Mercenaries and Adventurers

Trekking on the dirt road to the northeast of Kendall City, Zhao Ji found that the road looked familiar. He took out the simple map drawn by the old President Foxtail, and compared it to the path he had traveled.

After starting from Kendall City, Zhao Ji first crossed the small water god temple built in the northeast of the town and the wooden bridge across the Kendall River. Then walk along the only dirt road along the river.

Although it was late autumn or early winter, the shrubs and woods both in the distance and nearby had become desolate. Zhao Ji was still able to compare the map and see that this road was where he passed with Jamura's caravan more than half a year ago.

Trekking all the way, Zhao Ji walked on the only road on the somewhat slippery dirt road. After two days of trekking, Zhao Ji finally came to a fork in the road that looked very familiar.

Zhao Ji carefully checked the scenery around the fork, and then took out the simple map for reference. Sure enough, Dorallin Village, where Zhao Ji was about to go, was on the other side of the road from where he had just come to this different world. Zhao Ji smacked his lips, not knowing what to say. If he had chosen another direction when he first came to this world, the story might have been very different.

On the side of the fork, there is also a stone carving carved in stone. When he first came here, he couldn't recognize what was written on it at all. Now that more than half a year has passed, he saw this vaguely impressive big rock again, and this time he finally figured out what was written on it.

It's funny to say that at first Zhao Ji thought there was something important written on it. As a result, looking at it now, it was obviously written by a different person. The text next to the picture of the villain on a horse attacking a monster simply said that a certain knight had wiped out some monsters in which direction in the kingdom for several years. The text with the symbols of the gods was obviously written by people from the church. It said that Dorallin Village in the distance was protected by the Church of the God of Saturn, and it was an ideal town in the hearts of farmers. It also said that you are welcome to join.

It's really funny, the vast majority of farmers are illiterate, who are the church people writing these things here for? But Zhao Ji thought about it the other way around, maybe it was written not for farmers and women, but for traveling businessmen or other people who came to run business.

The last paragraph of text on the big stone still serves as a basic function of a road sign. To the north of this branch road is Wumihu Village, which is several days away, and to the east of the branch road, it is Dorallin Village, which is two days away.

Zhao Ji rested here for a while, then judged the direction with the sun, and set off for Doral Forest Village.

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After half a day, Zhao Ji walked along the dirt road, and came to a sparse forest as expected. Pulling out the sword, Zhao Ji did not forget how his predecessor in this body died, he was attacked by wild beasts and bled to death.

Perhaps there was a certain reason for the wound on the head at that time.

But in any case, there are deadly beasts in this small forest.

After a wet and cold autumn rain the previous two days, the weather was fine these two days. The roads in the field were all dry, but in this forest that covered the dirt road, the road here was still quite slippery, and Zhao Ji stepped on the mud.

This forced Zhao Ji to walk on the outside of the road, and it was easier to walk on the fluffy fallen leaves. Perhaps because of the abundance of food in autumn, Zhao Ji, who was walking alone, was not attacked by anything.

He also found a small mound where he was buried when he first came here. It is said to be a grave mound, but it is actually just a small bulge piled up with some small stones. After Zhao Ji discovered the scattered graves, he playfully picked up the scattered stones again. The graves were piled up again. In order to be more conspicuous, he also chopped down some nearby trees with a long sword, and surrounded the stone mound in a semicircle, so that every traveler who passed by here could see this thing.

Haha, after some mischief, Zhao Ji continued to walk along the slippery dirt road. If there were no accidents, he would be able to reach this village of Doral Forest in a day and a half.

His ostensible purpose for going to Doral Forest Village this time is simply because there are no groups of monsters around Kendall City that he can hunt and hunt. When he was working on the first floor of the government affairs office before, he saw a goblin settlement offering bounties for disturbing people in Dolarin Village. Therefore, he packed his bags and came to hunt down the monsters.

But the deeper reason is another. He got news of a treasure from a murder case in the city. In a bat gathering place near the village of Dorallin, there is a hidden ancient elf relic. In the past, the discoverers obtained a large amount of silver fragments only on the periphery of the ruins, but they could no longer enter the ruins. Because the discoverer was still young at that time, and there was no light at all inside, so he never explored it again.

The real purpose of Zhao Ji's trip to Doral Forest Village this time is to explore this ancient elf relic.

Even if there is nothing in the ruins, it doesn't matter, Zhao Ji came to another world, he just wanted to do adventure things like exploring the ruins. It is absolutely impossible for him to honestly find a job in the town and marry a local woman to form a family. After all, that's what he planned in his boring previous life, and as a result, the innocent died unexpectedly, and his soul was reborn in this different world, so he didn't want to make a big fuss!

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Dorallin Village is a big village, which he had heard from the fellows of the Chamber of Commerce when he was in the Chamber of Commerce. But now that he saw it himself, Zhao Ji was sure that the village of Dolarin could actually be called a town in this world.

The village of Dorallin lies in the east of Kendal, away from the county's main river, the Kendal. But it is nourished by the streams with low mountains in the east and southeast, so that this vast land is fully reclaimed.

On the outskirts of Dorallin Village are large expanses of open wheat fields, each of which has been meticulously planned and constructed. Outside the wheat field, there are neat fences against animals, while inside the wheat field, you can see very eye-catching scarecrows strewn in the field not far away.

The scarecrow is very delicate, and the straw hat, eyes, mouth, and hands are all made out of detail. The field has already been harvested in autumn, and at this moment, only some birds are still persistently looking for the wheat seeds that may be left behind, jumping around in the open field.

The scale of Doral Forest Village is very large. From a distance, the dense houses and chimneys look very lively. Zhao Ji came here in the afternoon, so the chimneys of each house did not yet emit smoke from each house at this time.

