Above the mage!

Chapter 244 Snowfield Hunter
Its daybreak.

In addition to the guest rooms temporarily provided to Gaode for rest.

Ona and several teachers from the church gathered here, looking solemn.

In the church, everyone got up very early, so Ona came over early to call Gaode to get up and enjoy breakfast with everyone.

Then, she discovered that Gao De had disappeared.

In the guest room, the message written by Gao De in charcoal was very conspicuous.

"He must have noticed something was wrong. He was behaving normally last night." Ona was annoyed and a little bit incredulous.

She thought she had performed flawlessly from beginning to end.

"Outsiders are like this. They have a lot of thoughts and are good at pretending." An elderly instructor comforted Ona.

"What should we do now?" Ona asked. "The headquarters sent a message saying that the guardian Baruch is very likely to have abandoned the doctrine and kill for his own benefit. We are asked to pay attention to his whereabouts and report it immediately if we find him."

"Although this guy is not Baruch, he kept saying that he was sent by Baruch to deliver a message. He must know something about Baruch, but we let him go."

"This is not our fault. Although this outsider is young, since he dares and is able to enter the North, it shows that he is definitely not as simple as he seems. And Lord Damon is not here at the right time." said another instructor.

The main reason why they are chosen as instructors is that they are not strong enough, being merely equivalent to a first-ring wizard.

Those who are strong enough are called "Guardians".

"If we act rashly, he will resist fiercely. Even if we finally take him down, we will inevitably hurt the children by mistake."

As members of the Snowfield Guardians, even if they are unable to become guardians due to lack of strength, these instructors still adhere to the teachings.

Naturally, they are also very caring towards these orphans whom they have raised since childhood.

It is difficult for mages to directly judge each other's mage level.

It was precisely because of this that the instructors, who were unable to figure out Gao De's true strength and felt that they were not strong enough, did not take direct action.

They chose to stabilize Gaode for the time being and wait for the return of Damon's guardian before taking action to ensure success.

In addition, Gode's answer at the time was to wait for the return of Damon's guardian and personally convey the message, which also made Ona and the instructors relax their vigilance.

"The hunters sent by the headquarters are already on the way and should arrive in the next two days." Another young instructor said in a deep voice.

"It will be easy once they arrive, and we won't have to worry too much."

The task of the instructor is to teach the children and protect the branch.

As for tracking down the murderer, it is not their responsibility. Even if Gao De gets away, they will not be blamed.

As the only large-scale religious organization in the permafrost tundra, the Snowfield Guardians, like other religious sects, have a complete organizational system.

Not only perfect, but also powerful.

No one knows who founded the Guardians of the Snowfields. In short, in the memory of most northerners, this sect has existed since a long time ago, and its doctrine has always been to protect the snowfields.

As a religious sect, in addition to the "guardians" who represent the sect's doctrines, it naturally also has violent organs to deter other forces.

Otherwise, the Snowfield Guardians would not have been able to occupy many good territories with food resources and establish branches to shelter orphans.

The people of the North have a simple side, but they also have an extremely tough and barbaric side.

For the sake of food, the people of the North are absolutely able to throw away their simple side.

This violent device used to intimidate others is called "Hunter" among the Snowfield Guardians.

Hunters and Guardians are the two most important groups of "Snowfield Guardians".

The guardians fight on their own, spreading the teachings on the snowfield and doing their job to protect it.

Hunters, on the other hand, stay in the sect most of the time and perform various tasks according to the sect's needs.

"By the time the hunters arrive, this stranger will have been gone for a long time. Will they still be able to find him?" Ona hesitated and couldn't help asking.

"Tracking prey is the hunter's strong point." Compared to Ona's doubt, the instructor was very confident in the church's hunters and said confidently: "As long as he has been here and left traces and scents, let alone just one or two days away, even if he has been gone for one or two months, the hunters will be able to find him."

Just one day later.

The two hunters sent by the Snowfield Guardians appeared outside the gate of this branch.

Ona, who came out to greet them, saw that one of the two hunters was wearing a bronze mask on his face, and she subconsciously shuddered all over.

The bronze mask represents a very high status among hunters.

