RNP Chapter 2582: The Devil and the Monk
Chapter 2582: The Devil and the Monk
Chapter 2582: Centennial Demon and Hermit
The iron fence outside the cemetery is mainly to prevent wild animals from breaking in. This remote and shabby family cemetery has no gravekeeper, so it cannot prevent tomb robbers.
But the Bennet family has a good reputation in the local area and has been very popular with the townspeople since the baron era. In addition, the people of Creekwood are really simple and honest, so there has never been a serious tomb-robbing incident so far.
"Thomas Bennet's father is Bruce Bennet, his grandfather is Baron James Bennet, and his great-grandfather is Howard Bennet when you arrived in Riverwood. All three of them are here."
After using the [Gate Key] to open the cemetery gate, Shade was still muttering to himself.
The structure of the cemetery is relatively simple. Behind the gate is a trail leading to a low stone house in the center of the cemetery. Opening the door of the stone building is a staircase leading to the underground crypt, where all the Bennetts are buried.
The underground tomb is not complicated. It is a cold but dry open square space supported by six pillars. The coffin is placed in the groove of the wall. The stone walls next to the coffin are inlaid with stone tablets to introduce the achievements and past events of these barons.
With a snap of his fingers, the torches on the walls and stone pillars lit up one by one. Shade, who was expecting to encounter evil spirits, took a quick look and was disappointed to find that the place was very clean.
The red-haired girl raised her hands, and with a rumbling sound, the heavy sarcophagi flew out from the wall and were neatly placed beside the wall.
Xia De looked at her in surprise. With the power of the Seventh Ring, such a basic spell "Move Object" should not have such a strong power. Obviously, her spell has also been uniquely adjusted to be so amazing. The young sorceress smiled and said:
"Even if I am one ring lower than you now, it is not an ordinary seven rings."
There is no cremation tradition in this area, so the stones are filled with corpses. Shade asked Miss Danister to be on guard while he opened the coffins one by one for inspection.
Mummies, skeletons, and funerary objects, Shade touched every item just to be on the safe side. The order of inspection was from modern times to ancient times, but none of the bodies showed any signs of the curse of time.
However, when Shade examined the oldest coffin, which was the remains of the first Baron Bennett, whose tombstone was marked as "1499 to 1551", he still had no time to curse, but when he touched the dry bones, he felt an extremely dirty and cold force:
"This is... the demon of sight!"
The magic was activated, and in the dim firelight, a layer of faint black light immediately appeared on the remaining bones:
"demon?"
"what?"
Miss Danister, who was examining the inscription on the tomb, turned around and asked, and walked to Shade:
"what have you found?"
"The stench of the devil, the ancient evil demon."
Xia De squinted his eyes and looked at the things in the coffin:
"It's a very faint demonic power. If it weren't for my strong perception and the fact that this magic is specifically aimed at demons, I wouldn't even be able to detect it.
The first Baron of the Bennet family was once contaminated by the power of the devil, but he probably did not directly accept the devil's deal, otherwise the power would be even stronger."
Miss Danister stretched her head and glanced at the inscription on the side:
"He lived more than 300 years ago and was awarded the title of baron for his military achievements. He participated in the war between the then-unified Kingdom of Carsenrick and the Eastern Kingdom of Delinor. His right leg was injured and amputated, and he also lost his left eye. In the end, he retired as a lieutenant general and returned to his hometown, Ximu Town.
It was a truly eventful life, so the skeleton does not have a right leg."
Shade thought for a while:
"Three hundred years ago? When I first came here, I heard from the locals in the black market that an ancient evil demon appeared in Creekwood Town about two or three hundred years ago. The town was very small at the time. The only church was the Church of Nature, and there were not many ring warlocks. That accident almost caused the town to disappear."
Miss Danister nodded slightly, obviously having heard this story before:
"There are records specifically about this kind of ancient evil spirit in the academy library. I did see this incident when I was looking up the history of Creekwood Town. The first Baron Bennett was very likely to have encountered that incident. He was one of the few nobles in the town at that time, so it was normal for him to be corrupted or controlled by the devil."
Although the demonic power still remained in the corpse, there was no need to worry about it because it would completely disappear in another 100 or 200 years. The only value of these bones was probably to be sold on the black market as "cursed materials", but of course, Shade would not do such a thing.
"Does the book mention who the demon was? How did he come from? How was the matter resolved at that time?"
After confirming that there was no clue in the last coffin, Xia De closed it again.
