Mercenaries and Adventurers

Zhao Ji rode a horse on the county road to the north.

The sky is extremely gloomy, and the good weather of the previous two days is no longer there. It feels like the second heavy snow this winter will fall at any time.

At this time, he was wearing a full set of hard cowhide armor that he often wore, and a cleaned wolf fur cloak, carefully identifying the road on the ground, for fear that if he was not careful, the horse would take him to the wild field beside the road.

Fortunately, the dirt road on the ground was driven by a horse-drawn carriage not long ago, and the marks of the wheels are still obvious.

After Lanisa Knight gave him the task that day, Zhao Ji immediately took the document that could be exchanged for coins to the government affairs office, and it took a long time to exchange it for the bounty he got.

After receiving the bounty, Zhao Ji immediately returned to the hunter's stronghold, picked up all the gold and silver coins on his body, turned around and left Kendall City, and dug a new earth pit next to the place where the coins were buried outside the city. Buried in a small money box. It contained all the gold and silver coins he had ventured, as well as the elf coins and dwarf coins picked up from the ruins.

He really doesn't need those high-value gold and silver coins in his daily life, the copper and iron coins he usually hangs around his waist are enough.

After returning to the town, Zhao Ji bought some supplies for going out, and Zhao Ji returned to the stronghold to wait for his companions to come back.

Knight Lanisa had informed him that he could roughly tell the hunters that he was going to kill the werewolf, but he couldn't tell them exactly where and **** them.

If the companions still have questions, they can ask the hunters to come and talk to her.

He has just come back, so there is nothing to prepare for going out. He has enough camping items and enough food for him and his horse to go back and forth to Wumi Lake Village.

These alone are enough.

As for this trip to Wumi Lake Village, on the surface, Knight Lanisa wrote a letter asking Kiel to deal with the sunken fish hidden in Wumi Lake. In the dark, of course, he killed the Rufu Wolf himself who could turn into a werewolf. up.

The other party is a villager with some status in the village, so he can't force it. And it is impossible to tell other people who don't know about this matter, so Knight Lanisa asked Kiel to proceed carefully. After going to Wumi Lake Village, first contact Worf through the matter she arranged to deal with the capsized fish.

If the opponent leaves the village carelessly, Kiel can kill him directly outside the village. After killing, Keir returned to Kendall directly to report to her without explaining the situation to the people in the village.

After that, the knight himself would naturally send someone to the village to announce that Worf was possessed by an evil spirit in the forest after being driven into the forest by the wolves some time ago, so he must be killed.

And if Worf cautiously leaves the village, Kiel needs to find a way to provoke him out of the village to fight. But if the other party gathers villagers who know nothing about this matter, Keir needs to take another letter written by her and hand it to the priest of the village's river and lake lord. Villagers trust. With the priest's help, the situation could certainly be turned around.

But this is a last resort.

This request for assistance, written by her, is only available if Keir is in a bad situation in the village.

Knight Lanisa will then reward Kiel with different bounties based on Kiel's means and results.

Get rid of it cleanly and secretly, and the reward is the highest.

Knight Lanisa knew that Kiel had recently built himself a set of full-cover metal armor, so she would reward Kiel with a modified steed strong enough to carry the vest and wear the armor. Although it is impossible to compare with her cavalier war horse raised since she was a child, it is only transformed into a war horse with a special transformation method, but it will still be much better than the war horses in the ordinary army.

In order to dispel Kiel's doubts, Knight Lanisa briefly explained the relevant news to Kiel.

It turned out that Knight Lanisa knew a person in the provincial capital who possessed this magical method.

If Kiel completes her task cleanly, Knight Lanisa will inform Kiel of the person's name and address, and provide a letter, and the other party will transform the horse for Kiel free of charge.

But if Keir failed to complete the task quickly and caused casualties in the village due to the werewolf fighting, the reward would be halved.

She only rewards some combat skills, and a nice bounty.

But if Kiel couldn't take down the werewolf Worf by himself and had to seek the help of the priests in the village who believed in the **** of nature, then his bounty would only be coins.

Of course, considering the danger of werewolves, this bounty is not low.

The not-low bounty is the embodiment of Knight Lanisa's urgency to kill the werewolf who caused all this.

After regaining his senses, Zhao Ji checked the several letters and documents in the box in the package, and made sure that he had brought them all.

Then he looked up at the lead cloud in the sky, and felt more and more that snow would fall later, so he urged the horse under his crotch to speed up, and traveled more before the snow fell, so as to reach Wumi Lake Village earlier.

-

The traces of caravans on the road have been extending to the left at an intersection, and he carefully checked the indicating rocks at the intersection.

If you walk to the left for half a day, you will arrive at the southeast ferry of Hekou Town. If you continue to move north along the road, you will arrive at Wumi Lake Village by Wumi Lake after at least two days of advancing at the current speed.

Zhao Ji pulled up the hood of the wolf-fur cloak and put it on the helmet, and then closed the visor of the armor to ensure that he would not directly breathe the cold air outside.

