Red Dragon Emperor

Thorn City, slums.

Light and darkness are twins. If the prosperous city of Thorn City is light, then the slums outside the city are darkness.

The houses here are low, the shacks are continuous, the aisles are narrow, and the air is filled with an unpleasant smell of excrement mixed with rotten food. The patrolling soldiers in charge of security are reluctant to come here, and it basically belongs to the three-way zone.

Like all three-way areas, the slums of Thorn City are chaotic, gangs are divided, and scenes of street fighting often appear.

Dead people are not news here, it is a new thing that no one died within three days.

Feralas avoided the human excrement in the narrow alley, and continued to walk forward, neither fast nor slow.

His walking posture seems to be leisurely and slow, but in fact it is loose on the outside and tight on the inside, and his eyes turn from time to time to check the shacks on both sides of the alley.

In the huts with dirty curtains, the shabby aborigines of the slums also stared at the strange visitors in front of them. The poor people had complicated eyes, fear, pleading, and guard, and some adult men also looked greedy.

The neatly dressed visitor is out of place in the slums. Obviously, he does not belong here, and not belonging here means that he can be hunted.

Of course, the premise is that you can beat it.

Seeing the bows and arrows, quiver, and saber hanging from the belt on the back of the visitor, those who are greedy will suppress their malice. The people who are dressed in this picture and dare to walk alone in the slums are generally professionals.

Feralas received malicious eyes all the way, and continued to walk through the slums. He was going to a gang named the Viper Gang. 】.

According to the mission information, a small orc gang called the Viper Gang in the slums reported a case, and missing cases occurred one after another in its "jurisdiction". There is no way to do this, so I have to go to the Adventurer's Guild to issue a mission.

Feralas thought about it carefully and accepted the task.

As the son of a wealthy businessman, he is not interested in the bounty of the task, but in the fact that the official of the city of Thorns is the person who issued the task.

Feralas has been in the Triangle Plain for a week. After observing these days, he found that this is a land full of vitality. He is very optimistic about the future of the Forsey Kingdom and decided to do something in the Forsai Kingdom.

This is not a hotheaded moment, but the result of careful consideration.

Through daily observation, Feralas found that there are many races in the Triangle Plain, but there is no native human force, so he decided to fill this vacancy.

If the plan is successful, the family and Forsythe Kingdom will be connected online and supply channels will be opened up, then the family's business will go a step further, and it may be able to cross the threshold of a large chamber of commerce in one fell swoop and become a giant chamber of commerce.

If he wanted to open up the commodity supply chain of the Fusai Kingdom and the family, he had to get the official support of Thorn City, so he accepted this task to brush up his reputation in Thorn City.

However, there is a problem. He underestimated the responsibility of the laneways in the slums, so that he could not find his way.

At this time, he met a child orc sitting on the side of the road, his heart moved, and he took out a silver coin.

"Hey, kid, take me to the Viper Gang's residence, this silver coin is yours," he said, tossing the silver coin in his hand.

The silver coins leaping in the air were shining brightly in the sun, and a look of longing flashed in the eyes of the dirty orc children.

With a wizard, everything is much easier.

Feralas paid a silver coin and found his destination - the resident of the Viper Gang. This is an earthen house surrounded by earthen walls. The hut has a small courtyard with many sticks placed in the courtyard.

There are also very few ironware.

In a slum where most of them are shacks, this house is definitely a mansion.

At the entrance of the mansion, two bragging ruffians were sitting.

Feralas walked straight to the door of the Viper Gang's station, walked up to the ruffian who stood up, and said directly: "I am an adventurer who has accepted the task of investigating the disappearance, take me to see your boss."

"Okay...Okay, my lord, please follow me."

The two ruffians were intimidated by the aura of the high-ranking ranger, swallowed their saliva, and turned to lead the way.

Passing through the small courtyard in front of the door, Feralas entered the gate of the house and met the boss of the Viper Gang. The boss of the Viper Gang was an ugly middle-aged man and a junior thief.