This status may come from strong strength, noble status or great potential.

Either way, it was enough to make her, a person who was equivalent to the manager of the branch, show absolute awe.

The two hunters waved their hands, indicating that Ona did not need to be polite.

"I received news that you have news about the guardian Baruch?" The masked hunter spoke. What surprised Ona was that from the voice, this hunter was actually a woman.

However, whether it was a man or a woman, it did not affect Ona's awe of him. She quickly replied, "Indeed, just the other day, a stranger came to us, claiming to be entrusted by Baruch to deliver important news to the guardian of Damon."

"Stranger?" Another male hunter who was not wearing a mask narrowed his eyes slightly and repeated it to confirm.

"Yes, he is a foreigner. His appearance is very different from the people in the North, and his Ace language is very awkward. It is obvious that he has just learned it." Ona nodded in affirmation.

She was certain of this.

"It seems that the news about Baruch abandoning the doctrine may be true. He has been involved with these despicable and shady outsiders. It is very likely that he has been influenced by them." The male hunter whispered to the female hunter wearing a bronze mask beside him.

It can be seen that the male hunters are extremely prejudiced against outsiders.

"Don't jump to conclusions. Seeing is believing. If we wrongly accuse the guardians, how can we be worthy of their dedication to the snowfield?" Compared to the male hunter, the female hunter seems much more objective.

"Where are they now?" the female hunter asked again.

"Run away." Ona looked a little embarrassed.

"Run away?" The male hunter frowned, but he didn't vent his anger on Ona. "What happened exactly?"

"You two, follow me." Ona gestured, leading the two to the guest room where Gode had stayed temporarily, and at the same time, she made a brief introduction to the previous situation.

".The stranger seemed to have discovered something. Anyway, he said that he would wait for the return of Damon's guardian and personally deliver the news. Since he said so, we didn't think much about it and felt that we had him under control."

"The next morning, when I went to wake him up for dinner, no one answered. When I went in, the room was empty."

"Then, we found some traces in the corner of the wall near his guest room. He must have climbed over the wall and left when everyone was asleep at night."

Before they knew it, Ona had brought the two hunters to the outside of the temporary guest room.

When you open the door, the first thing that catches your eye is a line of conspicuous large words written in charcoal on the floor.

"What is this?" the male hunter frowned and asked again. "It was left by the stranger." Ona replied.

Gaode had just started learning Ace language and was still at the level of being able to speak it with ease, so he used Common language characters instead of Ace language to leave messages.

However, as a mage, the ability of [Language Proficiency] not only allows the mage to understand other languages, but also allows the mage to understand the literal meaning of written words by touching them.

So, the next moment, the male hunter squatted down and gently touched the line of big words with his hand.

Soon, he understood the meaning of the big words left by Gao De.

The male hunter stood up, walked to the female hunter and whispered:

"Some members of the Snowfield Guardians practice forbidden necromancy and manipulate the beast tide to attack the northern tribes in order to practice necromancy themselves."

"Catherine, these are the words left by the stranger."

"A guardian practices forbidden necromancy?" The female hunter called Catherine thought for a moment and asked, "Loychi, what do you think?"

"Although these strangers are despicable and shameless, this stranger came to my house specially, saying that he was entrusted by Baruch to deliver a message, and it seems that this is what he wanted to deliver.
I can't think of the purpose of his making up such a false news for the time being, maybe it is true?" The male hunter named Loychi thought for a while and answered cautiously.

"But according to the information reported by other guardians, this Baruch is very likely to have betrayed the doctrine. Could it be that the villain made the first complaint in order to confuse the public? In fact, the guardian who practiced forbidden necromancy and triggered the beast tide to slaughter the northern tribes was himself?" Catherine also put forward her own guess.

"That's not impossible." Loichi nodded in agreement.

"What exactly happened? Once we find Baruch, we'll know the truth."

"As a guardian, Baruch roams around the snowfield and his whereabouts are elusive. It is not easy to find him. Since this stranger said he was entrusted by Baruch, he should know Baruch's whereabouts. Let's find him first."

After saying that, Loichi turned to look at Ona beside him and asked, "What does that guy look like?"

