In the mountains more than twenty kilometers west of Messina, there is a small col that has no characteristics, and if it were not for the fact that there is a small river passing through it, and a group of water thieves who used to be chased by the raiding party in all directions, they would not have been able to find this place even if they studied the treasure map for ten or eight years.

Today, the col suddenly became lively, a row of small boats stopped on the bank of the river, and a hundred or so water thieves with various weapons scattered in all directions, looking for something in the bushes more than a meter high.

The water thieves eventually lost to greed, and in their opinion, what Charles was willing to pay for two thousand gold coins was worth at least twenty thousand gold coins.

It's just that the news of this treasure map suddenly spread in the circle of water thieves, and the water thieves in Messina came to the door to ask for a piece of the pie.

The group of water thieves who got the treasure map from Charles couldn't help it, the water thieves in this area were in the same spirit, and often took care of each other during the siege and suppression of the city of Messina, so they could only discuss with the other six big water thieves to take the big head themselves, and the six water thieves also had meat to eat, and those water thieves who did not enter the stream had some soup.

After some research, the thieves finally found the place where the treasure map was drawn.

In order to prevent someone from swallowing it alone, the elites of all groups of water thieves came out, and almost all of them came over with their henchmen.

Once there, the bandit leader continued to study the treasure map on the shore, and his men searched for clues to the treasure's location in the scorching sun.

Little by little, the sun gradually turned west.

At this moment, a water thief shouted, "There is something here!"

The leader of the thieves hurried over, and the minions had cleared a small clearing with a machete, and the leaders saw a few stone slabs scattered under the thick bushes, which looked like they had been carved by hand.

So the scattered minions were called over, and from here they began to clear the bushes around them.

The speed of violent cutting of bushes was fast, and a stone path was found that led from the river to the bottom of the cliff in the distance.

So the thieves cleared the cliff along the stone path, and soon after they made a more significant discovery.

As they prepared for the evening, the thieves had cleared a large clearing under the cliff that was about two football fields, and the clearing was full of scattered stones that looked like traces of a camp.

The semi-circular camp is built at the foot of a cliff with a stone path leading down to the bottom of the cliff.

The excited thieves continued their efforts and soon found a hole at the end of the stone path, but the hole was blocked by huge rubble, and it looked like someone had crashed the rock above the hole.

At this time, Charles breathed a sigh of relief, and the picture was really reliable.

The enthusiastic thieves did not rest, and they began to move the rubble blocking the hole.

In the evening, several bonfires were lit at the mouth of the cave, and the minions who had finished moving the stones sat around the campfires, eating the dry food they had brought, and drinking the inferior ale.

The leaders of the water thieves sat around the campfire in front of the cave, looking like they were arguing about something.

On the hill diagonally opposite them, there was a big tree that had lived for an unknown number of years, and the trunk of this tree could not be hugged by a few people.

A small tree hut had opened in the trunk near the top of the tree, and Charles was watching the water thieves' every move through an observation hole no larger than the size of a palm.

The actions of the water thieves could not hide from him, he followed the water thieves' fleet all the way today, and only came here half an hour later than the water thieves.

All he has to do today is wait, waiting for the water thieves to discover the secrets hidden here for more than 300 years, and he is also gambling, betting that these water thieves have plans to eat black.

Now that the thieves were eating simple dry food, Charles had begun to hurry up and settle tonight's meal.

He sealed the observation hole with a wooden plank, and turned on the light in the small library.

In the dim light, Charles pulled out a few fried rice balls from the storage ring.

Because the grain of the Bischberg Kingdom was mainly imported from the Duchy of Milan, some of their eating habits were also influenced by the Duchy of Milan.

The main ingredient of this rice ball is similar to the risotto that Charles served to Mordred on the night he left Milan, except that the rice is wrapped in tomato stew, ham, cheese, and grilled fish with chrysanthemum sauce as filling, kneaded into rice balls, and fried in hot oil until golden on the outside.

As soon as you take a bite, the crispy crust of this rice ball makes a "click" sound, the rice in the middle is soft and glutinous, and the chrysanthemum sauce and grilled fish in the middle are refreshing.

The price of this kind of rice ball enjoyed by rich people is not cheap, and one is more than the daily meal price of an ordinary family of three.

But it tastes good, is high in calories, and is easy to eat, so it has become the first choice of Charles, who recently made a little extra money from the water thieves.

