Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 7: Forest Banshee! The End of the Old Era

The night is getting darker.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound in the dense woods, and then a burly figure wearing a gray robe, light gray leather chain mail, brown arm guards, black mittens, a belt around his waist, and gray leather trousers emerged.

Under his hood were a pair of cold and ruthless eyes. When he squinted slightly, his pupils changed like a cat, presenting an outline close to vertical pupils, but closer to the legendary dragon pupils.

This sturdy figure seemed to have an unusually keen sense of smell. He had a cloth bag hanging around his waist, oozing dark red blood, and from its outline it looked like a head.

"The smell of witchcraft."

The fierce figure drew his sword, squatted down, and looked over the corpse on the ground. He said in surprise, "Killed in one blow? Fran's Flying Axe?"

"He's an old hand."

He pulled a bag from the ranger's corpse. Inside was food, something like highland barley flour. He picked up a strand and put it in his mouth to taste it, then quickly ate half of it with his water bottle. Then he walked out of the woods and ran at high speed along the country road. His agility far surpassed that of the barbarian berserker, and he avoided obstacles along the way entirely by instinct.

Run all the way.

The nimble figure finally stopped where a group of crows were staying. He put his palm on the hilt of the sword, looked around vigilantly, and finally squatted down as if searching for something.

But he seemed to have gained nothing.

This figure did not want to give up. He took off the cloth bag from his waist and took out a terrifying head with a hideous face covered with black spiky hair. He knocked the head open with a long sword and took out a small lump of dark yellow substance that looked like oil. Finally, he fiddled with a few bottles and jars for a while and drank it. His eyes turned directly into vertical-pupil dragon eyes, and he followed the traces invisible to the naked eye of mortals to reach the river.

"The Raven Queen - Triss."

The figure instantly turned his head to look at a group of crows resting on a treetop not far away. His expression was extremely solemn, and he muttered, "I never thought I could track down one of the founders of the witches' coven."

The ground trembled slightly.

In the distance there was the sound of galloping war horses, and there seemed to be hundreds of them.

The sturdy figure hesitated briefly before choosing to move away. While his personal strength was impressive, he was no match for the army. He could easily handle three or five ordinary soldiers, but ten or so would be a challenge. If he encountered a small, organized group of soldiers, he would most likely be surrounded and killed.

If he faced these hundreds of cavalrymen head-on, he could be crushed into a pool of meat paste.

The moon rises, its color is light red, ominous.

The convoy abandoned their cargo and traveled all night, finally arriving at a resting place before it became too dark to walk.

Duncan did not dare to relax his vigilance and closed his eyes to pretend to sleep. The group only rested for three hours and set off again at dawn. Some of the wounded in the team were already unconscious and were lying on the carriage with weak breathing. It was unknown how long they could hold on.

Finally, in the afternoon of the next day, the convoy saw a small town in the distance.

Upon inquiry, they learned that they had arrived in the northern province of Pannonia.

For Duncan, he only fled for three days, but for the other refugees in the convoy, they fled for a full five days. For a time, many people cried for survival.

The guards sent the leader to the town and urgently looked for a pharmacist to treat him.

Some people's wounds were only bandaged briefly, but now they have worsened and are oozing pus. The leader of the guards has lost a lot of blood. If he is not treated quickly, he will probably die in the next two days.

After the empire conquered the northern barbarians, it also absorbed some of their cultural traditions.

The herbalists of the North were unique within the Empire, their medical skills far surpassing those of other regions. This was because their predecessors were Celtic priests, the legendary druids. Today, among the many barbarian tribes, the Celts have weakened, and most of Gaul has been completely assimilated by the Empire, but their herbal medicine has been passed down through the generations of physicians.

The barbarians the Empire now refers to primarily refer to the Germanic peoples. The West Germanic peoples were domesticated barbarians who had been subjugated by the Empire for centuries and formed the ruling group of the Five Great Tribes. The North Germanic peoples, settled in colder regions, were a branch of the untamed barbarians who frequently raided the Empire's borders.

In addition, the barbarians have many tribal branches, and the imperial cultural tradition is extremely arrogant, viewing most of the surrounding tribal peoples as barbarians.

Among the barbarian mercenaries in the empire, the Franks are the most capable.

At its peak, the empire mobilized 36 legions, nearly men, to wage wars of conquest against the surrounding barbarian tribes. The majority of the barbarians who were integrated into the empire were those who had undergone cultural transformation during that time. During the reign of Constantine I, a large number of barbarians migrated into the empire, gradually becoming the backbone of the army. These barbarians, assimilated into the empire, became the backbone of the army.

