The Journey of the Demon Hunter

"Of course it is impossible to close everything, but the gate is carved with runes, and the monster bird will avoid it. This way, at least most of the monster bird will stay in the valley or go to the other Mahakam mountains. Go to a deserted place, instead of waking up one day and discovering that the sky outside Fujian was dyed black by groups of hordes of demon birds.” Cecil walked to the side of the stone table, opened the chair and sat down. , Took out a piece of letter paper to prepare to write a letter. "Do you have anything else, Demon Hunter. Oh, damn, where is my pen?"

"Nothing, if I go to the south canyon and find Master Baltimore..."

"No, no, you can't go to the canyon to the south." Cecil shook his head vigorously. "The gate is closed to the human face demon bird's nest. I don't know what the consequences will be once the gate is opened. If all the monsters inside run out, Fujian will be over."

Zelin narrowed his eyes and looked at Cecil.

"What are you hiding, elder?"

"What?" Cecil raised his eyebrows. "Do you think I'm lying?"

"Baltimore entered the canyon to the south, and then you told me that the canyon to the south was sealed with many demon birds. Once the gate is opened, it is possible for the monsters to run out. Then, tell me, how did Baltimore get in? In the case of not opening the gate of the rune? Wall penetration?" Ze Lin questioned. "You don't want me to go to the canyon to the south. What is going on? What's so scary about? Is there any secret in that canyon? This matter is very important, elder."

Cecil was silent for a while, and he pursed his mouth. "It’s a mistake for me to talk to a demon hunter. I know that if you don’t prepare a draft in advance, it’s easy to find loopholes. You guessed it, demon hunter, there are secrets in the canyon to the south. But it’s not what you think. There is the whole secret of Forge."

"What do you mean?"

"The demon bird in the canyon steals and collects dreams, and then turns the dreams into crystals and hides them in their nests. There is a stone plate left over from ancient times in the canyon. Through that stone plate, everyone is You can check the dreams they found, no matter who the dream once belonged to." Cecil stood up from his chair again and walked to Zelin. "My grandfather closed that door for normal reasons. Think about it, what if all of us could see those dreams? Squirrel party elves, human nobles, dwarf miners, farmers, merchants, and warlocks, Everyone can see other people’s desires, which is terrible. You can’t control what kind of dreams you have. This will make one person have no privacy in front of other people. This will be the end of Forge’s life. ."

"Dreamcatcher... Do you know what we are talking about, elder?" Zelin stretched out his hand. "We are talking about the only species of Fasciatus that has developed wisdom and also uses spells—Sernoi Fascias."

"I don't know why the demon bird is divided, they all look the same ugly, but the door does work. For so many years, the demon bird has not invaded our town." Cecil sighed. "I don't know why Master Baltimore went to the canyon. He is the master of runes here. Only two people have keys to the gate. One is me and the other is him. No one has ever known this."

"Then I will go to the canyon even more, elder."

"Why?"

"This is probably related to the poisoning of the dragon slayer."

Zelin told Cecil of his investigation and suspicion. If anyone wants to say that Saqiya is safe, then Fujian's dwarf must be one. Without the dragon slayer and her army, Henset could easily take the city of Forken. After all, no matter how strong the fortifications are, there is no point without enough defenders. The dwarves of Carbon Mountain do not intend to support this ancient city that has long been part of the Kingdom of Aden. They continue to stick to the border instead of sending volunteers to other places to help their clan.

"Listen, Demon Hunter, I hope Sakia gets better. But don't turn my city into a circus before the battle with Hensett. And, according to legend, the stolen dream will be cursed. Come true, I don't want the streets of Frogn to be full of nightmares after nightfall." After a few seconds, Cecil sighed again. "But if Hensett's army comes in and hangs all of us, the dream is meaningless, right? Take this key."

With that, Cecil handed Zelin an old brass key.

"Resolve it as soon as possible and find Master Baltimore. I don't understand why he left without saying a word. He is a good man. I don't believe he will participate in poisoning the dragon slayer. But I hope you can promise me, Demon hunter, no matter what you see, find, or know in it, don’t say it, let those secrets disappear with you, okay? Sorceress Philippa also came to me and asked for the key. She said that there is a powerful magical power in the canyon, but I rejected her. I don't believe that a female warlock will keep her mouth open about the secret she sees, especially when the secret can still be used."

"Thank you for your trust, Cecil." Zelin stuffed the brass key into his pocket. "I will be back soon. No one will know that I have been to the canyon, and I will not tell anyone what happened there."

