Ten days passed in a flash.

Unfortunately, due to the death of Count Will's daughter, the military department had to ensure the integrity and reliability of the investigation report, so the military exploits that Lei Luo was looking forward to were still not coming.

Stay at the altar for 10 days and gain 3 military merits.

Even if you want to exchange for the Wand of the Heart of Flame, which requires the least amount of military merit, you need to complete 20 on-duty tasks, that is, 200 days, and most of the year has passed.

Not to mention that the upgrade assessment time has long passed, and even a bottle of D-type quenching agent can't be exchanged.

This is also because Lei Luo, as a 'magician', belongs to the scarce personnel in the fortress, and it is relatively easy to earn military merits, and ordinary soldiers want to earn military merits, and the difficulty is almost several times that of Lei Luo!

But fortunately, through these 10 days of duty at the altar, Lei Luo not only clarified his future path of pursuing truth knowledge, but also his research on energy runes can be regarded as a first glimpse of the doorway, and when it comes to the altar and refining magic guides in the future, he will not be ignorant, and it will be twice the result with half the effort.

Shirahoshi and Yulia are out on a secret monitoring mission, which is beyond the scope of the magic mirror.

Xiao Kang's logistics materials inspector errand is simply rich in oil and water, and I don't know what this guy promised the ghost old man, but he actually got this kind of task that requires some connections to obtain, and he will not go out with Lei Luo to take risks.

Helplessly, Lei Luo had to be alone, and after thousands of choices, he received this task of "investigating the death of Black Rock Mountain".

Black Rock Mountain, located at the foot of the Crucible Mountains, is a remote town.

In general, although it belongs to the territory of the Duchy of Gran, it has hardly paid a single silver coin in taxes to the Duchy, and even the Duchy of Sealand is too lazy to harass a remote place.

If it weren't for the fact that it was a time of war, the fortress would need to unite all forces against the Duchy of Sealand, and even if the inhabitants of Black Rock Mountain were all dead, the fortress would never send an investigator to issue a related mission.

"Dear Master Wenlai, I am Lei Luo, a first-year student of the Grand Academy of Natural Sciences, and this is my task scroll. ”

Lei Luo saluted respectfully to the old scholar, looking like a shy student at the school.

Master Wenlai, a magician advisor who has been stationed in the Crucible for a long time, is a lot older, but he is still only a natural scholar's degree, and if he is at the Grand Academy of Natural Sciences, he can only work as a tutor as a secondary teacher, a laboratory research clerk, etc.

But in the Crucible, he has stepped into the ranks of mid-level officers.

In terms of titles, the status of Master Wenlai is even higher than that of ordinary viscounts.

Lei Luo's mission on this trip is to follow Master Wenlai as an investigation assistant to investigate the mysterious death of the inhabitants of Black Rock Mountain.

"Hmm. ”

Master Wenlai was dressed in a black dragon-patterned robe, holding a ruby wand, and riding a mutated red-eyed goat monster on his crotch.

"I heard that the Academy of Sciences has issued a task on the assessment of military merit?"

Lei Luo said respectfully: "Yes, for three months, I will be a second-year student after the assessment." ”

"Maintain the necessary humility and learn from the soldiers here, they are the elite who have come out of the sea of corpses and blood, and can teach you many things that you can't learn in the academy, such as ...... Hehe, don't be afraid, if you want to treat this kind of thing sensibly, just dissect a special specimen. ”

The old man was relieved.

Lei Luo smiled coy again and didn't say anything more.

Beside Master Wenlai, there were a total of seven soldiers, just like the soldiers of the Principality of Sealand who hijacked the airship, fully armed and elite, knowing the power of these soldiers, Lei Luo came to the team leader and said humbly: "Hello, my name is Lei Luo, please take care of you along the way." ”

The team leader was a man about thirty years old, and he was secretly relieved to see that Lei Luo didn't want to be as arrogant as the little guys before.

If you offend these St. Granburg magicians, it will be really troublesome, not to mention their own influence in the fortress tower, they themselves may be the magnates of some family, and there has been such a precedent in the fortress before.

"You don't have to be polite, Mr. Magician, you can call me Ivan, and along the way, we will do everything we can to take care of your safety and that of the Master, and assist you in completing the investigation. ”

After a short while, several people left the majestic gate of the fortress, walked on a remote path, and disappeared into the vast mountains.

A few hourglass time lonely journeys, but quite peaceful.

"After crossing this mountain, you will reach the Black Rock, I heard that the barbarians there are very bloodthirsty, and when the Crucible Fortress was not established, many of the tourists who passed through here were eaten by those fellows, and then because of the faith and education of the Temple of the Goddess of Wisdom, they gradually became the subjects of the principality. ”

All the way to the mountains, no one rode horses, only the mutated goat monster of Master Wenlai walked on the ground.

Finally, we are about to reach Black Rock Mountain.

As far as the eye can see, there are red black rocks everywhere, as if they have been drenched in blood, the vegetation is sparse, and the few are pitiful, and at first glance it is a barren land with strong folk customs, and everyone stops slightly, uncertainly looking at the surrounding environment.

"Be careful!"

Suddenly, the longbowmen at the back of the line shouted, but a piece of gravel fell from the steep ridge.

After the center panicked, he looked overhead, and saw nothing, just an ordinary landslide, and only the archer showed a slight panic.

