Chapter 124

"Iron Hand" George.

Also from Hegu Town, an experienced adventurer.

It is said that in the earliest days, he was also a member of the "Green Blood" squad and had been a teammate with Adeline for a while.

It's just that later, as his strength gradually improved, unless it was the Hunting Day, he couldn't look down on the small change from Goblins.

So he followed the convention and left the team, coming out to work alone.

Over the years, he has made a name for himself and earned the nickname "Iron Hand" among the bottom-level adventurers in Hegu Town.

As for the origin of the nickname, it is naturally because of the silver-white metal arm armor on his right hand.

It's quite interesting to say that this arm armor has actually been damaged many times in battle, and as George's status rose after leaving the team, he was fully capable of purchasing higher-level defensive equipment.

But every time he updated his equipment after his "Iron Hand" nickname spread, he asked the blacksmith to make the arm armor in the original style, even if he had to pay an extra dozen gold coins in processing fees for it.

In recent years, he even adjusted the overall luster and color of the arm armor to be more conspicuous, making it so that strangers only need one glance to notice the eye-catching silver-white on his arm.

Under George's intentional promotion, his "Iron Hand" name became increasingly loud, and thus attracted many adventurers with good strength to join his squad.

Coupled with his own good strength and his decent way of handling things as a leader.

Accumulating year by year, to this day, the scale and overall strength of his squad have far exceeded the "Green Blood" squad.

It can be said to be the one who developed the best among Adeline's former teammates.

And after becoming successful, George did not forget his roots and humiliate or belittle his former leader.

Instead, he maintained a good relationship with Adeline, and sometimes even recommended some good newcomers to her as a supplement to manpower.

Of course, after these newcomers grew up beside Adeline, they often chose to leave the team and join the "Iron Hand" squad.

So to some extent, George also had his own little thoughts.

But Adeline didn't care about these. Anyway, they would leave the team sooner or later, and she was more at ease following people she knew.

Adeline gained teammates willing to hunt Goblins with her, and George also gained members who had formed combat power and had certain adventure experience.

It can be said to be a win-win.

Xia Nan met "Iron Hand" George once while waiting for missions at the Association.

I remember the other party jokingly invited him at that time, but he didn't agree.

Besides that, the impression of George could only be pieced together from the few words of others.

"Silver-white metal arm armor," "Adeline's former teammate," "good strength, many reliable teammates"...

Once, Xia Nan had no intention of getting to know the other party, nor did he intend to have any dealings with George.

Now, he no longer had these opportunities.

Because George at this moment was already completely dead.

The carefully maintained metal arm armor, symbolizing his identity, was mercilessly crushed by a blunt weapon, turning into a pitted, deformed, and useless piece of iron.

The silver-white surface maintained at great expense was stained with dirty mud and bright red blood, thrown on the ground like scrap iron, and inserted into the soil.

"Drip."

Viscous blood droplets with residual warmth slowly dripped, splashing imperceptible tiny blood flowers on the meadow stained brown-red.

Legs off the ground, toes hanging down naturally.

Under the twilight, the high-hanging shadow swayed gently with the wind, and the "creaking" sound of fibers tightening echoed faintly in the air.

George, or rather his corpse.

Was roughly wrapped around the neck with a hemp rope soaked in blood and suspended from the branches of a towering oak tree.

The right hand was empty from the elbow down, and blood-stained tassels made of tendons and broken flesh hung from the wound covered with hideous tooth marks; the left arm was twisted at an exaggerated angle, and the skin and flesh near the fingers and forearm were peeled off, revealing pale bones mixed with blood red, showing the inhuman torture he suffered before death.

A light breeze filled with a thick smell of blood blew past, and as the branches and leaves swayed, the dim twilight that was originally hidden outside the canopy permeated silently, sprinkling on the surface of the corpse.

Revealing the two shocking, empty holes on George's face.

The leather armor and undergarments had all been pulled off, and the bare upper body was only covered with a layer of dried, bright red blood scabs.

Only the stains on the chest had been cleaned.

Thus revealing the insulting words crookedly spelled out with bloody wounds in the center of his chest:

"Coward," "Leftovers."

