So after entering the town, Zuo Si took Nisha straight to the only building that was still brightly lit.
As soon as I arrived at the door, I could hear all kinds of complaints, curses and rude laughter coming from inside.
As a young elf, Nisha was obviously not used to this kind of atmosphere, and the pungent smell of alcohol, tobacco and sweat made her frown before she even entered.
Zuo Si undoubtedly noticed this and immediately said, "If you don't want to go in, then wait for me at the door for a while. Don't worry, there is generally no important information in a remote town like this. I should be able to come out in about ten minutes at most."
"Okay, I'll wait for you outside. The awful smell here makes me want to vomit."
Nisha pinched her nose and hid in the dark corner nearby.
After all, she had lived in the wilderness and forests since she was a child, breathing the air of Zendikar that was full of natural energy and high in oxygen. The environment of Innistrad rich in black negative energy already made her feel very uncomfortable, not to mention smoky places like taverns.
After Zuo Si cast an air filtration spell on himself, he pushed the door open and walked in.
Just as expected, this is a small pub that serves local residents. There are only six or seven tables and a long bar, and about a dozen people are drinking and chatting.
Two-thirds of them are men and one-third are women.
A bearded man who looked to be around thirty years old was standing at the bar, occasionally refilling drinks for customers who came by with empty glasses.
Of course, what is added is basically the cheapest and most inexpensive rye beer.
After all, in Innistrad, a world where the nights are always longer than the days and filled with twisted mana, crops actually grow slower than in normal worlds and the yields are relatively low. So although the level of agricultural technology gives people a feeling of the 17th or even 18th century on Earth, people's lives are generally not rich.
The reason why they like to drink one or two glasses at night is mostly to be able to sleep well and avoid terrible nightmares.
After all, under the multiple threats of vampires, werewolves and the undead, the people here live in a state of extreme mental tension every day. Alcoholic beverages are not only a hobby for them, but also a necessity of life.
However, the moment Zuo Si walked in, everyone in the tavern stopped talking at the same time and looked at this young man who looked very strange.
You have to know that in this small town with not much traffic, outsiders are very conspicuous.
Apart from merchants, cathars (holy warriors who believe in the Church of the Archangel Avacyn and protect humans from monsters), vampire and werewolf hunters, few people would risk their lives to leave the safety of big cities and wander in the monster-infested wilderness.
"Welcome to Sweetwater Town, what would you like to drink?"
The boss standing at the bar was the first to break the silence and asked a fairly friendly question.
"Give everyone a glass of your best wine. It's my treat."
Zuo Si casually threw a gold bar on the table and directly used his money-throwing skills.
moment!
The guests, who were somewhat wary and hostile towards him in the previous second, burst into deafening cheers in the next second.
"Hahahaha! Cheers to the generous stranger!"
"I wish you good health! And never meet those damn werewolves!"
"Boggs, quickly take out the barrel of black plum wine you treasure. I've been wanting to taste the taste of a glass of fine wine that costs five silver coins for a long time."
"That's right! Rye beer is so bitter that I can't taste anything I eat."
Looking at this group of people making a fuss, the tavern owner named Boggs couldn't help but smile and shook his head. He picked up the gold bar and put it in his mouth and bit it. After confirming that it was not a fake gold bar made of heavy metals such as lead and coated with gold powder, he immediately turned around and took out an oak barrel that was half a person's height from the wine cellar.
Then, as everyone was expecting, he used an axe to chop a hole in the top of the wooden barrel, scooped out the dark purple liquid inside with a large wooden spoon, first filled a cup for Zuo Si, and then poured two or three spoonfuls one by one for the old customers who were eager to try.
Soon, the entire tavern became quiet, and everyone was savoring the expensive alcoholic beverage with an extremely pious attitude, which they might not be able to afford in their entire lives.
About half a minute later, when one third of the wine in the glass was gone, they returned to the lively chat atmosphere before.
Of course, what is inevitable is the praise for the taste and flavor of this blackberry wine, as well as speculation about Zuo Si's identity.
A drunk man sat down next to the latter, grinning with big yellow teeth, and asked, "Brother, I think you are a vampire and werewolf hunter, right?"
