Ten days passed by in a flash.
Regrettably, as it involves the death of Earl Wilber's daughter, the military must absolutely ensure the completeness and reliability of the investigation report, so the military glory Reilo expected has not yet arrived.
Guard the altar for 10 days and gain 3 points of military merit.
Even if you want to redeem Flame Heart Wand, which requires the least military merit, you need to complete 20 duty tasks, which is 200 days. More than half a year has passed.
Not to mention that the upgrade assessment time has long passed, and even a bottle of Type D Body Tempering Agent cannot be redeemed.
This is because Reilo, as a 'magician', is a scarce member of the fortress and it is relatively easy to earn military merit. For ordinary soldiers, it is almost several times more difficult than Reilo to earn military merit!
Fortunately, through these 10 days of guarding the altar, Reilo not only clarified his future pursuit of truth knowledge, but also got a first glimpse of the research on energy runes. When it comes to altars and refining magic tools in the future, he will not be ignorant, and he will get twice the result with half the effort.
Bai Xing and Yulia went out to perform secret surveillance missions and were beyond the contact range of Magic Mirror.
Xiao Kang's job as a logistics materials inspector is a lucrative job. I don't know what this guy promised that ghost old man, but he actually got such a task that requires building relationships. He will not risk the mission with Reilo when he goes out.
Helpless, Reilo had to go alone and after many choices, he accepted the task of "investigating the death of Black Rock Mountain".
Black Rock Mountain, located at the foot of the Furnace Mountains, is a remote town.
Generally speaking, although it falls within the territory of Grand Duchy, it has hardly paid a single silver coin to the principality, and it is a remote place that even Xilan Duchy is too lazy to bother.
If it were not during the war, the fortress needed to unite all forces to fight against Xilan Duchy. In normal times, even if all the residents of Black Rock Mountain were dead, the fortress would never send out an investigator and issue a related task.
"Dear Master Wenlai, I am Grand Natural Sciences Academy, a first-year student, Reilo. This is my mission scroll."
Reilo saluted the old scholar respectfully, looking like a shy student at school.
Master Wenlai is a magician consultant who has been stationed at Furnace Fortress for a long time. He is much older, but he still only has a Natural Scholar degree. If he were in the Grand Natural Sciences Academy, he could only work as an assistant tutor, laboratory research clerk, etc.
But in Furnace Fortress, he has already entered the ranks of mid-level officers.
In terms of title, Master Wenlai's status is even higher than that of an ordinary viscount.
Reilo's mission on this trip is to follow Master Wenlai as an investigation assistant to investigate the mysterious death of Black Rock Mountain residents.
"Hmm."
Master Wenlai is wearing a black dragon-patterned robe, holding a ruby wand, and riding a mutated Red-Eyed Mountain Goat Monster on his crotch mount. The figure is astonishing, almost the same as a horse, and a pair of majestic horns.
"I heard that the Academy of Sciences issued a task regarding military merit assessment?"
Reilo said respectfully, "Yes, it lasts for three months. After the assessment, I will be a second-year student."
"You must maintain the necessary humility and learn more from the soldiers here. They are all elites who came out of the Corpse Mountain Sea of Blood. They can teach you many things that you cannot learn in the academy, such as... killing! Haha, don't be afraid. You should treat this kind of thing rationally and treat it like dissecting a special specimen."
The old man felt relieved Reilo.
Reilo smiled shyly again and said nothing more.
There were seven soldiers beside Master Wenlai. Just like the Xilan Duchy soldiers who hijacked the airship, they were fully armed and elite. Knowing how powerful these soldiers were, Reilo came to the team leader and said humbly, "Hello, my name is Reilo. Please take care of me along the way."
The team leader was a man about thirty years old. He was secretly relieved to see that Reilo was not as arrogant as the previous little guys.
It would be really troublesome to offend these Saint Grand Fort magicians. Not to mention their own influence in the fortress High Tower, they themselves might be the powerful people of some family. There has been such a precedent in the fortress before.
"You're welcome, Mr. Magician. You can call me Ivan. Along the way, we will do our best to be responsible for your and the master's safety and assist you in completing the investigation."
After a while, a few people left the grand gate of the fortress, walked on a remote path, and disappeared into the vast mountains.
The lonely journey for a few hours was quite peaceful.
"Crossing this mountain, you will reach Black Rock Mountain. I heard that the barbarians there are very bloodthirsty. Before Furnace Fortress was established, many travelers passing by were eaten by those guys. Later, because of Temple of the Goddess of Wisdom's religious education, they gradually became citizens of the principality."
Along the mountainous terrain, no one was riding horses, only Master Wenlai's mutated goat monster was walking on flat ground.
Finally arriving at Black Rock Mountain.
Looking around, there are red and black rocks everywhere, as if they have been soaked in blood. The vegetation is sparse and pitiful. At first glance, it is a barren land with strong folk customs. Everyone stopped for a moment, maybe looking at the surrounding environment.
"Be careful!"
Suddenly, the longbow knight at the back of the team shouted, and a piece of gravel fell from the steep ridge.
After the center panicked and avoided it, he looked overhead and saw nothing. He thought it was just an ordinary landslide. Only the archer showed some panic.
