Stray

    It is not the pain that wakes you up, but the tingling caused by the rapid healing of the wound. The sweaty clothing clinging to the wound on her skin gave her the illusion that she was rotting—perhaps not, but maybe that's what death is supposed to be like. Ann thought vaguely.

    She tried to move her fingers, but they seemed to be buried in the mud at the bottom of the swamp, unable to move half a minute. The orange-red light passed through her eyelids, and she exhausted all her strength before she lifted her eyelids with a small slit—two dirty faces suddenly filled her field of vision, and the female warrior almost closed her eyes in a conditioned reflex. superior.

    "She's awake—I just saw her wink!" Nemo announced excitedly.

    Ann rolled her eyes with difficulty. The sun rises early in summer, and half of the sky is already showing some bright blue that belongs to the day. Of course she didn't miss the eye-catching giant icicles, which helped her piece together most of the facts in her mind effortlessly.

    She opened her mouth, trying to ignore her throat aching from thirst.

    "Who hit me?" An asked in a low voice, his voice hoarse like his own.

    Probably never thought that the first sentence of the female warrior would be this, Nemo subconsciously stepped back. "...It's me." He responded unconvincingly, "I...I thought you were burning with magic power."

    "I didn't plan to do anything to you." Ann put her mouth close to the water bag Oliver handed over, ignoring the stains on the mouth of the bag, and swallowed greedily. "I want to know how you got through... that's real abyss magic."

    "You can use abyss magic?!" Nemo shouted, subconsciously turning his eyes to Oliver.

    "No, so it's drawn on paper." As always, An was too lazy to explain, "It's just more expensive to use."

    Oliver looked a little disappointed, but he hid it well.

    "I poked it with my finger to see if the resilience could keep up." Nemo rubbed his fingers, "You looked so scary at the time, I didn't dare to think too much. . It didn't hurt my finger, so I closed my eyes and rushed - you know what happened next."

    An stared at the black-haired youth whose face was covered with unknown liquid, and remained silent. It seems that her world is not destined to loose only one corner. She wanted to grab him by the collar and yell, telling him that **** like this couldn't happen. But since the impossible things had piled up, and she was too tired to move half of her fingers, the female warrior decided to change direction, believing that the magic circle was fake and shoddy and had insufficient stamina - at least this conjecture would not give her such a headache.

    "...Maybe I should send you to the Heresy Tribunal immediately." She sighed faintly, determined not to ask about the higher-level demons first, and gave her nerves a chance to survive. "never mind."

    "So the quiz is over?" Oliver looked a little guilty, "Uh... I might break an icicle, we're in a circle right now, so the mercenaries probably won't come in. "

    "They ran away long ago." Ann slowly revealed an ambiguous smile, and Nemo sensed a little gloating from it. "I'm really looking forward to what Fenrir is going to show."

    "How much?!" Fenrir Troy's spittle splashed Thorne's face. Thorne now had a pair of round-rimmed glasses on his face, and he pulled his face down, removed the glasses, and wiped them with his sleeve.

    "One hundred and twenty-four lead squares are still active." The red-haired youth put on his glasses and repeated dissatisfied. "One hundred and twenty-four participants in Noe's examination room are still alive. One-fifth, commander, that's nearly one-fifth."

    "What's wrong with Pandora?" Fenrir paced back and forth irritably, like a caged beast. "I'm not going to do it like this!"

    Thorn shrugs, apparently not bothered by it. "Who knows? She's still just a little girl—a little girl's mind is hard to guess." He even smiled, showing his snow-white teeth.

    "I said, don't use this analogy."

    "...Sorry, Captain. So what are we going to do now? The man who killed the worm must be alive and well."

    "Follow the normal process. They can't always blame us for Pandora's malfunction. There are too many people who survived this time. The litigation team must have been eyeing them, just waiting. The mercenary guild turned its face and denied it - the Pandoratel thing has not been figured out yet, and no one wants to take this responsibility."

    "Only the abyss can affect the abyss." Thorne pushed his glasses, "Would you like to take 'special care' for the demon believers in this issue?"

    "Report truthfully." Fenrir's expression was stiff, and he didn't want to wipe his **** for the mistakes of the headquarters. Pandoratel is not only used for exam room cleaning, but also very active on various battlefields. It's never been anything but destruction, and no one expected survivors—and there were enough survivors to have a big bonfire. "Call the first team and pick them up with me."

