Path of light

Chapter 308 309. Plateau

The older mixed-blood elf's name was Lysander. These stowaways brought a total of six elf children from the Pagisto Plateau this time. Let's call them stowaways for the time being.

The slightly younger mixed-blood elf is called Ricardo, Lysander's nephew.

The adventure group rescued the two of them and six elf children from the elf headhunters.

The injured mixed-blood elf was Lesander's son Rambo. They lived in a small village in a valley. They usually collected some magic herbs and sold them to the caravans coming to the plateau from Padstow City. In exchange for some daily necessities.

Life here is very dull, and the food is very simple. There is only one kind of dark purple berry, which is available all year round.

They are all mixed-blood elves who left Padstow City and wanted to live a peaceful life.

There are some magical beasts living on the plateau, but they all chase buffalo herds or antelopes and migrate around on the huge plateau. They do not pose much of a threat to the elves living in seclusion in the valleys...

…

In the dusk haze, the sky was covered with a layer of orange smoke, and the sky above took on a strange lavender color.

The adventure group's temporary camp is located in a hilly area near the Pagisto Plateau, and the plateau mountains hidden in the mist can be seen from a distance.

After the flames burned out, only some flickering charcoal fire remained on the bonfire. The hoarfrost-like ash had long since disappeared under the blowing of the night wind.

The members of the adventure group sat around the charcoal fire, listening to the elder Lysander telling everyone about the events on the Pagisto Plateau.

Everyone knew very little about this plateau. Before that, Roy even thought that the Padisto Plateau was an unexplored and unknown area. This was what he learned in Padstow City.

It is said that only a few adventure groups have entered the plateau, and at least three adventure groups have disappeared on the plateau...

Some elves even speculated that the plateau was one of the territories of the griffons.

It now seems that elves have long been living on this plateau, and some elves have even opened mines here.

Lysander rubbed his hands on his hair and looked towards the plateau mountains that were almost blended into the night...

“It was a long time ago.

There is a kind of citrine abundant on the plateau, which should be regarded as a kind of magic crystal.

The mixed-blood elves who first came here discovered these mineral deposits. They occupied the place with the mineral deposits and became the owners of the mines.

At first, these mixed elves only dug their own mines and mined a small amount of topaz.

Later, they slowly accumulated capital, and the mine developed and slowly evolved into what it is today.

Later, the mine owners paid money to hire the surrounding elves to mine for them, but the mines dug deeper and deeper, and the mines became more and more dangerous. If the surrounding elves were willing to go to the mines to work as miners, the mine owners would try to find ways to do so. Some slaves were bought back from outside, and they transformed the mines into dungeons and imprisoned these slaves. Only the slaves who mined ore according to the number of ores every day had the right to eat and bathe. The slaves who could not deliver the ore could only starve. Waiting to die.

Some time ago, turmoil broke out in Padstow City, and the slave trade of the mine owners was interrupted.

When the mine owners couldn't buy slaves, they hired elf headhunters to capture the elves who lived in seclusion on the plateau. We saw that the elf headhunters could even run into the mountains to hide, but those children couldn't run away... …

So we tried to send them to Padstow City for refuge, but there were too many Silver Pegasus warriors there, and they would be arrested immediately if discovered.

Later, we settled on the next best thing and sent these children to Barrier Town. Their lives in Barrier Town were quite stable, so we tried to send more children over. Although it was a bit dangerous, it was better than waiting to die on the plateau. . "

The older half-blood elf Lysander spoke so hard that his throat felt dry.

He picked up the kettle, took a big sip, and moistened his throat...

Everyone was quietly listening to Lysander's description of the life of the plateau elves.

Roy, Sabrina, Moira, and Claire have lived in the city of Castletown since they were children. This city separates the upper and lower districts. Everyone has always felt that the mixed-race elves in the lower districts have been treated unfairly. …

But now, they feel that the mixed-blood elves living in Castletown are the happiest.

