In the darkness, the light of an oil lamp danced persistently, resisting the wind that poured in from nowhere, barely illuminating a small area around it. The wall behind it was made of strips of wood—or a patchwork of logs, perhaps beechwood, and it looked a little old, with insect spots and burnt marks everywhere.

By the dim light, Ian barely made out that he was in a room. My head is still muddy, and my eyes can't see clearly. There was a constant sound like a wave and the crunch of wood.

He tried to sit up, only to find himself tied to the bed. A feeling of dizziness hit him, and he fell asleep again.

I don't know how long it took, but Ian woke up again.

The oil lamp had been extinguished, and a hazy light was cast through the door. Another damn dizziness prompted him to close his eyes, only to find that the vertigo was not from his brain, but that he was really shaking! His five senses gradually recovered, and he noticed that the sound of the waves that came clearly from him was not his hallucination. Sniffed, the wind brought in from outside the door had a damp fishy smell.

If he guessed correctly, he should have been on a ship.

"Crunch-" The surrounding wood groaned in pain, reinforcing Ian's certainty that he was on a moving ship.

"Awake?" a voice suddenly came from the darkness in the corner, startling Ian.

The man leaned out of the shadows and lit the oil lamp.

The light of the dusk beating reappeared, illuminating half of the face.

"Danes?!" Ian recognized him.

"You remember me," Daynes grinned, "honored." ”

"Why did you kidnap me?" Ian asked, "what do you want?"

"I'm a dark mercenary," said Daenes, "and someone asked me to take you somewhere. ”

"You work for the falcon?" Ian's eyes lit up.

"Whoever pays, I work for—" added Daense, "I'm a dark mercenary. He took the trouble to emphasize his identity again, as if he was proud of the profession.

"Really?" Ian tilted his head, "How about this time, how about they give you how much money I will give you and I will send me back?"

"That's not going to work. Daynes laughed like a wolf, "Even if it's a dark mercenary, we still have to play by the rules. If you find out, you won't be able to mess around in the future. For your money, you can't afford to sacrifice all the gold coins in the future. Besides, if all the targets of the commission are like yours, then who wants to be an employer?"

Dayns thought for a moment, and then said, "But I can give you a little advice, as if we have a special favor with which we have a little friendship." Referring to the experience when they met during the Corpse Carp battle, Ian knew that it was the bitter fruit of his casual exposure of his identity. Obviously he was so cautious when he fled from Black Eagle City, why did he just leave the empire's sphere of influence and become reckless?

However, Ian now has no time to regret that he was so reckless and naïve to give his real name. Bribery doesn't seem to work, so you can only escape by your own strength.

Daynes continued: "How can you reveal your real name to strangers at will? I don't know what you think? You know what, the reason I didn't catch you right away is that I haven't received a definite commission yet. ”

"You knew the falcon was looking for me then?"

"I only know that someone is looking for you, and I don't know who it is - I don't really care. He spread his hands indifferently, and then looked at Ian with sharp eyes, "I advise you not to act rashly, after all, I know all those little tricks of yours." ”

Ian's face darkened.

Daenes' words were not a bluff. Ian had done almost everything he could to deal with the corpse carp, and he used his psychic fighting style to see it clearly from the sidelines. Although Dayns spoke in a relaxed tone, his hand had not left his scimitar from the moment Ian woke up. He knew that binding Ian didn't have much real effect, as Ian's battle relied on spirits to complete. Even if he is tied, he can always fight with a human spirit in human form behind him.

It wasn't until he saw Ian's expression at this moment that he relaxed a little.

Ian suddenly noticed that he was covered with a thick blanket, and realized that the air was so cold.

"We're up north?" he asked, frowning.

"We are at sea. Daynes laughed again, his smile full of cunning and pride, "It's safer to walk from the sea." ”

"You're afraid of the war-scarred people coming to me, right?" Ian asked dismissively.

"I'm just afraid of wasting my time and delaying my earnings. Dayns stubbornly responded to the provocation, "The battle scars are nothing more than that, the three of you are by your side, and they haven't been hit by me yet, and they don't even have a chance to fight." ”

"You're just taking advantage of someone's danger. Ian said disdainfully, "If you fight alone, you're afraid you won't even be able to win against Sid." ”

Daynes was silent for a while, and then suddenly smiled: "It's not interesting to quarrel, anyway, the result is that you are here now, and I won." ”

"But I would like to ask," he said, standing up to leave, "why didn't you follow the instructions of the entrusted agent and go to Hunting Tooth Canyon?"

"Is that really your trap?" Ian looked up, his eyes tired but clear, "It seems that you are not acting alone. But in the face of the four Scars who had just finished a big battle, you—you, still didn't dare to go head-to-head. So you have up to two companions, maybe...... There's even only one, the guy who wears a mask and pretends to be an agent to arraign, right?"