"Oh? How do you know?" Zuo Si asked calmly.
"Is there even any need to ask? Looking at the weapons you carry and your lavish style of entertaining guests, it's impossible for you to be anyone other than a hunter who can earn a huge reward." The drunk man proudly stated his inference.
Zuo Si lowered his head and glanced at his outfit and the weapons on his belt. He indeed looked like a vampire and werewolf hunter in this world. He simply nodded and admitted, "Okay, I am indeed a hunter who makes a living by accepting commissions to hunt vampires and werewolves. Do you have any commissions in this regard in your town or other surrounding villages?"
The drunk burped, touched the thick hair on his chest, smiled bitterly and shook his head: "No. The werewolf activities here are too frequent recently, so most towns and villages can't afford to hire excellent hunters. And there seems to be some problems with the Skitarii. It is said that their prayers cannot be responded to by the Archangel Avacyn, resulting in a much slower frequency of proactive attacks to clear monsters."
"Yeah! The world has really become more and more difficult recently." Boss Bogus couldn't help but sigh.
The Skitarii's prayers go unanswered by Archangel Avacyn?
Based on this information alone, Zuo Si immediately realized the timeline that Innistrad was currently in.
Right now, the Archangel Avacyn should be sealed in the Hellvault together with the Demon Griselda.
In addition to the two of them, the lithomancer Nahiri was also sealed away in there by Sorin Markov long ago.
If there was no external intervention, it should have been another planeswalker proficient in necromancy, Liliana Vess, who took the initiative to destroy the Hellvault in order to kill the demon Griselda, with whom she had signed a contract, and regain the ownership of the soul. She eventually released all three of them together and killed the demon lord Griselda, who had been causing trouble in Innistrad for thousands of years, in a nearly crushing manner.
Thinking of this, Zuo Si quickly locked onto the location of the Hellvault, located in the largest cathedral in the Holy City of Thraben, and asked directly, "No major incident has occurred in the Holy City of Thraben, right?"
"How could there be any major changes in the holy city of Thraben? It is the headquarters of the Crusader Army, with countless elite knights and monks who can use holy power. If Thraben is also powerless against the growing dark power like us, then mankind will really be doomed."
The drunk was obviously full of confidence in the city of Thraben.
After all, in the hundreds of years since the Archangel Avacyn was created, the city of Thraben has always played the role of a protective umbrella for human civilization.
No matter what means the leaders of the vampire families and werewolf tribes used, they could never gain any benefits from the crusaders they led.
As long as Thraben remains standing, it proves that humans can still survive and thrive in this dangerous world.
"Really? That's really reassuring."
As he said this, a barely perceptible trace of pity flashed in Zuo Si's eyes.
Because as far as he knew, the holy city of Thraben would be captured at least twice in the near future.
One of them was about two siblings, Gisa and Geralf, who were born into a noble family in Thraben but fell in love with necromancy.
These two mentally ill lunatics actually tried to take advantage of Thraben's weakness and seize the huge tombs there. They wanted to transform all the corpses into undead creatures, or disassemble and reassemble them into corpse creatures.
The second time was because Emrakul, the eldest of the three Eldrazi Titans, was summoned to this world, causing the entire Innistrad environment to be distorted by the energy of the Dark Void, and the difficulty of survival was directly upgraded from harsh to survival.
In short, after getting the information he wanted, Zuo Si chatted with these drunks for a while and then got up and said goodbye.
Of course, the so-called expensive black plum wine was never touched from beginning to end.
After he left, the drunk who had seized the advantageous position immediately grabbed the glass and began to squint his eyes to enjoy what might be the best wine he had ever drunk in his life.
Seeing Zuo Si coming out of the tavern, Nisha, who was hiding in the dark, immediately stepped forward and asked, "How is it? Did you find out any useful information?"
"Well, our next stop is the holy city of Thraben. If nothing unexpected happens, Sorin Markov should show up there."
After saying that, Zuo Si directly summoned two griffins that were good at long-distance flying.
Through the conversation just now, he already roughly knew the location of the city of Thraben, so he just had to fly west along the road and he would reach his destination in no time.
