Whispering Verse

The weather is beautiful today, and the sky above the village of Pukhov is blue. On a small pier near the lake, a group of bare-chested workers were busy moving goods in the warm spring breeze. A potbellied southern businessman spoke to an old man dressed as a butler in broken Delarian. What are they talking about? The sailors' complaints while cleaning the deck and the fishermen's chatting while drying their fishing nets combine to make this scene quite vivid.

The size of this dock is certainly not comparable to that of the dock area in Coldwater Port City on the west coast, but it is still large enough as a dock on the edge of an inland lake. Shade even saw a few travelers playing Rhodes around a wooden box at the pier. He resisted his curiosity and did not walk over. Instead, he walked towards the businessman Kasenlik who did not understand the language and the old butler. people:

"Sir, do you need a translator?"

He asked the businessman in proficient Kasenlik, and the latter wiped his sweat with a handkerchief:

"That's great. I'll pay you 10 pfennigs."

1 krone is equal to 7 euros, and 1 krone is also equal to 95 pfennigs. Although these three currencies are the main currencies of Carsonlik, due to the chaotic currency relations before the founding of the United Kingdom, there are other currencies besides the three mainstream currencies. with other currencies. Among them, the currency value of "copper pfennig" is one-thirtieth of a pfennig. This kind of currency is a copper-like coin without banknotes.

According to exchange rate conversion, 1 copper pfennig is about 1.4 pence, and 10 copper pfennig is almost 1 shilling. According to the price of translation, it is neither high nor low. Of course, if Shade wasn't dressed decently, he might only get one copper.

What the southern merchants were trying to communicate with the steward was that the ale shipped from Carsenlick was charged a high tariff by Delrayon during customs clearance, so the price per barrel would be increased by a quarter this time. The butler of the local viscount in Green Lake City tried to make the businessman understand that they had never raised the price for this reason in their business for so long.

The housekeeper did not doubt the merchant's integrity. They were all acquaintances. He just couldn't accept the sudden price increase. But while the businessman apologized through Shade, he also said helplessly that this was beyond his control:

"This is the second boat trip I've taken since the beginning of spring this year. Obviously at the end of the month of the Wind Rises, the tariffs on alcohol are still normal."

“That’s because at that time, we had not yet decided to negotiate in the Green Lake area, nor had we decided what cards we were going to use as our cards.”

This was what Shade added in addition to the translation. Both the businessman and the old housekeeper took it seriously. They used not very civilized sentences and scolded the politicians in two languages. Then with Shade's mediation, they reluctantly reached this point. A business with a price increase.

The old housekeeper went to arrange the carriage, so he left in a hurry. While the fat businessman was paying the bill happily, Shade was also curious and asked the question he wanted to ask:

"Sir, I just saw people from the church in the village. Are there so many clergy in this small village?"

In fact, he didn't see it at all.

"There was originally only one elderly priest in the village. I heard from the villagers that a group of clergymen came from the city the evening before yesterday to preach in the countryside. They seemed to be from the Peace Church. They temporarily stayed in the east of the village. I have been taking a boat to the Central Island of Green Lake every day for the past two days. When my boat came this morning, I happened to see them taking a boat to the Central Island of Green Lake. Isn’t there no one on that island anymore? "

The businessman didn't think too much and told Shade these things.

"The church has indeed landed on the island. I don't know what they will find."

Xia De thought in his mind, and after accepting his reward, he asked with some doubts:

"Since you are going to travel on the trade route between Carsenlik and Delarion, why didn't you prepare yourself a translator? Language barriers will delay a lot of things."

"I know that too. I had a translator when I boarded the ship. During the random inspection at the Carsonlik Pier on the other side of the lake, contraband was found on the guy, and then I didn't have the translator."

He told Shade with a grimace what kind of contraband it was:

"A collection of poems complaining about the arrogance and lewdness of the Angevin royal family, the House of Lords squeezing the people, the nobles lying on the people to suck blood, and the civil servants being fat-headed idiots. I really don't know why he wants to cause trouble for himself like this. I think he usually There is no abnormal behavior... I heard that someone deliberately distributed this kind of book in Michaela Blast Furnace City. It is getting more and more chaotic... I won’t say it anymore, I will go too. Arrangements have been made for unloading. Thank you for your help and wish you a happy life."

He waved goodbye to Shade, leaving the sighing stranger standing alone on the pier looking at the spring lakeside scenery.

Shade did not stay on the dock for too long. After confirming the dynamics of the church, he left the dock along the lake shore. After reaching a secluded place where no one was around, he first put away his shoes and coat, and then walked into the lake.

"Really cold!"

