Mercenaries and Adventurers

Weapons fell everywhere in the bandit camp destroyed by the monsters, especially where the bandits might fight back against the monsters. On the snow mixed with a lot of frozen blood, there were more bent and broken metal weapons hit by the monsters.

Some of the curved weapons seemed to be mixed with some secretions from the giant black mouth of the monster. It was obviously something that the bandits spit out after swallowing people and weapons into their mouths.

Zhao Ji grinned in disgust and rubbed these weapons on the clean snow beside him, and then used a dagger to disassemble the cleaner weapons, leaving only the metal, and throwing the rest into the campfire not far away.

At the same time, he also collected coins and some valuables from the scattered clothes of the bandits on the ground.

There are a lot of coins, but there are relatively few other valuable things.

He guessed that ordinary bandits might not have those valuable things, and those ignorant and knowledgeable guys probably only know about coins as a trade item.

And the valuables usually obtained by robbing business travelers must be among the bandit leaders.

There are several ruins of wooden houses in this camp. Looking at the way they were destroyed, Zhao Ji can guess that they were crushed by the jumping up of monsters. If anyone thinks that hiding inside can avoid the battle with monsters, then think It's too simple.

The ruins of the collapsed wooden house were ripped open by the monsters, and the dead human bodies hidden inside were dug out and eaten, which saved Zhao Ji from cleaning up the wooden house. He entered it carefully, specifically looking for boxes and places where things might be hidden under the cabin.

Sure enough, after searching like this, he found a hardwood box hidden under the wooden floor. There was also a metal lock on it, and Zhao Ji, who didn't see the key, smashed the metal lock with the back of the axe.

Of course, he didn't spare the metal lock either, and put it in the bag containing metal objects.

The inside of the box was also divided into several small spaces separated by wooden boards. In addition to coins and small works of art, there was also a piece of strange metal that shone like stars.

Zhao Ji curiously took out this piece of metal, turned it upside down, and found that this strange metal not only looked very different, but also weighed a bit beyond his expectations.

Even though it was only a metal block slightly smaller than a fist, it weighed nearly 30 kilograms, and he needed two hands to hold it.

Putting the metal back into the hardwood box, Zhao Ji dug out the whole heavy box from the ground and slowly moved it to his sled board.

In addition, there are some good clothes in the wooden house, which seem to be the bandit leader's own clothes. Zhao Ji also took these things away and loaded them into the car.

There were also a lot of harvests in the other two wooden houses. There were a lot of coins, small gemstones, and small works of art. Zhao Jilai was not afraid, and they were all loaded on his sled board.

When Zhao Ji hastily searched the bandit camp, his sled boards were too heavy to pull.

There was no other way, so Zhao Ji had no choice but to find a place near the camp, cut down a tree as a mark, dug a deep hole, and hid all the things on his sled in it.

Returning to the camp again, Zhao Ji found someone walking around in the camp.

--

Lanisa Knight and her party rested overnight outside the alpine wind and snow belt, and went down the mountain early the next morning along the traces where the monsters had crawled.

Because the monster kept its body close to the ground in order not to roll down the gentle slope of the mountain, even if it started snowing again this morning, it couldn't cover up its crawling marks.

"Master Knight, we have to speed up. Look, it's snowing again in the sky. Although it seems that the traces of the monsters have not been buried yet, if the snow doesn't stop, it only takes two days. Mixed with the blowing wind, the traces left by the crawling monsters will be erased." An old hunter in the team approached Knight Lanisa who was leading the horse.

Nodding, without much consideration, Knight Lanisa issued a loud order to the team: "Then speed up, hunters, speed up. No matter who lives in this forest, they are likely to become food for monsters .Let's drive the beast to a dead end before it goes any further. Kill it. Go forward."

The hunters responded in unison and quickened their pace down the mountain.

The group of them soon entered the forest. The traces left by the monsters in the forest can still be easily distinguished, so they happened to be stepping on the snow compacted by the monsters, and walked quickly along this 'monster snow path'.

Cavalier Lanisa also rode her beloved horse. As the leader and strongest of the team, she beat the horse and walked at the forefront of the team.

Soon, they found a place with a little blood and scattered clothes.

After a simple look, everyone can confirm that the ones eaten by the monsters are not humanoid monsters or the like, but a few humans, but they can't see what these people are doing.

Without any extra clues, they continued to move forward quickly along the direction of the Warcraft. Human beings have already been eaten by monsters, they need to be faster.

Not long after, they came to the bandit camp that was first destroyed by the monster. At the beginning, the hunters in the team were both surprised and angry that this monster destroyed and ate so many humans.

But after the scattered hunters discovered the small dungeon where the bandits imprisoned the female people, they realized that this was not a new settlement that the migrants had not reported, but a place that was raging in the Ice Flood Pass. The camp of the bandit gang nearby.

Knight Lanisa opened the map he brought, and after gesticulating for a while, he still couldn't find out exactly where they were now. They can only confirm that they are no longer near Kendall City to Gloomy Forest Village by climbing over two high mountain peaks, but have come to the deep forest on the southwest side of Bingxun Pass.

