Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao Ji and Millenton came to the gate of the farm. Under the leadership of Millenton, they squeezed away the farmers crowded at the gate and walked around the fence of the farm.

Mr. Weiss saw the two people coming out, and ran over in small steps: "What's the matter, Keir?"

"I looked at the situation in the bullpen and found something. Now, I have to look at the fence outside the bullpen."

Mr. Weiss followed up: "It's just right, I will go with you."

Millenton was a little unhappy, but it was not easy to refuse. It doesn't matter to Zhao Ji, after all, Mr. Weiss is his client, so he can follow if he wants to.

The fences of the farm are made of the thickest logs in the forest farm in the north of Kendal County, and each log is the kind of thickness that cannot be hugged by a person's arms. These logs are closely arranged together, and the thinner logs are stuck horizontally in the grooves dug in advance by the vertical logs.

Zhao Ji could see that when the fence was built, the people who built it paid attention to it. After decades, only some small gaps were exposed on the wall. While advancing around the wall, Zhao Ji carefully observed the situation of the wall. The fences over two meters in height are in good condition, and the small gaps have been repaired in time. Zhao Ji estimates that the height above two meters is the approximate height of the farmers living inside the fences. The farmers inside can find small cracks on the walls in their daily life at any time, and then repair them in time.

And no one paid much attention to the fence of the cowshed, so the unknown monsters outside the wall would sneak into the cowshed through the gaps and feast on the flesh and blood of the cattle.

Dry moss can often be seen on the wall two meters below. Zhao Ji asked curiously: "Mr. Weiss, I saw some moss on your wall from here down. I'm a little curious, isn't the moss Does it only grow in damp places, why, can moss grow as high as your farm fence?"

Millenton looked at Zhao Ji with some doubts, and Mr. Weiss also looked at Zhao Ji with some doubts.

Zhao Ji scratched his head, why, did he ask a stupid question.

Mr. Weiss thought about it, and still felt that it was a bit stupid for Keir to ask this. After all, everyone in Kendall knew what was going on, and it seemed that Keir had no common sense to ask. But after all, this young man is helping him solve his troubles now, so let's answer him.

"This is the moss that grows during the annual flood. When the flood occurs every spring, the flood will rise to this place. You see, it is this height." Mr. Weiss gestured to the highest moss growing on the fence.

"Of course, the scale of the floods varies from year to year. In recent years, the floods have become smaller. I heard that the lord did something upstream."

Zhao Ji nodded: "Thank you, I'm not from Kendall, so I don't know much about these things."

"No wonder, it's all right. Keel, did you find anything? It's inside the cowshed, you know. The scene inside is so horrible that none of us dare to look carefully. Can you ask to go outside the fence, yes Didn't you find something?" Mr. Weiss said anxiously.

Just in time, Millenton stopped and told Zhao Ji that the place where they were staying was the wall outside the bullpen.

Zhao Ji felt that Millenton seemed reluctant to talk when Mr. Weiss was around.

But, never mind him, don't do his business.

Zhao Ji didn't look around first, but answered Mr. Weiss's question first, after all, he was his client. It is normal for the client to understand the resolution process of the matter.

"Yes, Mr. Weiss. If you ignore the swarms of flies around the cow and the small maggots on its body, I did find some information." Zhao Ji looked at Mr. Weiss and said.

"Quick, quick, what have you found?"

Zhao Ji rubbed his chin, sorted out his findings and said: "First,

As we have come here, one of my discoveries is about here. I made it clear that the monster that killed the cattle got into the cowshed through the wall here. "

Mr. Weiss frowned, "How is it possible? This kind of thing has never happened in my farm! You see, such a strong fence, even if it is bumped by a herd of cattle, it will not make it shake. How could it be destroyed? The monster got in. Impossible." As he spoke, he also clenched his fist and slammed the wall hard, and the wall made a thud, thud, thump sound, and Mr. Weiss also held his hands to hold on to stop the pain.

Millenton also nodded, and he also felt that it was impossible to come in through the wall. He himself tended to be drilled by monsters when the cattle were working in the field, and he killed the cattle in the dead of night. After all, after the recent harvest, the oxen are taking turns to plow the fields.

Zhao Ji rolled his eyes, thinking it was funny when people were strong on their own. He lowered his head and carefully observed and searched for a while where the two erected logs of the wall meet, then pointed to a place and said to the two, "Aha, look what I found? You two, please look Take a look here, of course, and hope not to spoil this place."

Both Mr. Weiss and Millenton leaned their heads toward it. At the place where Zhao Ji pointed, if you look carefully, there is a hole about the thickness of your thumb, with some light yellow mucus on the hole, and some small pieces of wood scattered on the ground below the hole.

Needless to say, it must have been done by a monster.

Mr. Weiss's face was a bit ugly, and he muttered in his mouth something like asking his housekeeper, Pa Kelun, to look good. And Millenton was worried about whether there were similar small holes on the outer walls of other farm houses, especially those with careless wives.

Seeing the ugly faces of both of them, Zhao Ji comforted them and said, "Don't worry, both of you. Although I don't know how the fences of various farms are, at least you have never heard of them. Where are they?" Has the kind of thing that is happening in your farm happened in your farm? This kind of monster should rarely appear, at least judging from your situation, it is the first time it has appeared around Kendall City. We only need to find this kind of monster It shouldn't be difficult to deal with it after figuring out its appearance and attack methods. After all, compared with us humans, farm cattle can't speak, so it's easier for monsters to attack."