Following the pressure marks between the bloodstains and the grass, pushing aside the dangling vines and troublesome shrubs and thorns.

When Xia Nan saw the tragic scene before him, he could clearly feel that Abi beside him shook his whole body instantly, and the arm armor fragments in his hand fell to the ground.

The rookie who hadn't been in the trade for long had his face turn "swish" pale, his Adam's apple rolling faintly, with an expression of wanting to vomit.

Xia Nan himself was far from as calm as he looked on the outside.

Although he had slaughtered no less than a hundred Goblins and had stained his hands with the blood of many of his own kind.

But after all, the time of transmigration was short, and he had not yet completely desensitized.

When this kind of corpse of his own kind that had clearly suffered torture came into view, those bloody, hideous wounds inevitably caused phantom pain in the same parts of his body.

Coupled with the dangerous forest where there was no one in dead silence, and the thrilling environment deliberately created by the perpetrator, it deepened the horror of the scene to some extent.

"George..."

Adeline's face became very ugly.

Even though she had left the team for a long time, the two still maintained a friendship.

She had originally thought about finding him for a few drinks after returning, but she didn't expect to encounter the other party's corpse on the way back from the mission.

She subconsciously walked two steps toward the corpse, seemingly wanting to step forward and take down George's body suspended from the branch by the hemp rope.

But as if she suddenly remembered something, she stopped.

Abi didn't think so much, followed up, and was pulled by her when he was about to cross Adeline.

"Wait."

Regardless of the look of doubt mixed with horror in the other party's eyes.

Her gaze looked carefully at the ground covered with fallen leaves around the corpse, and suddenly paused.

She found a stone nearby and threw it into a patch of grass under the corpse.

"Chirp bang!"

The trap hidden inside was triggered instantly, and several simple and rough bone clusters shot out from the bushes nearby.

Tearing through the air, piercing George's corpse in the whistling sound, embedding into the skin, and also cutting the hemp rope wrapped around the neck.

Bang——

It was the dull sound of the corpse falling to the ground.

Abi looked at Adeline beside him with lingering fear, his chest heaving, and took a deep breath.

If it weren't for the other party's obstruction, he was afraid he would have been shot through by those bone clusters.

"There shouldn't be any others."

Still in the most dangerous position, Adeline walked at the front of the team and stepped forward to examine the corpse.

Xia Nan did not possess relevant knowledge, so he just stood a little further away with Abi to keep watch for her, guarding against possible dangers in the surroundings.

As for Berg...

Originally deeply uneasy because of the appearance of the Orc professional, he finally eased up a bit, but encountered this kind of thing on the way back.

His expression became even gloomier, and compared to when he was in Hegu Town, he was almost like a different person.

But after all, it involved life and death, not only the entire team but also his own life safety.

At this time, he actually suppressed the fluctuating emotions in his heart and squatted down with Adeline to examine George's corpse, which was riddled with holes under painful torture, in detail.

Xia Nan knew in his heart that this was not causing trouble.

An ordinary squad composed of bottom-level adventurers, in a place like the Mist Forest, encountered two human corpses in a short period of time, one of which was even an acquaintance they knew.

It was by no means a coincidence.

At this time, there was still a journey of nearly three days before walking out of the forest, and there was absolutely the possibility of encountering the same danger.

Humans or monsters, it doesn't matter.

At least clarify what is lurking around the squad and what they might face in the future.

Just like the provocative act of hanging the corpse on a tree after torturing George to death.

These cruel beasts had no intention of covering up their identity at all.

The wounds on the corpse, the marks on the armor, and even the footprints and some hair on the ground nearby were left behind as if in contempt.

Precisely because of this, after only a dozen minutes, Adeline and Berg reached a final conclusion.

"First, judging by the degree of decay of the corpse and the type of wounds, George and the corpse we found on the way here died at roughly the same time."

"Even, that adventurer who has already died is actually a member of the 'Iron Hand' squad."

Xia Nan agreed in his heart.

It's not a lone wolf like himself. There are many people in "Iron Hand" George's squad. Unless there is infighting, there is no reason for him to be in danger alone.

As the squad leader, George, who had the strongest strength, became like this, their squad, not to mention being wiped out, should at least have suffered a heavy blow and serious casualties.

