Early the next morning, Flick, who had spent the night in the village's nameless inn, was woken up by a commotion outside. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Originally, he thought that it was just because the farmer was busy with farm work in the early morning that he would make such a noisy noise, but he heard words such as "it must be those monsters" and "we must organize people to strengthen their vigilance" from the chaotic voices outside the house, and he decided to go out to see what was going on.

"Good morning, Sierra Leonean seniors. ”

In the corridor of the hotel, I happened to meet Suval who came up from downstairs: "Although it didn't snow yesterday, it was still very cold." Well...... The shopkeeper told me that if necessary, they could help us prepare some equipment to protect us from the cold. ”

He looked like he had just walked in from outside the hotel, his hair ruffled by the strong wind, and he shivered from the cold even when he stood up the collar of his standard coat. It seems that he didn't expect the temperature to drop so quickly, and there is no way to stop the cold outside with these clothes on his body.

In fact, Frick was no better, because even standing in the hotel could feel a chill around him. He had woken up a few times last night when he lay on the bed in the cubicle, but he managed to survive the night by wrapping himself tightly in the quilt.

Although it hasn't started to snow today, the northeast wind that has been blowing since last night is enough to make people feel a chill that soaks through the bones. Especially in a remote village like Lemongrass, the temperature of the fireplace alone is obviously not enough to dispel the cold.

The reason why the innkeeper now offered to prepare winter gear for them was probably because he saw that they had not brought enough clothing beforehand—no doubt it cost money. Lemongrass may be a small place, but the people who live here don't miss out on any opportunities to make money.

"Warm equipment...... If it's something like a scarf or leather gloves, ask the price first. So he said to Suvar, "Speaking of which, you just came back from outside, and what are they discussing, it sounds like it has something to do with the monsters?" ”

Flick walked to the end of the corridor on the second floor of the hotel where the room was located, opened the window in the corner, and looked in the direction of the noise. Suval slowly followed him, thinking with a headache on his face, as if he didn't know how to describe what he had heard.

The window was facing the direction of the Lemonglas Gate, and when you looked over the window sill towards that location, you could immediately see that many villagers had gathered near the gate. In addition to the young people of the self-police regiment who were in charge of vigilance, there were also many ordinary villagers there, and the atmosphere seemed a little strange.

"Uh...... I went over to take a look, and it seemed that the fence on the outskirts of the village had been broken. Suval said, tiptoeing to look ahead of Frick's gaze, "But the timing of the destruction was a bit strange, and the villagers who were in charge of guarding the lookout did not see their movements. ”

They hadn't noticed any movement the previous night, except to see the torch planted near the fence whirring in the night wind. However, at the end of the night watch, when the hunters and their shift-changing companions opened the village gates, they found that the outer fence had been destroyed.

Human eyesight can become very bad in the dark, so the vigilante group will place a fence on the perimeter and plant torches to prevent monsters from breaking through the defense line in the night. However, the fences were not damaged until the last villager came down from the lookout and remained intact.

In other words, the only time that the other party can break the fence is when the villager in charge of the lookout changes shifts and when the village gate is opened. The monsters will rush out of the forest when no one is on guard, and then they will be completely destroyed by the outermost fortifications - this is simply unbelievable.

Although the young men of the Self-Police Corps wanted to organize personnel to thoroughly investigate the mountains and wilderness near the village, they were obviously not confident enough with only rudimentary weapons. If it is a monster that can quietly destroy the fence in a short period of time, there is really no way to effectively fight it with their manpower and weapons.

From the dispute, Frick could tell that the villagers were now basically divided into several factions - some advocated contacting the garrison again, some advocated going to the Gate of the End North to hire adventurers, and some wanted to go to the nearby forest to investigate. Some even believe that the recent precautionary measures have angered the monsters, and that it is necessary to reduce the fortifications placed on the outskirts of the village, and not to easily set foot in the depths of the forest.

According to Suval, when the villagers said that they could not easily let people venture deep into the forest, they quietly glanced at him and some of the adventurers who were close to observe the situation. Although not manifested in action, Lemongrass's rejection of outsiders is probably about to escalate.

