Bryce looked in the direction of the arrow's tail, leading deeper into the oak forest.
'Arrows from the Skeleton?' Bryce examined closely.
Suddenly, his brows furrowed. Bryce reached out and gently rubbed the arrow shaft, discovering a smudge of charcoal powder on his fingers.
'Not only on the arrow shaft, even the tree bark near the arrowhead is slightly charred. This... indicates a small-scale burning or explosion?' Bryce's thoughts raced, drawing from his rich Minecraft experience and his jumping mind, he sieved out a possible outcome from his memory.
'Firework arrow (Firework rocket),' Bryce deduced. 'This is a firework arrow made from firework stars. This type of arrow not only causes small-scale explosive damage but also does not ignite large fires. But the question is, why would even skeletons start using these tricks?'
Bryce's expression became slightly solemn.
He was not worried about a skeleton suddenly appearing - because if this arrow was shot by a skeleton at William, it should have happened days ago, and it would have turned to ashes under the sun by now. Besides, he had a magic pistol; unless something really bizarre happened that forced him into a scripted kill, Bryce was confident he could handle it. At worst, even if he died, he would respawn at the inn. But the pain before death was inevitable.
Despite this, caution prevailed, and his right hand instinctively rested on the magic pistol.
'This arrow is probably related to William's disappearance,' Bryce pondered. 'No one else comes here. Among various possibilities, the probability of William being attacked seems the highest.'
Next, Bryce faced a choice - whether to go back and meet up with Nancy and John, inform them of the situation, or to risk further exploration on his own.
'Twenty minutes,' Bryce set a time limit for himself. If no further discoveries were made within twenty minutes, he would immediately return. That way, Nancy and the others wouldn't have to wait too long.
'On one hand, time is tight. If we meet up, we will have to return to the village and come back the next day, wasting a lot of time.
'On the other hand, after dark, based on my experience on the Western Steppe, there's an eighty percent chance of encountering monsters, and even if torchlight can prevent their generation or approach, the number of torches we have is woefully inadequate.
'But then again, I don't recall seeing the village brightly lit at night, nor have I encountered monsters with Clementine. There must be some other reason behind this.'
After careful thought, Bryce made up his mind and swiftly headed deeper into the forest.
...
'Indeed, there are issues.' As he progressed further, Bryce noticed more and more anomalies.
Initially, there were trampled grass and scattered tree branches; then, he came across several arrows with brown feathers, some stuck in tree trunks, some slanted into the ground, one of which was even an unexploded rocket - a dud.
Moving ahead, more clues appeared - shattered glass bottles, woolen dust, occasional shreds of clothing.
"Slap!" Bryce suddenly smacked his head. 'Why didn't I think of it earlier? I got it wrong, completely wrong! It's not skeleton—'
Bryce realized that his earlier inference might have been a commonsense mistake.
To fully utilize the power of a firework rocket, the fired arrows needed a significant amount of kinetic energy, something a normal bow couldn't provide. Therefore, it was evident that among conventional weapons, only a crossbow could launch firework rockets.
And skeleton only used bows and arrows.
'Crossbow, firework rockets...' Bryce murmured as a word suddenly flashed in his mind. 'Pillagers!'
'Pillagers are one of the most common illagers, wielding crossbows as weapons and always carrying poisoned or firework arrows." Memories flooded back into Bryce's mind, and his brows furrowed deeper. "If William accidentally ran into Pillagers, then it's likely...'
'But why are pillagers here? Nancy mentioned that this village was deserted for miles around, so how come pillagers suddenly appeared?'
'Could they have relocated here from far away? If this speculation is true, then Nancy's village is in grave danger, and the villagers are most likely in trouble. Fortunately, I haven't seen any Pillagers or other illagers yet. Perhaps I am misjudging things again, and there's another reason.'
Recalling when he left the tavern at noon, Bryce remembered how many villagers noticed him, the outsider. Surprisingly, unlike the NPCs in the game who often seemed aloof, the villagers were curious and surprisingly friendly towards him. Many greeted him, and a purple-robed priest even had a brief chat with him, asking for his name.
'Ah, let's not dwell on it for now,' Bryce felt a headache coming. His brain felt like a lock jammed with chewing gum, the key struggling to turn but yielding no result.
Suddenly, he heard voices approaching from a distance.
Bryce quickly pressed against the sturdy oak tree, his face turned slightly aside, ears perked, and using his peripheral vision to monitor the direction of the voices.
He saw a trio passing by from a dozen meters away. They dressed in brown leather outfits with black belts around their waists. Each carried a loaded crossbow, arrows poised for action.
'A Pillager Patrol!' Bryce recognized them at a glance, his heart sinking.
His earlier speculation was confirmed.
'The worst has happened.' A heavy weight seemed to settle in Bryce's heart as he thought of Nancy, John, and the villagers. 'The best news at the moment is that these guys haven't found any traces of the village yet. But it's only a matter of time.'
The discovery of the patrol meant that a group of illagers had set up a settlement nearby. Illagers encompass pillagers, evokers, vindicators, and illusioners but are collectively referred as one. The patrol was a team of pillagers responsible for patrolling the periphery of the camp, usually comprising three to five members.
The trio chatted with laughs and banter.
"Captain and the others should arrive tonight, huh?" the shortest one inquired.
"Yeah, but I wish they would take a couple more days on the road. We've been enjoying these days," the wiry guy replied.
"Hmph, what's wrong with a bit of tiredness? Which strong person didn't grow through hardship?" The burly pillager in the middle retorted in annoyance.
"Haha, Darke, perhaps you haven't given up on those unrealistic dreams?" the wiry guy laughed. "Even if you trained for another ten years, you still wouldn't match half of what the captain is. In my opinion, it's better to relax like us, much more comfortable."
Darke snorted but remained silent.
"But our luck has been pretty good recently," the shortest patrolman changed the topic. "When the captain arrives and hears the report, we'll probably start a large-scale search tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, too bad that guy died before we could bring him back to camp. Didn't even get to ask where he lived," the wiry one grumbled. "Darke, it's your fault for shooting that arrow too heavy."
Behind the tree trunk, Bryce's face turned pale in an instant.