“Wow!” the pixie exclaimed, imitating the poet. “You actually know our scientific name!”

“But we call ourselves water fairies, and people here, starting with Jeff, call us lake fairies! You can call us that, too!”

“Water Fairy, I thought that only happened in bedtime fairy tales…” Angelita looked at the Pixie curiously, and the latter responded with another burst of laughter.

“Fairy tales don’t lie—at least not completely! I’m actually here right in front of you. By the way, thank you for the candy. My sisters all love it!”

“Oh, so you caught such a big handful during the day in order to share it with others?” Cinder Crown boldly stretched out his hand and tried to touch the Pixie, but the other party dodged it nimbly.

“Watch out for your claws—no, we ate it right away!” The Pixie played several roles, acting out the scene. “We hid in that coat one at a time, with a wooden stick as our shoulder. I was the head, someone else was the hand, and someone else was the body!”

“But no one needs to play legs. Guess why? We can all fly!”

“You guys are really good at acting,” Daisy said, applauding uncontrollably. “I didn’t notice anything unusual, at least not that you weren’t walking with your legs!”

“That’s because I’m the ‘brain’! It’s all thanks to my leadership!” Pixie immediately became proud and boasted. But she soon remembered the serious matter and rubbed her cheeks, trying to look as serious as possible – but she wasn’t really serious.

“Originally, the sisters wanted to host a tea party for you, but we didn’t want to move, so I’m here to talk to you privately!” She surveyed the two teams with an inscrutable gaze. “Anyway, you should still remember the snake-man from that performance this morning.”

“That’s not fiction, it’s real.”

“You’re going to let us kill it?” Daisy asked. “I remember from your performance that Jeff gave it to—”

“Killed it, that’s right,” the Pixie clapped his hands, “and dumped the body into the lake, leaving it to us to guard. But unfortunately, we recently discovered it was stolen!”

The Pixie suddenly raised his voice, and in the distance came the vague complaints of several anglers.

Chapter 208 The Missing Snake Man Corpse

“Who would want to steal the body of a snakeman who died who knows how long ago?”

“Of course they’re bad guys, really bad ones,” Pixie said, suddenly sizing up the Dragonborn. “If you ask me, they look just like you, only bad. You’re just kids, and you’re with Miss Daisy. You’re the good ones.”

The gazes of his companions gathered around him, and the bard could only smile and pretend he knew nothing.

“So, it was the Dragonborn who stole the body?” Swampthroat Edward rubbed his chin and pondered, “But we all know that the Dragonborn don’t operate around here. Why would they bother doing this?”

Even if they were still within their range, it wouldn’t matter, since they’d just killed a bunch of them recently. Edward couldn’t imagine why a Dragonborn would take such a risk at this time. Could it be that Dragon Finger Fidel’s order?

But snake people are snake people, and have nothing to do with dragons or dragonborn!

“Then I don’t know. None of us know,” the Pixie said with a bitter face. A normal-sized species would have to look very carefully to discern her subtle expression. “The sister in charge of guarding that place only saw a scaly black shadow flash by that day, and then the body disappeared.”

“A real snakeman?” Reslaufer suddenly questioned. “But snakemen should be more common in the Dread Swamp further east. The Inassus nations and the Empire regularly clear the edges of their territories. How could snakemen sneak in here?”

“You can’t ask me about that. I guess even Fly Fishing Jeff doesn’t know,” Pixie replied helplessly. “And I don’t know if you remember that the snake-man fighting with Jeff was more like a snake than a human. That means it’s a higher-level snake-man. Maybe—I don’t understand—maybe they need to take their companion’s body back for burial?”

“That’s probably a Pixie,” Vondar couldn’t help but say. “After so many years, even humans might not think of retrieving their ancestors’ bodies, let alone snake people.”

According to legend, snake people are humans who worship snakes. After abandoning their humanity and embracing evil, it is impossible for them to do such a thing.

“I can’t tell you the details. By the way, why don’t you go over there and take a look? Please—” The Pixie was all sparkling, and when he blinked his big eyes, combined with his harmless appearance, he looked exceptionally pitiful.

Curiosity is unavoidable, whether for humans, dwarves, or dragonborn. Moreover, they were merely going to visit the site of the theft, not to plunge into the mortal danger of the Devouring Swamp and fight the snakemen. Soon, led by the Pixie, they managed to hide from everyone near the water and appeared in a hidden inlet on the other side of town.

