The Swordsman of Faerûn

William smiled bitterly: "Yes, in the next few days, all the plants, animals, and even bugs here will die."

Another herdsman asked with dull eyes, "Are we going to die too?"

William shook his head and said, "No! You have already survived, and you will only die of old age, or die of hunger or disease in the future. I am afraid that you will need to find a new place to live in the days to come."

The old herdsman didn't show much joy at being alive. He discussed with several old partners in a low voice, then turned to face William and said, "Young man, you ruined our oasis, our home .While it happened for a reason, the damage to our race as a whole is indelible. We have a demand for that."

William sighed and said, "Please tell me, but I can't guarantee that I will agree to you."

The old herdsman pointed to Pumos and said, "I hope you can accept this child and let him be by your side to witness the epic adventure of a great warrior."

William glanced at the excited Pumos, and asked puzzledly, "Why?"

The old herdsman said meaningfully: "Follow the goblin like a goblin, follow the dragon like a dragon. Take an adventure with an epic hero, and he will become another legend to be sung. You destroyed our oasis, our oasis. The request is not high, please give us a legendary hero."

Chapter 47 See also commission

William smiled wryly, and said, "Brother, do you mean that you are not demanding? If you are too high, go to it! My place is not a nursery school, nor is it a summer camp for teenagers, please don't make things difficult for me."

The old herdsman said: "You already have two girls by your side. Another boy is not a bad thing. After all, a sheep is herding, and a flock of sheep is also herding. Besides, Pumos is not a weak chicken with no merits." , he is a reasonably qualified rogue and an experienced exploration team member.

Young people, if your family wants to cross the sea of ​​sand safely, you need an experienced guide.Believe me, Pumos is also very experienced in this area. He has followed his father's generation to cross the black road three times, and he is definitely a reliable helper. "

William said: "I'm curious, why is the old gentleman so concerned about this kid?"

The old man smiled happily: "The reason is very simple, because my surname is also Tanshuer, and I come from the same family as this child."

Surprised, William asked, "Since you are from the same clan, why were you driven away by his father and son earlier?" After saying this, William's eyes were already flickering with inexplicable sternness.

The old man sighed and said: "This is the tradition of our Bedai barbarians. The old and decayed must make way for the young. We old guys are already useless people. As long as there is a need, we must contribute to the young. Everything, especially the returned explorers, is the most important essence of a tribe, as long as they wish, they can forcibly confiscate all the supplies of any elderly person in the tribe."

William said coldly: "This tradition is not very popular!"

The old man said: "I also came here when I was young, even my father, my father's father... my ancestors have come here for generations. Although this tradition is a bit cruel, it allows our clansmen to survive the catastrophe. Survive smoothly in this harsh sea of ​​sand, stretching endlessly."

William sighed. He was no stranger to this tradition of the Bedai barbarians. In the ancient times of his previous life, many barbaric places with relatively harsh environments had similar customs and habits, such as sending the elderly to Shenshang In the old forest, or exiled to the river, save rations to feed the young and children.Another example is that in a world of ice and snow, a whole tribe huddles together to keep warm. The young and strong are at the innermost, followed by women and children, and the elderly and frail are the outermost.

Perhaps this tradition is beneficial to the continuation of certain tribes, but it does not mean that it is good or completely correct.

At least William couldn't agree with this cruel custom. He said coldly to the old man and Pumos: "I don't like your tribe's traditions, and I don't agree with your ideas. A person who doesn't agree with his ancestors and doesn't respect his ancestors It is unreliable, I can't trust an unreliable person, and I won't let him join my team. Therefore, I can't do your request, and I don't want to agree to it, please change your request."

Hearing this, several old herdsmen immediately looked at each other in blank dismay. Pumos, who was lying on the ground, was even ashamed, feeling as if he had lost five billion dollars.

After all, the old man of the Tanshuer family has more knowledge, so he asked with some doubts: "Young man, if I'm not wrong, you probably don't like people with evil tendencies?"

William is a little confused, do you like evil people?He said: "I really hate villains with low character and vicious behavior. I wish I could kill them quickly."

"So that's how it is!" The old man said with a sudden expression on his face, "In this way, it is really difficult for the children of the Tanshuer family to meet your wishes."

In fact, there is some misunderstanding between William and the old herdsman here. The evil that the old herdsman said is actually based on a certain objective law of the world, and the camps divided into human beings or other creatures are evil, neutral, and good.This is a method of distinguishing behaviors that has been quantified, and the three can even be transformed into each other through certain behaviors (typical arguments regardless of deeds).