When he saw Feralas, the boss of the Viper Gang was taken aback for a moment, uncertain: "You...you are the poet of death——Mr. Feralas?"

Feralas froze, feeling a little embarrassed.

In the [Wild Boar and the Whistle] tavern incident, he beat up half of the tavern's drinkers. In addition, the reason for this incident was that he was tone deaf, so he got the nickname of the dead poet.

Good things don't go out, bad things travel thousands of miles.

Not only in Stone Hammer Town, but also in Thorn City, there are some legends about him. Of course, the publicity credits of Merck and other members of the Tiger Mercenary Corps are indispensable.

For a small gang that was not popular, Feralas didn't have much time to talk, and straight to the point with a straight face: "I'm very busy, just talk about the task."

Although Feralas' attitude is not very good, the leader of the Viper Gang doesn't mind at all. This is the privilege of the strong who lay down half of the tavern.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life."

The leader of the Viper Gang trembled a little, took a sip of bitter tea from the teacup on the table, temporarily suppressed the panic in his heart, and continued: "There have been a series of disappearances in my territory, and a total of thirty-eight people have disappeared. I met him the first day, but disappeared the next day, and no one around heard any movement, and there was no sign of a fight at home, as if he disappeared suddenly."

Feralas tapped his fingers on the table, thoughts running in his mind: "How long has this happened?"

"Eleven days."

"Why did you report it yesterday?"

"Hehehe," the leader of the Viper Gang said with a grin, "My lord, you know, those who are in my line of work have clean asses, so how dare you bother the adults of the security team, besides, even if I report it , Those big shots may not be in charge."

Feralas nodded, understanding in his heart.

In the slums, almost all the residents are grassland natives who entered the country illegally. The officials of Thorn City don’t care about these people, and have always kept their attitude. Otherwise, the slums of Thorn City would not be what they are now.

It's just that the incident this time was really a bit evil. Thirty-eight people disappeared for no reason, which made the Thorn City officials take it seriously.

After all, there are too many lessons learned in the human kingdom. Dark creatures such as necromancers and terrifying monsters are hidden in slums, and poor people are arrested to do things. City managers did not pay attention at the beginning, which eventually turned into a disaster.

"..."

The two sides chatted for a while, seeing that the boss of the Viper Gang could not provide more information, Feralas said: "Tell me about the distribution of missing persons, and where did the latest missing case happen?"

"...The one who went missing recently is my younger brother. He and his younger siblings live behind my house. I saw him two evenings ago, but he disappeared the next day..."

Under the leadership of the gangster, Feralas came to a shack full of sweat.

The shack has no door, only a curtain made of cloth, with a few obvious cloth scars sewn on the curtain, and the inside of the shack can be seen when the wind blows.

Feralas got into the shack alone and began to check for suspicious traces.

Twenty minutes were spent in this small shack, but nothing was found.

"Emmm..., according to the mission statement, the high-ranking gnoll police officer of the security team searched the missing area, but found no clues. If I search like this, there is a high probability that I will not find any results."

Feralas thought about it: "To be able to capture the victim without the surrounding people noticing and the victim not resisting at all, either the criminal is very strong, or he used some kind of method. Unfortunately, the northern prairie Without the Justice Church, there is no way to get high-concentration holy water..."

After thinking about it for a while, Feralas decided to adopt the most stupid method——wait for the rabbit.

At night, the moon is hidden and the stars are sinking, and the earth is dark.

On a big tree with the best view in the slums, Feralas was hidden among the dense branches and leaves, his slightly shining eyes scanned the roof of the shack.

"True Sight Potion can only last for six hours. If the enemy doesn't show up during this period, it will be a big loss," he thought to himself, bored.

True Sight Potion, a special magical potion that can enhance night vision and allow users to see through invisibility to a certain extent, is rare and valuable, and it is a treasure he brought out from home.

Suddenly, Feralas' ears moved, and he heard a strange sound, like the sound of clothes fluttering in the wind. The sound was so small that he wouldn't have been able to detect it if he hadn't owned a magical object that enhanced his hearing.

