—4E, 201, Last Seed, 17th, 14:00 —

The wind was cold and the snow was flying.

Since Skyrim Province was originally located on a plateau, the location of the Cold Falling Mountain Peak was only more than 200 meters higher than Ximu Town, and the surface was already completely covered with snow, although the harsh environment made it a little difficult for Arthur in iron armor to walk, but it also made it difficult for the bandits in the abandoned watchtower in front of him to find him.

As a province that has been at war since ancient times, most of the passes must have been fortified with watchtowers and fortresses, but due to the loss of strategic significance in some locations, the defensive structures in some less critical locations will be gradually abandoned and then occupied by bandits.

It is clear that the tower was built to defend the Temple of Coldfall, the destination of Arthur's trip, and it is likely that in ancient times, it was a very important place for both warring parties.

Arthur, whose hair and armor had been dyed white by the wind and snow, was hiding behind a massive rock near the abandoned watchtower, carefully observing the watchtower and the bandits' numbers and equipment.

This is a common three-story bow and arrow watchtower, the ground floor is the arsenal, the middle floor is the guard's residence, and the highest place is the open-air lookout and shooting position, but after being occupied by the bandits, the garrison naturally cannot be as strict as the regular army, Arthur only saw a robber guarding the gate outside the watchtower, I have to say that the Nords are very hardy and strong, this robber is shirtless.

If there is any difference between these robbers and the beasts that Arthur has been hunting, it is that they will surrender, such as those in the coal mines, although they seem to be vicious, but after being severely injured by Arthur, Hadava, and Larov, they will crouch on the ground and beg for mercy, at which point they can be captured and given to the guards to receive a bounty, and they should be sent to work in some place such as a mine or a construction site, or they may run away again to become robbers elsewhere.

Arthur hunched over, approached the robber from behind, and then struck the iron helmet on his head with a sword, and the muffled sound disappeared in the wind and snow, and the robber spun around in half a circle, as if trying to touch the weapon, but the next moment his eyes rolled and he shook and fell to the ground.

There was no need to cause more trouble, Arthur looked at the watchtower that was not moving, casually touched a few gold coins carried by the robber, and continued to march towards the Hanluo Mountain Peak around the watchtower.

————

The peak of Hanluo gets its name because there is a huge "Hanluo Temple" embedded in the mountain wall near its summit, and although it is called a temple, it is actually a tomb of the Nords.

Perhaps no one has done that anymore, but the tradition of the Nords in ancient times was to embalm the body after death and wrap it in a shroud and bury it in a sarcophagus of various sizes, where the noble may have the coffin or burial chamber for themselves, while the lower ones have to share the burial chamber with the other deceased, and the lower ones will not even have a coffin, and the corpse will be placed in the grooves dug in the walls.

In addition, due to the custom of the Nords to bury valuables, in order to prevent theft, they will set up various deadly traps in various burial chambers, and finally close the surface of the earth and build burial chambers or temples, this kind of large-scale tombs can be found in almost most places in the sky, and it has basically become a gathering place for tomb robbers.

When Arthur arrived at the top of the mountain, he saw a bandit camp with more than a dozen people set up near the main entrance of the temple, judging from the size of the campfire and the age of the fur tents, it should have been built for a long time, and the watchtower on the mountainside should also be occupied by their people.

With a bandit camp of this size, Ximu Town has never heard of their existence, which can only prove that these bandits have gained a lot from the Coldfall Temple, and they are too lazy to rob ordinary passers-by, and the coal pit is purely their own bad luck.

Arthur kept his way to the camp in secrecy, and as the constellation representing "stealth" was lit up with another star, he approached the camp completely unnoticed, and stopped behind a tent of animal skins to quietly observe the bandits around the campfire, which was sheltered from the wind and snow, and there was a watchtower warning on the mountainside, and the robbers in miscellaneous leather armor were not too vigilant.

"Everything that can be looted in this temple has been scavenged, should we change places?" Arthur heard a robber say.

"Hell it's clean, we haven't even gone into the first floor." Another robber replied.

"Unless we have a way to deal with that spider." Another robber answered

"Perhaps the swift Makul will be able to dodge the spider, and he will rush in with the golden dragon claws," said the robbers, "and we will wait a little longer, and if he brings out something good, we will not let him eat it alone." ”

"Dangchang." "Who is it?" "Someone's here!"

Hearing the keyword, Arthur accidentally kicked over an iron can, and no matter how bright the stars in the constellations were, he had to pull out the steel two-handed sword behind his back and sweep towards the robbers who were searching.

