They traveled almost day and night, and rarely rested at night. Siegel felt like his whole body was about to fall apart in the rickety carriage, so he admired these stoic dwarves even more. Fortunately, every time they pass a dwarven outpost, they can get supplies from here, such as food and water. In the days that followed, however, they received scorn and swearing from the dwarven sentries.

"These two guys have attacked the Eastern Outposts, and they are more hateful than orc maggots!" the dwarves were very emotional.

"The matter is still inconclusive, please wait for the results of the investigation. At this time, Gerald will come out to explain and calm the others' emotions: "The Crucible will hear this matter fairly in the town of Rado. ”

So the town of Lado is where we're going. Siegel wrote it down. The convoy was heading west along Cloak Avenue and stopped as they passed a small town.

"It was here that we arrived early. Gerald exclaimed, "Let's park in the shade of a tree, and I'll go and inform the people in the Crucible." ”

Siegel and Leah were dressed to make their tired selves look more energetic. Over the past few days, they had explained to the dwarven guards many times that they were not the alleged murderers. But these stubborn fellows like stones don't pay any attention to these arguments, and just keep hurrying. Now that we have finally arrived at our destination, I hope there is an opportunity for explanation.

Three dwarves in gray robes and Gerald walked out of the town, their expressions serious and silent. Siegel almost laughed at the sight of this - it was too much like a hairball with three bags of potatoes. He kept reminding himself that these guys could decide their fate, so he couldn't hold back a smile and sat in the prison car.

All three potato bags wore the emblem of the dwarven patron saint - a palm-sized stone slab with the symbol of an iron hammer carved into it. They stood in front of the prison van and examined the two suspects carefully. They looked at the elves and said something to each other in the dwarven language, and then they heard them announce, "This elf is innocent, let her go." ”

Gerald jumped into the car and pulled out the key to open the cage. And the three venerable robed dwarves—Siegel no longer thought they were potato bags—came to another prisoner's cart, and recited the words. Siegel felt a warm energy sweep over him, similar to the first time he faced the Knox Mage, so he guessed that the dwarf had cast a spell. Then one of the dwarves was heard saying, "This person is unknown, he is very suspicious, and he should be locked up in a dungeon immediately!"

"Hey, why didn't you let me go of this potato bag!" Siegel shouted, "We didn't attack the outpost!"

Elf Lea came to the dwarves to explain, but to no avail, instead attracting a few dwarven warriors to separate her. Gerard tells Leah that this is not the final result, just a screening, and there is a chance to defend it. Then four dwarves came, carrying the cage directly, including Siegel inside, and led them to a stone house.

The door to the house was closed, but the voice of Leah's elves could still be heard outside. Stubborn dwarves are not so easily persuaded, and they still enforce every rule rigidly. Siegel had a clear conscience, but he was worried about the Elf Master's health and regretted the wasted training time.

There was nothing in this room except the cage in which he was imprisoned and the straw in the corner. The only window let in the light, and now you can still hurry up and read. Siegel picks up the codebook and notices that the book has changed.

The original cover of the book reads "Jia Kun's Daily Notes" in lingua franca, but now it has become "Dragon City" in Elfish language. When opened, the jumble lines and intricate imprints on the paper began to rearrange and turn into a map with letters: the directions of mountains, rivers and forests, caves in brown, tunnels in light gray. The text next to it records the common words and passwords that Jia Kun had discovered during his expedition.

Siegel was very surprised and hurried to turn the second page. This time there was no map, but a spell. According to the above, this spell can open the secret lock that originally limited the bloodline, or "trick" items that can only be used by bloodline identity, so that they can be used by others. This spell is very complex, and in addition to involving spells and spell-casting actions, it also requires the preparation of potions and rituals. Siegel wasn't a mage, but he still watched it with relish.

After that, there was another spell, Lockbreaker. There are five times as many records about this spell as before. Due to the discovery of a lock with intelligence in the Dragon City indicated on the map, ordinary spells are powerless, so Jia Kun will come back to study this lock-breaking technique.

Before I could finish the full story of this spell, all the words shook and turned back into their original lines and runes. Siegel didn't understand why, he just thought the book was amazing. He looked at it again.

Since he had already read the previous things, even though the books were only ciphertext now, the answer to the ciphertext still unconsciously appeared in Siegel's mind. After a while, relying on his superior understanding, he had found the key to solving the mystery, and the whole book had lost its protection for him.

It must have something to do with the spell cast by the potato bag. I have to say, it's really convenient to know magic!' Siegel thought as he read the book.

