Chapter 57: Mad Forest

  Igor-Osero crouched on a twisted black pine tree with relatively open views, holding a 2890-made Gatling military crossbow, facing the direction outside the valley to do sentry duty.

  According to the guard duty roster that had been set long ago, each post was changed every three hours. But if Igor-Osiero's estimate was correct, he must have been perched on that accursed black pine for at least four and a half hours!

  So Igor Osorio is now in a terrible mood——

  "Haha, speaking of playing with women, you guys are no match for me, Povi. I'm not bragging, but before we set out this time, I specially went to Vit Street, where that black widow who killed her husband last month lives. Who among you knows about it? Hehe, that night, I snuck into her bedroom and tied her up, doing it four times! The widow struggled and struggled, the feeling was more thrilling than the woman from the mountain village a few days ago... Ah, ah, ah, you guys don't believe me, right? Alright, after we get back this time, whoever goes with me to play will know... Who's going with me?"

  From a campsite that wasn't very far away came such a lewd voice and intermittent hissing sounds.

  "Damn you, Povy! You half-breed, relying on being in good terms with Sir Taimen, dare to be so blatant and lazy, not even coming to take over for me. Better not let me find any chance to shoot an arrow at your back!"

  Igor-Osiero looked back at the direction of the camp and made a silent vow that only he could hear.

  For some reason, since entering the dark and gloomy black pine forest, Igor has always felt that his mood is extremely depressed and unbearable. He even had an impulse to kill everything and everyone, although so far he hasn't put this impulse into action.

  Igor has been having trouble sleeping for several nights now.

  Since entering this dark forest, Igor has been thinking of Kandia, the mountain city where although the streets were filled with foul-smelling dung, at least one could still see the blue sky and green waters.

  But Igor was also aware that this time his lord, Baron Ferro, had taken five of the six Silver Knights under his command and plunged headlong into the mist-shrouded valley covered in magical puzzles to search for a powerful magic weapon said to have been lost for hundreds of years and existed only in epic poems.

  No one who stays in Black Pine Forest before Baron Frodo comes out of the Misty Mountains should think about leaving this valley half a step.

  So, compared to those who originally belonged to the defeated Blood Blade bandits but were now being used as cannon fodder by Lord Frodo due to their mission failure and were all taken into the Misty Valley, Igor felt that he was actually quite lucky.

  At this thought, Igor subconsciously turned his head back, towards the mist-shrouded valley of some sort of divine magic that was completely invisible from afar.

  As he looked, Igor saw a huge skull face that seemed to be grinning at him out of the swirling mists, and two sharp bony claws made of white mist that had crept up on either side of him without his noticing, as if they would tear open countless holes in his body at any moment!

  No!

  Igor let out a frightened yell and subconsciously held his right hand in front of him.

  However, when Igor looked around him again, he suddenly realized that there was no sharp skull giant claw, nor a huge skull face grinning at him.

  "What's going on, Igor?" A man with a sword in his hand poked his head out from about three or four meters away from Igor: "Hey, don't tell me you've seen those naked mountain savage women again, covered in blood and the bodily fluids we left them with, coming to take revenge on us."

  Igor, who was originally somewhat neurotic, wasn't a likable guy with good interpersonal relationships... never had been.

  So, after discovering it was a false alarm, Ming Xiao's guard spoke mockingly to Igor, which was a natural thing to do.

  Igor stared at the guy who was mocking him with his bloodshot eyes, then said nothing. He knew that even if he told everything he had just seen, no one would believe him.

  I'm happy to translate the text for you. Here is the translation:

  "I wish this damned black forest, which has been cursed by an evil dark sorcerer, will sooner or later kill and devour all of you sons of bitches!"

  Igor thought to himself, his mood getting worse and worse, then he leaned against the twisted, greasy black pine tree, closed his eyes and pretended to fall asleep - damn it, you guys don't follow the rules, I can also slack off and rest!

  ……

  "Ah... Ah-choo!"

  Dazed and confused, Igor let out a loud sneeze, then rubbed his nose vigorously before opening his eyes. He then felt that there was a black shadow that flashed by in the corner of his eye.

  "Who?!"

  This time, Igor raised the crossbow with its string already tightened and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

  Intuition told Igor that the black shadow was absolutely a living person.

  Collapse

  In the midst of the bowstring's muffled friction against the bow arm, the iron-colored arrowheads sank into Igor's target, only... there was no living creature where Igor had aimed and shot!

  There was only one tree, a black pine twisted like an evil witch burned at the stake, silently mocking Igor's over-sensitive nerves and over-reaction.

  "I've had enough! I've had enough!! Damn it!! Damn it!!! Damn it!!!!"

  Igor finally couldn't hold back the annoyance and suppressed anger that had been burning inside him, but no one knew if he was scolding himself or relying on his good relationship with Thaimen's knight, Povyi, who never came to replace him.

  As he cursed, Igor restrung his bow, but his hands shook uncontrollably, unable to exert the strength that a black iron middle-tier should have.

  Igor, busy with his head bowed and stringing, had no idea that the twisted blood vessels in his eyes were already filled, these twisted blood vessels... just like those twisted and ferocious pine trees in the black pine forest!

  "Hey hey hey! Igor, are you crazy or itchy? If you're itchy, I don't mind scratching you..."

  That Ming Xiao, who was holding the double-handed sword, this time he obviously could no longer tolerate Igor's actions, but his words were only halfway spoken when his neck was pierced by a bone-made arrowhead.

  Ming Xiao's unbelievable hand touched his own neck, and then he fell straight down to the ground.

  Then Igor saw a green-haired mountain savage woman wearing a short upper garment, holding a hardwood longbow and running out from behind a twisted black pine. She brazenly aimed at the location of the second beacon and shot an arrow.

  "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!!"

  The second sentinel who was shot in the arm began to loudly and wildly shout while covering his arm.

  The camp not far behind Igor was in an uproar, and Igor finally restrung his good composite bow.

  Damn it, Powie, don't you dare give me a chance to shoot you in the back, never!

  Igor's eyes were completely filled with blood vessels that twisted like black pine, he had clearly... gone mad.