Standing at the counter, the balding uncle with thick glasses and a belly of beer like a pregnant woman looked round, and he struggled to move his body, propped his hands on the counter, and put on a smiling face, staring at me calmly.There was only one light in the room, and the smell of whale oil filled the air."
I heard from a friend, you can hire a guide here?"
I sat down in the high chair across from him and asked him.He tapped on the counter with his thick fingers, spread out an old map of Strange Rock City, pressed his thumb to the location of Strange Rock 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, and asked, "Rainforest or swamp?"
”"The savage swamp of the lizard-man tribe."
After speaking, my eyes fell on this old map, there were various circles on the map, and there were some strange signs, the only thing that could be identified was the location of Strange Rock City, the tropical rainforest within the territory of the Grimm Empire's territory, and the wild swamp within the territory of the Lizard Tribe's territory.Hearing me say this, the bald uncle frowned, centered on Qiyan City, and his fingers drew a semicircular arc on the right side of the map like a compass, and then as if he remembered something, he asked me: "Now that the lizard tribe is in chaos, there are wars everywhere, how long are you going to go?"
”I remembered that Morayar had been living in Strange Rock City for nearly a year, when her adventure party had come across the ancient ruins by chance, and had been walking in the wild swamp for nearly two months, so I said to Uncle Bald, "I think it will take about two months." ”His mouth opened slightly, his hand rested on the map, and he asked me in surprise, "At this time, are you going to go deep into the wild swamp?"
”I nodded, but didn't speak.He put his hand on the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said to me very seriously, "You may not know what kind of danger lurks in that jungle!"
”As he spoke, he turned around and flipped out a parchment scroll on the bookshelf behind him, and spread it on the old map on the counter, on which a giant fly was drawn, his body language was very rich, he pointed to the pattern on it, gestured with his hand, and described to me: "There are poisonous insects and beasts lurking everywhere, you may not have seen a dragon fly bigger than a fat pig, like a piece of buzzing in the air and flying over, as long as it sucks a mouthful, the blood and flesh in the body are instantly drained by it, All that remains is a layer of skin-covered bones that will be hung from a large banyan tree, on which they will lay eggs, and when the small dragon flies are born, the dried corpse will become their nourishment. ”Seeing that I was indifferent, the bald uncle turned around again and took out a second parchment scroll, on which was a huge petrified lizard, although I had never seen a living petrified lizard, but I had seen a lot of high-quality leather for petrified lizards, and of course I knew very well that the texture of the lizard's skin was very similar to some rocks, but I didn't expect a petrified lizard to be only a little smaller than a swamp crocodile.The room was stuffy, the air was a little muddy, and the bald uncle wiped the oil sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief, and continued to introduce to me: "There are also seven or eight meter-long petrified lizards in that swamp, they like to lie on the rocks like chameleons, no, I am a little wrong to describe them, their skin has granite groupers, it looks like giant stones lying across the ground, and when you pass by them, they will bite the double.
The legs, the toxins in the body of the petrified lizard will turn things into stones little by little, and then it will rattle and swallow into its stomach like chewing jelly beans. ”I would love to tell him that I was looking forward to meeting the hordes of petrified lizards, the leather that is very popular in the Imperial Palace.The bald uncle took a sip of water and continued: "These are just monsters on the edge of the wild swamp, the more you go inside, the more terrible the living environment becomes, there are even terrible man-eating flowers and flying dragons in the depths of the swamp, no one wants to go there when the flying dragons spread their wings to cover the sky and the sun in the jungle, even the most experienced guides don't want to venture there. ”Probably the last sentence was what he wanted to tell me, that there was no guide on the Thieves' Guild who wanted to go to the Wild Swamp.I pursed my lips, staring with disdain at the picture of a petrified lizard.The bald uncle swallowed his saliva and said, "In addition, the environment over there is full of poisonous gas and swamp gas, and sometimes lighting a bonfire in the jungle can cause an explosion. ”He stopped looking at me, waved his hand at me and said: "Besides, now that the internal war of the lizard tribe is in full swing, even the largest airship caravan in Qiyan City is reluctant to cross the barbarian swamp from a high altitude, if it is not necessary, it is better to wait, I don't have a suitable guide here to lead the way, if you want to find a guide, the streets are full outside, but their jungle survival experience is only limited to the surrounding area of Qiyan City, if you want to enter the depths of the jungle, you must be careful." ”Unexpectedly, the streets were full of guides looking for work, but on the side of the thieves' union, no one wanted to be a guide, so I hesitated for a moment and asked, "What's going on with the war between the lizard tribes?"
”The bald uncle rubbed his nose with his hand, and said a little unnaturally: "The previous information was given away by me for free, and if you want to know about it, you will need to spend a little bit of gold coins." ”When he spoke, he seemed a little subtle, and there was also a little bit of obscenity."
Of course!"
I knew that the thieves would have to pay for the news, so I took a gold coin from my pocket and put it on the counter, pushed it to him and asked, "Is this all right?"
”"Hey, hey!
I like refreshing magicians. ”He smiled at me, although the smile was a little fake, but he didn't delay, and said directly to me: "The cause of the war of the lizard tribe is because the old lizard king is dead, and the new lizard king needs to get out of the blood-stained battlefield, this is a war involving the genuine savage swamp lizard tribe, either surrender or die." ”He stared me in the eye and said, "In this period, as long as you walk into the Savage Swamp, you will become the enemy of all the lizardmen, so I advise you to care about not trying to enter the Savage Swamp at such a time. ”No wonder the members of the thieves' guild are reluctant to be guides at this time, it turns out that the lizard tribes are fighting for the throne, I suddenly thought that I have not received the letter from Qi Ge to me, probably this should be the reason, I said: "So the caravan is also affected by the war of the lizard people, and there is no way to go to the Etia Alliance Kingdom in a short time?"
