Bear School Astartes

The wooden bridge built on a series of floating boats echoed with a muffled ’thump thump thump’ under the weight of heavy footsteps.

The bridge was several hundred meters long, wide enough for four people to walk side by side, but now there was only one figure occupying half the width.

This figure walked unhurriedly towards Long Lake Town and was unsurprisingly stopped by guards before entering the town’s entrance.

The temperature over the lake was low, and the cold mist penetrated through two layers of cotton clothing with its dampness!

The entrance to the town was a small guard house, essentially just a wooden hut.

Inside the wooden hut, there was the ’crackle’ of burning firewood, smoke rose slowly from the chimney atop the hut and merged with the cold mist into one.

Two men were inside the hut, their faces flushed with the redness of alcohol consumption.

The smell of cheap beer, mixed with body odor and sweat... mingled with the heat of the firewood, emanating from the side window of the small hut.

”Hey, someone’s coming.”

A slurred voice came from inside the hut, followed by reluctant complaints and mumbling, before the wooden door creaked open, and a guard came out with a spear.

The other merely stuck his head out the side window to look outside, while his body still clung to the warmth of the bonfire.

”What’s your situation?”

The guard who stepped out impatiently lifted the brim of his hat.

He was wearing a suit of chainmail, covered by a cotton coat and tunic with armored plates, and wore a cone-shaped helmet with soft fur edges.

The quality of this equipment was actually good, but unfortunately, the wearer only realized when standing in front of Lann that his helmet was too large and he had to lift it to get a good view.

And when he truly saw the person before him...

”My goodness... hmm?”

The guard lifted the brim, showing an expression of awe, and hadn’t had time to finish his exclamation when a faint, cold white light illuminated from Lann’s hanging left hand.

This kind of person is not one of strong resolve, and he’s certainly not in a highly focused state at the moment.

Earlier, when this guard came out of the warm hut, Lann noticed the tears hanging at the corners of his eyes due to sleepiness.

This kind of person is very suitable for the [Yakxi Rune].

”Don’t mind me too much, sir. I’m just an ordinary person, albeit a bit taller.”

Lann said softly, and the guard opposite him nodded foolishly in sync.

”Yes, yes, an ordinary person, don’t mind...”

”I didn’t come to Long Lake Town seeking trouble; I’m an honest person. I’m just here looking for some friends who got lost, they’re a group of dwarves. Have you seen them while on duty?”

Lann asked in a tone that wouldn’t disturb the guard’s hypnotic state.

”My god, he’s so tall! Kenny, who is this big guy? What are you mumbling about?”

The guard sticking his head out the window appeared more experienced, his hair slicked back over his forehead, sniffing before asking the guard in front of Lann.

Lann didn’t turn his face towards him, just lit up his hanging left hand again.

”Nothing much.” The guard in front of Lann mumbled. ”Just a passer-by who somehow got separated from his folks, said he came here to meet up, so he came looking.”

The guard sticking his head out the window lazily refrained from bothering further, just curiously examined Lann’s height and build, then retracted his head back to the warm hut.

He muttered, ”Yeah, only here. What other place near this dump can serve as a meeting spot?”

After dismissing the old hand in the hut, Lann continued to speak.

”Please answer the earlier question, sir.”

”Dwarves? Haven’t seen any dwarves crossing the bridge. But there are many ways to enter the town, water routes, smuggling... I can’t manage them.”

”Understood.” Lann nodded, and as he passed the guard, he patted his shoulder. ”But you should be more vigilant, the atmosphere is uneasy these days. Being vigilant is good for you too, isn’t it?”

”Uneasy atmosphere?” The guard’s already confused face turned even more confused, but he still nodded afterward. ”Yes, vigilant, vigilant...”

He only regained his senses after he walked back into the fog-covered hut, shivering slightly.

”Hmm? How did you just come back inside?” The old hand exclamatively looked at the entering guard. ”That person might be harmless, but you should take him to report to the mayor.”

”Whoever wants to go, let them go.” The guard, still a bit slow to react, said irritably. ”It’s damn cold, I don’t want to go again.”

Saying that, he sat on a stool near the stove, reached out to warm his hands, and took out a whetstone to earnestly sharpen his spear’s blade under the old hand’s ghostlike gaze.

These words were a retort to the old hand who hadn’t even stepped out of the hut, but the old hand knew he was at fault, and didn’t want to deepen the bitterness with his colleague, so he laughed dryly and said nothing more.

-----------------

After entering Long Lake Town, the feeling this town gave Lann wasn’t much different from what he observed from afar earlier.

It was now morning, and people were busy.

Most of the people passing by wore dirty and tattered cotton clothes, their felt hats and boots filthy to the point of appearing shiny black. Their faces bore the weariness and exhaustion brought about by the morning and the cold.

