Mercenaries and Adventurers

"You probably know, Kiel."

Knight Crowe fiddled with his neatly trimmed beard, and said casually: "The land under our feet belongs to the Kingdom of St. Hulls, and it was a reward given by the gods to a group of human heroes nearly a hundred years ago."

He paused: "The implication of this sentence is that this land did not belong to our human territory at that time. At that time, the owners here were dwarves and a half-human, half-beast alien race."

The knight opened his palm and waved it flatly: "Plains and forests that are suitable for living are the territory of dwarfs. As for mountains and valleys, there are those half-human, half-beast alien tribes. Generally speaking, dwarves are the original land of this area. Owner."

Knight Crowe whispered solemnly, "And the gods above."

He pointed in the direction of the sky with his finger to show who he was talking about.

Kiel understood that the knights were talking about the emblems of the gods hanging in the sky with strange tracks in the sky. Here, people always refer to the most powerful gods by pointing to the sky.

"As for the gods above, after handing over this land to human rule and habitation, the dwarves and the half-human, half-beast alien race here were in confusion for a long time. The dwarf kingdoms are vast, and most of the dwarves bring Unwilling to migrate away, the alien race who had nowhere else to go retreated into the mountains.”

"Don't talk about other things, just talk about dwarves. Not all dwarves are willing to be forced to move away from their homeland, even though this was originally the border of the border of the dwarf territory, with a sparse population."

Speaking of this, Knight Crowe let out a breath from his nose: "The next thing, I guess you can guess it by guessing, right?"

Kiel nodded: "They kept attacking the kingdom? And for a hundred years?"

"Yes, a hundred years. Boy, a hundred years is a long time for us humans, but it is not the same thing for dwarves. Those helmets with long horns on their heads only reach human chests. The lifespan of a dwarf is at least two or three hundred years, and a hundred years is not so long, it is so long that it forgets the homeland and original hometown that it left when it was young."

"Think about it, if a dwarf left this place when he was a boy a hundred years ago, then he will be in his prime at this time a hundred years later. If possible, they will definitely try to take back part of the original land Even the kingdom itself does not prohibit foreign races from settling in the kingdom. In fact, if you are lucky enough to visit the capital, you will find that there are many dwarves there. In the mountains near the capital, there are many excavations Minerals are supplied to the dwarven villages in the royal capital."

Speaking of this, Knight Crowe pointed to the ground and said with a mysterious and exaggerated expression: "It is a village built inside the mountain! It is very interesting. It is that we humans used to wear a metal helmet with a soft lining. .”

Kiel asked a few questions about the capital, Knight Crowe said a few words, and then turned the topic back to the dwarves' attack. It seems that Knight Crowe doesn't like the capital, and he doesn't know what happened.

"Actually, you heard how grand the battle was described by the guard, but in fact, because the border area of ​​the western province near the west is sparsely populated and the terrain is flat, it is convenient for the dwarves to attack, so not many people settled there."

"In that border area, there are more than a few strong castles, which were built to deal with the dwarves. Those dwarves whose heads are stuffed with mud and ore are also the most stubborn guys. bypass them."

Shaking his head: "So, despite the fierceness of the fight, in fact, after so many years, both sides have been standing still, still facing each other on both sides of the boundary stone erected by the gods. We can't fight, and the dwarves are also because of stepping into the human world. Afterwards, his strength was greatly reduced, and he was driven back many times.”

Kiel rubbed his hands: "My lord, you know so well, you must have been on the battlefield a few years ago, right?"

"Heh heh heh, you wouldn't believe me if I wasn't there, right? Of course, of course I was there. I was one of the knights on the griffin back then."

As soon as he finished speaking complacently, Knight Crowe was conscious of talking too much, and then kept silent, letting Keir repeatedly beg him to say more, and Knight Crowe would not say anything about the Imperial Border Knights.

Afterwards, the two of them began to give guidance on knight training.

Knight Crowe intends to give Keel something new, so that Kiel will stop asking him about things that cannot be said.

This is a little trick about the usage of life energy in the human body.

In general, it is a trainer like Keel who sends life energy along the main blood vessels of the legs into the legs with the blood, and uses this controlled life energy to assist the blood flow in the legs, and the legs Maintenance and protection of body tissues during exercise.

After such an operation, the trainer can continue to run at high speed before the life energy of the legs is exhausted, such as fast running, which consumes a lot of energy.

"But you have to pay attention, it's okay at the beginning, the consumption of life energy is limited, the longer it lasts, the greater the consumption of life energy will be."

Keir scratched his head, hesitated for a while, and then said about the divine power of Saturn in his body and the blessing of the wooden hilt on the hilt that can provide physical energy.

"Lucky boy. But the two are different."

Knight Crowe thought for a while and said: "The divine power of the gods is omnipotent power, and it is usually the reward that the priests of the church get after serving the gods. It is really a waste for you to use it to maintain your armor-piercing physical strength. But generally Except for the development of new priests, there are very few churches that specifically give divine power to a warrior."

The knight squinted his eyes and looked at Keir: "Unless they want to develop you into a lackey of the church."

