Path of light

Chapter 221 222. Dire Wolf

In the evening, the shadow of the caravan appeared on a path in the woods.

The clear and melodious sound of bells came over, and the leading horse walking in the front was also carrying a large bag of goods. Captain Xindeji was walking in the front and seemed to be in a good mood.

The caravan arrived at the mouth of the valley and started camping. These horses needed a good rest. There were elves who specially repaired the horseshoes of these horses. The next section of the road was a rocky road. If the horseshoes were cracked, it would be easy to walk in the canyon full of gravel. Let the horse get hurt.

"I originally planned to arrive here at noon today, but the transaction in the village was not completed, so it was delayed for a long time."

When talking about this, Commander Shindeji's face was full of pride.

During this trip to the barrier villages, business in each village was good. Now they have purchased a lot of magic herbs. As long as they can return to Padstow City safely, they can make a sure profit.

Captain Xin Deji was naturally very happy.

At night, the chirping of harpies will sometimes be heard, and they will make a sound similar to evil laughter, which will make even the elves feel irritable.

Gru climbed to the top of a tree, preparing to shoot a few harpies to give them a little deterrence.

Captain Xindeji walked to the adventure group’s camp, sat in front of the campfire, and said to instructor Nora:

"They have been living on the nearby cliffs. There are many caves on the cliffs of this canyon. They can fly inside the caves and ambush any hunters who enter the caves. Many hunters turned into harpies after entering the caves. rations, so the elf hunters nearby would never climb into the caves of the rock wall to capture these harpies.

At night, they are also attracted by firelight. They hate the sound of bells. As long as a string of bells is hung outside the tent, the harpies will not come close.

The elves don't like the harpies' leather, which is wrinkled and unattractive. Few elf hunters are willing to hunt them. I heard that human nobles like to keep harpies in birdcages, but human witchers There is no way to come to the Partington plane.

When we pass through the Tiger Leaping Gorge tomorrow, we will try not to provoke these harpies. Normally, they will not regard us as their attack targets. "

After saying that, Captain Shindeji also gave Instructor Nora a string of bells.

"Understood, we will follow your team when the time comes. Unless they take the initiative to attack, we will never provoke them."

Instructor Nora stood up and said, then climbed onto a rock wall, stood on the top of the rock wall and shook the bell in his hand vigorously.

Sure enough, the laughter of the harpies stopped suddenly, and then there was a popping sound of wings flapping in the forest, and several harpies flew through the woods and flew into the caves of the canyon.

…

Instructor Nora arranged for Roy to stay on duty overnight, and it was in the middle of the night, so Roy needed to get some sleep in advance.

Just when he got into the tent, a group of elf warriors ran out of the forest against the backdrop of the night. These elf warriors came to the entrance of Tiger Leaping Gorge and stopped one after another.

For a moment, a series of war horses neighed.

Roy poked his head out of the tent and looked outside. The elven warriors were all wearing metal armor, with long swords hanging on their waists and long battle bows on their backs. They looked majestic.

When jumping off the horse, you can hear the clear sound of metal friction.

This group of elven warriors are all Silver Moon elves.

The leader of the elf warriors, the captain, strode up to Captain Sindeji and asked him:

"Are you Padstow's caravan?"

"Yes!" Captain Xin Deji responded quickly.

The elf captain raised his chin slightly, pursed his lips and said to Captain Sindji:

"If you take this road again in the future, you must take the initiative to pay a tax to Lord Alves. This mountain forest including the canyon in front has become the territory of Lord Alves. You people are now good at If you break into private territory, according to the laws of the Elf Kingdom, we have the right to expel you, but since you don’t know yet that this forest has become the private territory of Lord Alves, we will not expel you immediately. .If you don’t want to pay your taxes, you need to get out of here tomorrow morning.”

Captain Hindji was slightly startled. He seemed to have never heard of this matter. However, the name Lord Alves is very famous in Padstow City. He owns the largest trading house in Padstow City. , considered to be the most powerful Silver Moon Elf noble in Padstow City.

Since we can let the elven army enter the jungle and announce this matter everywhere, it seems that this matter should be true.