    Oliver had just struggled to break an icicle when the mercenaries arrived via the teleportation array, and Nemo was staring at him discontentedly—the healer healed Oliver's left arm, while I told him to take a good rest these few days, he turned his head and started tossing again. Fortunately, someone kindly provided the long sword this time, and Oliver at least dared to use his dominant hand to use the sword.

    Although the sword didn't last long either. Oliver had not had time to drop the hilt of his sword when Fenrir Troy stepped on the remains of the icicle.

    Fenrir's expression was a little distorted. He ignored Oliver, raised his head and looked around - people huddled together like quails, eyes half wary, half pleading. Nemo shivered from head to toe when he realized that the head of the mercenary was piercing his gaze.

    "Will they find out? Will they find out I did it? I really didn't mean to!" Nemo grabbed Oliver as he approached, "My God, I'll be taken away ?"

    "I don't think anyone saw you do it," Oliver stroked his chin, "except me."

    Nemo immediately wrote brothers and family all over his face, and he almost hooked his shoulders on the spot to deepen his feelings. Oliver patted him on the shoulder, pretending to be deep.

    "Congratulations." The mercenary chief, Fenrir, announced dryly, with no congratulations in his tone. "Congratulations, you have passed half of the test. We will set up a portal, and when you go back, you can use the lead to exchange for a temporary black stamp. Someone over there will explain the rest."

    He threw the words in their faces as if he was reciting lines, then turned his back and passed through the portal first, as if staying with them for one more second would contract some serious disease. Nemo swears he absolutely hears Ann's desperately suppressed laughter.

    This time people were more positive than when they came. They swarmed up and crowded into the portal in a disorderly manner, until one of the mercenaries showed their great sword before giving up. Nemo and Oliver walked slowly at the end of the line, supporting him. Oliver seemed a little distracted, raising his head from time to time to look around.

    "What?" Nemo was a little nervous, for fear that another legendary monster would pop out.

    "Don't you think we forgot something?" Oliver asked in confusion.

    "If you're talking about the backpack...it got bitten when I was fighting the devil, and I threw it halfway, don't you remember?"

    "Not a backpack."

    "Water bag? That's the therapist's stuff."

    “…not a water bag either.”

    "It's not important anyway, let's go back first."

    "Okay."

    After passing through the portal, the air seems to be more civilized. They returned to the familiar backyard. The sun was warm, people were chatting and laughing near the yard, and everything was as peaceful as ever. The blood and death they threw behind their backs instantly became ethereal, turning into an all-too-real nightmare.

    Many people crawled down to kiss the ground under their feet, and their dirty faces were full of tears when they raised their heads. Nemo suddenly felt an indescribable sadness at the thought of the much larger team.

    "I'll give you an hour to regroup the team, please make sure that there are more than three people." A gentle and amiable girl announced that the content of her speech had nothing to do with the words "gentle and amiable" . "We will give you black badges that have not been activated according to the pre-group. If you are not satisfied with the black badge level or teammates, before the task is completed, you can adjust your team as you like - but please also note that if the first task fails, Then all members of the team count as a failed test. Also, if you are ejected from your team during a mission and are not accepted by another team, you will also be considered a failed test.”

    She bowed slightly with a smile on her face, and retreated behind the wooden desk, ignoring the survivors who were in a panic.

    Nimo thought this hour was a free break, but the next second he was squeezed by the swarming people and couldn't breathe.

    "You three are a team! Please let me join—"

    "I'm still with my kids..."

    "Gentlemen, I will never cause you trouble!"

    Nemo stepped back and Oliver almost squeezed under the table. Although Ann was still very weak, she used her hunting spear as a crutch to lean on the ground, and many people flinched in front of the fine electric light.

    "I'm very sorry, something happened, so everyone's black stamp is estimated a little late." The female employee who just explained stood up again, snapped her fingers, a huge sheepskin The paper appeared out of thin air—there used to be about 600 names on it, but now only a hundred or so are clearly visible, and the rest have all turned into indistinct light gray marks.

    "You can see the rating after the name, which is an estimate made by headquarters based on your performance in the test - please choose your teammates carefully, if you choose a dangerous companion, then you are in The danger level of the team will also be higher. I'm sure everyone knows what that means."