“In the beginning, some anglers liked to pick this spot, but we kept the fish away and even released a lot of mosquitoes nearby, so they stopped coming,” the Pixie said proudly. “Usually, we’re not this polite to people! But anglers are an exception—they’re all really nice people!”

“Ten pounds of bait for two ounces of fry, that’s a bad idea,” Daisy said, looking around with a laugh. “Where is it? I don’t see any dirt or anything like that.”

“Hehe, we are not stupid, why would we put it in such a conspicuous place – follow me!” The Pixie shouted “Come”, and everyone was instantly surrounded by a large cloud of shiny dust. When they opened their eyes again, they found themselves in a cave.

Here, another Pixie was sitting on a small stone with his head drooping. He was startled by the sudden teleportation and said, “Who’s coming?”

“It’s me,” the Pixie following Reslaufer and the others immediately jumped out. “This is the ‘interesting and kind person’ we met during the day! Tell them about your experience, maybe they can help!”

“This… I don’t have much to say!” The Pixie immediately became visibly embarrassed. “I saw a dark figure that day. It might have had scales on its body, and then the body disappeared!”

“You could be more specific,” Leslaufer said, looking around the small space, which was too spacious for the Pixies but too cramped for them. “Is the body here?”

“It’s right here, next to your big foot.” The Pixie flew over and marked it with its wings and the dust on its body.

There was a circle of missing soil around the place, and it looked like the creature that attacked had acted quickly and hurriedly, almost “snatching” the corpse away. It was just that the Pixies didn’t and didn’t have time to put up any resistance. Unlike the goblins that were often confused with them, the Pixies were little guys who hated fighting and weapons. If it were their distant relatives who often participated in the siege of the forest, the situation would definitely be different.

“Come to think of it, why did Jeff want you to guard the corpse?” Bella couldn’t help but wonder. “From your performance, it seems Jeff was a skilled warrior. The remains of a high-level snakeman should have been a trophy worth showing off.”

“I do remember that,” the Pixie guarding the body responded immediately. “He had something much better to show for it! Twenty-four or twenty-six bass? He didn’t have any hands to hold them! So he just tossed this thing into the water for us to keep.”

“And then he forgot about it.”

“What about you?”

“We forgot too!” The two Pixies looked at each other and shouted in unison.

“If that’s the case, why not just let it be lost?” Jinman scratched his head. “There are almost no clues here. Where can we find the criminal?”

“Just throw it away?” The Pixies gathered together and whispered, “That seems like a solution…”

What kind of method is this!

“Ahem.” Just as the two little fellows were about to give up and try to convince the other pixies to happily forget about it, Edward couldn’t help but cough twice to draw their overly scattered attention back. “Everyone, actually… it’s not impossible to track it. It just may require some magical means, and I don’t know much about magic in this area, so I might need some assistance.”

This is easy. What we have the most here is spellcasters. Even two Pixies can help.

“We can see that the thieves took some soil with them when they stole their target. We can start from this.” Edward took some samples from under and around the place where the snake man’s corpse was once placed. “If the person is thoughtful enough to clean up the soil on the way, the better approach is to not take it away in the first place.”

Chapter 209 Exchange after the fight

The small space here was obviously not the best place to cast spells, so everyone reappeared on the shore and began to figure out how to release the magic to track the mud.

The bard had a lot of shockingly profound theoretical knowledge in this area, but it was only limited to theory. She had no idea how to release it through her own musical magic, let alone use other powers.

“Uh, please, are you planning to set up a fishing spot here?” During this time, a guy who likes night fishing came over and said, “It’s a bit awkward to use magic, but I want to be next to you…”

“We are necromancers, and we are going to gather corpses to build a nest.” Frost Skeleton grinned and showed two rows of fangs to the man, trying to scare him.

The next thing they said was, “Hey, are you guys new here? That won’t work, seriously! I had a friend fishing all night and he hooked two dead heads, but didn’t catch a single fish—”

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and finally Lesloff reacted and grabbed the other person’s collar and threw him far away.

“I remember that one…” A Pixie—it was hard to tell which was which—recalled, “There was a gang fight in town that day, and everyone was pushed into the river, floating downstream. He did catch the first one himself, but the second one was actually a prank played by his sisters because they saw how brave he was…”

“What if he’s not brave, but just has a quick reaction time?” Daisy imagined the scene and gave herself a fright. “Are you really not afraid of scaring him to death?”

