"Is it true what you say about water spirits?"
The black ring was dark and dull, sucking one's mind away like a black hole.
The wind in the woods stopped and everything was silent.
Uncle Peek's eyes instantly went hollow, and he dully returned, "I... I don't know..."
Nal felt something was wrong with his master and called out in a hurry.
"Woof!"
Eleazar looked straight at the hound, who was slowly tucking his tail, and continued, "How did the word get out."
"The youngest daughter of Sir ... "fell into a lake while hunting and drowned... We've been trying to find her for a week... Nobody could be found... People began to wonder... They wondered if the water ghosts had taken the body..."
Eleazar's head tilted, "That's it?"
"Yes... The..."
"Tch, these folk."
Eleazar thought they were on the trail of something like that, not realizing it was all just their imagination and speculation, what a waste of spirituality.
It was already hypnotized anyway, so it was better to use the spell's effects to the end.
"You've been on patrol, you haven't met anyone just now, go to sleep."
Uncle Peek planted himself backward at the sound and lay on all fours on the grass.
Eleazar glanced at the terrified hound and smiled slightly, "Dog, you too oh."
"Oooh..."
Putting down a man and a dog, Eleazar turned back toward the hunting grounds.
He'd like to see what kind of natural balance that ecologist maintained.
Finding a path that has been trampled out for years, Eleazar goes deeper into the hunting jungle.
"There are no signs of transcendental species living..."
Walking along the way, occasionally turning on his senses and observing his surroundings, he quickly came to this conclusion.
At least he hadn't seen any signs of that where he'd traveled, and there was no telling if he'd find anything deeper.
Soon, Eleazar met the lake the ranger was talking about.
"I told you, such a big lake, seven days to salvage the body, this is not a dream?"
The sight of a vast lake that could not be accommodated at all, the surface of the lake slightly rippled with golden waves, clear water, animals divided into their respective areas were drinking with their heads down, a fishing rod was erected in it.
Uh, a fishing rod?
Eleazar squinted his eyes and determined that there was indeed a fishing rod across the street.
If there were water ghosts in the lake, it would undoubtedly be a self-defeating act, and any angler who disturbed them would be mercilessly hunted down, whereas the fact that someone was lounging around and fishing here showed that it was all just conjecture.
Eleazar quickly loses interest in the legend of the water ghosts and prepares to move on to find the lords.
But just as he was about to turn away, he inadvertently saw, on the shore of the lake, a series of unusual footprints.
"Such traces..."
It looked like footprints made by bare feet, but if one could distinguish them carefully, one could see that there seemed to be something connected between the toes, like a frog's foot.
This lake... There are water ghosts!
Then the angler across the street...
Eleazar takes a small breath and quickly rushes around the lake in that direction.
He came in late and all that was left of the fishing spot was a lone rod, even the line was ripped off.
A conspicuous drag mark on the ground, leaving various signs of struggle along the way, finally disappearing into the lake.
Eleazar moves in a very slight crouch.
Be sure to be quiet around the water; first, this won't scare the fish, and second, this won't attract water spirits.
He touched the already-hardened dirt of the drag marks and looked up at the sun again.
The one who was dragged down was probably finished being shared and eaten long ago.
Eleazar turned his head again to look around at the animals that were drinking.
They leaned back on all fours, their heads hung low, their erect ears listened all around them, but their eyes were fixed dead ahead, their lips just slightly touching the water, and their movements were very slight as if they were on the lookout for something.
Looks like the animals have seen those things for a long time.
"Water spirits..."
Eleazar thought back to what was written about the creature in the magic guidebooks.
[Water ghosts, also known as drowners, necrophagous creatures...]
They were much like freshly drowned corpses, with greenish skin, long dorsal fins, gill sacs, toe palms, and the characteristic strength of necrophagous creatures, and all of their abilities were related to water.
With his current strength, he could only wait for death when swarmed by such things underwater.
But not if it's on shore...
So now the crux of the matter is how to lure them up, dangling that kind of method surely won't work, they are swarming creatures, and it's no fun to lure one or two of them out.