Although Arthur was more adept at bows and arrows, axes, and shields, which were easy to hunt, the familiarity with the two-handed greatsword seemed to come from his soul, with the illusion that the constellation holding the greatsword pattern in both hands had lit up three stars when it was clearing the coal mines, and the fourth star had been lit up when no one else was standing in the camp except him.

"Phew......" Arthur kicked the tin can that led to his discovery, looking at the corpses strewn across the bandit camp: "There are no witnesses, this infiltration is a success." ”

————

"Squeak-"

Arthur casually cut down two snow rats that pounced on him, and continued down the ruined passage of the temple's burial chamber.

As the robbers said, the funerary goods on the surface of this temple have been looted by them, and some simple mechanisms have been completely destroyed, but the traces of those destructive looting have come to an abrupt end in front of a tomb covered with a large number of cobwebs, Arthur can faintly hear the crawling sound of spiders crawling behind those cobwebs, there is no doubt that this place is used as a nest by frost spiders, and the robbers who are not strong in combat naturally dare not continue to go deeper.

"Anyone? Everyone, come and save me, I'm willing to give you half of the treasure - oh! The Holy Spirit is above! Here it is again. ”

After Arthur cut through several layers of cobwebs, there was a sharp cry for help in front of him, and the other party seemed to hear him break the cobwebs and became louder, but at the same time, there was a muffled sound of something huge hitting the ground.

The robbers outside didn't notice that a dragon flew by, and the only clue was the golden dragon claw, but if this guy was caught by a spider, who released the dragon?

Arthur breaks through the last layer of cobwebs, and unsurprisingly sees a skinny bandit firmly bound in cobwebs, and a huge frost spider in front of him.

Compared to the previous few slashes in the bear hole, this spider was obviously three or four times larger, and it reacted very quickly, turning around and spewing a puff of venom directly at Arthur, but it didn't hit at all.

Arthur rolled directly, swept his sword and cut off half of the big spider's three legs, and then took advantage of its loss of balance, jumped high and directly plunged the two-handed sword into the spider's head and quickly pulled it up, the spider screamed, green poisonous blood sprayed everywhere, but only hit the leather round shield that Arthur blocked in front of him in time - that was he brought with him when he looted the bandit camp before.

"Now we should talk." Arthur used the spider's corrosive blood to dissolve the webs that bound the skinny bandit.

"Who will give you the treasure-" As soon as the robber broke free from his shackles, he jumped off the cobweb, and then ran straight into the depths of the tomb.

"Hey, wait!" Arthur clearly saw that he was holding something shaped like a claw in his hand, and dropped his shield to follow.

Since the robber was called "quick" by his accomplices, he ran fast enough, and he almost threw Arthur off in the complex tomb, but when he got carried away, he stepped on a certain floor trap, and was directly knocked away by the sudden bounce of the door leaf mechanism, and slammed into the wall where the improvised tomb was dug, he looked at Arthur who was chasing and retreated, but he did not notice that there was a "man" with blue flames in his eyes behind him raising his sword high at him.

Choke –

Arthur swung his sword in time, stopping the long sword that was supposed to split him in half, and then saw that it was a dried corpse of an ancient Nord, wielding the long sword it was buried with and trying to attack Makull, but the action was completely out of order, Arthur's two swords knocked it down, and the blue fire in the eyes of the dry corpse was extinguished.

"Help, help—" Arthur was pondering how the corpse could be resurrected, when the skinny robber took the opportunity to sneak away, but almost immediately, he fled back in a hurry, followed by several staggering Nord corpses, some wielding one-handed swords, and even holding two-handed axes and bows.

"What is this? You made it? "These dried corpses, though they looked terrifying, were in fact vulnerable, and Arthur slashed them down with a few swords, and the ghoul with the bow was knocked down in one fell swoop, and then frowned and asked Marcul, who was cowering and afraid to run again.

"That's a corpse, a ghoul!" Makul's voice changed: "The dragon returns, the dead awaken, the end of the world—"

"You saw the dragon? And what's going on with the end of the world? Arthur didn't think much of a fragile monster like a ghoul, but he was interested in another statement.

"Early, in the morning, I saw the huge black dragon, it skimmed over the top of the mountain, and went in the direction of the snowman, but I don't believe those fools, so I have to try my luck with the dragon's claws—" He seemed to be afraid that another ghoul would come out, and he followed Arthur closely, answering all questions: "That's the ancient legend of Nord, when Alduin, the 'Eater of Worlds', returns, the dead in the grave will awaken, and the world will be destroyed." ”

The end of the world, it seems...... Familiar, Arthur thought with a frown.