Warhammer: Dark Elf

That night, the distraught Elladen wrote in a report letter to Morathi: "I have no doubt about Lord Hemer's loyalty to you, but I suspect that there may be something wrong with his mind."

As for Helmer, he was already lying in bed and fast asleep while Eladen was busy writing.

The next day, he got up early, put on the fear lord armor that gave him a sense of security, and walked down the stairs to the hall.

Keshil had arranged breakfast.

After a few days of living as a lord, Helmer has become accustomed to the days when clothes come to him, his mouth opens, and food comes to him to stretch out his hands.

He sat on a sharp metal chair and took a few bites of cheese, planning what to do today.

Patrol the streets, inspect mines, renovate and expand military camps, and recruit new troops.

"Hopefully one day is enough."

After breakfast, Hemo's new officer took office as Three Fires, rode his dark horse and called up Ke'sir, brought a pair of fear spearmen and went to patrol the streets.

Ironthorn Town is a typical dark elf city, with a darker overall style and darker colors. The city is dotted with pitch-black towers, and the soaring tower spiers are surrounded by sharp blades, making it intimidating.

It snowed all night last night, and the snow on the road has not yet melted, making a pleasant rustling sound when you step on it.

It had just gone through a war, and the residents had not yet settled down, so the streets looked relatively depressed, but Hemer could still see early townspeople passing by in twos and threes to salute, so it did not make people feel desolate.

Several local low-level nobles patrolled the streets with their men to maintain law and order.

They saluted and exchanged greetings with the new lords passing by, and Helmer nodded in response.

In Dark Elf society, lower-level nobles bear many responsibilities for their dark lords, helping to run cities, collect taxes to support armies, and help run fortresses. Most Dark Elf armies have a low-ranking noble as their general. That's why there was this scene in the morning.

And dark elves are skilled warriors. Each qualified citizen has his or her own armor and weapons, making war less expensive for their lord.

This system also made it easier for Hemer to replenish his troops and recruit new troops.

After a symbolic tour of the town, Helmer took people to the home of the mayor Feizain and asked him to take him to the quarry behind the town.

Feizain readily agreed.

The Titan Peaks on the back of Ironthorn Town are connected to the Doom Territory to the north and the Lustria Mountains to the south. They are like a giant black dragon that runs through the Quintex province ruled by Morathi.

The highest peak among the peaks and the largest active volcano is located in the back mountain of Tiexi Town. The circular mountain pass spews out heat waves all day long, and the hot magma flows along the east and west sides of the ridge like the blood of the earth. At the same time, it changes the western part of Quintex Province. The terrain environment created a large broken area in the frozen wasteland.

The mine in Iron Thorn Town is located at the foot of the southern side of the volcano and is surrounded by a black wall.

"We are here, sir." Feinza said to Hemer, pointing to the black buildings in the distance.

Helmer and others looked in the direction of his finger and saw the small black fortress-like mine built in the rugged mountains from a distance.

"Let's go." Hemo said happily, and then he ran over with his horse under his belly.

A group of followers such as Feizain and Keshir hurriedly trotted to follow.

When the guards on guard heard about the arrival of the new lord, they immediately opened the city gate and knelt down to salute, welcoming Hemer and others.

Here, Homer met slaves who originally only existed in books and games for the first time.

Most of the slaves of the dark elves were captured from previous foreign wars. There were humans from the old world, short statures and rat-men with filthy hair all over their bodies, and a small number of weak dark elf civilians. But the one Hemer saw the most was the high elf Asul, the dark elf's mortal enemy.

In Hemer's impression, the high elves in the Warhammer world are a group of handsome men and women with supermodel figures. Their skin is flawless, their bodies are perfect, their clothes are exquisite and elegant, and they are extremely powerful in combat. They use all kinds of luxurious equipment. Fight enemies with brilliant magic. But what he saw now was just a group of ragged and haggard people.

Caught by the dark elves and thrown into this mine, no matter what their status was before, they are now just humble slaves with no dignity, digging in the dark mines all day long, digging in the extremely high-temperature hard basalt. The ore was transported carefully during the period, and those who were a little negligent would be whipped with spiked whips in the hands of the guards.

Perhaps it was the long-term whipping that stained the mine with the blood spattered on the slaves. At this moment, the ground Hemer stepped on turned black and purple, which was the color of a large amount of coagulated blood.