“We should be careful when joking…” Pixie said this with a guilty conscience, “How about we go give him a gift and apologize someday? I don’t think he’s very quick-witted. After seeing the second one, he sat there until dawn before leaving…”

“Okay, let’s not talk about that anymore. Xiaoyi and I have an idea.” Edward stood up and began to arrange the ritual on the ground with a branch. “We borrowed templates from several other spell rituals. In theory, there should be no problem, but it may require a lot of magic power. We’d better divide it up – arrange the order and see which one is more suitable.”

Leslaufer consciously took a few steps back, and then he found: it seemed that he was the only one retreating!

Even Vondar knew how to control magic, but he only used it in the field of forging. And Angrita already knew that she had the potential to cast spells. Although she couldn’t cast a complete spell yet, she could still provide some power.

…So he’s the only one who doesn’t have it?

The pendant around his neck emitted a faint glow and warmth, but the mercenary simply tucked it deeper inside, completely oblivious. Thus, the impressive-looking magical item ultimately resigned itself to its fate and remained silent, watching the others perform alongside its owner.

A trail of footprints, or rather a concealed tail, soon appeared in everyone’s sight, extending all the way towards the woods far away from the town, and eventually disappeared.

“There’s some warning, but not much.” Edward presided over a ritual to dissipate all remaining magic. “Perhaps it will pass through the grove, but this distance alone should be enough for us to find more.”

“Perhaps we need a beast,” Bella thought for a moment and then looked at Leslaufer, “a beast that is also cold-blooded.”

Theoretically, she should also be able to transform into the appearance of the Deinonychus, but Bella is not completely confident whether she has fully mastered this possibility, so it is better to let the real person do it.

“But Black Claw is in town now. Crossing the streets would probably make too much noise,” Leslough thought for a moment. “Can you turn into a dog or a pig? I heard that some people in West Inassus can train pigs to pick mushrooms.”

Bella seemed to consider the suggestion very seriously, but ultimately shook her head: “No. The society has never kept dogs or pigs.”

“Oh, I see. Druids, huh?” A Pixie clapped his hands. “No need to bother. Just watch us—but let me confirm one thing. You don’t look like locals. Is it okay for you to hang out like this all night?”

“We’re not kids…” Feng Daer was about to reply, but then changed his tone. “…The best fighters are all here, so there’s no need for them to worry.”

“Got it—let’s go!” The Pixie giggled and began to flap its wings rapidly. Pieces of glittering dust fell to the ground, landing in the footprints that had just been lit up. “This should be enough before I go bald! Let’s go see what happened!”

It had actually been over a day since the snakeman’s body disappeared, but the two pixies had cast spells that increased their speed and delayed fatigue, allowing the group to advance at a rapid pace. As the sky brightened and morning approached, a devastated and chaotic open space appeared before everyone’s eyes.

“Oh wow, there’s been a fight here!” Even the Pixies could tell what had happened here not long ago. “There are traces of tails and claws, and even blood!”

“These are the snakemen and…” Leslaufer glanced subconsciously at the shoeless paws of several dragonborn. “Dragonborn. They are fighting here.”

The footprints leaving from here were clearly divided into two parts, one part had only claw marks, and the other part had only tail traces.

“There were clearly two footprints from the Dragonborn’s charge and the fight,” the mercenary said, pointing to two claw marks on the ground, one large and one small. “But when he left, there was only the large one. There’s no body of the small one, and no footprints either.”

“Is it possible that the big one took the injured companion away?” Angelita guessed.

Bella compared the two footprints during the battle and when she left. “That’s possible. The big footprints have become noticeably darker. He must have taken something with him when he left. After all, the Dragonborn is…”

“No, that’s not right,” Leslaufer suddenly raised his hand and interrupted Bella. “If you want to compare the depth of the footprints, you can look over here again.”

This snake man should also be a relatively advanced type. He only has a snake tail but no human feet, but his tail still reveals similar information – it is sinking.

“The snakeman corpse you were guarding before should have turned into bones long ago, right?” “Of course.”

“Then it’s holding something heavier than a half-human, half-snake skeleton. What else could it be except a complete dragonborn with bones, flesh, blood, and scales?” Leslaufer came to the conclusion, but was still confused.

“Let’s follow the Dragonborn’s footsteps. I want to see what’s so worth stealing from a skeleton that’s been dead for so many years.”

Take a day off

There’s a lot going on at the end of the year, and to make matters worse, I caught a cold (probably because I woke up right after the weekend and went out). Anyway, I wish everyone good health~

Chapter 210 Skeleton Competition

A dragonborn with dark scales and a luster almost like bronze was stumbling and running in the wilderness. He was a male dragonborn, and the natural advantages given by his race made him look a whole size bigger than most other races.

