Stray

    It was dark.

    "I pray to you." The boy's voice echoed in the cellar, he squatted in the corner of the iron cage, shivering. "Merciful God, all glory to you. Please forgive my sins and lead me out of this quagmire—"

    There are only a few torches in the cellar that will go out. Ventilation was poor, and the air was filled with a mix of excrement and rotting flesh. Standard cubic iron cages were leaning against the wall, and the men and women inside were either sitting or lying down, most of them were dull and quiet. Dried blood stains were mixed on the mud floor, and at this moment, brilliant blonde hair that was extremely out of tune with the environment was scattered.

    "What's your look?" The man growled, stepping on the blond youth's neck. "Aren't you convinced, boy? Have you looked in the mirror? You're still wandering in the frontier forest at night with such a face—it's all your fault."

    "Oh - where do you want to sell me?" The blond youth - Jesse said lightly. His throat was stepped on, his voice was a little dull, and his eyes were full of jokes. "Please be sure to find a gentle buyer for me, I'm very afraid of pain."

    The man moved his feet and kicked Jesse Dillon's abdomen hard. "Respect." He emphasized in a hoarse voice. "Respect, little boy. I'm not kidding you."

    The long blond hair covered the young man's face, and no one could see his expression at this time. Considering that "Commodity"'s face can't be hurt, the man spat and slapped his feet a few times. He was strong enough that Jesse groaned and slammed his back into one of the cages. He coughed a few times, blood running down the corners of his mouth. Pale blond hair rippling with a silky luster in the firelight slipped from his cheeks.

    "...You know everything, you can do everything. You spread love and compassion to the world..." The boy in the cage shuddered. The prayers are getting faster and faster.

    The smile on Jesse's face disappeared, and there was just the right amount of fear in her expression. "Please... please stop. I shouldn't look at you like that, I'll listen to you—"

    "It's good to know, this is called the strong eat of the weak. When you are chained by those noble masters, you will have time to think about this sentence. Then you will understand that these feet are just Little thing. You'll cry and miss me, gentle Gentry—"

    "I think you're right." Jesse said, and his obedience disappeared. He stood up briskly, patted the mud stuck to his clothes, and kicked the iron cage behind him. "And you - I just wanted to say, it's so noisy, it just affects my performance."

    The teenager glared at him in horror and anger.

    "Gentry isn't it?" He casually **** his blond hair and wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand. "How much do I remember, eighteen hundred gold? I gotta say, I'm disappointed by your performance—do you do anything other than kick people? No taste at all. I wasn't having a good time." In the end, Jesse even brought a bit of heartache.

    The short and stout man has no interest in listening to his nonsense. He pulled out the knife at his waist instantly, and the soil slowly arched under his feet.

    But before he stepped on the ground, the world in his eyes turned upside down. The beautiful product, which was still very weak just now, clapped his hands, stepped directly on his face with one foot, and then ran it a few times with the hard sole. The bridge of his nose shattered in an instant, and his nose bleeds everywhere. Gentry wanted to struggle, but that foot was as heavy as a mountain, and the pressure seemed to crush his head.

    "This is indeed a world where the strong eat the weak, that's right!" Jesse said cheerfully, he leaned down, snapped Gentry's wrist neatly, and took the machete into his hand. Gentry's stomped mouth let out a sharp, miserable howl.

    "You can't kill me!" He struggled desperately, and after realizing the disparity in strength, fear appeared in the man's voice. "I was forced too! Part of this shipment is going to be given to the Church of the Abyss, and I have children to raise anyway. I'll give you information—I can give you information, valuable information!"

    "That's unfortunate." Jesse touched his chin, but didn't take his feet away. "Intelligence... Sounds good."

    "Yes, you are a bounty hunter! I will tell you everything I know, please have mercy—"

    Jessie burst out laughing.

    "Ouch - when I was a predator, I was arguing for the weak and the strong, and when I became prey, I asked for mercy? You are so interesting."

    He slashed down without hesitation, and the blood of the man's carotid artery spurted far away.

    "I think these gold coins are already a lot!" He announced with a smile, holding the head he just cut off in his hand. The headless corpse was still lying there, blood seeping into the soil.

    "...Sonny, give me courage..." The boy sprayed blood, shaking like a sparrow in the cold wind. He shrank to the corner of the cage in horror, trying to stay away from the corpse.

    "Are you blind?" Jess held the head closer - the man's eyeballs bulged out of fear, and the boy screamed in fright. "If you're not, you should see the key on this guy's belt. You can grab it as soon as you reach for it, so you need to pray? Oh I understand, after all, your suffering is also a gift from God." The headless corpse kicked farther. "Come on, this distance is just right, you can reach it by tearing your shoulders. Enjoy your suffering."

