And in the dark pool behind them, a huge fish mouth surfaced at some point, waiting for Roger's arrival with its mouth wide open.

That mouth Ian couldn't be more familiar.

A black mist swirled around its skin, stale, tattered skin dangling from its lips, and its body was covered in gray plaque and black sludge. The huge fish's mouth was covered with jagged, fine, fangs, and a faint purple glimmer from the depths of its throat.

Corpse carp. This amphibious beast, which is recorded as a scavenging beast, is actually like a pet raised by that strange creature at this moment, obediently waiting for the bait dropped by the owner.

Ian hurried towards Roger's fallen heavy crossbow and picked it up and fired an arrow into the corpse carp's open mouth. The arrow went straight into its throat, and there was a muffled pop.

The corpse carp let out a familiar and strange roar, and with a violent churn, the black water splashed in all directions, and then disappeared into the pool. Seeing that the corpse carp did not rush to shore immediately, Ian breathed a sigh of relief—otherwise he would be in a situation where he would be attacked on his back.

However, Roger still did not come to his senses. Although the roar of the corpse carp was amplified several times more in the cave, causing eardrums to tingle, he still calmly and slowly moved deeper into the waterhole. Ian embodied Zach, grabbed Roger by the collar from behind, and threw him hard at the shore.

With a thud, Rogerson stumbled loosely to the ground. He got to his feet and shook his head vigorously, his eyes lit up with a clear pale blue vision, and then his eyes recovered from his sluggishness.

"Damn it......," Roger muttered, "almost hit its way." ”

"Not a handicap. Ian corrected him in a deep voice.

Roger's face changed, and he took Ian's heavy crossbow and re-aimed at the strange creature in front of them.

The guy didn't see any annoyance or disappointment on his face when he saw that Roger hadn't been eaten—it had no expression from beginning to end, it should be said.

Roger noticed that the other seemed to be observing them, and the two large eyes were once again to the left and right, and at the same time kept moving. The two of them were now more distant from each other than they were when they first came ashore, so the creature's two eyeballs were more apart.

"Spirituality. It held out two hands at the same time, pointing at Ian and Roger, "Psychics." ”

It pointed to itself again: "Same." Then, suddenly, he clapped his hands like a child.

"It's representing...... Happy?" Ian asked Roger, confused, and cold and monotonous applause echoed through the cave.

"The devil knows......" Roger shook his head vigorously, still a little dizzy, "Be careful." You go first, I'll cover you. He re-tensed the bowstring on his crossbow, as well as his nerves. It is a great shame for a mercenary to let a magical beast use the fluctuations of spiritual power to invade his spiritual world, or even be completely manipulated.

If Ian hadn't thrown him back to shore just now and given him a chance to come to his senses, the consequences would have been ...... I thought about it with my toes, too.

Ian shifted his feet slightly, staggering Zach's position a bit, ready to pinch from two different angles at the same time. For such an opponent whose abilities are unknown or even unknown, it is certainly the safest thing to do with one blow.

But just as he was holding his breath and preparing to leap forward with Zack, the strange creature stopped clapping his hands and said, "Same." Friend. Companion. ”

Ian and Roger were stunned at the same time. Is this because seeing their psychic powers makes Ian and Roger think of them as the same kind?

"Don't listen to it," Roger immediately shook off the thought and snapped a reminder, "It's a trick of the Monster......

But before he could finish his sentence, the creature turned its back on them, swaggering unconcernedly, and went deeper into the depths.

"It's going to run!" Roger hurriedly caught up a few steps. The creature was already at the edge of their light range, and as soon as it turned, it fled into the darkness.

But it didn't run, it just walked unhurriedly deeper into the cave.

"Come on. It said, "Look, treasure, mine." ”

“...... It's going to show us its treasures?" a greedy look appeared in Roger's eyes. Just now he was reminding Ian to be careful, but now he has lowered the heavy crossbow in his hand.

Ian winked at him, and the two followed, keeping the creature within their lighting range at all times. The cavern didn't seem to be very deep, and it didn't take long for the creatures in front of it to stop, then turn, waving their hands awkwardly, as if to signal them to come closer.

Ian and Roger cautiously took a few more steps, and the light shone on the stone wall behind the creature.

"I was expecting it," Roger said angrily, "it's stupid." ”

Ian's eyes widened.

The stone wall was obviously the end of the cave. It's just that the strange creature under the stone wall is surrounded by piles of stones, leaning against the stone barrier, posed like a human, and looks more like a child. Each "child" wears a set of human children's clothing. Judging by the style and style, it is from the Empire. The most horrific thing is the human skeleton that is stuck together with the rocks.

These corpses are the reason for the smell of fishiness and decay that permeates the area.

