Chapter 60: Big Circle Lake
Duwei had been staying with the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group for five days.
During this time, Duwei realized he had begun to like these rough mercenaries. He enjoyed the uninhibited rudeness of these wild men and had started to find himself fond of the alcohol. He even loved talking in a foul manner about who was the best hooker while eating monster meat.
In the time he spent with them, he even met a mercenary such as Old Eyed Jacks; a man who was blind in one eye but was responsible for the cooking. He was an old mercenary, but people said that when he was young he was a man of great fortitude. However, he lost one of his eyes as well as his left hand in one of the adventures he undertook. He saved Bein's life in doing so, but rejected the money offered to him for retirement. In his words, he had missed this exciting life. He would rather stay with the mercenary group and do something for them instead of wither away somewhere.
Although he only had one eye and one hand, he was not a detriment to the group in any way. Even with this, he was still able to cook any type of good food for them…Old Eyed Jacks had great skill. He could find food anywhere, and recognize if a mushroom was poisonous with just a glance! He could even forecast the weather by just looking at the sky. He would be able to know if it was snowing miles ahead by listening to the sound of the wind.
These skills of his came from a lifetime of experience.
Among the group, besides the commander, Old Eyed Jacks was the most favourable person among the them.
There was an archer named Chester, who only had eight fingers. His left little finger and ring finger were bitten off by a monster in an adventure. But no one dared to tease him, because his archery skill was so great that even with only eight fingers, he was still the no.1 archer among the group.
Within these five days, Duwei and Dardanelle were also recognized by the group.
In the last two days, the further they walked towards the forest, the more risk they faced. There was one time in particular when they were catching the Disillusion Magic Leopard. (This leopard moved very fast, and it could use magic to make illusions to annoy the enemy such as making illusory copies of itself. While the enemy would still be trying to determine the real one, the leopard would probably be next to him about to bite off his neck!)
When they were catching that leopard, Duwei really did the job of the magician. He used the Slow magic to slow down the speed of the leopard. The leopard immediately moved slower than a tortoise. Dardanelle then attacked it with a knife.
In the past, when the group met this kind of leopard, they usually lost some people. But this time, with the help of the magician, the hunt went so smoothly that there were no casualties.
The strong spiritual and sensitivity power of Duwei were useful for many situations. When they were walking, Duwei would suddenly stop the others. Then the group would be able to know the monster's track far away according to the judge of the magician.
Within these five days, because of the joining of the magician, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group gained double their normal harvest.
Even Commander Heinrich could not stop to think that, if they could recruit a magician to join their group…wouldn't it be perfect?
Surely, after this idea flashed, Bein Heinrich teased himself immediately.
Recruiting a magician? That's not even something to joke about. Even the nobles or some famous families in the Empire couldn't recruit a magician. Most of the magicians loved freedom and didn't want to work for others…
His mercenary group was so small, the group didn't have even close to the money needed for recruiting a magician!
Duwei also felt happy.
He was bored in the Rollins Family Castle for a long time. But now, he could use magic freely.
This was the most important thing. Although mentally, Duwei was not a kid, he had been studying magic all these past few years. In these few months, after learning magic, his ability improved a lot.
But in the castle, in order to keep a low profile, he never told others about the fact that he knew magic. Only Solskjaer knew the actual ability of Master Duwei.
Apart from Solskjaer, all people including Matt were not allowed to enter the Magic Laboratory. This Magic laboratory was given to Solskjaer nominally.
For most of the people in the Rollins Family, Duwei was just a noble teenage who was curious about magic…perhaps he knew some magic pharmaceutics. But people didn't think that Magic pharmaceutics was the same as real magic.
It's just like the kid who had a new toy and always wanted to show it off. Duwei was not so naïve, and so he could not show what he knew...now he could use magic. With the admiration from the surroundings, he felt rather awesome.
His skill which, until now, could not be exposed, was being used just like a ninja.
After five days, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group finally arrived at their destination: Big Circle Lake.
After passing through the forest, the scenery became rather pleasant.
By standing next to the tree on the boundary of the forest, looking at the open area towards the front, Duwei could not stop to sigh.
So gorgeous!
It was a flat land of soft snow, where you couldn't help but to stop and roll on the snow. About three hundred steps forward, it was the Big Circle Lake!