To lure, you have to lure a whole nest of them.
"Necrophagous creatures? Count yourselves unlucky."
Eleazar quickly came up with a solution.
He took out a magic ration from his backpack.
This secret jerky is used to honor the demons, I'm sure they'll love it.
The brick size is just right for tearing into many servings.
Break it up and throw a little into the water first as if you were feeding a fish, then back up as you sprinkle it, leading to the shore 10 meters or so away.
Water spirits never get too far out of the water, any farther and they might not fall for it.
Eleazar then ambushed and waited.
The wait was long, so long that he wondered if the jerky was useless.
If they didn't work, then he'd just have to hunt animals for some specialty carrion.
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."
Just then, dense bubbles suddenly rose to the surface of the water.
Meanwhile, the animals on the shore, as if they had seen some natural enemy, all retreated frantically, without exception.
Eleazar crouches down and does a final check of his gear.
The main weapon for later would be the Silver Ring, taking melee physical combat, which could be combined with reusable engineered traps, he didn't intend to use silver bullets unless the numbers were too high, it would be a waste to shoot a single bullet against such a low-ranking zombie-eating creature.
He was ready when a splashing movement came from the lake that sounded like fairies playing in the water.
But if you cast your eyes over it, it will make those who associate with it go into cardiac arrest.
A group of green-faced, fanged monsters swooped through the water.
They were coaxing at the jerky floating in the water, and Eleazar took the opportunity to count the number.
One, two, three... Four, five, six... Seven eight... Eight water ghosts...
The numbers did not exceed expectations, and Eleazar was silent and still, waiting for his prey to take the bait.
They finished eating the bait in the water and soon found that there were still remnants on the shore, so they swooped over again to snatch and grab, picking up and eating, unknowingly walking for more than ten meters, and then the heads of the three companions in front of them suddenly flew up.
Eleazar, who had ambushed behind a rock, was killed with his sword in a heavy horizontal slash, lording it over three water spirits on the spot.
The remaining five behind them froze, then burst into a rage and pounced on them one after the other.
The closest one was less than half a meter away, almost in your face, and Eleazar could already smell the sickening stench of fish on it.
The water ghosts pounced directly!
Side-stepping, he flipped his wrist and lifted his blade upwards.
As a green arm flew up, Eleazar made another turn to stand at the side of the cross-flying water spirit, sword in both hands, slashing down diagonally.
The entire combo was completed in the blink of an eye, in front of the eyes of outsiders he just quickly dodged sideways, while the water ghost that lunged out inexplicably flew up with a hand, and when it landed it split into two.
The rest of the water ghosts became even more frenzied, and as if by premeditation they swooped out one after the other, blocking all of Eleazar's retreats.
Like an Olympic athlete in a long jump competition, it catapulted out with horrific power
Eleazar couldn't help but take a step back.
He didn't dare to take it hard, even for a moment.
Corpse-eating creatures were born with divine strength, opening mountains and cracking rocks and whatnot, and it was easy to break his body with just a hand.
Almost without giving him time to react, the four figures had swooped in front of him, but well Eleazar had his spells ready as well.
He quickly raised his palm, and the air currents gathered in all directions, then infused with cold energy and pushed out with a heavy palm.
"Dang..."
With an explosive sound, the bursting airflow caught the cold wind, and the three figures in front of him directly shattered, it all happened so fast that it was completely indistinguishable whether it was frozen after it was blown up before it was condensed, or whether it was frozen before it was shattered.
Only one water ghost who hid behind his companion escaped.
It was covered in a layer of frozen frost and moved slowly, fear showing in its eyes.
Eleazar had just come back to his senses covering his pumped-up head when he saw it bend over and pick out a clump of mud and throw it over.
Then without looking at the results, he just turned around and ran.
Eleazar quickly deflects his head to avoid it but still gets some splattered on his face and his gaze sinks on the spot.
Bending his body, bowing, his figure shot out explosively, the surrounding scenery blurred in an instant, and when the two sides were about to brush past each other, the sword blade placed across his waist swung out instantly.
The hunt is over...