"So the first meeting was over, and we agreed to make a decision in two days. Pannis told Catherine and Vivien in detail about what had happened in Dersalaen: "But it was no surprise that on the eve of the second meeting, another case occurred. ”

"Huh?" Catherine was stunned: "This is a provocation to your face." ”

"I think so too. Pannis pouted: "It was already early in the morning, and everyone was probably preparing materials for the next day's meeting the night before, and they were resting late, so early morning was the most comfortable time to sleep, and I didn't expect to get such a news at all." ”

"I was still in bed when I was startled by the knock on the door. Lina behaved very strangely today, she had met for a few hours, she had not done any work by herself, she had been sitting on the sidelines and directing, like a spoiled lady, and I don't know where the characters in the book were: "When I pulled Pannis and hurriedly ran to the temple of the god of wind, it was almost dawn, and at a glance I saw a certain sacrifice of the god of wind dozing there. ”

"Hmph. Teresa snorted coldly, turned her head, and ignored Lina's ridicule: "To put it simply, after knowing that the case happened again, according to Mr. Pannis, I left those silver-rank subordinates in the city, and the seven of us rushed to the scene of the crime." A certain sage of the earth god also fell asleep on horseback on the road, and he dared to laugh at others. ”

"Hey, Pannis. Catherine tugged at Lapannis' sleeve, "What's wrong with the two of them?"

"Well, it's nature that the earth and the wind resist each other. Pannis shrugged his shoulders and replied in a low voice, "It's been more than ten days, it's been like this, it's good to get used to it." ”

"Actually, we were late when we arrived. Fearing another conflict between the two clergy, Moore took over the topic. As a chantor of the god of art and music, the bard was Moore's profession, and it was natural for the strings to be played, and a dry narration became amusing, along with his soothing music: "The case took place in a small town more than seventy kilometers from Dirsalien. There were about 500 people in the town, and all of them were killed this time, including the town's garrison, which killed 547 people. Most of them died in their own homes, fifteen in the tavern, and three in the streets, three of them night watchmen. The three night watchmen died in the street without any reaction, casually sitting on the ground and dying. Thus. It happened suddenly, but death didn't come suddenly. ”

"Excuse me, but what does that mean?" Catherine asked, unable to understand, "Can you explain?"

"It's actually quite understandable. "They didn't fall down and die suddenly, "otherwise their bodies would have been lying on the ground instead of sitting on the ground, or sitting in a row against the wall." So, death didn't come suddenly. ”

"It seems that they were asleep before the incident. Catherine nodded lightly and said to herself, "But." Even if you are sleepy and want to be lazy during the night patrol, you shouldn't doze off with three people side by side. Moreover, it's still winter, and it's so cold at night, even if you're lazy, you won't just sit outside and sleep, and you'll freeze to death. ”

"You're right, so I said that although it happened suddenly, death did not come suddenly. Moore smiled and agreed: "It is speculated from the scene that the large-scale hypnotic spells used by the other party have caused the whole town to fall into a deep sleep. Then die in a deep sleep. ”

"Large-scale hypnotic spells?" Catherine turned her eyes to Vivien for help, "Is there such a spell?"

"Theoretically, it is possible for several mages to work together. However, it is not feasible in practice. Vivian furrowed her eyebrows and calculated for a long time before she raised her head and replied, "I want to complete this kind of large-scale hypnosis, especially for more than five hundred people." It takes at least three legends to join forces to do this, and there can be no people with too high resistance among the hypnotized objects, that is, there can be no professionals at the silver level and above, otherwise the spell will fail. In contrast, I'm more curious about why they have to choose hypnosis over shock. Just like the previous incident in Spindle Village, because they didn't have a choice but chose the shock to stun the civilians. So although there were many more people than now, the power consumed was even much less than now. ”

"Spindle Village must have been experimental, after all, there had never been such a large-scale act before. Pannis explained: "This time I got the information from the official Neville Federation, seven of the dead in Spindle Village died directly due to the impact of the impact, and their bodies showed no signs of aging. Therefore, I am afraid that the other party is unwilling to bear this part of the loss, so he will choose more cumbersome hypnosis. ”

"Maybe. Catherine said, "But it may also be because there are a lot of high-level professionals in Spindle Village. Forget it, don't think about it, you guys go ahead. ”

