Carry the Ring of Elden with you

D shook his head: "I don't need your provoking skills, but the village in front does reveal a bit of strangeness. I always feel that something familiar is causing trouble."

As the two talked, they increased their vigilance and approached the village.

The guide looked at the familiar but eerie scenery around him, shuddered, and chased after him.

"Brothers, wait for me." The guide followed up panting and stopped Roger and D.

The young guide was still carrying the groceries he had purchased in a nearby city in the morning. But when he happened to pass by Roger and D, he heard that they wanted to visit a nearby village, so he volunteered to be their tour guide.

So the two parties agreed on the price according to the market agreement, and the young man happily took them to his village.

This trip to the city can also earn some extra money, the young man thought happily in his heart.Although the money is not much, it is enough for my younger brothers and sisters to eat two good meals.

D turned back, glanced at the young man through the twin hoods, and said indifferently: "I suggest you leave this village, as far away as possible. If you don't listen to dissuasion and still want to follow, it's up to you."

Roger smiled and shook his head: "D, your tone is still too fierce for this child."

Then Roger squatted gently in front of the young man and said: "My child, something may have happened in your village. The big brother in armor next to me and I may not be able to take care of you. Can you promise to follow us?" If you don’t run around me and him, then follow closely if you can.”

The young man was at a loss, and his brain had not yet been able to realize the seriousness of the problem that Roger said.

He just left the village as normal in the morning and went to the city to do the shopping as his parents told him. Before going out, everything was normal in the village. He walked along the village road he usually walked and greeted all the familiar uncles and aunts.

"Don't be afraid, can you tell me your name?" Roger asked gently, patting the boy's immature shoulder that already shouldered the burden of the family.

The young man came to his senses and replied: "My name is Ellen."

"What a great and easy-to-remember name. Your parents must be very nice to you, right?" Roger continued to ask softly.

Ellen nodded: "Well, although the family is a little poor, my parents have always been good to me and my brothers and sisters. My mother often sings songs to us, and my father occasionally catches some rabbits or birds and cooks us a delicious meal. .”

Roger pondered for a while and asked: "Then have you ever heard of any quarrel between them?"

Ellen nodded and shook his head: "Once, when my second brother was born, my father looked worried and wanted to give him to another family. My mother and father had a big quarrel and then kept the brother. But my father didn't say anything to him after that. What dissatisfaction does my brother have? I just work harder to support our family. Thanks to my father’s efforts, our family can eat two full meals a day! It is much better than before when we could only eat one meal a day and still not be full. Got it!"

"Thank you for chatting with me about so many things. I can feel that you have a poor but loving and happy family." Roger smiled and said: "So for the sake of your parents, you must follow me closely. Okay?"

"Yeah!" Ellen nodded confusedly.

Seeing Rogel stand up, D spoke in a somewhat mocking tone and said: "Is the time-wasting chat finally over? Or does it remind you of the way you were before you were a knight in the royal family of Caria? "

Roger looked at D and sighed with a smile: "You are the same as before, D, you are still so duplicitous. I thought it would be better to waste time just planning the conversation between me and this boy, but you honestly and politely Wait until I finish talking to him."

"This is necessary listening." D replied.

"It's up to you." Roger shook his head helplessly, and then looked at Ellen: "Can you take me and the big brother next to you to your home first? Maybe your family is still waiting for you at home?"

Ellen nodded, shook his back and lifted the backpack that was about to slip off his shoulders, then stretched out his right hand and pointed to a medium-sized mud house not far from the village entrance and said: "That's our home. ”

The earthen house is built with thatch and wooden boards to form a roof that can protect it from wind and rain. It is also surrounded by a simple fence to form a backyard, where some vegetables that are easy to mature are planted.

Roger looked in the direction of the young man's finger and found nothing unusual, and certainly no trace of human activity.

He nodded slightly, touched Ellen's head and said, "Then take us there quickly."

Ellen reluctantly avoided Roger's hand touching the top of her head and said with an unhappy expression: "My dad said you can't just let others touch your head, otherwise you won't grow taller!"

Roger laughed dumbly and said: "Okay, I apologize to you, Ellen. Then as a gift to express your apology, let me carry the things you are carrying."

"Hmm... Okay." Ellen thought for a moment and handed the heavy backpack to Roger and said worriedly: "Don't drop it on the ground. If the soy sauce and coarse salt jars inside are knocked over, I will Mom will spread my ass wide open."

"If you really want to grow taller, you should eat more meat." D glanced at the short Ellen and said calmly.

Roger said helplessly to D: "Then you have to consider that this child's family can eat meat every meal."

