The group entered the tower of Gujian Fort and went through a secret passage to the storage room. Tools for the maintenance of the complex machinery of suspension bridges and gates are stored here, such as anti-rust and lubricating oils, pastes to prevent icing, and replacement parts.

The corpse lay on the ground, curled up as if asleep. Due to its withered body, the leather armor appeared large on its body, like a cocoon with no protective power. In addition to the striking flail and parchment, a brand new dagger lay not far from the hand, still in its scabbard. The blade is as good as new, and there is no trace of use.

There are many spaces in the corners for chests, many of which are large wooden boxes covered with iron sheets. Scratches can be seen that have been tried to pry open, but none of them have succeeded. A comparison of the scratches and the wear on the scabbard of the dagger showed that the two were perfectly matched. It seems that there are no tools at hand, so the person hiding inside is unable to get help from the box.

"From the seal here, there are chains, pulleys, and ropes inside. Tron checked the box with Fitch's re-lit orb of light. "There are quite a few of them, and there are more than 200 meters of chains. ”

Since ropes and chains can do so much, it is impossible to infer the intentions of the deceased. Feige removed the flail, picked up the parchment, and blew the dust off the surface. The ink on the parchment was barely visible, but thanks to the writer's use of the quill pen, they were able to read along the indentation and still be able to make out most of the handwriting.

Fitch frowned, first skimmed through it, guessed the gist of the easily recognizable words, and then perused sentence by sentence:

"I'm Tommy Turner, and this is my indictment! Hood is no longer the Hood he once was, he has lost his faith and become an evil and depraved monster! Khakitt is dead, Doan is dead, and Pence, Isika, Jamie, etc., he is the one who killed him. ”

"Ever since the snowfall, something has been wrong with Hood, and he has been locked in the house all day without anyone or anything. After the snow melted, he was already very irritable, often losing his temper and talking nonsense. After hearing that there were people in the Ice Peak Fortress going into the mountains to hunt, he sent everyone to patrol in batches, but of the five people who went, only two came back alive, and both were injured. ”

"It's all a monster with black wings and extremely fast speed that attacked them, we just didn't expect that monster to be Hood, and we entrusted the wounded to him for treatment. The result was tragic, and the most combat-ready monster hunters died like that. ”

"When he was sick and didn't see the paladin, I was alarmed, and I deliberately ate a bad stomach and stayed in the castle. I found out that Hood had suddenly disappeared on the third day after the patrol had left, for a whole day. I was about to write a letter with a raven, but when I got to the raven's nest, I found that there was not a single one in it, and all of them had been sent out. ”

"The horses in the stables were in terrible condition, Hood was elusive again, and I was trapped. On the day of the Great Prophecy, I kept asking him to personally participate in the ceremony and fight for the lordship's position, hoping that the Great Divine Art would expose his disguise, which seemed to arouse his alarm. He participated in the Great Prophecy with the Probationary Priest Doan before declaring himself a lord. ”

"Aiden died three days later, and Hood sold a lot of knighthoods. He put the silver coins away, and I don't know what to do with them, but I knew he was going to start doing evil. ”

"I'm just a clerk and can't beat him, but I'm hiding and observing. The monster was so fast that it couldn't catch up with its eyes, and the crossbow bolts couldn't hit at all. It was not afraid of lightning, and the castle's protective magic slashed at it, with only minor wounds. I've tried setting fires, but the results are also very poor. ”

Feige frowned, almost on the paper. "The words are very shallow, and they may be written very quickly. So he used the Eagle School meditation technique to enhance his perception and continued reading.

Jamie tried to ride away, and his headless body was carried back by the monster. I found that the monster sucks blood, and it is very dependent on liquids. I now understand why the wine is lost in the winter and the water in the well in the castle is reduced......"

Then, the font suddenly became particularly messy, and Feige pressed the parchment to the bridge of his nose, and when he looked at it from the side, he could only make out part of it: "The monster is coming...... Then it's hiding. Yes, it's hiding. It says May 3rd, and it found me. But it won't open the door, it seems...... It's completely dead. Oh, it should be Hood who is completely dead. He wrote these two words very hard, and the words were messed up. What's the back? Should you use ice...... It actually comes in winter, but it's afraid of the cold. Ice can kill it. Well, that's the end of the writing. Feige sighed.

In other words, Hood was affected by something in the winter, and then it all happened. That monster is Hood?" Tron rubbed his forehead: "Wings can fly, fast, blood-sucking black shadow, can still act as Hood, is it a vampire?"

Chaud shook his head, "But can vampires act during the day, won't the sun burn them to death?"

"Some vampires don't. "The sun doesn't burn vampires, but it does induce malignant sepsis in them," Tron explains. Generally, vampires do not have the ability and conditions to choose blood sources, so they have a lot of internal conflicts in their bodies, and once they are exposed to the sun, they will begin to get sick and gradually weaken and die. However, some vampires are hiding, find a way to distinguish and filter the blood, maintain balance, and are not afraid of the sun. We call them high-level vampires. ”

"Or alchemical vampires. Feige added, "According to church sources, this type of vampire mainly uses alchemy for purification. However, vampires are afraid of fire and cannot withstand lightning strikes, which does not match the parchment records. ”

"It's weird. Fire prevention, lightning protection, crossbow arrows miss, and flying, how can you fight it? No wonder the monster hunters in Gujian Fort have all failed. Tron paced around the room, frowning.