"I seem to have seen a humanoid black-haired monster, just spied on us, although a few hundred meters away, I didn't see clearly, but I can still feel the cold of the penetrating bone marrow, it is definitely not an illusion!"

A black-haired monster in the form of a human?

Everyone looked at Master Wenlai, but Master Wenlai only frowned and didn't say anything.

"Maybe it's some kind of monster?"

Lei Luo guessed the true identity of the monster that the archer said, but suddenly noticed something, and said in surprise: "Here...... It seemed so quiet! Even the birds and insects were gone. ”

When Lei Luo said this, everyone suddenly noticed the outrageous and strange silence of the Zhou people, and then thought of the panicked archer's narration, and couldn't help but feel a chill behind them, as if they were stared at by something terrible, and shuddered.

"It's winter, and it's so desolate, it's probably that there is some special magnetic field under the mountains, and it's normal that there are no birds and insects. ”

Master Wenlai looked at Lei Luo and said, "Scared?"

"No, no. ”

Lei Luo hurriedly said: "I just don't think it's normal, I am responsible for assisting the master in this mission, and I will go wherever the master goes." ”

As a natural scholar, the strength of this Wenlai master is naturally not comparable to that of Lei Luo.

Although Master Wenlai has a lower bachelor's degree, he is at least a second-level energy magnetic field.

As far as Lei Luo knows, the second-level energy magnetic field, which is a kind of high-level energy of gasification, is also known as the energy force field, in addition to being able to bless the academic power to a certain extent, it also has the ability to release the protective layer of the energy shield independently, the strength is amazing, and the maintenance time is quite long-lasting, I am afraid that the strength of the energy shield on the balloon airship is not as good.

After all, the area of the scholar's energy shield is much smaller, and the defensive strength per unit area is naturally better.

The group took a deep breath and continued to walk forward.

For some reason, Lei Luo's right eyelid jumped wildly, and his heart was indescribably restless, as if these red black rocks were filled with a terrifying and ominous atmosphere, and there were countless pairs of eyes staring at him coldly in the shadows, and as he turned his head to look, these eyes flashed in the darkness.

After a small half hourglass time.

In the distance, everyone saw the town built on the mountainside.

The town's houses are also made of nearby red black rocks, and from a distance, there are about 100 huts, and even the Church of the Goddess of Wisdom, which is the tallest building in the town, can be seen.

Ivan took out his binoculars, frowned, and said, "No one." ”

However, when he turned around, he was shocked to find that the last magic apprentice to join the team had used his strange magic to conjure two bubbles and form a larger telescope out of a paper tube, which seemed to see more clearly.

After a while, the magic apprentice shook his head with the same heavy heart, and looked at the Brunei master silently.

Looking up at the sky, it was already evening, and the sky had completely darkened, and the clouds were thick, as if a heavy rainstorm might happen at any time.

Baa......

The red-eyed goat monster under his crotch screamed uneasily, and after a moment of silence, the Brunei master said in a firm and low voice: "Keep going." ”

No one said anything, and the whole group was eerily quiet, except for the sound of feet stepping on stones, and everyone seemed to be frightened by the eerie atmosphere here.

Master Wenlai and Lei Luo, although they also faintly felt some kind of unspeakable unease, but as scholars, they must seek truth from facts, this investigation mission is to investigate the unknown situation of Black Rock Mountain, and they must not be frightened to retreat in a hurry because of some possible dangers.

"Damn! No wonder the mission reward is to give 5~20 points of military merit according to the results of the investigation, it turns out that the people in the military department have already sensed some dangers that may exist here, and they are ignorant. ”

Thinking about how he should face the unknown danger, Lei Luo held the energy shield scroll tightly in one hand under his robe, and took out the wind kite fan with the other.

Finally, the group walked into the town.

Sure enough, there was no one!

The town was quiet and terrible, but there were no obvious traces of battle, everyone moved one after another, and in the sound of metal armor rubbing and colliding, they searched from house to house, but the more they searched, the colder their hearts became, and they reunited after a while.

"The food is still there, but all the livestock and people are gone, not even the dogs!"

"It's like...... Everyone suddenly disappeared overnight, could it be a wizard?"

There was a makeshift fortress there, and they were so frightened that they knew they couldn't escape, so they desperately clung to the fortress and waited for help...... You'd better go over and see for yourself. ”

In a heavy tone, the group followed the soldier.

In a short time, the group came to a house that had been temporarily fortified with stones, and there were many traces of human activity around it, which was obviously the last place for the townspeople to hold on.

Walking into the inside of the fortress, everyone was immediately smoked by the smell of feces and urine inside, and Master Wenlai's face did not change at all, and he walked in the front without saying a word.

On the black stone wall on the second floor of the house, countless bloody paw prints tell the fear of the deceased.

"In the end, they were so frightened by something that they didn't even dare to come out of the house, and they and pee in the room, but they were still killed by what they were afraid of. Moreover, what they were afraid of should have broken through from this room, and then rushed up to the second floor, killing them one by one in this enclosed space. ”

Captain Ivan's tone was heavy, and everyone seemed to be able to feel the despair of the last survivors in this room.

However......

The huge fortress, except for the countless bloody paw prints on the walls on the second floor, didn't even have a single bone?