"In the middle of the night, the smoke and fire were gone, and the hail was white. The commotion died down, and the distant cries were once again buried by the wind, like snow on the ruins. Looking at the aftermath of the turmoil, he sighed.

"It's a year of drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and Quzhou people cannibalism. Baihua, who was tracking by smell in front, read what he meant without looking back, and quickly answered. Although she couldn't see Mu Ran's expression, the slightly shaking fingertips expressed her smugness and begging to be touched.

Cats rarely speak, and neither do flowers. So she didn't have a lot of luck with her lingua franca or the dragon - except for reciting ancient poems.

Thomas stroked her wheat-colored blonde hair, "The loss of Brynsander is not as serious as the destruction of Neverwinter years ago, after all, ordinary people cannot compare to the primordial terrifying power of nature. But the people of Neverwinter will eventually be able to unite and rebuild the pearl of the North, and neither the Orcs, the Nezumi, nor the Devil Cultists, nor the Nether Shade, nor the Red Robes, nor even the Mind Flayer and the Benthic Devilfish will be able to control it. On the contrary, these forces only bring people closer together. ”

"But now it's a different story in Brinshand, where people are fighting each other with red eyes...... I wonder if this will spark the contradictions between the Ten Towns, the barbarians, and the southerners, and even turn into perennial hatred. ”

"O my foolish ranger, have you forgotten one of the faults of your superiors: that you often arouse extreme feelings of love or hatred for strange and irrational reasons, and then forget them in a very short time. Alas, after all, your lifespan is too short and your intelligence is relatively low, and I am not incomprehensible! But haven't you boasted that humans are the best at imparting knowledge...... Yes, it's the village teacher. Truth be told, you and other races are too slow to speak with the same voice, which is not conducive to accumulating and transmitting knowledge...... So you're going to use text faster......"

Gnomes are a terrible race, they can talk in parallel without disturbing their thoughts. Legend has it that Churchill was able to converse with two people at the same time.

Language and writing, on Earth, are believed to be the cause of the formation and transmission of human culture and society. It may be even more important in Torrell, and can even be used to explain the disparity between Icewind Dale and the South.

Because the giants, dwarves, and humans of the Northland believe that the rune contains power, the legends of the history books often leave no words. Skald, the brave poet known in the South as the Academy of Courage, is needed to preserve the memory of those ancient heroes and thus inspire the heroes of the new era. They traveled far and wide to witness and experience the great stories, and they first recorded and passed them on to ensure that they would be remembered by the world.

The Northland poet's rap poem EDDIC was inherently contagious, inspiring more courage than its Southern counterpart. But Ewell didn't know where to get a lot of powerful magical equipment, which greatly enhanced his chanting.

- In the south, such as the New Oram Academy in Waterdeep City or the New Phoklukan Knowledge Academy in Silvermoon City, these are the traditional genius poets who advocate wisdom and charity, flaunt their pursuit of beauty and truth, and take pleasure in exposing corruption, talking about current affairs, and taking pleasure in making fun of arrogant authorities.

Although Thomas did not believe that Ewell instigated the riots with a desire to serve the people, and instead felt that it was a poet's political instinct, he absolutely believed in the poet's ability to use various magical objects and scrolls.

Ode to the Three Heroes, Legend of the Cullen Warriors, Temorrah Melody, Sith Battle Song...... The wide variety of tunes and melodies in the South, and possibly even the music that Thomas brought from Earth, allowed Ewell to be fully armed.

Tracking and counter-tracking are already very complex and cumbersome techniques on Earth, and Toriel also needs to add magic to attack and defend.

Perhaps because he didn't expect someone to tear his face directly, the poet did not prepare in advance to erase the smell. But after joining up with Kurgal, the trio's footprints and scent disappeared instead.

The poet's chanting performance and eloquence, though extremely powerful, make Ewell the heaviest weight in influencing the balance of Brinsander and even Icewind Dale. But whether it's chanting or negotiating, its strongest and weakest point is that it relies on others to show its power.

Spells are different, so in Thomas's opinion, Kurgal is far more tricky than the poet.

