"The stubble is new, and the mark has not been left for long. "On the stake, a lightning-bolt-shaped mark is inconspicuous in the grain of the wood, and it can only be spotted at a glance by prior agreement, like Dark. Taking off his handarmor, the Crescent Moon Knight's fingers lightly wiped over the printing machine, put the wood crumbs on his fingertips to the tip of his nose and sniffed it, and whispered, "It was carved by Marlene's great sword, and there is also the nail cut of the iris next to it, it is indeed them, yes." ”

"How were they in the mood when they left the mark?" Shul squatted aside, holding his chin and pretending to understand, but gave up after watching for a while, "Can you see it?"

"I know what you mean, but it's hard to judge, and I can't tell if it's too detailed, but judging from the appearance, when the mark is engraved, they are not nervous, and the mark is no different from the one carved in the normal state. ”

"In other words, their situation at that time was basically normal, and there was no urgency at all?"

"Yes, if the situation is urgent, it will show on the nick. The Crescent Moon Knight nodded, "And Sister Marlene should also leave a corresponding message, not just a mark of visiting." ”

"Have you mercenary groups always had this habit?" Shure asked curiously, "Regardless of whether there is anything or not, leave a few signals for others." ”

"Of course, it's a habit that has to be formed. Darker replied solemnly, "The so-called members who go out on a mission must leave marks when they enter a place where they may encounter danger, indicating their tracks and the state of entry, if there is really any accident, these marks can allow the reinforcements to get enough clues, improve the chances of rescue of the distressed, and also ensure the safety of the reinforcements to the greatest extent." ”

"The question is, is this a place where danger could be encountered?" asked Shul with a smirk, "If they hadn't disappeared before, would you have thought you were in danger when you entered this camp to investigate?"

Duck couldn't answer, he found that he had indeed ignored this question, why did Marlene leave a signal? In the mercenary group, the setting of the signal is strictly regulated, what situation needs to leave a signal, which signal corresponds to which state, it is divided into categories, and the settings are very detailed, and it is impossible to keep it as soon as you want.

"Just imagine, if it's not Marlene's team, it's you and me. Shul didn't know why, but he was faster than Duck's brain, and he was more able to reason and imagine, "After handing over to the Crescent, we will follow the smoke column all the way ......."

Halfway through speaking, Shuer's body suddenly stiffened, and he suddenly looked back at the center of the camp, where there was indeed a deliberately made pyrotechnic fire, it should have run out of fuel, and only a very faint smoke rose from the fire, no wonder he didn't notice the smoke column just now.

"Rest assured, it's normal for the smoke column to dissipate, so don't be too nervous. Darker noticed what Shure was paying attention to, and explained, "I noticed it when we were at the parasite just now. ”

"No, I'm worried about another issue, I'll talk about that later. Shul shook his head, and continued what he had just said, "We followed the pillar of smoke all the way to the outskirts of the camp. I looked around the outside and found that everything was normal, and I started to walk like inside, and if it was you, would you leave a signal?"

"No, it won't. "There is no doubt that there is no sign of danger at all, and it is impossible for the people of the mercenary group to leave a mark, but the fact is that Marlene did leave a mark, which shows that ......

"It means that they have encountered a situation that we have not encountered, or a person, or a creature, or a phenomenon. Shuer went straight to the end, "This makes them feel uneasy, well, strong uneasiness, so pass on a message to us first to avoid accidents." ”

"What did they see?" Neither of them asked this question, because both of them knew that it was useless to ask, but from the eyes of each other, it was still revealed.

"The ...... they encountered Maybe people. The Crescent Moon Knight, who had not made a sound for a long time, suddenly woke up the two who were in deep thought, and when he turned around, he found that the Crescent Moon was walking around, his eyes never leaving the ground.

"How did you get in?" Duck was taken aback, he hadn't checked the space over there, God knows if there was a spatial crack, and it was a very dangerous behavior for the crescent moon to rush in.

"It's okay, I'll let him out of his guard, and you don't have to explore the way. "I can already be sure that Marlene must have gone in, and they must have run through the camp. I didn't smell blood, which means that they weren't hurt by the spatial rift, which means that there should be no spatial fracture nearby, which is a blessing in misfortune. ”

"Whew. Duck breathed a sigh of relief, the original experience did leave him a lot of psychological shadows, not because of blood, but because of a fighter whose strength was close to his own, he was inexplicably cut into pieces, and it must be the same result for himself, the more confident the person, the more serious the psychological shadow will be at this time.

"That's good. Duck turned the strange shield in his hand back into a rose, "What did you just say, it's human?"

