Chapter 44 The Key to the Problem

Soon our two armies met at the border of the two countries, and the other side brought no fewer people than here. I glanced at the crowd and spotted King William. His dress and position showed his unique status.

The armies of both sides stood up as if they were about to fight. The two kings waved their troops to stop at the same time. Only the two kings, a few personal guards, and a few of us walked into the middle.

"I heard that there are people who can help us solve the water problem. Are they these three?" William was not polite to us at all. Although he seemed to be very capable, after all, he was young and his way of dealing with the world was far inferior to that of the old king here.

The old king let the three of us out very politely. "These three nobles are here to help us." Look, this is called being able to speak. No matter whether it is hypocritical or not, at least it sounds comfortable. A ruler who can't even be polite is not far away from his downfall.

"That's you three?" William didn't even look at us, he just glanced at us and then said to the old king: "Where did you find the person? Can you believe it? I..."

I suddenly stood between the two kings and faced William, blocking the old king behind me. "I'm not here to listen to your nonsense. I'm...!"

"How dare you!" A guard rushed up before I could finish my words. Without moving my body, I raised my leg and kicked the guy down.

"I am here to discuss business with you as a businessman. I am going to check the water source problem. If successful, you can get clean water source. As a beneficiary, you should pay a certain amount of remuneration appropriately and provide certain assistance."

Rose stood up and added: "The transaction conditions will not be very harsh. Here is the list. Take a look." Rose handed over a piece of paper.

William took the remuneration list that Rose and I had planned for a long time and without even looking at it, he crumpled it into a ball of paper and threw it back.

"You...?" Rose angrily wanted to go up to argue, but was pulled back by the old king's sharp eyes.

"King William, you are not right." The old guy is indeed a treacherous old man, and he is starting to do tricks now. "Guests are kind enough to help, so they deserve some reward. Isn't it necessary? Can we negotiate the harsh conditions?"

Rose's mouth was trembling with anger. "Husband, let's go, we won't help them anymore!"

I reached out and grabbed the rose that was about to leave. "Your Highness William, we are businessmen, and peace is the most important thing. If the conditions are not good, we can negotiate. What conditions do you think are acceptable?" Damn it, I would have stuffed your head into my stomach before, but now the interests are more important. If a businessman loses his temper but not his wealth, I will tolerate it!

William finally spoke. "I believe you have made a lot of money from the old man. Just because he is easy to deceive does not mean that I am easy to deceive. Anyway, if you help him control the water source, my place will become better together. Why should I pay additional compensation? If you can find a way to restore worship. If there is a problem with the water source in Yite, please ask me for compensation if there is a problem with the water source here!" After saying this, he laughed wildly, turned around, mounted his horse and ran towards the main formation.

Rose yelled furiously: "I'm so angry. How could there be such an unreasonable person?" She looked around as if she was looking for something: "Bow, bow? Who has a bow? I'm going to 'shoot' this bastard to death." I'm furious."

I was also very angry, but not to the point of losing control. But if Rose was so angry and didn't help her calm down, wouldn't my husband be in vain? He raised his right hand in front of her, and all the locks on the arm guard popped open, and a gleaming golden crossbow appeared under the black magic dragon arm guard. This is actually the Avenger. After the armor absorbed the dragon soul last time, it became removable.

Rose looked at me and immediately reacted and took off the crossbow from my hand. I reminded her from the side: "Be careful, this thing is very powerful."

Rose didn't really want to 'shoot' anyone, she just had the energy to shoot two arrows to defeat the fire. The Avenger is self-loading, and the arrow is already on top when Rose picks it up. He took a brief look and pulled the trigger, and a crossbow arrow flew out. Rose couldn't control her strength for a moment and was pushed back by the recoil. Fortunately, I was there to support her.

The arrow shot up into the sky because the rose's body shook when it was shot, but I don't know if it was a coincidence or not. The arrow flew up and then fell down, and accurately hit the butt of Wei Lian's white horse. . The war horse immediately jumped up as soon as it hurt, and William was immediately thrown off without any preparation and fell into an awkward state.

"Haha! Call you horizontal!" Rose jumped up happily, and the old king and the guards behind us laughed.

William over there is not willing to be humiliated in vain. If he knew how to tolerate, he would not conflict with us. William got up again and angrily ordered the troops to attack. I expected that he would retaliate, but I didn't expect that he would disregard the overall situation and let the troops attack.