    The people finally dispersed from around them and swarmed in front of the parchment. Nemo patted his chest with difficulty, giving himself some relief. His eyesight has always been good, and he can barely see at this distance.

    "Ye owl, ye owl, ye owl, jackal, ye owl... Ann, what are these? I read it in books, but—"

    "These refer to the number of eyes, the bad taste of the mercenary guild." An was holding the hunting spear, barely able to stand. "Ye Owl is the lowest level. It likes to keep one eye open, doesn't it? The lower the number, the better. After all, the more dangerous it is, the more vigilant it will be, and the harder it will be to receive easy and simple tasks."

    "Lizards and snakes both have two eyes, right?" Nemo confirmed carefully. "Oliver has a lizard after his name, mine is a snake. Ann, you have a jackal after your name, doesn't a jackal also have two eyes? ... How is it divided?"

    Ann looked at the ceiling silently.

    "Wedge-toothed lizards have three eyes, rattlesnakes have four. Jackals really only have two." After a few minutes, she explained with difficulty. The scene of these two little **** fighting against worms was definitely monitored by the guild. Fortunately, after the superior demon came, they should have taken away the surveillance bugs, otherwise the level of these two might soar all the way to the top - the disappearance of the superior demon is absolutely inseparable from these two boys.

    Nimo scratched his nose, and the blood of the devil was still sticking to his face, drying it up and making his skin itchy. To be honest, he has no intuitive understanding of this level. "It's not just me, there are two names on it with..."

    "Abstain." A man with deformed insects crawling on his chest said bitterly. "I can't accept starting with a snake."

    "I also abstain." This time it was a girl with dark eyes, her voice was sharp, and there was a fat eyeball centipede around her neck.

    The young female employee smiled and nodded, and the two names on the parchment were instantly blurred into light gray fuzzy writing.

    “…now gone,” Nemo added dryly.

    "They are all demon believers." Ann said, "Can only the abyss affect the abyss..."

    "Whether I want it or not... it will drag you down." Nemo flinched.

    "You don't have to. I don't care anyway." An replied firmly. Don't, she thought, maybe the rating will be higher next time. "How about you, do you mind, Oliver?"

    Then she found Oliver asleep under the table.

    Ann exhaled forcefully, wishing to faint again.

    Fortunately, once Nemo's level came out, no one came to talk about team formation. Nemo looked left and right, and ran to the abandoned wooden table, as if he wanted to rely on it to sleep. As a result, as soon as he closed his eyes in a daze, Oliver next to him suddenly shouted, raised his head and hit the bottom of the table heavily.

    "I remembered." Oliver muttered, covering his head, "I remembered what we forgot... Nemo, what about Bagelmore?"

    Grey Parrot's mood at this time is very similar to that of Ann. If it can faint on the spot, it must practice it immediately.

    It stood on a beautiful wooden table, neck shrunk, all feathers blown up. The man in front of it had a gentle smile, but there was no smile in the orange eyes.

    "Introduce myself first, I'm Talbot Vance, your kind," he said. "Take it easy, take it easy...I just want to have a friendly chat with you."

    The man said don't be nervous, but the magic pressure exuded made the gray parrot breathless, it was about to be crushed into a meat pie by that invisible force. This man definitely did it on purpose, he was standing up. Grey Parrot thought bitterly.

    "My friends and I are curious as to why Pandora is self-destructing for you...While that weak race instinctively makes a wish to the strong, with all due respect, you It's not like having that level of power."

    He smiled and nodded at the table, the grey parrot screaming in pain.

    "I said, I said! I...my race is Ke Ruiwen flat snake, this is all a misunderstanding, I just...I just..." Its voice began to choked. "...I just devoured a small piece of the Demon King's flesh!"

    "You're lying." The man who called himself Vance narrowed his eyes, and the invisible pressure in the air doubled almost immediately. "As long as the superior demon is still alive, the gift of flesh and blood must be voluntary, let alone the one. You mean the one..." He paused, "the one who will be willing to give you the flesh and blood - a Ke Ruiwen flat snake, Known as a coward of the abyss?"

    "How do I know what he's thinking!" The parrot howled mournfully, "I was a mid-level demon at the time, and I didn't even want to!"

    It was about to cry.

    "I really don't know anything!"

    (m..=)