However, the evil William mentioned is based on personal character and morality, starting from the three views of world outlook, outlook on life, and values, and judging a person's character (regarding the heart regardless of traces).

To give a simple example, such as a person with anti-social personality tendencies, his nature is anti-human, anti-moral, and the camp he belongs to is evil, but he is for a certain plan, or for fun , Consciously doing good deeds, doing a lot of kind deeds, which caused his camp to shift towards neutrality and even kindness, but his nature has never changed, and there has been no repentance or change of mind.

For example, if a person with high moral character and kind heart does a lot of evil things out of necessity or without knowing it, his camp must be shifted to evil, but his heart is still kind. .How can you say whether these two types of people are evil or good?

The reason why I said this is just to express a meaning. The division of factions in the land of Faerun is relatively common. People who belong to the good camp are not necessarily good people, and not all people in the evil camp are bad and festering.

The old herdsman said: "Young man, since you don't want to take in Pumos, we won't force you. However, we hope you can escort him to a place."

"Escort him to a place? Where? I hope this will not bring unnecessary twists and turns to my journey." It was not easy for William to refuse again, but he still reserved some opinions.

The old herdsman said: "Along the black road and pass through the dangerous standing stone plain, you will find the Eta Mirror Wasteland. In the south of the wasteland is the Scimitar Peak Mountain Range. There is a water area there. The Shadow Sea is surrounded by Scimitar Peak on three sides. In You On the east coast of the Sea of ​​Shadows, the ancestors of our Tanshul family established a permanent plane portal, which can be linked to the Shadow Plane. I hope you can escort Pumos there and let him follow in the footsteps of his ancestors. "

William thought for a while and said, "Okay! I accept your commission, and I hope it won't be too dangerous there."

Seeing this, the old herdsman and Pumos breathed a sigh of relief. The old man said, "I haven't been there personally, so I can't confirm the degree of danger there. I only know that occasionally a few shadow creatures come to the main substance through the portal. Planes, I hope they won't bother you."

William nodded, and asked about the detailed route to get there, but the old herdsman said that he would draw a simple map for him later and hand it to Pumos to carry.

William was noncommittal, and got up to leave directly.He quickly returned to his tent, told his family to be vigilant, and then walked out with a knife and a gun.

Passing through the jujube bushes that were beginning to wither, William came to the edge of the oasis, standing silently with his gun.Soon, I saw a figure coming out from the back of the sand dune not far away, and came straight to William.

Chapter 48 Am I Amphibious?

A very strange visitor, with strange looks and strange behavior.Seeing it, an insect—a praying mantis—immediately appeared in William's mind.

Let’s call it the mantis monster. Its head is like an enlarged mantis head, with a triangular head, a crown of bones on the top of the head, a pair of huge and ferocious jaw-like mouthparts, a slender body, and a pair of arthropod-like arms. And a pair of locust feet (rear thighs similar to locusts), with barbs at the joints.

The mantis monster was carrying a pair of bone machetes with jagged blades and many barbs on the back, which looked very ferocious. William knew it was a strong enemy the first time he saw it.

It was a little difficult for William to confirm the origin of the mantis monster in front of him.

But he knew the terrifying existence of another kind of praying mantis, and the information came from the memory bank "gifted" by the aboleth.

It is said that in the depths of the mysterious Underdark, there exists a terrifying insect-like creature named Swordwing Mantis because of the scimitar-shaped blade at the front of one arm.Sword-winged mantises are terrifying assassins, they are born as extraordinary species (legendary species, similar to natural level 20+), and they are terrifying existences standing at the apex of the food chain.

Sword-winged mantises are excellent collectors, amassing rare items and storing them in huge lairs by category.Like petrels, they build their nest towers by chewing up building materials. From a distance, the nest towers look like pale stalactites or stalagmites, but in fact, their structures are as solid as rocks.

When a sword-winged mantis satisfies a certain quality, it can obtain a metamorphosis. Its forearm scimitar-shaped blade will fall off by itself, and then regenerate a scimitar-shaped arm blade with the power of death. This is the crown-winged mantis.

The mantis monster in front of him didn't have arm blades, but had a pair of terrifying scimitars. William clearly felt the danger of a scimitar, which was the smell of death.

This may represent a terrible fact that the monster in front of him may have completed its second transformation.

Of course, these so-called terrible information could not dampen William's fighting spirit. When the mantis monster came not far from William, he gently pulled out his battle gun and pointed it at the mantis monster.

The mantid stopped in its tracks, stared at William for a while with its icy compound eyes, and then said in a hoarse voice as if rubbing broken boards: "Reptiles? Do you want to block the footsteps of the great Three Fools?"