These slaves walked unsteadily and would subconsciously avoid anyone who was well-dressed or wearing armor.

Especially after seeing Hemo, he took the initiative to stay away from him, for fear of being noticed by him.

"This..." Seeing such a scene, the fire in Hemo's heart was instantly extinguished as if being filled with cold water.

It turns out that this is the mine that he has longed for...

The iron ore was obtained in exchange for the lives of countless slaves... Even though he had not yet received a batch of iron, Hemo still felt bad. .

"Be careful, my lord, don't let these dirty slaves tarnish your luxurious armor." Feizain has not noticed the change in Hemo's mood. He is only concerned about whether those blind slaves will offend this slave. New lord.

Hemo pursed his lips, not able to say anything.

Because the dark elves have a slavery economy, slaves play an indispensable role in the society of the dark elves.

A large number of slaves work hard in various mines and quarries to provide metal for the dark elves' weapons. Slaves also perform daily chores for the dark elves. When a slave is deemed useless, attempts to escape, or annoys his master, he is sent to Kaine to meet his end.

It can be said that they are important and not important.

Walking silently to a bedrock, Helmer took a deep breath to calm down.

Although he couldn't bear the slaves working for him like this, it was obviously unreasonable to announce the suspension of the mine and free these slaves.

The only solution is to speed up the reform of mines. So he asked Xiang Feizain: "I want to expand the production here. Is there any way?"

Feizain thought for a moment and said seriously: "My lord, if you want to expand steel production, you can only drive more slaves to mine iron ore."

"Slave?" Hemo shook his head immediately.

He didn't want to be a slave owner.

"There is no war and no slaves can be captured. Do you have any other ideas besides this?"

"No, sir. Unless the tools are improved, the number of slaves can only be increased. But the mining tools currently used in our mines are already the best that Nagaros can find, so the past lords wanted to increase the number of slaves. The output of the mines is to capture more slaves to work." Feizain said.

Seeing no other choice, Helmer sighed slightly, lamenting that the slave economy of the dark elves was really too backward.

It would be great if it could be industrialized, but it's a pity that the dark elves are better at swords and magic and are not interested in technology.

Speaking of which, the ones that are best at technology in Warhammer are the industrialized empire and the Skaven who are constantly emerging with various black technologies.

If I could get some machines from them...

Helmer's eyes suddenly lit up.

Yes, replacing backward manpower with machines can not only increase mineral production, but also liberate these slaves. It kills two birds with one stone.

He clapped his hands and began to think about the feasibility of this matter.

Feizain and Keshil, who were accompanying him, couldn't figure out what the lord was thinking, but they didn't dare to disturb Hemo when they saw him thinking deeply, so they waited quietly.

Helmer first analyzed the imperial approach, but this was difficult to achieve.

The Sigma Empire is far away in the old world in the east, separated from the Naggaroth region of the Dark Elves by a vast ocean.

Not to mention the imperial capital's hostile attitude towards the dark elves, even if he could buy a few mining machines, he would still need a powerful enough navy to transport them to prevent them from being robbed by the fleets of high elves and pirates.

So Hemer rejected this route.

The Skaven are relatively close to Hemer, and there is a clan of ratmen named Eclipse in the Lost Gate of Lustria.

The rat people originally lived in the old world, but they opened up underground tunnels that ran through the vast ocean, came to the continent of the new world, and carried out a series of huge plans here.

Trading with the capricious ratmen who like to stab people in the back is undoubtedly a very dangerous behavior, but it is also the only effective way that Hemer can think of now.

Having made up his mind, Hemo led his people back to Iron Thorn Town, and at the same time planned to find a time to try to communicate with the Tooth Clan in the south.

If they don't accept friendly exchanges, Hemo doesn't mind organizing a wave of war into Shu (Rat).

Somewhat disappointed with the current situation of the mine, Helmer returned to Ironthorn Town without any interest.

The black spiers reflected the brilliance of the scorching sun, and it was now noon.

The prosperous Iron Thorn Town has regained its vitality. The market is crowded with people, and the vendors on both sides of the road are selling their products hard.

The fish shipped from Broken Moon Port, various fruits and vegetables produced in the plains of the ancient city of Quintex, and the furs of animals in the forest near Shilazo-Thar, there are so many kinds of goods that people can't keep up with them.

Even if they are a ferocious and martial race, their daily lives are full of human fireworks.

