By the time Renard and Dismas dragged their tired bodies to the outskirts of town, it was already dark. The town is hidden on the other side of the river, and a wide arched bridge spans the river, connecting the two banks, almost twenty meters wide, with various marks sunken deep in the stone. Obviously, this is a common passage for the town to enter and exit the town, but now many places on the stone face are covered with deep moss.

Two large torches were lit at the top of the bridge on this side of the hill, but it was pitch black on the other side of the town.

Renard and Dishmas walked up to the bridge by the light of the fire, and crossed the wide river, only to find that the stone bridge had only been repaired for the most part, and the last little section was broken with nothing, and the section was very smooth, only the rushing river under their feet, and the towering city gate in front. The twenty-foot-tall stone wall was considered tall, and the central gate was even larger, with thick planks obscuring the view behind the walls, with only a few fires wandering around the walls.

"Who are you, and why did you come to Hamlet?" a fire lit up on the walls, and a voice came from the shooting holes in the walls.

"The two of us are professionals, and we received a letter from the Hamlet family and came to check it out. We've encountered some bandits on the way, the carriage has been wrecked by them, and now we're sleepy and hungry, can you let us go in and rest first?!" Renard shouted as he looked up at the wall on the other side of the river.

"Are you the downcast who have come to seek an inheritance?" the voice muttered, "It's getting dark, give us your letter to confirm." ”

As soon as the sound from the city wall was finished, an empty basket slipped from a set of thick rope pulleys connecting the wall to the stone bridge.

Reynard and the others had no choice, so they dug out the letter sent by the family from the package, and put the letter in the basket with the fire clay printed with the family crest on it.

The basket was shaken back in the sound of the pulley rubbing of "squeak~squeak~". Not long after, with the sound of chains sliding, the wide and heavy wooden planks on the opposite gate fell. With a "clang", it fell on the stone bridge, which was temporarily connected to the city gate with the help of wooden planks.

Renard and Dismas stepped onto the plank to the city gate, only to find that there was a thick iron fence closed inside the gate, and the arm-thick railing could basically block most of the attacks. The Hamlet family crest hangs from the city walls, and it seems that the people of the town have identified them.

The planks behind them were pulled up again, the gates were covered again, and Renard and the others were trapped in the passage between the planks and the iron fence. Immediately after that, the iron fence was slowly opened open to a gap more than one person high, and a voice came from above, "Come in." Bandits have been rampant outside lately, and all the supplies needed in the town have passed through this bridge, so we have to be careful at night in case someone comes in disguise to sneak attack. ”

"Thank you. Where's the tavern going on? My companion and I wanted to have something to eat to fill our stomachs. Renard asked towards the voice.

"Turn left along the fountain and the liveliest part is that there is also accommodation available, if you don't have a place to stay in the town for the time being. Recently, there have been fewer professionals coming, and I hope you will work hard to eliminate the bandits on the road as soon as possible, so that the supplies that the town urgently needs can come in smoothly. ”

"Understood, thank you for your advice. ”

Behind the city walls is a circular square, the ground is paved with gravel concentric circles, in the center is a ruined statue fountain pool, the outside is a wide stone path, and the outermost is a dozen caravans, but at the moment the planks on the caravan are closed, presumably during the day it is a lively market.

Renard and Dishmas glanced at the crippled statue and turned along the stone path to the avenue to the left.

Three days had already allowed Renard and Dishmas to familiarize themselves with the various facilities in the town. Dismus had been on the road for years, and his gambling skills allowed the duo to sweep all the tables in the town within the first two days, contributing to the duo's expedition start-up funding. But no one is a fool and is willing to give money out of the country, and no one likes someone who only wins and doesn't lose, and Disneymas's gamble is guaranteed to win every game, making him a well-known figure in the town. As a result, on the third day, all the casinos in the town refused to open to him, and the two had the opportunity to settle down and inquire about the situation of their ancestral territory.

This Hamlet town was originally built to facilitate the residence of the waiters and lords who served the owners of the Hamlet family's Raven Manor. After the death of the last orthodox heir of the family, the manor, the church, and the ruins were all occupied by evil forces, and no one dared to go except the professionals, and the rest of the people had to unite here.

Although it is dangerous, no one wants to leave this place, because after thousands of years of exploration, the ruins here are full of treasures left by predecessors, which are highly sought-after and valuable in the empire outside. The old explorers only went in and out of the shallow layers of the ruins, and as for what was in the depths of the ruins, no one knew except the dead.

