my age of magic

Chapter 1595 144. Killing Ring

The bald man standing inside the counter wore glasses with thick bottle bottoms, and his beer belly looked round like a pregnant woman. He moved his body with difficulty, put his hands on the counter, and put on a smiling face. He stared at me calmly.

There was only one light in the room, and the air smelled of whale oil.

"I heard from a friend that you can hire a guide here?" I sat on the high chair opposite him and asked him.

He tapped on the counter with his thick fingers, spread out an old map of Qiyan City, pressed his thumb on the location of Qiyan City, stretched out his index finger and tapped on the left side of the map, and then tapped on the right side of the map , asked: "Rainforest or swamp?"

"The wild swamp of the lizard tribe."

After finishing speaking, my eyes fell on this old map. There are various circles on the map and some strange signs. The only thing that can be recognized is the location of Qiyan City, which is within the territory of the Grimm Empire. Tropical rainforest, within the range of the lizard tribe's territory, is considered a wild swamp.

Hearing what I said, the bald man frowned, centered on Qiyan City, and drew a semi-circular arc on the right side of the map with his fingers like a compass. Very well, there are wars everywhere, how long are you going?"

I remembered that Morayaer had lived in Qiyan City for nearly a year. That time, the adventure group she was in came across the ancient ruins. It happened to be walking in the wild swamp for nearly two months. I asked the bald uncle Say, "I think about two months."

His mouth was slightly opened, his hand rested on the map, and he asked me with a look of surprise: "At this time, are you going to go deep into the wild swamp?"

I nodded and didn't speak.

He held his glasses on the bridge of his nose with his hands, and said to me very seriously: "You may not know what kind of dangers are hidden in that jungle!"

As he said that, he turned around and found a scroll of parchment on the bookshelf behind him, and spread it on the old map on the counter. A giant fly was drawn on the parchment. His body language was very rich, and he pointed to it gesturing with hands, while describing to me:
"There are poisonous insects and beasts lurking everywhere. You may have never seen a dragonfly that is bigger than a fat pig, buzzing in the air like a piece of shit... Fly over, as long as you are sucked by it One mouthful, the blood and flesh in the body are instantly drained by it, leaving only a layer of skin and bones, which will be hung on a big banyan tree by a thread, and then they will lay eggs on it, waiting for the small ones When dragonflies are born, that mummy will become their nourishment."

Seeing that I was indifferent, the bald man turned around again and took out a second scroll of parchment. On the scroll was a huge petrified lizard. Although I have never seen a living petrified lizard, I have never seen the high-grade leather of a petrified lizard. After a lot of time, I certainly knew that the skin texture of this lizard was very similar to certain rocks, but I didn't expect a basilisk to be only a little smaller than a swamp crocodile.

The room was very stuffy and the air was a little cloudy. The bald man wiped the oily sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief, and continued to introduce to me:

"There are seven or eight-meter-long petrified lizards in that swamp. They like to lie on the rocks like chameleons. No, my description is a bit wrong. Their skins have granite group spots, which look like horizontal lizards. Giant stones on the ground, when you pass by them, they will bite the legs. The toxin in the petrified lizard's body will turn the prey into stones a little bit, and then it is like chewing jelly beans , crunching and swallowing into the stomach."

I would like to tell him that I am looking forward to meeting large groups of basilisks, this kind of leather is very popular in the emperor.

The bald uncle took a sip of water and continued: "These are just monsters on the edge of the wild swamp. The further you go in, the more terrifying the living environment will be. There are even terrible piranhas and flying dragons in the depths of the swamp. The swarm spread its wings and covered the sky in the jungle... No one wants to go there, not even the most experienced guide wants to venture there."

...Probably the last sentence is what he wanted to tell me. There is no guide from the Thieves Union willing to go to the wild swamp.

I curled my lips, and looked at the picture scroll of the basilisk with some disdain.