Most of the legions that can still fight in the empire are led by barbarian generals.

The legitimacy of the empire lies with the barbarians!
Over the course of hundreds of years, corruption from top to bottom had weakened the empire, and they no longer had the ambition and courage they once had to conquer the continent.

"It seems that this is most likely the Earth in a parallel universe."

As soon as Duncan entered the town, he saw the cross of the church. Polytheism had withdrawn from the stage of history, and the state religion of the empire was now Catholicism. The witch hunt was originally initiated by the church, but it was not aimed at witches at the beginning, but at all pagans, including the empire's once orthodox polytheism.

Since the promulgation of the "Edict of Milan", in the more than 100 years of history, monotheism has occupied an absolute advantage, and polytheism has gradually disappeared until the last altar was demolished.

The priestly tradition left over from the polytheistic period included many wizards and witches who were tried for using witchcraft. This was the origin of the "witch hunt" that was launched in advance.

To put it simply, it is more like unifying beliefs, cutting down mountains and destroying temples, and eradicating the roots.

It was also from that time that rumors about supernatural powers became less and less.

The group found a hotel to rest.

Everything here is still very different from the Earth in Duncan's memory, but he needs to collect more information to gain a deeper understanding.

Alma Gun was running around diligently to serve, and Duncan couldn't stand it anymore. He threw him two silver coins and told him to find a doctor to treat the arrow wound on his butt. The wound on this guy was burst and blood was still oozing out of his butt, but he was still gritting his teeth and serving like a lackey.

After Duncan entered the room to rest, he began to sort out his spoils.

He couldn't carry much, primarily coins. During the reign of Augustus, the empire established three currencies: gold, silver, and copper. The most common was the silver dinar, and later several smaller silver coins were minted as subsidiary coins. Early dinars had varying designs, but later they became unified with a portrait of Augustus and a triumphal arch on the reverse. This is also the most common type of silver coin.

6 gold, 56 silver, and some copper coins.

One gold coin came from the sinister knight, three came from the barbarian fleeing soldiers, and two were found on the rangers. However, one of the gold coins had a bearded man's face wearing a crown printed on it. It was unknown which country's currency it was from. It might be a gold coin from Mesopotamia.

Most of the silver coins were dinars, and a small amount of currency from other countries was found on the rangers.

Ding-ding-ding-ding.

Duncan collected the coins in front of him. These were all his current assets.

After entering the town, the food was much better. The staple food was dry bread, a bit like a baguette, originating from the Franconian region, served with bacon and vegetable soup, and a small piece of sausage. Including accommodation and three meals a day, it cost two silver coins. It seemed that the purchasing power of silver coins was not very high.

After all, the annual salary of an imperial infantryman was only about 225 dinars.

The empire has been in constant war over the years, and many soldiers actually did not receive any salary. When a war broke out, not many people would risk their lives for the empire.

"The silver content doesn't seem to be high. This empire is doomed!"

Duncan picked up a silver coin, examined it, and casually tossed it back into his purse. He hadn't been a Roman elite in his previous life, so if the empire was going to fall, it would fall. He wouldn't mind giving it a push. Right now, the empire was being held together by the barbarian army. If the barbarians gave up, the empire would collapse in an instant.

As night fell, Duncan sat cross-legged in meditation, entering a bird's-eye view, pondering what undeveloped features his cheat had.

According to his understanding, after he traveled through time, his soul was bound to that empty dimensional space, and his human body was the key to his entry into the real world. If his human body died, he would have to sleep in that void for an unknown amount of time, and he might even die in his sleep.

Duncan felt that his soul was still that of an ordinary person, and the human body should be a very important tool for him now.

Consciousness enters into nothingness.

From a God's perspective, all the people in the town are marked. The most eye-catching one is the witch living in the room next to the hotel. The skull mark is so eye-catching, just like a world-class BOSS moving around.

The other units are scattered around the map, with quite a few one-star marks and a two-star unit marked as 'Retired Centurion'.

Duncan was curiously observing the information of this small town from a God's perspective.

suddenly.

At the edge of the map, a striking unit with a golden three-star mark appeared. He was dressed quite smartly, wearing a robe and hood, chain mail, and a long sword on his back. He quietly climbed over the wooden wall and entered the town.

——Demon Hunter (Dragonblood) [Neutral Unit]!
hiss!
The three gold stars on this guy are so eye-catching.

