nChapter 61: Semel’s Presage

nBayer 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.

nHis 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…

nThe 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.

n“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…”

nDuwei kept silent.

nBein 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!”

nDuwei 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,

n“This is the adventuring life! There are newcomers, and also death! Someone died, and someone stayed alive!”

nBein recovered quickly. He was the commander, and there were a hundred people looking at him!

nHe 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!”

nThis interlude didn’t pressure them much …The old mercenaries were used to it, for them, they could only say, “Oh, that boy was unlucky.”

nDuring 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.

n“Commander, I discovered something.”

nThe archer took out some charred branches out and gave them to the commandeer.

nThe branches obviously were cut by people and were used as firewood. They were charred, but not completely. The notches on the branches were noticeable.

n“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.”

nBein was rapidly blinking, “More than 30? Are you sure?”

n“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…”

nChester 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!”

nHein 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.

nBein smiled strangely…and a little gloomily, “Oh, so, should we ‘communicate’ with these counterparts?”

nDuwei didn’t understand his words. But Dardanelle’s expression was not natural.

nAt night, in the tent, Dardanelle explained everything to Duwei.

n“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.

nSecond situation, both are equally strong, then both of them will be safe too.

nThird situation, one is strong and one is weak. If the weak side have had many harvests…then probably there is only one result…”

nDardanelle laughed and whispered, “Stealing from Thieves,”

nDuwei didn’t say anything as he knew that every industry had their own game rules.

nThe next morning, Duwei found that Chester and some old mercenaries were missing.

nHe didn’t ask Bein where they went and Bein also didn’t mention.

nThe 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.

nIn 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.”

nBein 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.”

nTheoretically, 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.

nDuwei 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.

nDuwei 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.

nWith a slight sigh, he looked at this beautiful mirror-like lake…no one could imagine there was risk in the lake.

n“Very pretty, but full of danger.” Duwei soliloquized.

n“You are right.”

nThis voice from the back shocked Duwei! Then after a moment, he noticed that the voice was from Semel! This ghost lady suddenly popped up!

nHe 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.

nDuwei shrugged, “Oh, you finally show up?”

n“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.”

n“Oh.” Duwei frowned, “Not only I can see you?”

n“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.”

n“Oh? That means I should appreciate your kindness?”Duei hummed.

nSemel 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.

nDuwei looked at Semel and found that her expression was weird…

nHer expression looked weird. She was blinking, the eyebrows were twisted, seems she was thinking something.

n“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…”

n“What?”

nSemel 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.”

n“You? Have come here before?” Duwei wanted to laugh, but he could not.

nNo 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?

nIf she were the real Semel, then it wasn’t weird…but the woman in front of him…

nSemel looked at the place far away. After a long period, she shook her head and smiled. Her voice seemed disappointed, “You should be thinking ‘bull**’, right? It’s impossible for me to have come here before, but…I don’t how to describe my feelings…anyways, it’s weird.”

nShe 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.

nDardanelle walked towards them and Semel sighed, “Ok, I have to go. Be careful…I , I feel the weirdness of this lake.”

nAfter that, she disappeared in front of Duwi.

n“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?”

nDuwei 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.”

nAt night, Old Cyclops made a pot of mushroom soup! Old Cyclops picked these mushrooms on the way.

nHaving 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.

nBein 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.

nIn the morning, Duwei was woken up by Dardanelle. Dardanelle looked worried and serious, “Harry! Something went wrong! Wake up!”

nCommander 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!

nDuwei looked around and found that there were some people missing!

nEleven! Elevan people in total! Missing!

nThe eleven mercenaries who were responsible for patrolling last night! All were missing!

nIt 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!

nThere 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!

nEleven people were suddenly evaporated collectively and suddenly in a night!

nBein sent half of the people to search for half a day, but still didn’t have any news! They didn’t find anything!

n“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!!”

nThe 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!”

nDuwei 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.

n“Just as I said, there is definitely something weird in this lake.” Semel suddenly stood behind Duwei.

n