Then he easily took the bag from Ellen's hand, pretended to be curious, opened it and took a look at the contents. It was indeed just ordinary soy sauce and coarse salt jars as Ellen said, and there were no other strange things. Carry it on your back.

The three of them walked towards the village together. Roger waved the stabbing sword in his hand and released a circular formation of shining swords.The sapphire-like ether glowed in the air, split into four sharp and tough swords, and hung around Roger.Once these glowing swords sense a hostile individual, they will automatically attack the enemy.

Ellen's eyes were full of curiosity as he looked at these blue swords. Just as he was about to scream, Roger covered his mouth.

"Shhh - don't make a sound." Roger raised his index finger and reminded softly, while Ellen nodded crazily.

Only then did Roger let go of Ellen's mouth. Ellen also lowered his voice in a stern manner, but he could still feel the young man's excitement: "Oh, brother, are you a magician? This is my first time. Meet the magician! These floating swords around you are so beautiful, can I touch them! And can I learn magic from you? I can work as a coolie for you for free!"

Roger whispered: "These swords are very sharp and cannot be touched. As for learning magic from me, I'm afraid it won't be possible for the time being. D and I still have a long journey to go. If you really want to learn magic, you might as well go Want to try Moen City?”

Then Roger shrugged in the young man's slightly disappointed eyes and joked: "But if you want to learn magic in Morn City, you must first believe in the Golden Law. Otherwise, I don't think Lord Roland will agree to teach you magic." , although the magic I cast has nothing to do with the Golden Law."

D was still holding the twin swords tightly with one hand. He walked at the front. Hearing the interaction between the two, he said without looking back: "But you can learn the magic of the Golden Law. As long as you come from the heart Believe devoutly in the golden tree and its laws, and blessings will naturally come to you, giving you the ability to cast spells."

Ellen listened in confusion. He could not understand what Roger and D said about the "golden law", the golden tree, blessings, etc., but he had secretly remembered "Moen City" in his heart. The city and the name "Roland".

He decided that when his younger siblings were older and could help the family, he would convince his parents to allow him to go to Moren City to learn magic.

"Well...there are traces of people living not long ago." D was attracted by the sound. Outside a tea shop in the village, he saw boiling water gurgling in an old and deformed dark iron teapot. The firewood below More than half of it has burned.While the clean inferior tea leaves were placed in an iron box aside, a handful of tea leaves that had obviously been grabbed fell onto the clean slate.

It was as if the person who lit a fire and boiled water had forgotten that he was making tea and was suddenly attracted by something else, causing the tea leaves in his hand to fall to the floor.

D's eyes were sharp under his helmet, and he walked slowly into the tea shop step by step. The twin swords were tightly held in his hands, ready to be wielded to attack at any time.

But soon he walked out, and when he came to Roger, who had a questioning look in his eyes, he shook his head slightly and said softly: "There is no one, and there is no blood. But judging from the traces of the placement of things, it seems that everyone was there instantly. Just like disappearing. Can you think of what kind of magic can achieve this effect?"

Roger also shook his head slightly and muttered: "The only magic I know can be done by large-scale teleportation magic, but this requires a large amount of energy in pyroxene and the arrangement of magic circles. But in this village, I We didn’t find anything related to pyroxene, nor anything resembling a rune formation.”

"This is Uncle Larkin's tea shop. It's strange. People should be resting here at this time." Ellen poked her head into the tea shop and said in confusion: "Is there any activity in the village today that I don't know about?" Really? Where has everyone gone?"

Roger and D looked at each other and led Ellen out of the tea shop.

"Let's go. If I remember correctly, that house over there is your home." Roger pointed to a house only a few steps away from the tea shop and said.

Ellen nodded: "Yes, that's my home over there. Usually at this time, dad has come back from the fields and rests at the door."

"Let's go, let's go over and take a look and find out." Roger glanced at the Hui Sword quietly floating in the air and said to Ellen.

"Yes!" Ellen nodded solemnly. He took Roger and D to the door of his house, and he knocked politely in front of outsiders.

Roger and D prepared to attack, but no one responded to Ellen's knock on the door for a long time.

At this moment, Ellen finally realized that something was wrong. Before he could call out the names of his family members anxiously, Roger quickly covered Ellen's mouth again.

"Shh, calm down, young man." Roger's calm and confident voice sounded in Ellen's ears: "If you want to become an excellent magician, calmness is an indispensable quality. And your family may just be in trouble. Go out and leave this to me and the big brother next to you, okay? Can you trust me, Ellen? "

Ellen's eyes, which were originally anxious and about to cry, gradually turned into aggrieved eyes as he looked at the magician in front of him who had always expressed a gentle attitude towards him.