    "You evil-"

    "Wow, thanks for the compliment!"

    "The devil without mercy, sooner or later you will be punished!"

    "I'm looking forward to it." Jesse hummed a tune, turning over the pockets of the headless corpse. Before leaving, he did not forget to pick up the corpses of the small demons from the wooden table on the side, and held them together with the heads in his hands. "It was a pleasant conversation, but unfortunately I still have an appointment to catch up—" He looked annoyed at the blood stains on his clothes, and magically took out the black seal and pinned it on a relatively clean cloth. "If you don't hurry, they will slip away quickly!"

    In fact, Nemo and his party were indeed on their way to slip away.

    Even if they have obtained the black stamp qualification, this time they brought a freshly released wanted criminal, and they had to go over the wall again - fortunately, this time, there is no strange demon believer looking for Come to the door. It was a pity that they had just taken a nap in the straw when they were awakened mercilessly by Ann.

    "No one has come so far, it seems that Dylan is not planning to tear his face." She whispered, holding the spear vigilantly. "Get up - your physical strength should be almost recovered, we have to get out of here after registering."

    Nimo grabbed a handful of straws and tried to bury his head in it to escape this reality. He was only halfway through his plan to get rid of his headaches with sleep, and Ann's wake-up call had clearly had the opposite effect—his head hurt even more.

    Oliver got up very neatly, he slapped his face suddenly, with a posture of intending to take responsibility for the team. Seeing Ann's eyebrows getting higher and higher, and the electric light flashing between his fingers, he hurriedly pulled up Nemo, who was still dozing off.

    Adrian stood straight to the side. Nemo looked over sleepily, suspecting in the bottom of his heart that this man might just need to stand up and sleep like a horse. He yawned and dropped his weight on Oliver.

    "... cheer me up, you are obviously the least likely sleepy among us." An pointed out dissatisfied.

    "My soul is sleepy," Nemo muttered.

    Adrian frowned slightly, looked him up and down, and said nothing. The grey parrot huddled uncharacteristically in Nemo's robe pocket, looking as if he was thinking about some big bird life.

    It didn't take long before they were back at the familiar sign-up—in fact, it was more prominent now. In the second half of the night, except for some special shops, most of the streets fell into darkness. The building of the registration office is still brightly lit, but no one walks in and out, and it feels a little more lonely.

    "Let's hand in the task." Oliver announced somewhat unaccustomedly, he was trying to find the contract in his pocket, and it took a long time to realize that the contract scroll had already been reduced to ashes. "By the way, there's... er, consultant registration."

    The staff on duty must have a common language with Nemo, his upper and lower eyelids are almost glued. He grunted a few times and held out his hand. "The Black Badge of the Head."

    Oliver took off the black badge on the front placket and carefully handed it over with both hands.

    "Hmm...Oliver Ramon's team...Oliver Ramon?!" The man in the uniform woke up instantly, he wiped his nose carelessly, and swept his eyes from Nemo's blood-stained robe However, he finally turned to the silent Adrian. "God! You're not going to register—"

    "Yes," Oliver said nervously, "We want to register Adrian Cross as a consultant."

    "You have to think clearly." "He's just an ordinary person, and you're going to challenge the Rad School directly. I strongly suggest you think about it again."

    "We have completely offended them." Nemo explained bitterly, "It should be fine to offend a little more."

    "It's not the same! You're just nobody, he's—sorry, Mr. Cross—he's a stain on the Rudd. They'll take the stain first..."

    "Let's figure it out, don't talk nonsense." Ann said impatiently, "I know what you're thinking. If we give up now, Cross will have nothing to do with the Mercenary Guild— You're going to tell everyone that Cross is here in the next second, right?"

    The staff touched the big nose and laughed a few times. Ann turned her gaze to Oliver.

    "We want to register Adrian Cross as a consultant," Oliver repeated firmly.

    The staff muttered and took out a stack of parchment, and quills and ink were juggling in the air. He reluctantly shoved the black seal back into Oliver's hand, lowered his head and rummaged through the drawer for a moment, then threw a weird ring to Adrian.

    "It's done." He said angrily, "Sign it, Captain. The reward for the last mission is... Let me see, the title deed of the Edwards' land. You can choose to directly Sell ​​it to the guild or keep it for yourself."

    "...Keep it for yourself." After glancing at the momentarily silent crowd, Oliver sighed. He grabbed a quill that nearly stabbed him in the face and lowered his head to sign.

    As soon as he put down his pen, the black stamp on their chests melted. Ann closed her eyes with a resigned expression on her face.

