This is a piece of rolling hills. Heavy snowfall for several days has coated the hills with a layer of plain silver.
Now it seems that it has a different style.
But Angel remembered that when he first arrived at the Watch Fortress, he had stood on the tower and looked over the place. It was pitch black, desolate and bleak.
This is Shadow Hill.
Through the clues given by Popota, Angel came here.
Because there is a river in Shadow Hill, if you are lucky, you will occasionally find a silver ring here. In addition, Shadow Hill is near the fortress and can be seen with the naked eye, so it is considered a safe zone. Therefore, from time to time,
There are apprentices who take advantage of their free time to come here to explore opportunities.
Just yesterday afternoon, Bobota and his two friends were wandering around Shadow Hill.
Then, they saw Toby here.
"At first, I saw it digging into the ice with its beak to catch fish on the river. Then it seemed to have no harvest, so it flew away. As for where it went, I didn't pay attention because the snow was too heavy and it was dark.
Once it blends into the sky, nothing can be seen clearly."
This is what Popota said.
Although what others saw was not real, Dusky did see Toby flying into the sky, so it can be roughly determined that Toby appeared in Shadow Hill just yesterday afternoon.
Angel immediately looked for him.
When he arrived at Shadow Hill, he saw undulating snow all over the sky, and the sky was constantly snowing. It was not easy to find traces of Toby here.
The first place he went to was what Popota said was the river where Toby fished.
In the low valley of the snow hill, a relatively spacious river was now covered with ice, and there were occasional fish baskets covered with snow on the bank, which showed that there were still many people coming to this creek.
Popota discovered that the place where Toby cut the ice was a curved river channel under the ice cliff. On the other side, there were two trees with branches intertwined like acacia.
The features were obvious, and it didn't take Angel long to confirm the location. However, after one night, even if there were holes drilled, the river had already formed a layer of ice again.
However, based on the thickness of the ice, Angel was able to confirm the place where Toby had dug the hole before.
He tried to reopen the hole. The water below was still flowing. If you listened carefully, some fish began to gather under the hole because air was flowing in from the hole.
Angel had no intention of fishing now. When he was about to leave, he found something dark that seemed to be frozen in the ice.
He opened it curiously and took out the black thing that looked like a small fan.
After licking it, there was a fishy and salty smell after being smoked.
"This smells like... the dried fish smoked by the head maid Mana?" Angel rubbed it, removed the ice on the surface, and found that it was actually a fish tail.
This is obviously Toby's thing. It is estimated that when Toby dug a hole here to fish, he also didn't forget to nibble on the dried fish.
What Angel can be sure of now is that Bobota and the others did not lie.
However, even though he found the leftover fish tail, where would Toby go?
Angel thought for a while, found a high ground, and released several exploration puppets. Metal balls with eyes flew out in all directions.
"If you can't find Toby even by detecting the puppet..." Angel whispered to himself, then he would have no choice but to ask Sanders for help.
Detection puppets are all over the Shadow Hill. In addition to its small size, it can detect many hidden places. It is much faster than Angel's exploration.
There is none on the east side and none on the west side.
The snow is getting heavier and heavier, and Angel's expression is becoming more solemn. He is now a little suspicious. Could it be that Toby was so comfortable in the abyss that he went crazy and ran away from the safe zone?
Time passed little by little, and just when Angel made up his mind to return to the fortress and seek help from Sanders, he suddenly found that an investigative puppet illuminated two shrinking figures.
They were a man and a woman, wearing apprentice robes, running down the slope of a hill, trembling.
Their faces were pale, their hair was frosty, and their lips were gradually turning blue, looking like they had been frozen out... However, Angel remembered that Shuangyue distributed wizard robes with constant temperature effects to all the apprentices who came to the front line.
He looked carefully and found that the robes of the two apprentices had obvious holes. Moreover, there were blood stains and scratches, as if they had just experienced a battle.
Judging from the expressions on their faces, they were also panicked. They turned around from time to time to confirm that there were no pursuers behind them, and then they breathed a sigh of relief.
Doubts flashed in Angel's eyes: Not to mention what they encountered to make them so panicked. What concerned him most was how did these two people appear?
The scouting puppets had flown all over the Shadow Hill before, and they didn't find these two people at all. They seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Could it be that there are any hidden passages here?
Angel thought for a while, and there was a faint light shining on his boots, and the next second he appeared in front of the two people who were still a little shocked.
The appearance of Angel immediately aroused the vigilance of the male apprentices and stood in front of the female apprentices around him.
Judging from the actions of his guards, Angel thought, these two people were probably lovers?
Angel took off his hood and revealed his face: "I just came from the fortress, and I found you."
Angel's appearance was still a little boyish, and the gentle smile on his lips made them relax their guard a little.