However, even so, his physical strength was already reaching its limit at this moment.

This wasn’t because he wasn’t good at running in the wilderness, nor was it simply because he had been struck on the arm by a snake-man’s scimitar. These two factors had to be combined, because he had to ensure that under such circumstances, the spells given to him by the clan shaman could still continue to work stably.

In his arms he held the motionless corpse of a female Red Dragonborn, but to him it was not the body of a member of his tribe, but the remains of a half-human, half-snake monster.

The stability of the spell here also shows that the sacrifice of the other party’s own race was not in vain. She, whose body temperature will no longer change, will still be taken away as a snake-man skeleton, buying him enough time.

This corpse will be one of the keys to the Dragonborn’s cause. With it, the Dragon Finger can cast another powerful magic besides “Messenger”, allowing those evil but equally scaly creatures to serve as pioneers of war.

No one would begrudge the blood and lives of that ethnic group, not even themselves, not at all.

The Bronze Dragonborn continued to run. He knew that if he stopped, his speed would slow down by more than a little. It didn’t matter if he was caught up. The important thing was that the snake man’s bones could not be taken back by his own kind.

The Dragonborn didn’t know why the snake people did this, and perhaps Fidel didn’t know either, but after discovering that they had taken action, the two Dragonborn wisely ambushed them on the road, and at the cost of only one person, they took the important relic back into their hands.

But the Bronze Dragonborn soon discovered that things might not be that simple.

Some kind of acquired sensitivity made him subconsciously tilt his head to an angle. The cold air brushed his cheek and fell into the air, making the Dragonborn’s blood run cold.

Just a little bit closer!

“Just a little bit closer!”

The bronze dragonborn turned around in shock, only to find that the person who spoke was a white dragonborn girl who was obviously not yet an adult. Her blue vertical pupils were looking at him with disgust. But the moment he saw the three, no, four dragonborn of different colors behind her, he understood who the other person was.

“The Spellscale Four!” The Bronze Dragonborn faced them cautiously and slowly retreated. “Are those old stubborn old men in the Alliance completely unable to move? They’re actually letting a few young girls run errands for them.”

“They thought they could get everything by compromising with you, and with humans as well,” Cindercrown’s nose flickered with fire as he stepped in front of Frostbone and looked at this member of his tribe who was not one of them. “Although they were wishful thinking, I thought you would at least have some empathy.”

“Naive and stupid—” The Bronze Dragonborn sneered and tried to refute, but the sound of breaking wind sounded behind his head again. This time, he was not as lucky as before.

The Dragonborn avoided the vital head in time, but his shoulder was immediately hit by the flying axe thrown by the dwarf. The sudden attack knocked him to the ground, and it was not until then that he saw the true face of the person who came.

“There’s something, but not enough.”

Reslaufer and Vondar came out from the other direction, the dwarf’s other axe still twirling in his palm. At this moment, the “companion” in the Dragonborn’s arms finally lost his disguise and fell to the ground in a pile of bones.

“Someone bet that I guessed wrong, but now it seems that I’m not.” The mercenary glanced at the Cinder Crown across from him, “Wu Su, a bet is a bet.”

“How can you cheat children out of their money?!” “You’re almost a month old now?”

Cinder Crown gave up arguing, but her anger was merely redirected, now directed at the injured Dragonborn on the ground. “You’re so cunning! What’s with all the deception? Huh?!”

“It’s not me, it’s Dragon Finger…” The Bronze Dragonborn groaned in pain, “The corpse is also very important to the snake people. We must ensure…”

“Why is a long-dead corpse so important?” Reslaufer interrupted, redirecting his thoughts to his own will. “If it’s so important, why now?”

“I don’t know—Ah!” the Dragonborn cried, and the dwarf pulled his axe free from between his tense muscles.

“Stop screaming! If you just cooperate, you won’t die.” Feng Daer muttered and began to stop the dragonborn’s bleeding. “Answer the questions honestly!”

“I really don’t know! It was Fidel, the human wizard. It was all his plan!” The Dragonborn spoke faster. “After your plan to create a second messenger was ruined recently, he accidentally found a group of snake people and discovered their intentions.”

“He thought this was something we could exploit, and we should use it to let the snake man play the role of a pawn. But when we arrived, the snake man had already stolen it, so we took advantage of the situation.”