"I seemed to see a human-shaped black-haired monster spying on us from above. Although I couldn't see it clearly due to the distance of several hundred meters, I could still feel the coldness that penetrated my bones. It was definitely not an illusion!"
A humanoid black-haired monster?
Everyone looked at Master Wenlai, but Master Wenlai just frowned and said nothing.
"Maybe some kind of Magical Beast?"
Reilo guessed the true identity of the monster the archer said, but suddenly noticed something, and said in surprise, "It seems... it's too quiet here! Even the chirping of birds and insects has disappeared."
After Reilo said this, everyone suddenly noticed the eerie and eerie silence of the people around them. When they thought about the panicked archer's narration, they couldn't help but feel a chill running down their backs, as if they were being stared at by something terrible, a shuddering feeling.
"It's winter now, and it's so desolate here. It's possible that there is some special magnetic field under the mountains. It's normal that there are no birds chirping or insects chirping."
Master Wenlai looked at Reilo and said, "Are you scared?"
"No, no."
Reilo hurriedly said, "It just doesn't feel normal. I am responsible for assisting the master in this mission. I will go wherever the master goes."
As Natural Scholar, the power of this master Wenlai is naturally not comparable to that of Reilo.
Although Master Wenlai has a lower bachelor's degree, he is at least a second-level Energy Magnetic Field.
As far as Reilo knows, the second level Energy Magnetic Field is a gasified advanced energy, also known as an energy force field. In addition to blessing academic power to a certain extent, it also has the ability to independently release the Energy Shield protective layer. The strength is amazing and the duration is quite long-lasting. I am afraid that even the Energy Shield on the balloon airship is not as strong as it.
After all, the scholar's Energy Shield has a much smaller area, so its defense strength per unit area is naturally superior.
Everyone took a deep breath and continued to move forward.
For some reason, Reilo's right eyelid was twitching wildly, and he felt an indescribable anxiety in his heart. It was as if these red-black rocks were filled with a terrifying and ominous atmosphere. There were countless pairs of eyes staring coldly at him in the shadows. As he turned his head to look out, these eyes flickered in the darkness.
After half an hourglass time.
From a distance, everyone could see the small town built on the mountainside.
The houses in the town are also made of nearby red-black rocks. Looking from a distance, there are about a hundred huts, and you can even see the Goddess of Wisdom church, which although simple, is the tallest building in the town.
Ivan took out the telescope and frowned. "No one is there."
However, when he turned back, he was shocked to find that the last magic apprentice to join the team had used his weird magic to create two bubbles and used paper tubes to form a larger telescope, which seemed to allow for clearer observation.
After a while, the magic apprentice shook his head with a heavy heart and looked at Master Brunei silently.
I looked up at the sky, it was already evening, the sky had completely darkened, the clouds were thick, and it seemed like a heavy rain might fall at any time.
What...
The Red-Eyed Mountain Goat Monster under the crotch screamed uneasily. After a moment of silence, Master Brunei said firmly and lowly, "Keep going."
No one said anything. The whole team was eerily quiet. The only sound they could hear was the sound of their feet stepping on stones. It seemed that everyone was frightened by the weird atmosphere here.
Master Wenlai and Reilo, although they also felt some indescribable uneasiness, but as scholars, they must seek truth from facts. This investigation mission is to investigate the unknown situation of Black Rock Mountain. They cannot be frightened and retreat in a hurry because of some possible dangers.
"Damn it! No wonder the mission reward is 5 to 20 points of military merit based on the investigation results. It turns out that the people in the military department are already aware of certain dangers that may exist here, and they are ignorant."
Thinking about how to face the unknown danger, Reilo held the Energy Shield scroll in one hand under Reilo's sleeve robe, and took out Wind Kite Fan with the other hand.
Finally, everyone entered the town.
Sure enough, there was no one!
The town was eerily quiet, but there were no obvious signs of battle. Everyone took action one after another. Amidst the friction and collision of metal armor, they searched house to house. However, the more they searched, the colder their hearts became. After a while, they gathered together again.
"The food is still there, but all the livestock and people are gone, not even a dog!"
"It's like... everyone suddenly disappeared overnight. Could it be Witcher?"
"They didn't disappear overnight, but disappeared in batches! There was a temporary fortress there. They must have been extremely scared and knew they could not escape, so they desperately stayed in the fortress waiting for help... You'd better go and see for yourself."
With a heavy tone, everyone followed the soldier.
After a while, everyone came to a house that was temporarily fortified with stones. There were many traces of human activities around it. This was obviously the last stronghold of the people in the town.
Walking into the fortress, everyone was immediately hit by the stench of feces and urine inside. Master Wenlai's expression did not change at all, and he walked at the front without saying a word.
On the black stone wall on the second floor of the house, there are countless bloody claw marks, telling the fear of the deceased during his lifetime.
"In the final period, they were completely frightened by something. They didn't even dare to come out of the house and pooped and peed in the room, but they were still killed by the thing they were afraid of. Moreover, the thing they were afraid of probably broke through the house, then rushed to the second floor and killed them one by one in this closed space."
Ivan Captain's tone was heavy, and everyone seemed to be able to feel the despair of the survivors in this room with no way to escape.
However...
In such a huge fortress, except for countless bloody claw marks on the wall on the second floor, there is not even a single skeleton?