William raised his eyebrows and said: "I didn't expect you to be a talking guy. I don't want to stop you. I feel the fatal death (common language) on your weapon. My family is behind me. They have suffered I can't live with this danger. I hope you can stop your steps, or take a detour."

"It's a bold idea! Ignorant reptile!" The mantis monster laughed silently. It shook its two knives, and suddenly jumped forward. Its vicious momentum caught people off guard.But this does not include William. He had already anticipated the opponent's sudden attack, and only relying on his own intuition, he stabbed a two-foot-long spear out quickly. A ball of light can barely block the sudden attack of the mantis monster.

The mantis monster attacked and killed William, and William blocked the circle as if they were attacking each other. It seemed that neither side took any advantage.However, William knew very well that he was the one who suffered the most. The Zhang Er spear was supposed to be an invincible weapon, but now it was in a stalemate with the mantis monster's pair of scimitars. Although it seemed to block the attack of the two knives , but can't break through the opponent's limit. In this case, William consumes much more physical strength than the opponent. If he really wants to continue to consume like this, he can't be exhausted alive here.

It was a similar situation in the real mirror image battle between William and Monaco III. If he hadn't taken the initiative by surprise, he would have been smothered alive by that guy under normal circumstances.Of course, when William replayed the game later, he found that his risky move seemed a bit redundant at that time, because the main body of Monaco III could no longer support it. As long as William delayed for a while, the real mirror image would naturally die. Then it collapsed.

However, most of these so-called replays are like afterthoughts, and they cannot be completely taken seriously. At least William took a risky attack and successfully won the victory, and the impact of this victory was far beyond his imagination. .

Seeing that he couldn't gain an advantage with a gun, William suddenly shouted loudly and stomped his feet on the ground. The whole person jumped up and flew more than three feet high. The praying mantis monster fell down.

In mid-air, William dropped his gun and drew the knife, and the blade of the Autumn Water Broken Dream Knife shook, making a melodious "Zheng" sound.William fit together and turned into a mass of sword lights, and went straight to the mantis monster who rushed up again.

The sound of Qiushui knife and machete colliding is not pleasant, it can even be said to be very unpleasant, because the two sides are fighting very fast, it sounds a bit like the sound of a broken chainsaw sawing rotten wood, and at the same time, it is accompanied by some debris. Sawdust... No, it was the sharpness brought by the mantis monster's bone scimitar, which couldn't bear the sharpness of Qiushui knife's fine gold material, and it was the residue that was destroyed by cutting.

It was precisely because the speed of the fight between the two sides was too fast, by the time the mantid realized something was wrong, William's autumn water knife had already chiseled more than 20 knives on the bone machete.The distressed praying mantis couldn't help but let out a piercing hiss. It hurriedly jumped and retreated, but the direction of this fellow's retreat was not very good. It was the direction to go deep into the oasis. How dare William relax his oppression on it, otherwise Really let this monster break into it, no matter who it meets in his family, it's not just a matter of raising a knife and falling.

So William also exploded with all his strength, chasing and slashing the mantis monster every step of the way, killing like glue like paint, inseparable, and sprinkled countless bone chips along the way.

The mantis monster was heartbroken with regret at this time, thinking how did he meet such a lunatic?Still a very, very powerful lunatic!It's still entangled, isn't it?

Seeing that the mantis monster could not get rid of William's pursuit on the ground, it was shocked, and saw two pairs of membranous wings protruding from its back, and the transparent wing membranes flashed a metallic luster.As soon as it vibrated its membrane wings, it jumped up to a height of more than three feet, and then glides quickly.

The mantis monster showed an indistinguishable vicious smile, and it was about to say something, but the following changes made the poor monster almost fall headfirst.

I saw a pair of wings protruding from William's back, but they were snow-white like swan-like wings. After that, William flapped his wings and chased after him at an even faster speed.

The fight between the two sides continued in mid-air, but William was not used to flying combat after all, and his speed of using the knife was greatly slowed down. He just relied on his wings to fly faster than the mantis monster, and launched a slightly clumsy guerrilla warfare .

In this way, one person and one mantis monster killed through the entire oasis. William stopped the pursuit until he got out from the other side of the oasis, and then watched the mantis monster retreat nearly a hundred yards before slowing down Slowly fell to the ground.

While retracting the wings behind him, he spit out a mouthful of bloody saliva, and cursed secretly: Damn it!You really can't deal with this guy without getting chicken wings!It seems that I have to practice aerial warfare in the future!Otherwise, if you encounter another hard stubble, you may have to suffer a lot.

