Chapter 842 Your desert Ellu is so weird, meow
Hunters started from the public tavern located in the center of the city and walked all the way outside the city.
When passing by his own chamber of commerce, Anhil got a carriage out, which made their movement a lot faster, but even so, it still took more than two hours to reach their destination.
The outskirts of East Doruma are not the kind of endless plains. It faces the sea (Giokrok Inland Sea) to the south and hills to the north. The ruins of the fortress at the destination are located between the hilly areas.
Although the roads along this route are quite well built, smooth and wide, it still takes a lot of time to go around the hills.
“Stop!”
The horse was blocked in the middle of the road ahead. Several soldiers with spears stepped forward and stopped the carriage.
The coachman was a little dissatisfied. This carriage had the crest of the Stirling family on it.
However, the soldiers of the kingdom did not let them go unconditionally because of this, and it seemed that they had received strict orders from above.
After all, not all the armaments stored in the arsenal are used to supply the battle streets. The logistics department of the kingdom's military also suffered heavy losses.
Kut Az got out of the car and showed the order document from the guild headquarters, and then the soldiers moved away and let the horse go.
The destination was in sight, and Gordon and the others had no intention of continuing to ride. They jumped out of the car one after another. Anhil asked the driver to wait here. The group walked through the checkpoint and arrived at the ruins of the fortress. forward.
This is a castle built on a mountain. Looking at the map provided by Kut Aiz, the arsenal is built inside and underground of the mountain. The castle outside the mountain has been completely reduced to a masonry ruin, and the original outline is not visible at all. Out.
“What kind of power does it take to destroy a fortress like this?” Hayata muttered to himself.
“What’s even more frightening is that no one survived and there was no time to raise any alarm.”
Gordon knelt down, took out his peeling knife, found a piece of broken masonry, and chipped it a few times. "It's very strong. This is not a shoddy project."
"You understand what I'm saying. Why are you sure that it can't be man-made at first glance?" Kurt Aiz also squatted down and fiddled with the broken bricks. "Even if there is a group of thieves that can break through the defense of the garrison, it is impossible." Destroy the fortress like this.”
“Didn’t you say before that there was a large amount of gunpowder stored in the arsenal? Is it possible that the castle was shattered because the gunpowder arsenal exploded?”
Before Kurt Aiz could say anything, Pig Chop spoke first, "No, meow, the main reason why the castle was destroyed was definitely not the gunpowder explosion, meow.
The gunpowder magazine exploded and shattered the castle into pieces. The broken bricks and stones were scattered hundreds of meters away. Meows were everywhere, but there was no meow. "
"Yes." Kurt Az nodded, "This is also the judgment of our guild knights who are responsible for the initial investigation."
Pandan, who has been covering her nose since arriving here, muttered, "It stinks so much, meow! This burning smell in the air, meow!"
Kutaiz spread his hands and said, "In addition to gunpowder, there is also some kerosene stored in the arsenal. It should be the smell left after burning kerosene.
Some soldiers who hid deep in the arsenal were suffocated to death by the poisonous smoke from burning. "
"It's not the smell of kerosene." Xianglan held her nose and breathed loudly, but she said with certainty, "The smell of burning kerosene is very light, and it smells good. No, it's not like this anyway.
This is more like the smell of burning heavy oil. "
Gordon looked at Pandan curiously, "Do you still know something about oil?"
“Sneeze meow—”
Pandan sneezed, "I grew up in Balubare. Balubare would sometimes move near the oil spring to extract kerosene from oil as a commodity."
Many little Ellu like to sit around the still pot and smell the smell of kerosene. "
Xianglan looked at it sideways, "Don't you Ellu in the mountains also like to smell monster **** and urine stains?"
“That’s to confirm the danger, meow!”
With no time to pay attention to the bickering between the two Ellu, Kurt Aiz frowned and thought for two seconds, then said "I'm going to find something" and then rushed into the ruins.
Gordon took the pork chop aside and asked Pandan, "What did you mean by heavy oil just now?"
Pandan gestured, “Even the sticky black waste left after extracting kerosene from petroleum, you can also burn it, but it will burn slowly and the smell will be too bad.
So it is basically useless. After refining the kerosene, it will be thrown away directly. "
Kut Aiz ran back with a piece of brick. He put the broken brick in front of Pandan, "Is this it?"
There were traces of black grease on the bricks. Pandan sniffed a little and then folded her ears. She covered her nose and said, "It's meow. The smell is a little different, but it's pretty much the same."
Gordon reached out and dipped some in it, then rolled it on his fingertips. It was very sticky, almost like glue.
“Have you confirmed that there is no heavy oil in the supplies stored in the arsenal?” Anhir asked.
“It’s not on the list.” Kutez shook his head and said, “Besides, it’s useless to store it.”
“Then it seems the attackers brought it here.” Gordon wiped the grease from his fingers on the ground. “The Mantis probably has nothing to do with heavy oil, right?”
Anhil shook his head, "It's hard to tell. The Mantis is good at burrowing into the ground, and the ruins of the ancient village are in the desert. It's not impossible for it to happen to pass by an oil spring and get oiled all over it.
More importantly, doesn’t Mantis like to collect metal utensils? As far as I know, some large boilers also use heavy oil as fuel, so the possibility of Mantis accidentally bringing heavy oil is not impossible. "
Speaking of this, Ancier paused and emphasized: "I am just saying this because I don't want to directly rule out the suspicion of Ge Mantis just because of the presence of heavy oil.
But this does not mean that we must pin the real culprit on Ge Mantis. We still need more evidence and objective analysis. "
"Um."
Kut Az straightened the brim of his hat, obviously agreeing with Ancier's statement, "We know too little about the mantis, and you two can even be said to be the people who know the most about this mysterious creature in the world.
Judging from the current evidence, Mantis is the most suspect.
But whether the attacker is it or not, what the guild needs is the truth, not a forcibly created enemy. "
"Let's continue walking in." Gordon stood up, "I may not know much about other aspects, but I think I'm pretty good at analyzing monster traces.
I have asked before, and I also confirmed on the way here that there are no footprints left by large monsters near the ruins of the fortress, so there are basically only two possibilities for the arrival and departure of the attackers.
—to fly, or to burrow into the earth.
The Mantis should not have the ability to fly. We can look carefully to see if there are any tunnels or tunnels. Even if the attackers filled in the tunnels when they left, there will always be some traces of excavation left.
From those traces, it should be basically possible to determine whether the attacker is a mantis. "
“Well, that makes sense.”
Kurt Aiz smiled and said: "The Great Elder was right to call you back in a hurry. When it comes to tracking monsters and analyzing footprints, we guild knights are ultimately not as good as you hunters who are fighting on the front line.
Let's search separately, it will be more efficient, and meet up to communicate after the search. "
Ps. As mentioned in the setting, the entire army was annihilated several times when the fortress was destroyed, and there were no surviving witnesses. This is actually quite difficult to explain.
The possibility is barely given here, that is, the survivors can hide deep in the fortress, and then be suffocated to death by the poisonous smoke of burning black oil.
(End of this chapter)