    They didn't ignite their clothes or even radiate heat. The gray lizard pattern disappeared, and the snake head took its place. They were no longer dusty and dirty, but pure black with a metallic sheen. Nemo took it off his robe, and the magic circle on the back of the black seal flashed a streamer, apparently activated.

    "That magic circle will issue a direct order to you from the headquarters - if necessary." The staff still secretly aimed at Adrian. "It will also remind you to register your whereabouts on a regular basis. This is the main purpose. The four-eye snake level is not my personal decision! To be honest, I think this result is very polite."

    "Yeah, at least not a sea scorpion." An opened his arms to the sky.

    “…what are you doing?” Nemo asked curiously.

    "Meet the new low of my life." An said with a stern face. "Once you get used to this rhythm, it's actually quite exciting."

    "If we're going, wouldn't it be better for us to take a quest first?" Nemo looked away guiltily. "This month's mission is completed. We have also become an official black stamp, and we should be able to rest—"

    "Snake." Ann said bitterly, "Good idea, we can see if there are any tasks suitable for humans." She emphasized the pronunciation of the word "human".

    "Aren't you going alone?"

    "Snake level! Dear Mr. Wright, weak humans can't complete the snake level alone." Ann complained, "What can I do? The Rudd Cult has already targeted us, Even if I quit, I won't get any good fruit to eat. You have to take responsibility, especially you, Mr. Captain."

    Oliver didn't turn his head, tapped the black stamp silently, and called out a list of tasks that could be done. Columns of text flashed before their eyes. Even Adrian, who had been examining the ring just now, came over.

    "…" Nemo looked at the ceiling after reading two lines of text.

    Oliver sighed deeply, he now has a new understanding of what "snake level" means. "Explore the Devil's Ruined Tower in the west of Felix Basin," he muttered in a low voice, "Slay a small bone dragon, or a hundred Parikh trolls... Do you have any good suggestions?"

    "Bombarded to death by abyss magic, sprayed to death by bone dragon's corpse flames, and fell in love with each other in troll feces...Which one do you prefer?"

    "What's that above?" Nemo decided to divert his attention.

    "The golden one? The tomb of the thirteenth generation of brave warriors has been discovered," An directly checked with his black seal. "A tomb of a high elves. It is said that the holy sword that killed the demon king was in it. The shared exploration mission, even Horizon participated. I have to say, if you want to take this..."

    "Of course not!" Nemo answered immediately, and Ann and Adrian looked at him wordlessly.

    "Sounds dangerous, doesn't it?" He gestured, his arm nearly sweeping the grey parrot out of his pocket. "...I mean the one below it."

    "'Finding my daughter Merody Delaney'... Huh? It's wrong, how could this be in the scope of the Snake-level mission. Is this daughter the legendary Bigfoot? ?"

    "Is Merlotty Delaney famous?" Oliver asked carefully, trying not to look in Adrian's direction.

    "At least I haven't heard of it." An frowned, "But you have to know that such good errands usually don't turn into black stamps. I believe you have experienced it, maybe it's inside Fraud."

    "The location is on the border of Willard, Vincent Town." Adrian broke the current delicate atmosphere with a stern face, "I have heard of that place - it is said that there is a curse of demons there, At the same time, it is next to the habitat of the monster tribe."

    "This can explain a lot of problems. If there are monster groups and curses, it is normal to find no normal people to pick them up. The task was just sent half an hour ago." An carefully studied task text. "We have a half-ass demon technique... Believers, and a former exorcism expert, the demon's curse shouldn't matter."

    Nemo tried to reduce his presence under the attention of the staff.

    "This place is quite remote, it should be able to avoid the limelight." Oliver thought. "One month should be enough. This seems to be the safest task. You can also take a good rest and think about the way out in the future."

    "But I have a bad premonition." An murmured, "I always think that if you have the word 'seeking', it's not a good thing."

    But she looked at the task content horizontally and vertically, and really couldn't find anything wrong. It looks so much gentler than those few dead words.

    "I agree, Captain." Nemo raised a hand solemnly.

    "I have nothing to say." Ann gritted her teeth, "Night has many dreams, and Dylan stepped in. Let's leave Garland's sphere of influence first."

    Adrian nodded quietly.

    Oliver called out the mission contract and signed his name carefully. "Let's go directly to the teleportation array in the city?"

    "Well, Cross has already registered. As long as it's not someone from the Rad Sect, no one will stop him."

    However, it turns out that if the goddess of fate really exists, she has absolutely no good feelings for them.

    "Oops, where are you planning to go?" Jesse Dylan's slightly ostentatious clothes had suspicious bloodstains on them. He leaned against the door of the building where the teleportation array was, and gave them a bright smile. "Didn't you say we should have a drink together tomorrow?"

    (m..=)