When the carriage finally made its way to the gates, Sid and Giggs, who were sitting in the coachman's seat, found a huge sign erected there, wrapped in tarpaulin. The tarpaulin acts as a piece of paper, on which a line of words is scribbled with dye:

"There are a large number of demonic beasts in the direction of Black Eagle City, and it is not recommended that teams with less than ten combatants go out of the city. ”

The words "ten" were pasted on paper, and it seemed that the number of warnings would be changed based on the information sent back by scouts outside the city. This kind of publicity has never been seen even by Ian and Sid, two people who have lived in the empire for a long time. It seems to be some kind of temporary measure that was only used after the Warcraft activity became rampant.

Giggs said: "I'm afraid we can't team up with outsiders for our mission, right?"

"Of course not. Sid shook his head.

"Ten people, four of us, are you scared of this level of pressure?" Jinx leaned in from behind and said to Giggs in a provocative tone.

"Hah!" said Giggs, laughing dryly, "if there is anything that I can run faster than this carriage, what am I afraid of?"

Everyone: "......"

With the slow flow of people, their carriage finally moved out of the city gates. Sid smiled: "Did you see the eyes of the city gate guards just now?"

"Well," Ian replied, "like a funeral." ”

As soon as he left the city gate, he immediately changed into his women's clothes, and reached out to wipe off the makeup that Jinx had given him in the morning. There were few people outside the city, and the four fields were quiet, and Jinx's screams and curses were particularly loud as she rescued the false eyelashes scattered everywhere in the carriage.

When the carriage ran fifty or sixty miles, the sharp-eyed Giggs noticed that there seemed to be a man standing on the side of the road not far away.

Unconsciously he tugged at the reins and slowed the carriage.

The man leaned against the sign at the crossroads, wore an off-white cloak, and had an inconspicuous sword at his waist. With his hands crossed over his chest, he looked as if he was waiting for someone.

In this kind of rumor and warcraft, a person waiting for someone in this wilderness?

When the carriage was about a hundred paces away from him, he seemed to notice the carriage and turned his head to look at it.

He wears a half-silver-white metal mask on his face, which covers the upper half of his face, leaving only the place for his eyes. Unlike Giggs's totemic and ritualistic mask, this metal mask is clearly only meant to conceal the face.

Both Giggs and Sid were wary, their backs tense.

When the man saw the carriage approaching, he got up and went up the road to meet them.

"Somebody leaned in. Sid gave an alert to the car behind.

"How many?"

"One. ”

The carriage was already approaching the man, and the man did not make any moves. Suddenly, he raised his hand and greeted them, shouting, "Is it someone from the Golden Tail Chamber of Commerce?"

Gigsla stopped the carriage and asked, "Who are you?"

"According to the guild rules, I can't show my face or reveal my name, so you can call me—" The man seemed to think, "Ould, that's the name." ”

Although it was clearly a fake name, the other party did not show hostility, and Giggs could not say anything, but asked, "What do you want when you stop my carriage?"

"Nothing, sir," the man bowed, "I am only a messenger, and I am speaking to Ian and Sid on behalf of your commissioner. Are they here?"

Sid looked at him deeply, and always felt as if he recognized this person, but because of the mask, he couldn't remember anything. After a while, he gave up and said in a deep voice, "Yes." ”

Ould nodded: "Due to the intensive activity of demonic beasts, you should have read the warnings issued by the guards when you left the city. Considering that the situation at the time when the commission was issued was different from the current situation, based on the information we had, I had to send me to change some of the details of the commission myself. ”

Ian listened to the man in the car, and only thought as if he had heard it somewhere, but he couldn't remember it as much as Sid. He tried to recall, hoping to find clues about the client through the recognition of this voice, after all, this anonymous commission was still very suspicious after all.

Unfortunately, he couldn't tell who the voice was all the while. Ould only briefly described what needed to be adjusted according to the actual situation, and then quickly left. The content that had been adjusted was the destination, and according to the information he had, their target had shifted from the Ash Forest to the Hunting Tooth Canyon further north.

Just hearing the name of this place, Giggs's brow furrowed.

Hunter's Tooth Canyon is named because of the topography. Looking down from the top of the mountain, the Hunting Tooth Canyon is a crack in the mountain, which repeatedly turns back at an almost turning angle, like the teeth of a hound.

The carriage faltered at the intersection, and Ian and his party disagreed about where to go next.

Giggs's opinion was to return directly to Oak Shield City and confirm the commission with the Mercenary Guild in Rubber Shield City before deciding, and Jinx unexpectedly did not contradict him this time. Ian insisted on following the trail, on the grounds that there was no need to change locations if the other party was going to set a trap. Sid had personally confirmed the guild emblem on the change of mandate application in Ould's hand, so he didn't think it was a problem to go directly to Hunter's Tooth Canyon.