"Baby. The creature said, "Collect." There was no emotion in its eyes or expressions, but the meaning of the words was clearly proud and ostentatious.

Roger whispered, "It seems that those children ......" He swept his eyes and quickly counted the stones on his clothes, a total of nineteen piles, nineteen different sets of clothes.

Ian's eyes lit up, and he saw a pair of children's feet sticking out of the darkness in the corner. Look at the posture should be lying down.

He walked briskly, leaving Zach on guard for his blind spot, but the creature didn't do anything.

This is indeed a child, it must be the twentieth child who was taken away tonight, Wendy.

Venti was drenched and lay silently on her back, seemingly unconscious. Touched his nose and was still alive. Ian breathed a sigh of relief.

"That," the creature looked at Ian, still expressionless, "not alright, want?"

"Yes. Ian responded for the first time. Roger stared at them nervously, unsure if Ian would be subjected to some strange trick for talking to it.

The creature grabbed a stone from the ground and strode towards the child and Ian. Roger and Ian immediately sensed its intentions, and their hearts immediately lifted—

"No," Ian held out his palm to stop it, "No. ”

The creature paused, as if lost in thought, and looked at Ian in confusion. It has no expression, but its behavior at this time gives the people around it such an illusion.

Ian glanced at the nineteen piles of clothed stones, and a conjecture flashed through his mind. He slowly crouched down, leaned over and took off Wendy's shirt and pants, and threw it to the creature. The creature caught it quickly, quickly put away its clothes, and looked at Ian strangely.

Ian pointed at Wendy, "I want this." ”

The creature shook its head at Ian, "Ugly." Then he raised the child's clothes in his hand, "Pretty, collectible." ”

Now even Roger, who has never seen the clue on the side, also understands. The strange creature used its psychic powers to control the children to sneak out of the house and into the bottom of the lake in order to collect the children's clothing. It's just that this guy doesn't have human emotions and reason, and for it, except for children's clothes, they are all things that are not needed, so most of them sent them to feed the corpse carp like they did before controlling Roger. However, judging from the skillful way it picked up the stone and walked towards the child, it is not impossible that it killed the child with its own hands.

There were not enough stones to build in the cave, so he went to the bottom of the river to find it, and easily collected the bones of the children who had spit out or excreted the carp. Only in this way can it be explained that there is hardly any blood in the cave, but there are so many bones.

Ian handed Wendy to Roger, "You send the kid back." ”

Roger didn't immediately reach out and asked, "What about you?"

"I'm going to take it to the Mercenary Guild. Ian glanced at the creature.

"You're crazy, how can you take it, we should kill it right now!" Roger's eyes were fierce.

"We don't even know what it is. If it's a ...... of Warcraft," Ian said slowly, "I'm afraid the world is going to tremble." Kill it here, and you won't be able to find out anything. ”

"What's the hell?!" Roger still vehemently objected, gritting his teeth and whispering, "Our mission is only to find out the source of the curse. ”

"I need to know," Ian no longer explained, "I have to figure it out." ”

If the Empire may also have intelligence, then what the Empire is doing is giving birth to these new species with intelligence, does the Empire know this? If Zack's death was related to the Empire's experiments on psychics, is the current flood of Monsters and the emergence of new species also related to their experiments? Is the Empire trying to create these species? Or did these creatures already exist, even before recorded human history?

There were so many questions that Ian couldn't figure it out for a moment. I just vaguely feel that we shouldn't attack hastily. In particular, the other party showed strange and rare psychic skills, and in this small, confined and unknown top-secret space, Ian thought that launching an attack was not their best choice.

Besides—he looked at the deep black water—God knows if the corpse carp would have heeded its call and rushed out to attack them.

Finally, Roger took Wendy and carried it on his shoulder.

"You don't look like a mercenary at all. Roger scoffed.

Ian smiled faintly and walked back to the creature.

In his judgment, this creature did not possess advanced intelligence, and it was not just because he did not have a command of language, but because he did have an intelligence comparable to that of a young child. It wants what it wants, and no one has taught it what is right and what is wrong, as well as the morality, glory and sin of the human world. Now the only way to get it out of this cave with itself is ...... Lie.

"Barn," Ian pointed to himself, gesturing, "know, more, pretty." Take you there. ”

Roger watched helplessly as he spoke like a fool, but he didn't expect the creature to understand.

It hesitated for a moment, gesturing and asking, "Far away?"

"Near!" Ian replied without hesitation.

"Water," said the creature, "no water, no." ”

"Water, yes. Ian continued to persuade in a way that the other party understood.

Finally, the creature seemed to make up its mind: "Agreed." Walk, swim. ”