Mercenaries and Adventurers

A militiaman in charge of burning corpses dragged a hard, headless corpse towards the burning site that smelled of a strong burnt smell. His face was covered with a piece of cloth. Its main function was not to protect against the corpse. Smell, after all, in such a cold weather, even if the corpses are left on the ground, they will not rot, they will only be frozen stiff.

The cloth on his face was mainly used to resist the disgusting smell of the corpse being burnt to ashes. He was mumbling and complaining about something.

"Bernie, what are you mumbling about?" Another militiaman dragging the corpses asked unhappily. This militiaman was also in a bad mood, especially because even if they kept working, more and more corpses were still waiting to be burned. after.

"You said that when I return home, my family will know that I am responsible for this job in the militia. Will they stop eating at the same table with me?" Militiaman Bernie looked at his companions for help and whispered. asked.

"I don't know! But I know that if they knew, they would definitely not eat anything I cooked again." The companion put down a female body covered in soot, spread out his palms, and stared at the pair of hands full of soot. It was the hand of ash that murmured to itself.

"It's fine if that's the case. I don't like cooking anyway. Whoever dares to let me cook again in the future, whether it's my eldest brother, second brother, or eldest and second sister, whoever instructs me to cook again will be punished by what I'm going through now." Tell them what happened again and again! Haha!" Bernie laughed and dragged the headless corpse to the corpse burning site.

"You're right, I don't like it either. It would be nice if they also disliked us for farming. I would just lie at home every day. If anyone asked me to work, I would tell him: 'It's hard for you to want to eat the crops from my hands. Food coming out?’ By then, they will definitely feel disgusted.” The militiaman rubbed his soot-covered hands on his pants, then grabbed the legs of the woman who was suffocated to death, and then caught up with Bernie.

Next to him, a militiaman holding firewood took over and said, "It's hard to say."

"What do you say?" the two militiamen dragging the body asked quickly. They were just pointing at this for fun. If they didn't even get this benefit, they would have no energy at all.

The militiaman holding a large bundle of firewood in both hands expressed his opinion: "I think it is inevitable to dislike you. But if you two don't want to go to the fields, that is impossible. It is probably possible not to eat the food you grow. Anyway, you can Collect it and sell it to merchants who come to the village to collect grain. Or just mix the grain you harvested into the village's granary, so no one can tell."

Seeing that his words had frustrated the two militiamen who were mainly responsible for dragging the corpses, lighting fires and clearing the ashes, the militiaman who came to help quickly talked about other things: "The Lord Knight is really powerful against bandits, there are so many Everyone choked to death in the cave."

"Yes, there are many women and children." The militiaman dragging the female corpse said, gesturing to the corpse in his hand.

"Who told them not to surrender, but to fight to the end. Did you hear that? The team transporting supplies was in Bingshun Pass before, and almost all our supplies were burned by the people sent by these bandits. I guess that is why they are stubborn. Because they think they can burn our supplies, and we won’t be able to stay here for two days.”

"Who did you listen to? Why didn't I know?"

"You've been so busy these past two days, how can you have time to chat with everyone? Let me tell you, I heard from some of the mercenaries who came here this time, those few mercenaries who are particularly awesome."

"Those mercenaries don't look easy to mess with, and there are quite a few of them. Which ones are you talking about?"

"They are the ones who keep talking loudly wherever they go. According to them, it was because they held back many bandits who suddenly attacked that Lord Longsos was able to protect our supplies."

"I don't believe what those mercenaries say anyway. They look like the bards who come to the village to sing and perform during festivals. There is not a word of truth in their mouths, they are all false lies."

"Hehe, I know why you don't like those bards. Hehehehe."

"Don't say it!"

"He, he liked the girl who slept with the bard who came to perform in the village during the Harvest Festival this year."

"Watch me smash your mouth!"

"Haha, it's just inside the barn, it's screaming all the time. Hahahaha."

"Don't run! Stop!"

"Hey, hey, you two, corpse! Don't leave the corpse on the ground!"

---

"That's what happened, Uncle Crow. It was all my fault. I failed to see through the bandits' plan at the important moment and was led away by them. I'm sorry." Knight Longsus and Knight Crow were standing in front of the robbers. There were whispers in Knight Law's camp.

Knight Crow stood next to the topographic map of the surrounding area that Kil had drawn, folding his arms and looking at the topographic map, not looking at Longsos.

Ronthos, on the other hand, stood in the middle of the camp, with his hands on his legs and his head lowered, apologizing for almost messing up the first time he participated in something in the county.