Chapter 49 Vengeance Contract

William is wearing the [Wings of Liberty Suit], if he didn't have this equipment next to him, he really couldn't suppress the mantis monster opposite, after all, that guy can really fly, even though he can't fly too high or fly Far.

At this time, the mantis monster was heartbroken like a concubine. A pair of natural scimitars were buried under William's knife, and one of them was completely chopped into tatters by the Autumn Water Broken Dream Knife. Scrapped.The other scimitar was not much better, the original edge was directly cut flat, and turned into a corrugated bone plate. It took a lot of effort to re-polish the edge before it could be used barely, but like this kind of natural A grown bone weapon cannot be polished at any time like a metal weapon, because the bone density of the edge of this weapon is not the same as that of the blade body, and the quality of the bone machete will inevitably decline after being polished. less, and this is no longer applicable to mantids.

The mantis monster was startled and angry at this time, and at the same time remorseful. It knew it would encounter such a deadly stubble, and it would never do anything at this time. Will start after it's complete.

It's just that it was not willing to retreat in such a disheveled manner, so it shouted loudly from a distance: "Human warrior, your strength is heartbreaking, please tell me your name! I hope to know who I am defeated by!" hands!"

After thinking for a while, William shouted in a deep voice, "William! My name is William."

"William?" The mantis monster looked a little strange, and asked solemnly, "Is it just William? No great surname, no prominent bloodline? William, okay!"

William was a little surprised, this monster is actually a guy with a petty bourgeois theory (talking about family status, pomp, and bloodline theory), it's really a bit awkward.But soon William regretted it, because he felt a kind of malice that pierced his soul.

The mantis monster actually bit off a piece of flesh and blood on its own arm, and then spit it out in the palm of a bone-claw-like palm, chanting in a low voice: "Using the flesh and blood as the guide, and the real name as evidence, the death god Jaeger's sickle engraved the vengeance." Movement, I ※※※—the ruler of ignorant desires, confirms that the human William is the enemy of death and revenge. Only by bathing in blood and devouring the bones and soul can the bones and flesh die and return to silence."

The voice of the mantis monster chanting was very low, but even though it was nearly a hundred meters away, its words passed into William's ears like threads of silk.As the flesh and blood in the mantid's palm turned into an invisible black smoke, William only felt an inexplicable force linking him and the mantid.

William was taken aback, and a term from ancient knowledge suddenly popped into his mind - [Death Revenge], a revenge contract originating from the ancient death realm, and its simplified version is the ranger's specialty [Old Enemy].

[Death Revenge] will establish an unbreakable connection between William and the mantis monster. Under the effect of this connection, they can only die in each other's hands. No matter who is killed by other existences in advance, the dead will be in the contract of revenge Under the effect of rebirth.Even if they are all destroyed by other people, they will continue to be resurrected, but at this time, half of the resurrection locations of the two may be somewhere in the underworld.

And the contract of revenge also has a function, if any one of William or the mantid goes to another plane in any way, the other will follow in various unpredictable ways driven by fate.

[Death Revenge] will not force the two sides to fight, but will slowly distort their camp positions, one will be evil, the other will be kind, one will stick to law, and the other will gradually become chaotic (no neutrality).

William didn't know whether to be angry or happy. This [Death Revenge] can be said to be a double-edged sword in a sense. On the one hand, he can be regarded as a limited immortal body, unless it is beyond The concept of death exists, and no one can destroy them.On the other hand, the fate of William and the Mantid has come to an end, and one of them will surely die at the hands of the other.

After the contract was established, the Mantid seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. It asked, "Human William, did Flame Saber III die in your hands?"

William replied with a gloomy expression: "If you're talking about the lizard man with four arms, I did have a good fight with him. He is really a rare good opponent."

The mantis monster showed a look that was as expected, and said: "You should be the only one in this area who has the ability to force him to die on the spot even though he has used his racial abilities and chapters of legend."

William asked: "I also have a question, did you just cast [Death Revenge]?"

The Mantis Monster was greatly surprised, and asked in a strange voice: "You actually know about the revenge contract? Ever since Jaeger gave up the field of revenge, this contract has disappeared in the long river of history. How can you, a short-lived mortal, know this secret?"

William said indifferently: "I have dealt with an aboleth, the close-range one. So, you should know the consequences of such encounters."

Mantis couldn't help sighing: "You are really a lucky boy. I can't imagine how you escaped from the control of the aboleth. That kind of thing is not easy to get rid of."

William faked a smile and said, "Well, I also feel that I have been favored by the goddess of luck." As soon as he finished speaking, a ball of sand blown up by the breeze sprinkled into his mouth and eyes.

The mantis hissed when he saw it.

