Eranster was a presence in Carlos's mind that was also a mentor and a friend, and today's rare erratic behavior had Carlos a little worried.
After another long wait, it was nearing the latter part of the night, and no matter how slowly they traveled, they should have arrived, but there was still no sign of half of the Mythic Rat People on the road!
As time passed, Carlos grew more and more anxious, and even Bufex no longer stood leisurely with his arms folded, but paced back and forth slightly nervously.
"That's too long, could it be that he really wants me to do all this work?"
Pacing back and forth, Bufex opened his mouth and said something that made Carlos cry.
"How can you still think like that?
Erlangst is obviously in trouble ah, we should hurry to find him!"
Carlos said with some anxiety.
"I feel that way, I just don't want to admit that something happened that even Elenster couldn't fix, you know?"
Bufex said with sudden solemnity and seriousness.
"Do you think Eranster is just a weak old man?
Do you know how destructive a Fiery Sun Magician who has gathered all of his magical energy to use in an attack can be?
What's the difference between you or I going to Elenster and sending him to his death if the opponent is someone who can take him out without a word?"
Bouffex's words in rapid succession rendered Carlos speechless.
It turned out that Bufex had been pretending to be relaxed all along, and how could Bufex not be worried about his old friend's well-being.
He was just deliberately avoiding what might have happened, not wanting what he envisioned in his mind to be true!
Carlos froze in place, it wasn't as if Carlos didn't understand what was at stake, he just didn't think of it at first, and Carlos had to admit it.
All this time Eranster's pretense of humility in front of himself, as well as the extremely low stance he put on, had made Carlos somewhat belittle this old man who seemed very kind.
Realizing how weak he was was very painful for Carlos, Bufex's words were very realistic, if there was something that Elenst couldn't solve, what could he do if he went?
Boufex's words gave Carlos a big blow, in an instant, loss, helplessness, self-denial, all sorts of negative emotions ensued, and then thought that in the future he might not be able to see that amiable old man again, Carlos unconsciously came out of sadness!
"That being said, I don't think that old man Elenst is dead either, and before you know it, that cane he's been holding has a defensive pentagonal boundary inscribed on it!"
Seeing the change in Carlos's mood, Bufex spoke out at the right time to comfort him, and Bufex didn't expect that Carlos's mental capacity was actually so low!
Although Carlos was reborn in two lives, but has experienced not many births and deaths, did not see his own cherished people leave themselves, about this aspect of the ability to bear a little weaker, fragile emotions is Carlos's weakness, but also its valuable place.
After Bufex finished speaking, Carlos, who realized there was still a turnaround, was in a slightly better mood, sorting out his mind, no longer denying his ego but facing it squarely, his relative weakness now was unquestionable, but it wasn't like he couldn't do anything about it!
Carlos began to try to think of something he could do, after a moment of contemplation, Carlos suddenly took out a lot of magic crystals from his body, and then coalesced pure magical energy to infuse into it, a dozen or so in total, and Carlos used the fastest possible speed to infuse each one of them!
Then he put it away and stared at Bufex with a steely gaze.
"What do you want?"
Bufex was staring uncomfortably at Carlos, and when Carlos didn't say anything, Bufex had to ask.
"Take me to Elenster, I think I can help him!"
Carlos said sincerely.
"What help are you taking?
With your dozen or so magic crystals?"
Bufex said dismissively.
Carlos was about to prove himself with the magic crystal in his arms when he heard Bufex say that, and the hand he had just reached into his arms took it out again with some embarrassment.
"Your little bit of energy won't have any effect at all, don't mess around, it's already good enough to wait properly without adding to the chaos."
Boufex showed no mercy in his blows to Carlos.
"A little doesn't help, so just enough will help won't it?"
Instead of being discouraged, Carlos asked back with confidence.
"How many more do you have?
If you only have a few hundred dollars, forget it, if you can have a thousand, I'll take you to it and maybe it'll help a little."
Bufex asked tentatively, hearing a bit of undercurrent in Carlos' words.
"Five thousand!"
Carlos said in a hushed voice.
Five thousand magic crystals, that was all Carlos had!
"You have so many?"
The amount was a bit of a shock to even Bufex, as he hadn't experienced raiding mercenary ships with Carlos, and I'm sure he wouldn't be surprised if Eranster was here.
