In the early morning, the sun spreads from the distant horizon, allowing the entire grassland to return to the embrace of light. At this moment, an extraordinarily high birdsong suddenly sounded from the sky, waking our barbarian adventurers from their slumber.

It was the sound of the constructed raven's corn!Barrett quickly got up from the ground, pulled out the 'Tyrannical Touch' from his waist, and then began to observe his surroundings.

But there was no battle in sight, no shadow of the enemy, only a dragonfly that flew off into the distance because of his sudden uprightness. The rest of the companions were still asleep, and Jean, the guide on night watch at the campfire, was on guard with his sword as much as Barrett. But the guide's vigilance didn't seem to be due to the birdsong, but to his unusual behavior at this time.

"What's wrong?" Jean looked at the brute who suddenly woke up with wary eyes, "Nightmare?"

A bright color flashed through Barrett's mind, and then slowly faded away, "No...... it wasn't a nightmare, but it wasn't a dream either, "Something should be approaching us." He looked around, but still found nothing.

It seemed that the danger was not yet approaching, the expression on the barbarian's face slowed slightly, and the weapon in his hand also drooped, "My constructed raven just warned me. He pointed into the air, "If I heard me correctly, it should be ......" Before his words could be finished, the birdsong sounded again, "It is indeed a warning." ”

"I don't have the impression that there are no wilderness settlements in this area. Jean looked up at the swirling black dot in the sky, "If you don't count the Sweet Sugar Cane Village passing by, then the closest group to here should be, huh...... It's a tribe of lizardfolk called 'Pain of Scales'! This tribe doesn't have a very good impression of humans, I mean, humans like us who came from the south, but they wouldn't have done anything too out of the ordinary, otherwise the whole tribe wouldn't have survived today. ”

"Is that tribe of lizardmen far from here?" Barrett asked.

"It's still relatively far. The guide replied, "If you ride a horse, it will take at least two and a half days or so to reach them." Moreover, this area is not the range of those lizardmen, and even if we can encounter them, it will only be a few lizardmen wanderers who are looking around for information. ”

Did you scout all this when you were a cavalryman? Barrett didn't say that.

The guide frowned and continued, "What your construct reminds of may be a pack of wolves returning from a hunt, or a shadow lynx ready to go back to sleep after a full meal, or some ferocious animal that has just woken up. He looked at Barrett, "There are many dangerous species of animals in the Hanhai Grassland, but as long as we don't take the initiative to provoke them, they are unlikely to attack us. ”

The bodyguard Red Crab and the little mage Krees also woke up one after another, and only the merchant Ariel was still wrapped in a blanket and asleep. The red crab scratched its head and got up sleepily, slung the weapon beside him to his waist, and slowly walked behind the beech tree. Immediately afterward, the sound of rushing water came from behind the tree.

"What's going on?" he asked, leaning out from behind the tree, "if I'm not mistaken, who seems to be saying something is coming up with us? really, something?"

"I don't know yet. Barrett was about to reach out and summon the 'corn' back in the air, but was interrupted by the little mage's words.

"I'd better go up and have a look. Krees stretched and struck himself in the face with a zero-ring 'freezing ray' to sober himself up a bit, and then he slowly rose into the air and looked in the direction the constructed raven was pointing.

"What do you see?" Barrett asked, looking up.

"It's a bear. The little mage's voice came from the air.

Oh good, not such a tricky danger, Barrett relieved. Even a bloodthirsty bear of the same size as an ogre and an extraordinarily brutal temper was confident that he would be able to slash it under his sword.

"Wait...... "Wait," the little mage flew forward a little more, "it's not a bear, it's a man." No, and not people, huh...... It's a bear man!"

"Bearman?" Barrett looked at the guide beside him, "another druid?"

Jean's face was a little serious, "As far as I know, druids will only have animal forms and human forms, and there is no half-human, half-beast form like 'bear people'. So that's supposed to be a beast!"

The long sword in Barrett's hand rose slightly, if it was really a beast, it would be a bit troublesome.

The most terrifying part of this creature is not their strong physique or agile skills, nor the irrepressible animalistic impulses and bloodlust of the full moon, but the terrible curse they carry - the beast curse.

Any humanoid creature that is injured by a bestial man will be infected by this curse and slowly become one of them, constantly struggling between sanity and bestiality.

This is an extremely old curse, and the exact time of its appearance is no longer known, and traces of beasts can often be found in the human kingdoms before the Magic Empire. They lurk in their human form on weekdays, and spread fear and evil to the townspeople on full moon nights. Among them, the most famous and large-scale beast invasion was named 'Rat Tide' by later generations.

The original site of the 'Rat Tide' event was in the territory of the current Holy Kingdom of Araso. With the knowledge of our barbarian adventurer, his understanding of the 'rat tide' is undoubtedly very one-sided, and he has no idea the background and starting point of that incident, nor how the rats quietly developed under the noses of humans in the first place.

All he knew was the climax of the event, when a large number of nezumi people poured out of the sewers in the light of the full moon, driving away dense swarms of rats and giant rats the size of calves, capturing a large human city and converting more of the city's humans into their own kind.

These rat people also used the human city as a stronghold, and continued to spread around like a plague, occupying more and more surrounding cities and villages, as if they wanted to announce to the world that a new race would stand on the continent in the form of a rat empire.

It's a pity that this rising nezumi empire has not really been established, and it has been nipped in the bud by several human kingdoms that have united elves, dwarves, and other intelligent races.

And Barrett remembered that there was also a bestial werewolf in the Misty Forest who had suffered this curse. Although he hadn't personally confronted the beast, he had heard that the creature spoke with a very distinct accent characteristic of the Holy Aratho Kingdom, and that the werewolf spoke elegantly—at least when he was sober—and that it was well educated, and adventurers in Bay of Pigs guessed that the werewolf was some nobleman from the Holy Aratho Kingdom.

However, the werewolf has not yet infected other adventurers. The adventurers who encountered him were either killed directly by the sharp claws, or were let go unscathed after a simple exchange, so he was still the only beast werewolf in the entire Misty Forest so far.

"Unlike other bestials who live in groups, bears tend to be solitary. "Hopefully, that guy has been able to harness his violent impulses." ”

The little mage descended from the sky, "The bear-man is indeed coming at us, it is slowly moving forward in the windbreak grass that is more than a man high, and it is about two kilometers away from us, and it won't be long before you can see him." "Even if there is a fight, don't worry about getting infected by the curse, because I have potions here that can lift the curse, and it will be effective if you drink it for less than a month." ”

......