The Dean Has Arrived

It has been three days since Xi Wei and the others arrived and temporarily stayed in the Arc Light Tribe.

Including the time it took to start from Edric College, there are more than ninety-six hours before the release of the [Investigation of the Anomaly in the Ancient Forest] mission, and the remaining time for the mission is less than seventy-two hours.

But Xi Wei still had no clue about the reason for the crystallization of the forest area.

At present, the crystallized forest area of ​​the ancient forest sea accounts for about one-fifth of the total area, and many forest elf tribes have even been forced to relocate their families and leave their homes that have survived for hundreds of years.

"In short, integrate the elements we have now."

Xi Wei and the others are now in a small tree house on the branches of the moon tree. This is also the residence of the current Great Elder of the Arclight Tribe.

Elves do not have the same class concept as humans, and even the home of the Great Elder is no different from ordinary elves.

The house is grown through the guidance of natural magic, including beds, tables and chairs, etc. are all grown directly from the floor. Except for some hand-woven handicrafts, there are almost no decorations. Even the bed sheets are made of palm-sized leaves. Only the quilt is a hand-woven blanket produced by humans.

Although the furnishings are very simple, elves are the creatures closest to nature after all. The small tree house is full of natural aesthetics. It is no wonder that many nobles are proud of the artworks made by elves in their homes-the fact In fact, this is also the most traded thing between elves and human business associations who are unwilling to excessively harm nature.

"Although you said so, in fact, you didn't find any clues..."

Fleur sighed. After two days of searching for nothing, the knight commander from the Pure White Holy See even moved out the magic of detecting heresy in a large area of ​​the Church's Heresy Inquisition, but unfortunately, nothing was found.

"All the crystallized areas have no evil fluctuations at all... let alone abyssal demons or vampires, even monsters that only carry a little dark magic power. This time it is really impossible to attack."

Not to mention Fleur, even Winter was a little discouraged.

Because of the crystallization, the ecological circle that had been stabilized in the forest for countless years was completely disrupted, and many lord-level monsters that had been crystallized in the territory they delineated had to fight each other and divide new territories. This kind of battle has caused the entire ancient forest to be in turmoil. Up to now, there have been nearly three unlucky elf tribes, and nearly a hundred people have been affected by the battle of those monsters, and have suffered injuries of various sizes. Two of the moon trees, which were regarded as sacred trees, were destroyed as a result.

For this reason, the current elders of the forest elves can only come forward and run around in the forest, trying their best to maintain the emotions and safety of the elves. Elder Winter, as the original elf's spokesperson, and having known Xi Wei and the others for the longest time, was able to stay here. He was responsible for communicating with Xi Wei and the others to find the cause of the mutation, and at the same time protect the safety of the Arclight Tribe.

"Crystalization is still spreading, and new crystallization points are constantly appearing...If this continues, if it really doesn't work, our elves can only leave here and move to other forests."

Compared with the first time I saw him, now Wen Te looks a lot haggard, his eye sockets are a little sunken, and the faint dark circles also show his presence on his fair face. In his originally smooth and shiny green long hair There is even a dazzling silvery white in it.

"No, there is still a clue. Although it may not be very useful."

Xi Wei took a piece of parchment, took out a quill pen from the ink bottle by the table, and stroked the tip of the pen on the mouth of the bottle—except for the blanket, these were the only man-made objects in this room, even the ink It is said that they are all replaced by the fruit juice of a plant - and then the outline of the ancient forest is drawn on the parchment.

"First of all, if you look down from a high altitude, it is obvious that all the crystallization regions occur around one point. Of course, we have already seen that point, and there is nothing special to discover."

He drew a not-so-standard circle on the upper left of that outline, and then wrote some notes in the center of the circle. Judging from the map alone, the center of the circle is actually quite close to the Arclight Tribe.

"The crystallization effect will only take effect on plants. Except for the forest elves, there are no other animal crystal images in the crystallization area. In addition, Miss Fleur and I stayed in the crystallization forest area for a long time The time even exceeded the 'safe time' given by you before, but the crystallization effect did not occur, so I think the crystallization should only affect plants."

Xi Wei glanced at Wen Te and found that he did not express any displeasure, so he continued.

After all, the forest elves were originally born on the moon tree, maybe because of this, the crystallization effect will judge the forest elves as plants...

"The first... and the last point. The crystallization itself is not formed for the forest area."

After Xi Wei finished speaking, Fleur and Winter's eyes showed curiosity. If they were able to perceive the first two points through three days of observation, then the... completely puzzled them.

Xi Wei also didn't have the bad habit of tantalizing people. He showed Winter an apologetic expression: "I'm sorry Winter, I secretly conducted an experiment on the forest when you weren't paying attention."