It is located at the junction of the two counties, and there are deep mountains and old forests, and there is basically no human activity.

Unexpectedly, such a bandit camp gathered here. Everyone remembered seeing many bright spots of flames in the forest last night, and comparing them with the bandit camp destroyed by the monsters they saw now, they all guessed that there might be a lot of bandit gangs gathered here.

Knight Lanisa, who has a deep understanding of the militia training organized by Crow Knights, understands that although the militiamen will go out of the ice flood pass to clear up the bandits hiding in the mountains and forests in recent years, basically they will not go far. After all, the farther away from the Bingxun Pass, the more supplies the militiamen would need.

The winter forest is not convenient for supplies, so the militiamen can only reluctantly let the attacking militiamen bring more logistical supplies, and after the attack, search and eliminate all the bandits found in the forest.

Just when Knight Lanisa was wondering whether it was a good thing for the monsters to destroy this camp where dozens of bandits gathered, the hunters under him responded to her that this was a bit strange.

"Why is that strange?" she asked.

Riding around the destroyed bandit camp twice, she didn't see anything strange.

The young hunter stepped forward and said that he scratched his forehead before, quite embarrassed: "It is such a knight, the brothers saw that this place was destroyed by the monsters, so they checked and searched to see if they could pick it up." Some things like coins that may be left behind by the bandits after death, after all, that monster doesn’t look like it will need our human coins.”

Knight Lanisa nodded. She did not stop her subordinates from obtaining loot by themselves. They only need to hand in the monsters eliminated in each operation. Other things that they discover by themselves do not need to be handed over to she.

Although they hadn't fought bandit gangs before, her steward had told them about it when they joined her hunter team.

"But everyone searched here several times, and only found a few copper coins scattered in the snow. The weapons and a lot of coins of the bandits disappeared."

Knight Lanisa looked around: "Since this is a bandit camp, the surrounding camps must be full of bandit gangs. Someone may have been here before us, and those greedy and cowardly guys seem to have been driven out. The old wolves of the wolf pack will not let the prey or carrion go. In this case, everyone should be vigilant, those damn bandits will not show kindness to us who are not in the same way. Even if we are here to expel and crusade monsters, even if The monsters will kill all these bandits. After that, pay attention to anyone we meet, if they attack us, we will kill them."

"Yes!" The gathered hunters answered in unison. They have Knight Lanisa, and they are not at all worried about running into bandits. No matter how cruel those bandits were in the gossip, they were all killed by the monsters like this, and they could chase the monsters all the way.

So everyone has nothing to fear.

A group of people who failed to find anything in this bandit camp just picked up some food left by the bandits scattered on the ground and put away the campfire again next to the campfire with only embers left, rested and ate and drank a little , and chased forward again along the traces left by the monster.

This time they walked on the road for a while, and then saw a bandit camp that was destroyed as expected.

This bandit camp is larger, and there are bloodstains left after the bandits were killed everywhere. Unlike before, the hunters here found some strange weapon parts.

All the metal objects on the weapons are gone, leaving only some wooden, bone and leather weapon parts. After discussing for a while, there was no good explanation, so everyone just checked here a little bit, and then set out to catch up with the monster again.

Cavalier Lanisa rode her horse around the bandit camp casually. She observed the traces left by the monsters everywhere, and judged how much strength the monsters recovered after eating dozens of people.

While she was riding around and thinking about it, she felt that someone was watching them secretly from the snow in the forest.

"Who is it? Come out yourself!" Knight Lanisa drew out the armor-piercing rapier at her waist and let the horse run, while making gestures for the hunters to hide on the spot and prepare for battle.

On the other side, Zhao Ji, who was lying on the snow and slowly approached to observe what the group of people were doing, did not expect to be keenly perceived by the other party just by glancing at the man on the armored horse.

But Zhao Ji also suddenly remembered who these people were.

Not long ago, he ran into him on his way back to Kendall City from Gloomy Forest Village. He was leading a team of armored knights, followed by a team of hunters with about ten people.

They are the Knight Ranisa and her pack of wolf hunters.

Thinking of this, Zhao Ji felt that he should not continue to hide. After all, the knights on the opposite side had already entered the fighting state, and those skilled hunters also took out their bows and arrows, nocked their arrows, and alerted the surroundings.

--

Keir was no longer lying in the snowdrifts. He stood up, raised his hands for the first time to indicate that he was not in danger, and then shouted: "Please don't attack! I am not a bad person."

Unexpectedly, his words even made the young hunters in hiding laugh.

The knight Lanisa on the horse did not approach the standing Kiel, but trotted around the edge of the bandit camp and the junction of the forest. After confirming that there were no other hidden people around, he rode closer. come over.

She immediately saw this young man who claimed to be not a bad guy. Under the thick wolf fur cloak was a well-defended full-cover cowhide armor. There were also many kinds of weapons hanging on the back of his waist, such as daggers, long swords, There are spears and axes.

At first glance, he is not an ordinary person.