”The bald uncle rubbed his hands and squeezed out a smile at me: "This is to charge for the second piece of information." ”I reached out and pulled out a gold coin again and pushed it in front of him."
You guessed right, no one in the Chamber of Commerce in Strange Rock City is willing to organize a caravan to rush to the Etia Alliance Kingdom for the time being, four months ago, the last group of Etia merchants stranded in Strange Rock City and the largest trading firms of the Strange Rock City Chamber of Commerce formed a joint caravan, they gathered a total of twenty-three magic airships, hired ten mercenary groups, the caravan set off with great momentum, just a month later, this joint caravan was attacked by the Wyvern Group in the Wild Swamp Huiral Peak, and only three airships returned to Strange Rock City safely, Since then, no one has stepped forward to organize caravans across the wild swamps. ”The bald uncle said quickly, "The last time a caravan from the Etia Alliance Kingdom arrived in Qiyan City was last winter. ”I rubbed my forehead helplessly and asked him, "Isn't there a way to go here in Qiyan City now?"
”The bald uncle also showed a helpless face, and said: "If the Legion Commander of Ex is not 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 transfer the corps of Qiyan Province into the imperial capital.""
If you ask the Ax Legion to intervene, you may be able to open a passage, but it will not be easy for ordinary caravans to pass through the wild swamp for the time being.""
The lizard-man tribe can't withstand this kind of long-term internal friction, they also lack living supplies and military supplies, the traditional lizard-man tribe in the depths of the savage swamp has animal tamers, they can domesticate the wyvern, and those wyvern warriors are very good at robbing magic airships."
I finally ripped off the money bag on my waist, opened the mouth of the bag, revealing the yellow, orange and orange gold coins inside, and said to the bald uncle: "Okay, finally I want to release a mission, I have two friends who disappeared in Qiyan City half a month ago, I want to ask your guild to help collect their clues, their identities are easy to identify, they are two female magicians from the north, one is a wood magician, the other is an ice magician, in recent times, no matter where you have seen them, or know any news about them, you can tell me, I'll be in Strange Rock City for a while, this quest will be valid for a long time until I find them, and if you have any news about them, you can find me at the Horrien Inn. ”After saying that, I poured all the gold coins in the bag on the counter, this bag was heavy before, there were about a hundred pieces, and the moment I poured it out, I pushed these gold coins in front of him, and said to him: "This is the deposit, whether it is good news or bad news, I want to know." ”The bald uncle looked at the gold coins on the counter with some confusion, hesitated for a moment, and finally put the gold coins away."
Okay, for the sake of the gold coins, I'll take over this task, but don't expect too much from our thieves' union, there has been a mess outside the city recently, and our people won't go out of the city easily, there may be no news you want."
The bald uncle said to me: "Actually, you should go to the Magic Guild of Strange Rock City to apply for help in this matter, the law enforcement team of the Magic Guild is still very capable, and they specialize in handling this kind of case." ”"I'll go."
I say.After talking to the manager of the thieves' guild, Caterina and I returned to the Clover Tavern, where the atmosphere was very lively, with Ruka the Minotaur standing at a tall square table, the sleeves of his linen shirt rolled up high, and across from him was a strong man with a tattoo on his head, but this strong man was about the same size as a normal person, much worse than Ruka the Minotaur.The two of them held the square table with one hand, hunched their waists, put one arm on the square table, clasped their hands, and the bartender in the tavern was in charge of acting as the referee, between which he picked up a wine bottle and slammed it on the ground with an excited face, shouting: "Start" The strong man just held on for less than five seconds 54321, knocking down!
Ruka the Minotaur high-fived and Justes excitedly in celebration, and even Sue and Helena leaned over to high-five each other with Ruka the Minotaur, laughing heartily in front of the bar.Caterina and I walked back and sat down on the high chair next to Ying Li, who took advantage of the noisy shouting and put his ear to my ear and asked, "Are you done?"
”I nodded."
Hmm!"
She asked again, "How's it going?"
”I touched my forehead and said, "Go up and check out the Magic Guild tomorrow, maybe I'll get some clues over there." ”After sitting for a while, I left the Clover Tavern with the group, and less than five hundred meters from the tavern, Caterina told me quietly: Someone was watching behind us, and Caterina and I looked at each other, and immediately understood each other's thoughts.Instead of continuing to walk the brightly lit street, we went straight into the alley on the side.It didn't take long for two men wearing tight leather armor and black silk scarves around their faces to sneak into the alley, and when they only took a few steps in the alley, they realized the danger, and it was too late to retreat, the Minotaur Ruka was like a thick wall blocking the mouth of the alley, and Justes was carrying two bone knives, standing on the other side of the alley, and he asked the two trackers with a serious face."
Where did you come from?
A union of thieves?
”Justes asked, but he casually refuted his conjecture and said, "No, no, no, the Thieves' Guild isn't so stupid at this time, don't you introduce yourself?"
”The two trackers didn't speak, but just guarded Justes and retreated step by step towards the darkest part of the alley.Just as they were about to step into the shadows, a dark dagger was revealed against his neck, and Caterina's figure emerged from the shadows, leaving a trail of blood on the tracker's neck.In horror, they pulled out the dagger at their waist and stabbed it at Caterina behind them, and before the dagger could reach Caterina's outstretched hand, the bodies of the two trackers trembled slightly, and their bodies froze in place like frogs on a hammer, and two pale bone spurs pierced through the back of their hearts, stained with a trace of blood."
Since you don't want to talk about it, forget it!"
Justus snorted coldly, pulled out the bone spurs, wiped the blood on them, and turned to chase after them.