The bald uncle swallowed and said, "Besides, the environment over there is full of poisonous gas and methane. Sometimes lighting a bonfire in the jungle may cause an explosion."

He stopped looking at me, waved to me and said:
"Besides, the internal war among the lizard tribes is raging now. Even the largest airship caravan in Qiyan City is unwilling to cross the barbaric swamp from high altitude. If it is not necessary, let me wait. I don't have a suitable guide to lead the way here. , If you want to find a guide, there are many streets outside, but their jungle survival experience is only limited to the surrounding areas of Qiyan City, if you want to enter the deep jungle, you must be careful yourself."

Unexpectedly, the streets are full of guides looking for work. In the Thieves Union, no one is willing to be a guide. I hesitated and asked:
"What happened to the war between the lizard tribes?"

The bald uncle rubbed his nose with his hands, and said somewhat unnaturally: "The previous information is a free gift from me, but if you want to know the following, you will need to spend a little gold coins."

When he spoke, he seemed a little reserved and a little bit wretched.

"Of course!" I knew that the Thieves Guild had to pay for news, so I took out a gold coin from my pocket and put it on the counter, pushed it in front of him and asked, "Is this all right?"

"Hey! I like refreshing magicians." He smiled at me, although the smile was a little fake, but he didn't delay, and said to me directly: "The war between the lizard tribes was caused by the death of the old lizard king, and the new The lizardman king needs to get out of the blood-stained battlefield, this is a war involving the authentic savage swamp lizardmen, you must surrender or die."

He stared into my eyes and said, "During this period, as long as you walk into the wild swamp, you will become the enemy of all lizardmen, so I suggest that you care not to try to enter the wild swamp at this time."

No wonder the members of the Thieves Guild are unwilling to be guides at this time. It turned out that the lizard tribes were fighting for the throne. I suddenly thought that I hadn’t received the letter from Qige, which should be the reason. I said:

"So... the caravan is also affected by the war of the Lizardmen, so there is no way to go to the Aetia Alliance Kingdom in a short time?"

The bald uncle rubbed his hands together and smiled at me: "This is the second message fee."

I reached out and took out another gold coin and pushed it in front of him.

"You guessed it right, no one in the Chamber of Commerce in Qiyan City is willing to organize a caravan to rush to the Kingdom of the Alliance of Aetia. Four months ago, the last batch of Aetia merchants stranded in Qiyan City traded with the largest merchants in Qiyan City. The merchants formed a joint caravan. They assembled a total of 23 magic airships and hired ten mercenary regiments. The caravan set off with great momentum. Only one month later, the joint caravan encountered a flying dragon at Laer Peak in the wild swamp. Only three airships returned to Qiyan City safely, and since then no one has stepped forward to organize a caravan to cross the wild swamp.” The bald uncle said quickly, “The last time the caravan from the Alliance Kingdom of Aetia arrived at Qiyan City It was last winter."

I rubbed my forehead helplessly, and asked him: "Could it be...is there no way to go to Qiyan City now?"

The bald uncle also showed a helpless face, and said: "If the commander of the Aix Army has not been recruited by His Majesty Charles to lead the most elite Constructed Knight Legion in Qiyan City to participate in the plane war, there may be a way."

"I think His Majesty Charles also saw the civil war of the Lizard Tribe, and he will not attack Qiyan City for the time being, so he will send troops from Qiyan Province into the imperial capital."

"If the Aix Legion is invited to come forward, a passage may be opened, but it is not easy for ordinary caravans to pass through the wild swamp for the time being."

"The lizard tribe can't bear this kind of long-term internal friction. They also lack living supplies and military supplies. The traditional lizard tribe in the depths of the wild swamp has beast tamers who can tame flying dragons. Those flying dragon warriors are very good at robbing magic airships. .”

