Blue Sword

"A glass of vodka," Hidrifa said.

Lucki is a small village in the Rhodope Valley, with a population of about two hundred people living here.

The most lively thing in the village is the tavern built by the river. The locals call it "Dad's Tavern". Basically, in the evening, villagers, whether they are farming or hunting, like to come here for a drink.

Today, many strangers came, looking like mercenaries. The villagers sat around the round table in twos and threes, glancing at the seven or eight outsiders sitting at the bar from the corner of their eyes, and started talking quietly.

Except for the leader, who is a man, the others are all beautiful women.

Well, they must be nobles somewhere. Some nobles really like to be surrounded by beauty. As for why they all dress up as mercenaries, it can only be said to be the special hobby of the nobles.

"Your Balkan vodka." The owner of the tavern, nicknamed "Dad," poured a glass of vodka for Hildrifa and pushed it over.

"Enough!" Hidrifa drank it down in one gulp, the blush immediately spread to her neck, and she burped in admiration, "One more drink."

"You girl, you are quite good at drinking." Dad said with a smile and poured her another glass.

"I want gin," said Elinor.

"Then let me order a glass of fruit brandy." Nora said, looking at the menu.

"Bloody Mary." Medea snapped her fingers.

"I want a Flying Dutchman cocktail," Mia shouted, raising her hands.

"Children can't drink!" Nora forced her hand down and asked her father, "Is there any juice?"

"There is raspberry liqueur, non-alcoholic." Dad laughed.

"Damn, why can you all drink, but I have to drink juice?" Mia opened her teeth and claws in dissatisfaction, but Nora slapped her on the back of her neck, quickly subduing her like a cat.

Under Nora's clutches, Mia could only purr unwillingly.

"Let's have a draft beer," Asker said at last. "What would Peggy want?"

"Just soda with ice, thank you," Peggy said.

Soon Dad had mixed all the wine and served the cups in front of everyone.

"I never thought there would be a bartender in a small village like this." Medea put her chin in one hand and said with a smile.

"Hey, what a bartender, I'm just a bartender." Dad said, "When I was young, I worked in Constantinople and learned some bartending skills. Have you been to Constantinople?"

"Been there," Asik said. "I heard that the Seljuks have almost reached the city of Nicaea, and Constantinople must be in danger now."

"The Seljuks are a barbaric and backward country." The father shook his head. "I heard that each family must have four children. How can they be so able to have them? My old lady gave birth to two. Just taking care of them I’m almost dead from exhaustion. If there are two more, I can’t even think about it.”

"I'm afraid that when the call comes, everyone will be helpless," Aske said.

"No, nothing will happen to Constantinople. It has three huge walls." Dad said with a nonchalant smile, "What's more, there are two His Majesties here. God will bless Constantine." Fort."

Asker didn't refute, just drank the beer slowly and put down the cup: "Is there anything to eat?"

"For drinks, there are grilled squirrel skewers, grilled lamb chops, and apple pie."

"Let's all have some." Asik took out a few silver coins and put them on the table.

"This raspberry liqueur is delicious." Mi'er said to Mia.

"Hmph, I won't drink!" Mia said angrily, "What's the point of not having alcohol? Think about when I was in the guild... ugh ugh."

She couldn't say anything else because Nora stuffed a piece of pie into her mouth.

"The lamb chops here are very tender." Eleanor took out the bones of the lamb chops and said to Hilda Lifa, "The meat of our lamb chops is older, but chewy."

"Northlanders basically don't eat mutton." Hidrifa said this and began to bite the mutton chops fiercely.

"Then what do you eat?" Eleanor asked curiously.

"Mainly smoked salmon," Hildrifa said vaguely, "but also whale, seal and walrus."

"Whale?" Eleanor put down her fork. "What does it taste like?"

"It's similar to fish steak, but the fat layer is very thick." Hidliba said, "We usually smoke it and keep it for half a year. I don't think you can get used to the smell of smoke."

"I'm used to it," Eleanor said thoughtfully. "We also eat smoked bacon, sausages and elbows over there, but they're just made of pork. Sometimes we go bear hunting and eat bear meat."

"Oh oh oh, bear meat is delicious!" Hildrifa said with gleaming eyes, "We occasionally hunt white bears over there. There is an island called Svalbard in the North Sea, and there are many wild animals on it. "

"Do you hunt bears with guns?" asked Eleanor.

"No, we shoot with arrows," said Hildrifa, "with very long arrows."

Everyone ate and drank until late at night, and then returned to Fire Island drunkenly.

On Fire Island, the girls have built a simple cabin with four double beds inside.

The climate of the demiplane is similar to the temperate ocean, and the day and night are synchronized with the outside 24 hours a day, so you can still have room and board left over when you go back to Fire Island.

Alone, Ask came to the shallows by the river and found a big rock to sit down on.

The moonlight overhead splashed down, coating the river with a layer of faint silver scales. He stared at the river without saying a word, reviewing his next plan again in his mind.

According to the main plot, Constantinople will soon be betrayed by the Venetians and fall into chaos under the attack of the Franks.

The attack would fail, and a coup would ensue among the royal upper echelons.

Theodora will be imprisoned in the monastery by Zoe.