The Empire has also sent some scholars and soldiers who are keen to explore mysterious events, but it is unknown if it is because the ruins have been infected by evil forces. People who have explored the ruins will be more or less infected with some quirks, they are like moths to a fire, they can't help but devote themselves to the exploration of the ruins again and again, and finally die in it. There was no way, the influence of the quirk was too great, and the empire opened a hospital and a new church here to provide simple treatment services for those adventurers who contracted the quirk.

Ordinary people dare to live in the town by day, and do not dare to step out of the town at night, and live by selling and buying goods found in the hands of professionals and adventurers, and providing them with all kinds of necessities for life and adventure, including taverns, restaurants, brothels, casinos, blacksmiths, and professional skill unions. But with the death of professionals and adventurers, the number of new arrivals here each week is decreasing, and the old people are almost reluctant to go into the depths of terror anymore, so the place gradually begins to become dull.

The newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, and Renard and Dismasas gather a war nun and a plague doctor to embark on a journey of exploration outside the town. Among them, the war nun Yulia is also a descendant of the Hamlet family, but she came in response to the construction of a new church in the town. The Plague Doctor is a nurse trainee in the town's hospital, Paracelsus, who has some skills in detoxification and healing bleeding, but her main ability is to create various potions with different effects of corrosion, stun and buff. Because of the requirements of the plague doctor's profession, she wears a bird-headed mask with a pointed beak all year round, revealing only the beautiful lips under the mask.

The War Nun and the Plague Doctor had followed the rest of the team into the shallow ruins in their spare time, and now they were both 'adventurer' level professionals, surpassing the 'novices' of Renard and Dismas, so they naturally knew what a good expedition would be.

"The terrain in the ruins changes on its own, and it's different every time you enter, the first few floors are simple, just be careful. Yulia said.

"Yes, in my experience, exploring small ruins only requires buying a large number of torches, a portion of magic food, and a small amount of shovels, herbs, keys, and holy water. Antidotes and bandages are not needed, as I will be related to the skills, and you don't have to worry about the negative effects of this when fighting. If you lose blood, Yulia will add blood to you, and she also has a stun skill, so you can just deal damage and kill the enemy. Be careful, it's still fine. Paracelsus flipped through the notes in her hand, she liked to summarize the experience of each adventure so that the next time she could better save her life. This is a big reason why this young man is only twenty years old, but he has become an 'adventurer' level professional.

In the rest of the expedition, everything seems to be very smooth, as long as the number of enemies is only one or two, the stun of the nun of war, the corruption of the plague doctor, and the powerful output of the crusaders and robbers, basically without losing blood, the enemy can be killed perfectly. If you encounter three or four enemies, your teammates may be injured and lose blood, but that's okay.

Crusaders also stun abilities, leaving enemies behind when they kill them to the last one. The Crusaders stunned him, and then the War Nuns and the Plague Doctor dutifully seized every opportunity to replenish the blood of each wounded companion. The health boost of the class skill can only be used during battle, so it is important to seize the opportunity to replenish life in time.

Otherwise, after the battle, you must use a special food to replenish your blood, this food is a magic food made by the Imperial Scholars, after eating, it can not only resist the hunger of adventurers, but also quickly restore their life, the price is very expensive, and can only be used as a life and adventure hunger.

The special power of the ruins of the Raven Territory makes it impossible to bring ordinary food in, and even if it does, it will be ** off in a very short time and become inedible, and only expensive magic food can be preserved here, so when exploring, every piece of magic food is very precious.

After each expedition, each of the four people could get a share of about 1,000 to 2,000 gold coins, plus the sale of some treasures, the group of four quickly accumulated a considerable fortune in the town. But these riches are insignificant compared to the quirks that the mysterious power of the ruins attaches to them after each expedition.

For some reason, after each expedition, each surviving member has the opportunity to be infected by the mysterious power of the ruins, and develop a good trait or a bad quirk in personality and profession. If it's a good trait, like 'Quick Reflexes', it's +2 speed, 'Evasion' +5 evasion, and 'Rough Skin' +5 defense, these will be a huge help to the pro.

But if you get infected with bad quirks: 'diarrhea', 'tetanus', 'rabies', then ask for more blessings, these diseases will greatly reduce your attributes, make you weak, and if you are not careful, you will have to die on the way to the adventure, so you can only go to the hospital in the town for treatment, which is very expensive.

Healing them requires strange items from magic potions and ruins, and is time-consuming. If the adventurers are unlucky, they can't even get the cost and materials for the treatment, so they can only continue to explore the ruins with a negative quirk, hoping to find hidden secret rooms inside and make a lot of money, only to disappear into the ruins and never appear in the town again.