"Well, at least I will tell my other farmers about this situation, and I believe they will take precautions?" Mr. Weiss said.

"When the monster is solved, I will take the guys to check the wall carefully. Every gap in the wall will be carefully checked." Millenton also said.

"Very well, those things after that are your own business, and have nothing to do with me. Now, let me take a closer look and see if I can find anything."

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Zhao Ji first looked into the hole that the monster got into. Soon, he regretted it.

From this hole, you can vaguely see the inside of the cowshed. Of course, you can also see the horrible and disgusting farm cattle inside. Although you only saw a small part, Zhao Ji immediately recalled what happened in the cowshed just now. scene.

Resisting the feeling of vomiting again, Zhao Ji found a grass branch and dipped a little of the light yellow slime left by the monster.

Interestingly, it has been a few days since the incident happened, and the slime left by the monster still hasn't dried up into a pool of stains, and has always maintained moisture. And through these, Zhao Ji noticed and recalled that the internal organs of the farm cattle killed by the monster were exposed to the air, and after a few days, they still maintained a sense of moisture, and did not lose their moisture, dry up and crack.

It seems that the monster's yellowish slime or something has the ability to keep it moist. Zhao Ji moved a little further away from the hole, and smelled the light yellow slime on the grass branches.

There is a faint fishy smell, nothing else.

A little disappointed, Zhao Ji left the grass branch, and came to the hole again, carefully observed the slime traces left by the monster, and searched for the place where the monster came from.

Fortunately, except for the gate of the farm, no one should usually pass by other places. Zhao Ji easily followed the direction of the monster with the faint mucus.

Mr. Weiss and Millenton did not dare to disturb Keir, so they kept quiet and followed not far behind Keir.

Following the trail of mucus, Zhao Ji followed the hole in the wall to the field outside the farm. Because the field had been harvested, all three of them stepped down on the field.

Not long after Zhao Ji entered the field, he followed the trail of light yellow mucus and found a mutilated vole. The body of the field mouse was at the edge of the field, not far from the mouth of a small field mouse burrow. Zhao Ji did not find traces of mucus at the mouth of the vole's cave, which indicated that the monster did not come out of the vole's cave.

Zhao Ji continued to follow the traces of the monster from the mutilated corpse of the field mouse. The mucus was easy to find. The monster should secrete this kind of mucus from the surface of the body non-stop. And Millenton trampled down the exit of the vole's cave. After all, farmers have always hated these animals that competed for crops.

Zhao Ji and his team followed the small amount of slime trail left by the monster on the edge of the field, all the way to an irrigation outlet not far from the edge of the field.

The fields have not been irrigated for more than a month, and the irrigation outlets of these fields are covered with mud spots that have been splashed and dried up after long-term use.

Because the irrigation water from the Kendall River has closed the diversion gate near the Kendall River, there is not much residual water in the irrigation canal near the Weiss Farm at this time.

At this time, there is only a thin residual water left in the canal. Zhao Ji estimated that it was left over from the autumn rain a few days ago, and the fine weather these two days has caused most of the water to be evaporated by the sun. .

Zhao Ji crawled along the dry mucus beside the stone irrigation ditch, and then found the last trace of the mucus at a wooden gate.

Seeing that Zhao Ji finally stopped this time, Mr. Weiss stepped forward and asked, "How is it? Keel, did you find anything?"

Zhao Ji pointed to the faint slime traces on the wooden gate and said: "Look at these places, these should be some of the earliest traces left by the monster. All the previous traces lead here and then disappeared. Well, this monster The slime should not be the type that disappears easily, so I guess it must have appeared first from here. Everyone look around to see if there is any difference around, or, any extra footprints?"

Milendon nodded in response to Zhao Ji's request, and followed Keir to search carefully near the wooden gate. He didn't know what to look for, anyway, according to the little brother Kiel, as long as it was strange.

Mr. Weiss did not follow along to search, but sat on the edge of the stone ditch, cursing in a low voice that his "housekeeper" Mr. Parklan did not manage his farm well.

Zhao Ji glanced at Mr. Weiss, and didn't say anything about it. After all, he was the client who gave the money, and he was the "adventurer" entrusted with money to solve the troubles, as it should be. If the other party is willing to reach out and join in, it is their voluntary help. If not, Zhao Ji will also look at the money and work hard to complete his task. After all, this is his first commission.

Just as Zhao Ji was carefully inspecting the slime on the wooden gate and thinking about it, Millenton, who was inspecting the water channel behind the wooden gate, called out Kiel's name loudly and asked him to come and have a look.

Zhao Ji didn't expect to make a discovery so soon, which is a good thing. He patted Mr. Weiss who was sitting next to him, and the two came to the side of Millenton who called Keel's name.

See the two come over.

Millenton pointed to the place near the wooden gate in the ditch and said, "Keil, look at that thing, in that direction, isn't that metal bottle half-sinked in the mud under the ditch a little strange?"

Zhao Ji nodded solemnly. Although he didn't go into the sewer to observe closely, he had already seen the familiar pale yellow monster slime on the mouth of the metal bottle.

"Mr. Weiss, it seems that this is really troublesome. The monster came out of this metal bottle."

"Damn it!"