"That guy is a foreigner, very young, probably about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a handsome appearance." Ona described Gao De's appearance in detail based on her memory.

After all, Goder had only been gone for a day, so Ona's memory was still very clear.

Loichi took out a piece of animal skin from his arms and continued to paint on the skin according to Ona's description.

Soon, a clear portrait appeared on the paper.

"Is this what he looks like?" Loichi showed the portrait to Ona.

Aona took a serious look, then nodded vigorously and said, "Yes, it's him!"

"Okay." Loichi nodded with satisfaction. After showing the portrait to Catherine again, he rolled up the animal skin and put it back in his arms.

"Have you got his scent?" Catherine asked.

Luo Yiqi sniffed and said confidently, "We have already identified this guy as a foreigner. Foreigners have a completely different diet from us, so the smell on their bodies is also completely different from us northerners. It is not a strong smell, but a fresh plant smell."

"Such a distinct smell, and it's on a snowy plain where few people have ever been. It's too easy to track it down!"

As a "hunter" who is the guardian of the snowfield, the practice he practices is the most common [wilderness secrets] among the "hunters" in the church.

This practice can improve the mage's performance in the "tracking" spell, and at the same time allow the mage to gradually acquire various special abilities, including the ability of "enhanced sense of smell".

It just fits the identity of "hunter".

"Then let's go, he can't escape." Catherine said, her voice full of coldness.

Although she was not as prejudiced against outsiders as Loichi, her attitude towards them was certainly not much better.

Therefore, Catherine is now more inclined to believe that Baruch, who mingles with outsiders, has abandoned the doctrine.

As for the line of words left by Gao De, although they didn't completely deny it, they certainly still didn't quite believe it in their hearts.

The cold wind blew across the rolling white snow hills.

The sound of the cold wind howling continued.

But if you stay on the snowfield for a long time, this sound will gradually be automatically filtered out by your ears and brain.

And Gaode has already begun to get used to these sounds.

After filtering out the sound of the wind, the empty snowfield seemed a little too quiet.

to afternoon.

The sun, which does not bring much warmth, hangs high in the sky.

Below, there was a huge blue lizard that stuck its head into the thick snow, looking for some rare snow plants hidden beneath the snow.

It is also a common one-ring ground vein creature on the snowfield, called the Dragon Tongue Blue Lizard.

Of course, their number is definitely far less than that of the "snow wolf" known as the overlord of the snowfield.

But the rank is there after all, which means that they are destined to be not someone to be easily messed with.

at this time.

Gode ​​suddenly popped up from a nearby snow hill, and then slid down at an extremely exaggerated speed.

The original tranquility was broken in an instant.

The dragon-tongue blue lizard reacted very quickly. The moment Gaode appeared, it noticed the unusual movement from the slight vibration coming from the surface.

It quickly poked its head out from under the snow, glanced around with a vigilant look, then showed its long tongue to the "galloping" Gode, and then charged towards Gode.

The moment the dragon-tongue blue lizard rushed over, magical power surged in Gaode's hands.

The next moment, he had pointed his finger at the rapidly approaching blue lizard.

Then, some key information emerged from Gaode's mind:

Ice resistance. Extremely high physical resistance. Weakly defended parts are the head (eyes), abdomen, tail, and limbs.
【Defeat the enemy first】!
Reach out your hand and point your finger at a creature within range, using your magic to instantly see through the target's defenses.

Gaode, who knew the specific weakness of the Dragon Tongue Blue Lizard, had already cast the next spell.

A small acid ball containing corrosive power instantly flew out from his fingertips and flew straight towards the dragon tongue blue lizard.

[Acid Splash+]!
The aim is to utilize the full coverage feature of [Acid Splash] to fully cover all vulnerable parts of the Dragon Tongue Blue Lizard.

The blue lizard seemed to be aware of the impending threat, but it did not stop charging.

At the moment when the small acid ball was about to touch it, it suddenly opened its mouth and stuck out its tongue.

A blue cold breath was spewed out from it, directly covering the small acid ball.

The small acid ball made of acid was actually frozen directly under the influence of this cold breath, turning into a green ice ball and falling onto the snow surface.

(End of this chapter)