"We're so lucky, we're here to make it here, and there's parchment to look at. Feige looked around, then asked, "Still, how did this man die, and how did he dry up?"

"Here," Chauddo pointed to the door with his foot. "Look, there's a rat hole here, pasted with mud, but it's been dug up again. This is the only channel I've found. ”

Qiao Duo had a lot of skills in trapping, and he examined it carefully and said that there was only one small opening, and there was really only such one. Everyone looked at the rat hole, which was no bigger than a fist, and couldn't imagine how the monster could show its strength from this position and kill the clerk. Feige suddenly thought of something, and almost lay down on the corpse to examine.

"He was sucked dry, his blood and fluids were almost gone, but I didn't see the wound. Even mosquitoes have small holes in their blood, so it should not be some kind of entity that causes it to die, but a spell, or something like that. ”

"Can you spell??What kind of spell is so vicious?And most importantly, how do we deal with it?" Tron tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

"Uh...... Let me think. Feige licked his lips and began to think. This monster is annoying, can fly, is fast, and these two points alone are already troublesome. According to parchment records, even those who left on horseback were caught, meaning that escaping was not a good option.

"First of all, we're going to use crossbow arrows. Although the bows and arrows of Gujian Fort failed to achieve results, the Eagle School was the best crossbow shooter. Note that the monster dodges the arrows, rather than taking them like the flames and lightning, indicating that the weapon is still harmful. ”

As Feige said this, he saw that Tron's frown loosened slightly. "And then, is there anything else?" he asked.

"That monster is fast, but probably not good at using power. You see, the door to this room is ordinary, just a wooden door reinforced with iron bars, with latches and chains. Let's take a look at the black shadow, which is twice our size. It stands to reason that it is not difficult to find an axe in the castle and smash the gate directly, right? Even without an axe, the impact can cause enough damage. But you see, this door is intact. ”

"So what?" Tron asked.

"So, it's about speed, not speed. If you encounter it, don't panic. Let's go back to back, trust each other, defend the front with our own weapons, and concentrate our forces to use. You must not act alone, even if you have a global vision, no one has the ability to protect the whole world. ”

"Yes, no one can act alone. Qiao Duo glared at the girls and said very seriously.

"And then there's the ice...... Let's believe that thunder and fire are very ineffective, and only ice can kill effectively. But ......"

"But what? Feige, can you make ice?"

"Yes, yes, but it's cumbersome. Feige scratched his head: "I just thought about it, and the most difficult thing to solve is the ice problem. This monster is fast and can avoid arrows, which is fine. As long as it stays for a while, I put the Locking Magic Eye on it, and I don't have to worry about aiming. But among the elements, lightning can be made with divine magic, which is good and fast, fire is not difficult, and acid can be made with alchemy - ice is the most troublesome. I've been trying to refine ice-related runes, but the shortest ice-related spells I've known of are forty-seven. The more runes, the more mana I consume. I couldn't support a few spells before I fell, and the ice I made was probably not even able to kill me. ”

"So your fireball was extracted from a few runic spells?"

"The fireball's baseline spell is the Flammable Curse: HAaR rhec dhegaan dhegaan dekhuur tuulaan shogaan, seven compound runes. Combined with other spells, I distilled it into a three-rune structure, which I was able to achieve with a magic matrix. ”

"So, you need a shorter rune spell on ice that you can refine?"

"Jord, if you have, please let me know. I might be able to distill it. ”

“shori pandryl myr tyr aili val thalol。 Chaud said. "I've seen this spell, ice picks rain from the sky, it's scary. The caster recited it many, many times, like singing, and I remembered it. I've tried this spell too, but unfortunately it doesn't work. ”

"Wait a minute, I'll remember. Feige lifted his homemade armored vest and pulled the book out of his lower back. When opened, it was full of dense spells. He copied almost all the spells in the library, including the "evil spells" in the Silver Seal Magic Book—which was a violation, but luckily Tron couldn't see it, and the others wouldn't say it.

Following the tab on the page, he found the section on "Basic Elements: Ice". Looking left and right, he tore off a piece of the clerk's parchment, wrote down the newly acquired spell, and began to compare the ice spells he had recorded earlier. Find similar and related structures, and he will mark them.

"Chaultie, you found me the key. Not only the runes of the spell itself, but also the description of the effect of the rain of ice picks from the sky is also crucial. Feige wrote and calculated, and what he wrote and calculated was incomprehensible to everyone, including Chaud who had already begun to learn the theory of magic. However, Chaud watched and memorized hard, and Feige showed him generously, occasionally explaining a few sentences.

Just then, a low roar came from outside the house, sounding like a bear. The monster seemed to be announcing: the hunt has begun.