Just like what Bein Heinrich said, it was a very large lake. Duwei looked at the two sides, the boundary of the lake was so long, you could not see the end of the line. Further away, there was thick ice on the lake!
In such freezing weather, you could not see the lake water. But the ice on the lake was just like a big mirror reflecting the light. It was so glamorous…
"If it was summer, the lake water would be blue in color. That scenery would be pretty." Commandar Bein Heinrich walked near Duwei, and looked at the lake while whispering, "This is my fifth time to come here, but did you know…it is the first time for most of my brothers in the group to come to this place. In the adventuring life of a mercenary, the death rate is high. There are only a few brothers that have followed me for more than a few years, but still it's the first time to come to this place." Bein seemed a little bit down, "Unfortunately, there were quite a number of my brothers who were buried here by me last time."
Duwei was going to say some words of comfort, but Bein had cheered up already. He shouldered Duwei and laughed, "OK! No need to comfort me, Mr. Magician. It is because that's us! That's a mercenary! That's the adventuring life! There are newcomers, and also death! Someone died, and someone stayed alive!"
After saying that, Bein had a big step and started shouting and commanding the mercenaries to start working.
"Encamp! Chester! You bring some people to walk around, be careful of the surroundings! We will stay here overnight! You! All of you, don't walk next to the lake! Shit! Do you know what's inside the lake! Get away from the lake!" Bein was yelling.
"Commander!" There were two men walking along the lakeside that laughed, "Commander! We haven't seen water for many days...and, I was planning to break the ice and see if we could catch some fish! We've eaten the wolf meat everyday, I am sick of it! Ha haha…"
"Fish? You will probably be eaten by the fish!" Bein yelled at them and asked them to come back. But when he was counting the number of people, he frowned, "One is missing…Shit! Where's Bayer?!"
Bein looked around and he saw someone far away. That boy was already in the lakeside area and going to break the ice on the lake.
"Shit! Bayer! What are you doing! Bastard!" Commander was so afraid, he rushed towards that guy and kept yelling, "Stay away from the lake! God Damn it!"
Because of the wind, that guy couldn't hear the voice of the commander. He looked back but couldn't hear what the commander yelled, and it seemed that he yelled or said something too.
Duwei found that that guy was smiling.
Finally, he dug a hole in the ice, and he shouted happily, "Yeah! There is fish! There is a fish!"
Duwei finally could hear his voice! But…it was too late!
That guy was a fishing expert. After he dug a hole on the lake, many fish went up and breathed under this freezing winter. He was so speedy that he caught a big fish from the hole and lifted it up.
"Commander! Look at what I caught! The Old Cyclops could make a fish soup tonight, ha ha ha!"
It was windy again and his voice came off. Bein was trying to rush towards that guy. He was yelling at him while running, and also waiving his hands…
Suddenly, the fish on that mercenary's hand struggled and opened its mouth. A silver flash emitted out of the mouth and it hit the eyebrow of the mercenary!
Far away, Duwei saw the mercenary fall down and the fish was dropped on the ground. It jumped a bit and made it into the hole to escape.
Duwei then immediately ran towards that side!
Chapter 61: Semel’s Presage
Bayer died quickly. His body was already turning black. His eyes were enlarged but blanked when he died. His fingers were still in the position of scratching hardly.
His death was very miserable. His forehead got a big hole. Duwei thought that the hole was formed by very strong acid erosion! The skin on his forehead, including the skull were eroded into a hole! The brain was lost too…
The soil here was too hard and could not bury the dead body. They had no alternative but to throw the dead body into the lake.
"This reckless boy…" Bein Heinrich savagely broke a twig and threw it to the fire with sadness, "He was recruited by me in Fick City. He was a good archer with excellent archery skill, I even taught him martial arts…He just wanted to catch some fish for us…"
Duwei kept silent.
Bein Heinrich shook his head, "He forgot that this is the Frozen Forest! There are no normal beasts! All of them are magic monsters! Even the fish in the lake are dangerous too! This stupid boy! Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! This…this is my fault! I should have reminded him earlier. This was the first time for him to come here!"
Duwei didn't know how to comfort this self-blaming Commander. He thought for a while, shouldered the Commander, then repeated what Commander said in the daytime,
"This is the adventuring life! There are newcomers, and also death! Someone died, and someone stayed alive!"