Then the guard captain Michael and the ink officer Varomina would launch a riot among the citizens of the imperial capital, snatch Theodora out of the monastery, and force Zoe to swear a vow not to fight with each other again.

Immediately afterwards, the Seljuks would officially land on the Thracian plains, and Constantinople would fall into a two-month siege.

Finally, Constantinople fell and the two queens fled to the province of Cyris.

This ups and downs of the main plot has been criticized many times by players. For example, the two sisters are still fighting among themselves during the national crisis. It is really unreasonable and imprecise for the captain of the guard to be able to mobilize citizens to rebel.

The game design team also issued a very long explanation of rationality, which can be summed up in nine words:

Dear player, I am your father.

This is actually nothing to discuss. After the famous movie "Titanic" was released, some reasonable viewers scientifically demonstrated that a wooden plank can fully support two people in sea water, and Jack does not need to give up the plank to Rose and die himself.

Then director Cameron said, this is art, do you understand art? Art does not need to consider physics.

My script made it clear on page 147 that the male protagonist must die. Unless he dies, the movie will not end.

Even if he doesn't drown in the sea, the screenwriter will arrange other factors for him to die.

In the same way, since the game design team has made arrangements, according to the main plot, the Venetians will definitely be greedy for profit and instigate the Frank knights to attack Constantinople. Zoe will also attack her own sister in order to gain power. In the end, Jun Constantinople will surely fall to the Seljuks.

This game is called "Iron and Fire". It is designed to allow players to experience the magnificence and cruelty of war. During the public beta stage, an empire was sacrificed first, so that it could be worthy of the opening of the epic total war that will last ten years. .

Version 1 has a bloody battle in the Balkans, version 2 has a civil war with the Shinra, version 3 has fought against the Holy See... Each version has at least one national war, with NPC casualties calculated in the tens of millions, and the number of player deaths reaching hundreds of millions. .

It is precisely because of this that since Asik traveled to this world, he has been so eager to recruit people, complete tasks, download dungeons, buy equipment, refine magic potions, and follow the strategy to push forward every day, so busy that he can't even take a break. There is no time.

Medea said that he was too mentally exhausted, which was not groundless speculation.

He was indeed very tired, but he couldn't stop and rest just yet.

From the public beta stage to version 1, the upper level limit is level 5. At the end of version 1, his team must reach level 5 for all members, and version 2 will reach level 10.

In the No. 3 version of the Injustice Expedition, Emperor Otto of the Shinra attacked the Holy See, and almost half of the continent was dragged into the fight. If they could not reach level 10 in time, there was a high probability that low-level transcendents would die in the No. 3 version.

Of course you can hide, you can hide in the Iberian Peninsula or Britannia, but if you can hide version 3, what about the later versions?

There will always be times when you can't escape.

"Are you drinking?" A voice came from behind. Ask turned around and saw that it was Nora.

Nora looked at him with a smile, her beautiful face was slightly flushed, and she looked extremely pure and beautiful under the moonlight.

Sometimes I really envy you guys, you don't have to worry about anything... Asik sighed in his heart, took the bottle and took a sip.

"Looking at you sighing alone here, are you worried?" Nora sat down on the big rock next to him.

"I'm worried about how to improve your strength as soon as possible." Ask said frankly.

"Since it is related to the entire team, why not discuss it directly with everyone?" Nora looked at him seriously.

"Because it's meaningless." Ask said, "Do you know where to find the corresponding materials for your next potion recipe?"

"My next potion formula is Spirit I." Nora nodded and took out her Spirit I formula from her pocket, which read:

-Ingredient-

Purified ectoplasm (Purified_Ectoplasm)

-Subsidiary-

Three milliliters of Hector's blood (Blood_of_Hector)

Three spiritual mayfly fruits (Seeds_of_Ephemera)

One milligram of benzyl_Amine

-Processing-

Dissolve 1 mg of benzylamine in 3 ml of Hector's Blood. Add the Mayfly Fruit after 1 minute, 3 minutes, and 7 minutes respectively. The error should not exceed 15 seconds. Finally, let it sit until the liquid is clear and transparent, add the purified spiritual essence, and wait until a smoky sol appears in the liquid before you can use it.

"How about it? Even if you know what the materials are, can you do it yourself?" Asker asked.

"Well, I know that ectoplasm is the remnant of ghosts after their death." Nora thought seriously, "Purified ectoplasm, I understand, means washing it with holy water..."

"Ectoplasm will dissolve in water." Ask said, "You can wash it with holy water and it will be gone."

"Uh. Hector's blood..." Nora knocked her head, "I seem to have some impression of this name. Is Hector some kind of octopus?"

"Hector refers to a special kind of psychic black dog. They will go to the cemetery in the middle of the night to dig up the earth and dig up the carrion and bones of the dead to eat." Ask said.

"That spirit ephemera must be a kind of ephemera." Nora said with certainty.

"We've all said it's a fruit of mayfly, so of course it's a plant." Asker held his forehead and said, "Spiritual mayfly grows in large numbers along the Nile River, and its appearance is similar to reed grass."

"Benzylamine is a benzene ring, followed by a methylene group and then an amino group?" Nora said uncertainly, seeming to have lost confidence.

"Finally I got it right. You are very good at science-related things." Asker commented.

"Asker." Nora said quietly, "Am I stupid?"