"We're late again. ”

Looking at the wolf-like bandit lair in front of him, the old man in silver armor sighed and spoke, he turned his head to look at the young nobleman beside him, and showed a helpless smile. Although at first glance, the old man in front of him appeared to be very kind and gentle, but as long as you see the eagle carved on his armor, then almost no one does not know the identity of this old man - this is the sign of the Pale Eagle, one of the three major knights of the Westster Kingdom.

And the old man in front of him was the head of the Pale Eagle Knights, Duke Barron.

“...............”

The young nobleman did not respond to Duke Barron's words, he frowned, his expression gloomy and angry.

It is no wonder that he is so angry, as the master of the gold trade route, Pelzen has always been committed to maintaining the safety and prosperity of the gold trade route, and as one of the most powerful nobles in the kingdom of West, Pelzen has always wanted to make some unique deeds to carry forward the name of the family. So, he finally set his sights on these bandits hidden on the edge of the golden trade route. Pelzen knew very well that these bandits had always been a stubborn problem in the gold trade, and although successive generations of families had tried their best to fight them, they had always achieved nothing. It is precisely because of this that Perzein will choose to start his action with the goal of exterminating these bandits, in his opinion, if he can eliminate all the bandits in the gold trade road, then he can improve his reputation in the family and even other big nobles, and take a step back, even if he has no way to completely eliminate these bandits, after striking at them, it will also make the order of the gold trade road better, and in this way, those merchant alliances will naturally become more and more dependent on themselves.........

In order to ensure that his actions can be successfully completed, Pelzen even went to the royal city, spent a lot of money and connections, and invited the Pale Eagle, one of the three major knights of the kingdom, to help him。 But now, with the help of the Pale Eagle, and the information that he has put a lot of effort into investigating, he should be able to have a perfect result.

Unfortunately, nothing can go as one might think.

Ever since entering the Twilight Forest, Pelzen has noticed that things seem to have gone awry as he had predicted.

Relying on Pelzen's intelligence, the Pale Eagle quickly found a hidden bandit lair in the depths of the Dusk Forest, but just as they were about to start attacking, they were surprised to find that someone had already made the first move—leaving them with only corpses and empty nests.

If this situation happens occasionally, then it is barely understandable, after all, there will be mercenaries around from time to time to carry out operations to eliminate bandits, but along the way, Perzen and others have explored several bandit strongholds in a row, but they are all the same situation, which is a little confusing.

As we all know, fighting bandits in the twilight forest is a very dangerous and arduous thing, and because of this, even the power of the great nobles of Pelzen cannot completely eliminate these bandits. But now someone has done just that, and they have not only wiped out the bandits, but they have also emptied their nests and left nothing behind.

"Who the hell did that?"

Half surprised, half angry, prompting the young nobleman to let out a low voice.

"I can't guess ........."

As he spoke, Duke Barron reached out and stroked his beard, then looked at the scattered nest in front of him.

"However, I am sure that they are not many in number, but they are very strong. ”

As he spoke, Duke Barron raised the knight's spear in his hand and pointed at the corpse in front of him.

"Judging from the wounds of these people, they were basically killed by a single blow, and there was no one who could withstand their attacks......... To be honest, this is unusual, I have dealt with the bandits of the Golden Trade Road, and although they are not strong, they are at least the level of low-level swordsmen. And the people who can destroy these bandits without suffering any harm, I think their strength should be at the level of the middle and upper ranks. ”

"Intermediate Upper Rank?!"

Hearing this, Perzen's eyes couldn't help but widen in surprise, and he couldn't trust Duke Barron's judgment. And in fact, as a swordsman, he himself knows very well how difficult it is.