"This is the first time that we have been able to arrive at the scene in such a short period of time, and we have found quite a few problems. Moore continued: "When we arrived, there were quite a few townspeople whose physiology had not completely stopped, and we had the opportunity to observe it live. It is almost certain that those people died naturally after all organs failed after being sufficiently squeezed out of their lifespan, that is, they walked through the normal decades of time in just a few hours, and went to a natural death. ”

"Not only humans, but all the animals in the town, including the bugs and rats underground, are dying of old age. There was a hint of anger and a hint of fear in Moore's voice: "There are only survivors in the underground that are tens of meters deep, and we even had some worries about how terrible it would be if the other party chose a densely populated metropolis to do such a thing." ”

"It shouldn't be that easy. Catherine frowned and said, "Looking at the current situation, if the murderer wants to succeed, he must keep the target unconscious. I don't know what would happen if the target was still conscious, but at least the conscious target could run out of their circle and even destroy their circle. ”

"Yes, we also thought about this problem later, and we were a little relieved. Moore nodded, "After examining the body, we searched along the edge of the town, and sure enough, we found the magic circle that had been destroyed, the same as the previous ones. Not only that, but inside the circle, we also found another set of hypnotic circles, and the hypnosis circles were nested inside the circle of the murderer. ”

"What?" Vivien suddenly looked up, stared at Moore's face, and asked, "Are you sure you used the wrong word?"

"Yes, it's nesting. Moore smiled wryly and said, "I was surprised when I saw it for the first time. ”

"What's wrong?" asked Catherine, puzzled, "Is there anything in particular?"

"I remember explaining it before. Vivien rubbed the soft hat on her head, and tugged at her hair by the way, as if she couldn't figure it out: "For the science of magic circles, it is very difficult to nest two magic circles with completely different effects, and the more complex the magic circle, the more difficult it is to nest them. Remember my backpack, the simple nesting of floating circles and expansion circles was enough to make me famous in the Mage Guild. And now that the area has been discovered contains the entire town's circle, it's almost impossible to nest it, and I don't think anyone can do that. ”

"But somebody actually did. Moore sighed, "I'm also half a mage, of course I know how difficult it is to do such a thing. But the truth is always brutal, and someone did do it. ”

"Not necessarily, maybe there are other reasons. Pannis suddenly interjected: "I've been thinking about this for the past few days, and I have some new ideas. You go ahead first, I'll be talking when it's over. ”

"What else are you talking about? Moore stared at Pannis and said, "It's your personal show time, and you still want me to describe it for you, is this satirizing my incompetence as an elven hunter? ”

"Hey, aren't you a believer in Yada?" Pennis glared and said angrily, "Why did you become an elven hunter at this time?, are you more professional than me?"

"Don't make a fuss. Catherine withdrew her finger poking at Pannis's ribs, and pulled Pannis, who was screaming miserably, to sit down again: "What's going on behind that?"

"Actually, it's nothing. Pannis rubbed his waist with a bitter face, and said whimfully: "It's just that I went around the circle and found a footprint in a certain location." ”

"Footprints?" Catherine asked curiously, "footprints in this weather?"

Catherine did find it strange, for it was the driest time of winter, and even the softest of the apprentices could become hard in such weather, and it was almost impossible to leave footprints in the wild unless they were intentional. Pannis, apparently aware of what Catherine was thinking, explained, "Not the footprints embedded in the dirt that you think of, but something else. The other party should have just passed by a place with water before, and the soles of his shoes were wet, and they left a watermark on the ground before they dried. The watermark was kept for a longer time because the weather was too frozen. If we had arrived in town a few hours later, we would not have seen even this footprint. ”

"This footprint...... What does that mean?" Catherine asked, "It's hard to find each other through a footprint." ”

"It's not that hard. Pannis explained: "Through the footprints, you can reverse the reasoning, determine the location where he was before, and find further clues to them through the search of those locations, in fact, as long as you master the method, it is not very difficult." ”

"I'll talk about that later. Teressa, the sacrificial priest of the god of wind, said: "Mr. Pennis is indeed very powerful, with such a subtle clue, he led everyone to the end. It all started when the footprint was discovered. (To be continued.) )

PS: Haha, haha, haha, everyone must not blame me, right