On the continent of Velodima, in an unknown region of the empire, there is such an ordinary small village, Velak Village.

This is a small village that can be seen everywhere. The innovations brought by the steam revolution have not yet spread here. The villagers still live in the same way that their ancestors have for thousands of years, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

The only unique thing about the whole village is the Blood of the Grapevine, a tavern next to the official road. It is a tavern and an inn. It is noon, and the tavern is full of people.

Local villagers came to relax, and occasionally caravans traveling on the official road opened the door of the tavern and joined the lively crowd.

The boss stood behind the bar, quietly wiping the wine glass on his hand. He was about 20 years old, with eye-catching red hair. The rest of his characteristics were often hidden by his hair, but if you look carefully, you can still find it.

Some other unique features are that he has a handsome face, and he must have been a handsome young man when he was young. A scar on his lip indicates that he may have had some unusual experiences in his early years.

Time passed quietly, and the crowd in the tavern dispersed. At night, "Blood of the Vine" was no longer as noisy as it was at noon, with only five regulars left sitting around the bar.

The oldest of the regular guests was named Peter. As usual, he was telling stories and legends he had heard from somewhere. Another man was sipping the beer in his hand and listening quietly. The young hotelier

The boss stood in the darkness behind the door, his fiery red hair looming, smiling and listening to the story that he had already heard.

"But when it comes to the Royal Guards Rune Division, each armed with a submachine gun, approached the demon's lair. Just when they were about to launch an attack, they discovered..." Peter paused deliberately here to create an atmosphere. Seeing the four

The audience stared at him intently. He smiled with satisfaction and continued: "They found that the door was carved with complicated patterns. Talos, the eldest leader, recognized it at a glance. It was a divination sigil!"

The audience all gasped, especially Eminem, Xiao Qin and Taran. These three children are good friends and Peter's most loyal listeners every night.

Peter stared at the youngest and most timid of the three, "Child, do you know what is going on?"

The boy nodded slowly and said, "It's a Vistali."

"Exactly!" Peter said approvingly: "Everyone knows that only the Vestarians can perform all kinds of strange divination, and they always hide in the wilderness. Now Talos feels something is wrong..."

"The stories don't always say that the Vestalians are evil and chaotic, and never do anything that's uncertain," the boy interrupted Peter, "What happened to the Royal Runemasters?"

"Patience, boy, patience," Peter snorted unhappily at being interrupted, "I'm going to get to that in a minute."

"Peter, there's no need for this. Xiao Qin just cares about the heroes. He has always dreamed of becoming a rune master." Taran, the older of the three children, spoke up. Taking advantage of this gap, the owner of the hotel came from the back kitchen.

He came out with five bowls of hot stew, took out two baguettes from under the bar, and placed them in front of everyone.

Everyone started to enjoy dinner, and the story could only end here. The boss first gave Peter a full glass of beer, and the latter was wolfing down his bowl of stew. He finished his own in three times.

Stew, I took another sip of beer, and when I turned around and was about to continue telling the story, I realized that everyone was still blowing the hot stew.

"Things soon became clear. The divination sigil suddenly burst out with intense light, and then formed a force field, wrapping the rune masters of the Royal Rune Master Corps in it. At least twenty Vestali people emerged from the demon's lair.

They were the servants of the devil who rushed out. The force field suppressed the spell energy of the rune masters, but they were also well-trained soldiers, and the submachine guns in their hands were not ordinary. With the continuous sound of gunfire, many

The Vestalians fell, but more Vestalians were already rushing in front of them, and to make matters worse, the demon appeared."

Hearing this, the boy Xiao Qin's eyes widened, "No way!"

"The rune masters were retreating steadily, but the devil underestimated one person, and that was the leader Talos. He knew the true names of things in his field very well. Even though there was a strong field suppressing him, he still softly called out: 'Fire!' A rune

The text was formed from his palm, and in an instant it turned from a wisp of flame into a huge fireball, and then into a thick tongue of fire. The flames instantly engulfed the Vestali man at the front, but the demon had already rushed up, and it smiled ferociously.

Then he stabbed Talos with his long sword."

"Talos hurriedly reversed his target, but it was too late. The sword with evil black light stabbed him. He shouted: 'Wind!' Another rune formed in the palm of his hand, and in an instant it turned into a hurricane, destroying the tower.

Lose and his team got out of there."