On the mainland, swordsmen were divided into several ranks, starting out as low-level swordsmen, who, as the name suggests, were nothing more than swordsmen who wielded swords. After breaking through the bottleneck, they will have the soul power known as the Guardian Aura, and become a mid-level swordsman. This aura, which not only protects them from being easily damaged by normal attacks, but also attaches them to weapons and shields, making them sharper and stronger. It can be said that if a low-level swordsman fights a mid-level swordsman, ordinary weapons will not be able to resist an attack with a body protection aura bonus. Unless the opponent is also a mid-level swordsman who has comprehended the aura of body protection, or the magic weapon in his hand is held, otherwise, the victory or defeat is obvious.

On the mainland, no matter which country it is, most of its soldiers are only low-level swordsmen, and only the elite troops in it will be composed of middle-level swordsmen, taking the Pale Eagle as an example, there are only thousands of middle-level swordsmen among them, and all of them are the most elite knights. Although the skills mastered by mid-level swordsmen vary greatly from country to country due to different training techniques, there is no difference in their basic strength.

On top of this, there are high-level swordsmen, who have been out of the range of only being able to use the aura of body protection, on the contrary, these high-level swordsmen can burst out the soul power in their bodies, forming a large-scale killing attack. Moreover, after becoming high-level swordsmen, they don't just use ordinary soul powers.

It is precisely because of this that Duke Barron's words surprised Perzen, you must know that middle-level swordsmen are quite difficult to recruit, and the army supported by the state apparatus does not matter, among the big aristocratic forces like him, even if they have enough superior conditions, although they can also recruit several middle-level swordsmen, they are all middle-level or ordinary middle-level, as for middle-level and upper-level swordsmen, it is not easy to recruit, you know, after reaching the middle-level upper position, it means that they are only one step away from high-level swordsmen, and ordinary people will only choose to concentrate on cultivation at this time, how can they come here to eliminate any bandits？

Although according to Duke Barron's inference, there were only a dozen people, but because of this, Pelzen felt nervous, you know, more than a dozen mid-level high-level swordsmen, who have almost reached the high-level level, haunt their territory, but they use their own intelligence network but do not get any news, how to say, it will also make people feel a little uneasy.

But uneasiness alike, Pelzen's concern at the moment is something else. You must know that with the help of the power of the Pale Eagle, the news that he came to encircle and suppress the bandits has already spread in his own territory and the royal city, and everyone is waiting to see the ending. According to the plan, if you really exterminate these bandits, then you can go back in style, and then enjoy praise and rewards. But now? From the time of departure to the present, all I have seen is the lair and corpse of the bandits, and I have not even seen half of the living people, if I go back like this, then what will the other nobles think? What will the royal family think? If it is only my own private soldiers, then I can also choose to seal my mouth, but the Pale Eagle is the royal knights, and his soldiers will naturally not listen to their own words, and at that time, once they return to the royal capital, these soldiers will casually say a few words while drinking." That idiot aristocrat, who didn't even know that the bandits in their territory had been killed, stupidly took us in ......" and something like that, and in less than a day, he would become a laughing stock in the entire aristocratic circle.

Keeping the young nobleman's expression in his eyes, Duke Barron just smiled and didn't say anything more. Although at the beginning, he also doubted that this would be the action of some bandit gang trying to recover other bandits, after all, in places like the Golden Trade Road, there were many battles between bandits, but soon Duke Barron denied his idea, unlike Perzen, Duke Barron carefully examined those corpses, except for those who died in the battle at the beginning, most of the remaining corpses were unarmed, that is, the other party killed them after unarming these bandits. If it was a clash between bandits, it would not have happened. After all, bandits are not armies and mercenary groups, and they can't recruit and hire other people at will, and because of this, the captives after the bandit fight will generally join the other party's camp, although occasionally there will be a few people who would rather die than give in, but that is always a minority.

And what makes Duke Barron even more puzzled is the abnormal state of these corpses, this kind of state similar to a dried corpse is absolutely rare, as the head of the knight of the Pale Eagle, Duke Barron can be said to be well-informed, he can be sure that this is definitely not something that a mid-level swordsman can do, although it is possible for a necromancer to do the same thing, but it doesn't seem to look like it.

Who and for what is doing this?

Duke Barron's eyes narrowed and he began to think.