The wizard starts by trimming the donkey's hooves

Chapter 90 Convergence
  The three of them immediately looked in that direction and saw nothing but darkness inside.

But Ren, who had dark vision, could already see two tall black figures flashing past at the end of the alley. Each of them seemed to have a large, squirming bag half as tall as a man on his back.

"That's Quinn's patrol area over there, captain, shall we go take a look?" Mateo obviously noticed something was wrong.

"It's two people, each carrying a big bag." Ren said in a deep voice, he had already thought of some bad things.

Willen and Mateo couldn't help but look at Renn in surprise, as if to say, can you see this clearly?
  "Let's go! Follow." Willen thought for a moment and decided to catch up and take a look.

The three people, led by 'Cookie', quickly chased after him.

It seemed that they had discovered a dog and three people chasing after them. The two black figures in front were obviously a little panicked. In desperation, they suddenly threw away the sacks they were carrying, and then moved at an even faster speed. Escape.

Just when Ren wanted to catch up first, suddenly, an orange signal firework flashed in mid-air, located above the northwest corner of Ren's group.

"It's our signal for help."

"We have to go there immediately." Willen looked at it and said to Ren with a solemn expression.

"Boss, it's a child!" Mateo had already opened the two big bags that were thrown on the ground.

I saw that each contained a child whose hands and feet were gagged and bound. When the two children saw the night watchman wearing black leather armor, they started to struggle.

"Matteo, you stay and take care of the children."

"Ren and I will go over there immediately and take a look. Just be careful and stay safe!" Willen immediately arranged the division of labor.

"Okay, boss! Go ahead, you guys, I'll be careful." Mateo said as he untied the children.

Ren turned his head and glanced at the two traffickers who had disappeared from sight, knowing that now was not the right time to chase the two traffickers.

After all, rescuing colleagues is more important.

However, when Willen and Lane arrived at the northwest corner of the town, they found that the crisis had been resolved.

The night watchmen in this area also encountered human traffickers, but this time the traffickers seemed a bit stronger. They actually broke through the siege of three night watchmen and left calmly.

In addition, a night watchman was stabbed in the right arm while blocking the opponent.

Although the other party has escaped, Renn always feels that something is wrong. The group of people who are selling children are a bit too rampant and too frequent recently!

This incident naturally made Goldsmith Town Sheriff Hamilton very angry, and he immediately strengthened the manpower deployment of Goldsmith Town at night.

but
  Since that day, for three consecutive nights, the area where Ren was patrolling was safe and sound.

It seems that the arrogance of human traffickers has been effectively curbed.

At the same time, Ren gradually became familiar with the work of the night watchman.

The night watchman of Shining Gold Town is mainly responsible for the security of the town at night, fire fighting, dealing with wild beast intrusion, and warning of major dangers. During the day, this work is the responsibility of the security guard.

Since daytime is much safer than nighttime, the combat effectiveness of night watchmen is generally higher than that of security guards.

Of course, the same goes for remuneration.

The monthly salary of ordinary night watchmen reached 8 imperial silver coins, while the monthly salary of elites like Renn reached 1 imperial gold coin.

At the same time, there will be 1-2 days of rest per week according to the captain's arrangement.

Not sleeping all night is actually not exhausting for Ren, who practices breathing techniques.

As long as he goes back and takes a short nap, Ren will be in high spirits when he gets up again.

The rest of the day is used to do other things, such as practicing breathing techniques in his room, going to John's farm to improve his riding skills, or coming to the training ground to practice swordsmanship and archery, etc.

In addition, Renne learned something from Captain Willen's sidelines.

The empire has strict restrictions on civilians learning breathing techniques and extraordinary sword skills, which can be seen from the large amount of merit points required to redeem them.

But for nobles, they are very 'tolerant'.

Nobles can teach breathing techniques and extraordinary sword skills to their followers!

It is not difficult to understand that so many civilians have sharpened their heads, hoping to become servants or guards of nobles.

This system has a long history and is widely recognized by nobles at all levels.

On the other hand, it is extremely difficult for civilians to get ahead on their own.

Renn briefly summarized a few things that civilians need to overcome to become extraordinary.

First, you must join the official organization of the empire, earn enough merit points over time, and learn breathing techniques and extraordinary combat skills.

Then, continue to accumulate merit points and exchange them for 'advanced potions'. If you can become a lucky person and successfully enter the extraordinary world, after being canonized by the empire, you can become the lowest noble - the non-hereditary knight class.