Seeing that they were slacking off, Angel added, "It seems like you need some help?"
Angel casually took out a fire-red bead and a broken fire-transmitting stone from his arms. He had obtained a lot of this from the fire-transmitting bone wizard in the battle at the Ash Earth Rock. Its effect was not very great.
But it is very convenient to use for heating.
Angel placed the broken Fire Stone in his hand: "I can give this to you, but I need you to answer a few questions."
The two of them looked at each other, with a hint of joy flashing in their eyes.
Both of them are intermediate apprentices. After the previous escape, not only was the wizard's robe broken, but the magic source in the body was also empty, and they could not even summon the fire element to keep warm.
Although this place is not far from the fortress, they are exhausted, and coupled with the strong wind and snow, maybe they will not die at the hands of those flying fish monsters, but will freeze to death in Shadow Hill.
Unexpectedly, when they were desperate, they met Angel.
They dare to venture into the abyss, so they naturally know the "Broken Fire Stone". Although this is useless in Angel's eyes, to them, this is at least more than a hundred magic crystals!
Now, just by answering a few questions, you can get this item that can keep you warm and sell for a good price. How could they not agree?
They nodded without hesitation.
…
After a while, Angel's eyes lit up. Not only did he get the information he wanted, he might even get news about Toby, so he threw the broken fire stone in his hand without hesitation.
The pretty female apprentice stretched out her hand to take it, but as soon as she stretched out her hand, she staggered for some reason, and the fiery red ball fell into the male apprentice's hand.
After the male apprentice got it, he immediately looked at the female apprentice with a worried expression: "Is it okay? Be careful, there may be gravel in the snow."
As he spoke, he helped the female apprentice up, and at the same time muttered: "Put the fire-transmitting stone here with me first. I am very angry, so just lean on me and light it."
The female apprentice wanted to say something else, but the male apprentice interrupted her forcefully, and then bowed to Angel, "Thank you for your kind gift, sir. We will go back to the fortress first."
After that, he took the crimson-faced female apprentice in his arms and walked towards the direction of the fortress.
Angel turned around, squinted his eyes, looked at the two figures who were gradually disappearing in the wind and snow, and clicked his tongue twice.
The reason why the female apprentice stumbled earlier was clearly caused by the male apprentice. Angel not only grabbed the broken Fire Stone, but also took advantage of the opportunity to hug the female apprentice, which was not a loss at all.
eat.
The male apprentice's whisper to the female apprentice seemed to still linger in the wind: "This thing is quite expensive. When I get back, I will sell it and give you half of the magic crystal..."
Will the male apprentice really distribute the magic crystals he sells?
Angel didn't know the answer, but judging from the male apprentice's glowing eyes after seeing the Fire Stone, it must be... difficult.
Before, the male apprentice seemed to be sincere in protecting the female apprentice, but he didn't expect that he would betray him so quickly.
Angel shook his head and stopped thinking about other people's affairs. Instead, his eyes flashed brightly as he walked towards the top of the hill.
Just now, Angel learned some secrets about Shadow Hill from their mouths.
Speaking of which, it is not considered a secret of true knowledge, but only very few people know about it, and the scope of its dissemination is limited.
It is said that on the other side of the hill, there is a secret passage hidden in the hollow of a dead tree. That secret passage leads to a cave under the hill. The name of this cave is Yingying, and at the same time, it is also the name of Yingying.
The origin of Shadow Hill.
According to rumors, every once in a while, strange white shadows will appear in Shadow Hill, and babies will scream, like ghosts.
There were rumors among the apprentices, but in fact, these white shadows were the white smoke evaporated from the geothermal spring water in the Shadow Cave, and the baby's screams came from some kind of long-lived creatures in the cave that regularly swam from the underground rivers.
Bearded fish.
Although the Shadow Cave is hidden, there are still some people who know about it. However, the underground rivers in the cave produce more mysterious silver rings. For personal interests, many people do not tell anyone about it even if they know it.
Previously, the couple's apprentices went to the Shadow Cave to look for the Mysterious Silver Ring.
When they went to Shadow Cave this time, they were originally searching along the underground river, but they encountered some changes on the way. The ink-colored flying fish monster swam out of nowhere and suddenly attacked them like crazy.
These flying fish monsters were at the level of junior apprentices at most, but they couldn't bear the large number, and the wizard's system recovered very slowly here, so they were eventually defeated and escaped.
These are the experiences of the couple's apprentices, and there is nothing surprising about them.
However, Angel got a clue from them, which could very well point to Toby.
Although they did not see Toby in the Shadow Cave, the female apprentice was extremely sensitive to sounds. She said that she seemed to hear the sound of birdsong from deep in the cave while escaping.
Angel used the magic of sound to imitate Toby's voice. After hearing this, the female apprentice said very confidently.