Feralas' spirit was shaken, and he gathered his energy and scanned for possible targets.

"what?"

After a while, he made a discovery. He saw a blurry night flashing past the houses, and then the black shadow was lying on the tallest house, motionless.

Feralas felt a little strange, because he found that this black shadow didn't seem to be the target he was looking for, but more like a competitor.

Because if it is the target, they should be arrested directly and then leave. Only competitors will stay up in the middle of the night and lie on the top of the house looking for suspicious things.

"Thieves, are there other forces interested in this matter?"

Feralas remained calm and continued to hide on the branches.

Time passed bit by bit in silence, and Feralas felt a little dignified.

"This guy hasn't moved for three hours, is he a monster?!"

Due to the pressure of blood circulation and gravity, prolonged immobility will cause the body to go numb. Only the most rigorously trained rogue can overcome this biological characteristic with the tenacity of an ascetic.

Feralas realized that this "competitor" in front of him was definitely not an ordinary thief, and he might have been involved in a big event unintentionally.

………………………………………

On the roof, the trainee member of [Red Dagger]——Church lay motionless on the roof, paying attention to the movement around him, and closely monitoring all the troubles in the alleyway.

As a new gnoll who grew up under the rule of the red dragon, he dreamed of joining the army since he was a child and serving the great dragon.

There is no doubt that Church is lucky. He has a good talent for thieves. He not only fulfilled his wish to join the army and serve the real dragon, but also stood out from hundreds of students in the same period. Opportunity to join the bandit organization directly under the True Dragon—[Red Dagger].

After special training again and again, Church learned the power of [Red Dagger] and the importance of [Red Dagger] to Forsythe Kingdom, and he became more and more determined to join [Red Dagger].

Therefore, he paid special attention to the task of monitoring the slums of Thorn City this time, and lay motionless on the house.

"According to the intelligence, there may be a cultist hidden in the slums. He is responsible for providing "materials". I don't know if he will do it tonight."

Suddenly, Church's ears moved, and he heard light footsteps. The footsteps seemed to be wrapped with a thick layer of cloth on the shoes. The sound was extremely small, but the wolf man's sensitive hearing could still catch the movement.

He turned his head and saw a man in black walking through the alley, his hooded head flashing past the gap.

Church remained calm, and stood up cautiously. The pads on the soles of the wolf man's feet acted as a good buffer, absorbing the sound produced by the movement.

He jumped off the house and hung far behind the man in black, keeping a certain distance. He had to wait until the man in black collected "materials" before he could formally confirm that this man was the target he was looking for.

Sure enough, the man in black came to a shack, took out a small bottle from his arms, uncorked the bottle, and stretched it inside through the shade of the shack.

At this moment, the high-level ranger - Feralas and the middle-level thief - Church were sure that the man in black in front of him was his target.

On the branch, Feralas was a little hesitant. Judging from the information he has received so far, the reason behind the disappearance in the slums is not simple, and the water is very deep.

If possible, he didn't want to get involved in this matter, but he also hoped that he could successfully complete the task, and then show his face in the security team to prepare for future actions.

The outsider was hesitant, but Church didn't have too many worries. He held a matte standard dagger and approached the man in black step by step while maintaining a stealth state.

Thieves belonged to the night, Church moved in the shadows, and the man in black didn't notice.

Without a sound, the sharp dagger quietly pressed against the kidneys on the back of the man in black. With a little force, the dagger can penetrate the skin and a small amount of muscle, stabbing the deadly kidney.

Church growled in a low voice: "Don't move! Otherwise I'll kill you!"

The man in black froze, as if his computer had suddenly crashed, and then turned around abruptly, ignoring the warning.

While the man in black was exerting force, Church reacted quickly and mercilessly inserted the dagger into the kidney of the man in black.

However, unexpectedly, the man in black robe was not affected at all, it was useless to hum, he turned around and attacked.

In the process of retreating, Church took a quick glance and saw the face of the man in black robe who had lost his skin and exposed the bright red muscle tissue underneath, his face changed drastically.

"Flesh puppet?!"