"I'm sorry, Mr. Abel, I didn't mean to see you." Dorothy hurriedly explained, her long fiery red hair trembling slightly due to the tension, but she didn't know why she apologized at this moment, it was almost just a reflex.

Two heterochromatic vertical pupils opened in Soros's eyes, and the pitch-black male cat lay on the shoulder of the machine man and quietly observed the beautiful and melancholy human girl. Able raised his hand to signal his pet not to speak, and the mechanical parts in its body continued to work, and a low voice came from the head that looked like a steel helmet on its neck, "You are full of sad emotions, Miss Dorothy. ”

"If I upset you by my presence, I can apologize to you again." After Dorothy heard this, she quickly said that her voice was very thin.

Of course, Abel didn't need her apology, and immediately explained: "No, I'm just curious, what is it that causes that great sorrow to dominate your emotions?" ”

"You can't experience that...... Miss Warlock looked down, pursed her lips and shook her head, "you're a mechanic." ”

"But my main research topic as a mage happens to be 'the emotional evolution of intelligent beings.'" The Mechanic mage calmly declared, "The school of spells I am most interested in personally is also the Confusion and Control Department, although my mentor advised me not to specialize in or oppose any school of magic, and I followed her instructions. ”

"By the way, this iron-headed nerd's greatest dream is to have your human emotions." Soros interjected, his right foreleg tapping the trap man on the shoulder, and the vertical pupil-like cat's eye winked at his dark face, "So you'd better satisfy its curiosity, human woman, or else... Huh?! Abel, don't mention the back of my neck! What do you want to do? ”

There was no change in the expression on the machine's face, and it reached out two fingers to lift its pet, and the other hand suddenly lifted up to lift the iron blindfold on the front of its head.

Its steel head resembles a knight's helmet of steel armor, and the front of the helmet has rows of vertical slit hoods that can be lifted, and the two red halos that serve as its "eyes" have been hidden in the vertical slit eyepatch for a long time.

Dorothy just raised her gaze at this time, and her sea-blue eyes glanced at the mechanical mage beside her, and suddenly found that its eyes were actually just a pair of rubies of the same color, and the red gems simulated the effect of gaze inlaid in the inside of the helmet, making people subconsciously have the illusion that they were its eyes.

Able lifted Thoros up and put it inside the helmet's head, then lowered the visor back down, giving the impression that it was putting its black cat pet in a small prison - but under special circumstances, a small prison can also be seen as a shelter.

As soon as Soros was put into the pouch of his helmet by his own mage master, the golden and green cat-eyed pupils immediately blinked again, and quieted down with some vigilance.

At the same time, Bellingeris, who was walking at the front of the group, also stopped, crouched down and stretched out a hand to touch the ground at the edge of her shoe.

"Little girl, what did you find?" Koto followed, and the deputy's fortress shield subconsciously approached her.

"Footprints." The little dwarf girl bent over, half-crouched, her slender fingers touched the dirt in the fog, and her light brown eyes and two lively blonde ponytails turned back in unison, "Brother Urs, Sister Thea, there are human footprints here." ”

The little girl's voice reached Urs's ears without any problems. The black-haired young man and the silver-haired wolf-eared girl were not very far from the front row of the group, and the two of them heard the message from the scouts of the team, and by the way, they informed Dorothy, Abel, Crow, and Stonefist further behind, and immediately walked forward with the group, checking to find that the footprints noticed by Bellinglith were in the shape of horseshoe and stretched all the way to the front in the thick fog.

"With the fire on it, are there still wild horses on this island?" Koto stood strangely beside Bellingis, looking down at the footprints that surrounded him and scratching his helmet.