"Why!!!!"

Someone was calling him, Zhao Ji looked in the direction of the voice.

Not far from the road where Zhao Ji was walking, there was a simple wooden sentry post at least ten meters high. At this time, on the height of this wooden post, an older looking man greeted Zhao Ji and attracted his attention.

Zhao Ji waved at the man, wondering why there was a simple outpost here for observation.

The person above saw that Zhao Ji had noticed him, so he stopped shouting and climbed down the wooden ladder slowly.

Zhao Ji saw that this person was indeed old, but not because of his age, but more likely due to long-term hard work. Judging from that person's lean figure, this person is about thirty or forty years old. The clothes on his body are very shabby, but he has a straw hat, an animal fur coat to resist the cold wind in the wild, and wooden shoes. I don't know how economical this person is, so I can't tell.

"What do you come to Dolarin alone like this?" As soon as this person opened his mouth, Zhao Ji could tell from his rotten teeth that this person's financial situation was not very good. The rotten teeth in the mouth are caused by eating coarse grains for a long time. The coarse grains are protected by various bran. In order to save these edible bran, farmers usually do not use stone mills to remove the bran on the wheat. In addition, the fine sand and gravel in the grain are not carefully removed, which makes these remote farmers have a mouthful of rotten teeth.

Probably because of Zhao Ji's expensive clothes, although the sentinel in the village was wary of Zhao Ji coming here alone, he still politely asked about Zhao Ji's identity and purpose.

Zhao Ji took off the white rabbit fur cap on his head, gave a salute, and then said: "I am a Saturn warrior from Kendall City, and my name is Joe Keel. I heard that there are riots and sporadic attacks in the Goblin settlement here." , so I came here to help you crusade against those damned monsters."

"Warrior of the Saturn! Hello, my lord. I am Wan Shi, and I am called by this name. I will take you to the village right away, otherwise you won't be able to open the gate." Hearing that Zhao Ji called himself the Warrior of the Saturn, The sentinel, who looked quite old, immediately invited Zhao Ji to the village together.

Zhao Ji walked on the road with him, looked at the simple wooden sentry tower just now, Zhao Ji asked: "Which sentry tower did you stay in just now?"

"My lord, you know that there are monsters in the south of Dorallin, so the village lord asked the people in the village to build many such watchtowers around the village's wheat field a long time ago. It is to protect the people who go to the fields during the farming season. .”

"Ah. Do those goblins usually attack frequently? Do you need to build so many sentry towers?" Zhao Ji walked along the road beside the wheat field for a while before he realized that it was not just the direction he came from just now. His eyes crossed the open field. , you can see that there are many such tall sentry towers in the distance.

The entire Doral Forest Village is basically built on a relatively open small plain, surrounded by small hills in the distance. The river has been flowing on the small plain where Dorallin Village lives.

Most of the plains are dense wheat fields surrounded by fences, and in the center of the plains are densely populated villages. There are many houses in the village, but the buildings are quite messy, with the taste of the Kendall slums. The houses in the village are surrounded by a small wooden wall. Judging from Zhao Ji's relatively high terrain, the wall has multiple exit gates.

There is one to the north, and there is also a small road to the north. The strange thing is that Zhao Ji did not find on the map that there are other villages in the north of Dorallin Village. It is really Wumi Lake Village, but here in Wumi Lake Village Quite far away, with a forest in the middle.

There is a gate to the west, which is the main road leading to Zhao Ji's direction. This road will always lead to Kendall City, so this road should be the most important road in Dorallin Village.

There is a city gate to the east, and there is a small road extending out to a hill in the distance, where there is an underground river emerging from the ground. Zhao Ji estimates that it should be the source of water for the village.

There are two city gates to the south, and a road due south extends to the hills to the south, where there is a building with a wall, I don't know what it is for.

A road at the southeast city gate extends to a windmill on a high platform protruding from the ground in the distance.

The stubborn stone who led Zhao Ji to Dolar Forest Village answered Zhao Ji's question: "My lord, you don't know how cunning those little monsters with the same color as the leaves are. They always sneak around in groups from all directions. They attack people who go out to farm. It is impossible to prevent them like this, otherwise, if you are gentle, they will steal the drinking water tools that everyone puts on the edge of the field, and they will even rob them of the farm tools that are on the ground. If it is serious, sheep and cattle that come out to graze will be attacked by them. Small sheep will be carried away by them, and large cattle will be killed by them. They will take as much as they can. If they can’t take away Yes, they just eat beef like that." Speaking of this, the rather old-looking middle-aged man named Wanshi squinted his eyes and licked the corners of his mouth, as if he envied those goblins very much.

"The most serious thing is that they sometimes hunt everyone who goes out at night with green eyes. Normally, these little monsters are not very courageous. I can scare one or two away with a roar. But sometimes, If they go crazy, everyone can only hide in the walls of the village."

"With these sentry towers built around the village fields, no matter how much they try to attack us, they will not be able to succeed. On the tower, you can see everything around you from a long distance. I was actually very far away just now. I saw you, my lord."

"Won't these goblins attack you on the guard tower?" Zhao Ji asked suspiciously.

The stubborn stone laughed a few times: "Those little monsters are clumsy. There is only a ladder on the way to the sentry tower. I hold a mallet by myself, so they can't get up. We also have horns and horns. If any sentry tower is surrounded, blow the horn, and other people will come to drive away those little monsters. And ah, they don't have a piece of iron in their hands, they only use some bone sticks, how can they knock down the tall sentry towers Ah, it's actually quite safe."

Zhao Ji nodded, and turned to talk about other topics with Wanshi. Before arriving at Dorallin Village, it would be better to know more about this strange village.