Roy asked with some confusion: "Why haven't I heard about the mining on the Padstow Plateau in Padstow City?"

Lysander smiled bitterly and said:

“Before the headhunters didn’t arrest us wantonly, this was indeed a good place, and no one wanted the secret of Pagisto Plateau to be spread.

There have also been adventure groups that came to the Pagisto Plateau for exploration. It is said that these adventure groups mysteriously disappeared deep in the plateau.

This secret is known to few outside elves.

Even if some merchants knew it, who would tell this secret to the Silver Moon Elves?

It is better for the mine to be in the hands of the mixed-blood elves than to be in the hands of the Silver Moon elves.

But the situation is different now. The slaves in the mines cannot be replenished. The mine owners are so greedy that they let the headhunters capture the half-blood elves who live in seclusion on the plateau. We have no choice but to find ways to resist. "

From the map, the Padstow Plateau is very large, covering an area almost equal to the area of ​​the jungle surrounding Padstow City...

This plateau is surrounded by mountains. There are dense forests only at the foot of some big mountains. Most of the area is covered with endless grasslands, swamps, lakes, and even very few hills.

Elves still like to live in the woods, and few elves will notice the Pagisto Plateau...

Roy has always felt that only the Silver Moon elves would continue to exploit the mixed elves, making them do the hardest work, live in the worst houses, and eat the cheapest fruits.

Now he suddenly discovered that the mixed-blood elves treated their compatriots even more despicably...

…

There are many mountain roads leading to the Pagisto Plateau, and none of them are easy to walk.

The dirt roads on the ridges are narrow and rugged, and they may slide down the steep slopes if they are not careful. The members of the adventure group only dared to lead their horses over these ridges on foot.

But those argali sheep like walking on steep mountain roads very much...

The mixed-blood elf Lysander led the adventure group through a hilly area first, and then followed a canyon and broke into the outermost mountains of the Pagisto Plateau.

There are some rugged black rocks everywhere here, and there are many forked roads in the valley.

There are ravines washed out by abundant rain everywhere, making the place look like a maze.

Even though Roy had been drawing the map carefully along the way, when he turned around, he found that the map in his hand was completely useless.

After passing through this canyon, Roy found that the adventure group had officially entered the mountains on the outermost edge of the plateau. The mountains here were all higher than the other and piled on top of each other.

There are extremely rich plant species in the mountains. Although there are no towering trees suitable for building tree houses, there are dense coniferous forests.

Low-level magical herbs such as silver-leaf grass and kudzu can be found everywhere in the woods, as well as some magical herbs that Roy couldn't even name. Woods wasted no time collecting magical herbs almost every day.

Of course, we will occasionally encounter some monsters, some even in groups of hundreds or thousands, so everyone can only stay away from them.

The members of the adventure group even saw a group of giant deer on the other side of the mountain. The king of giant deer stood on the cliff of the stone peak. The antlers on its head looked like two tangled small trees.

As it ran on the top of the mountain, the spiritual power on the antlers turned into white ribbons, floating in the woods on the hillside.

Lysander is very familiar with the environment here. The elves will hardly encounter other monsters on the route they take. Woods also discovered two very rare blood-sucking vines in this dense forest. These plant-based monsters have very precious magic. Material.

It took the adventure group half a day to get a vampire vine and collect a lot of tree vines.

It took about a week to pass through the mountains on the edge of the Pagisto Plateau, but the front was still not the hinterland of the plateau, but strips of mountains.

The backs of these mountains are covered with exposed gray rocks, with grass and moss growing below the middle and dense vegetation at the foot of the mountains. However, patches of woods are rarely seen, only around some puddles and lakes. Saw some trees.

Lysander rode on the argali and said to the members of the adventure group: "We have passed through the mountains on the edge of the Pagisto Plateau. From here, we have entered the Pagisto Plateau."

