looked like a dirty puddle of stagnant water on the ground, with waves on its surface from time to time, silently moving forward until it vanished through the walls.

......!?What the hell is that?Can you go through walls like a ghost?The monster in the wilderness has come to town?Is it chasing the cat?Has it spotted me?

There were countless questions jumping in his mind in an instant, but Thor's poor experience was destined to be unanswered, and he couldn't even find a way to find a statement that fit his own perception.

Thor has spent most of his energy guarding his own kind every time he goes out since the Famine, and he has always believed that the greatest danger now comes from his own kind.

Standing in the darkness at this moment, Thor suddenly felt a little overwhelmed, maybe today was not a good day, the dry well where he was accommodating seemed to send out a warm call behind him, making him feel the urge to turn around and flee back immediately.

It's a pity that Thor knows that he has long since lost the capital to retreat, if he can't find food today...... No matter what lies in the darkness ahead, the ending is actually the same, it's just a different way of dying.

Smiling sadly, he pulled his hood and stepped forward again.

There were stops and stops along the way, and finally penetrated the end of the alleyway and stepped onto the main street.

At this moment, a terrible scream suddenly came from a certain direction behind him.

The voice sounded distant, tearing in a tone that seemed to be that of a woman, or perhaps a man, but more like the frightened hiss of a strange bird suddenly pinched on its buttocks, pulling a series of hollow echoes over the silent town.

Thor turned back to his head in silence.

The darkness behind us is still boundless, and not everyone will have a tomorrow.

People walk blindly in the dark like ants, and whoever meets whom, is just luck.

——————

A rusted sign stands alone at the fork in the main street, looking like a lonely tombstone in the dark.

It used to be a bustling place with all kinds of people.

During times of stability, the Tribune will post important matters in Grey Curtain Town on a notice board, and the guilds will post recruitment matters here, and occasionally there will be some risky requests that the factions can't solve on their own but are well paid.

Thor floated silently under the sign like a ghost.

Continue along the main street and you will enter the northern district of Grey Curtain Town.

The so-called main street is actually just a common dirt road, and the potholes are silted with pools of dirty water all day long, whether it's rainy or dry. When vegetable leaves and garbage are soaked in stagnant water, they emit a sewer-like smell.

Even so, the street remains one of the most important components of Grey Curtain Town. In addition to being more spacious, it runs almost the entire length of the town, with streets at both ends reaching the north and south ends.

Grey Curtain Town is roughly divided into two areas: north and south.

Most of the wealthy and shops are concentrated in the northern district, while the south is the bitter kiln of the poor.

When the famine hit, the shops on both sides of the streets of the North End became the first places to be frequented by the marauders.

On those occasions when he spoke by strength, Thor was not even qualified to be an onlooker, so he only dared to wander the slums in the south, and only dared to sneak to the north to try his luck until a few months later.

As expected, the main street is now empty and deserted, and some of the shops along the way have long since been smashed open.

After searching two stores and finding nothing, Thor wasn't too frustrated. In fact, he himself did not expect much, and now most of the food has long since spoiled or completely spoiled and cannot be eaten, and everything is a matter of luck.

The real bad news was that Thor began to feel the vertigo in his consciousness increase, his body began to twitch uncontrollably and twitch in small increments, the rhythm of his heartbeat was amplified exponentially in his head, and it was like someone was beating a war drum in his ears.

From the experience of the long struggle against hunger, Thor knew that if he didn't eat something, he might faint at any time, and then maybe there would be no more.

In a house with an open door, Thor finally found two dried sweet potatoes crawling with ants.

This low-quality coarse grain, which has been air-dried, can be stored for a long time and is also easy to accompany meals, which is very popular with the poor.

They lay quietly on the floor next to a small round table, and perhaps it was this unexpected flamboyance that allowed them to escape search in the dark. Thor wouldn't have noticed them if he hadn't accidentally stepped on a few trays of spoiled leftovers on the small round table when he got closer.

Faced with the food that is close at hand, hunger is like a beast that wants to break out at any moment.

Thor quickly brushed away the dust and bugs from the surface and then took a hard bite, but once the food was in his mouth, he tried to slow down his chewing speed so as not to choke on the food that had already lost its moisture, or damage his stomach from swallowing too violently.