The old king had been fighting with William for only a day or two, and he was very familiar with William's character. When Rose was shooting arrows just now, he had already begun to order the troops behind to prepare for emergencies. At this time, when they saw the troops on the opposite side taking action, they immediately put out a shield array. Although the shield was a little broken, fortunately, the momentum was still good.

This matter is caused by Rose. I can't let the old king's troops fight the enemy alone. It seems that we need help from the magic pet! "Tank!" At this time, among thousands of troops, only tanks are more efficient.

Sure enough, Frank's huge body frightened his opponents as soon as he appeared. He raised his two forelimbs, stood up with his entire body, and then slammed down, concentrating all his strength on the bone hammer of his forelimbs, and slammed it down to the ground. As soon as the two bone hammers hit the ground, they immediately made a loud noise, and the entire ground shook violently like an earthquake. The charging cavalry on the opposite side was so shaken that they jumped three feet high. None of the fallen horses could stand. The large group of cavalry immediately fell and fell on their backs.

I pointed forward with one hand: "Tank, spray dragon flames." Tanks who have eaten dragon meat can use dragon flames.

Tank's terrifying eyes flashed green, his body suddenly stopped and began to inhale, and then suddenly sprayed red dragon flames forward. The cavalry on the opposite side was still lying on the ground struggling. Who could escape when a large piece of dragon flame suddenly came down? At this moment, a large number of soldiers were set on fire and turned into burning men running wildly on the ground.

Although William on the opposite side is not a good person, he is very good at military command. After discovering that the cavalry was frustrated, he immediately ordered the troops behind to push out the heavy crossbow. This thing was originally used to deal with the shield formation, but he did not expect that he even brought this thing.

Only a creak was heard, and the ballista was wound up. With a bang, an arrow as thick as a bowl was shot out, but only a "dang" sound was heard, and everyone could clearly see the giant crossbow arrow wiping out a spark on the tank and flying out. Wentian ran over and patted me. "Is this your magic pet?"

"Hmm, what's up?"

"The defense is so high?"

"Of course, didn't you hear me calling his name?"

"By the way, his name is Tank." Wentian remembered it now. "It really lives up to its name, stronger than a tank!"

The old king also trembled and said: "Is this one of your men?"

I nodded. "It's my magic pet, how about it? Do you have confidence in my strength?"

"Yes. Of course."

As we were talking, Tank suddenly stretched out his body, and the elytra on his back stood up. When I saw the flashing arcs of electricity all over his body, I knew what he was doing. "Tanks, don't fire." I was still counting on him to help complete the mission. What if I shelled the back now? It's all those damn mission restrictions, otherwise just calling a few dragons would be fine. After hearing my order, the tank immediately retracted its extension tube. Fortunately, I shouted quickly.

"Be careful over there." Rose reminded us. We saw that there was a trebuchet erected behind the Rosetta army on the opposite side. This William was prepared to fight from the beginning.

The tank glanced at the trebuchet over there and immediately rushed in that direction. Although such a large trebuchet is not a threat to tanks, it will still lose blood if it is hit. Seeing the tank rushing past, the soldiers over there tried hard to stop it. Unfortunately, the opponent's army lacked individuals with outstanding strength. Although the overall combat effectiveness of the soldiers was higher than that of the tank, a single soldier was simply an ant and could not stop the tank at all. The steel contradiction formation used to deal with cavalry charges was as defensive against tanks as a bamboo fence, falling apart at the slightest touch. The soldiers' swords had no reaction at all except sparks flying when they struck the tank. Even the heavy tomahawks couldn't cut through the nearly one meter thick carapace of the tank.

Seeing the tanks crossing the entire Rosta army position, the soldiers were helpless. The trebuchet that had not yet fully unfolded was smashed into a pile of wood fragments by the tank's hammer, and the ballista next to it was also beaten into scrap metal. William's escort pulled him, Lin Gun, and crawled out of the position to avoid the danger of being crushed into a meat pie.

Although everyone has seen that the tank is very brave, I know that the tank's health drops very quickly. The attacks of those soldiers basically do not break the defense, but the tank loses health very quickly bit by bit. There are too many soldiers. "Rose, help the tank increase its health. My healing skills are not as good as yours."

Rose nodded, and an advanced recovery technique was gathered. Just as it was about to be unleashed, Rose suddenly screamed. With a bang, the magic exploded around us. Healing is also magic, and it will explode if it is interrupted during use. Rose clutched her waist and fell down. Princess Lala standing next to her held a bloody dagger in her hand.

"Pah." A loud slap sent Princess Lala flying into the air. She spun around a few times before landing. She fell to the ground and never moved again.