She rode close to this man, snorted and said, "In the forest full of scum and monsters, if you say you are not a bad person, please show some evidence instead of just saying it without proof."

Although Kiel was still being aimed at by ten bows and arrows, he had already seen from the actions of the opponent's knight that the opponent had no intention of killing him suddenly. After secretly letting out a sigh of relief, he said loudly, "If I'm not mistaken, this is Lord Lanisa Knight, and you are the famous Kendall wolf hunting team?"

Knight Lanisa jumped off his horse, and walked towards this person with his left hand on the hilt of the sword at his left waist: "Yes, as you said. I am Knight Jenny Lanisa, and they are my hunters .Then who are you?" In fact, Knight Lanisa had already guessed who the young man opposite was.

The wolf fur cloak worn by the young man to protect against wind and keep warm is exactly the style of the cloak worn by the gate guards of Kendall City recently. Think about it, this person must be the recently famous Saturn warrior, Joe Keel.

"I'm Joe Keel from Kendall City. If you have heard my name, it's easy to say." Keel saw the female knight standing a few meters away from him, and quickly put the hair on his head. The hood of the cloak was pulled back, and then the visor of the helmet was opened, revealing his face that was between a boy and a young man.

Knight Lanisa remembered that she had seen this face on the way to Gloomy Forest Village. At that time, one leg of this person was framed by a wooden box strangely. Later, the steward of Gloomy Forest Village said that it was the Warrior of Kiel. Looking at him this time, it should be him.

"I know you, I remember I saw you on the way to Gloomy Forest Village. Did you break your leg while fighting the devil?" Knight Lanisa gestured to the men behind her, and the arrows The hunters with arrows on their bows put down their weapons and stood up from their hiding places.

Keir scratched his nose in embarrassment, but he didn't expect the other party to guess that the person he met was him, and he should have known it through Irupaki's steward.

"Yes, my lord knight."

"Why are you here? Behind is the destroyed bandit camp. Do you have anything to do with the bandits who were destroyed and killed by monsters?" In fact, Lanisa Knight had already guessed why Kiel was here, but she thought Listen to how the other party responds.

"No, no. I can only defeat bandits, how could it have anything to do with them. You can go to Bingxunguan and ask the Simmons Chamber of Commerce. In order to save their vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, I had a disagreement with the bandits. It was a small holiday, and many bandits were killed." Keir hurriedly explained, as for his explanation, whether the other party believed it or not, there was nothing he could do.

"Hmm. So, how did you get here?"

"It's really unlucky. I ran into the huge monster that you heard that you were going to deal with near Yinyulin Village. I also fought against that monster briefly, but I was not an opponent at all. I was able to escape. In the end, the monster died all the way. After chasing me, I had no choice but to run south, because in the forest near Gloomy Forest Village, I was no match for that magical beast at all."

"Hmph, continue."

"Running to the south, the monster kept chasing after it, and finally climbed up a high mountain by force. The strong wind and snow there could not stop the monster chasing behind me, and followed me through that ghostly place. Then two In the valley between high mountains, that magical beast fell down in the valley full of snow, rolled into a snowball and didn't intend to let me go, followed me all the way through the high mountain area to the south, and then came Come here." Keir chattered for a while, venting all the dissatisfaction on the road before.

The hunters approached slowly, and since the knight said they were not enemies, they approached with confidence. After approaching, listening to the young man's words, they exchanged glances, guessing that this young man might be the one they found on the road before, right?

so young?

"Originally, I saw that there were many fires in the forest that did not go out at night. I thought it was a settlement of monsters, or a village hiding in the deep mountains. But after I came here, I found out in the dark that it was bandits trying to escape the winter. The militiamen cleared the winter forest where they hid." Kiel threw up his hands, expressing that he was hurt.

"And then? We found that the bandits in those camps were all dead, killed by monsters, so what did you do? Why didn't you stay in the bandit camp with a lot of supplies, but here. Besides, what about the monsters ?” Knight Lanisa put her hands on her hips, and her eyes under the helmet visor were fixed on Kiel on the opposite side.

Keir swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and honestly told what he did.

"It's like this. Originally, that monster had been chasing me. But after arriving in this forest, it probably smelled a lot of human beings. The monster that was severely frozen along the way has been attacking bandits. I After the monsters finished eating people, they dared to approach and picked up some valuable things. Well, thinking that these bandits should die anyway, it would be good to be killed by the monsters, so I wanted to follow behind the monsters and pick up the bandits left behind. under the finances."

Knight Lanisa snorted coldly, no wonder her hunters didn't find anything of value in the bandit's dilapidated camp before, and it turned out that this lucky young man had already rummaged through it.

She doesn't care about the little money, she has the family territory as a knight, and the financial support provided by Lord Baron Kendall, she doesn't care about this. Just marvel at the guts of this young man.

How dare you use the ferocious monsters as a tool to clean up the bandits, and then collect the property of the bandits yourself, heh, how bold.

Moreover, this guy was able to cross the high mountain area that their group had managed to cross by himself, and it was still in the case of a monster chasing after him.

This person is very capable, exactly the kind of person her hunter team needs.