"What experiment?" Wen Te frowned, and didn't directly say whether to forgive or not, but asked directly. It seemed that he didn't mean to pretend at all. If Xi Wei's experiment was harmful to the forest, maybe he would directly Flip.

The uprightness of the elves is fully reflected in this point.

"I dug up a piece of crystallized forest area, including the crystallization and the ground."

Now that he had said it, Xi Wei didn't intend to hide it, and said openly: "A large pit with a diameter of about 20 meters and a depth of nearly ten meters was dug out."

The expression on Winter's face softened a little. If it's only to this extent, after filling the pit, the ecological balance of that forest area can be adjusted back with natural magic.

"But this kind of thing is useless, isn't it? The elder ordered people to try to destroy the upper layer of crystals, but then the crystals grew back at a faster speed, and even once caused damage to the elves who went to destroy the crystals. .”

He explained to Xi Wei.

While writing and drawing on the parchment, Xi Wei continued, "I've confirmed what you said to Sylph and the others. But do you know what happened after I dug a hole? "

Winter and Fleur glanced at each other, and they both saw confusion in each other's eyes.

So they shook their heads together.

"The crystallization blocked the pit. But it didn't fill up the entire pit, it just covered the pit with a layer like a pot lid."

Xi Wei explained calmly.

He stopped writing, rubbed his chin with his left hand, as if he was thinking about something, and then he continued: "If crystallization is regarded as the result of someone deliberately doing it, then from this point of view, his motive is not It is to destroy the forest area—otherwise he would not need to bother with the area that I dug out, and just cover other forest areas. This is the first thing I said..., 'The crystallization itself is not aimed at the formation of the forest area '."

"...In this way, I always feel that it is even more strange. If there is really the mastermind behind the scenes that Mr. Edric you mentioned, then what is his purpose?"

The wrinkles on Winter's forehead increased a little, which made him look a little older.

"If you use crystals as spell-casting materials, and cover all the places where line runes must be drawn with crystals... Could it be called a magic circle?"

Unlike the forest elves who only admire their own spellcasting, as a member of the church, Fleur, who has received all kinds of magic education and witnessed many evil rituals of cultists, immediately thought of other places.

"I thought so too at first..."

Xi Wei smiled wryly and picked up the masterpiece he had drawn for a long time so that Fleur and Winter could see it.

On the parchment, the circle that Xi Wei transformed was densely dotted with many dots. It's like pointing a shotgun at the bull's-eye and firing more than a dozen shots in a row. Although the main body can barely be seen to be a circle, but because the craters are densely packed and randomly distributed, there is no trace of any pattern at all.

"I can't find anything that can be regarded as a magic pattern or a rune in these points... Whether it is the Luna rune, the Homladugu French, the Erich's divine words, or the human beings that have not yet I can't find a correct number for the dragon language incantations that can be fully interpreted, which can be regarded as the tattoos of the conditions for casting the spell."

Xi Wei shrugged and explained to Fleur.

So the Holy Silver Sword Girl of the Pure White Church could only let out a long sigh, and fell back on the chair.

At this time, an elf knocked on the door.

In fact, the door was not closed, and the other party did this only because they were afraid of disturbing Xi Wei and the others who were discussing inside - from the point of view of understanding human etiquette, that should also be the endorsement of elves.

"Excuse me." Wen Te stood up, bowed to Xi Wei and the others, and walked towards the door.

Then there was a burst of elf language coming from the door. It seemed that the other party didn't want Xi Wei and the others to know what they were talking about.

Because the elves can't lie, they often suffered from the initial communication with humans. It wasn't until the rise of the elf endorsement position that they regained a little bit of the initiative. At the same time, from that time on, ordinary elves no longer communicate with humans or other creatures, and all external communication is handled by elves who have learned foreign languages.

Until today, hundreds of years later, no other race can speak Elvish except elves.

Even the languages ​​of forest elves, prairie elves, and drow who are elves are very different—for details, please refer to Mandarin and Cantonese...

But there was one thing they didn't expect.

Because of the system, Xi Wei, who has LV5 linguistics, can actually understand Elven language, but he has never shown it, and he has no intention of showing it. If he really wants to say it, he can even speak it better than many The young elves are still smooth...

It was precisely because of this that those elves who were used to being unable to understand their words would talk about all kinds of things in front of them without any restraint, allowing Xi Wei to inquire about a lot of gossip about the elves.

"Elder, the child you brought back from the mutation zone is not from our tribe."

Under the power of the master system, Xi Wei eavesdropped on the conversation at the door very disrespectfully.

"We suspect he is a naturalist."

He also knew about the child Xi Wei brought back from the mutation zone that the visitor said. This started three days ago, when Xi Wei and the others went to the crystallization forest for the first time.

