Everyone entered the tower of Gujian Fort and came to the storage room through a secret passage. There are various tools for maintaining complex machinery of suspension bridges and gates, such as anti-rust and lubricating oil, anti-icing paste, and some replacement parts.
The dead body lay on the ground, curled up, like a sleeping posture. Because of its dry body, the leather armor seemed large on it, like a cocoon without any protection. In addition to the eye-catching shackles and parchment, a brand new dagger was lying not far from the hand, still inside the scabbard. The blade was as new as it was, without any trace of use.
There are many spaces for placing boxes in the corner of the wall, including many large wooden boxes covered with iron sheets on the outside. You can see scratches trying to pry open, but none of them succeeded. Comparing the scratches and the wear on the dagger scabbard, the two were completely consistent. It seems that there is no handy tool, which makes the person hiding inside unable to get help from the box.
"From the seal here, there are chains, pulleys and ropes inside." Tron then the light ball that Feich lighted up again checked the box. "There are a lot of chains, more than two hundred meters."
Because there are too many things that ropes and chains can do, it is impossible to infer the intentions of the deceased. Fitch removed the flail, picked up the parchment paper, and blew away the dust on the surface. The ink marks on the parchment paper were almost invisible. Fortunately, the writers used quills very hard, so they could still recognize most of the handwriting by reading along the indentation.
Fitch frowned, first browsed it quickly, guessed the general meaning through easy-to-identify words, and then read it carefully:
"I am Tommy Turner, this is my indictment! Hood is no longer the Hood he used to be. He has lost his faith and become an evil and fallen monster! Kakite died, Dogan died, and Pence, Isica, Jamie, etc., all of them are caused by him."
"Since the snowfall began, something was wrong with Hood. He was locked in the house all day and didn't see anyone, and he didn't care about anything. After Xue Rong, he was already very irritable, often lost his temper and talked nonsense. After hearing that someone was hunting in the mountains in the Bingfeng Fortress, he sent everyone to patrol in batches, but only two of them came back alive and were injured."
"It was all a monster with black wings and extremely fast speed attacked them. We just didn't expect that the monster was Hood, and they entrusted all the wounded to him for treatment. The result was sad. The most combative monster hunters died like this."
"When he was ill and stopped seeing the Paladin, I became alert and deliberately ate his stomach and stayed in the castle. I found that Hood had disappeared on the third day after the patrolman left, for a whole day. I was going to write a letter with a raven, but when I arrived at the raven nest, I found that there was not a single one inside and that they had all been sent out."
"The horses in the stable are in poor condition, and Hood is elusive again, and I am trapped. On that day of the Great Prophecy, I kept asking him to attend the ceremony in person to fight for the lord position, and wanted the Great Prophecy to expose his disguise, which seemed to arouse his alertness. He participated in the Great Prophecy with the intern priest Dogan, and then declared himself a lord."
"Aiden died three days later, and Hood also sold many knight titles. He took those silver coins away, not sure what they were for, but I knew he was going to start doing evil."
"I am just a clerk and can't defeat him, but I hide and observe. The monster is very fast, and my eyes can't catch up with him, and the crossbow arrows are completely unable to hit. It is not afraid of lightning. The castle's guardianship slashes on it, with only minor wounds. I tried setting fire, and the effect is also very poor."
Feiqi frowned and almost stuck it on paper. "These words are very shallow, and they may be written very quickly." So he used the Eagle School of Meditation to enhance his perception ability, and then continued to read.
"Jamie tried to leave on a horse, and his headless body was carried back by the monster. I found that the monster sucked blood, and it was very dependent on liquids. I now understand why wine is lost in winter, and the water in the well in the castle has become less..."
Then, the font suddenly became very messy. Feige put the parchment on the bridge of his nose and looked at it from the side, and could only tell a part of it: "The monster chased after him... and then hid. Yes, it was hiding. The back was written on May 3, and it found me. But it couldn't open the door, and it seemed... it was completely dead. Oh, it should be Hood's death. He used very hard when writing these two words, and the words were messed up. What was behind? It should be ice... It actually came in winter, but it was afraid of cold. Ice could kill it. Okay, it ended here." Feige sighed.
"In other words, Hood was affected by something in winter, and then it caused all this to happen. That monster was Hood?" Tron rubbed his forehead: "Wings can fly, and it is very fast. The black shadow who sucks blood can still act as Hood. Is it a vampire?"
Qiao Duo shook his head: "But can vampires act during the day? Will the sun burn them to death?"
"Some vampires don't." Tron explained: "The sun will not burn vampires to death, but it will induce their malignant sepsis. Generally, vampires do not have the ability or conditions to select blood sources, so their internal conflicts are very large. Once exposed to the sun, they will start to develop diseases and gradually become weak and die. However, some vampires hide and find ways to distinguish and filter blood and maintain balance, so they are not afraid of sunlight. We call them high-level vampires."