Although the visor was also made of iron, Zhao Ji cleverly wrapped a layer of fine cloth outside the visor so that his face would not be too cold.

Sure enough, as he expected, not long after he crossed the fork, a little snowflakes fell from the sky.

Judging by the thickness of the clouds, these snowflakes will soon become larger, and have been falling and falling for several days.

-

in a few days.

Against the wind and snow, Kiel appeared outside Umi Lake Village by the big lake.

After a period of time in winter, the entire Wumi Lake gradually froze up. It stands to reason that this season should be a good time for fishermen to walk on the ice and cut a hole under their feet for fishing in winter.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, under the suggestion of the priest of the church, the Lord of Rivers and Lakes, who has great influence in the local area, Knight Lanisa imported several sunboat fish from the northern dwarf kingdom through the church to resist the swimming in the north. queen of wolves.

This winter catch was forced to give up.

Because of sunfish, they would hide under the ice surface of the lake in winter, waiting for beasts or humans to pass by on the ice, and deliberately smash the ice surface with the horns on their foreheads to prey on animals that fell into the ice water.

Now, although they were no longer worried about the northern land wolf swaggering into the village from the lake, the winter hunting in winter was completely impossible.

Fortunately, in other seasons, villagers can row a catamaran with two fishing boats put together to fish. This kind of catamaran with excellent stability and wide hull is not something capsize fish can do anything about.

Before Lanisa Knight returned to Wumi Lake Village with injuries, he discussed with the stewards in the village. Now that the northern land wolf is extinct, the capsize fish in the lake will no longer be needed.

At this moment, Kiel naturally used this excuse to come out of this natural village on the banks of the great lake.

"drive."

Keel touched the horse's ears, urging it to finish the last quarter as soon as possible.

Gradually approaching, Keel looked at the village against the snowfall.

The large field outside the village wall has been abandoned for a long time, and the field ridges that were tidied up a few years ago have been buried by the snowfall in recent days.

In the lonely and dilapidated fields, only the old scarecrows are still standing.

But the clothes woven from straw on the scarecrow had already been eroded and ruined by the wind and snow. Some of the scarecrows were headless, with a dark crow looking curiously at Kiel standing on it. The soil under the feet of some scarecrows is loose, and the whole body is inserted crookedly in the field, which looks quite like Michael Jackson's difficult dance moves.

And some scarecrows estimate that the farmer and owner who made it didn't pay much attention, and there is only a cross-shaped wooden pole standing in a daze in the field.

Kiel chuckled a few times, but couldn't help but feel happy for the villagers' new life in the coming year.

Being blocked in the village by the pack of northern wolves really affected the development of the village. They couldn't go out of the village to do farming, they couldn't go to the wild to collect firewood alone, and they couldn't buy cheap goods from the merchants who came to the village boldly.

Not to mention, the newly arrived migrants stopped settling in Wumihu Village after hearing about the current situation of the village.

Keir shook his head, fortunately, such difficult days are finally over, and they will be able to return to their normal new life starting next spring.

Looking past the deserted outlying fields, a tall wooden wall surrounding the entire village was directly in sight.

The trunk of the main body of the wall is very thick, and it seems that it was built by cutting down tall trees from the large forest in the north. There were many dark red spots everywhere on the wooden fence. With just one glance, Kiel could tell that those dark spots were left by the blood of the northern land wolf.

It seems that, as the hunter companions said, when the situation was the worst in the past few years, the northern land wolf launched a large-scale attack on the village.

However, there is still no large-scale killing.

There are traces of various repairs on the upper part of the entire wooden fence. It is estimated that there is a walkway for people to walk on the inside, because Kiel has seen some village militiamen carrying spears waving at him from a distance.

Because the outside of the village was blocked by a tall wooden fence, Kiel could not see the inner village buildings through the fence, but could only see three tall guard towers that were solid outside. At this time, there are also militiamen on duty on the sentry tower who are facing the militiamen below, drawing circles with the torches in their hands.

Keel guessed that this meant it was human.

Judging by the appearance of the militiamen waving at him on the fence, there should be no malice.

That's right, the only opponents of the villagers are wolves, and every human being is a reliable pilaster for them. After all, no one would seek refuge with the beast, right?

ah?

-

Due to the wind and snow blocking, Kiel's vision was not very wide, and he couldn't see how many gates to the outside world there were in Wumi Lake Village. But at least he knew that the road under his feet must be the most commonly used entrance and exit.

"Who are you? Why did you come to us alone!"

At the end of the road at the foot of the horseshoe, the warning window above the wooden gate opened, and an old man with a gray beard pushed aside the young man who was watching, and asked Kiel condescendingly.

Kiel didn't see the vigilance of the various militiamen who approached him, so he relaxed and replied: "I am a member of the hunter team under the local lord Lanisa Knight. The newly joined this year , being sent here naturally has something to do."

Someone next to him asked, "I haven't seen you before. A few days ago, the lord came back with a team that defeated the Wolf King and the Northern Land Wolf. I remember clearly that there is no one like you in the team."

