In the days that followed, Arnold did not encounter any further attacks, which was also related to the increased vigilance along the way. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At noon on the third day of the march, Arnold and his soldiers walked halfway through the wetlands, and more than a dozen miles further on, the mission destination was Black Rock.

Deep in the wetlands, like an island hanging overseas, Black Rock has risen from a gold mining boom and has been depressed by the abandonment of gold mines, and in recent years, the town has been largely deserted, and its only role is to provide a temporary base for wetland adventurers.

However, his location is so remote that not many adventurers want to settle here.

The wetlands are very wet, with swamps and puddles from time to time, and the only passage is muddy and very difficult to navigate.

'Snap, snap', the hooves of the war horses trampled on the ground, splashing black muddy water. There was constant 'snapping' applause in the ranks, and it was the soldiers who were driving away the pesky mosquitoes.

With the June Drift Fire Festival over, the weather is already getting a little hotter, especially in this wetland.

"Ah~" Adjutant Pace suddenly snorted softly, Arnold was startled, turned his head to look, and saw a fist-sized spider hanging in front of him. The spider is black and red in color, has poisonous fangs, and is a black widow that is a specialty of the swamp, and if bitten by this thing, it will immediately cause a high fever, and in severe cases, it can even kill people.

Arnold's hand shook slightly, and the long sword had already been pulled out by him, and with a flash of sword light, the black widow spider was cut in half and flew out.

"Pace, take out your sword and watch out for these little things. Arnold whispered.

"Yes, sir. Pace answered, and drove the horse to follow Arnold as far as he could.

"Sir, further on is a gentle slope, the terrain begins to rise, the ground will become drier and drier, about five miles away, is the town of Black Rock. ”

"How's the town going?"

The scout showed a hint of confusion on his face, shook his head, and said, "It's strange, no one has seen it, many houses are dilapidated and collapsed, and from a distance, it looks like ruins, and the whole town seems to be completely deserted." ”

"Nobody?" Arnold asked, a little curious, "what about the situation around the town?"

"We were in a circle and there were weeds everywhere and we didn't see any signs of human life. ”

Arnold nodded: "Oh, I see, you go drink saliva first and rest." ”

Looking at it this way, the town has been abandoned, and it is very likely that there is no profit here, and even adventurers do not want to come. But it's only a possibility, and it's also possible that there are evil forces that make the town look deserted and unnoticed, and they live in seclusion.

Of course, the biggest reason why the military department can send someone here is the disappearance of the archmage.

Either way, they've already made it here, and they'll have to see it for themselves.

"Pick up the pace and keep going. Arnold shouted.

The horses, urged by the riders, began to trot, and in less than twenty minutes they had covered the last five miles to the outskirts of Black Rock.

The scene here is exactly what the scout said, dilapidated, depressed, and declining.

The streets of the town paved with black rock slag were overgrown with green weeds, the walls of the wooden houses by the roadside were blackened with honeycomb cavities, the damp and dark corners were covered with moss, and there was a large windmill in the middle of the town, and the blades of the windmills were broken and covered with blue vines.

All indications are that the town has been abandoned for at least half a year.

"Look, sir!" suddenly shouted one of the scouts, gesturing to the grass on the side of the road ahead.

Arnold looked over and saw a rotting corpse lying quietly in a field of weeds, with a large number of flies buzzing around the corpse.

Without Arnold's orders, the scout had already rushed over to check, and several people looked through it, and then the scout captain came back to report.

"Sir, judging by the way you dress, you should be an adventurer passing by. Judging by the degree of decay, it should have been dead for less than a week. He had a lot of wounds on his body, the fatal wound was on his back, and judging by the appearance of the wound, it should have been poked out with a dagger. He must have suffered a sneak attack here. ”

A week of sneak attack, Arnold's eyes narrowed, he smelled something unusual.

After thinking for a while, he issued an order: "Listen to my order, a group of ten people, and explore the town separately!"

"Yes. Sir. ”

The soldiers disperse and begin to search the town for clues to the anomaly. Arnold also rolled over and dismounted, and walked over to the corpse to watch.

The Scout Captain was still examining the body, and he looked very closely, hoping to find more clues.

"Stop!" Arnold called out to the scout captain as he opened the corpse's coat pocket, and then crouched down to take a closer look.

The pocket looked clean, but if you looked closely at the bottom of the pocket, there was some white powder left, and Arnold reached out to dip some powder into it. Take a closer look. Here are some crystals. Highly transparent, each one presents the same oblique quadrilateral, sunlight penetrates through these small crystals, which are easily divided into various colors, showing the high refractive index of the crystals.

"It's the shreds of spell crystals. Ifgar's voice rang out, and he came over and recognized it at a glance. He is a magician and often deals with spell crystals.

Arnold's heart moved.

"Sir. This adventurer was supposed to be a thief during his lifetime. The scout captain also made a new discovery: "Look here, there's a small mark between the fingers, and it's a knife pattern. There are a lot of small thieves who like to mark their members in this area. Looking at his fingers, he has calluses in the middle of his index and middle fingers, and thieves like to clip their blades open their target's pockets. ”

So Arnold came to a preliminary conclusion: "In that case, it is very likely that this thief stumbled upon some secrets here, and he came to steal these expensive spell crystals, and then was discovered by some people, and finally killed by sneak attacks." ”

In fact, there is another possibility, and that is that this thief stole a spell crystal from somewhere. Get it here to trade, and then the crystal is robbed. People were also killed.

But this is relatively unlikely.

Ivgar also noticed, and he pointed to the wound on the thief's back and said, "Look, Arnold, the degree of decay around the wound is very high, but there is no pus, and this strange decay can only be the result of the erosion of dark magic. ”

Indeed, Arnold nodded, stood up and said, "I'm sure that this town hides terrible dark secrets. We must find and destroy them. ”

............

Outside Black Rock Town, a black shadow turned out from behind a big tree, looking at the army in the town in the distance, hehe sneered.

"A fresh and strong bunch, isn't it, Imsh?"

A voice came from behind the tree, where the tall and sturdy otherworldly creature was sitting, and he said in a sullen voice, "I don't mind killing them all now!"

"No, no, no, they're on full alert now, it's too dangerous for you to rush out. We sneak up at night. ”

"Dangerous, hah, dangerous?" Imsh's voice raised involuntarily, as if he had heard something extremely ridiculous: "A bunch of bugs got together, and you told me that the bugs were dangerous, and this is really the most ridiculous joke I've ever heard." Shorty, you're making fun of me. ”

But the dwarf was not angry, he insisted: "You just listen to me, Imsh, you can't be wrong." ”

"Well, you're the one who calls the shots, we signed the contract, oh, the damn contract, so I have to listen to you dwarf. Imsh muttered discontentedly, his muscular body moving, and waving his greatsword in his hand in boredom.