Captain Sindeji asked the Silver Moon Elf captain in front of him:

"I want to know how big the territory of Lord Alves is here?"

The elf captain coughed slightly, then took out a parchment map from his arms, and unfolded the map in his hand.

This map happens to be the entire map of the Partington plane, but only the area currently occupied by the elves, which radiates three hundred kilometers in all directions with Padstow City as the center.

Obviously, the elf captain came well prepared. He had already drawn a green area on the map.

Pointing to this area, the elf captain said to Captain Sindji:

"From Padstow City to the south, all the way to the Griffin Barrier Mountains, this land has been purchased by Lord Alves."

Not only Captain Hindji was stunned on the spot, but the followers of the merchant group all looked up at the elf captain. Everyone couldn't believe that this Lord of Alves actually bought a quarter of Padstow City in one fell swoop. soil of.

Captain Xindeji quickly asked:

"Um, you're saying that the forest south of Padstow has been bought by this Lord of Alves?"

The elf captain corrected: "In fact, Lord Alves' territory only extends to the foot of the northern mountain of the Griffin Barrier. The area south of the Griffin Barrier is not counted as Lord Alves' land."

Several instructors from the adventure group also came over. Among the instructors, only instructor Nora was a mixed-blood elf. The other instructors were all silver-moon elves, and they all wore magic-patterned leather armor. They looked like they were of extraordinary status.

The elf captain glanced at several instructors and nodded to them.

Captain Xindeji continued to ask:

“In the future, if we want to pass through Lord Alves’ territory, we will have to pay taxes?”

The elf captain became a little more amiable and said, "That's it."

Instructor Nora asked curiously: "Where does Lord Alves' territory extend to the east?"

The elf captain raised the parchment map in his hand and told everyone: "The width of the territory is about two hundred kilometers."

Captain Shindeji's expression changed slightly, and then he noticed the thin line on the east side of the map. He frowned and asked, "You mean the east reaches directly to the edge of the Mochias Mountains?"

The elf captain shook his head, pointed to the east area and said: "It's not that far away, and the Blackwater Swamp is not currently the territory of Lord Alves."

Captain Sindeji sat down a little feebly and said to the elf captain:

"Okay, got it, we'll leave as soon as possible."

The elf captain and a group of his soldiers also camped at the entrance of the canyon, but their resting camp was dozens of meters away from the caravan.

Instructor Nora sat opposite Captain Sindeji and asked him:

"If caravans don't want to pay taxes in the future, will they have to bypass this territory?"

Captain Shindeji wiped the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief and said sadly:

"It takes almost three times more distance to walk, and the Mochias Mountains are notoriously dangerous. Almost all the monsters there are in groups in the mountains and forests, even in the Blackwater Swamp. Long-snouted giant crocodiles, killer bees, dragon flies, patterned giant anacondas and other monsters are also famous for their ferocity. Without the adventure group and mercenary group to follow, our caravan will have no way to move there. "

"Ah? I didn't even know there was a place like this in the Partington plane. If I had known there was a place like Blackwater Swamp, why would we have ventured to Griffin Barrier..."

Instructor Nora said loudly.

Guide Margery was a little dumbfounded and said to instructor Nora: "Aren't you here to climb the gryphon barrier?"

"I just didn't know there was a place like Blackwater Swamp, so I decided to climb the Griffin Barrier. If I had known there were dragonflies in Blackwater Swamp, we should have gone there to take a look..."

Instructor Nora said with some regret.

The other instructors didn't care.

However, instructor Eleanor asked with some worry: "What about the elf villages in the territory?"

"Of course you need to pay taxes, otherwise you may be kicked out!" Captain Xin Deji said worriedly.

The instructors fell silent. This was the scene they least wanted to see.

"..."

Even Instructor Gru, who usually doesn't like to talk much, couldn't help but say at this time:

"They have lived here for so long, and suddenly they became the subjects of Lord Alves. Isn't this a bit unreasonable?"

In the elf village, they had seen the oppression of these mixed-blood elves by the Padstow Silver Moon elves. These mixed-blood elves living in the elf village had almost no opportunity to go to school. Many mixed-blood elves could only become hunters in this life. Or an herb gatherer.