"Yes, probably human. The crescent moon was almost lying on the ground, crawling on all fours, "Look here, there's a trail here. ”

It is true that the ground in the camp is very hard, and there are no footprints left, but it is not without any traces, after all, this is the wild, and there are many things that can leave traces of plants, dust, and so on. At the tip of the Crescent Knight, the two found many traces of human activity.

"Most of them are left by Sister Ma Lian, look here, it's the Wind Wolf's combat boots, the one next to it, it's Sister Ma Lian's footprints, and these, it's the hoof prints of the Wind Splitting Beast, it can be seen that they stayed at the gate of the camp for a long time. ”

Yes, as you could tell from the marks on the ground, the four knights wandered around in front of the camp for a while. However, the number of traces is not large, that is, most of the time, they stand still in place, unlike the three of them, who walk around in a small area.

There are not many reasons for this phenomenon, the biggest possibility is that they are confronting the enemy, and if there is no enemy, there is probably only one reason left, who are they communicating with.

When communicating face-to-face, of course, it is impossible to walk around, which is not only rude, but also looks stupid, which can very well explain why the four knights left such traces now, and ......

"And, look here. Crescent climbed to the other side, patted the ground and said, "These traces are definitely not left by the brothers, they can only be outsiders." ”

On the ground, there are a few shallow marks, which will never be left by the knights, because the knights are all wearing heavy armor, and even the Wind Splitting Beast is wearing horse armor, and the marks left are much deeper.

Shuer looked at his feet, well, the owner of the traces, should be dressed in cloth or leather armor like himself, otherwise the weight would not match.

"Could it have been left by the people in the camp themselves?" Shul tried to guess, "just together with Marlene's footprints." ”

"It's unlikely, Your Excellency Priest, you see, this person's traces have always been on the opposite side of Sister Marlene's traces, unless the two have been communicating face-to-face, it is difficult to have such a coincidence. ”

"Hmm. Tapping on his thighs, Shure's brain spun rapidly, and he suddenly looked up sharply, "Crescent Knight, you explore through the door to see if there is any trace of Marlene and their departure. ”

"No, I've checked it. His eyes drooped, and it was obvious that the Crescent Moon Knight's heart was very lost, "There are only traces of coming in, not going out." ”

"Well, I see. Shuer nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, then you can try, follow the traces left by Marlene, and see if you can find where they went afterward." ”

"That's fine, their traces have just been left for a short time, and they are still visible. Crescent Moon still has this bit of confidence, stood up and patted the soil, lowered his head and walked towards the camp with Shuer and Dack, "Look, it's still that person's footprints, he took Sister Ma Lian and them, and walked around the camp for a while, the truck parking area, the material warehouse, the dormitory area, this should be the nobleman's tent, it looks the most luxurious." Well, it looks like he took his brother around half the camp, stopping several times along the way. ”

"It's supposed to be a briefing. Shure and Darker looked at each other and nodded, "It seems that Marlene and they met the survivors. ”

After a big circle, they ended up in the area. "There were several large tents in front of me, and the doors of the tents were all open, so that you could clearly see that the interior was empty. There are several large tables in the tent, and if nothing else, last night's banquet was held here. There were no chairs in the tent, the chairs should have been put away, and the tables were still in place, presumably because they were too heavy, and they planned to dismantle and load the camp together when they dismantled the camp the next day, but unfortunately no one thought that they had no chance of demolishing the camp.

"There are only traces of entering, not leaving. Xinyue gritted her teeth and said, "Whether it's the mysterious person or Sister Ma Lian, there are none." ”

"Could there be other pathways in the back?" Shuer's idea was reasonable, but after going around the area of several large tents, he could be sure that after the five people went in, they never came out.

"It seems that the problem lies in these tents. Shur squinted his eyes and stared at the tents for a long time, "I don't know what happened to them after they went in." ”

"Just go in and see. Duck was clearly in a bad mood with a straight face, "Go in and have a look, maybe there's a chance to pull them out." ”

"I'm going to go to you, I'm waiting here to help you collect the body. Xiuer sneered, "If they really fall into the ghost space, then we are their only hope, if we follow and fall in, then we will simply end up in the ghost space together." ”

Sighing with a calm face, Duck also knew that he was a little impatient, which was not a good sign.

According to the eighth article of the mercenary code, impatience is the mercenary's biggest enemy, and as the degree of impatience increases, the chance of survival decreases proportionally, and there will be no exceptions.

"Well, you're right. Duck smiled wryly, "I'm a little messy right now, or you decide, what to do?"

"Go back first, it's too weird to stay here for a long time. Shuer frowned and said, "I always feel that there are some problems that I have overlooked, I will think about it tonight, and we will come back early tomorrow morning." ”