After destroying this poor miscellaneous grain, the hunger in the body was ignited.

Thor's expression was a little hideous, trying his best to suppress the urge in his heart to devour everything, unplugging the water bag and pouring a few mouthfuls of water, he returned to the street after a short rest.

Looking through the empty street, you can see a few lights floating in the darkness of the North District.

In fact, Thor has always known that as long as he walks into the area where the light shines, he can find the living.

One of them must be Mayor Elton's mansion.

From the very beginning of the plague, this shrewd old scoundrel has gathered a legion of vicious mercenaries to entrench around his dwelling, to be used against any poor man who dares to approach or covets it.

There is also a tavern that must be the "Golden Rose".

There are some real ruthless people, strong tramps, crazy people who are ready to screw off someone's head at any moment.

Of course, there are also bewitching prostitutes and women who are good at greeting, and it seems that they can live well at any time.

In addition to these forces on the surface, Thor knew that there were other beings hidden in that light.

For example, mercenary guilds, swordsman guilds, powerful families in some small towns, or bandit groups that thrive in the dark.

At any given time, force always allows them to possess more resources and sustain them longer. With swords and shields in hand, they are never afraid of any armed forces.

For Thor, it's another world, and it has nothing to do with him.

Although hunger and death tend to favor the poor, it is a pity that he is not even poor.

Thor knew that he wasn't lucky enough to meet good people, and he wasn't sure that he would be able to maneuver through all the malice, so he would rather struggle to die in his own way than put his life in the hands of those madmen.

Shaking his head, feeling that he could support him to walk for another while, Thor suddenly had a bold idea in his heart.

He stood in the darkness and stared at the lighted area for a moment, then began to search as he cautiously approached the area.

At the end of the main street, Thor stopped in front of a shop, not far from the lighted area.

It's a lot like risking your way to the door of a dragon's lair to pick herbs, and either you eat the herbs or the dragon eats you.

The door of the shop in front of me was long gone, and the black doorway was like a hungry mouth.

Looking up slightly, you can see half an iron rod sticking out of the rough sandstone wall by the lintel, on which hung a rusty iron plaque with a potion bottle painted on it, like a tattered flag, and occasionally making a tooth-aching sound under the arch of the wind.

Apparently, it was once a drugstore.

Every year, the monastery drives older orphans into town to help the shops.

Ostensibly so that the orphans could learn some of the trades of living after leaving the monastery, in reality the orphans' remuneration went into the pockets of the clergy.

Before the plague, Thor was an apprentice at the apothecary. It is said that it is an apprentice, but it is actually similar to a miscellaneous servant.

The owner was an old man named Buddy Moore, with deep wrinkles written on his face full of cunning and indifference.

He always sat quietly behind the counter and watched everyone who walked into the shop coldly, until the other party offered a price that was roughly satisfactory to him, and the corners of his old and ugly mouth would curl into a gloomy and silent sneer.

In the past, there were no real pharmacists in remote rural places like Grey Curtain Town.

Adventurers, if badly injured, either lie in the wilderness and wait for death, or struggle back into town to be coaxed into eating some weeds by some scammers who claim to be healers.

It was only after Buddy Moore Sr. came to town that the situation gradually changed.

As a result, the apothecary business is always full of people, and it's easy for no one to mess with Buddy Moore, the only pharmacist in town, even if he seems to be just a weak old bastard.

The old fellow seldom spoke, and he never looked at Thor with the help of all kinds of labor.

And even if there were, it was just watching a dog waiting for leftovers.

In the past, every time he dispensed a potion, Buddy Moore would kick Thor out the door in time to do some trivial chores.

At this time, Thor could only try to recall the existing stock of various herbs and finished potions in the store, and then compare the consumption of herb materials later with the new potions on the shelves, and then silently analyze the results in his heart.

Of course, pharmacy is certainly not something that can be mastered with a little cleverness, and even if you roughly guess the type of herbs needed to prepare a certain medicine, it will take countless attempts to refine the herbs and the proportion of juices.

Everything will take time.

For Saul, if he can get involved in the field of pharmacy, even if he only learns a little bit, he will definitely have more confidence in his future survival in this miserable world.

Unfortunately, a sudden outbreak of the plague disrupted Thor's plans, and he had to return to the monastery.