Now there are Silver Moon Elf nobles taking the jungle they rely on for their own survival...

The atmosphere in the business group was very dull. In fact, this also meant that Captain Xin Deji needed to open up a new trade route.

…

The next day, the caravan passed through Tiger Leaping Gorge and successfully arrived at the next elf village.

This group of elven warriors arrived first and had already issued Lord Alves' order. The mixed elves in the village suddenly became a mess. Everyone came out of their homes and began to discuss how to deal with this matter.

Some mixed-blood elves don't want to leave their homeland. Many elves have lived here for half their lives, so naturally they don't want to leave here.

Since you chose to live in the village, the first thing you should do is pay taxes to Lord Alves.

Many elves don't have the habit of saving money. They only find ways to make some money when they need it.

Just at this time, the caravan of Captain Sindji arrived at the elf village. Many mixed-blood elves took out some magic herbs and Warcraft materials from home and sold them to the caravan in exchange for some Koler and paid a tax.

Many young mixed-race elves in the village do not intend to pay taxes. They are planning to leave their homes and continue to migrate south.

In their words: The world is such a big place and we do not accept slavery.

These young mixed-blood elves are preparing to go south with the caravan until they reach the barrier village.

The whole village has become extremely noisy. Many tree houses in the originally quiet village will now be abandoned, and everywhere is filled with the sadness of farewell.

The young mixed-blood elves clamored to follow the business group, and Captain Sindji had no reason to refuse.

But Captain Shindeji also has his own worries...

The further south you go, the more dangerous the jungle becomes. The jungle ahead is often infested with monsters, and the closer you get to the griffon barrier, the more dangerous it becomes, because griffins are the real overlords of this jungle sky.

…

The adventure group still did not follow the caravan into the village. Under the leadership of the guide Margery, the adventure group came to a mountain col.

This time, Instructor Nora divided the adventure group into two combat groups. The two groups were only five hundred meters apart and walked side by side in the jungle...

Roy was still in the same group as Instructor Virgil, Instructor Gru, and Instructor Eleanor. There were three instructors in their group.

Instructor Nora and Miss Scarlett, along with Sabrina and Miss Christine, are slightly weaker, but they also have Guide Margery in their group.

After walking out of the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the mountains and forests here have obviously become more desolate. It is difficult to find trails in the jungle. Almost everyone is walking forward through the grass. According to the guide Majeri, there are often terrorists in this mountain range. Wolves are out.

The wind fox hunted by the adventure group before can only be regarded as a first-level monster, but the dire wolf here is considered a second-level monster. This kind of monster is more dangerous to Roy, Sabrina and Miss Christine. .

So when Instructor Nora was dividing into groups, she repeatedly told Instructor Eleanor to take good care of Roy.

However, the responsibility of taking care of Roy ultimately fell on Instructor Gru.

As an archer in the adventure group, Instructor Gru's usual duty is to hunt down monsters and give them fatal arrows.

However, for a great elf archer, the most fearful thing is that the Warcraft breaks through the encirclement of other instructors. Once it rushes to Instructor Gru's side, Instructor Gru's combat effectiveness will be sharply reduced.

Roy is currently in the adventure group, mainly protecting Instructor Gru.

Instructor Eleanor walked at the front of the team, Instructor Virgil was in the middle, and Instructor Gru led Roy at the back of the team...

…

In the mountains, a furious two-headed dire wolf lay in the grass, its blood-red eyes staring at the two mixed-blood elf hunters in front of it.

The two mixed-blood elf hunters had just killed a wind fox in its territory.

Although it had long disliked the wind fox, the wind fox ran too fast and was too alert, so the dire wolf never found a chance to hunt it.

But now it saw two elf hunters breaking into its territory and hunting down the wind fox. The dire wolf suddenly felt that it should teach these two elf hunters some lessons, such as making them a delicious meal for itself.

The dire wolf was crawling in the grass. It didn't even dare to move for fear of disturbing the two elf hunters.

It patiently waits for an opportunity...

Finally, the two elf hunters squatted down, and they seemed to start skinning the wind fox. Now, the dire wolf suddenly jumped out of the grass and rushed towards the two elf hunters a hundred meters away.