Mercenaries and Adventurers

The attendant handed the wooden box in the direction of Kiel, motioning for Kiel to take out the ring inside.

Can't wait, Kiel rubbed his hands, wiped his hands on the horse's back, then pinched the center of the box with two fingers, and gently twisted the magic ring out.

Contrary to Kiel's expectation, the ring looks simple, dignified and elegant. Except for the weight of the magic gemstone on the ring surface, the ring itself, which seems to be bulky as a whole, is very light.

Carefully hold this valuable ring in front of your eyes for observation.

The ring part of this ring is made of a silver-white metal, which is extremely light in weight. But when you twist it with your index finger and thumb, you will find that the seemingly light ring ring is very strong.

There were words engraved on the inside and outside of the ring, and when he looked intently, Kiel didn't recognize the words on it.

"There is text on it, what is written on it?"

Ask if you don't understand, Keel asked the baron's attendant who kept the treasure.

The other party closed the lid of the box, smiled and said in a low voice: "The text on it is in a high-level aristocratic language. As for the content, it is roughly who the owner of the ring is and who the maker of the ring is."

The metal on the front of the ring is opened, and a bright yellow oval gemstone is contained and fixed in the metal frame. Unlike the elf-powered gems that Keel had seen before, this magic gem was not as bright and transparent as he had imagined.

Although the gem is cut into a regular oval shape, the surface of the gem is not transparent, as if it is covered by a layer of fog or rain and fog inside.

As Keel was observing the gemstone, he noticed a tiny flash of light inside the gemstone.

"Oh, it just lit up inside the gem!" Keel was a little surprised.

The attendant shrugged: "There is mysterious magic power inside, which is naturally different from ordinary gems. Come here, and I will tell you how to use the ring."

Hearing what the other party said, Keel moved the horse slightly closer to the window on the side of the carriage, lowered his body and leaned his head over it.

And the attendant in the carriage leaned out half of his body, covered his mouth with his hands, and whispered to Kiel.

"Well, um, that's how it is. I remember it, and I won't forget it. Isn't it very troublesome, I thought it would be so troublesome." Keel muttered in a low voice, and the attendant next to him heard this.

The other party smiled slightly: "After all, the function of this magic ring is only to provide lighting, and the method of use is relatively uniform. Even if there is a unique method, it is difficult to use it. Similar to this ring, the owner has one. The whole set is his proud and expensive collection."

After thinking about it, Keir put the ring on the little finger of his left hand, and the little finger with the glove just fit the ring on.

"Be careful, don't lose it. Otherwise, there will be no good consequences for the two of us." The attendant warned, telling Keir not to be careless.

Although the consequences of losing such a magic ring as two people are not unbearable, the expensive price of the ring when the baron bought it will still make the two of them hemorrhage.

Kiel nodded, he would be careful, after all, this thing is not cheap, even if it is just the most basic jewelry that uses magic power to provide lighting, it is estimated that it will cost a lot of money. And as far as he knew, similar things generally couldn't be bought directly with money.

If you think about it, you will know that the mysterious magician who made this kind of thing is probably not a character who is short of money. It is difficult for money to impress people of that level.

With a wave of his hand, Kiel bid farewell to the baron's attendants, first let the horse slow down, and joined Blood Fangst who fell behind, and then the two of them speeded up to avoid the baron's carriage, and galloped across the soft grass next to them. Come to the front of the line.

When passing by the Rumi knight leading the team forward, Kiel shook his left hand while the knight looked over.

The knight's eyesight was far superior to that of ordinary people, so he naturally saw the conspicuous gemstone ring on Kiel's left hand, so Knight Rumi pointed forward to tell Kiel to move faster.

"Understood! Let's go!"

Kiel tapped the horse's belly, causing the horse to accelerate past the militia corps.

The guide Xue Yaster who was following him looked curiously at the rows of Kendall soldiers who were more orderly, and kept nodding: "Soldier Kiel, your soldiers look really good. Even in the army I met, there are It’s more advanced.”