The only pity these days is that Hamilton is extremely busy at work as the Sheriff of Goldsmith Town.

Renn originally thought about asking the other party for sword skills and collecting some "experience points", but he couldn't find the right time.

After three days, Rennes' fastest progressing profession, the dog trainer who still cost a lot of money, actually reached level 2 (223/300).

Part of this was because Renne patrolled the whole night with Cookie and was recognized by the system as walking the dog.

Renn had calculated before that after about fifteen minutes of walking the dog, the dog trainer's professional level experience would increase a little.

Therefore, by walking the dog all night, my natural experience increases rapidly.

The only thing that makes Ren a little unhappy is that as the night watchman of Goldsmith Town, relatively speaking, there are too few masters.

In the training ground of the Administration Hall, if Renn used the giant bear sword technique, there would be basically no three-in-one enemy.

Therefore, when Ren competed with other night watchmen, they always used half-swords with their hands and imperial swordsmanship, and then took the time to practice some archery skills.

After a few days, the harvest was pretty good.

守夜人职业等级达到了lv3（247/500），帝国军用剑术和基础弓术提升更大一些，达到了lv2（245/300）和lv2（121/300）。

Unknowingly, three days passed by like this.

The morning light showed slightly today, and Renn finished his night patrol. Not long after returning home, he received a notice from the guard, and Lord Hamilton asked him to come over.

Ren thought for a while, then brought the two-handed sword wrapped in sheepskin and the black standard leather armor of the night watchman to the town administration hall.

In the office, Hamilton handed a parchment file to Lane.

"For this mission, we have to go there in person."

Renn took the file and flipped through it skillfully. The first was the mission description. Several miners were missing in the Elim Mine. Three bounty hunters who went to investigate have still not been heard from.

As of yesterday, the number of missing miners had exceeded ten. Now all the miners in the Elim Mine are in panic. No miner dares to work anymore, and the mine is forced to close.

"Eh! Elim Mine? It seems that I have heard about the accident before."

“I didn’t expect it was never solved”

"The current situation is obviously more serious!"

Renn immediately remembered that he had heard news about the Elim Mine before in Hamilton. Renn continued to look through the case file, and the mission requirement for this time was written at the end of the file. It was just one sentence: Investigate what happened in the Elim Mine?
  "Is this an investigation mission?" Renne glanced at Hamilton in surprise.

It stands to reason that if it is just an investigation task, the official forces of the empire will generally not get involved. Most of them will use the form of a reward, allowing bounty hunters to complete more.

But this time it was different. The Sheriff of Goldsmith Town, Hamilton, was dispatched directly. Renne vaguely felt the importance of the Elim Gold Mine.

Hamilton's next words confirmed Rennes' guess.

"Although the output of the Elim Mine is declining year by year, its importance is still very important to Meist County. The superiors asked me to find out what happened in the Elim Mine as soon as possible?"

"Also, although this is just an investigation mission, it is possible that a mysterious incident occurred in the mine." Hamilton looked solemn.

"Mysterious incident?" Renn chewed these four words.

"That's right! Three bounty hunters have disappeared one after another. This situation can be judged as a mysterious incident. In other words, there may be monsters or some supernatural phenomena appearing in the mine."

"Sir, if it's a monster, why don't you offer a reward for the monster hunter to take action? Of course, I'm just curious, not afraid." Ren asked.

After all, this was what Hamilton told him. If he wanted to buy violent bear meat, he could find a monster hunter in the county to buy it.

"Because one of the bounty hunters, Nedved, is also an experienced monster hunter. His disappearance means that no monster hunter in the county dares to take on this mission anymore."

After listening to Hamilton tell the whole story, Renn nodded,
  The disappearance of three bounty hunters, one of whom was an experienced monster hunter, still gave him a vague premonition.

"Lord Hamilton, what do you think happened in the mine?" Renne couldn't help but ask. After all, Hamilton was well-informed and should have made some judgments about what might happen.

Hamilton pondered for a moment and said: "At first, I guessed whether there were kobolds in the Elim Mine, but the kobolds are not very powerful and are usually in large numbers. But so far, there is no news that anyone has seen them. I’ve seen traces of kobolds.”

"In addition, three experienced bounty hunters are missing, which means there is a high probability that there will not be creatures like kobolds inside."

"So, I guess there should be some kind of monster that is good at lurking and attacking in the mine."

"For example, the Stinging Scorpion is very good at lurking and sneak attacks. At the same time, the Stinging Scorpion also likes the deep and humid environment of mines. If it hits a miner or bounty hunter during its attack, it will quietly complete the fatal blow. hit."