Because compared to Zendikar and Faerun, the area of Innistrad's time and space is relatively smaller, and the scope of human activities threatened by a large number of external factors is not large, basically all around the radiation range of the holy city of Thraben.
If they go any further, they will lose the protection of the Crusaders and eventually be swallowed up by the twisted dark forces.
Soon, Zuo Si and Nisha rode on the griffin and flew into the air, leaving this depressing and tense town.
When they left the range of human activities and entered the wilderness, swamps and forests, they saw a large number of rotting corpses wandering aimlessly, as well as ghosts and banshees exuding malice, and giant monsters twisted and strengthened by dark forces.
Especially some small plantations standing in marginal areas often build brick and stone walls as high as ten meters, and there are always groups of werewolves wandering around the walls.
If some unlucky person loses his balance and falls from a high place, the werewolves will rush over, tear him to pieces, and then eat him alive.
The extremely cruel and bloody scene made Nisha unable to hold back her expression of pity several times.
In contrast, Zuo Si was much calmer and had no intention of intervening at all.
Because he knew that all of this was caused by Innistrad's unique environment and the black negative energy, and it was the power that came from the root.
Unless you have the powerful ability to reshape the entire world, everything you do will be in vain.
Even an ancient planeswalker like Sorin Markov could only create the Archangel Avacyn to barely maintain the fragile ecosystem.
Fortunately, this dire situation began to improve as they got closer to the holy city of Thraben.
Soldiers patrolling on horseback and holding swords even appeared around some towns.
Whenever they find undead creatures and werewolves approaching villages or towns, they will immediately summon their companions to strangle them.
Under this strict defense, many towns seemed to have prosperous trade, instead of looking deserted like the previous town.
When they saw the majestic walls of the holy city of Thraben appear on the horizon, the two men quickly lowered their altitude to the ground, and their mounts changed from griffins to ordinary horses.
After all, flying creatures are extremely rare in Innistrad, and Zuo Si doesn't want to attract the attention of those guards and cathars.
Moreover, the guards in Thraben City are extremely strict in their inspections, and they even use some kind of spell to confirm whether the people entering the city are evil creatures such as vampires and werewolves.
But this is not a big problem for Zuo Si and Nisha.
After paying a city entry tax, the two passed through the heavily guarded city gate and came to the bustling streets in the city.
Unlike the residents of other towns, who are mostly nervous and wary of strangers, the residents of Thraben seem very friendly and enthusiastic, and have no concerns about safety at all.
Because in the hundreds of years since the appearance of the Archangel Avacyn, this place has almost never been threatened by any evil forces, and even the corpses buried in the surrounding cemeteries have not been able to crawl out.
The long-lasting peace and security have even made many people forget that they are living in the crisis-ridden Innistrad, and they enjoy it all with peace of mind, not caring at all whether other compatriots outside the holy city are in dire straits.
"How do you feel about this city?" Zuo Si asked the elven mage beside him with a smile.
Nissa shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Positive, optimistic, and upbeat. Overall, I feel pretty good. You know, there are very few large gathering places in Zendikar, so I am still very curious about places like cities."
"In that case, then you can take a good look around here and experience the different customs. Here, here is a bag of coins that you can use to buy a variety of goods and services." Zuo Si directly handed over a bag full of gold coins.
These coins were what he had just exchanged for gold bars and gold nuggets in a gold shop. For most ordinary people, it was already a huge sum of money.
Staring at the purse in front of her, Nisha was stunned for a moment, then asked in an uncertain tone, "Is it really okay for me to wander around aimlessly like this?"
"It doesn't matter. Arriving at Thraben City, we have achieved half of the purpose of this trip. The rest is to wait patiently." Zuo Si responded with a smile.
Looking at the heavy gold coins and the numerous shops and various goods sold in the market on the street, Nisha, who had almost no experience of living in a big city, soon couldn't resist the temptation. She took the purse and began to frantically buy everything that interested her.
After watching the elven mage enter the first shop, Zuo Si turned around and headed straight for the largest church in Thraben.
(End of this chapter)