"This is the best, demon hunter, good luck." Finally, Cecil did not forget to add. "Especially, don't tell Sheldon about this. He is my nephew. He has always wanted to venture into the canyon to prove his strength. If he knows that I gave you the key but he doesn't want to give it to him, he It will make me feel uneasy."

"Don't worry." Zelin still remembered the dwarf warrior he encountered when he entered Fujian. "I think he now has a new way to prove himself, and there is no shortage of young people like him in a war to defend his homeland."

"Yeah..." Cecil lowered his eyes. The sadness in his eyes proves that he doesn't want his nephew to be like those dwarves in blood. "I don't have a family. After my sister's death, my nephew will be my only relative. He will be my heir. It would be nice if Hensett's army hadn't come here. Anyway, the demon hunter, If you see him in the future, please give him one or two wise suggestions. He and his friends admire a strong fighter like you."

"Worship me?" Zelin frowned. "It sounds like everyone knows me."

"Almost, you are one of the most famous swordsmen in the north. Of course he will admire you. The advice given to him by someone like you will definitely make him listen more than the advice I give."

"Well, I will try my best."

Cernoy demon bird, they are rare and difficult to deal with. Warlocks have studied what kind of spells these demon bird use, and steal the dreams of others without anyone noticing it. This spell seems to be similar to mind reading, but it is more powerful than mind reading, because it can transform illusory dreams into real crystals and store them, and even in extremely remote places, it can capture the dreams of residents in a large area. However, Zelin was happy that the warlock had found nothing in the research on the Cernoy Fascinated Bird, otherwise he could not imagine how troublesome it would be to have a life that would be spied on by an over-curiosity warlock even in dreams.

An untimely dream may become evidence of the accusation. You can control your speech, but you cannot control how you dream.

But what is Baltimore going to do in the canyon? The gorge is close to the Punta River, and you can reach the Punta River by crossing it.

Is it to run away? Want to escape to Hensett's camp? Or are there other conspiracies?

Zelin still doesn't know.

But he believed that he would soon figure out what was going on.

Chapter 1834: Stolen Dreamland

The valley occupied by the demon bird is located in the south of the city of Forken. It used to belong to a famous mine. Until a few decades ago, a large number of the demon bird flew out of the canyon. Cliff mine. Along a spiraling mountain road, the rune gate hidden between two rocks and vines in the distance becomes more and more eye-catching under the night. Under the gloomy twilight, the screams of the human-faced monster bird were heard from time to time. The black shadows hovering in the sky were monsters flying out of the valley. Some Zelin knew them, and some even the demon hunters couldn't distinguish them in the dark night.

"Magic." Zelin looked down at the buzzing badge on his chest. "Damn...it's getting more and more troublesome."

Cernoy's human-faced demon bird, Zelin had no idea how many years ago he had dealt with such an enemy. That was when he was hiding from the storm in a fortress abandoned by war, only to find some unusual crystals appeared on the top of the fortress. A Cernoy face monster bird used the top of the ruins of the fortress as a lair for its trophies. Zelin repelled it, but it grabbed the crystal and escaped into the storm.

The vibrating badge means that there must be a demon bird with a strong human face, who knows magic. Zelin wanted to go to the valley to find clues to Baltimore, and then leave. Zelin hates fighting monsters that can use the magic of chaos, whether it's a powerful female monster, a deer head spirit, or a troublesome little mist monster. But now it seems that the human face demon bird is still in the valley.

Walking to the gate of runes, the carvings on the stone gate have become difficult to distinguish in the wind and sun. Zelin does not recognize the words on it. The runes of the dwarves are completely different from the runes used by the elves, and the humans are from The elves learned the effects of the use of runes. The demon hunter took out the key in his pocket, and after groping on the stone slab, he found a keyhole and inserted the heavy brass key in it.

With the creak of gears turning, the slate seemed to tremble. Zelin held his breath and waited. After a few seconds, seeing that there was no response from the slate, he put his hands on it and pushed hard. Under the rumbling of the stone slabs rubbing against the ground, the gate separated to the left and right, exposing the canyon trail that may not have been walked by for a long time.

This is a mountain road half-covered by a cliff. After Zelin passed through the gate and walked in, he realized this. He held the fish oil candle in one hand and the silver sword in the other. On the nearby rocks, you can see the nests of the demon bird, the smell of fish oil candles lingers around Zelin, and the demon bird squats in the nest of branches and vines, staring at the shadows of the people walking by the mountain road below, or Hovering in the nearby sky, the small eyes on the ugly face stared at Zelin, who was walking through the stones with unkind intentions. But the scent of fish oil candles blocked their desire to rush down directly, and the scent of the fish oil was disliked by the fish oil candles. Zelin only hoped that the same would be true of the Sernoi scented fish.