"It didn't say where it came from, nor did it say its specific identity. The demon was finally sealed by the 13th ring warlock 'Forest Hunter' sent to the local area by the Church of Nature, using an angel-level relic. Now the relic is still being kept in the Church of Nature, so there is no need to worry about encountering this thing during our stay in Vesta City."
"Why haven't I heard of this 'Forest Ranger'?"
Xia De asked again, and the red-haired girl looked at her student with a smile:
"Because that gentleman lived more than 300 years ago, he passed away when my teacher was still a student, so of course you have never heard of him. My teacher once told me about that gentleman, and at that time I..."
She suddenly smiled. She was clearly looking at the sarcophagus, but it seemed as if she saw something more distant:
"I was eighteen when the teacher told me about that gentleman."
She looked up at her students again and thought of the conversation they had many years ago. Everything had changed, but she herself remained the same. She was a little absent-minded for a moment, and her eyes were a little dazed.
Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Xia De looking at her with a smile:
"If we can meet your teacher in the future, how surprised do you think she will be when she sees you now?"
"But the library states that the teacher died on Mount Sikar."
She shook her head, but Shade continued:
"Yes, but this is Riverwood Town, and there is a tree hole here. I just don't know if your teacher has ever been to Riverwood Town."
Miss Danister Gustave was startled for a moment, then she laughed:
"Shad, I know you're joking, please don't give me such unrealistic expectations."
Since no clues were found in the cemetery, the only hope for the next step of the investigation is tonight's banquet, or the half page of the newspaper that the two ladies brought back from a hundred years ago.
However, it is difficult to divine the origin of the newspaper because it has traveled through time twice, at least before Shade gets new coins and is willing to spend them. Therefore, Shade still hopes to discover something interesting at tonight's banquet.
But this outing with Miss Danister did not end there. She had another purpose for going out, which was to establish contact with the [Hermits of the Forest].
When she first arrived at the local area, she hoped to meet those hermits through the identity of "Red Moon Witch - Danister", so that communication would be relatively convenient.
But she had turned into her current 18-year-old appearance before she even met the other party, so she could only communicate with the [Forest Hermits] as an ordinary ring sorcerer. If the other party was unwilling to cooperate, she could then reveal her own Saint Byron background.
The Hermits of the Forest are based deep in the Vestal Forest, but no one knows the exact location except themselves. The Hermits believe in the departed old god, the White Sacred Tree. According to Saint Byron's estimate, the core members of the group should be between 50 and 80 people.
Although this sounds like a lot, the core members actually include a large number of ordinary hermits who have given up life in the civilized world and voluntarily retired to the mountains, so there are probably only about twenty ring sorcerers among them.
Although Miss Danister successfully established contact with the hermits, it was obviously impossible to take Shade directly to their residence. The meeting place for both parties was a small village in the southeast of Vista Forest. There was only a small road connecting it to the city that could allow carriages transporting wood to pass through. The village was called "Little Mig Village".
The village can exist so deep in the woods because there are large logging camps to the east, west and north. Except for a few farmers and hunters, most people in the village depend on the workers in these logging camps for their income.
Therefore, there is a tavern in the small village. However, it is Tuesday noon, and the lumberjacks usually do not appear in the village but eat at their workplace, so the tavern is very quiet.
The low row of wooden houses was the main building of the tavern. Although the sun was shining brightly outside, it was a little dark and cool inside. When Shade and the red-haired girl walked around the edge of the city and arrived at the Little Mig Village, the hermit who came to meet them had already arrived at the tavern in advance and sat down at a table against the wall.
Shad ordered drinks and lunch from the bearded tavern owner who looked like a butcher at the front desk, and then walked over with Miss Danister.
"John Watson."
After sitting down, Xia De extended his hand to the middle-aged man with a brown robe and a light beard, and the latter shook his hand:
"Bell Van Buren."
He looked to be about 40 years old, and he looked very old. Although the brown robe was washed very clean, you could tell at a glance that the material of the cloth was not very good. He looked very shabby, but his eyes were particularly bright, which was in line with Xia De's imagination of the special profession of "hermit".
On the table in front of the hermit Mr. Van Buren there was only a newspaper, a glass of water and a piece of bread. The people in the "Hermits in the Forest" really lived a hermit life and did not advocate eating and drinking:
"Good afternoon, Mr. Watson, and this strange lady, did you get in touch with us through the black market in Creekwood? Before we officially start the conversation, please allow me to ask, where did you get that piece of 'Friendship Oak'?"
PS: Thanks to the reader @巴普斯定理 for the tip! Thank you very much, I will add another chapter.
(End of this chapter)