Bein recovered quickly. He was the commander, and there were a hundred people looking at him!
He threw away the twig, then stood up and patrolled madly, and kept yelling, "All stay away from the lake! Bastard! If someone dares to walk to close to the lake, I will break their leg!"
This interlude didn't pressure them much …The old mercenaries were used to it, for them, they could only say, "Oh, that boy was unlucky."
During dinner, Chester, the archer with eight fingers, was leading the Patrol Team and came back. He looked uncomfortable, as it seemed he discovered something. But thecautious guy that he was, he didn't frighten the others, he just went next to Bein silently.
"Commander, I discovered something."
The archer took out some charred branches out and gave them to the commandeer.
The branches obviously were cut by people and were used as firewood. They were charred, but not completely. The notches on the branches were noticeable.
"Seems there is company nearby." Chester whispered, "I found a place, where there was some ashes from a fire being covered by the branches. But they did not dig deeply. I had a look, and there are around 4-5 ashe piles. By estimation, they should have more than 30 people."
Bein was rapidly blinking, "More than 30? Are you sure?"
"Maximum is 30 something, not exceeding 40. I am sure!" Chester replied firmly, "From the color of the ashes, they just left and shouldn't be too far away from us. And…"
Chester stopped for a while and grinned, then whispered, "Based off the track on the camp, these guys brought lots of things, and the things are heavy!"
Hein trusted him a lot, because although he only had eight fingers, his archery skill was nigh perfect. He had careful thought, good observation and not many mistakes had been made.
Bein smiled strangely…and a little gloomily, "Oh, so, should we 'communicate' with these counterparts?"
Duwei didn't understand his words. But Dardanelle's expression was not natural.
At night, in the tent, Dardanelle explained everything to Duwei.
"In the Adventure World, to put it simply, it's the law of the Jungle! Especially in these kind of places, if they meet a counterpart, normally there are three situations." Dardanelle talked slowly, "First situation, one is strong and one is weak. If the weak side doesn't have anything expensive, then both of them will be safe.
Second situation, both are equally strong, then both of them will be safe too.
Third situation, one is strong and one is weak. If the weak side have had many harvests…then probably there is only one result…"
Dardanelle laughed and whispered, "Stealing from Thieves,"
Duwei didn't say anything as he knew that every industry had their own game rules.
The next morning, Duwei found that Chester and some old mercenaries were missing.
He didn't ask Bein where they went and Bein also didn't mention.
The mercenaries took a rest for a night, revitalized their spirit, and started working. They took out a big net with many sharp hanging hooks on it along with some clamps for trapping the monster, and some turpentine torches for burning. Several teams were sent out for searching out the traces of the magic monsters.
In the morning, Chester and other people came back. Chester was disappointed and told commander, "Can't find them, they may have gone far away already."
Bein shrugged and laughed, "That's their luck, and also ours. Friends, ok, as long as we cannot find the counterpart, we have to do our own work. Bring your men to have a rest first."
Theoretically, Duwei and Dardanelle planned to help these mercenaries for one more day, help them to catch 2 more magic monsters, then say goodbye and continue their journey to the north.
Duwei sat under a tree, whilst looking at Dardanelle who was helping the mercenaries with setting the animal traps. He saw that Chester was back and talked with Commander for a while, before going back to rest.
Duwei relaxed a bit. He didn't plan to intervene in the game rule among the mercenaries, but he was willing to help the mercenaries catch the magic monsters. He didn't want them to 'steal from thieves' and was not willing to involve himself. Since it seemed Chester didn't find his target, Duwei was satisfied with this result.
With a slight sigh, he looked at this beautiful mirror-like lake…no one could imagine there was risk in the lake.
"Very pretty, but full of danger." Duwei soliloquized.
"You are right."
This voice from the back shocked Duwei! Then after a moment, he noticed that the voice was from Semel! This ghost lady suddenly popped up!
He looked back. Semel was still wearing in a red gown and standing behind Duwei slightly. Her bare legs were on the soft snow land…luckily she was just a shadow. Shadow didn't get scared of cold.
Duwei shrugged, "Oh, you finally show up?"
"A few days ago, the magician next to you was so powerful." Semel said, "I could sense the horror of his spiritual power, I even felt like I was in danger! That magician has the ability to search other's spiritual power. Based on his ability, he could even notice me, so I hid."