"My lord, what you said is too ugly. I remember that in the story it was called Church Knight or Blessed Knight."

Keel retorted feebly.

"Boy, church knights and blessed knights are different, and they should actually be officially called divine warriors. Divine warriors use divine power in their bodies to fight, and manipulate some blessed weapons and armors that the church fiddled with. There are some strengths. , but it is very difficult to become more powerful, unless you are favored by the gods, or hold a certain artifact."

The knight shrugged, mocking the direction of this development of force.

"As for church knights, they are actually ordinary knights who have taken refuge in the church. They mainly use knight skills to fight, and then add some ordinary blessing weapons and so on. They are not valued by various churches."

"Blessing knights is quite different. I heard that every part of those guys' bodies has been blessed by the priests as a blessing weapon, and they are no longer human. Of course, such guys are generally in those churches. The presence of force is maintained in the Holy Land. Unless the gods take major actions, there will be no blessed knights walking in the world."

After the knight finished speaking, he pointed at Kiel with his finger: "Your boy was almost abducted by those guys from the Saturnalia Church in Kendall City. If you hadn't met me, you would probably still be trying to get rewards from the Saturnalia Church at this time." , and constantly running around to complete the tasks issued by various Saturnalia churches."

"Hmph, it's easy to get power, but you can't help yourself when you lose it. You should remember this truth well."

"As for the knight's life energy training, this is a real power that belongs to you. Because of the exclusiveness of life, they can only be controlled by you, and no one can take them away. No matter who you disobey or do in the future, they I will never betray you, I will only follow you to the end of my life."

The knight stared into Kiel's eyes, with a very serious expression: "You are alive, they are there. You are dead, they are not. Trust them! Just like countless other knights, they are recommended by the life energy produced by their own bodies. Come on, walk into your own life."

Kiel took a deep breath and nodded heavily.

-

Afterwards, after the instruction, Knight Crowe asked Keel to go back to his tent to continue training, and he was going to go out to inspect a circle of the barracks.

Back to my tent, it was still raining sparsely, so the barracks specially chose a gentle **** with a slight curvature, so that the rainwater could easily flow through the tents without causing the trouble of stagnant water.

Lying in the uneven tent, Kiel put his spirit in his body, first touched the wooden doll in the leather bag beside him with his hand, after being stimulated, Kiel quickly sensed the sensations distributed all over his body. life energy.

After careful induction, Kiel found that the concentration of life energy in all parts of his body has exceeded twice that of his previous body.

Not only that, in the trunk of the body, through the continuous operation of the digestive system and other internal organs, waves of new life energy are gradually adding to the body through the blood and various body tissues.

According to the teachings of Knight Crowe, Kiel gathered the life energy of the whole body, and then pushed it on the flesh and bones of the limbs, vacating the torso of the body, allowing the new life energy to appear, and then he captured them one by one and added them to the seniors.

After babbling for a while, Keel felt exhausted, so he got into the dog skin sleeping bag and fell into a deep sleep.

-

He said he was a heavy sleeper, but Keel was still a light sleeper.

When the rainy day has not yet brightened in the morning, the cooks who go to bed early and get up early in the distance of the tent start to tinker with breakfast. Keel was woken up by the sound of cooks pouring water into cauldrons and baking dry biscuits.

After clenching his fist, he always felt that the strength in his hand was stronger than before.

According to what Knight Crowe said, this process of accumulating life energy beyond ordinary people's level is the most basic and most important step in knight training.

Everyone has their own upper limit of life energy accumulation, of course, most of the upper limit is not the same.

But when the accumulation is full, the foundation of knight training is laid.

The next training is how to use this life energy reasonably and naturally in battle. Defense, running, jumping, fighting, self-healing, etc., these contents have their own skills, and some knights even have unique skills created by their families or created by themselves.

For example, the Lanisa knight family who also serve the baron in Kendall County, they have a special way of seeing magic with the naked eye. Of course, Knight Crowe also has them, but most of them are combat skills learned in the army and comprehended in actual combat.

In this regard, Knight Crowe has spoken first, and he wants to pass on the skills he has mastered to his family. Except for the basic knight fighting aspects of Kiel's own, he has to find and comprehend by himself.

But Crow Knight also pointed out some ways.

For example, Kiel can find well-known knight apprentices everywhere, and use himself as a famous knight's attendant to learn the opponent's knight skills.

Or you can join an organization that has a lot of resources, such as the army of the kingdom, or some powerful organizations that have harsh conditions to join, such as the Imperial Border Knights.

Of course, local organizations are also possible. The subordinates of the big nobles naturally won over a lot of knights, and they also mastered a lot of knight skills. Kiel can definitely join the small knights under the command of those great nobles, and he will naturally be rewarded for his meritorious service.

In addition, Knight Crowe did not suggest that Kiel seek allegiance to a certain local nobleman like him. Although this is beneficial to social status and power control, it is not good for his own strength growth.

After all, the small nobles in the local area are not well-established and have many affairs. Once Kiel joins the local nobles, it will be difficult to go further on the road of knighthood.

After getting up from the tent, Keir tidied up and rode on another horse with rain protection measures on his belly. He walked out of the barracks and found Bloodyaster hovering at the gate of the barracks.

"Didn't eat anything? Come in and have some breakfast with me."

Even though Blood Fang took out a piece of baked dry hard bread from the hip pocket at his waist, Keel still dragged him into the barracks to enjoy the freshly baked hot thick soup and dry biscuits together.

The oatmeal cakes kneaded with coarse wheat flour and water were made thin and dry by the cooks on the baking iron plate carried in the car. If eaten alone, this would cause some complaints.

But when paired with a piping hot soup just out of the pan, everything is just right.

A lot of prairie mushrooms brought by the logistics clerk and the cooks from the nearby village last night were added to the thick soup. These mushrooms were collected collectively by the people in the village after the rain. The best batch of huge mushrooms were bought by the caravan of Kendall who entered first at a low price by bartering, and then handed over to the clerks in the army who came to collect supplies.

Although bartering is primitive, it is a suitable method for a village like Sleeping Wolf Village. Villages like theirs located on commercial roads are rich in products. The villagers in the village can't use up their own food and drink, and the upper limit of the population is here.

Therefore, it is perfect to find merchants with surplus supplies in exchange for something they don't have.

As for coins, this kind of hard currency that can be exchanged for everything must be kept in hand as long as possible. Not only can it be used to pay taxes to the lord, but also once some disasters happen, the role of these coins will be even greater.

Turn the words back. The thick soup with newly grown prairie mushrooms is very delicious, and it is pulled into the mouth with the broken dry biscuits, which just neutralizes all the shortcomings of the dry and hard wheat cakes. After chewing, the soup and dry biscuits reach a just right balance in the mouth, not too thin and watery, and not too dry and hard to swallow.

After swallowing it into the stomach, even the cold and wet rainwater on the surface of the body seemed to be swept away, and the spirit and physical strength were revived.

Keel ate monster meat last night, so he wasn't hungry, but he ate some casually to fill his stomach.

But Xueyasite stared and ordered two bowls of mushroom soup, and even chewed three pieces of dry biscuits.

If the chef hadn't known Keil and saw that Bloodfang was an outsider brought by Keir, the chef wouldn't have given this guy who was obviously not from Kendall so much food.

"All right, all right, are you exaggerating? Our cook doesn't need you to be so courteous." Kil pushed the blood toothster who was still eating, telling the other party to stop.

"Anyway, I don't see people around giving money, isn't it free food?"

Blood Yaster spoke vaguely, but stopped touching the next dry biscuit.

He was a little embarrassed: "It's not that the food here is so delicious, it's just that when I went back last night, there was nothing to eat in the caravan. They thought I would eat at your place, and you thought I would eat at your place." Go back to dinner."

Keir's eyes widened: "So you didn't eat anything last night?"

"After eating some of the dry food I had stored, I went to the tavern in the nearby village and drank a glass of ale. Those **** villagers, seeing that there were so many drinkers, they actually sold ordinary ale so expensive. What's more damning is that the village There are so many rich merchants. All of them are willing to spend money on cheap ale to show their strength. I can't drink it after one drink."

Kiel patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay, I'll treat you to a beer when you get to a bigger town on the road."

"Really?" Bloodtooth looked up and down at the young Kiel. At first he thought that the young man was bragging. After all, he had met many reckless young people who liked to rely on bragging to show themselves.

But look at Kiel wearing a complex and tight full-cover hard cowhide armor~www.readwn.com~ Hanging on his waist is a slightly shiny sword in dark weather. Xueyasite felt that Keir was still capable, at least a young man with financial resources, and his words should not be discounted.

"What did you say? Then I'll wait for the next town we meet on this road. Let me do the math, it should be Rotten Feather Town. Treat me to a drink right there!"

Putting down the wooden bowl, Bloodyaster patted Kiel on the back and quickly settled the matter.

"Rotten Feather Town, what the **** name?"

Kiel and Bloodfang got on their horses and walked out of the barracks. On the way, Kiel asked about this town with a strange name.

"There have always been harpies there, and the residents there wish every flying animal in the world would rot all their feathers, so they named their town this."

Afterwards, Xueyasite whispered to Kiel mysteriously: "I heard that there are no knight lords there. It's not that the higher-ups didn't send knights to sit in the town, and it's not that the town invited wandering knights to settle there. I heard, I heard. There The knight lords all died fighting the harpies."

"Then that town can still escape from the attack of monsters?"

"It's a monster after all, it can kill people, but it can't enter the houses of humans. The residents there can only make the roofs of their houses stronger. Although the harpies can't be wiped out, the monsters can't do anything to the people in the town. .”

After talking, the two walked out of the barracks, and then started to get down to business, bypassing the nearby village, starting from another exit gate of the village, and looking for the guiding stone pillars that guide the commercial road.

When passing by the wall of Sleeping Wolf Village nearby, Xueyasite spat in the direction of the village, muttering curses and asking for money.