After knowing that Carlos has a sizable amount of magic crystal stones, Bufex immediately greeted people to come together to go to Carlos that magic crystal stones, after all, one person can not carry five thousand pieces of magic crystal stones.
Bufex handed over nine more strong warriors of the Oro Owl Clan, adding himself for a total of ten, and came to Carlos with five hundred magic crystals on one's back!
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Carlos had also brought Avril with him, not knowing what he was about to face, but the life energy that Avril had at her disposal might come in handy.
Bufex, as the leader, started searching from the construction site towards where the Meath rat people lived, searching for signs of Elanst along the way.
Even in the midst of the high altitude Bufex could observe the ground, footprints drag marks and such subtle traces were all visible.
The huge pupils that protrude from the Oro Owl Clan make the already scarce light at night even easier on the eyes, and can significantly increase sight distance.
In terms of eyesight alone, it's not much different from one of the five great nobles, the Igaid Bald Eagles, and at night it's even better.
"There, there are signs of a battle, and there are stray footprints!"
After flying a long distance towards the Mythic Rat People settlement, Bufex suddenly noticed something, and the group all landed and went to the ground to observe.
It was only when he got closer that Carlos was able to see many messy footprints on the ground, and many very regular protruding stones that were not naturally formed at first glance, and the traces of having been shaped by earth-attribute magic were very obvious.
There were also some broken pieces of stone on the ground, only there was something special about the way they looked, with sharp teeth and claws, as if they had limbs even though they were clearly stone.
"This is... This is Jesus, have the gargoyles awakened again?"
Bufex said with some alarm.
"What gargoyles?"
Carlos said suspiciously.
"It was a group of blood-sucking devils that spent most of the year in a dormant state, no different from a stone statue when dormant, and every time they woke up they had to suck a large amount of blood, one of the many crises in the Northern Plains."
"This is a disaster, they themselves have a strong earth attribute attached to them, Elanst's earth attribute magic doesn't work well on them, and the water attribute is restrained by the earth attribute, so even if they bring in more magic crystals, they won't be of much use."
Bufex said dejectedly, his tone full of loss and helplessness.
"In the attribute element, the wood attribute is restraining the earth attribute, right!"
Carlos said so.
"That's right on the attributes, what's wrong?"
Bufex asked.
Bufex hadn't seen Carlos when he used multiple elemental magical energies, so he didn't know why Carlos would ask that.
Carlos just smiled slightly, then directly released the Thorn Vine Mann to penetrate those stones on the ground.
The Thorn Vine Mane was now a 5th rank skill, with a great increase in toughness and strength, which could be very useful under attribute suppression.
"Don't you use electricity?
Why," Bufex had heard Eranster talk about how he had given Carlos a lightning-attributed attack boundary, so he had a preconceived notion that Carlos was a lightning-attributed magician.
When he first learned about it Bufex was still tsked, after all, lightning attribute wizards are considered relatively rare, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, the five elements of the wizard is a little more.
Slightly puzzled for a moment, but then thought that Eranster was a dual-attribute wizard, and it wouldn't be unusual to meet another one.
Feeling that the attribute problem wasn't a problem anymore, a glimmer of hope rose out of despair, and Bufex began to look carefully at the marks on the ground.
Elanst and the others should have been attacked by the stone goblins when they were caught off guard on the road, and the awakening of that kind of thing wasn't seasonal, there was no way to speculate on it, and they didn't expect to have Elanst and the others run into it!
"There are a lot of stone walls on the ground, they should have been erected by Elenster to block those gargoyles from pouncing, many of them have been crushed to pieces, it seems like there are some big guys waking up this time!"
Boufex analyzed.
"There's a big one and a small one?"
Carlos said suspiciously.
"Of course!
After every slumber, the size of the stone golem will change when it awakens again, as to how much it will change probably depends on the amount of blood food it absorbed before slumbering, I've seen the biggest stone golem in the Northern Plains for so many years, it's five times as big as me!"
Bouffex said solemnly.
"Then these guys must have wrecked a lot of people before!"
Carlos said indignantly.
"That's not true, the stone goblins have existed in the Northern Plains for a long time, they still hunt magical beasts a bit more most of the time, and they also eat people, but magical beasts are the staple food, and even if they come out to hunt from time to time, they seldom come to attack the place where we live.