Knight Crow turned around, looked at the Baron's eldest son, and chuckled, easing the gloomy atmosphere in the camp: "Okay, anyway, the loss is very slight, you did a good job. Especially if I can use you decisively in the future. The magic crown not only froze the bandits to death, but also preserved the team’s supplies.”

Longsos heard that Knight Crow was not angry, and finally slowly exhaled the air from his chest, and the tense muscles on his face relaxed.

"When I was your age, the troubles I caused with your father were much more serious than your mistakes." Seeing that Longsos wanted to ask, he quickly waved his hand: "Don't ask me what I am. I won’t tell you what happened. If you want to know, just ask your father. Back to the topic, you are afraid that the bandits will continue to attack you on the road and you will not be able to guarantee the delivery of supplies, so you brought more than 20 mercenaries. "

"Yes, thanks to those few mercenaries who blocked the bandits at that time, so that they could not all set fire. Otherwise, when I arrived, not only the supplies would not be saved, but all the bandits might have escaped safely at that time. Considering the dangers on the road, , I asked the merchants who wanted to get involved in the corpses of Warcraft to organize some powerful mercenaries to escort the supplies together." After saying this, Longsos lowered his head again, because he himself knew that this meant To divide part of the profits to those merchants who helped, at least those merchants must know the details of Warcraft.

"Well, the balance is good. Compared with the interests of the unknown monster corpses, ensuring the visible safety of the militia team's supplies is still more important. Okay, I'm not talking about you. This little thing can't make you so nervous. . No one can do everything well, especially when it is the first time to do something. Don’t talk about you, I have seen too many less than ideal situations when I was in the Knights of the Kingdom." Paipai On Longsus's shoulder, Knight Crow continued: "You have to know that the things you are involved in are not playing magic chess. You can see both the enemy and ourselves on the field at a glance. Many times, you can only see your own side. More often than not, you don't even know how many pieces you have, or you have to play with your eyes covered."

Seeing Longsos open his mouth slightly to express surprise, Knight Crow explained: "Look, take what you encountered before. You didn't know that there would be bandits bold enough to attack you in the level. supplies, right? And a seemingly unrelated material transfer, uh, peach incident? It was also a plan carefully prepared by the bandits to transfer you and the militiamen away."

Ronthos blushed and tangled his hands together in embarrassment.

Knight Crow continued: "This is what I said before, you can't see the opponent's pieces when playing chess." In this regard, Longsos nodded.

"And as you said, those few mercenaries who were originally useless were an important force in holding back the bandits. Isn't that what I said, you don't even know your own chess pieces, right?"

Longsos had some realization and was stunned for a moment.

When the other party came back to his senses, Knight Crow continued: "So, in the face of this situation where neither the enemy nor we are clear, you actually did the right thing. Use seemingly valuable but unclear benefits to win over the businessmen and let them Actively contribute elite mercenary guards. Does this mean?"

Ronthos kept up with Knight Crow's rhythm: "This means that I not only figured out a chess piece in my hand, but also made it change from one to multiple?"

"Yes, yes. That's it. When you can't see clearly what the enemy's chess pieces are, the more chess pieces you have in your hand, the less risky the game is. When you only have one chess piece in your hand, you have to Be careful every step. When you hold multiple chess pieces, you can capture the enemy pieces that are close enough to see clearly. When you judge that the chess pieces in your hand are dominant in the main and secondary chess games, you can capture the city and launch an attack."

"do you understand?"

"Understood."

Knight Crow tidied up his clothes, and then moved the lighting lamp holder next to the topographic map drawn by Kiel to make the topographic map look clearer: "So, Longsus, please help me put the light that is waiting at the top of the map. Those mercenary representatives outside please come in, I have something to talk to them about."

"Yes, Your Excellency." After taking a look at the bright and clear surrounding map illuminated by the lights, Longsos walked out of the camp with great momentum.

---

Kil was busy in a shared camp with the knight's guards. He was simply disposing of many of the various trophies he had obtained in previous battles.

The bandit's weapon must be smashed into a metal roll with the back of his ax that takes up as little space as possible. For other large pieces of animal skin wrapped by the bandits, the excess must be cut off with a steel dagger, leaving only the entire piece. A neat piece of hide. Other small things that looked valuable were also piled together by him.

Then, he moved a wooden box that he bought with special money and opened it. First, the whole bandit ax head and the long and short weapons that were smashed into rolls were placed at the bottom, and then various coins collected from the bandits, mostly iron coins and copper coins with low face value, were poured in.

