The hunters set off from the popular tavern in the heart of the city and made their way out of the city.

As they passed by their chamber of commerce, Anhill got a carriage out, which made their movements much faster, but even so, it still took more than two hours to reach their destination.

The outskirts of Eastern Doruma are not the kind of plains that stretch as far as the eye can see, but are bordered by the sea to the south (the Giokruk Inner Sea) and the hills to the north, and the ruins of the fortress at the destination are located between the hills.

Although the road along the way is quite well-maintained, smooth and wide, it still takes a lot of time to get around in the hills.

"Stop!"

In the middle of the road ahead, the horses were blocked, and several soldiers armed with spears stepped forward and stopped the carriage.

The coachman was a little dissatisfied, but the carriage had the family crest of the Stirling family on it.

However, those Kingdom soldiers did not let them go unconditionally because of this, and it seems that they were also strictly ordered by the higher-ups.

After all, not all the armaments stored in the arsenal were used to supply the battle street, and the logistics department of the kingdom's military also suffered heavy losses.

Kut-Azi got out of the car and showed the order document from the guild headquarters, and the soldiers moved away and let them go.

The destination was already in sight, and Gordon and the others had no intention of continuing the ride, so they jumped out of the car, and Anhill asked the coachman to wait here, and the group walked through the checkpoint to the ruins of the fortress.

This is a castle built on a hill, according to the map provided by Kut-Ez, the arsenal is built in the mountain and underground, and the castle outside the mountain has been completely reduced to brick and stone ruins, and the original outline is not visible at all.

"What kind of strength does it take to destroy a fortress like this?" Hayatta muttered to herself.

"What's even more terrifying is that no one survived, and there was no time to raise any alarms."

Gordon crouched down, took out a knife for stripping, and found a piece of broken masonry and chiseled it a few times, "It's very strong, this is not a shoddy project." ”

"You know what I said, why is it certain that it can't be artificial?" Kut'Az also crouched down, fiddling with the broken bricks, "Even if there were really a group of thieves who could break through the defenses of the garrison, it would be impossible to destroy the fortress like this. ”

"Didn't you say before that there was a lot of gunpowder stored in the arsenal? Is it possible that the castle was shattered because of the explosion of the powder magazine? ”

Before Kut Aze could say anything, the pork chop spoke first, "No, the main reason for the castle to smash is definitely not the gunpowder explosion meow."

The explosion of the powder magazine shattered the castle like this, and the broken masonry was scattered everywhere hundreds of meters away, but there were no meows. ”

"Yes." Kut'Aze nodded, "This is also the judgment of our guild knights in charge of the initial investigation. ”

Xianglan, who has been covering her nose since she got here, muttered, "Stinky meow!" This burning smell in the air! ”

"In addition to gunpowder, there is also some kerosene stored in the arsenal, which must be the smell left after the kerosene burns."

Some of the soldiers who had taken refuge in the depths of the arsenal had been suffocated by the burning poisonous smoke. ”

"It's not the smell of kerosene." Xianglan covered her nose and made a loud noise, but said with certainty, "The smell of burning kerosene is very faint, and it smells good. No, it's not like that.

It's more like the smell of burning heavy oil. ”

Gordon looked at Pandan curiously, "Do you still know anything about oil?" ”

"Meow-"

Pandan sneezed, "Occasionally, Meow grew up in Barubare, who sometimes moves to the vicinity of oil springs and uses petroleum to refine kerosene as a commercial meow."

Many little Ailu likes to gather around the distillation pot and smell kerosene. ”

"What the hell? Your desert Elu is so weird. "The pork chop was unbelievable.

Pandan squinted at it, "Don't you mountain Ailu also like to smell monster poop and urine meows?" ”

"That's to confirm the danger meow!"

Ignoring the bickering of the two Ailu, Kut-Aze frowned and thought for two seconds, then said, "I'm going to find something," and then rushed into the ruins.

Gordon took the pork chop aside and asked Xianglan, "What do you mean by heavy oil?" ”

Pandan gestured, "It's the slimy black waste meow left behind after extracting kerosene from oil, and you can also burn meow, but it burns slowly and smells too smelly."

So it's basically useless meow, and after refining kerosene, it will be poured out directly. ”

Kut-Aze ran back with a piece of masonry, and he brought the broken brick to Xianglan, "Is that it?" ”

There was a little trace of black grease on the masonry, Xianglan sniffed her ears a little and folded them, covered her nose and said, "It's meow. The taste is a little different, but it's not bad. ”

Gordon reached out and dipped it on his fingertips, it was sticky, almost sticky like glue.

"Make sure there's no heavy oil in the arsenal, right?" Anhill asked.

"Not on the list." Kut'Azi shook his head and said, "Besides, what to store that for, it's not easy to use." ”

"It looks like the attackers brought it here." Gordon rubbed the grease off his fingers on the ground, "The Pavilion Mantis shouldn't have anything to do with heavy oil, right?" ”

Anhill shook his head, "It's hard to say, the Pavilion Mantis is good at burrowing into the ground, and the ruins of the ancient stone are in the desert, it's not impossible for it to pass by an oil spring and rub its oil."

What's more, doesn't the Pavilion Mantis like to collect metal utensils? As far as I know, some large boilers also use heavy oil as fuel, so it is not impossible for the mantis to inadvertently bring heavy oil. ”

Speaking of this, Anhill paused and emphasized: "I just said this because I don't want to directly eliminate the suspicion of the Pavilion Mantis because of the existence of heavy oil."

But this does not mean that we insist on the real culprit to rely on the praying mantis, we still need more evidence and objective analysis. ”

"Hmm."

Kurt Eze straightened the brim of his hat, apparently agreeing with Anhill's statement, "We know so little about the Pavilion Mantis, you two can even be said to be the most knowledgeable about this mysterious creature in the world."

Judging from the current evidence, the pavilion mantis is the most suspicious.

But whether it's the attacker or not, the guild needs the truth, not a forcible enemy. ”

"Let's keep going inside." Gordon stood up, "I may not know much about other things, but when it comes to monster trace analysis, I think I'm pretty good at it.

I've asked before, and I've confirmed on the way here, that there are no footprints left by large monsters near the ruins of the fortress, so there are basically only two possibilities for the attackers to arrive and leave.

- Flying, or burrowing.

The Pavilion Mantis should not have the ability to fly, we can look carefully, whether there are any holes and tunnels or something, even if the attackers leave and fill in the tunnels, there will always be some excavation marks left.

From those traces, it should be basically possible to tell whether the attacker is a praying mantis. ”

"Well, that makes sense."

Kut'Eze said with a smile: "The Great Elder is really right to call you back in a hurry, when it comes to tracking monsters and analyzing footprints, our guild knights are not as good as you hunters who are fighting on the front line after all."

Let's search separately, this is more efficient, and we will meet and communicate after the search. ”

Ps. As mentioned in the setting, several times the destruction of the fortress was completely destroyed, and there were no surviving witnesses, which is actually quite difficult to explain.

This is a reluctant possibility, that is, to hide in the depths of the fortress for the survivors, and then suffocate to death by the poisonous smoke of the black oil burning

(End of chapter)