Aurelio halted his steps in a hurry and then swiftly made his way back to Gloria's side. He whispered, "Squat down, and... don't say anything until I say it's okay." Seeing the female knight comply without hesitation, he then walked over to the spider's corpse.
He thought to himself, "If there's only one gunman, then I should have at least thirty seconds."
He lowered his head and carefully examined the spider's corpse while keeping track of the time in his mind. There was a bullet hole in one of the spider's eyes. The bullet had entered its brain through there, delivering the final blow. The bullet hole was quite large, with a diameter of over an inch.
Green mucus was oozing out of the bullet hole, looking rather disgusting. After making sure that the spider was dead and wouldn't suddenly jump up again, Aurelio turned his head away. He didn't want to look at the corpse anymore and instead began to search for the gunman.
As Aurelio paced around, he pondered, "Without a doubt, with such a large caliber, it's a heavy arquebus. One would surely die if hit by it."
Thirty seconds had passed. Perhaps the gunman had already reloaded. Thinking of this, Aurelio continued to move about randomly while observing his surroundings, making it difficult for the musketeer to take aim. Until he located the other party, this was the only way he could buy time.
However, the gunman didn't remain in hiding. Just over ten seconds later, he emerged from the mist. He walked straight towards Aurelio and then stopped three steps away. The two men faced each other, sizing each other up.
It was an old man in his fifties. He was nearly four inches shorter than Aurelio, but he was very muscular. He had a thick beard and his face was covered with wrinkles of various depths. His gray eyes were particularly deep. He wore a wide-brimmed leather hat and a leather waistcoat with many pockets on it. Both the hat and the waistcoat were roughly made and had faded 明显 due to sun exposure and getting wet, and there were many signs of wear, making them look extremely old.
Based on his attire, Aurelio secretly guessed, 'A hunter?'
Compared to the old man's appearance, Aurelio was more concerned about the arquebus. The gun was about six feet long, slightly taller than the old man. Accompanying this gun were a bullet pouch at his waist, a powder flask tied to his body, and a rod that was now being used as a walking stick.
"But if he's a hunter, this weapon doesn't make sense." Aurelio thought, growing more and more puzzled.
He had heard of the power of this kind of musket. At least in Serencia, firearms with a similar caliber were usually used to attack soldiers wearing plate armor. The power of this kind of musket was such that even the heaviest plate armor couldn't withstand a hit from it at a distance of several dozen paces. For unarmored creatures, even if the lead bullet flew over four hundred paces, it was still deadly enough. Of course, some flexibility had to be sacrificed for power. This gun was extremely bulky, probably weighing nearly twenty pounds.
Aurelio couldn't figure out for the life of him what purpose an old man dressed like a hunter would have for carrying such a powerful yet inconvenient weapon.
The more he thought about it, the more confused he became: "Westrick would import this kind of musket. But it's very expensive, and only a few elite troops in the army are equipped with it. How could it end up in the hands of a hunter? Could it be that someone from the 'Errata Faction' captured the weapon from the regular army? But that doesn't make sense. How could the militia use it well? Moreover, despite his age, he can still use this weapon... which means he's definitely no ordinary person. There's no doubt that this man has a military background."
He became doubly vigilant, staring intently at the arquebus on the old man's shoulder. The slow match on the gun was still smoldering, and there was probably ammunition in the barrel. He remained on guard without showing any signs of it, while simultaneously preparing his magic through silent incantations in his mind.
He was planning in his mind, "However, when facing an enemy using firearms head-on, I have an absolute advantage. If the other party makes a move, I can simply cast a spell to ignite the powder at the touchhole, causing the gun to misfire; or I can snatch the spark on the slow match, preventing it from firing."
Since he was quite confident, he decided to remain silent first and wait for the other party to speak. After the two men stared at each other for another ten seconds or so, the old man finally spoke and asked, "Are you two okay?"
When the words fell, Aurelio was even more surprised. Because these words were spoken in the Serencia language. The old man might have been lying in ambush nearby and had clearly heard their conversation.
No one likes being spied on, but Aurelio was still able to remain calm, not even showing a fleeting expression. He hid his suspicions and hostility and replied in a calm and normal tone, "We're fine."
The old man didn't seem to see through his disguise. He just peered through the mist at the crouching female knight and asked, "How is she? I saw that young girl crouching over there. She wasn't hurt, was she?"
"I'm fine, just got..." Gloria was about to answer when she remembered her companion's request and quickly stopped herself, "Nothing! You don't need to worry."
"That's good." The old man nodded after hearing this and walked towards the spider he had shot. He crouched on the ground, examined the broken spider leg, and then looked at the sword stuck in the spider's body and exclaimed, "The young people nowadays really are something!" He sounded sincere, as if it was a genuine compliment.
"What is he looking at?" Aurelio was feeling uneasy in his heart. "After knowing that she doesn't have a weapon, what will he... do?" He looked at the old man and saw that the other party had his back to him and his attention was still on the spider. He thought, "Perhaps this is the best opportunity. But what if he has accomplices? I can't act rashly."
"Your marksmanship is also quite something." Aurelio pretended to flatter. As he spoke, he pricked up his ears to listen to the surroundings.
"Ha ha! It was just good luck. I happened to hit it in the eye." The old man said as he stood up and looked back at Aurelio, "Seeing you two makes me think of a friend."
"A friend?"
"Like you two, also from Serencia."
Gloria was crouching behind, peering through the mist at the two men and guessing the content of their conversation. Aurelio always spoke in a low voice, so she couldn't hear a word; the old man, on the other hand, had a loud voice and she could hear him clearly even though he was farther away. Hearing the old man mention a friend, she couldn't help but feel a bit curious.
"I'm Elvin, a hunter nearby. Recently... I've been really troubled by this spider." The old man, seeing that Aurelio didn't respond, then changed the topic, "Thank you so much for helping me get rid of it!" After saying that, he laughed heartily.
"It was nothing. Has this spider only appeared recently?"
"Yes, about a month ago." The old man complained, "Outside the forest are those damn 'Errata Faction' heretics, and inside there's this monster! It's really unbearable!"
"That's a pity." Aurelio replied perfunctorily. In his heart, he was speculating whether the old man's cursing of the heretics was sincere enough.
"It's quite far from other villages. You probably won't be able to reach any of them before it gets dark today. If you don't mind, come and sit at my place for a while."
"Thank you." Aurelio replied in a flat tone, and Gloria also stood up to express her gratitude.
"Follow that path over there. It'll take about ten minutes to get there."
"You go ahead. We still have some things to take care of."
The old man nodded, left a parting word of "Be sure to come", and then left laughing.