"Rose, are you okay?" I was afraid that something might happen to Rose.

Rose frowned and covered her waist. "Fortunately, the dagger was stuck in the movable connection of the order suit, so she couldn't stab it all the way through."

"Don't move, I'll use the healing technique for you."

"Why don't you take care of the tank first?"

"It's okay, he can still hold on for a while."

As a beast tamer, the main way of fighting is to add status to the demon pet, so I also know some magic such as healing, but there are usually dedicated recovery personnel who don't need me to do it, so I have never used it. Fortunately, Rose's injury was not serious, and the first-level healing technique could also help.

The old king ran to us with a look of fear on his face: "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't expect this ignorant girl to actually hurt you. She was also 'confused' by that William, don't blame her." The old king knew that his daughter liked William, but she was his daughter after all, so he still asked for mercy despite his old face.

This old king has always been pretty good to us, and I don't want to offend him yet. "You better discipline your daughter and don't let her show up near us again before we leave, otherwise I can't guarantee what she will do next time."

"Yes! Thank you, thank you!" Now that the old king saw the strength of the tank, he was extremely respectful to us.

I caught him just as he was about to stand up. "It's okay for me to let your daughter go, but my wife can't hurt her in vain. I think the necklace around your daughter's neck is nice, and I want to give it to my wife."

Without saying a word, the old king personally went over and pulled the necklace off his daughter's neck and handed it to me. I took it and immediately put it on Rose. The princess was in shock after being slapped by me just now, and she didn't react at all when the necklace was taken away. Baby, baby, it's finally in my hands.

Seeing that I no longer pursued the matter, the king turned around and asked the guards to carry the princess away. In front of me, he ordered the princess to be locked in a room and not allowed to come out. I knew he was doing this to show me, but it was good for him to do this.

Rose's injury was not serious and she recovered with simple treatment. The tank was a bit tight without the support of healing magic, so I had to recruit him back. Bayette's army here is still intact, but Rosetta's army over there has long been disorganized. Even if the tanks retreated on their own initiative, they did not dare to pursue them and had to retreat.

Looking at the retreating Rosetta troops, I said to Rose beside me: "It seems like things are not as simple as we thought?"

Wentian said on the other side: "The difficulty of the F-level mission lies here. The other side has a king who doesn't know how to praise others. Just defeating the monsters and solving the water source problem may not necessarily allow the two countries to coexist peacefully."

Rose said: "We can use the method from the beginning."

"What?" Wentian was startled. "Are you really planning to destroy Rosita?"

Wentian obviously didn't understand what Rose meant, but I understood. He turned to the old king and said, "How about another deal?"

"As long as there are benefits, of course there is no problem." The king is no less enthusiastic about benefits than I am.

"Do you think doubling the country's strength is a benefit?"

"Of course!" The old man's eyes flashed with greed. "But how to achieve this?"

"I haven't decided on the specific method yet. I'll tell you after I think about it. But my intention is to merge Rosita into your Bayite. In this way, your number of citizens and land area will be doubled. What do you think? ?”

"It is not easy to annex a country!" Although the old king was greedy, he was not stupid. He also knew that some things could not be solved by force.

"This is nothing for you to worry about. We will handle the specific matters. You just wait to receive the country."

"Of course that's good." The old king rubbed his hands like a bandit.

"Shall we go back? This Rosetta is not an opponent that can be solved through negotiation. We should solve the water problem first. This is the fundamental thing." Rose reminded me that it was time to get down to business.

"Yes, let's go."

Return to the palace and bring all the supplies. The old king selected 50 of the most elite warriors for us to help us complete the mission. In my opinion, none of these people will be able to come back. The undead for the F-level mission are impossible.

According to the information provided by the king's advisory group, Rosita and Bayete are completely surrounded by a ring of mountains, which is why there are very few outsiders in the two countries. Careful study of maps and interviews with some of the residents revealed that all the water in the area seemed to come from snowwater from the highest peaks of the mountains and from rainwater collected by the mountains themselves. This water is sent to a large lake at the foot of the mountain by underground rivers in the mountain. The lake water flows through other areas of the mountain range through surface runoff, and part of the lake water also seeps into the ground to form groundwater.

After studying this information, Rose suggested that we first investigate whether there is a problem with the snow water on the top of the mountain, so that we can follow the water source to find out where the water is contaminated. The elite soldiers who assisted us said that the mountain range was so steep that it was impossible to climb it, which meant that it was impossible to go up with them. However, it would be a waste to bring too many people just to investigate the situation anyway. We planned to take a few people to see the situation first.