William spat out the sand and dust in his mouth with a "peh peh", blinked his eyelids with tears, and took a bucket of clean water and poured it on his forehead, barely removing the sand that had rubbed his eyes.He looked at the cheerful mantis monster, and asked angrily, "I said! Big mantis, can you still fight now?"

Mantis smiled strangely: "I'm not called Big Mantis, you can call me Three Fools. Human William, I have just woken up and am in a weak state. Fighting with you at this time is completely self-inflicted. Wait until I fully recover Yuanyuan, after I am fully prepared, I will find you to fight to the death."

William habitually wiped away the non-existent water stains on his forehead, and said, "Oh! Then please go ahead, I'm going back to sleep." After speaking, he picked up his steps and walked back.

Sanyu, the mantis monster, shouted loudly: "Human boy! I'm weak right now! This is your best chance to kill me. If I fully recover, I will definitely kill you."

William strode forward without looking back, his arm drew an arc in mid-air, and gave Sanyu a middle finger.

Sanyu laughed loudly and shouted: "I will definitely kill you, William! I will definitely kill you! No one can kill you except me! Tremble! Be afraid! Hahhhhhhhhh..."

When William returned to the tent, his family was anxiously waiting for his return, and the old herdsmen were there too. It wasn't that they didn't want to support William, but that he had warned them in advance not to intervene.

Everyone asked what happened just now.

Misha'er pestered William and asked him who was fighting in mid-air.

William said with a smile: "It's just a mental illness with an unconscious mind. It's nothing serious. It's been dismissed." Then he looked at Phinya and said with a smile: "Finia, I need you to help me eliminate the stasis. Fire poison..."

Feniya was about to readily agree, but Yasuna jumped out and said, "Let me do it, William! I find that I am not right now, and I need your blood power to neutralize..."

Under the eyes of a group of melon-eating people, William felt a little impressive, and was dragged by Yasuna to a secluded place. As for some indescribable things that happened later, it is not enough for outsiders to understand.

Chapter 50 Smelly Pranks

At night, William, who had entered the sage state, took his family back on the road, including of course the boy Pumos of the Tanshul family.The child broke half of his ribs. Although he received medical treatment, he was still not fully recovered for a while, so he could only drag behind and stagger along reluctantly.

It's a pity that all the sand camels died under William's [Soul Storm], and the spider-eater mounts of the Ethiopian sand lizards had already scattered away, leaving only the flying horse Mo Xiao as a transport mount, otherwise they The journey is much easier.

In the desert, death is such a mundane event that even mass death can sometimes have a hard time attracting enough scavengers to patronize, and that doesn't include Oasis Three.Well, since it was the third oasis William encountered, let's call it oasis number three.

The Ethiopian lizardmen who left alive would never let go of the pile of corpses piled up here, which is an important material for their survival and group growth.

The old herdsmen are not willing to leave with William and the others. In the words of the old people, there is no oasis ahead that can carry them. If William and the others have the possibility to return one day, they may be in the only sand hole left. See their bones on Wang Qingquan's No. [-] oasis.

There is one more regrettable thing, the lizardman eggs that William and the others picked up also suffered a devastating blow in that fatal catastrophe.Through the traditional testing of the old herdsman, only one lizardman egg should have survived.The old people suggested that William give up the only remaining lizardman egg, because a single lizardman egg is of no value at all.

After thinking about it, William still left with the living lizardmen eggs, leaving only a pile of dead eggs as the rations for the old people.That's right, this stuff is a rare delicacy for the Bedai barbarians. It has to be said that the grievances between the Ethiopian sand lizards and the Bedai barbarians who came from the remnants of Netheril are indeed In short, no one is completely innocent.

Limited by the walking speed of Mr. Pumos, William and the others stopped to rest several times a night, so when the sun rose the next day, there was still a long way to the next oasis.William had to set up camp on the spot to avoid the scorching sun. It is said that the Ennook Desert in autumn is really difficult. The night is so cold that it almost starts to freeze, but the day is as hot as a stove.

Hiding under the shady tent, Pomos looked at William with a pale face. The one-night trek almost exhausted all his energy. In contrast, it seemed that the two little girls were much stronger than him.Pumos asked with some despair: "Mr. William, are you really unwilling to take me into your team?"

"Give up, Mr. Pumus! I will not let an untrustworthy person accompany my family day and night. And you have not shown any traits worthy of my trust." William said coldly, and Handed the poor boy a bowl of freshly cooked food.

Breakfast is a pot of fresh sand camel meat stewed with sand dates. The stewed thin sand camel meat is soaked in the honey juice of sand dates. It tastes soft and crunchy, sweet and delicious, and has a unique flavor of braised pork.