"No more information about Ewell was found, and after meeting Kurgal, their footprints and scent disappeared together. Thomas frowned and said, "Did you eliminate your own smell and fly, or did you teleport directly?" You can't find a foothold or smell within the shroud of the Dimensional Gate for a few hundred meters around, could it be that Kurgal really used a high-ring teleportation to protect him? I don't believe he is such a kind person!"

Magic brings so many possibilities and variations that it is not clear what scrolls the poet has and what spells the mage has mastered, so it is impossible to determine whether Ewell and Kurgal used spells to hide the smell and traces or simply teleport away or some other way.

If footwork tracking doesn't work, change to Baihua to track the smell, if the smell tracking doesn't work, let the dwarf cast a spell to forcibly locate it, and the positioning spell is also blocked by the spell of protection detection, so you can only think about the law of action while casting a net around.

Even though he knew that the black ice refined by the dwarves would not corrode his mind so quickly, Thomas, who was a little agitated, cautiously stirred the wreckage of the street with the ice pick that he had folded off to avoid contact with the black ice in the hands of the deceased. Some died still clutching daggers and daggers made of black ice, and some had their fingers forcibly broken to take away the black ice.

"This looks like a skewer used to grill fish?" muttered the ranger as he looked at the half-cut wooden skewer in the deceased's throat, and several other corpses along the way also had small fatal wounds poked from wooden skewers. These are supposed to be the people who are controlled by Black Ice and the Poet and go berserk to attack Kurgal and Schalke. Judging from the direction of the two people's footprints, they came from this side.

"It was the Black Long-Eared Monster who killed these people. The dwarf affirmed, "but I don't understand why he uses a skewer......"

"Because he has read too many martial arts novels and pursues the realm of wooden swords and no swords, which is why I think he can't beat Baihua...... Of course, abusing vegetables is definitely enough. ”

The Drow Assassin was a master of the art of killing, and a single toothpick could kill a person, and ordinary people could not even touch him. The gap in quality is too great for quantity to be of little use. Unless there is a poet next to him who sings and coordinates the performance, dozens of strong men are generally armed and cannot help Schalke.

Kurgal?

She didn't bother to do it at all!

"Although Black Ice's brainwashing ability may be weakened compared to the Shattered Demon Crystal itself, the humans of Brynsander lack priests, resulting in insufficient protective spells. ”

Human civilians can't have the armor rate and strong physique of dwarves, as well as the spells of spells and crystals, which also makes black ice weapons deadly enough - and also for ordinary people.

"Since we can't master the weapon of criticism, we can only use the weapon to criticize. "After all, his ability to persuade and incite is so terrible that even a stiff tongue can have the effect of turning a deer into a horse." ”

"Referring to a deer as a horse...... Oh, what happened to the dragon after the death of the Trap Warlock Emperor who made the metal colossus and the dragon wall. After a little thought, the dwarf understood the allusion in his words: "As long as you continue to say a word, people will believe you...... The priests and paladins of the trio of justice are perjury, thieves, corpse thieves, drunkards, bribes, and blackmailers. Humans, goblins, halflings, and half-orcs of all colors will come up and hug their legs and call your daddy......"

"I don't mind, but it's clear that it's not me that he's going to deal with it, and that the reputation of a girl like Mina and Mayor Mare's can't be tarnished...... Isn't it the dwarf who is most likely to frame my reputation as a pure virgin!"

For Thomas, who enjoys solitude, the threat of social death is not too great, because the ranger is a social and lonely human animal, and needs to be unruly and self-sufficient at the same time.

Thomas even believed that he could be like a British prime minister in the face of a brutal press......

"I know, you have no objection to anyone holding your leg and shouting at your father and then calling at a beautiful girl for mother, and you have been complacent many times. ”

The upright-looking dwarf squinted his eyes and said coldly, "Besides, my good master, do you have any prejudice against our loyal, honest, sincere and generous clansmen?"

"I just remembered that the Nethers used weapons and magic to trick the barbarians into working for them...... It's as if these people get the Black Ice weapon and think they're joining the collective after listening to a few lines from their idols. ”

"However," the human ranger added, "the gnomes in a certain world are extremely sinister and cunning, using words and illusions to control public opinion and play with conspiracies, and also establish the ...... of brocade guards."