From the perspective of my past Total War experiences, this guy was at least an elite unit, capable of single-handedly taking on a small squad of soldiers. As for the witch in the convoy, she was undoubtedly a hero unit, unfathomable in her power, and the strongest supernatural entity Duncan had ever encountered.

"It seems that these supernatural units are all neutral."

“Do they keep their distance from the world?”

Duncan observed carefully from a God's perspective and confirmed that the other party only had one sword, not a silver sword and a steel sword.

Very strong!
This guy walked around the town, and just like in Assassin's Creed, he took a running jump, grabbed the eaves, turned 180 degrees, and relied on his strong core strength to flip over and jumped onto the roof in just a moment.

Such a difficult move is simply not something that ordinary people can do.

The witcher gradually approached the inn, but he hesitated for a moment in the alley. Duncan zoomed in and adjusted the brightness, and saw that the other party was weighing his purse. Then he turned around and went into the shack next to him and lay directly on the haystack in the barn.

It was almost midnight, and it was not cost-effective to stay in a hotel at this time. Judging from the other party's behavior, Duncan guessed that it was to save money, or it might be to facilitate surveillance of the surrounding area.

"The dinar has depreciated. Do demon hunters have no money?" Duncan wanted to laugh.

It's worthy of being an empire.

There was a slight noise from next door, and the witch's mark moved. She walked out of the room, stood in the corridor, paused for a few seconds, then stood quietly in front of Duncan's door for a moment, and then walked out of the inn quietly.

"Would you like to follow along?"

The witch had already left the inn, and Duncan followed her after a slight hesitation.

From a God's perspective, he doesn't need to follow too closely, as long as he stays within the map's field of view, the witch should not be able to discover him.

Duncan controlled the character with his mind, following quietly from a bystander's perspective, at a distance of about 150 meters.

In the barn, on the haystack, the witcher with the golden three-star mark turned over and stood up.

"Are your five senses so sharp?" Duncan instantly became highly alert.

But from the God's perspective, the witcher also bent down and followed quietly, keeping a distance of about fifty meters, moving very carefully, as if he was afraid of being discovered by Duncan.

This is one after another.

The witch made no sound of footsteps when she moved, just like a ghost drifting. If Duncan hadn't used a cheat, he wouldn't have been able to detect her at all. The demon hunter didn't track the witch, but he sensed Duncan's footsteps, so he indirectly tracked the witch's whereabouts.

"What is she going to do?" Duncan asked with a little confusion.

The witch left the town and entered the dense forest. If it weren't for the God's perspective, Duncan would have lost her long ago.

I don’t know how far I walked, but the moon was shining in the sky.

A tall oak tree appeared ahead.

From Duncan's God's perspective, the witch had taken off her mask, revealing a face that was so beautiful that it was a little weird. She seemed not to be human, but more like the legendary seductress who enchanted everyone. The skin on her exposed neck and collarbone was so white that it was a little reflective. It was the kind of cold white skin like porcelain. Even the most pampered ladies in this era rarely had such skin.

"Master Priest, save me!"

At this moment, a hazy shadow emerged from the empty woodland ahead, revealing the outline of a beautiful woman. Her appearance gradually became clearer as she walked out from the reflection of the oak tree and knelt directly in front of the witch, begging, "Save me!"

Ok? !

Duncan's pupils dilated slightly.

——Forest Banshee (Tree Spirit) [Neutral]!
In Greek mythology, dryads, also known as dryads or dryads, are beautiful, young, and lowly nature spirits. They live on mountaintops (Mount Olaiad), by springs, by rivers (River Naiaden), or within the trees of forests (Forest of Dryad). They symbolize the irrational, animalistic side of human nature. Legend has it that every oak tree is inhabited by a spirit, who communicates oracles to humans through the dryads.

Another supernatural unit.

But she only has a one-star mark, so her combat power probably isn't that great.

The witch frowned slightly and shook her head, "I'm not a priest."

"The time of priests is over."

Just as the forest banshee showed a trace of pity and despair, the witch whispered again: "What danger have you encountered?"

Hearing the witch's words, the forest banshee seemed to have grasped the last straw and said in a sad voice: "Witch Hunter!"

"The Church's witch hunter."

"They want to kill us all!"

"A very powerful witch hunter has come here, and he will never let me go!"

"Sir, save me."

Hearing the words of the forest banshee, Duncan subconsciously turned his head to look at the witcher following behind him. After entering the forest, he lost the witcher and fell behind by one or two hundred meters, but he seemed to be good at tracking and slowly caught up.

However, he seemed to have tracked the wrong location, bypassing Duncan and heading straight towards the witch.

………………

(End of this chapter)