Someone echoed: "That's right, the lord's subordinates are all hunters with bows and arrows on their backs, and there are no warriors who use weapons like yours."

Kiel was wearing armor covered with a cloak, and a wooden handle spear was slung loosely on his back. The all-metal double-bladed spear was still too heavy for him, so he kept it in the house and did not take it with him on this trip.

Keir patted his head and said to the militiamen above: "Call for a villager who went to the wooden sentry tower camp to help. They must have seen me."

The old man at the window on the wooden door thought about it and thought it was true, so he arranged for one person to go to the village and call a villager who had been out before.

At the same time, he also ordered his militiamen to open the gate and let Kiel in.

He closed the wooden window, and said to Kiel before closing it, "I've arranged for someone to go, but it's snowing outside, so don't stay outside, come in first, and talk in the village."

"Hey, don't you want to confirm?" Keel got off his horse, feeling that the militiamen who were guarding the gate were too careless.

The door opened quickly. It seemed that someone was waiting for the order to open the door just now, so they opened the door immediately after giving the order.

A young man came out and looked at Kiel's whole body curiously, and replied: "Is there anything that can be confirmed, you will not suddenly jump on all fours and bite people, besides, you are not like those profiteers, no Why can't you come in?"

Keel shrugged, took the rein of the horse and followed the young man into the tall wooden gate.

-

The scene behind the door surprised Keel, and he suddenly thought he was in the slums of Kendall City again. What came into view was one house after another, except for a little space at the gate, and a few steps into the village, all the villagers' houses were next to the road leading directly to the center of the village.

This made him open his mouth and said, "What's going on? Why are the streets so crowded?"

Yes, after all, Wumihu Village is not a village with a population larger than that of Dorallin Village. From the outside, the wall area of ​​this village is not small, and it shouldn't be so crowded inside.

The young militiaman next to him smiled awkwardly, and closed the huge wooden door with his partner, and inserted a wooden stick with a handle inside the wooden door to seal the door. He explained to Kiel as if he had explained it many times: "It has been like this since I was a child. There are man-eating wolves wandering outside. Everyone has no place to farm, and it is impossible to just eat fish, so the lord let Everyone lives close together, close to the street. And behind the houses on the street, all crops and vegetables are planted."

Seeing that the young man is still in good health, Keel guessed that their usual food would not be too bad. It is estimated that according to this person, just relying on the small amount of land left in the village for planting can also meet the daily needs of the villagers.

Walking down the wooden stairs next to the inside of the gate, the bearded old man who was in command before, the other party seemed to have problems with his legs and feet, and he limped down the stairs, catching up with the words of the young people in their village.

"Thanks to the lord, the villagers didn't want to demolish their houses and move away at the beginning, but she kept asking for this, and it took everyone a winter to remodel the interior of the village like this."

The bearded old man smiled complacently: "So in the spring of the next year, when those profiteers came over with vegetables at two or three times the price, they could only see fresh vegetables growing behind every house. Haha, those The plans of the profiteers have come to nothing, and we have severely suppressed the prices of the vegetables they shipped. After all, everything has been shipped, so it is impossible to turn around and transport it back to Kendall City, right?"

The surrounding militiamen all smiled when they heard it. Obviously, it was something that the locals were quite proud of.

The bearded old man walked into Kiel slowly, and looked at Kiel carefully for a while.

"Mum, although he looks young, he seems to have killed many people and beasts."

Keir lifted the visor of his helmet and looked at the old man curiously: "I just participated in the militia training this winter to fight against bandits~www.readwn.com~ I followed Crow Knight to kill some bandits who disturbed the trade route. Hey, How did you see it?"

The bearded old man shook his head and proudly rubbed his beard with his rough and cracked hands: "I joined the imperial army when I was young, and it is easy to tell whether soldiers have killed people or not. And , killed people, and killed many people, you can smell it from the smell."

"odor?"

Keel felt strange, you are not a dog, and I am not a murderous person covered in blood, how can this smell.

A middle-aged man next to him couldn't stand it anymore. He pushed the bearded old man away: "Father, you are talking nonsense again. Young man, don't pay attention to my old man's nonsense. By the way, you said you are Lani Sha Qiqi came here to do business."

Speaking of this, he stretched out his fingers and pointed around: "But until next spring, there shouldn't be anything in our village that requires a young soldier like you who has killed many people to do?"

What he said was polite, but he obviously believed in what his father said. Keel was keenly aware of this.

But he didn't panic, he just stretched out his hand to signal some militiamen who surrounded him to be quiet.

"Don't worry, it's winter, I can't go anywhere by myself, wait until the villagers who know me and can confirm that I'm part of Knight Lanisa's hunter team come over."

While talking, the militia sent by the bearded old man to find people brought back a few people.

"I'm back, I found a few people who went out to support the lord before."

And the one who walked in front of the people happened to be Rufu Wolf.

On the surface, he is an ordinary person, the steward of the village. But secretly it is the chief culprit that caused the wolf trouble in North County.