Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 335 - 47 Another Tragedy_1

Chapter 335: Chapter 47 Another Tragedy_1

"The first meeting ended, and we agreed to make a decision in two days," Pannis gave a detailed account of what happened in Dilsaren to Catherine and Vivian. "But unexpectedly, another case happened on the eve of the second meeting."

"Hmm?" Catherine was taken aback: "This is a direct provocation."

"I thought so too." Pannis shrugged: "It was early in the morning. Everyone was probably preparing for the next day’s meeting the previous night, so they went to bed late. The early morning was the most comfortable time to sleep, no one expected to receive such news."

"I was still in bed at the time and was startled by the sound of knocking." Lina acted strangely today. She had been sitting idly by, giving orders like a spoiled lady, not doing any work by herself. "By the time Pannis and I rushed to the Temple of the Wind God, it was almost dawn, and there was a Wind God’s clergyman there falling asleep."

"Hmph." Teresa coldly snorted and ignored Lina’s teasing: "In short, after learning about the second incident, we followed what Mr. Pannis said, leaving those minions of Silver Rank in the city, and the seven of us hurried to the scene of the crime. On the way there, a sage of some earth god also fell asleep on his horse, nearly falling off. He even dared to make fun of others."

"Hey, Pannis," Catherine tugged at the sleeve of Pannis’s shirt: "What’s with them? What’s going on?"

"Well, it’s just their nature, the earth and wind gods counteract each other." Pannis shrugged and whispered. "It’s been over ten days, just get used to it."

"Actually, by the time we got there, it was already too late." To avoid any conflicts between the two clergies, Muir took over the topic. As a bard of Art and Music, Muir naturally played the chords. The boring narration accompanied by his soothing music became interesting: "The incident took place in a small town about seventy kilometres from Dilsaren. There were about five hundred people in the town, everyone was victimised, including the patrol team of the town. The death toll was 547, the majority died in their own homes, fifteen died in a bar, and three died on the streets, they were night patrols. These three night patrols died directly on the street without any reactions and died sitting casually on the ground. It can be seen that the incident happened suddenly, but death did not come abruptly."

"I’m sorry, what does that mean?" Catherine didn’t understand and asked, "Can you explain it?"

"Actually, it’s easy to understand." Pannis explained in a low voice: "They didn’t suddenly fall down and die. Otherwise, their bodies should be lying on the ground rather than sitting on the ground, in a line against the wall. So, death did not come suddenly."

"It seems that they were asleep before the incident," Catherine nodded faintly, murmuring to herself: "However, even if they were tired and wanted to slack off during night patrols, they shouldn’t all sleep at the same time. Moreover, it’s winter now, and it’s so cold at night. Even if they want to be lazy, they wouldn’t just sit outside and sleep. They’d freeze to death."

"What you said is correct, so I said while the incident happened suddenly, death did not come abruptly," Muir agreed with a smile: "From the scene, we can infer that the opponent used a large-scale hypnotic magic that put the whole town into deep sleep, and then they died in their sleep."

"Large-scale hypnotic magic?" Catherine glanced at Vivian for help: "Is such magic possible?"

"Theoretically, it’s possible if several mages cooperate. However, it’s not feasible in practice." Vivian frowned and calculated for a while before answering: "To perform such a large-scale hypnotism, especially for more than five hundred people, at least three legendary mages must cooperate, and there can’t be highly resistant individuals in the hypnotised targets. In other words, there can’t be professionals of Silver Rank or above present, otherwise the spell would definitely fail. However, I am more curious as to why they chose hypnotism instead of shock. Like the incident in Spindle Village, they used shock to stun the civilians instead of selecting any specific targets. Although the number of people was far more than this time, the consumed power was even less than this time."

"The incident in Spindle Village was probably experimental. After all, such a large-scale act has never happened before," Pannis explained: "According to the news I got from the Neville Federation’s official, in the Spindle Village incident, seven people died directly due to excessive shock, and their bodies didn’t show signs of ageing. Therefore, the opponent probably chose the more complicated hypnotism to avoid that part of the loss."

"Maybe," Catherine said: "But it could also be because there were quite a few high-ranked professionals in Spindle Village. Forget it, don’t consider this problem now, please continue."