Keir became curious. In his opinion, the Kendall army is already very good, but it can only get a relatively high-ranking title. I don't know what experience this middle-aged caravan guard has: "Tell me, you think the most powerful Those armies? Which well-known armies are they?"

The two talked as they passed rows of soldiers.

Xueyasite thought for a while, and then said: "Army, it depends on whether they are strong or not, mainly depends on whether they can win the opponent. I was lucky enough to meet the most powerful army once."

"Oh, which one?"

Bloodfang Scratched his beard on his chin: "That was on the western border of the province a few years ago. At that time, I followed a large caravan to the front line of the western border to deliver supplies. At that time, alien races invaded our human kingdom on a large scale. At that time, the front line was very powerful."

"At that time, the large caravan I was in was blocked in a castle. There were sinister and cunning aliens outside the city at night. We human warriors were at a disadvantage in fighting at night, and the situation was very dangerous."

"As a result, a whole team of Griffin Knights flew from the sky at that time, oh—the scene at that time was really indescribable. I was helping to fight at the top of the city, and I saw with my own eyes that several griffin knights descended from the sky and emitted a dazzling light." The ball illuminated the dark night brighter than the day. Afterwards, the lightning ball wrapped in thunder came down from the Griffon, and it roared like a thunderstorm and fell into the alien army formation on the ground. It was so powerful. When a thunderball falls, it will blow up a large area of ​​aliens."

Keel listened carefully without interrupting.

"Besides, there was arrow rain falling like rain. Really, I'm not bragging. The number of arrows falling from the sky at that time was denser than the rain in front of us. And they were all thick arrows , about the same height as you and me, an arrow can fall from the sky and pierce the dwarfs who are attacking the city to the ground. It's so powerful that even we who defended the city were stupid at that time, let alone the aliens who attacked the city , and it collapsed immediately.”

Bloodyaster danced and danced. Obviously, the scene he described many years later made him quite excited: "The leading end of the griffin team flying in the sky kept dropping fireballs, lightning and some Throwing objects. The power is terrifying. When the fireball fell on the ground, the dwarfs wrapped in metal were blown into the sky, and they could kill their own companions when they fell. The lightning struck a large number of alien races, like The whole piece fell like wheat. As for the projectile, someone had sharp eyes, and only then did they see the thing from a distance. After the small projectile fell, the alien races in a large area were like crazy, attacking each other, That's why we retreated."

After finishing speaking, he pointed to Kendall's militiamen: "You say, compared with that kind of army, what are we guys walking on the ground?"

Kiel nodded, and had to admit that compared with the army flying in the air, the ground troops without effective air defense methods are really not enough. However, the army that Blood Fangster mentioned was obviously the Border Knights stationed in the Kingdom of St. Halls by the Empire. After all, he had never heard of such a powerful army in other places.

Speaking of which, Knight Crowe had joined the Border Knights of the Empire before, so you can ask him about it.

"Besides that, the second most powerful ones are the alien races who were defeated just now, those dwarfs digging in the ground."

"dwarf?"

"That's the name, but we call them dwarves here. After all, they killed a lot of us, don't you think? Don't look at them being defeated a few years ago, but if it weren't for the help of the griffins flying in the sky, I guess the castle I was in at the time couldn't be saved."

"They are so powerful. The elites are all covered with metal armor, and they are short, like metal boxes. Those dwarfs have blades on the outside of their armor. They are not afraid of hurting each other, but whoever fights with them will be rushed over by them." Hug, the stomach can be cut open. An elite dwarf like that needs at least a whole team of soldiers to block them with spears. Hold them with spears from a distance and keep them from approaching."

"Even ordinary dwarves need two or three people to defeat them. Although they are small, they are very powerful, and they like to throw out a string of hammers attached to their waists. If you get hit, your hands will be broken." A broken foot, or a blown head. Fortunately, they attacked the city, and we were defending on the city wall at that time, so we could hold on."

Keir asked him to describe the situation in detail.