The captain who found the soldiers asked: "Do you have a way to tell whether there is something wrong with the water? I mean a quick and safe test, not an experiment on letting people drink the water."

The captain said without hesitation: "It's a good test. The poisonous water has a special taste, and it's obvious that you can tell it by just licking it with your tongue. Strong people like us have to drink a big bowl of poisonous water." There will be adverse reactions, a few drops won’t hurt anyone.”

"Okay then, you find the five smartest ones. Note that combat ability is not important, but your brains must be good and your skills must be flexible."

"Understood." The captain quickly called for five of his subordinates, and including him, there were six people.

Let the six of them sit on top of the tank together with Wentian, while I took off holding the rose. The main reason was that the tank had to spread its elytra when flying, so it was inconvenient to ride. The nine of us and the tank flew towards the highest peak together. After flying over a forest, we saw the mountain peak. The height was not very high, but the area was not small. We found a place to land above the snow line on the top of the mountain, and took everyone down to start looking for water problems.

They tasted the snow and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it. In order to ensure reliability, I used Eternal Snow to melt it, and then took some ice from under the snow layer. The results confirmed that there was no problem with the ice. It seems that there is no problem with the main source of the water, so the water must have been polluted in the process of flowing. Because I summoned a tank at the beginning, I am now restricted from summoning a familiar. Even if I put the tank away, I am not allowed to change it, so my plan to summon a pioneer to dig holes cannot be realized.

We can't study the flow of underground rivers without drilling holes, so we have to go down the mountain to take a look first. After everyone reached the foot of the mountain, they walked towards the big lake. Everyone here knows about this lake, but few people can get here. The main reason is that the lake is surrounded by a forest, and there are too many monsters in the forest, so no one can get here.

Because the lake is large, it is easy to find. We found the outlet of the underground river near the lake. Water gushes out from a gap in the mountain like a waterfall. We went to check the water quality of this waterfall and found that the waterfall is also clean and drinkable water.

A samurai tasted the water in the lake, but there was still no problem. Rose said: "This is the water inlet. Even if the lake water is polluted, there will be no reaction here. We have to go to the center of the lake and the water outlet to test."

I flew a warrior to the center of the lake to test the water, and the others went to the outlet on the other side of the lake to test. We still found no pollution in the center of the lake, which means there is no problem with the lake. It's a shame that this lake is so dangerous. It would be great if people here could go through the forest to get water here. I took the warriors and flew to the mouth of the lake to join the others, only to see that the warriors were all taking big gulps of water. They all tasted it at first. Why did they drink so much?

After seeing me coming down, the ignorant leader stood up and said: "The water here is poisonous, but the concentration is much lower than the toxins over there. If the water over there only has this toxin standard, we can mix it with rainwater and drink it together." Then there will be no problem!”

"There is a weak toxin at the outlet, but not in the lake. That means the source of the toxin is not far from here. Let's go downstream and have a look."

Walk downstream along the river and gradually enter the forest. After walking for almost a kilometer, we tested the water quality again. This time the captain only took a drop of river water and tasted it, but he immediately spat it out and spat furiously. "The taste of this water is so strong, much higher than the concentration we have there. If just one sip of this water could kill someone, my tongue would already be numb!"

"Then there's no need to taste it. This must be the source of the toxin. Tank, go back and pick up the rest of the people. We have to search here. There must be a source of toxin nearby."

Tank obediently went to pick up the people, and we first started checking the water quality nearby. You don’t need to taste the water in this section. You can smell the obvious odor with your nose. It seems that the source of poison is very strong. However, we still didn’t find anything until the tank picked up everyone. After all, there were too few people and the search was slow.

It's much faster for new people to help with the search, and someone will find the problem after a while. "team leader!"

"What's going on?" asked the warrior captain.

"You'd better come over and take a look at this place."

We gathered there together and saw the warrior pointing to the ground next to him. I took a look, and didn't notice anything at first. When I looked carefully, I found a large mass of gel-like stuff stuck to a plant on the ground. The plant was completely dead. It looked like it hadn't been long. Otherwise the leaves will fall off.

Wentian wanted to 'touch' it with his hands but I held him back. I took out a junk whiteboard and long sword. He stabbed it a little with the tip of the sword, and the sword immediately started to emit green smoke. Wentian was startled and thought to himself that luckily he didn't touch it.