"This was the first time we managed to get to the scene in such a short time, and we discovered quite a few problems," Muir continued: "When we arrived, many villagers’ physiological functions had not stopped fully, giving us a chance to observe on the spot. We can basically confirm that these people died a natural death after their lifespans were fully drained, and all their organs failed. In other words, within a few hours, they went through the time that normally takes decades, and died naturally."

"Not only the humans, but all the animals in the town, including the bugs and mice underground, died of old age," Muir’s voice contained a hint of anger and a hint of fear: "Only those deep underground, tens of meters down, survived. We were even somewhat worried, imagining how terrifying it would be if the opponent chose a highly populated city to do this."

"It can’t be that easy, can it?" Catherine frowned and said, "Given the current situation, the killer must have rendered the target unconscious to succeed. We don’t know what would happen if the target were conscious, but at the very least, a conscious target could escape their Magic Array’s range, or even disrupt it."

"Right, this issue also came to our minds lately, which eased our worries slightly." Muir agreed, "After examining the bodies, we searched along the edge of the town and indeed found a destroyed Magic Array, similar to ones from previous incidents. Moreover, within the Array, we found another set designed to induce hypnosis. Interestingly, this hypnosis array was embedded within the offensive Array."

"What?" Vivian suddenly looked up and asked, staring at Muir’s face, "Are you sure you’re not misusing that term? Nested?"

"Yes, nested," Muir responded with a bitter smile, "I was just as shocked when I first saw it."

"What’s wrong?" Catherine asked, puzzled, "Is there a particular issue?"

"I remember explaining this before." Vivian massaged her soft cap, pulling at her hair strenuously as if something was bothering her, "In terms of Magic Array studies, nesting two arrays with completely different effects is challenging. The complexity increases with the complexity of the arrays being nested. Recall my bag, the mere nesting of a simple Floating Array and an Expansion Array brought me fame within the Mage Guild. This array we’ve discovered, which covers the entire town, seems almost impossible to nest. I don’t believe anyone is capable of achieving such a feat."

"But in reality, someone did." Muir sighed, "I am also a half-trained mage, so I’m aware of the difficulty in accomplishing this. However, the harsh reality is that someone did achieve it."

"It’s not necessarily the only possibility, there may be other reasons." Mr. Pannis suddenly interjected, "I’ve been thinking about this issue these past few days and have a few new ideas. You go ahead, I’ll talk about it after you’re done."

"What else do you have to say?" Muir stared at Pannis and said, "It was your solo act that followed, and now you want me to narrate it for you? Is this your way of ridiculing me, an Elf Hunter, for being incompetent? I won’t do it."

"Hey, aren’t you a believer in Yeda?" Pannis retorted wide-eyed in anger, "So why are you suddenly an Elf Hunter now? Is your profession richer than mine? Argh~~~"

"Stop it." Catherine retracted her finger from Pannis’s ribs, pulling the pitifully screaming Pannis back to his seat, "What happened after that?"

"Actually, it’s nothing." Pannis rubbed his waist with a grimace and said in annoyance, "Just did a lap around the Array and found a footprint in a certain place, that’s all."

"A footprint?" Catherine questioned curiously, "A footprint in this weather?"

Catherine was indeed puzzled, because it was the driest time of winter. Even the softest soil would turn hard in this weather and it was nearly impossible to leave footprints outdoors unless intentionally. Pannis clearly understood what Catherine was thinking and explained, "It’s not the kind of footprint you’re thinking of, imprinted in the soil. The person must have been somewhere wet before, with wet soles. The water mark they left on the ground froze due to the cold weather, preserving it longer. If we arrived at the town just a few hours later, we probably wouldn’t even see this footprint."

"What can this footprint... demonstrate?" Catherine inquired further, "It must be difficult to find the person based on a single footprint."

"Actually, it’s not that hard." Pannis explained, "From the footprint, one can infer where the person was before, and by searching those places, find further clues about them. As long as you know the method, it’s not particularly difficult."

"I’ll continue from here." Teresa, the officiant of the Temple of the Wind God, said, "Mr. Pannis is indeed quite impressive. He led everyone in pursuing this case to the end based on such a trivial clue. The story continues from the time we found that footprint." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote and recommend it on qidian.com. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users can visit m.qidian.com for reading.)