Shivering, he dove into the water. Relying on the "water breathing" spell, Shade didn't even have to occasionally show his head to breathe. Like a big fish, he kept swimming towards the depths of Green Lake. While observing the biological communities in the lake under the water's surface, you also don't forget to pay attention to whether there are any fish that Mr. Edmond wants.

Sure enough, since there are no unfinished fish in the local black market, it is still a bit difficult for Shade to find them with his own eyes. Fortunately, Granny Natalie gave him the bait that could lure the unfinished fish. After he was sure that he was far away from the shore and there were no boats nearby, Shade took out the bait from the small sealed bottle.

The pill-like bait slowly released its flavor in the water, while Shade kept moving toward the center of the lake. He waited patiently for a while, and then there was movement from the deep lake bottom. Shade closed his eyes and listened, but what he heard was not the heartbeat of fish - the undead fish were semi-undead, so they also had a heartbeat:

"What's coming? The heartbeat is very strong, but the heartbeat rate is only ten times a minute, right? What is this?"

In the water, the line of sight would be severely obstructed, so when the human-shaped thing got closer, Shade could see its entirety.

It was a monster with a fish head and human body, with dull blue-gray scales on its body, sharp claws on its limbs, extremely sharp teeth in its open mouth, and between the upper and lower rows of teeth, there was another one in the mouth that could shoot at A long gray tongue that extends outward.

"Flocculant?"

Shade thought subconsciously, and then realized that this was not the fish-man he had seen. I just reacted and immediately realized what I had encountered:

"Water ghost?"

Water ghosts are relatively common undead creatures. They are born from the bodies of drowned people and have some characteristics of fish due to the influence of water. Apart from their habit of living in water, they are not much different from the common reanimated ghouls on land.

This monster is very agile in the water and is almost indistinguishable from a fish when swimming quickly. They usually like to lurk in the water, waiting for prey to arrive. Attacking lone fishing boats is also the way these monsters prey.

Of course, water ghosts can also walk on land, but this greatly reduces speed and strength, so this is rare.

Among the "Three Evil Gods of Coldwater Port" that Shade heard about in Coldwater Port, the believers of the "God of the Drowned" like to control this undead creature. The relationship between the water ghost and the murlocs protected by the "Lord of the Scarlet Spiral" is a feud.

At this time, Shade was not surprised at all when he saw the water ghost attracted by the bait. Instead, he smiled and quickly closed his mouth to prevent him from sucking in the water.

Green Lake is the main habitat of the semi-undead creature "rotten fish", and of course real undead such as water ghosts will be born. Although the church cleans up regularly, it is not uncommon to encounter one or two of them yourself.

And since you have encountered a water ghost, it means that there must be "bad fish" nearby. This fish likes to chase around water ghosts and eat the remains of their leftover food.

Shade was thinking that he was lucky, and the water ghost was getting closer and closer to him. He did not prepare himself any silver-plated crossbow arrows or hand crossbows, so he waved his arms in the water, and four silver rings that illuminated the lake flew out, and then they were smoothly attached to the limbs of the water ghost.

"Moonlight Slash!"

Then an arc of moonlight passed under the water. After the light disappeared, the body of the water ghost, which was split into two pieces, sank downwards. A large amount of green liquid flowed out of the water ghost's body and mixed into the water. This is a liquid mixed with corpse oil contaminated by elements and the body fluids of undead such as "water ghosts". If Shadek collects it, it is actually an alchemy material that can be sold at a good price, just like the "Water Ghost" that was destroyed by him. "Water Ghost Brain" is the same.

"No, I will never touch this kind of thing, otherwise Mia will definitely not approach me again after returning home."

Although he thought so, he did not swim away, but chased the corpse from a distance and kept diving. After the body of the water ghost hit the bottom of the lake, there was no more movement. Shade threw the bait towards the body and waited for a few more minutes. Sure enough, he saw five or six "sneaky" fish, taking advantage of the rugged area at the bottom of the lake. The uneven terrain provided cover for swimming.

"Sneaky" is not the right word to describe fish, but those fish are indeed deliberately hiding themselves. They did not find Shad higher up, but quickly swam around the corpse of the ghoul, and then started eating. Although rotten fish like to follow the water ghost and eat the food residue of the water ghost, they will also feed on the water ghost itself.

This can be regarded as a very wonderful ecological chain.

Even under the surface, you can handle a few fish without any surprises. Shade waited until they started eating before catching them, and entertained himself in his mind, wondering if Mia, who now had slight supernatural power, would like to eat this kind of fish.

However, this time he did not use the "Light of Confinement", but used non-offensive sin chains, which penetrated the abdomens of the fish one after another, stringing them all together, so that Shade did not need to reach out to catch them.