"Do you know the terrain of Hunttooth Canyon?" asked Giggs.

"The canyon is long, the canine teeth are crisscrossed, and the road turns back and forth," Ian said, "I know." ”

"It's easy to get in and out, this kind of place is best for ambushes. Jinx reminded.

"But why move over there, if you want to ambush us, you can just do it in the Ash Forest. Ian insisted.

"Maybe their people don't think the original place is good, or maybe there's a boss in charge who thinks the ex is a piece of shit?" Giggs guessed, "God knows! ”

Sid also advised Ian at this time, "I know that you are in a hurry to follow the clues, and have decided that this commission has something to do with your previous encounter, but—" He glanced at Giggs and Jinx, "after all, we asked them to help, so it's better to be cautious, isn't it?"

Ian heard what Sid meant, and realized that his selfishness was trying to drag the two allies into a dangerous situation, and his face turned red.

But he still didn't give up, and he was unwilling to go home directly.

In the end, they came up with a solution: ignore Ould's invitation and continue to the original forest of ashes to explore first.

The carriage finally continued to run in the wilderness.

The Ash Forest is about a hundred stars east of the city, and it is easy to find. Although it is called the Ash Forest, this is not a forest that has been burned to the point of dead wood and ashes. On the contrary, if you look closely, you will find that it is full of intense life. It is named because of the year-round geothermal heat that flows from the ground here, and a white, hot mist swells everywhere. Deep in it is an active volcano, from which lava flows like a crimson stream that meanders through the forest.

The charred black soil is baked to the point that it loses moisture, is dry and fluffy. If it were an ordinary tree, it would have withered or burned down long ago, but there is only one kind of tree that makes up this forest: the Flame Tree.

Fire-leaved trees are naturally thermophilic and have extremely difficult trunks to burn. The trunk of each tree is not thick, and even if the lava flows through it, it will not be able to completely burn it. The heat was red, the cold was dark red, and streams of lava spread like cobwebs throughout the forest, and the only ones that were too close to the fire trees were the leaves and tiny branches that were too close to each other.

The ashes and white mist steam and fly, and the trees from the fire burn but do not wither, wither but do not die. Over and over again, the Ash Forest has given it such a name.

The slightest closer, the horses were reluctant to go any further, and to no avail of pushing, seemed to be very resistant to the scorching air and the warm, fluffy soil under their hooves. There was no way, Ian and they could only get out of the car and walk. Looking at the steaming heat in the forest, the fire on the ground, and the white mist drifting by, Sid frowned and said to himself, "This is not a good place to fight. ”

Giggs stomped on the soft ground and said, "It's not very good for running, but it's much easier than the deep snow on the snowy mountains." ”

Jinx propped up her umbrella, occasionally blocking away some of the dust embers that drifted in. She fanned her hand as if trying to drive away the heat, and then asked a little anxiously, "What are we looking for?"

"An anomalous beast—that's what the commission says. He said that when he met, he would know that God was mysterious. Giggs didn't know when he put on that strange mask again, "You are willing to accept such a suspicious commission." ”

The four of them were hesitating to go any deeper, when Giggs raised his index finger in front of his mouth, made a silent motion, and leaned over to put his ear to the ground.

Quickly, he stood up again and shouted, "Something, coming!" As he spoke, he had already drawn his short knife and put on a stance, "A lot!"

Naturally, the others formed a circle with their backs to their companions and drew their weapons one after another. In fact, as soon as Giggs's words fell, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet begin to tremble slightly, and it became more and more obvious, but for a moment they could not distinguish the specific direction.

The four of them, plus Zack embodied by Ian, five pairs of eyes watched warily around them, and anything that moved would instantly catch their eye. As the tremor under their feet grew stronger, they finally saw it.

In the depths of the ash forest, a group of demonic beasts with strange forms were rushing out of the forest from several different directions, running towards them. Ian squinted and glanced at the various strange monsters in his sight, some of them had seen and some of them had never seen them, but none of them seemed to meet the requirements if they could be called the strange monsters mentioned in the commission.

Jinx muttered, "Demon Swiftloon, Two-Headed Demon Wolf, Sawblade Mantis, Acid Erosion Beetle, Corrupt Dog...... What are those bugs?"

"Tooth Breaker, Piercer...... I've never seen one as big as a calf. Giggs said in a trembling voice.

"Who is this who uncovered the floor tiles of the Demon King's Palace?" Sid clenched his two-handed sword and moved nervously as he shifted his broken steps, sinking his body's center of gravity again.