Able stepped out of the crowd and motioned to Urs, and after receiving the latter's tacit approval, he crouched down and carefully examined the hoof-like footprints on the dirt floor, and after careful observation and calm thought, he got up and told everyone, "I think there is at least one nightmare beast waiting for us in front of us. ”

"Nightmare Beast?" When Thea heard this, her amber eyes couldn't help but froze for a moment, and then she realized something, "Is it the kind of evil creature that is independent of the good unicorn and looks like a burning black war horse, usually active in the lower planes?" ”

"You're right, Miss Thea." The Mechanic mage nodded slightly, so as not to shake his head too much, so that Thoros, who had put it in his helmet, scratched his claws at it in protest, "And the footprints found by Miss Bellinglith have burned scorch marks, and the footprints are in the shape of horses' hooves, so the Nightmare Beast is a very likely speculation. ”

"However, Thea also said that the Nightmare Beast haunts the evil lower planes, the Mechanic Mage." Raven's hoarse guttural voice questioned under her hood, "This is the main material plane. ”

"So that nightmare beast may also have an owner of the main material plane." Abel added unhurriedly, "And if these assumptions are true, it and its owner may be in front." ”

"It's just that the scorch marks of the footprints show that they've been out of here for a while." Bellinglith tried to analyze the experience of thieves that Gloledon had taught her too much, "Probably, more than half an hour, right?" ”

"Then take precautions and let's move on." After pausing for a moment, Urs made the next decision for the team, and at the same time couldn't help but think that it would be convenient to have a high-ranking orthodox mage in the team.

The help a mage provides to the team is not only reflected in the effect of the spell, but also the erudition of knowledge can sometimes prompt the adventurous team to obtain as much information as possible in an unfamiliar place based on a limited number of clues, and it is not too much that a mage scholar who has accumulated a certain amount of knowledge can be called a mobile library or database.

And Abel's speculation is solid in the eyes of Urs. The young man's affirmation of this came from the memory in his mind, that the Necromantic Knight boss named Karpas was hovering the Burning Corpse Forest of Misty Isles, and the mount under his crotch happened to be a nightmare warhorse that had been undead with him.

Urs is jealous of Assomir, the king of the fog in the central area of the island, but he is far less afraid of the attitude towards the necromantic knight Karpas, but thinks that the other party is the object that his group can challenge along the way, after all, although the necromantic knight also has a leader-level creature template, the total level is only 20, and the composition structure of the official profession is still a pure level 10 black guard, unlike the black duke Cassius of Byron Tas, who has the "black knight" level after the black guard profession is advanced.

Both of them are undead, and the pronunciation of their names is only one syllable in the middle, but the difference in strength is one in the sky and one in the ground.

As a result, the number of members increased to eight (plus a cat) of the adventure party, under the command of Urs, along the established route. The dark night was not supposed to be a good time to travel in a dense fog, but when the team followed the footprints that Bellinglith had first discovered to a forested terrain, the brightness of the night quickly became clear due to the appearance of the fire.

Along with the increase in brightness, the temperature of the air gradually warmed up as everyone approached, because the area that everyone had arrived at at the moment was the Burning Corpse Forest.

The Burning Corpse Forest is a veritable place, located on a plain terrain in the southwest of Misty Island, and the environment of the woodland must have been able to present the fragrance of flowers and plants and the dense foliage of trees to the eyes of visitors, and the hazy mist added a bit of seclusion and mystery to the people - but when the scene was withdrawn from the illusion, the people of the Thorn Squad saw a dry woodland at this moment.

The traces of wild flowers and green grass hid in the ground like frightened rabbits, and the vast forest area was not the slightest green, and the bark of countless dead branches and trunks had scorch marks of varying degrees, some of which left some ember-like sparks, and some were simply in a state of burning flames, and the gray dust left over from the fallen leaves replaced the original weeds all over the ground.

The black darkness of the night and the obstructive fog were illuminated and dispelled by the bleak light of the fire, but the pungent gray smoke drifted from the branches of several tree trunks from time to time, and the dwarven warrior who had accidentally sucked it in his nostrils immediately sneezed loudly.

"Ahh Ahh——!h Koto's neck flicked like a chicken pecking rice, and his right arm, which grabbed the war hammer, hurriedly raised it and rubbed the tip of his nose, and complained casually, "The fire is on the fire, although the warriors of the clan don't like the elves of the Far South Forest very much, but if this forest was deliberately burned by someone, that bastard is undoubtedly unforgivable!" ”

"That's right!" Bellinglith let go of a small hand from the magic guide in her arms, crossed her waist, and looked at the forest in front of her as if it had been burned to ashes, and frowned, "I remember what the Forest Ranger League said?" Not...... Set fire to the forest, play with fire and set yourself on fire! ”

But the druids and rangers of the Ranger League don't seem to have promoted this slogan, and the future Archmage, or rather, I'm lonely again...... Shi Quan clenched his fists to keep his vigilance, and his eyes moved to the little dwarf girl and couldn't help but think to himself.