"The dwarves are too hateful, and I don't know what happened. At the beginning, many elite dwarves were thrown over by their own catapults, and they fell on the city wall as if they were solid. All the places were smashed, and all the people were killed. They waited for the golden light to stop, and then fought like nothing. And although they were very strong when the golden light was shining, they couldn't move by themselves. We were all risky Death rushes up to tie them up with iron chains."

"Besides, those dwarves still have engineering vehicles, which are as high as the city wall. The place facing the city wall is constantly breathing fire. Many people were burned to death. It was pitch black. When the remains were collected later, no one could distinguish everyone. Who's who."

Having said this, Blood Fangste whimpered and cried, and the tears slid onto his beard together with the rainwater stained on his face.

Kiel didn't expect this, and hurriedly said a few words of comfort. He guessed that someone who was important to Ster died under such a flame, and finally couldn't recognize him.

"In short, those dwarfs are really powerful. Compared with this, you Kendalls are much worse." Xuefangsite finally commented.

Keir shrugged. He felt that the two could not be compared. Obviously, the army that the dwarves attacked at that time was an elite army, which could not be compared with the Kendal army formed spontaneously from the local area.

After all, Baron Kendall organized his army, relying only on the development of his small territory.

Among other things, the population of Kendall County is smaller than other places because of its remoteness.

The population of the western provinces far exceeds that of the northwestern provinces, and it's just as if they didn't see their army.

Afterwards, Bloodfang also mentioned two armies he had seen. One was the earl's direct cavalry he met and trained in the provincial capital, and the other was a local lord in the swampy area of ​​the southern province near the central province. army.

Needless to say, the former one, the noble leader of a province, the elite army under his command is obviously far superior to the general local army in terms of equipment, not to mention that the cavalry are professional soldiers, trained all the year round, just the level of training, Kendall The militiamen can't catch up with the flattery.

The latter one is interesting.

As far as Xueyasite said, the reason why he thinks that army is strong is because that army is a local mixed force responsible for defending against the invasion of swamp monsters.

Not only is everyone rich in combat experience, but also has a tough style of work, and there are not a few smugglers and guards who kill smuggled swamp products. Although there are not many people, they are elite enough to fight well.

Although the soldiers of the Kendalls have also fought bandits and killed people, the level of the enemy is average, which leads to the limited level of the militiamen.

In this regard, Kiel had to praise the middle-aged caravan guard for being well-informed. Although he didn't know how good this man was in combat, at least he didn't have to say anything about his knowledge.

-

While the two were talking, they had already crossed the vanguard of the army and walked ahead of everyone.

In fact, there should be someone to investigate ahead of time, but the continuous rain blocked the line of sight, and the Kendal people were not familiar with this place, and there were not enough landforms on the grassland to identify the direction, so it was easy to get lost.

Therefore, Knight Crowe didn't allow anyone to go one step ahead. After the three of them discussed, they decided to let Keir bring a guide and a magic ring to guide everyone.

"Look, I have passed a guiding stone pillar just now, and the next one should be in the direction of the trade route. Let me see, um, here. Let's go in this direction."

Xueyasite jumped off the horse and inspected the grass on the ground, connected his current location with the last guiding stone pillar that passed by, and then extended it.

After he got on the horse, the two drove the horse and galloped in that direction.

Soon, through layers of rain, Keel saw the next guiding stone pillar. The fluorescent stone on the top of the stone pillar glowed dimly in this gloomy rainy day, feebly showing its existence.

"I see, go quickly." Keel yelled, and rushed over with Blood Fangste.

Wait until you get closer to confirm that it is indeed a guiding stone pillar.

However, Xueyasite is very experienced. He also went close to identify the common language inscribed on the stone pillar, and after confirming that they did not go wrong, he said to Kiel: "Yes, this is no problem, it is for the way to go."

He went on to say: "Be careful, sometimes the road diverges, and basically two or three guiding stone pillars will be placed in a short distance in a row to guide the caravans to different directions. If you go wrong, often will walk all day in vain,"

Kiel nodded in understanding, then turned to face the direction he came from, with his left hand raised high, pointing directly at the rain clouds in the sky.

At the same time, his left thumb lightly touched the surface of the ring, and said silently in his heart: "Magic Fire Lighting—Turn on."

As soon as Kiel finished chanting in his mind, a few magical sparks popped out from the surface of the gemstone on the little finger of his left hand, and then a small flame phantom composed of the magic power emitted by the magic gemstone appeared in the air.

Looking at this fiery phantom that was only the size of a fist, Keir felt a little too small, so he put the ring inside the phantom, and said silently: "Magic Fire Lighting—Enhanced."

A few more magical sparks jumped out of the gem, and the entire flame phantom changed from the size of a fist to the size of an open palm.

It's a big circle.

"How is it? Is it conspicuous from a distance?" Kiel asked Bloodfang.

Blood Fang Ster was so surprised that he couldn't speak, so he nodded.

Turning his head, Keel turned his back on Bloodfang, and grinned silently.

Hey, I ask you to pretend to be aggressive to me.

Look, compared with being well-informed and bragging, this is called pretending!

-

Putting away his left hand, the phantom of the flame in the air was still floating in place. As far as the baron's attendant told him, after this ring is used, the phantom of the lighting flame left behind is completely maintained by the magic power left inside.

When the magic power inside the flame phantom is exhausted, it will naturally disappear.

And the duration of each flame phantom depends on the releaser to adjust the duration. However, the attendant didn't teach Kiel how to adjust it, so the flame phantom left by the natural ring only lasted for a basic period of time.

However, the other party taught him how to increase the brightness, because he was afraid that the phantom of the flames would be too small to be seen by the army forwards in the distance.

Then, a sharp whistle sounded from the forward of Kendall's army that Keir and the two looked at. When Kiel and the others heard it, it meant that the striker where Crow Knight was located had seen the light signal from the flame phantom.

The advance speed of the army was relatively slow before, because of the clear guidance, the advance speed increased at once.

"Okay, that's enough, let's go to the next guiding stone pillar!"

Kyle said cheerfully.

Blood Fangste shrugged: "You lead the team, you have the final say."

So he jumped off his horse and judged the direction of the next road from the state of the grass next to the guiding stone pillar.

-

That night, outside a small village called Sleeping Wolf Village, the Kendal army was stationed outside the village.

Most of the Kendall's caravans and local caravans gathered outside the village. They only left a small number of people to guard the carriages and goods in the caravan. The taverns specially provided for merchants to rest and communicate were full.

Bloodyaster also went to the village, and UU Reading www.uukanshu.com made an agreement with Kiel to come back early tomorrow morning and continue to lead the way.

As for Keel, he is having dinner with Knight Crowe in the knight's tent at this time. Needless to say, there is still a little water ghost meat at the beginning, and then he has to come back for another night with some nutritious warm soup mat abdomen.

Keel watched with envy as Knight Crowe ate the fat steak, drooling from the corners of his mouth.

The steak that Knight Crowe ate was a stray old wild horse that the knight found in the tall grass beside the trade road when he was marching in the afternoon. The knight borrowed a spear from the militiamen, threw it out, and pierced the old horse to death in one fell swoop.

At night, it immediately became the food in the mouths of the two knights and soldiers.

Kiel, who finished eating early, subconsciously twirled the gemstone ring on his left little finger. After thinking about it, he decided to ask Knight Crowe about what he heard from Bloodfang during the day before starting the knight training.

"What? The invasion of the dwarves on the border of the western provinces a few years ago?"

Knight Crowe put down his meat-slicing dagger and wiped the corners of his mouth with a dry cloth.

"Then you are asking the right person. I happened to be involved in the border conflict against the dwarf invasion at the time."

Keir became excited: "Then tell me about it! That fellow Bloodfangs told a wonderful story about this. I believe your side must surpass what he told."

"Haha, of course. However, after all, there are some things that cannot be said, so I will pick and choose what I can say and tell you."

Knight Crowe pushed the wooden cup in his hand forward. Seeing this, Keel immediately picked up the kettle and filled the knight with a whole cup of fresh rainwater.

"Well, where to start. Ah, let's start with why that 'conflict' broke out."