He nodded vigorously, his body trembling because he was trying not to shed tears, and he said with a choked voice: "Okay, I believe you."

"I'm going to force open your door, stand back." Roger said, the blade of the stabbing sword was filled with cyan magic, and he destroyed the iron doorknob lock of Ellen's house with a single pick.

Without the restraint of the doorknob and lock, the wooden door slowly opened to the outside with the flow of air in the room.

Roger signaled D to keep an eye on Ellen and the security around the house, then opened the wooden door and walked into the house.

There are no partition walls inside this mud house, only thick wooden piles used as roof beams to support the house.There are two wooden beds, one large and one small, at the innermost part of the house. There are ropes and embroidered cloths separating the beds, but now the cloths have been lifted up so that Roger can see what's going on inside. .

The clothes on the big bed were obviously where the parents slept. On the small bed were several wooden building block toys, crudely carved wooden swords and rag dolls with some threads, which were placed very messily.

The left side of Roger's room when he entered the room was the kitchen. Washed and neatly chopped vegetables were lying on the chopping board like green and white pieces, with a kitchen knife placed in a safe position next to it.The cooking pot is very clean. Next to it are several bottles with a greasy and dark surface. Judging from the remaining objects inside, they are used to store coarse salt and soy sauce.

Roger even saw bottles containing clean grease. Just as Ellen said, the family's life is much better now than before.

He could feel that while the original hostess was waiting for his son to bring the seasonings purchased from the city, she kept turning around and scolding her younger brothers and sisters who were noisily playing with each other on the small bed to stop quarreling, intending to make a delicious pot of stir-fry for his son. Men, big and small, had a delicious meal to replenish their strength.

But now the hostess and her young child are nowhere to be seen, just like the situation in the tea shop, they seem to have disappeared suddenly.

Roger sighed slightly, exited Ellen's room, and shook his head in front of Ellen's hopeful eyes, making the latter's eyes dim.

"Are there any guards in the village? Where are they usually stationed?" Roger comforted Ellen and said, "Maybe they can know about your parents?"

After hearing Roger's comfort, Ellen cheered up and thought about it carefully and said, "Well! There are several soldiers from this lord in the village, and they all live in the big yard next to the village chief!"

Mentioning the guards, Ellen showed a disgusting emotion on her face: "But everyone in the village hates them, and many people are bullied by them every day! It's obvious that everyone has done nothing wrong, but if they are slightly unhappy, they will treat those uncles and aunts Punches and kicks.”

"Ah——" Suddenly, a shrill scream suddenly sounded in the quiet village.

“Cang Cang——” Then there was the sound of pots and pans falling to the ground and breaking, and the sound of hurried footsteps running away.

D and Roger looked at each other, and Roger grabbed Ellen, put him on his shoulders, and ran with D towards the source of the scream.

Chapter 3: The truth about to come out

D was very fast, and almost as soon as the scream disappeared, his figure appeared near the source of the sound.

"Ahhhh - my leg." The villager who looked like a middle-aged man fell to the ground. His calf was broken by something, and the human tissue on the leg bone was torn apart. He groaned miserably with a pale face.

The man saw a figure coming to him and weakly asked for help: "Save me, please save me. I can give you all the money..."

When D heard this, he raised the twin swords in his hands and chopped them hard under the man's horrified eyes.

The middle-aged villager only felt pain in his calf again. The irregular wound was cut away by D with his sword, but the pain was unbearable and he simply fainted.

D skillfully tore off his clothes to make a temporary bandage, and tied it tightly around the wound.At the same time, the golden light of the Holy Law of the Golden Law was attached to D's gauntlet, gently brushing over the wound.

A thick and unknown black energy came out of the middle-aged villager's calf wound and was reluctantly squeezed out by Shenglu. D then wiped it out with a wave of his hand.

Roger also rushed to D's side at this time, but the shining sword that was originally floating around his body disappeared.

"How's it going? Did you see what attacked this person?" D didn't look back and continued to treat the wound.The human tissues that he cut off had changed from healthy red to smelly black, and he had used the power of the golden tree to dispel them one by one.

Roger nodded and shook his head: "I could clearly see the appearance of that thing. It looked like a man with pale skin. My sword penetrated his chest but did not kill him, so I let him run away."

Then Roger saw the black energy that D was processing and said, "Well, the blood dripping from the monster after it was injured by me is exactly the same as the energy you are processing."

"Hmph, it really feels familiar. Let's go back to this boy's home first, and when he wakes up, we can ask him what exactly happened in the village." D treated the man's wounds, snorted coldly, and picked him up. Villagers who passed out.