"Or an alchemy vampire," added Fitch. "The church records that these vampires mainly use alchemy to purify. However, vampires are afraid of fire and cannot withstand lightning strikes, which is sorry for the records on parchment."
"It's very strange. Fire protection, lightning protection, crossbow arrows can't be shot, and they can fly. How can you fight it? No wonder all the monster hunters in Gujian Castle failed." Tron paced in the room, frowned tightly.
"We are so lucky. Fortunately, we have come here and there is parchment paper to see." Feiqi looked around and asked, "But how did this man die and how did he dry up?"
"Here," Qiao Duo pointed to the door with his toes. "Look, there is a mouse hole here, which is pasted with mud, but it has been dug up again. This is the only passage I have found."
Qiao Duo had a great skill in mechanism traps. He checked it carefully and said that there was only one small mouth, so there was really only one. Everyone looked at the mouse hole that was not as big as a fist, and could not imagine how the monster showed its power from this position and then killed the clerk. Feiqi suddenly thought of something and almost lay on the dead body for inspection.
"He was sucked dry, and his blood and body fluids were almost lost, but I didn't see any wounds. Even mosquitoes suck blood, there were small holes, so it should not be some entity that caused it to die, but spells, or similar effects."
"You can still use spells? What kind of spells are so vicious? And the most important thing is: How can we deal with it?" Tron tightened the handle of the gun sword.
"Uh... let me think about it." Feiqi licked his lips and began to think. This monster was annoying, could fly, and was fast. Just these two points were already very troublesome. According to the records on the parchment, even the person who left the horse was caught back, which meant that escaping was not a good choice.
"First of all, we have to use crossbow arrows. Although the bows and arrows in Gujian Castle failed to achieve results, the Eagle School is the best crossbow shooter. Note that the monster avoids arrows, rather than enduring arrows like flames and lightning, which means that the weapon still has a harmful effect on it."
After Fitch said this, he saw Tron's frown slightly relaxed. "So, is there any?" he asked.
"That monster is very fast, but may not be good at using power. Look, the door in this room is very ordinary, just a wooden door reinforced by iron bars, with a latch and chain. We also glanced at the black shadow, which was twice our size. It is not difficult to find an axe in the castle to chop the door directly, right? Even without an axe, the impact can cause enough damage. But look, this door is intact."
"So what?" Tron asked.
"So, it uses speed to get tricks, not speed to rush and attack. If you encounter it, don't panic. We trust each other back to back, use weapons to defend the front and concentrate our strength. We must never act alone, even if we have a full-domain vision, no one has the ability to protect the whole region."
"Yes, no one can act alone." Qiao Duo glared at the girls and said very seriously.
"Then it's ice... I believe that thunder and fire have poor effects, only ice can effectively kill. But..."
"But what? Feichi, can you make ice?"
"It's ok, but it's very cumbersome." Feiqi scratched his head: "I just thought about it, and the most difficult thing to solve is the ice problem. This monster is fast and can avoid arrows, which is fine. As long as it can stay for a while, I put the locked magic eye on it, so I won't have to worry about aiming. But among the elements, lightning can be made of magic, which is good and fast, and flame is not difficult. Acid can be made up with alchemy - it's the most troublesome ice. I have been trying to refine runes related to ice, but among the spells I know about ice, there are also forty-seven runes. The more runes, the more my mana is consumed. I can't support a few spells and fall down, and the ice created may not even be killed."
"So your fireball is extracted from a few rune spells?"
"The benchmark spell of the fireball is the flammable curse: HAaR rhec dhegaan dhegaan dekhuur tuulaan shogaan, seven composite runes. Combined with other spells, I refined it into a three rune structure, and then it can be implemented with a magic matrix."
"So, you need a shorter rune spell about ice and then you can refine it?"
"Joduo, if you have one, please let me know. I may be able to extract it."
"Shori Pandryl myr tyr aili val thalol." Qiao Duo recited. "I have seen this spell. I've seen the ice cone rain from the sky, which is very scary. The caster recited it many times, just like singing, so I remember it. I have tried this spell, but unfortunately I can't release it."
"Wait a minute, I'll remember it." Feiqi lifted up his homemade armored vest and pulled out the book from the back. After opening it, it was filled with dense spells. He copied almost all the spells in the library, including the "evil spells" in the Silver Magic Book - this was a violation. Fortunately, Tron couldn't see it, and others wouldn't say it.
Following the label of the book page, he found the part about "Basic Element: Ice". After looking left and right, he tore down the clerk's parchment, wrote the newly obtained spell, and then began to compare the ice spell recorded before. He found similar and related structures and marked them out.
"Qiao Duo, you found the key for me. Not only the rune of this spell itself, but also the description of the effect of the ice cone rain from the sky is also very important." Feiqi wrote while calculating. No one could understand what he wrote about, including Qiao Duo, who had already started to learn magic theory. However, Qiao Duo looked at it hard and remembered it. Feiqi also showed it to him openly, and occasionally explained a few sentences.
Chapter completed!