"Shocked!" the dwarf liar looked contrived with disgust and pity: "Gonde is above, what kind of world is that, even a dwarf is ...... Don't tell me that the undead creatures of the world are all happy to help others. ”

"Actually, don't be in such a hurry, it's not good for your reputation to publicize it. The dwarf seemed to suddenly remember, and said to the ranger, "Even if he convinces the priest of Tyr and even your paladin with his clever words, I can forcibly control it back with a spell! ”

"Huh. Thomas sneered twice, "It's not that I despise confusion and illusion, you really think that thing works for paladins?"

Confusion control spell, known as being restrained by a ring of protection!

The Department of Illusion, known as the prophecy department, wiped out the whole family in five or six rings!

While the rumors may be exaggerated, the jokes do prove the status of these two schools in the minds of most mages.

And the dwarf liar is good at illusion and confusion control two factions of street fighting spells. If it weren't for the fact that the dwarf's talent for illusion was too terrifying to turn decay into magic, Barnard would have been reduced to a salted fish.

Bards often face similar embarrassments with their spells, and with the fact that spell deadlines are up to date, Ewell wisely chooses to use words rather than spells to control others.

"Hmph, isn't there any difference in using spells, psychic abilities, performances, and conversations to manipulate and control other people's minds and minds, and why do we get wiped out when we use spells? It's not fair!" the dwarf said indignantly, "I think everyone should get used to the use of all kinds of mind spells, instead of feeling the slightest feeling and feeling like a thunderbolt and feel greatly offended and insulted......"

"It is said that there is also a spell in that world that will not be detected after seducing others. ”

"There must be a lot of robots in the world. The dwarf reasoned a little and said in a deep voice.

"But then again, if you are attacked by a hundred flowers, you can only use spells that affect your mind, right? And we all know that spells and martial arts are quite wary of spells that affect the mind, and the success rate is bound to be very small. And Ewell, it turned out that he could communicate directly with his heart, and use words to dispel the killing intent of the hundred flowers for a few seconds!" The dwarf did not give up, and still stubbornly told the benefits of the Confusing Control Spell.

The dwarf knew that it was a super fierce big cat, and he didn't care about anyone except Thomas, and he was prone to pressing his ears and arching his back to blow up his hair. Many times when the dwarf saw the dwarves with their backs to her, the cat would look fierce and eager to try, and then Thomas would be able to suppress it with frequent attention.

Cats are too unruly and difficult to control, so the dwarf admires the master ranger for being able to use a police cat instead of a police dog to track him.

A large part of a dog's brain is used to communicate with humans, while cats do not. The selection of police dogs also pays more attention to the dog's personality, and through training and communication with breeders, it is more convenient to perform a variety of tasks.

Even if Baihua can understand Chinese, and Thomas can communicate with her telepathically at high speed, it is still extremely difficult to instruct her.

In fact, Thomas has always been vaguely proud that only he can enter the heart of Baihua and communicate with her normally. And Ewell didn't know how to communicate with Baihua for a short time, even if it only shook her for a few seconds, it made Thomas feel that his head was full of green.

In Kurgal's book, the woman in the main character likes to wear all kinds of revealing clothes for others to see, and the girl Thomas likes will make him gnash his teeth if she smiles at others.

Even if Thomas knew that Ewell would only want to go to Kurgal, he would not be interested in Hundred Flowers. However, even if the orange cat has a yellow hair, it weighs two hundred pounds on Thomas's scale!

In fact, what angered Thomas the most was that Ewell reminded Thomas of a world where there was no Big Brother looking at you, and people were being watched by other people on camera and screen, and that everyone could be manipulated by spells and psionic powers, and that the so-called personal will was just an illusion.

Bards are just too dangerous, like TV and cell phones.

- Whether on Earth, in Cat City, or in Icewind Dale, human beings are always subject to society.

Thomas doesn't like to be controlled and manipulated like that, so he hates Ewell's manipulation of public opinion and manipulation of others even more.

He felt that everyone's will should be respected, and that everyone should have their own choices to think about (even if they pretend to be), rather than being manipulated by tendentious words.

No one can blindly follow and simply surrender their ideals and hopes to an idol or opinion dressed up as infallible. People have to study hard and their own in order to arm themselves with past knowledge.

He felt that the truth was self-evident, and the poet ruthlessly punctured it, telling him that it was the rhetorical ornamentation that mattered.