"You think it's the Deadborn?" Roger asked.

D shook his head: "How could it be a dead person? There is no situation in this world where the soul cannot return to the tree, and the power of the dead person is not so simple. I think it is just something similar, which should be what Mr. Roland reminded us. Existences called 'undead'"

"I think so, it's just that what happened before us is somewhat similar to what we have experienced in the past." Roger smiled, and then asked Ellen, who was under his shoulder, "Ellen, do you know this person?" ?"

Ellen twisted uncomfortably. After hearing Roger's words, he looked at the middle-aged villager's face and nodded: "I know him. He is the son of the village chief! It's just that he doesn't come to the village very often. , so I don’t see him much.”

D said: "That really hit the jackpot. I hope he can know more information."

Soon, Roger and D returned to Ellen's home.

As soon as Roger opened the door, he felt something was wrong. Something was different in the house.

He put Ellen down gently, glanced at the surrounding situation quickly with cold eyes, and suddenly raised his rapier to generate a blue sword and shot it towards Ellen's parents' big bed, and the wooden bed board was immediately destroyed.

"Don't, don't kill me!" A timid and cowardly figure stood up from the remains of the bed tremblingly with his hands raised. He was a well-dressed man with a big belly.

Roger still pointed his bayonet at him: "Stop and don't move. Who are you?"

Seeing that Roger looked fierce, the man explained in a panic: "I am a businessman from the village. Winter is coming soon. I am here to sell winter clothes."

"Ellen, is he from the village?" Roger asked the boy hiding behind him.

Ellen shook her head quickly: "No, I don't know him."

Roger nodded, stepped aside, and D walked in with the villager in his arms.

After D came in completely, Roger closed the door, drew a magic rune on it, and took out a small sword from his pocket and inserted it into the ground at the door to set up a pyroxene trap.

"Try praying to him with your holy law?" Roger suggested to D.

D nodded, placed the villager on the cold floor, and walked towards the fat man.

"There is nothing wrong with him." After the holy power belonging to the Holy Law passed through the man's body, D patted the fat man on the shoulder and said.

Roger then picked up the villager and placed him on another smaller bed.

"Do you know what happened in this village? The pure power in his hand just now, are you priests?" The fat man asked incoherently.

Roger did not answer the fat man's question, but asked: "Tell us first what happened in the village? What is your name?"

"Huggins! My name is Huggins!" the fat man replied quickly, and continued with Roger's look in his eyes.

"My guy and I just came to this village this morning with my goods, and we have already negotiated the price of clothes with many villagers. Near noon, I found a tea shop and went in to rest, because the first floor was occupied. The villagers were busy and the smell of sweat on their bodies was too strong, so I asked the boss for a private room on the second floor and prepared to rest with the guys.”

"I asked the guy to go down and ask for a pot of tea and snacks. As soon as I sat down, I felt my head sink, and something like a purple light flashed outside the window. I just walked out of the private room to ask what happened, and saw those people on the first floor. The sitting villagers suddenly stood up with dull faces."

Huggins' pupils narrowed slightly: "My guy didn't understand what happened. He patted the tea shop owner. Then, and then..." At this point, Huggins' smooth forehead gave a fright. Cold sweat: "Then the tea shop owner and the villagers suddenly looked at my guy at the same time, and then let out a weird roar. I was so scared that I didn't dare to go down in the stairwell on the second floor, and saw my guy being killed by the tea shop owner. I caught him with the people behind me, and some black bugs came out from the tea shop owner's head or mouth and got into the waiter's mouth. The waiter twitched a few times and became like those people."

"I was so frightened that I didn't make any sound, and they didn't notice me. Soon the villagers and my man wandered out of the tea shop. I hid on the second floor and didn't dare to move. I kept hearing Your voices are relieved. After all, you seem to be able to communicate with each other normally, unlike those sluggish villagers."

"But I don't know your identities, so I hid myself and wanted to wait for you to walk over before escaping from where you came. But before you could leave, new screams came from the village, and then I saw Until you run over. I heard the screams and was scared. I felt that something would happen if I left alone, so I hid in your house."

After Huggins finished speaking, he suddenly thought of something and said: "By the way, money, I will give you money. As long as you take me out of the village, I will give you half of the money I have!"

D glanced at him indifferently: "Only half? When the unconscious man asked me for help, he said he would give me all the money."

After hearing this, Huggins said with an embarrassed face: "Just... this business has gone bad, and I don't dare to pick up the goods I left in the village. In business, you must have some capital. If you use the money I gave it all to you and I can’t even pay the fare home.”

Roger glanced at D, smiled and shook his head: "No, don't pay attention to what my companion said, he was just joking."