"I didn't even have time to scream."

"Of course, it may also be other groups of monsters that are good at ambush, such as cavemen, etc. It's hard to say yet."

After hearing Hamilton's well-founded analysis, Renne couldn't help but nodded, and his worries were relieved a lot.

With my experienced boss leading the team, there shouldn't be much of a safety problem.

"Ren, don't you plan to earn more merit points so that you can exchange them for advanced potions?"

"This may be a good opportunity. Generally speaking, the merit points for missions involving such mysterious events are three to five times that of ordinary missions, or even higher."

"In addition, if the monster is easier to deal with, we can kill the monster directly. In that case, we will get more merit points." Hamilton said to Renne with a smile.

Renn immediately raised his eyebrows and laughed.

In fact, even if Hamilton didn't call him, if he knew that this mission was so rewarding, he would also take the initiative to ask to join.

Renne himself knows very well that he does not need to wait for another half a year of accumulation as Hamilton said before he can get away from the Cavaliers.

If everything goes well, in about a month or two, he will be able to meet several other promotion requirements for knight transfer except for the 'advanced potion'.

Therefore, Ren is currently in urgent need of merit points to exchange for 'advanced potions'.

Although the task at hand is somewhat dangerous, with Hamilton, an official knight, personally leading the team, the danger should be relatively controllable.

Renn felt that if he was careful, there shouldn't be much problem.

"That's the best. By the way, sir, when do we set off?"

"We will set off after a while when everyone is here. This time the county has also sent people over. When they arrive, we will set off together."

"In addition, I asked Willen and the others to prepare some antidotes, ropes, fishing nets and other things."

"Ren, if you have anything to prepare, you still have time to prepare it now."

"Okay, sir." Renn nodded when he heard that there were others from the county seat.

In fact, Ren basically brought everything he needed with him.

However, considering that Ren was going to search in the mine, it might be a good choice to bring 'Cookie'.

Because dogs’ sense of smell and hearing are much more sensitive than humans.

So, Ren returned home again and took 'Cookie' with him.

When he returned to the door of the town administration hall again, he found that there was a group of people at the door. Hamilton also walked out of it and walked towards this group of people.

"Lord Hamilton, long time no see!" A middle-aged man with a mustache and a decent hunting suit bowed slightly towards Hamilton.

Renn could vaguely feel that the opponent was not weak in strength. Although he was not a formal knight, he was obviously also a knight's attendant.

"Hello, Steward Schmidt." Hamilton smiled and nodded.

"Lord Hamilton, originally Viscount Hamady wanted to come here in person, but the Viscount is busy with business, so he entrusted me to come with him to check the situation of the Elim Gold Mine."

"Earl Habbs and Viscount Hammadi are very concerned about what happens in the gold mine." The middle-aged man named Schmidt said with a smile.

"This time, in addition to inviting the well-informed troubadour, His Excellency Endri, I will accompany you."

"I also specially recruited three experienced bounty hunters from the county town."

The butler named Schmidt stretched out his hand and introduced an old man with a goatee wearing a gray hood, holding a wooden staff and wearing a gray robe.

The old man took off the hood on his head, bowed slightly to Hamilton and said, "Lord Hamilton, it's an honor to meet you."

"Hello, Mr. Endri." Hamilton smiled and nodded in response.

When Ren heard the introduction of the other party as a well-informed troubadour, he couldn't help but take a closer look with interest.

"I wonder if the other party recognizes the unknown words on my 'Animal Taming Diary'."

"Unfortunately, my current status, timing, etc. are not suitable."

At this time, Schmidt pointed at the three people wearing gray leather armor and said: "These three are all experienced bounty hunters."

"Lord Hamilton, Farrugia, Selin, and Asimu are at your service." Three strong bounty hunters stepped forward and bowed slightly to Hamilton.

"Welcome!" Hamilton nodded slightly.

Although he was leading the team this time, he knew very well that the Night Watch troops were better at cooperative combat. Compared to exploration and search, experienced bounty hunters would be better at it.

At this time, Hamilton saw Renne arriving and nodded slightly.

"Now that everyone is here, shall we set off now?"

"Of course, leave early and complete the exploration mission early." Schmidt smiled and nodded in approval.

As a result, the twelve elite night watchmen, including the five on Schmidt's side, rode horses and quickly headed towards the Elim gold mine southwest of Goldsmith Town.

(End of this chapter)