As her footsteps got closer to the woodland, Thea lifted the bracelet of the emblem wrapped around her left wrist slightly, her fluffy white wolf ears trembled slightly on her soft silver hair, and her calm voice then reported to the young man beside her: "Urs, I feel an ominous aura here...... Like the undead, the resentment of the dead is the hatred of the living. ”

"I have a memory of 'Detect Necromancy' in my 1-ring spell slot." When Abel heard Xia's words, he immediately looked at Urs and proposed, "Do you need me to cast that spell, honorable captain?" ”

"No, Abel." Urs's eyebrows jumped, and he slowly lowered the two-handed greatsword on his shoulder, and replied casually to the mechanical mage in the team, "Whether it's the prefix of the title 'respect' or your detection of necromancy. ”

As the words fell, he held the sword in both hands, and the direction of his gaze crossed the air dozens of meters in front of him to see several skeletons slowly walking out of the fog of the forest.

While the young man was aware of the monster that had intruded into his field of vision, Bellinglith also realized the arrival of the other party a second earlier, and immediately reminded the dwarven warriors around him to hurry up and prepare for battle.

Several humanoid skeletons in the distance quickly alerted the team, but their senses seemed to be very dull, and their movements were like sleepwalking idiots in a row, and their clumsiness made it difficult to combine the word patrol with their movements...... Although Urs knew they were actually on patrol.

Patrol for their master, the necromantic knight Karpath.

And their appearance is obviously different from ordinary skeletons, this difference is not reflected in the outline of the human body and the pair of dark green soul fires in their eye sockets that symbolize the identity of low-level undead, but the surface of their bones is like a dead branch trunk in the burning corpse forest, like a few pieces of firewood that have not been completely dried into the appearance of several skeleton soldiers, wearing torn armor, each holding a hot and smoking iron weapon, wandering aimlessly into the eyes of everyone present, But I didn't seem to notice it at all.

"Your men are still a bunch of dementiates who are not good enough, Knight Karpath." Urs looked at the few undead monsters wandering brainlessly at the edge of his vision like blind people from afar, and he couldn't help but feel a little mockery in his heart, and secretly thought that these skeleton monsters in the Burning Corpse Forest really looked like they were still as mentally retarded as they were in his memories of his previous life.

The necromantic knight Karpas was the leader of an evil mercenary group during his lifetime, and captured a mage craftsman named Randall during a raid, thus threatening him to make himself a magic ring that can make him more dexterous, but he didn't expect that the mage craftsman was not only very backbone, but also especially good at communicating with the fire elemental plane, and finally made the "Randall's Cursed Ring" for Karpas with a desire for revenge. And miraculously, a miniature portal connecting to the fire elemental plane was opened directly on Karpas's body.

Randall, the mage-craftsman's story, ends there, as an enraged Karpas kills him, and he is tormented by the flames that continue to pour out of his body, but at the last moment of his death, he is transformed into a skeletal undead with the help of another powerful necromancer.

His immortal ambition drove him to sell all his former followers and mercenaries as bargaining chips in exchange for new bodies to the evil necromancer as living experiments, and he came to the Misty Isle in the past few years to secretly hunt the living on the island, and then used some of the magic he mastered through the Black Guard class to convert those living captives into his new subordinates-

Part of it, that is, the small group of skeleton monsters that the people of the Thorn Squad saw in the Burning Corpse Forest at the moment seemed to be on patrol duty.

This may be enough to prove that the Necromantic Knight boss named Karpas is probably a powerful black guard, but he is definitely not a qualified spellcaster, and the undead subordinates created by it himself are even weaker than the cannon fodder skeletons before Byron Tas's military reform.

And the kind of skeleton soldiers known as cannon fodder, the black-haired young man remembered that when he first came into this world, he was able to cut down a few corpses on the battlefield of the great snowfields of the Northland without any pressure......

Book Keju Reading Website: