Chapter 89: Convergence

The three of them looked in that direction and saw a dark area inside.

But Ryan, who had dark vision, could already see two tall black figures flashing at the end of the alley. Each of them seemed to have a half-person-high, squirming bag on his back.

"That's Quinn's patrol area, Captain, shall we go take a look?" Matteo obviously found something wrong.

"There are two people, each carrying a big bag." Ryan said in a deep voice, and he had already associated something bad.

Willen and Matteo couldn't help but look at Ryan in surprise, as if to say, you can see this clearly?

"Let's go! Follow them." Willen thought for a moment and decided to catch up and see.

The three of them, led by 'Cookie', quickly caught up.

It seemed that they had discovered the dog and three people chasing behind them. The two black shadows in front were obviously a little panicked. They saw that in a hurry, they suddenly threw away the sacks they were carrying, and then fled at a faster speed.

Just as Ryan was about to catch up, suddenly, an orange signal firework flashed in the air, and the location was above the northwest corner of Ryan and his group.

"It's our distress signal."

"We have to go there immediately." Willen took a look and said to Ryan with a solemn expression.

"Boss, it's the children!" Matteo had already opened the two large bags thrown on the ground.

Each of them contained a gagged and bound child. When the two children saw the night watchman in black leather armor, they all struggled.

"Matteo, you stay and take care of the children."

"Ryan and I will go over there immediately, and you should be careful!" Willen immediately arranged the division of labor.

"Okay, boss! You go, I'll be careful." Matteo said as he untied the children.

Ryan turned his head and looked at the two traffickers who had disappeared from his sight, knowing that now was not the right time to chase them.

After all, rescuing colleagues was more important.

However, when Willen and Ryan arrived at the northwest corner of the town, they found that the crisis had been resolved.

The night watchmen in this area also encountered human traffickers, but this time the opponent seemed to be a little stronger. They actually broke through the encirclement of three night watchmen and left calmly.

In addition, one night watchman was stabbed in the right arm when he tried to stop the opponent.

Although the opponent had escaped, Ryan always felt that something was wrong. The group of people who trafficked children recently was a little too rampant and too frequent!

This incident naturally made Hamilton, the sheriff of Shining Gold Town, very angry, and he immediately strengthened the night manpower deployment of Shining Gold Town.

However

Since that day, for three consecutive nights, Ryan's night patrol area was safe and sound.

It seems that the arrogance of human traffickers has been effectively curbed.

At the same time, Ryan gradually became familiar with the work content of the night watchman.

The night watchmen in Shining Gold Town are mainly responsible for the town's night security, firefighting, handling wild animal attacks and warnings of major dangers, while during the day, this work is the responsibility of the security guards.

Since it is much safer during the day than at night, the combat effectiveness of the night watchmen is generally one level higher than that of the security guards.

Of course, the same is true for the remuneration.

The monthly remuneration of ordinary night watchmen reaches 8 imperial silver coins, while elites like Ryan reach 1 imperial gold coin.

At the same time, there will be 1-2 days of rest every week according to the captain's arrangement.

Not sleeping for a night is actually not tiring for Ryan, who practices breathing techniques.

As long as he goes back to sleep for a while, Ryan will be energetic when he wakes up again.

The rest of the day is just right for doing other things, such as practicing breathing techniques in his room, going to John's farm to improve riding skills, or coming to the training ground to practice swordsmanship and archery, etc.

In addition, Ryan learned one thing from Captain Willen indirectly.

The Empire has strict restrictions on civilians learning breathing techniques and extraordinary swordsmanship, which can be seen from the need for a large number of merit points to exchange.

But for the nobles, it is very "tolerant".

The nobles can teach breathing techniques and extraordinary swordsmanship to their followers!

It is not difficult to understand why so many commoners are trying their best to become servants or guards of nobles.

This system has a long history and has been widely recognized by nobles at all levels.

On the other hand, it is extremely difficult for commoners to make it on their own.

Ryan briefly sorted out the things that commoners need to overcome to enter the extraordinary.

First, you have to join the official organization of the empire, accumulate enough merit points day by day, and learn breathing methods and extraordinary combat skills.

Then, continue to accumulate merit points to exchange for "advanced magic potions". If you can become a lucky person and successfully enter the extraordinary, after being canonized by the empire, you can become the lowest level of nobles - non-hereditary knights.

The only pity these days is that Hamilton, as the sheriff of Shimmering Gold Town, is extremely busy at work.

Ryan had originally thought about asking the other party for swordsmanship and grabbing some "experience points" by the way, but he didn't find the right time.

After three days, Ryan's fastest-growing profession, the dog trainer, which still cost him a lot of money, actually reached level 2 (223/300).

This was partly because Ryan patrolled all night with Cookie, which was considered "dog walking" by the system.

Renn had previously calculated that for about fifteen minutes of walking the dog, the dog trainer's professional level experience would increase a little.

Therefore, by ‘walking the dog’ all night long, your natural experience increases rapidly.

The only thing that makes Ren a little unhappy is that as the night watchman of Goldsmith Town, relatively speaking, there are too few masters.

In the training ground of the Administration Hall, if Renn used the giant bear sword technique, there would be basically no three-in-one enemy.

Therefore, when Ren competed with other night watchmen, he always used half-hand swords and imperial swordsmanship, and then took the time to practice archery skills.

After a few days, the harvest was pretty good.

The night watchman professional level has reached lv3 (247/500), and the imperial military swordsmanship and basic archery skills have improved even more, reaching lv2 (245/300) and lv2 (121/300).

Unknowingly, three days passed like this.

The morning light showed slightly today, and Renn finished his night patrol. Not long after returning home, he received a notice from the guard, and Lord Hamilton asked him to come over.

Ren thought for a while, then brought the two-handed sword wrapped in sheepskin and the black standard leather armor of the night watchman to the town administration hall.

In the office, Hamilton handed a parchment file to Lane.

"For this mission, we have to go there in person."

Renn took the file and flipped through it skillfully. First, there was the mission description. Several miners were missing in the Elim Mine. The three bounty hunters who went to investigate have yet to be heard from.

As of yesterday, the number of missing miners had exceeded ten. Now all the miners in the Elim Mine are in panic. No miner dares to go down to work anymore, and the mine is forced to close.

"Eh! Elim Mine? It seems that I have heard about the accident before."

“I didn’t expect it was never solved”

"The current situation is obviously more serious!"

Renn immediately remembered that he had heard news about the Elim Mine before in Hamilton.

Renn continued to look through the case file, only to find that the mission requirement for this time was written at the end of the file. It was just one sentence: Investigate what happened in the Elim Mine?

"Is this an investigation mission?" Renne glanced at Hamilton in surprise.

It stands to reason that if it is just an investigation task, the official forces of the empire will generally not get involved. Most of them will use the form of a reward, leaving the bounty hunters to complete more.

But this time it was different. The Sheriff of Goldsmith Town, Hamilton, was dispatched directly. Renne vaguely felt the importance of the Elim Gold Mine.

Hamilton's next words confirmed Rennes' guess.

"Although the output of the Elim Mine is declining year by year, its importance is still very important to Meist County. The superiors asked me to find out what happened in the Elim Mine as soon as possible?"

"Also, although this is just an investigation mission, it is possible that a mysterious incident occurred in the mine." Hamilton looked solemn.

"Mysterious incident?" Renn chewed these four words.

"That's right! Three bounty hunters have disappeared one after another. This situation can be judged as a mysterious incident. In other words, there may be monsters or some supernatural phenomena appearing in the mine."

"Sir, if it is a monster, why don't you offer a reward for the monster hunter to take action? Of course, I am just curious, not afraid." Ren asked.

After all, this was what Hamilton told him. If he wanted to buy violent bear meat, he could find a monster hunter in the county to buy it.

"Because one of the bounty hunters, Nedved, is also an experienced monster hunter. His disappearance means that no monster hunter in the county dares to take on this mission anymore."

After listening to Hamilton tell the whole story, Renn nodded,

The disappearance of three bounty hunters, one of whom was an experienced monster hunter, still gave him a vague premonition.

"Lord Hamilton, what do you think happened in the mine?" Renne couldn't help but ask. After all, Hamilton was well-informed and should have made some judgments about what might happen.

Hamilton pondered for a moment and said: "At first, I guessed whether there were kobolds in the Elim Mine, but the kobolds are not very powerful and are usually in large numbers. But so far, there is no news that anyone has seen them. I’ve seen traces of kobolds.”

"In addition, three experienced bounty hunters are missing, which means there is a high probability that there will not be creatures like kobolds inside."

"So, I guess there should be some kind of monster that is good at lurking and attacking in the mine."

"For example, the Stinging Scorpion is very good at lurking and sneak attacks. At the same time, the Stinging Scorpion also likes the deep and humid environment of mines. If it hits a miner or bounty hunter during its attack, it will directly and quietly complete the fatal blow. hit."

"I didn't even have time to scream."

"Of course, it may also be other groups of monsters that are good at ambush, such as cavemen, etc. It's hard to say yet."

After hearing Hamilton's well-founded analysis, Renne couldn't help but nodded, and his worries were relieved a lot.

With my experienced boss leading the team, there shouldn't be much of a safety problem.

"Ren, don't you plan to earn more merit points so that you can exchange them for advanced potions?"

"This time may be a good opportunity. Generally speaking, the merit points for missions involving such mysterious events are three to five times that of ordinary missions, or even higher."

"In addition, if the monster is easier to deal with, we can directly deal with it. In that case, we can get more merit points." Hamilton said to Ryan with a smile.

Ryan raised his eyebrows and laughed.

In fact, if Hamilton didn't call him, he would have asked to join if he knew that the reward for this mission was so generous.

Ryan knew very well that he didn't need to wait for another half a year to accumulate as Hamilton said.

If everything goes well, in about one or two months, he can meet the other promotion conditions in the knight's job transfer, except for the "advanced magic potion".

So, Ryan is currently in urgent need of merit points to exchange for the "advanced magic potion".

Although the mission in front of him is somewhat dangerous, with Hamilton, the official knight, leading the team personally, the danger should be relatively controllable.

Ryan thinks that if he is careful, there should be no big problem.

"That would be great. By the way, sir, when do we set out?"

"We'll set out when everyone is here. The county town has also sent people over this time. When they arrive, we'll set out together."

"In addition, I asked Willen and the others to prepare some antidotes, ropes, fishing nets and other things."

"Ryan, if you have anything to prepare, you still have time to prepare it now."

"Okay, sir." Hearing that there were people coming from the county town, Ryan nodded.

In fact, Ryan had brought almost everything he needed with him.

However, Ryan considered that he would search in the mine, so it might be a good choice to bring Cookie with him.

Because dogs' sense of smell and hearing are much more sensitive than humans.

So Ryan returned home again and brought Cookie with him.

When he returned to the door of the town's administrative hall again, he found a group of people at the door. Hamilton also walked out of it and walked towards the group of people.

"Lord Hamilton, long time no see!" A middle-aged man with a mustache and dressed in a decent hunting suit bowed slightly to Hamilton.

Ryan could vaguely feel that the other party was quite powerful. Although he was not a formal knight, he was obviously a knight's attendant.

"Hello, Steward Schmidt." Hamilton nodded with a smile.

"Lord Hamilton, Viscount Hamady wanted to come in person, but the Viscount was busy, so he entrusted me to come and check the situation of the Elim Gold Mine."

"Earl Habsburg and Viscount Hamady are both very concerned about what happened in the gold mine." The middle-aged man named Schmidt said with a smile.

"This time, in addition to inviting the well-informed bard, Lord Endry, to accompany us."

"I also specially recruited three experienced bounty hunters in the county town."

The butler named Schmidt extended his hand and introduced an old man with a goatee who was wearing a gray hood, holding a wooden stick, and wearing a gray robe.

The old man took off the hood on his head and bowed slightly to Hamilton and said, "Lord Hamilton, it's an honor to meet you."

"Hello, Lord Endry." Hamilton also smiled and nodded in response.

When Ryan heard that the other party was introduced as a well-informed bard, he couldn't help but look at him with interest.

"I don't know if the other party recognizes the unknown words in my 'Beast Taming Diary'."

"Unfortunately, my identity, timing, etc. are not suitable now."

At this time, Schmidt pointed to the three people wearing gray leather armor and said, "These three are experienced bounty hunters."

"Lord Hamilton, Farrugia, Serin, and Asimu are at your service." Three strong bounty hunters stepped forward and bowed slightly to Hamilton.

"Welcome!" Hamilton nodded slightly.

Although he was leading the team this time, he knew very well that the Night Watch was better at cooperative combat. Compared with exploration and search, experienced bounty hunters would be better.

At this time, Hamilton saw that Ryan had also arrived and nodded slightly.

"Since everyone is here, shall we set off now?"

"Of course, set off early and complete the exploration mission early." Schmidt smiled and nodded in approval.

So, the twelve elite Night Watchmen, plus the five from Schmidt's side, rode on horses and quickly headed towards the Elim Gold Mine located southwest of the town of Shining Gold.