Sixth Ring Wizard

Chapter 76 Valley Town

Herag glanced at the location Robert was pointing to; it was right at the mouth of the valley, the entrance to the One-Line Sky Canyon.

"Why did they die?" Herag pondered this question, not rushing inside.

The squirrel's chirping had bothered him; animals are generally very perceptive, and that was a warning sound.

Of course, it's also possible that they saw themselves, as outsiders, warning their companions.

"Deep Blue, check the surroundings for anything unusual." Just to be on the safe side, Herag had Deep Blue thoroughly check the surroundings.

No abnormalities were found.

"No flow of magic detected."

No traces of magic were found.

……

Herag carefully examined Deep Blue's test results; everything seemed normal.

He glanced at the valley and stepped inside.

There was nothing unusual, and nothing happened.

Herag closed his eyes and sensed that the free energy particles around him were normal, without any special fluctuations or flows.

The light in the narrow passage was rather dim, and the mountain walls along the roadside were somewhat damp, with water flowing down the walls in some places.

Following the mountain path, Helag quickly passed through the narrow canyon area, where a breathtaking view suddenly opened up before him.

A small town sits on a distant hillside, with wooden houses nestled quietly in the mountains, and occasionally a passerby can be seen walking by.

At the entrance to the town was a small tavern. When Herag went in, there weren't many people inside; there were only three people in total, divided into two tables, with butterbeer on the tables.

As soon as Herag and Robert entered, the tavern, which had been filled with conversation, fell silent.

The two men sitting together in the tavern looked like hunters, while the man sitting alone looked like a blacksmith.

The two hunters noticed that Herag and Robert frowned, seemingly wary of them.

The two men picked up their glasses, tilted their heads back, and downed the butterbeer in one gulp before leaving without saying a word.

The blacksmith glanced at the two men, smiled, and then took a sip of beer.

His glass still had more than half a glass of wine in it, and it seemed he wasn't planning to leave anytime soon.

Herag walked over and said with a smile, "Mind sharing a table?"

The blacksmith, a bearded middle-aged man, chuckled and said, "Of course not. You're unfamiliar faces; is there anything I can help you with?"

Heragra pulled up a chair and sat down, saying to the bartender, "Two butterbeers, please."

After placing his order, he turned to the blacksmith and said, "I'll get straight to the point. I wanted to ask if you know if someone died on the mountain road outside two months ago."

"Two months ago?" The blacksmith stroked his beard, thinking. "No, this is a small place. If someone died, we locals would definitely know, but I've never heard of it."

He took a sip of beer and continued, "It's always been very peaceful here, and murders are rare. There aren't many people here, and social relationships are very simple. As far as I know, there are very few life-or-death feuds."

The beer Helag ordered was quickly delivered, two large glasses full.

He wasn't used to this at first, but he got used to it after drinking a lot of it, mainly because there were too few choices.

After taking a sip of his drink, Hrag said, "Well, we just heard about it, so we came to ask."

The blacksmith suddenly realized, "I see. The message must have been misrepresented. You know, some things always stray further and further from the truth as they travel."

"Okay, let's ask around somewhere else later," Herag nodded.

The blacksmith continued, "You're from the Stormwind Investigation Team, right? You heard there was a murder here and came to investigate. You're probably going to make a wasted trip. I've been here for so many years, there's no way I wouldn't know about a murder."

"An investigation team? Stormwind City doesn't have that organization anymore. Now the Adventurers' Guild is responsible for these things in the surrounding area," Robert interjected.

The blacksmith asked in confusion, "The Adventurers' Guild? Looks like I'm out of touch, hahaha."

He laughed and took another big gulp of beer, letting out a long, satisfying sigh.

After chatting with the blacksmith for a while, Herag didn't get any more valuable information, so he paid for his drinks and got up to leave the tavern.

"Thank you!" the blacksmith said from behind, and Herag paid for his share of the drink as well.

Herag pushed open the tavern door and found that it was already dark outside.

There are no streetlights in this area, so apart from a few houses in the distance that are lit up, the road is completely dark.

"Robert, have we been inside this long? If I remember correctly, it was only afternoon when we came in." Herag sensed that something was wrong.

There was no response from behind him for a while. When he turned around, Robert, who had come out with him, was gone.

Herag turned and went back into the tavern. The lights were still on, and the butterbeer on the table was still there, bubbling.

However, there was no one left in the tavern.

The blacksmith is gone, and so is the tavern owner.

Herag looked at the surrounding environment reflected by Deep Blue. The entire tavern was deserted, quiet and without a sound.

Herag picked up the glass of butterbeer and found nothing unusual. The butterbeer was perfectly normal, with nothing strange about it.

Herag took a deep breath and walked out of the tavern.

The houses in the distance still had lights on, and you could see shadowy figures behind the windows.

He walked in the dark toward a house, which seemed to have more than one person inside.

As Herag walked to the door, he could faintly hear voices inside, including a woman's laughter, as if an elderly couple were having a late-night chat.

He knocked on the door, and silence fell instantly behind it, a deathly stillness.

No one asked him anything, and no one opened the door.

Herag's knocking seemed to press the freeze button on the world; the people inside the house were frozen in place, making no sound.

After a while, a dull dragging sound came from behind the door, along with the screeching sound of something hard scraping across the ground.

boom!

A dull thud suddenly came, and Hrag listened carefully; it sounded like an axe hitting flesh.

boom!

boom!

……

The rhythmic sound of the axe swinging, neither too fast nor too slow, reminded Hrag of butchers slaughtering cattle and sheep.

boom!

The door suddenly began to shake, as if something behind it was violently pounding against it.

boom! boom! boom!

The whole house began to shake, and the thing behind the door obviously increased its pounding speed, as if it was eager to break down the door and rush out.

The door was of exceptionally high quality; the entire house was shaking from the impact, yet the door remained completely still.

If it were an ordinary wooden door, it would probably be smashed to pieces in one or two hits.

Herag had a bad feeling; he sensed a strong sense of danger from behind the door.

Get away from here!

The thought came to him instinctively, and he quickened his pace to leave the room.

(End of this chapter)