The sky was dim, dark clouds obscured the moonlight, and the only light source on the mountain road was the strange light from the crystal embedded in the rock. Red, green, blue, and purple, one after another crystals are inlaid in different corners of the mountain road.

This is a dream. A crystalline dream stolen by Cernoy's face demon bird.

The mountain road is full of bones, skulls, sternums and spine bones can be seen everywhere. However, he didn't smell the rancid smell. These bones must be decades old. There are many human-faced monster birds in the valley. Zelin believed that the number of bones he saw was just the tip of the iceberg. Inside are the bones of livestock and beasts, as well as the skulls of intelligent races. Zelin stepped over the bones and moved on, avoiding as much as possible so as not to make any unnecessary noises when stepping on them. He knew he was being observed, and these monsters were evaluating whether to rush down and attack him. But they may not be so hungry, and they don't need to attack the demon hunter with the stench that makes them uncomfortable.

Suddenly, Zelin stopped.

A fairly fresh corpse was lying on the mountain road, lying face down on the ground, with many bone scratches on its back. Zelin looked left and right, the demon bird still hovering in the nearby sky, without the intention of swooping down and attacking. So he walked to the corpse, squatted down and pushed the corpse, revealing the blood-soaked robe on the corpse. Codwin's logo can be vaguely seen on the shirt.

"The Kodwin..."

Zelin searched the corpse and found a letter of command that was stained red with blood. Above, the demon hunter can vaguely see that Hensett ordered his soldiers to organize an expedition to find out if there are valleys and mountain roads that can bypass the mist of the demon. However, a person living in a palace or a barracks surrounded by many knights obviously does not understand how dangerous the uninhabited valleys and caves in the wild are. Zelin bet that the only thing these kings will take the initiative to go to the wild is hunting, and Still in a special hunting ground, protected by guards and generals. He ordered the soldiers to explore the canyon. Anyone with common sense of life in the wild should know that this is just for them to die.

Moving on, Zelin saw the corpses of several Kodwin people, covered with scratches from the human face monster bird, and many of the corpses were only half chewed. A human-faced demon bird who was eating meat noticed the demon hunter who came by. It screamed at Zelin twice, grabbed the food, flapped its wings and flew to the upper nest.

There are many traces of humans, but Zelin has not found any traces of dwarves. Starting from the only mountain road that could enter the canyon, Zelin found only the paw prints left by the human face demon bird. Kodwin’s soldiers wear iron boots, and Mahakam’s dwarves usually wear hard-soled leather boots for the convenience of walking in the mountains. But along the way, he didn't see any traces of conformity. Zelin believed that his eyes could detect all the unusual signs, even if it was covered by magic, his badge could also be found in places that were obscured by illusions. But so far, Zelin has not only found no trace of the Baltimore master, he has not even seen the trace left by a dwarf.

What did he miss? Still something is missing?

Soon, he walked to a flat clearing in the valley.

There is no trace of the demon bird here, but on the raised rocks on the ground, there are colorful crystal stones everywhere. Some crystals are no more than the size of a finger, but some crystals even require two hands to hold them. On the side of the clearing near the cliff, there is a broken stone plate. The stone plate is like a clock, lying on the ground, the crack on the stone plate is divided into four parts, but the strange characters carved inside the stone ring can still be seen clearly.

So he put out the candle in his hand, and the stench of the burning fish oil almost made him breathless.

This seems to be the place where the Cernoy demon bird stores its dream crystals, just like a human being, storing precious things together? Dole Gare would be very happy if he saw the scene before him, because it could support his view that monsters also have social ethnic groups. I heard that Ban Ad College is discussing a project on the social research of vampires.

But Zelin might not be in the mood to appreciate the beautiful crystals in front of him. He squatted down and carefully looked for any footprints or traces on the ground that might be Baltimore. There are rocks everywhere, the canyon is relatively humid, and the mud between the rocks still has the claw marks of the human face monster bird, but no matter how Zelin searches, he can't find any traces that may belong to the dwarves.

Zelin had never encountered such a situation.

From one night to the present, he has found nothing.

He promised Cecil that he would solve the problem overnight. Now that the moonlight was slanting west, he was about to reach the end of the canyon, but he found no clues.

Could it be that he was going to cross the canyon to find Baltimore by the river beach? But he didn't believe that when a person without any fighting ability passed through the canyon, he could stay at any time and clean up all traces left behind.

Zelin couldn't help but have a suspicion in his heart.