"Elves who are not familiar with this place have to walk at least twice as long if they want to cross these mountains. If their luck is even worse, they may be stopped by the monsters in the mountains and don't even think about coming in..."

Lysander added.

We walked along the ridge for another two days before arriving at a long and narrow canyon.

Lysander took everyone upstream along the only river in the canyon until Roy saw several low stone houses by the river. However, there were actually some fences and flowers around those stone houses, and he could even see fruit-laden trees. bush.

Before Lysander could speak, Rigard and Rambo rode out on argali and rushed out directly. They rushed directly into this small village.

The shouts of the two people called out some mixed elves.

When the elves saw Rigard and Rambo, they gathered around him and asked him: "Rigard, did you send those children to Barrier Town?"

"Sent it over!"

Rigard jumped off the back of the argali, let go of the argali, walked up to a female elf in a linen dress, and said to the expectant female elf with a mournful face:

"Sorry, aunt, we couldn't bring Parker back. We met a group of elf headhunters on the way. When Parker was covering the retreat of the elf children, he and Rambo were chopped down by the group of headhunters."

He turned back and pointed at Roy and his group, and said to the elves around him:

"They rescued Lambeau, but unfortunately they couldn't rescue Parker..."

The linen elf immediately covered her face with a handkerchief and cried.

A group of elves surrounded her and kept comforting her.

It turned out that this was the village where they lived. Roy found that this small village only had a dozen stone houses, which were built very scattered along the river.

Lysander let the argali go and let them drink water by the stream. He turned to Roy and said, "I can take you around the village. This is our gathering place. There are only eleven houses here. "

Almost all of these stone houses are covered with vines, with only the windows and chimneys exposed.

The yard is neatly kept, and it can be seen that the elves here know how to enjoy life.

The elves in the village knew that everyone in the adventure group had saved Lysander and the others, and everyone expressed their gratitude to Roy and others...

He also set aside a riverside hut for everyone in the adventure group and invited them to stay in the village.

Everyone's dinner only had some berries that looked like raspberries. Obviously these berries should be the food they usually eat. There was not even a fruit tree around the village.

It can be seen that these elves live a very miserable life.

Roy's magic waist bag contained a lot of apples and breadfruit that were easy to store, and he took out some to share with everyone.

The elves in the village gather together...

After nightfall, a small bonfire party was held by the river.

At the beginning, everyone had to recall some of Parker and talk about some past events in life, and then Lysander told the cause of Parker's death, enemies, etc. in public.

Later, the atmosphere here became less heavy, and some elves began to hum the folk songs of the elves.

Claire, the youngest musician at the Elf Academy, can naturally echo the singing and play an accordion. He can even help everyone harmonize. With the melody, the singing naturally becomes much more beautiful.

There was also an elf blowing the leaves, and the loud sound in the middle was immediately full of magic.

"These young elves want to wander around on the plateau. I will be their guide in the past two days and enter the hinterland of the plateau..." Lysander said to the elves around him.

"First of all, you can see headhunters everywhere. Lysander, you have to be careful when you go to the hinterland of the plateau!" said a female elf opposite.

"I will!"

Lysander said calmly.

The adventure group stayed in this small elf village for one night and left here the next morning.

This time, only Lysander left with the adventure group. He did not lead everyone back along the valley, but over the valley.

The field of vision on the plateau is extremely wide. Kaka is patrolling the sky on a griffin and can easily avoid the herds of beasts on the grass.

The land was far larger and more empty than Roy expected.

Two days after leaving the small elf village, not even a shadow of an elf could be seen on the plateau, let alone meeting those elf headhunters...

"There is an elven village in the valley ahead. We can stay overnight in their village tonight."

Lysander stood on a hillside and pointed to the valley ahead.

"Are all elven villages so far apart?" Claire couldn't help but ask Lysander.

"This is quite close!"

After Lysander finished speaking, he shook the reins in his hands and rode the argali down the hillside...