"Oh." Duwei frowned, "Not only I can see you?"
"It's true for normal people." Semel whispered, "I am linked with your spiritual power. But if other can search your spiritual power, then he will be able to see me…There are very few strong men with this ability. But later…you were staying with that Dardanelle in that tent. Although he cannot see me, if he always sees that you are talking with the air, he might think that you are crazy."
"Oh? That means I should appreciate your kindness?"Duei hummed.
Semel smiled and sat next to Duwei. She didn't care how Duwei felt, She just sat down quietly and looked at this beautiful Big Circle Lake.
Duwei looked at Semel and found that her expression was weird…
Her expression looked weird. She was blinking, the eyebrows were twisted, seems she was thinking something.
"I…I feel rather strange." Semel looked far away. She glanced at the surface of the lake, then the forest to the side… "This place is pretty…but, why…"
"What?"
Semel had a deep breath and looked blankly, "I don't know…but I think that I have been to this place before…I feel familiar with this place. At least the view, it seems I have seen it before."
"You? Have come here before?" Duwei wanted to laugh, but he could not.
No joking… she, Semel, was the memory from the real Semel, who was sealed inside the oil paint for two hundreds year and didn't leave the castle before she came to this world! How come she had been here before?
If she were the real Semel, then it wasn't weird…but the woman in front of him…
Semel looked at the place far away. After a long period, she shook her head and smiled. Her voice seemed disappointed, "You should be thinking 'bullshit', right? It's impossible for me to have come here before, but…I don't how to describe my feelings…anyways, it's weird."
She looked down and thought for a while, then looked up to changed the topic, and laughed, "Right, in these days, your magic improved a lot. I saw that you had used the Slow magic, seems the practical experience improved your ability a lot.
Dardanelle walked towards them and Semel sighed, "Ok, I have to go. Be careful…I , I feel the weirdness of this lake."
After that, she disappeared in front of Duwi.
"Hey, Harry." Dardanelle sweated a bit, he seemed very happy, "Do you know? Bein knows that we are going to leave tomorrow and there will be a farewell party tonight. Old Cyclops will make some special food tonight…What do you want? My friend?"
Duwei stood up and patted the snow off, then laughed, "Nothing…ok, we have to start working. Tomorrow we will leave. Today, we should work harder to help our mercenary friends."
At night, Old Cyclops made a pot of mushroom soup! Old Cyclops picked these mushrooms on the way.
Having this yummy mushroom soup under this cold weather was so nice, especially after they had been eating the nasty meat of the magic wolves for the past couple of days.
Bein treated Duwei and Dardanelle very well. he took out his last alcohol for serving them. Finally, Duwei drank more than two mugs and felt sleepy and dizzy.
In the morning, Duwei was woken up by Dardanelle. Dardanelle looked worried and serious, "Harry! Something went wrong! Wake up!"
Commander Bein's eyes were red! He was very mad! All the mercenaries had stopped working and all were armed! Seems that there would be a horrible monster coming soon!
Duwei looked around and found that there were some people missing!
Eleven! Elevan people in total! Missing!
The eleven mercenaries who were responsible for patrolling last night! All were missing!
It was not explainable. They seemed to not be attacked by a magic monster…even if there was a magic monster, it was impossible to make 11 people disappear in silence! Even a bit of sound was not make!
There was not a footprint of the magic monster around the campsite, not even a human footprint! They didn't leave a corpse, much less a footprint on the snow!
Eleven people were suddenly evaporated collectively and suddenly in a night!
Bein sent half of the people to search for half a day, but still didn't have any news! They didn't find anything!
"Even if they were attacked, they should've made some sound!" Bein was very angry and was yelling, "They all are experienced mercenaries! It's impossible for them to be killed in silence! It's also impossible for them to leave further away! Shit! We haven't lost many people on our way! But in just one night, I lost eleven!!"
The Mad Commander ordered, "We have to stay here for one more day! Shit! I will patrol tonight and everybody has to be cautious at night, don't fall asleep! I have to see what kind of thing evaporated my bros!"
Duwei went back to the tent and package his stuff, he was ready to stay one more day. No matter how, now that the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group was in trouble, he could not leave them.
"Just as I said, there is definitely something weird in this lake." Semel suddenly stood behind Duwei.
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