In this way, in the town, those fresh blood attracted by the lord's heir and the news of the treasure will gather from all sides of the empire every week, while the old man will disappear into the ruins from time to time, which forms a kind of cycle, as if this crow collar is like a giant mouth that engulfs ** and souls, so that these faces have no return. But the people who live here are like enchanted people, and no one leaves, just throwing themselves into the endless ruins one by one.

Of course, these are not the most terrible, even if you are lucky, have a lot of money, have a lot of materials, and have a negative quirk, you can spend money to treat it in the hospital. But in the ruins, a lone four-man explorer makes his way on a path where all but you are enemies. Whether you're marching, fighting, or getting wounded, a pressure value is added to your health when it reaches 100. The rules of the ruins will automatically determine that you have fallen into madness and enter a state of explosion, which of course can be good and bad. A good outbreak is like a god's hand, saving the whole team, and a bad outburst, like a chain reaction, the whole team starts to go crazy with increasing pressure every turn, and finally the whole team will fall into a state of madness, and if you don't kill the enemy in time, you will go to the path of self-destruction.

"Renard, why are you stealing again?!, I told you to cure this quirk sooner, every time you come on an expedition, you have to steal something once or twice, and our income will be greatly reduced. Yulia's voice was distinctly clear in the stone passage.

"No, no, no, it's just a little hobby of mine. Even if I stole something, wouldn't it all be taken out and divided equally among everyone when I got back to town? The crusader nonchalantly opened a chest, showed the contents to everyone, and put it in his backpack in the open. "When you go back, you will be divided, and when you go back, you will be divided. ”

"We're all used to Renard's behavior, but Yulia, that obsessive-compulsive disorder of yours should be treated, don't always touch some strange things uncontrollably, some are traps. Paracelsus said.

"Got it, Path, I'll try to keep myself under control now, I'll get it cured when I get back, and you'll introduce me to a handsome doctor. I want to take a good rest after this expedition. ”

"Okay Yulia, can you put down the cylindrical hammer in your hand first, I see that there are spider eyes on it, and I am a little disgusted. ”

"One hand of the Holy Text, the other hand of the steel hammer, this is the real war. What a glorious thing it is for me to spread the mercy of my Heavenly Father in battle!"

........

"Stop! Yulia, don't touch that thing! We don't know what it is, it looks weird!"

"Oh no! The torch in the package started to burn on its own, triggering the thing, and we're stuck in a strange space!"

"There are strange lights everywhere, where the hell is this, are we still in the ruins?"

"What's that! Something's out!"

"Oh my God! What kind of monster is this?!An octopus-like body full of tentacles and eyes on its head!"

"The battle is on! Let's fight, it's good that it's a person! We have to be cautious, pay attention to the blood, and I and Dismas will output. ”

"No, my God, it's starting to summon companions. What is this? It looks like an anemone!"

"Pressure! We're on the move! I'm going crazy!"

"No, don't! Dismas, you hold on!"

"Reynard, what are you going to do?!

"Someone among us has to get out and tell everyone that this new monster is in the ruins. As a crusader of the Father, let me die here!"

"Ahh

"Paracelsus, are you going to die too? Blame me, blame me! I shouldn't have messed with that thing!"

"No, I don't blame you, it's your quirks. Get out, Yulia, you two must get out!"

With a thud, the monster's spiky tentacles jerked over, instantly opening Paracelsus's head and exploding the beak mask, leaving only a beautiful little mouth tumbling in the air.

"Don't!" a figure rolled up from the bed, its back wet, and the moonlight shone through the window on the pale face, a rugged face looming.

"Do you remember that incident again?" Dismasas gasped for air and buried his head deep under the covers.

After a while, his mood gradually calmed down, he rolled over and got up, stood in front of the window, and looked through the gap between the branches of the trees, looking at the cemetery in the distance, and the hands that had once wielded short blades and muskets without scruples, trembled constantly, and the shadows that trembled in the darkness were nightmares that he could not escape.

Time had made his face even older, and the anesthesia of alcohol had long since caused the short knife that had been flying on his fingertips to fall to the ground again and again, and even every time he pulled the trigger of the musket became a gamble, he could never return to the way he used to be.

In the night, the sound of the wooden gate of the city wall being lowered, followed by the sound of the iron fence being raised, and then the horse's hooves stepping on the stone path made a crisp sound, which spread far and far in the night sky.

"Hehe, there are new people who don't know whether they are alive or dead, but they don't know what kind of flesh and blood grave this is, and I hope they can survive for a month. Dismas's eyes looked to the end of the stone pavement outside the house, and he remembered the scene when he and Renard had just entered the town two years earlier.