Like many cities that have grown out of adventurers, many native-born residents hate these unstable outsiders. Just looking at the villagers of Lemongrass, you can get a sense of the current situation, and a large part of the locals have turned the anxiety caused by the dangerous situation into rejection of outsiders.

"But senior, do you really think that this level of destruction will be caused by monsters?" After a moment of silence, Suvar spoke again, "Let's not talk about the degree of destruction, this kind of organization shouldn't be something that monsters can do, I feel that it is more likely to be a group of thieves than monsters......"

Indeed, if it is normal to encounter the protective measures outside the village being destroyed in the blink of an eye, the first thing that comes to the villagers' mind is often that it is a thief. If it weren't for the fact that the villagers of Lemongrass were haunted by monsters, they would have thought that it was a gang of thieves who broke the fence.

After all, judging from the several beast plagues that have been recorded, the monsters close to the village have shown quite strong aggression, but have not shown any notable intelligence. Not long after the monsters approached the settlement, they could not restrain their bloodthirsty nature and launched an attack on the local population.

The most dangerous beast plagues often occur at night, when the inhabitants are completely unprepared for the monsters that break through their fragile defenses, and then the swarming beasts will mercilessly tear apart all the preys they find - it is a strange phenomenon to constantly put pressure on the inhabitants like this one.

Assuming that the other party is a bandit, being able to do this level of destruction is enough to prove that they are a well-trained group, not to mention that they are just a group of monsters. Monsters do have a higher level of intelligence than beasts, but they are still far from reaching the level of humans.

On this basis, if we think about this situation from a different angle, could it be that there are actually "people" manipulating these monsters behind their backs? It is difficult for the villagers who lack knowledge of monsters to figure out the abilities of monsters, so as long as they concentrate on some kind of slightly outlined threat, as long as someone "appropriately" causes a certain degree of damage, the uneasiness caused by ignorance will spread rapidly.

The village chief said that after investigating the ruins, they were attacked by monsters that resembled bears or giant wolves, and that they even haunted the vicinity of Lemongrass. However, relying on these unilateral statements alone, it is far from being able to understand the specific breeds of these monsters, let alone whether they act on their own volition.

It's not uncommon for thieves to raise trained monsters, and in addition to the popular hounds, some of the larger bandits will even raise high-risk monsters to increase their combat power.

Thinking in this direction, it is understandable that the garrison investigation team did not find the monster that the villagers were talking about - the person who controlled the monster got the news before the garrison arrived, so they moved the monster, and the beast that had been living nearby also fled because of their actions.

At first glance, it may seem that all problems have a plausible explanation, but the most crucial problem is that thieves who would also actively attack settlements in this day and age are almost non-existent. After all, compared to the wanton looting of villages and finally being wiped out by the army, it is safer to just sell bootlegnier or contraband, and the benefits are relatively more.

- So the question comes back to "motivation".

If they were monsters, it would be difficult for Flick to read from past experience why they were so close to Lemongrass that they were slow to attack, and if they were humans, he couldn't understand the value of putting pressure on the inhabitants of Lemongrass.

"Hey, you're right, so it's hard to figure out who this is a demonstration. ”

Thinking of this, Frick couldn't help but sneer: "Although I don't know if it's targeting us, it's clear that there are people who don't want the villagers to go to the forest to investigate—maybe we who are going to the ruins today to investigate will also become the target of the attack." ”

Putting aside what he had seen in Lemongrass, the other side did not have a sense that the core of the problem should be in the nearby forest. If the other party does not want to see people going deep into the mountains, there is a high chance that they will be attacked by walking through the forest to reach the ruins.

Curator Black's order is only to investigate the ruins found by the adventurers, but if you want to prepare for today's work from the current situation, you naturally have to think about fighting the enemy. However, he and Suval did not even have the weapons to fight, neither the opponent was a monster nor a bandit.

"So, Suvar, do you have any combat experience?"

Although Flick is trained in combat and has some combat experience, he knows that fighting with people under the constraints of rules can never be compared to real fighting. Not only that, but he didn't know what Suval's level was or whether he had the ability to protect himself.

After all, Frick is self-aware of his own powers—he may not even be able to protect himself, let alone share his part to protect others.