Helmer led the people through the streets paved with hard stone slabs, responding to the warm welcome of the townspeople.

The thinking of ordinary people is very simple. In this troubled world, if you don't massacre the city or plunder, then you are a good lord.

That's why Hemer is so popular.

After bidding farewell to Feinza who planned to go home, Hemer took the preparers back to the lord's manor for lunch.

Suddenly, he noticed that at a corner of the road ahead, many townspeople were gathering there, talking and laughing, discussing something.

"Let's go over and see what they are doing there."

Helmer regained his energy. He dismounted and called the reins to an accompanying gloomy swordsman, preparing to go over and join in the fun.

"Everyone, give way and make way for the lord." Keshir cleared the way for Hemo and squeezed through the crowd.

The townspeople looked back and saw that it was indeed a big man wearing the Dread Lord armor, and they quickly saluted and moved out of the way.

Helmer nodded and smiled with them, and then came to the front row of the crowd.

It turns out that there is a slave merchant here who is selling his slaves.

He wore gorgeous clothes, his shrewd eyes revealed a cunning look, and he boasted eloquently about his products: two unlucky high elves.

One tall and one short, the two men were dressed in tatters, and the dirt on their faces made it difficult to see their specific appearance.

Looking at the thin figure, it was obvious that he was hungry. This was a common method used by slave traders to tame disobedient slaves.

To deal with these arrogant high elves, you can only torture them like an eagle to keep them obedient.

"If you buy her, I'm willing to give you a smaller one as an extra at the normal price. If you don't do this, wouldn't you be a bit stupid?"

The slave merchant was speaking to a hesitant town citizen.

"How many gold coins?" The man struggled for a while, but was still tempted.

Not long ago, the slaves he raised were sent to the temple to sacrifice to Kane. There was no one to do many things at home, so he wanted to buy two slaves to fill the vacancies.

"This is 20 gold coins." The slave merchant showed a philistine smile and quickly pushed the taller slave out.

When the merchant grabbed his arm, the slave screamed in fright, and everyone realized that it was a woman.

"Let go of my sister!" The little slave who was cowering in the corner rushed up and bit the slave merchant's arm.

The businessman let go of the woman in pain and slapped the little slave with his backhand.

With a bang, the child fell out and landed heavily on the cold, hard wall. He couldn't get up for a long time.

"younger brother!"

"Damn, you're a brat. You're delaying my fortune."

The slave merchant grabbed the woman's hair and dragged her back, and then smiled and negotiated the price with the previous customer.

The surrounding townspeople were not frightened. Instead, they folded their arms and looked like they were watching a show.

The defeated Asul was not even a human being in the eyes of Druchi, and was only worthy of working for the slave master until death.

Helmer watched all this silently. He is the lord of Druchi, and coming out to interrupt this deal at this time will only arouse people's dissatisfaction.

All he can do is make sure no one is killed here, and save the siblings if necessary.

"It's obvious that you want these two slaves very much, so I don't want to spoil your pleasure by offering too much, so I'll suffer a loss this time. The price of this one plus the smaller one is thirty gold coins."

Whoa!

The lion opened his mouth and the townspeople watching the show started laughing.

"It's too expensive. It's just robbery. Can you give it a little less?" The customer wanted to try to get a better price.

After all, thirty gold coins is too expensive.

"Twenty gold coins, this is my price."

"Hey, man, this is top-notch stuff I got all the way from Tal Yris City. It's said to have noble blood. If my team hadn't been broken up by the patrolling wood elves, I wouldn't have ended up here. Come to sell it, thirty gold coins really can’t be less.”

The guest sighed. Although he was tempted, he was short of money and had to give up.

"I bought it." A voice came from the crowd.

Everyone looked and saw that it was their new lord.

Now even if someone wanted to buy it, they would not dare to argue with Hemo.

"Oh, as expected of the lord, you are really far-sighted. You will not regret buying them. They can do a lot of things for you, whether it is training them into war servants, or throwing them into the mines to dig coal. Even if they are sacrifices Give it to Kane, and he will favor you for the pleasure." The slave merchant is eager to get rid of these two troublesome burdens as soon as possible.

Hemo was noncommittal and asked Kesir to help the fainting boy. At the same time, he asked an attendant to pay the merchant gold coins and take away the sobbing Asul.

With no intention of staying any longer, Hemo led the people back to the lord's manor.