Some rotten vegetable leaves dropped on the wooden ground were stepped on, turning almost into a mush. Piglets that somehow escaped from their cages were rooting around, eating these things.

The town built on rocks in the lake has no conventional roads; all the houses are built with wooden planks, and the ground is also covered with wood. If there are no wooden planks, people would have to row a boat to cross.

Lann’s physique is particularly noticeable among the crowd, not to mention his silver hair and face.

However, the Demon Hunter quickly found the flow pattern of people in the town through observation and Mentos’s computational power.

He used the stealth guidelines in the ”Lonely Shadow Group Ninja Techniques Book” to quietly bypass crowded areas and avoid leaving traces that the patrol guards could find.

Eventually, he arrived at the edge of Long Lake Town.

There weren’t many people here, only fishing debris accumulating at the sluice, along with town garbage.

A stray vagabond was lying asleep in the corner across the waterway.

After looking around, Lann gently leapt, wall-jumped twice, and climbed onto the top of the sluice.

Upon standing on it, he gently rubbed the Magic Ring on his hand, and soon the sound of hooves splashing in the lake water echoed from the mist outside the sluice.

The Qilin, carrying Rong Buqiu, ran over from the outer side of Long Lake Town.

”Catch me, meow!”

Rong Buqiu softly called from above.

Then he grabbed onto Lann’s dangling projector hook rope and climbed up, making very little noise the entire way.

”Snort?”

The Qilin below snorted with confusion.

”I need you to stay outside the town for a while, don’t go too far, Qilin.”

Lann instructed the Qilin beneath the sluice.

”This place’s buildings are too cramped and not sturdy; if you come in, I think you might collapse them.”

The New Continent Ancient Dragon heard ’too cramped’ and immediately shook its head with disinterest, its beautiful mane and Magic Rune Cloth fluttering.

In a place like Rivendell, the Qilin was unwilling to stay due to the lack of space, and even more so in this small Long Lake Town.

The Qilin turned and trotted on the lake water to leave, while Rong Buqiu clung to Lann’s shoulder, jumping down with him from the top of the sluice.

The vagabond across the waterway seemed to hear boots stepping on wood planks and turned over to take a look.

He ended up seeing Lann and Rong Buqiu perched on his shoulder.

The two of them and the cat stared blankly at each other for a second, then the vagabond blinked and lay down again.

Mumbling, ”Slept dazed... a silver-haired elf with a clothed cat... what omen is this dream?”

”Hehehe, elves are really good-looking, hehehe...”

Rong Buqiu on Lann’s shoulder and Mentos in his mind nearly simultaneously clicked their tongues with a ’tsk tsk’ sound.

Rong Buqiu also shook his feline head, with the swaying tricolor cat fur by Lann’s shoulder making his neck itch.

Lann immediately looked disdainfully at the small cat on his shoulder.

Long Lake Town is not that big, as this giant rock in the lake is just approximately a kilometer in diameter, similar to a circular area.

Thus, within the crowded and chaotic wooden buildings, Lann and Rong Buqiu quickly searched for traces of the Dwarves.

A significant portion of Long Lake Town’s food comes from fish in the lake, and under difficult living conditions, people don’t pay attention to sanitation.

Consequently, the wooden planks’ ground is strewn with deep dark oxidized aged blood stains and leftover fish scales mixed with the blood stains.

During hot weather, these certainly smell unbearable, and there would surely be swarms of flies buzzing incessantly around the blood stains.

Considering this, the cold mist on the lake, able to penetrate cotton clothes, at least has some advantage — there are no insects.

As Lann passed by an unremarkable group of houses in Long Lake Town, he slowed his pace, strangely observing them there.

Seeing this, Rong Buqiu, who was searching separately in another direction to improve efficiency, scooted back.

”Boss, what’s wrong, meow?”

Relying on its light weight, it had been running on the rooftop, now poking its little cat head from the eaves, gripping the eaves to ask down.

Lann’s body was hidden in a place where no one noticed, cat-like eyes inconspicuously glanced around.

”Someone’s watching this house... their surveillance skills are mediocre, but the number is considerable.”

Around this house, people pretended to admire pottery and rugs on the vendors’ stalls, while others smoked pipes and fished in the middle of waterways.

Yet, their intentions were too obvious to Lann’s keen observation; everyone essentially glanced at the inconspicuous two-story wooden house in the middle every now and then.

”Shall we go take a look, meow?”

”This should be the mayor’s own issue, let’s...”

Originally, Lann meant to say ’let’s focus on our business first’, but before he could finish, a clamor mixed in with the noisy, non-soundproof buildings of Long Lake Town entered the Demon Hunter’s ears.