They seem to maintain a delicate balance with the magical beasts in the Sunset Mountains, it's all something that's been passed down by word of mouth from the older generations."
Bouffex said.
"And what was it for this time?"
Carlos was confused again, what was going on this time since it had been peaceful.
"How should I know, after living in the Northern Plains for so long, I've seen no less than 800 stone ghosts without a thousand, and I've fought with them, and I can't beat any of them in single combat.
They obviously have granite-like skin, but they're as hard as steel, and my sharp claws were really ineffective, so much so that I simply stopped fighting them afterward; they can't fly as fast as I can!"
Even in this situation, Bufex couldn't help but be proud of his wings. Carlos was speechless at this, but he also learned that the Oro Owl Clan was going to fly a bit faster than those Stone Ghosts, and with that as a prerequisite, even if he couldn't beat them, he could still run away, which was considered invincible!
Looking at the drag marks on the ground, and the direction of the dripping blood, they should be running towards the Sunset Mountain Range on the diagonal side, Elanst's strategy was probably to lure these stone goblins to the place where the magical beasts were gathering, and after feeding them, he himself would be safe!
But the night of the Sunset Mountain Range is not so good to break into ah, I'm afraid that not only did not drive the tiger to swallow the wolf, on the contrary, called the tiger and the wolf to share the food!
Of course, this was the worst case scenario, Eranster still had the defensive Pentagonal Boundary in his hand, and with full power, it shouldn't be easily broken in a short period of time, after all, it was equivalent to five times the power of a Blazing Sun Magician!
"Time is of the essence now, and it's only fair to find Eranster before he can't hold up!"
Carlos said anxiously.
"Pretty much sure, it's about that direction, head that way and you'll find Erlangist and the others!"
Bufex said through the continuation of the blood droplets and also the direction of the splash.
It was all dense forest in the middle, even the best eyesight couldn't see through it, and Bufex had to walk with the magic crystal on their backs, weaving in and out of the dense forest, heading in a fixed direction, and they could see traces of blood intermittently on the way.
Walking a little farther, Avril suddenly screamed out in shock!
It was because they saw the Soggy Rat Warrior on his back on the ground, his burly body had been so dried out by the sucking that it had almost become a sickly look of skin and bones, and it looked very creepy.
When he died, he seemed to be in great pain, and his wrinkled face was very twisted, adding a bit of eerie horror to the dense forest at night!
"There are already casualties, it seems that Eranster isn't in a very good state, or else as the clan leader he wouldn't have casually left his clan behind!"
Bufex said solemnly, this was the duty and responsibility of being a patriarch!
There was a clearing in front of them, obviously a natural habitat, this was bound to be a place where there was a magical beast colony inhabiting the area, and the crowd quickly walked up to it.
As a result, it was discovered that there were large corpses of magical beasts that had fallen to the ground, and the deaths were exactly the same as the previous Shuo Rat Warrior.
There were bodies all over the place, but not a single drop of blood, all sucked clean!
"This is a second-rank magical beast Rough-tailed Toothwolf, its body is much stronger than ordinary wild wolves, and all of them have been sucked clean now.
Can't a single species fill their bellies?
Could it be that the number of gargoyles that came out to forage for food this time is also high!"
Looking at the ground with some corpses, Bufex fell into a deep thought.
"There is no set time for the awakening of the gargoyles, so do they sleep together and awaken together?"
Carlos asked.
"It's not possible!
Although the stone goblins were a special race, they had never acted collectively on a large scale, and the most fundamental purpose of absorbing blood food was the storage of basic life energy, which they needed a lot of to act.
In other words, it's a lot of life energy they consume to act, and each gargoyle absorbs and consumes a different amount of life energy!"
"So they simply can't do the natural awakening of all together, the natural slumbering of all together, the cycle can't be harmonized.
They were all in groups of three or five, more than a dozen or so together, and I hadn't even seen twenty gargoyles together in all my years!
Unless. Unless," a horrible vision came to mind, but it seemed a little too uncertain to say.
"Unless what?
Tell me instead."
Carlos said anxiously.
"Unless a leading boss emerges from within the stone goblins that can control all the stone goblins in the Northern Plains!
It's what makes stone ghosts of this size and number appear together, and beyond that, I can't find any other reasonable explanation!"
Bouffex said.