"Then what?" Xiao Qin's mouth was full of bread and stew, but he still couldn't wait to ask.

"Hurricane took Talos and his team members out of danger quickly. After confirming safety, Talos had time to check the sword that he was stabbed by the devil. To his surprise, the sword did not

It didn't hurt him, maybe the amulet he got on the road saved him." Peter said this, took a sip of beer to moisten his throat, and then continued: "He got that from a wandering trader a long time ago."

"That makes sense!" Taran exclaimed. "Everyone knows that 'when you meet a wanderer on the road, your misfortune disappears without a trace.'"

"No, no!" Eminem shouted: "It should be like this: 'If you meet a homeless person on the road, you will not have bad luck.'"

At this time, the tourist boss spoke for the first time in the evening, "Actually, what you said is not complete." He stood behind the bar and said, with a strange light shining in his eyes.

Encountering a homeless person on the road, misfortune disappears without a trace

If you are willing to give alms, there will never be too many good deeds

When you come and go in the world, you must keep it in mind

The people at the bar were surprised to see Savos standing there. For several months, they would come to "Blood of the Vine" almost every day off to listen to Peter telling his legendary stories. Before today,

Sartre had never interrupted, and in fact, he could not intervene. For this village, Savos was still a stranger. It had been less than a year since he moved here, and everyone in the village was not familiar with him, so he could only talk to him.

There is no friendship.

"I just said it casually." Savos said awkwardly, breaking the unbearable silence in the hotel.

Peter nodded and cleared his throat again, and continued: "This amulet is worth a hundred gold Pu'er, but because of the rare encounter, the merchant only accepted our Talos, a piece of bread and a copper. The amulet was completely black.

, it felt very cold to the touch, but Xingshang told Talos that as long as he wore it, evil could not hurt him at all."

"It's really a good thing. If I can, I'd like to get one. I can spend a lot of money." The man who had been sipping beer before spoke with dissatisfaction. His name is Korath. He drank the most at the party tonight, and everyone drank it.

He knew that his blacksmith shop was attacked by an unknown demon on the last day off, and the entire shop was completely destroyed. Fortunately, Korath was not in the shop at the time.

"Yeah, who wouldn't want to?" Peter said with deep sympathy as he took another sip of wine.

"Are the Vestali people really demons? I heard that they will serve any evil force." The boy said, "I have seen it before..."

"They are not demons, kid." Korath said: "They are just a group of wandering villains. I once heard that some of them were working for Strahd. That's the one..."

"Oh, it seems it's your turn to tell the story now, Korath." Peter said dissatisfiedly: "If you want to tell it, then I'll let you tell it as long as you can."

The two stared at each other angrily for a while, and just when the atmosphere in the hotel became tense, Korath turned his head and muttered something that sounded like an apology.

"Strad, is that the legendary vampire Strad?" Xiao Qin couldn't help his curiosity and hurriedly asked again: "I heard that he can find anyone who says his name."

"Yes, kid, that's the mysterious place of Strahd." He explained: "No one knows where he comes from, and no one knows what heinous things he did. All people know is that he betrayed himself.

soul, so he became a vampire."

The story-telling phase ended here, because the story triggered more arguments. Everyone discussed Strahd's story, the signs before his arrival, how to avoid being discovered by Strahd, etc.

Wait, the topic became more and more heated, and at this moment, the hotel door was banged open.

Korath turned to look at the door. "Ah! Bill, you came just in time, tell me how the idiot Strader next to me..." Korath stopped mid-sentence and turned to

Rush to the door.

"By God of Light, Bill, what's wrong with you?"

Bill walked hard to the light, and everyone gasped after seeing it clearly. Bill's face was pale, and his body was stained with blood. He was holding his felt, and the felt bulged unnaturally, as if there was a body stuffed inside.

Corpse.

Several friends rushed over at this time. "I'm fine," Bill pushed them away and walked towards the bar. His eyes were wide open and his lips were bloodless, like an overly frightened quail. "I'm fine.

It's okay." He said continuously.

He dropped the felt in his arms to the ground. The felt hit the ground heavily, making a sound like a boulder colliding with the ground. Only then did everyone realize that his clothes had been cut into pieces, and the cuts were straight and long.

, even the skin and flesh were cut open in some places. Only the part of the plain gray top that was tucked into the waistband of the trousers was still intact. The other parts were broken into long strips of cloth and stained with dark red blood.
Chapter completed!