Although the tip of the long sword was smoking, it did not soften. It seemed that it was not strong acid. A warrior took a breath and said, "This smells like poison!"

When he said this, the warriors around him said that it was indeed the smell, which meant that this thing was poison. But we don’t know what caused the toxin, and we still have no way to solve the problem!

Rose looked at the toxin and then said to me: "This should be left by some kind of animal. It dripped from the top of this plant. This plant shows that it was killed by toxins."

Wentian looked at the plant and said: "It can drip to such a height, this creature is not small!" The plant is sixty centimeters high. If this creature did not spray toxins intentionally, it means that this guy is not too big. Small.

"There is one too." A warrior over there shouted, and we ran over quickly.

This time it was even more frightening. A large drop of crystal clear venom gel hung on the leaves more than two meters above the ground. The entire half of the branches of the big tree were withered and yellow. Rose looked at it and said: "It seems that the analysis is wrong. This thing is not big. It can climb trees!"

"If you can climb trees, you will definitely leave claw marks on the trees. Please look for them carefully."

A large group of people immediately started looking left and right at the surrounding tree trunks. I suddenly turned my head in one direction as if I was nervous. I stared there for a long time and saw nothing. I looked back with doubts and continued to look for claw marks, but I was still thinking about my reaction just now. . I just felt a sense of being spied on, and it was particularly cold, as if there was a cold air coming from the soles of my feet to the top of my head. What is it that makes me feel like this?

"This way." A warrior finally found the claw marks.

I ran over and looked at the claw marks. This mark is very strange. Two deep cuts appear on both sides of the big tree. Generally speaking, animals climbing trees will leave parallel claw marks, but why is this a single one? And two marks appear on both sides. These two marks were a little over 1.2 meters above the ground, and they were horizontal, with the cuts looking like those made by knives. ,

This cut says a lot. The horizontal cuts indicate that the creature was either going up or down the tree; it was just squatting on the tree. What creature can anchor itself sideways to a tree?

Rose looked at it for a long time and said: "I don't think it's right. No matter what this creature is, it shouldn't leave such claw marks. It can't stay at this angle. Besides, no creature can climb a tree with only two toes!" "

"Then what could it be?"

"There are claw marks here too." A warrior shouted.

"There are some here too."

"There are many here."

Suddenly everyone discovered a lot of claw marks, and these marks were almost everywhere extending deep into the forest. The height of these traces is about 1.2 meters, which makes us even more surprised. What creature could always be jumping up and down at such a high level?

"Could these be claw marks left by climbing trees?" Wentian boldly guessed: "Maybe they are a kind of mark, just like animals leave their scent information everywhere to mark their territory. This guy likes to hang on trees. Draw a cross mark?”

"Under normal circumstances, it may not be 'safe'?" Rose 'touched' the marks on the tree: "These marks are two or three inches deep. You don't need to cut so deep to make marks. There must have been attachments at that time, so that's why It leaves such a deep mark.”

I looked at the traces again. "Is there something wrong with the distance between these traces? Judging from the depth of the incision, the weight was no less than one ton. The volume of such a heavy creature should be quite large, but look at it, almost every tree on this animal trail has a There are traces, and there are traces on both sides of the road. Does this thing like to take zigzag routes?"

"This is wrong, that is wrong, what on earth is this?" Wentian squatted on the ground holding his head and worried.

I suddenly turned around and saw a black shadow disappearing between two trees. "Don't run." I yelled and rushed forward. Two and a half months behind me automatically separated from my body and chased after me. When Wentian and the others saw me running, they also chased after me.

I rushed to the place where the black shadow I saw just now was, and looked around. I only saw what seemed to be a tail in the distance and disappeared in a flash. I quickly chased it again, but when I got to that location, there was no trace again. Ban Yue suddenly cut a tree in half, and a dark red thing appeared behind it, but it moved as fast as lightning and disappeared again. Ban Yue quickly turned around and chased after it.

There was a sudden shock ahead. The tank landed in front of the thing and waved its sickle-like forearm to cut off a large tree. But the thing suddenly turned around and disappeared again. This thing moves too fast, and is particularly adapted to scurrying between trees.

"Over there." I stretched out my hand and made a sudden turn to the front to stop the monster. The thing turned around and tried to run away again, but another half month passed and it was intercepted again. When it turned again the tanks had blocked that side. The four directions of the monster are blocked by me, the tank and two and a half months respectively. It depends on how you run this time.

"Ah!" A scream suddenly came from behind me, coming from the direction of Rose and the others. Oops, it’s a plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain!