Mercenaries and Adventurers

"Do you know what those things are?"

Knight Crowe threw the book in his hand to the camp bed beside him, and then asked Keel this sentence.

Keir shook his head, of course he didn't know, so he came to ask.

"Then guess, as a soldier, even a young one, you shouldn't have a corresponding understanding of those things."

The knight asked Keele to guess, and Keir guessed.

"When I killed the monster today, the blood of the monster splashed on my body?"

The knight shook his head: "It's a bit close, but it's not right."

"Stumbled or cursed?"

The knight shook his head again: "It's a bit close again, similar but still wrong."

"My lord, just tell me! I can't guess."

Keel grinned and said flatteringly.

"You boy, they are the dregs of the slaughter, the maltose-like malice that sticks to the spirit and soul."

"Sounds sweet."

This sentence made Knight Crowe laugh angrily. He nodded at Keir and shook his head: "As long as there is a killing, the creatures that are killed will spontaneously curse the target that killed them before they die, entangle and pollute us. mind."

Keir fell silent, and the pictures of the enemies he killed flashed through his mind.

Not only human enemies, but also the lives of countless animals and beasts in the past two years.

"My lord, I haven't encountered such a thing before, but it doesn't look very serious."

Kiel asked tentatively, he deliberately didn't talk about the knight leader of Gurov.

"According to what you said, your body has natural resistance. Generally, this kind of malice requires soldiers to purify their minds to deal with it. A rich and peaceful life, or a firm goal, can resist the invasion of these things. Time After a long time, they gradually disappear by themselves, and it is not sure whether there is something real or just a spontaneous generation of our memory."

Knight Crowe's words are very interesting. Whether those smelly and sticky red bloodstains come from the lives that were killed, or just something spontaneously produced in the warrior's heart, it is really uncertain.

Keel wasn't sure either.

"mushroom-"

Knight Crowe crossed his arms and muttered these words in a low voice.

He raised his head abruptly and looked at Kiel: "About mushrooms, you mentioned before that there is a kind of large, harmless mushroom that can move in the elven ruins in the wilderness of Dolarin Village, right?"

"Uh, yes, yes. It's more than two meters tall. It looks strong, but it's actually quite weak and deceptive."

Knight Crowe pointed his finger at his arm and murmured, "Perhaps those strange mushrooms have some special abilities? After all, they belong to elves, so it's unlikely that they are useless, right?"

This question seems to be asking Kiel, but in fact it is more about the Cavaliers persuading themselves.

In fact, Keel thinks that those tiny mushrooms come from the unreliable old goblin in the dream, whether it is the red-eyed mushrooms given to the goblins trapped in the evil stone statue, or the mushroom rings he made after healed him, the goblins are all It is inseparable from mushrooms.

But Keir thought about it again, the mushroom in the elf ruins might have been made by the old goblin, most likely it was some measure that the goblin arranged to protect the elf relics after it left.

Kiel smiled, but this measure was too useless, just looking at the big one, it was actually useless at all.

-

That night Kiel asked some more about the controlled magic power on his body, and Knight Crowe couldn't say anything about it. Although he could see the small flowing words all over Kiel's body through his eyes, those words were not Any kind he knows.

In fact, Knight Crowe's knowledge in this area is also very limited. He is a warrior after all, and he really doesn't understand the unknown characters.

"Even I drew a few before and asked Baron Kendall, he didn't know, he had never seen this kind of writing. Hey, after all, it is something left in the ruins of ancient elves, even this kind of writing that no one knows, Possibly older than our human civilization, long lost in time."

Crow Knight judged so.

There was nothing he could do about it.

But Knight Crowe didn't understand, if a text with special abilities was lost in the ancient time, how could they still have the special ability to restrain the huge magic power if they had no real users?

There must still be people in the world who use this kind of writing.

The source of the power of words with special abilities has never been the words themselves, but the life group that uses them. The power of words comes from the users, not the words themselves.

Even if some words inherently reveal the origin or law of the world, if no one understands their meaning, they are just some meaningless images.

-

The next day, everyone set foot on the march again.

This time, after yesterday's fierce battle, everyone quickened their pace.

I don't know if it's the blessing of the gods or what, but the huge gusts that always blow up intermittently in the past didn't find it on the Kendal people who were in a hurry.

The local merchants who followed and quickened their pace whispered.

They thought of a speculation that has been circulating in the local area for a long time. Some people say that although the harpies themselves are monsters, they are actually loved by the gods related to wind. wandering.

No one took this speculation seriously before, but yesterday the Kendalls from afar killed a large number of harpies nearby, and today there is no strange wind raging in the past on the strange wind grassland.

Everyone privately speculated that it might be true.

But even so, it is obviously impossible for these merchants to deal with a whole group of harpies in battle just like the army.

Which chamber of commerce can produce hundreds of elite troops with several knights and priests as the main force?

With this strength, this chamber of commerce has already transformed into an aristocratic lord. There is no need to work hard, take risks and travel around, looking at other people's eyes to make hard money.

Everyone looked at each other, and it was obvious that they were helpless. The situation on the strange wind grassland must continue forever.

But the stewards of several large chambers of commerce in the local caravan got together and talked about the unfinished discussion last night.

"This is an opportunity."

A fat steward rubbed his hands and said to the other people in the same car.

But the other person is still the same: "Don't think about it, this will bring extra trouble to everyone's trade. Regardless of the reaction of the monsters, even the army of the northerners, it is difficult to predict the baron's fate." action."

Another person went on to say: "Don't worry about the monster not killing us. We were all slaughtered on the strange wind grassland. In the end, it was all blamed on the monster. It's hard to explain clearly."

"We died for nothing."

The two said in unison.

Seeing that the two of them were still opposed, the chubby steward was a little unwilling: "What if we temporarily add a reward to the harpies? One gold coin per monster?"

This is a method he came up with when he returned to his caravan in the middle of the night after discussing with no results last night.

The method is old-fashioned, but it works.

Many troubles on the commercial roads are solved in this way. They don't need to come forward. As long as rewards are spread in various big towns, some seemingly cowhide guys will disappear after a period of time.

Except for the harpies on the strange wind grassland.

The knights in Weifeng Town died one after another on the way to conquer the monsters. This is something that all the merchants in the western provinces know. At that time, they agreed that it would not be feasible to rely on force to deal with these harpy monsters entrenched on the strange wind grassland.

But what happened yesterday made them change this concept.

It turned out that it wasn't impossible, but that it didn't overwhelm the Harpy in terms of force.

As long as they overwhelm the monsters, they humans can defeat a large number of monsters with 'less' losses.

But the price offered by the fat steward was immediately scoffed at by others.

"A gold coin and a monster? What are you thinking? Ah, miserly fellow, watch your purses, for they will never be spent."

Knowing that others were mocking him for being stingy with money, the fat steward hurriedly explained: "I'm just saying a price, if you think it's feasible, you can say a price!"

"Ten gold coins for a harpy!"

When this sentence was uttered, everyone else took a breath, good guy, the price has increased ten times in an instant.

"Would it be too much? The biggest group of horse bandits who ravaged the business roads in the past few years, their price is only three gold coins per person. Just like this, in less than half a year, they themselves killed all their own people. The horse bandits inside Xiaobo traded their own lives for money and flew away."

The steward who proposed to blame the ten golds had gray hair and a thin figure, and when he heard this thoughtless remark, he snorted dissatisfiedly: "Speaking thoughtfully, do you think the harpies would come for the bounty on their heads?" And kill your own people?"

Everyone laughed a little. Indeed, unlike the bounty targets of humans, monsters don't want money, but life.

"But this price is too high. It's not like everyone can't afford this money. The bounty offered by dozens of harpies can be earned by walking north and south. It's just that compared to monsters, I'm more I'm afraid that army will ransack us for the caravan that can easily take out hundreds of gold coins."

Some people have raised this concern, and it is not unfounded.

They are all well-informed. Just last year, the nobles of the southern province fought with neighboring countries on the border. After the defeat and retreated, some troops without command took advantage of the situation to loot a large number of merchants on the commercial roads within the province.

Often a large number of merchants are unable to resist when faced with a small-scale rout, which leads to many people being looted. Although the loss of manpower is not much, valuable goods are taken away, which makes everyone's chamber of commerce All suffered serious losses.

This has also caused the caravans this year to raise their vigilance whenever they see the army, for fear that the unfamiliar army will look down and turn into robbers, looting the caravans that have no ability to resist.

It's not that there are no guards in the caravan, but that those guards can still fight when they face bandits and horse bandits, but they can't when they face the army. No one wants to risk the inevitable consequences of fighting, and often an entire caravan will be ransacked by a small number of troops.

Not to mention the large and elite army of the Kendalls.

Baron Kendall really meant this. It is estimated that these businessmen present will be the first to put down their weapons and donate their wealth to save their lives.

"That Baron Kendall looks like a decent person, and he is unlikely to do such a thing. I think everyone is thinking too much. Besides, they are not a defeated army. They should not do such a dangerous thing when there is a way out. Disgraceful thing."

As soon as the caravan steward who spoke said his words, the other people present looked at him like idiots.

This is far more serious accusation than the stinginess of the fat steward before everyone ridiculed him.

"Why are you looking at me like that? That's what I think anyway. And I don't think those northerners are going to provoke the harpies for a reward."

The other people didn't listen to what the steward said, and everyone discussed the amount of the reward, and felt that they still had to give it a try.

The steward snorted coldly and did not participate in other people's discussions. One of his subordinates was a logistics officer who was retired from the earl's army in the western province. Although he was secretly retired for committing a crime, this officer was quite familiar with him because he had dealt with his subordinate before. , and therefore joined his team after the opponent came out of the army.

As soon as he came into contact with Kendall's army, this subordinate who had worked in the earl's army quietly reported to him how much it would cost to maintain an army of this size in a day.

That's not a small number.

And after taking into account the risks and losses of fighting monsters, the reward amount negotiated by the companions becomes ridiculous.

He leaned on the back of the seat of the carriage and watched as everyone finished discussing and discussing.

Watching the crowd choose the right messenger.

Watching everyone carefully explain the emissary's precautions.

Watching the farewell messengers set off.

He watched everyone anxiously waiting for the result in the carriage.

In the end, he watched the messenger come back with failure, and the disappointed expressions of his companions.

With a sneer, he thought of other ways.

How could they not think about it? Before, they always thought that the harpies on the Weifeng Grassland could not be solved by force, so after many trials and tests, they found a way to use sheep as meat to feed and contribute. Now that we finally see the hope of solving it by force, we have to try all kinds of methods.

The method of offering tribute with sheep is the next best thing to offering tribute meat. It’s not that everyone can’t afford the money, but in this way, the flow of trade routes is limited due to the number of sheep raised along the road.

When there are many sheep, there are many caravans; when there are few sheep, the number of caravans that can pass through the strange wind grassland is small. This greatly affected the number of caravans passing through this important trade route.

Unlike his companions who were thinking of 'solutions' that save effort and money, this caravan steward has a bit more structure.

Since you can only rely on the army to deal with monsters, and you can rely on the army to deal with monsters, then rely on the army to deal with monsters.

But it's not the unfamiliar and dangerous provincial army, but the local army in their western province.

The Earl sent several knights here in succession to develop and take root, obviously with the intention of completely controlling the place. Although they all failed in the end, it was obviously due to insufficient strength. Are you afraid that the Earl will not be able to provide this army?

Others didn't understand that the caravan steward, who had a former earl's army logistics officer under him, knew how much power the earl had in his hands.

That is a powerful force that other province controllers, the Earl, dare not even imagine.

Thanks to the invasion of dwarves on the border of the western provinces, and thanks to the terrifying sea of ​​grass where monsters will emerge in the middle of the provinces. Although they continue to bring unrest to the western provinces, they also let the strength of the Lord Earl who resists all these Far beyond the imagination of others.

-

During the day, there was no strong wind blowing all day, which made everyone walking on the commercial road very excited, and they walked like flying.

They also encountered some caravans coming from south to north on the trade road without actual roads.

Like them, they all gathered in a pile and 'united' to survive the dangerous windy grassland.

These caravans also brought a large number of sheep, and drove the sheep along the way to feed the monsters who asked for meat. But after they walked for a long time, they didn't meet the greedy monsters that flew overhead in the past.

When the two met and asked, they found out that all the harpies nearby were defeated and killed by this army.

It's incredible!

The caravan merchants who were traveling relatively wanted to ask more questions, but the local merchants who were traveling south refused to say anything. These news can be exchanged for money!

If you want to know, don't just ask, take the money out!

The people of Kendall did not welcome the strong wind they had experienced before near the strange wind town until the sky turned to sunset.

"This is the harpy hiding in the grass nearby, isn't it?"

Baron Kendall rode on the horse and asked the Knight Crowe beside him.

Knight Crowe nodded: "Very likely, during the break, the locals were secretly talking about this, and some of them had similar conjectures~www.readwn.com~ but there was no possibility of confirmation until we defeated that A large group of harpies didn’t even encounter strong winds during the day today. Only then did the locals feel that this guess was possible.”

The baron smiled and nodded: "Don't say it, I think so too. But things can't just look at the appearance on the surface. The so-called appearance is the final result of the inner operation or one or several phenomena in the operation."

This truth is a bit convoluted, and others may not understand it, but Knight Crowe understands it very well.

His qualitatively changing life energy can cause huge vibrations or manipulate earth and rocks in its appearance. From the perspective of the people who don't understand, either someone offended the mother of the earth and got angry, or after admitting what he did, they thought that he was the chosen one who was favored by the gods.

To die of laughter, how could a knight like him be disgusted or favored by Mother Earth.

Think too much.

Even priests of ancient nature gods like the Lord of Rivers and Lakes have extremely terrifying power, not to mention Mother Earth, the most important and oldest **** of nature in the world, who is many times stronger than the former.

If the poems of the bards are true, then the priests of the Church of Mother Earth who rarely appear in many heroic legends are all powerful beings who can really cross mountains and seas.

Even if that power does not come from themselves, but is only granted by the gods, it is not as powerful as ordinary people can imagine.

Raise mountains and cut rivers.

Thousands of miles away, landslides and ground cracks.

Rivers and lakes diverted, destroying cities and countries.

That is the truly terrifying power.

While speaking, the town of Weifeng, which is flat and leaning on a river in front, appeared in everyone's sight.