Finally, I tore off the money bag on my waist, opened the mouth of the bag to reveal the yellow and orange gold coins inside, and said to the bald man:

"Okay, finally I want to release a task. Two of my friends disappeared in Qiyan City half a month ago. I would like to ask your guild to help collect their clues. Their identities are easy to identify. They are two friends from the north. The female magicians here, one is a wood magician and the other is an ice magician. During the recent period, no matter where you have seen them or know any news about them, you can tell me. Stay in Strange Rock City for a while, this mission will be valid for a long time until I find them, if you have any news about them, you can find me at Hollyn Hotel."

After finishing speaking, I poured all the gold coins in the bag on the counter. This bag was heavy before, and there were about 100 coins. The moment it was poured out, there was a "crash". I pushed these gold coins in front of him and said to him: "This is a deposit. Whether it's good news or bad news, I really want to know."

The bald uncle looked at the gold coins on the counter with some hesitation, hesitated for a moment, and finally put the gold coins away.

"Okay, for the sake of gold coins, I will take this task, but don't expect too much from our Thieves Guild. There has been a mess outside the city recently, and our people will not leave the city easily. Maybe there is no news you want. "The bald uncle said to me: "Actually, you should go to the Magical Union of Qiyan City to apply for help in this matter. The law enforcement team of the Magical Union is still very capable, and they specialize in handling such cases."

"I'll go." I said.

After communicating with the manager of the Thieves Guild, Katerina and I returned to the Clover Tavern. At this time, the atmosphere in the Tavern was very lively. The Tauren Luka was standing in front of a tall square table, wearing a linen shirt. His sleeves were rolled up high, and opposite him was a strong man with a tattoo on his head, but this strong man was about the same size as an ordinary person, much worse than the tauren Luka.

The two of them supported the square table with one hand, bowed their waists, put one arm on the square table, and clasped their hands tightly. The bartender in the tavern was in charge of acting as the referee, and he picked up a wine bottle with an excited face He fell hard to the ground and shouted, "Start..."

That strong man just lasted for less than five seconds... [-], down!
The tauren Luka excitedly gave Justus a high-five to celebrate, even Su and Helena leaned over to high-five each other with the tauren Luka, laughing heartily in front of the bar.

Katerina and I walked back and sat on the high chair next to Yingli. Taking advantage of the noisy shouting, Yingli leaned into my ear and asked:
"Is it done?"

I nodded.

"Ok!"

She asked again:
"How is it, is it going well?"

I touched my forehead and said, "...tomorrow, I will go to the Magic Union to have a look, maybe I will get some clues there."

After sitting for a short while, I took a group of people out of the Clover Tavern. Just less than 500 meters away from the tavern, Katerina told me calmly: Someone is watching us, Katrin and I Na glanced at each other and immediately understood what the other was thinking. At this time, think about what Kalancuo would do?
We took a group of people and did not continue to walk on the brightly lit street, but went straight into the alley next to it.

Not long after, two men in tight leather armor and black silk scarves sneaked into this alley. When they took only a few steps in the alley, they realized the danger and it was too late to retreat. The tauren Luka seemed to be blocked by a thick wall at the entrance of the alley, while Justus was standing on the other side of the alley with two bone knives in his hands. He asked the two pursuers seriously .

"Where are you from? The Thieves Guild?" Justus asked, but he overturned his guess casually, and said, "No, no, no, the Thieves Guild is not so stupid at this time, don't you guys introduce yourself? ?”

"..." The two trackers didn't speak, they just kept on guard against Justus and retreated step by step towards the darkest part of the alley.

At the moment when they were about to step into the shadows, a dark and dull dagger appeared against his neck, and Katerina's figure emerged from the shadows little by little. blood line.

While terrified, they pulled out the daggers at their waists and stabbed at Katerina behind them...

Before the dagger reached Katerina's hand, the bodies of the two pursuers trembled slightly, and they froze in place like frogs on a stick. Two pale bone spurs pierced through their backs. Contaminated with traces of blood.

"Since you don't want to say it, forget it!" Justus snorted coldly, pulled out the bone spur, wiped the blood on them, turned around and chased after them.

(End of this chapter)