Daynes gave him a cold look, resisted his urge to continue talking, and strode out.

At this time, Sid, who had just come out of the tent, called out to Giggs and Jinx, and then the three of them were surprised to see Zack's spirit, and wrote a few words on the ground with their swords crookedly: Ice Sea, two or three people, Daens.

Moments before being taken captive and unconscious, Ian manifested Zack beside Jinx. He'd been able to keep Zach in his sleep, but he wasn't sure if he could do the same while forced into a coma. At that time, everything happened too suddenly, he just made such a judgment and attempt based on instinct, but he didn't expect it to really take effect. Zach didn't disappear with Ian's coma, and even though he was far away at sea by this time, Zach hadn't dissipated.

"On the sea," Giggs cried in a low voice, "north! ”

"I think I'm planning to return to the Empire by sea—" Sid continued, "I've heard that the three northern counties have fallen into the hands of the Empire." ”

"That makes sense," Jinx looked at Zach's spirit, "but whatever you're going to do next, you'd better hurry up and decide." She gestured to Zach's feet, "The spirits are starting to get a little unstable. ”

"Ian is supposed to have been knocked unconscious and taken away, but the spirit he left behind shows no signs of dissipating......"

"That means," Sid said, carrying the greatsword to his back, "that he's a little far away from us. ”

Ian could tell the time by the dim light outside the door – if it was a white glimmer with the sound of seagulls, it was daytime, and if it was a dusk glimmer and the surroundings were quiet, it was night.

It's been two full days since he sailed, and with the time he's been unconscious, maybe it's been the third day since he was attacked.

But Zach hadn't dissipated yet, and he could feel someone leading Zach on his way. His corpse carp cloak and sword were taken away, and the loss of psychic power generated by the embodied Zack increased as the distance increased, which he could only replenish by long sleep. Danes didn't know this, thinking that Ian had given up resistance and just lay in the cabin every day in good spirits.

The boat that Ian was holding was not large, it was supposed to be an offshore fishing boat or something. Daynes had apparently chartered the ship by some shady means, and it was manned but certainly not in many numbers, for the noise of the sailors could rarely be heard outside. There were also people who cooked, but they didn't show up, and were only delivered to Ian's cabin by Dayns himself.

In the evening, the ship suddenly stopped.

Ian heard the bells of the port call to close, the chirping of seabirds, and the sporadic noise of people in the distance. But it wasn't until all the voices fell silent and it was completely dark that Dayns walked in from outside and untied Ian's rope.

"Let's go. He pulled Ian up, but tied ropes around his hands, and then put on a cloak that would cover his hands.

"Where to go?" asked Ian.

"You're a VIP, how can you keep crossing the sea in such a small cabin?" Dayns unceremoniously shoved Ian from behind, urging him to quicken his pace.

Walking out of the hatch, Ian took a deep breath and spat out heavily. For the past few days, I have been confined to the small dark room of the cabin, and the air is not circulating. At this time, I breathed in the cold but fresh air outside, and my mind suddenly became clear. He glanced at his surroundings, and although it was already dark, he could still make out the features of the port. On top of that, the architectural style of the port docks is not Empireal, which suggests that he may not have left the Commonwealth.

"Over there. Dayns stepped up, grabbed Ian's left arm with his right hand, and bowed to the big boat on the other side of the dock, then pushed Ian up.

The wharf is occasionally littered with passers-by, some looking fishermen and others workers.

"Don't be silent," Dayns whispered, noticing Ian's glance at the passers-by, "for your own good." ”

Ian nodded silently, staggering forward. He hadn't gotten out of bed much these days, and he felt a little stiff in his legs and feet.

In the distance, two people, tall and short, walked towards them, both wrapped in heavy leather cloth robes, with hoods over their heads, and their faces could not be seen clearly. But from afar, they could be vaguely heard arguing, and it was only when they noticed Ian and Dayns that they deliberately stopped talking.

Ian looked up at them and saw that both of them had a sword behind their backs. The blacksmith's instinct made him look twice, and he searched quickly in his mind, but he couldn't remember any information about this weapon. In the continent of Tivak, most of the weapon types are documented, including how they are minted and how good they are in battle. So who are these two?

No, it doesn't matter what weapon is used. Important: they are swordsmen.

The moment the two men passed Ian's side, the boy slammed into the short swordsman closest to him. Dayns didn't expect that Ian, who had been stumbling all the time, and Ian, who seemed to be weak and weak, could suddenly use such a lot of strength and didn't hold it for a while. But the swordsman was agile, and somehow he dodged, and Ian didn't even touch him, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

The man drew his sword with a swipe and shouted in a shrill voice, "What man!"

It turned out to be a woman.

She was about to attack, but she heard the young man who fell to the ground in front of her shouting: "Help!