It was getting late, and the afterglow of the setting sun slanted through the glass windows on the stone wall onto the village chief's face, leaving a large shadow that almost obscured his expression. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"To tell you the truth, in fact we notified the garrison the same day we found these monsters, hoping that they would send some of their men to hunt down, or at least drive away, these monsters of unknown kind. After a long silence, the village chief stopped talking.

For these villagers who lack weapons, there is often only one way to deal with monsters that are too close to the settlement, and that is to ask for help from the guards or mercenaries in nearby towns. Usually, they will send a team of several to dozens of people to organize a "hunt" near the settlement, depending on the size of the monsters, and exterminate as many monsters as possible that pose a threat to the security of the settlement.

According to the village chief, when they found those monsters nearby, they immediately sent people to notify the garrison, and the other party immediately sent people to reinforce them. The first to arrive was a five-member reconnaissance team, who said they would first investigate the monsters around the village

Not only this time, but also the past few times - the pre-investigation usually takes three to five days, and after the size of the monster community is confirmed, the garrison officially accepts the commission to exterminate the monsters. So when the villagers of Lemonglas saw the arrival of the security officer in the uniform of the garrison, they also breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this time would be the same as every previous time, and the dangerous monster would be dealt with soon.

But clearly, they were all wrong.

The village chief seemed to sigh, and Frick, who looked at him in the backlight, had some difficulty confirming his expression: "When the investigation team came to the village, those monsters suddenly disappeared...... Not only them, but other monsters in a slightly farther area disappeared as if they had never existed. ”

The monsters seemed to have sensed the arrival of the guards, and had not been seen in the vicinity of the days they had come to investigate Lemongrass. And I don't know if it's because of their influence, even some monsters that were originally less harmful don't know where they disappeared.

According to the security officers who participated in the investigation at the time, at least within five leagues of Lemonglas, no community of monsters with a higher danger level than the prescribed level was found, so they judged that the village was safe now. As for the monsters, they thought it was possible that they had passed through Lemongrass during the migration, and after noticing that it was a populated settlement, they wisely chose to leave.

"It can't be. ”

However, Frick almost instantly countered the guard's investigation opinion: "Regardless of whether there is a monster community with a higher danger than the prescribed level within five miles, it is impossible for the monster migration route to be close to the settlement, which is something that no one who has studied the basics of monsters will say." ”

Wild beasts can be easily spotted near human settlements, as they can easily obtain food or seek shelter from humans than usual. On the other hand, monsters are unlikely to be close to areas with inhabitants, as most monsters require a special magical environment to survive and reproduce.

The reason for the migration of monsters is often to find a more suitable environment for the survival of the population, such as those areas with large differences in the balance of mana. Of course, these special magical environments are not suitable for human habitation, because this kind of magic is not only prone to monsters, but also has the potential to make humans sick.

To be honest, Frick was quite skeptical of this seemingly abnormal "reason", but if the security officers who came to investigate claimed that they had not found those monsters, then it was not that they really hadn't found anything, then there was something that they were not allowed to discover.

If the latter is the possibility, then perhaps the matter is not as dangerous as it seems—ten times more dangerous than it seems. Not afraid of 10,000 just in case, Flick sometimes really wishes he was just a heart, not a crow's mouth.

"Phew—what about after that?" he noticed that after he had said what he had said, the village chief's face was even worse than just now, "looking at your expressions, and the appearance of those young people from the vigilante group, this matter must not end here...... At least it won't be much better than before. ”

I have to say that the village chief's expression is too obvious, and it can be seen almost from the surface what he is thinking. Although the shadow of the setting sun covered his face, his iron-blue face might make people think that the shadow was actually a part of his face.

Ever since he entered the village, he could feel an uncomfortable sense of anxiety floating around him, whether it was the young men of the vigilant police group who were alert to their arrival, or the other villagers who had not yet come into contact with them, who were clearly troubled by some kind of trouble, just like the village chief.

There is no doubt that the "trouble" is the monsters that the village chief said.