He believed he was innocent, but he also knew that Ewell could put a few big hats on himself or Mina whenever he wanted to.

If Ewell really uses other people for his own ideals or beliefs, then it is understandable (even if unacceptable). However, Thomas doesn't think that this creature has anything that can be called an ideal or a belief, and is more like a legendary servant of the Broken Crystal, a puppet controlled by Black Ice.

The mistake of Ewell, or most poets, is to try to make people believe in the story through words, rather than to reveal their true discoveries.

Therefore, Thomas respects the mage who is obsessed with seeking the truth of the world, but he is only afraid of the poet.

So Thomas was determined to end the traitor's life of sin by ramming an ice pick into the back of his head - and he was humiliated at the thought that someone like Ewell might have been trained in the city of Rarui, which he had never been to.

"Even a cat can speak and move, it can be said that it is extremely powerful!" the dwarf muttered, "Spells and illusions, in the end, the important thing is the human heart. Social engineering, social engineering. ”

"Yes, the elephant is invisible. If you take your skills to the extreme, you will have an effect that is more exaggerated than magic. Escaping can pass through narrow spaces and even force fields, sneaking and hiding can ignore and discern invisible and true gaze, negotiation can exceed spells to achieve brainwashing control, and even make people worship him as a god!"

Remembering his experience with Baldur's Gate 2, Thomas adds, "You can even see through illusions directly like Yao En did. ”

"Yao En......" The dwarf seemed to remember something and fell into memory.

It is generally believed that skills can only approximate and surpass the miracle of magic after reaching the legend. But the poet is different, the poet's musical magic can make himself perfectly in harmony with the melody of all things in the universe, in addition to the performance against the sky, deception and speech, other skills can also be easily mastered and even easily reached the level of mortal penance for many years.

In particular, the ability to activate various magical items allows the poet to reach the point of the legendary "all-powerful skill" that others dream of without much effort, and draw a sword in a stone or something.

Activate the mage priest's various buff spells to achieve combat effectiveness that rivals the combat system.

"Thankfully, he's a normal poet, even though he looks stylish. That is, not to waste money on strange aspects, but to focus on the core acting and speech. ”

It is said that some poets are not only superior in the confusion control spells of the mind, but even have reliable and powerful mana to forcibly disarm the spells of ordinary mages, and even cast bombardment spells that are even more powerful than mages.

Luckily, Ewell wasn't the caster-biased poet either.

While the spell-casting ability of a normal poet is supposedly superior to that of an ordinary liar and an ordinary ranger, neither the dwarf nor Thomas is ordinary.

"Ahh

"I always thought you were in prison for reselling arms?"

"Guns and gunpowder are my favorites, would you sell cats?"

Remembering the first time he met Barnard at Baldur's Gate, Thomas couldn't help but smile wryly and shake his head. According to the dwarf: he saw at a glance that Thomas was led by the Grand Duke in front of him, and the cat man on the left and the celestial man on the right, full of the style of a big man. So at that time, he decisively asked Thomas for help, and he was actually released on bail by Aberdell and Colon.

"Seeing that so many hippopotamus mercenaries and guns and ammunition were seized at that time, I was still thinking about how burly and strong their boss must be to suppress these subordinates, but I didn't expect it to be a dwarf...... But what makes me wonder the most is, why are those hippopotamus people so easy to use with their guns, but your special ones blow up at the pull of the trigger?"

The dwarf sneered disdainfully, "What can it be used? Can it promote the development of science and technology? Only the brilliant spark at the moment of explosion can bring more progress! Don't you understand why the masters of Icewind Dale despise you for using bows and arrows, because long-range is not exciting." Melee combat, danger, excitement, man, and more oversized charges can perfectly turn this disadvantage into an advantage. ”

Knowing that he could never speak of a dwarf, Thomas decided to shut up obediently, and his gaze turned into the distance. Although he no longer has any spells, with the blessing of the wand given by Swan Girl, he can still see through the wind and snow.

It was the same killmaker I had ever seen at Baldur's Gate.

"How can there be such a thing...... Could it be that they had the help of the god of murder?No, I remember that the evil gods and phantoms needed a spark of divinity......" The gnome, who had also been blessed with magic, couldn't help but snort.

Black ice, bards, and evil spirits, Thomas seems to understand why people kill each other.