No one knew how the mage had managed to get into the tavern with the door panels on without alerting anyone. The next morning, the first person to enter the hall, Emma, the proprietress only saw the gray robe sitting quietly against the wall with her eyes closed. And with her arrival, Cheese immediately opened his eyes, and there was no trace of the confused look in his eyes when he first woke up, which proved that he had not slept at all until now.

"Good morning, make me something to eat. The mage took the initiative to speak, and there was nothing wrong with his expression and tone. Emma was stunned for a moment, then nodded, and went to prepare breakfast.

In the process of preparing breakfast, Jian Qi and Atta also woke up, and as travelers all year round, they didn't sleep much every day. When the members of the team were all seated at the table, Cheese tapped the table lightly, as if he had something to announce, "I knew about it last night." If it had been placed in the past, I am afraid it would have been solved. ”

When Cheese said before, he didn't say exactly how much before. In fact, he himself can't say clearly, sometimes, people's changes are marked, an accident, a serious illness, such an experience can indeed completely, completely change a person's temperament. But he is different, the gray robe is not such a person, this is not to say that his nature is particularly strong, and no external factors can make him deviate, but precisely because he has deviated too many times. From being trained by the Grey Tower as a child, to participating in the plague of the blue lion as an adult, to the recent years on the grassland, if every experience made Cheese feel like a new life, he would have long since known what it would have been. That sudden, torrent-like change would have long since disappeared from him. Now he is like obsidian baptized by lava, and he will not be shaken even if the fire burns the iron. Up to now, the only one who can really change himself is himself, and only those subtle perceptions and thoughts are washing him like water.

"So, what did you find out what was going on?" the swordswoman blinked, her trust in the mage had been accumulated all the way, and she no longer had any doubts about Cheese's ability.

"Well, I found it. I even figured out where she lived. Cheese nodded, a slight smile on his face. Although he had not slept all night, his spirit still seemed to be strong, "The black hand of this matter is a mountain monster." To be precise, it would be more accurate to call her a river monster, although there is no difference between the two. It's nothing more than that the latter has not moss on its body, but aquatic plants. ”

"I've heard of them, but what are they? And you use her to describe the monster, do they have a gender? In the stories I've heard, the monsters seem to be genderless monsters, giants that come out of stone and dirt. Atta frowned, she had indeed heard people talk about mountain monsters during her travels, after all, most places where there are mountains will have legends of mountain monsters.

"Partially correct. Cheese snapped his fingers, and he was happy to explain it to others. After all, in the Gray Tower, he only listens to lectures, at most he discusses with his peers, and being able to explain things to others has become his habit over time, unfortunately, in his years as the lord of Valley City, most of the problems of the nezumi are too practical, and they have not allowed Cheese to really open up his knowledge reserves, "The first thing to understand is that whether it is a mountain monster or a river monster, these titles are just a general term." It is used to refer to a large category of beings that we don't know much about, like the concept of goblins. ”

In fact, as Cheese said, although people always talk about mountain monsters, they actually omit a definite term, that is, the mountain monsters of such and such a mountain or such and such a river. Mountain monsters are a type of spirit, and in general, they are something between elemental creatures and flesh and blood creatures. It's just that they are not elements, so although they are born from nature, they have a complete circulatory system, they can metabolize, they can grow, they can also age and die. In that sense, they resemble flesh creatures. But as flesh creatures, mountain monsters do not have a so-called population concept, they do not mate, they do not reproduce, each mountain monster is special.

"Most spirits are like that, they live and die in response to nature. Some people even believe that the origin of our creatures is that some spirits developed the ability to reproduce by chance, and thus gave birth to populations and species. Of course, most creatures don't agree with this view, because no one thinks their ancestors are dirty things. Cheese shrugged. Because the body of the mountain monster does not get sick, it naturally does not need to be cleaned, which makes their body not necessarily foul-smelling, but it must be sloppy and ugly. This situation also proves that the mountain monster is not a normal creature.

"Mountain spirits, that's true. Although there are good and bad conduct, most of them are not raunchy. He is also moody when he comes into contact with people. Jian Qi Ying and Dao, it sounded like he also knew something about the existence of mountain monsters.

"It's not that hard to guess this time, we're going to face a mountain monster that's so angry that it's going to be angry. She has no kindness to humans, and I doubt that the people of this town have done anything to make her so resentful. Cheese said this, with a helpless expression. The stories of humans and mountain monsters have been bad since ancient times. Without him, most of the mountain monsters that can have stories handed down live near the land reclaimed by humans, and humans have never been in the habit of sharing living space with other races, especially the aborigines who are strong and lonely like mountain monsters. Hunting mountain monsters even became an official profession for a time.

There is never a right or wrong thing in this kind of thing. Either the humans drive away or kill the mountain monsters, or, under the counterattack of the mountain monsters, the humans give up the land they have cultivated. Both possibilities have valid reasons on both sides. The mountain monster is not a natural disaster, so it can be fended off or killed. From this point of view, the caster's situation is quite close to that of the mountain monster, so many casters will form alliances with the mountain monster, or even become friends or take the mountain monster as a servant. This is also the reason why people always think that the mountain monster has something to do with magic, and many times it is not that the mountain monster can do magic, but the wizard who helps does not show up.

"There are so many possibilities. In my hometown, the mountain spirits and water monsters are rituals one by one, some only need to eat and drink, some like handicrafts, and some like handsome men and beautiful women. My family has also built many swords that were sacrificed to them in the past. And when desires are not satisfied, or when people do something they don't feel but actually offend them, they get angry. So gradually, people still think it's easier to just run them away or kill them than to sacrifice them. Jian Qi sighed, he couldn't say whether this change of attitude was good or bad, but he felt a little pity.

"Regardless, this angry mountain monster now wants the lives of the entire town. And she coincidentally found a very suitable method. So now the question is, what do we do?"