He looked at the book carefully, not for the sake of its contents, but simply for the pleasure of solving riddles. It's like a child playing a puzzle and a young person spinning a Rubik's cube. It's just that this kind of reading is very draining, and he didn't wait for dinner to be delivered before he fell asleep.

The next day, Gerald brought food and news from the elves. According to the dwarves, the Crucible has basically approved of the elves' account of the Sentry Incident, and only needs to wait until the formalities are completed before they can cast him.

But that was three days, and Siegel felt like he was about to rust in the cage. He finally revealed the secrets in the book, and was so bored that he memorized several books over and over again. Because of this, he has nothing to do at all, but to be in a daze.

The night of this day was a full moon and the night sky was bright. Siegel couldn't sleep well under the moon, so he woke up in the middle of the night. He felt a chill drift in through the window, which is rare in the hot summer, and it is suitable for fantasy. "If only I could cast spells. He said to himself, "Say a spell and the lock will open, what a funny thing." ”

Maybe I have a talent for spells, the thought came to Siegel for the first time. He hadn't paid much attention to it before, or had focused too much on the training of martial arts, and now he remembered some details. If the ball of light floating on the captured staff wasn't enough to show that he had magical skills, then the little flame that blew up the trolls should be convincing, right?

Siegel wanted to see if he could use spells by concentrating his will. But magic isn't that simple, and Siegel is still a long way from getting the hang of it. Besides, he was also worried that if he broke the lock of the cage, he would turn himself into an escapee, from an innocent person to a criminal, and in this fear, Siegel re-enacted it, temporarily suppressed the idea of casting magic, and lay down to try to sleep.

But magic soon found him.

First, a layer of writhing black shadows flowed from under the door of the house, slowly crawling towards the pile of straw in the corner of the cell. The stalks of grass were given life, intertwined with each other and superimposed on each other, slowly standing up. It has limbs and a head, has no eyes but can see, no ears but can hear, and no mouth but can chant mantras.

The straw monster looked at the sleeping Siegel, raised an "arm", and pointed it at him with a straw stalk. A blue-green ray of light burrowed into Siegel's body, instantly robbing him of life—his heartbeat, his breath gone, not even the last struggle of his dying moment. Then the scarecrow walked over to the cage and reached out to take out a few books.

Suddenly, Siegel's "corpse" moved, he opened his eyes suddenly, opened his mouth wide and screamed, his whole body trembling like a spasm. Then a black skull-shaped smoke erupted from his heart, and the skeleton's eyes were hollow, and its mouth opened and closed. Siegel foamed at the mouth, grabbed the railing of the cage with one hand, and struggled wildly with the other, just in the grip of the scarecrow. The black skull immediately shifted its position, vented out of Siegel's body, and burrowed into the straw man's body at once.

Scarecrows are simply fake lifeforms controlled by puppet spells, acting exactly according to the will of the caster. Therefore, curses and necromancy spells cast on the scarecrow will directly affect the operator. The taste of being hurt by his own spells was unusually painful, so the man hiding in the town let out a hoarse cry, waking up all the sleeping inhabitants around him. The scarecrow next to the cell did the same, screaming at the same time. Siegel escaped from his near-death f.

The hidden spellcaster struggled to concentrate his strength, and with great difficulty was able to resist the power of the instant death spell. He didn't dare to waste time, and quickly ordered the scarecrow to rush out with the books. The straw man was agile and not afraid of any knock damage, and although it was made of straw, he still used the power of the black mist to kill and injure the two dwarven guards at the door.

The manipulator's own position was revealed due to his shouting, and the dwarves stationed here bravely rushed forward. Siegel only faintly saw the light of the battle through the window: flames and lightning raged and set the town's houses on fire, and some of the ugly creatures summoned confronted the dwarves on the houses. Strong winds fueled the fire, and soon several adjacent houses were affected. Fighting, saving people, extinguishing fires, everyone is in a mess.

The scarecrow took advantage of the chaos to flee the village first.

Leah and Gerald quickly ran over and were relieved to see Siegel safe and sound in the cage. The elves healed the wounded guards with magic before running back to help in the fight. It wasn't until the sky cleared up that the chaos was over.

The Night Raider wasn't caught, not even his appearance was seen. The only thing that is certain is that it is a Ming mage, who is very proficient in illusions and psychic magic, and has a lot of combat experience, and is able to seize fleeting opportunities on the battlefield. His spells are so powerful that they have influenced the minds of many dwarven warriors and even robbed their minds. Eventually, the mage teleported using the scroll and left the battlefield before the priest of the Crucible arrived.

"That's a short teleportation!He didn't run too far!" The big potato bag shouted on the battlefield, "Form a team of five and search separately." Report as soon as you spot an enemy, and don't engage in battle alone!"