"I don't think I need to say that you should know about it - they're still around. ”

As if the strength of his whole body was squeezed out of his body with a sigh, he leaned back in his chair a little weakly and said, "Those people from the garrison came once and left, and I don't know if what they said, 'I didn't find a monster with a higher danger than the regulations'......"

It can be seen that he is also dissatisfied with the "conclusions" of the security officers who came to investigate, but from his point of view there is no way to make an opinion. After all, they had already reached a conclusion about the incident, and during the investigation of those few days, there really was nothing unusual around the village.

Monsters don't have the intelligence to know when to appear and when to hide from the crowd - that's what most people think at the moment. Even if some monster scholars believe that monsters can think as well as young humans even if they are not trained, that is not universally accepted.

"This- have you tried to contact mercenaries, or commissioned adventurers?" I don't know if I had some ideas, Suval suddenly said, "Maybe the garrison can't deal with this situation based on their rules, but if you pay to entrust those waiting jobs in the Gate of the North, you should be able to gather a group of people who dare to go to the mountains and fields to investigate those monsters." ”

Mercenaries are probably the oldest profession to sell their fighting abilities, and as long as they can pay for it, mercenary groups take on everything from guarding caravans to joining the war. Similarly, it is of course impossible for the young people in the Adventurers' Guild to find investors who are willing to entrust them with an adventure to the end of the North every day, and they also need to accept some small commissions or go to the ruins to try their luck in order to support themselves.

Lemongrass was indeed not a wealthy village, with little land to cultivate, and only a modest level of livestock, especially the old houses, which exposed the poverty here. But if you look at the decoration of the village chief's house, you will see that the village is not completely out of the money to hire people.

For example, the cushions made of animal fur and the tapestries that adorn the walls in this room are crudely handmade, but their raw materials are also precious. If the village chief paid for this, it wouldn't be a problem to gather a squad of more than a dozen adventurers - in other words, at least there was no need for the village's vigilante group to be on the lookout for the monsters lurking in the forest day and night, so that one or two of them were nervous.

"Maybe the village chief also has his own considerations......

Frick tapped the wooden armrest of the chair twice, and motioned for Suval to say no more: "Mercenaries are charged differently depending on their fighting ability and fame, and adventurers, if I'm not mistaken, the ones who found the monsters should still be in the village." ”

Intelligence is of great value to adventurers, especially when discovering ruins that may be of considerable value, and having exclusive information can prevent your peers from forcibly taking a piece of the pie. However, when faced with difficult monsters in the event, adventurers usually choose to contact the guild and ask them to send a helping hand.

After all, life is more important than treasure, and no matter how valuable the treasure is, if you can't survive, you won't be able to enjoy it. If, as the village chief said, it has been a while since the monsters were discovered, then it is unlikely that the adventurers who found them would stay in the village for a long time.

What's more, the attitude of the youth of the vigilante at the entrance of the village towards their visit is already evident, and the young people of the village - at least the combative part - do not welcome outsiders. Perhaps believing that those adventurers were the ones who had brought the village to its current situation, they had become aggressive and distrustful of adventurers like Flick.

Frick couldn't help but shake his head, there were so many questions in front of him that he almost felt like his thoughts were a little confused. Perhaps hastily agreeing to the job of Curator Blake was the biggest mistake he made, but he still can't regret it.

So he looked at the village chief, who was gradually mixing anger and anxiety, and said, "First of all, I want you to make one thing clear, he and I are not mercenaries, nor adventurers, but just two scribes who have come to investigate the ancient ruins...... There's nothing we can do about what you're talking about. ”

Scriveners are not incapable of fighting, on the contrary, professional scriveners also practice combat skills in normal times, and the armed scriveners who have to go to dangerous areas to investigate are even stronger than some people who call themselves adventurers. But that didn't mean they had to fight the monsters, as it had nothing to do with words like a sense of justice, and the matter was fundamentally beyond the purview of Frick and Suval.

So let's get the job done first.