Because there was a big fight tonight, Charles ate several rice balls in a row, and then leaned against the inner wall of the tree trunk while burping and drinking herbal tea.

He was at the age of pimples, and if he hadn't been drenched in dragon blood and not afraid of acne, he wouldn't have dared to eat such a hot thing.

After eating and drinking, Charles opened the observation hole again, and found that the bandit leader at the entrance of the cave was leading people into the cave.

Charles thought about it and teleported himself to the top of the cliff with teleportation.

The cliff is more than 200 meters high and almost 90 degrees vertical.

Charles searched for it, and finally found the mechanism Artoria had spoken of above the cave.

It is said to be a mechanism, but in fact it is just a few stone balls with a diameter of five meters on the top of the mountain, and when the enemy attacks the front of the hole, the stone balls will be pushed down and smashed to death by the enemy at the bottom of the mountain.

It's just that more than 300 years have passed, and the stone ball is still there, but the track that was dug back then has been filled with dirt, and shrubs and even trees have grown on it, and even vines have climbed on the stone ball.

Without hesitation, Charles took out his broadsword to clear the vines and accumulated soil under the stone ball, and then quickly cleared all the dirt, bushes, and trees from the track with teleportation.

The stone ball, which was originally used to defend against the demon army, slowly rolled forward with a "boom" under the pry of the demon king's nephew with an earthen lever, and then rolled faster and faster, and finally fell towards the bottom of the cliff.

The water thieves below the cliff heard a sound from above, and before they could react, a huge stone ball had already fallen on their heads.

Some of the stone balls that landed exploded, and the rubble carried a huge kinetic energy stalk to sweep away the water thieves who were resting around the cave entrance.

The stone ball above the entrance of the cave did not explode, but was embedded in front of the entrance, blocking the entrance.

In the face of the sudden attack, the leaderless water thieves outside the cave suddenly became a pot of porridge.

Fortunately, these water thieves themselves are experienced people, and some of them are sober, and they quickly calmed down the others, and then gathered those who could still move to the cave to be on guard, and first got the leaders and masters inside.

According to Artoria, the stone ball at the entrance of the cave was specially made to delay the enemy's entry into the cave and buy time for the defenders stationed in the cave, an important logistics base.

However, after such a long time, the enhanced magic array on this stone ball has long been weathered, and it is not difficult to smash it.

The water thieves next to the stone ball shouted and argued, and they thought that the leaders inside had touched the mechanism or something that caused the stone ball above to fall, and some people were afraid that smashing the stone ball would trigger the chain mechanism.

At this time, Charles, who teleported himself to the river and was lying on the bushes, was a little disappointed to see that the water thieves did not take advantage of the chaos to eat and kill each other.

At this time, the thieves guarding the ships also ran to the entrance of the cave, and Charles quietly opened a hole in the bottom of each boat.

Just as the water thieves began to smash the stone ball, a golden light suddenly lit up, and a wall of light composed of countless golden circles of light appeared in the air.

The "Treasure of Ru" appeared, and the various weapons that Ru had built up in the past two years were poured down on those water thieves like a torrential rain.

After the rainstorm of golden weapons was over, there were not many water thieves left in front of the cave door to stand on.

The bandit leaders may have gone so deep that their men were killed by Charles outside the cave without even noticing.

This cave was originally a logistics base built during the Great War more than 300 years ago, and materials from human countries were transported here to store, and then transferred to the human coalition forces who were beaten to the head by Empress Catherine.

Artoria borrowed food from the then Grand Duke of Milan, who put the map in a letter to send to Artoria and asked her to send someone to fetch it.

As a result, Artoria was captured before the letter was sent, and the letter was kept in the Nodal family archives, but it was poorly preserved and was bitten by a few bugs.

Gunnar Nodal had turned over the unsent letter from the corner and sent it to Artoria, and the people who were waiting to read the gossip were depressed by the contents of the letter.

Later, Artoria gave the map to Charles, fearing that he would be hunted down and killed, so she hid there.

The leaders of the water thieves who had picked up some rotten weapons in the caves did not know that the things here had long been the capital of the founding king of the Bischberg Kingdom, and they were walking inside with confidence.

Outside the cave, Charles cleared the holes around the cave and opened the stone balls, then simply dismantled a few boats, piled up the wood and bushes cut by the water thieves at the entrance of the cave, and then set fire to smoke.