——Three days ago——

"Is this the mutation-affected area..."

After stepping on the ground made up of crystals, Xi Wei's first thought was, "This thing might be sold as a handicraft and brought back to the nobles for a good price." '

Unlike when looking down from the sky, this crystallized forest looks surprisingly good when viewed up close.

Whether tall trees or low shrubs, all vegetation becomes translucent crystallization. The sunlight pours down after being scattered and refracted countless times by the canopy crystals. Unlike those dark forest areas, it is not only exceptionally bright, but also because of the prism effect, you can even see rainbow-shaped spots in many places.

If it weren't for this threat to the natural ecology, this place can definitely be called a superb view!

Tio seemed to like the way it was here, and ran around as soon as he came here. In addition to being a little softer when getting along with Xi Wei, the unchanging expression on his small face seemed to be much more relaxed. The girl has a sense of liveliness unique to her age.

"Whether it's a bird or an insect, there's not even a living thing here."

Wen Te looked around the silent and terrifying crystallized forest area, and his face didn't look very good.

"It seems that there is no way to take these crystals away." Xi Wei broke off a crystalline leaf casually, and saw that translucent leaf melted quickly in his hands like an ice cube: "What a pity."

"After the monsters crystallized here, they should have carried out a large migration."

Fleur gestured on the ground: "There are many traces of large creatures moving here."

"Little animals can't leave marks on such a hard thing."

Xi Wei shrugged irresolutely, and then shouted at Tio, who had only a small back: "Tio, don't run too far, this is also considered a dangerous zone!"

"Xi Wei!" Just as Xi Wei finished speaking, Tio's panicked voice rang out, "This way!"

Xi Wei immediately left Fleur and Winter behind, and rushed towards where Tio was without thinking.

"Tio!"

But what was strange was that Tio stood there perfectly.

The girl squatted on the ground, holding a fainted child about her age in her arms.

Although the child looked like a little girl, judging from his pointed ears and long green hair tied into a ponytail with thin vines, it should be an elf.

"It's a young elf, I don't know which tribe ran out of the little guy."

Afterwards, Wen Te looked at the child in Tio's arms and said.

"What's wrong with him? Is it a symptom caused by staying here for too long?"

Fleur, who arrived almost at the same time as Winter, also looked at the young elf curiously.

"Anyway, it's better to take him out of here first."

Xi Wei reached out to Tio and took the unconscious elf.

And their first exploration to the mutation zone ended hastily like this.

The little elf woke up within a day after being guarded by the Arclight tribe. It's just that he doesn't know if it's because of the mutation, he doesn't seem to have any previous memory. And the reason why he fainted, according to Wen Te after asking the guardian elf, was just because he was too hungry...

Anyway, the elf healed quickly, and for some reason he seemed to enjoy being with Theo.

Although the two little guys don't understand the language, they still play together very emotionally. This situation is hard to see in Tio.

Xi Wei reminded himself several times in his heart that elves have no gender, so he could suppress the loneliness of that stupid father who 'sees that his precious daughter has a boyfriend and won't cling to him'...

In addition, Xi Wei also secretly observed the elf for a long time, and after confirming that the elf was not suspicious, he was relieved to let Tiou play with him. After all, judging from the observation results, although the magic power of the other party is a bit strange, the young elf named Ike is at most at the magic level of a senior novice magician, and it seems that he has no combat experience. Europe's opponent.

"No wonder I always feel that his magic power is very strange. Is it the original religion of nature..."

It wasn't until today that Xi Wei solved a question in his heart when he heard the conversation between Wen Te and the strange elf.

Just like humans are divided into the Mage Association and the Pure White Church, the elves are not monolithic. Even if you put aside the grassland elves who brought the moon tree species out of the forest and the drow who directly turned their back on the quiet moon, besides the orthodox believers of the quiet moon, among the forest elves, there is also a religious organization similar to fanatics, the "Moon God" Jingting', the devout church 'Natural Primitive', and some loose and unorganized general believers...

Among them, the original religion of nature not only believes in the quiet moon, but also regards the whole nature as one, and lists it as a deity that exists on the same level as the quiet moon.

Unlike ordinary forest elves, they have spent their entire lives protecting nature and doing everything they can to prevent it from being harmed at all. They will not use any human-processed things, and all the objects on their bodies are directly made from natural things. On the contrary, they hate human beings who take too much of nature. Out of every ten incidents of forest elves harming human beings, at least eight are caused by them.

As the power gained after believing in nature, they can communicate with animals and plants in nature better than ordinary elves, and even after obtaining some unknown permission, they can transform into animals with various characteristics... …

Yes, among humans, these crazy guys have another name.

druid. (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, novels are better and updated faster!)