"Secondly, although there are obvious signs of being smashed by blunt weapons on the discovered armor, judging by the degree of damage to the equipment, the attacker's weapon is not very sophisticated, just purely damaging the armor through physical strength."

"And there are obvious bite marks on the wounds of the corpse, and insulting words were deliberately left on the chest in common language."

"Therefore, it can be judged that the attacker is likely not an adventurer like 'Scar', but a kind of humanoid monster that possesses a certain intelligence, is full of hostility toward humans, knows how to use weapons, and even knows how to set up simple traps."

As for the possibility that human adventurers deliberately left traces and forged crimes to blame monsters...

It can only be said that in a place like the Mist Forest, if you kill ten thousand people in the same way and don't care about it, I'm afraid only a pile of white bones will be left the next day.

There is no need to cover up traces at all.

"So... did those Goblins do it? But if it were them..."

After listening to Adeline's analysis, Abi guessed so.

His face was still pale, and his eyes drifted to the sky when he spoke, seemingly afraid to look at the bloody corpse on the grass.

"Not Goblins." Berg's face was so gloomy that it seemed like it could drip water, turning his head to stare at the shadows in the dense bushes around him.

As if he could see something from those deep darknesses.

If the time were pulled back to ancient times, before that war of gods, perhaps the naturally violent Goblins might really have done this kind of thing of torturing prey.

But ever since they disappeared with their main god "Maglubiyet" and returned to this continent.

These stupid green-skinned rats have become "machines" dominated by desire and destructive emotions, acting purely on physical instinct.

It is absolutely impossible for them to let a complete human corpse full of fat and muscle rot quietly in the wild.

Without taking it back to the lair to fill their stomachs.

And they don't have the skill and patience to endure the hunger churning in their stomachs and torture the delicious food that has already lost the ability to resist.

Eating them alive while the prey still has consciousness is already the most cruel torture method these green skins can do.

"But if there are Hobgoblins, isn't their intelligence..."

Recalling the knowledge about Goblins learned from several people after joining the squad.

Abi put forward his own thoughts.

It's not wrong, after all, the Goblin subspecies "Hobgoblin" does possess an IQ comparable to high-level intelligent creatures.

But...

Adeline shook her head, having long since locked onto the real culprit in her heart.

Her gaze looked at the bushes not far from George's corpse, which were pressed and broken, clearly leaving traces of biological passage.

She had already gone to look when she checked before.

A string of footprints exactly the same as those found beside the corpse suspected to be a member of the "Iron Hand" squad.

Also five to seven inches in length, the same parallel toe prints that are expanded outward and longer inside, and even the stride is exactly the same as before.

"Full of hostility toward humans," "humanoid monsters that know how to use weapons and set up traps," "footprints with special toe shapes," "insulting words left on the chest of the corpse"...

Combined with the anecdotes circulating among bottom-level adventurers in Hegu Town recently—

Sharp and strange whistling like hyenas coming from afar when camping, ghostly green eyes and hunched figures standing quietly in the forest at night, adventurer squads disappearing inexplicably in simple missions...

And the several high-bounty missions that suddenly appeared on the Association's mission panel.

The answer is already clear.

"It's... Gnolls!"

Beside her, Berg almost gritted his teeth, growling in a low voice.

His face was shrouded in the shadows cast by the canopy above, unable to see his expression, leaving only a deep, dead black on his face.

"We can't stay here anymore, we must leave immediately!"

Adeline's expression was serious, her gaze sweeping quickly through the forest around her, seemingly worried that there were enemies ambushing in it at this moment.

Abi basically only knew the name of Gnolls, but seeing that both were so nervous, he couldn't help but tense up.

Xia Nan had urgently supplemented a lot of knowledge related to monsters in the town before, so he understood the urgency of the situation.

But in a few seconds, the entire squad retreated into the dark forest and left here quickly.

The twilight was dim, and the air was dead silent.

Only cold blood and gore remained in the forest.

The silver-white arm armor lay quietly on the ground, surrounded by mud and grass stems.

The metallic surface reflecting light refracted the bloody corpse beside it.

(End of chapter)