With a splash, the coins slipped in along the metal gaps and filled the bottom of the box.

Immediately afterwards, Keir put the neatly rolled animal skins into the box, neatly placing them one by one.

Finally, he wrapped the valuable gadgets individually in small pieces of animal skin and placed them on the top of the box.

After closing the lid of the wooden box, Kil used the strong rope he got from the robbers to wrap the wooden box left and right, and shook it, but it didn't move much inside.

"Very good, I just need to find a place to bury them later. If I can't get away, I will return to Bingshuguan to deal with them first." Kil said to himself.

"Kiel! The craftsman said that your weapons have been packed away! But there seems to be a small problem. I want you to come over and have a look!" Suddenly, a word came from outside the camp.

"Got it! I'll be right over, thank you for passing the message! Just a moment." After saying that, Kil hid the wooden box in the quilt, piled the messy things on the ground in the middle of a piece of broken animal skin clothing, and he mentioned This thing walked out of the camp.

The person who came to remind him waited at the door every time he left. When he saw Kiel coming out, he asked him curiously: "What's wrong? I'm still busy!"

Kil was holding a broken animal skin as a garbage bag in one hand and took out a few copper coins from the clothes on his chest with the other hand. Because the battle was temporarily over and all the nearby bandits were killed, Kil was not wearing armor at this time.

"Stretch out your hand." After saying that, he put the copper coin in the other person's hand: "This is for you. Thank you for coming here to remind me."

The young man who was an assistant to the clerk was a little embarrassed when he saw the coins in his hand.

"You know, for a warrior, his weapon is almost as important as his life, so thank you. Take it." Kil said.

"Then I'm not welcome. By the way, hurry up and go there. There seems to be a small problem with your long sword. The craftsman looks a little worried." After taking the money, the assistant reminded Kiel again. , he left and quickly stuffed the coins he got into his inner pocket.

Kil frowned and guessed what the problem was.

Carrying a bag of animal skins with odds and ends, Kil came to the craftsman who maintained weapons and equipment in the camp.

Craftsman Conquinas has been taking some time off since the fighting stopped. At this moment, he was looking at a long stainless steel sword placed on a simple wooden table with his waist bent.

When Kil came over, he saw that what was on the table was indeed his hunting knife. It was pitiful that the originally shiny Hunting now had many black and red marks on its surface. These marks could not be wiped away, so Kiel had no choice but to hand it over to the craftsmen for a try.

"Artisan Conquinas?" Kil reminded the distracted craftsman.

"Kiel, you're here. Hey, this long sword of yours is difficult to handle." The craftsman picked up the long sword and wiped the black and red marks on the sword with his fingers wearing thick craftsman gloves.

Originally, it was just the bandit's blood in the dents and gaps on the sword body. But after Kil killed some corpses with his long sword, the contents of the corpses' heads were somehow mixed with the blood stains. Now he can't wipe them away. Lost.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but Kil seemed to feel that since then, his long sword seemed to have lost some energy, and the sound of breaking wind when he swung it in the air was not right.

Yesterday, Geir told the Conquinars craftsman honestly how the long sword became like this.

At that time, the craftsman confidently said that it was a piece of cake. Looking back now, it seems that the craftsman has no clue.

"Is there a way to deal with it? Uncle, it is very important to me."

Touching his chin, the craftsman flicked the long sword and said, "It's not impossible. I have an idea, but it must be approved by you."

"What can we do?" Kil said urgently.

Pointing to a small stove not far away, the craftsman said: "Clean it with flames. You know, your sword became like this because it destroyed some moving corpses. Hey, hey, hey, I didn't expect it to be like this. In this deep mountain, people will turn into terrible things after death. And flames can destroy most evil things. If you want to expel those unknown things attached to the sword, it is best to burn it with flames."

Kil was about to agree, but then he remembered: "But once the weapon is forged and exposed to fire, won't the surface of the weapon become soft?"

Nodding, the Conquinas craftsman said: "Of course, after being exposed to fire, the hardening of the surface of the weapon during quenching will be gone. But there is nothing you can do about your long sword, right?"

Nodding resignedly, Keir had no other choice but agreed with the other party's plan. But he looked at the various simple forging and repair tools that the craftsmen had here: "But it seems that the guys here are not good at it? Don't you have so many big and hot furnaces and various forging platforms in your weapons workshop?"

"Boy, that was in Kendall City! It's great to have these tools in this wilderness. Of course, they are really not good. They are far from what I usually use. If you are not in a hurry to use them, I also recommend that you After returning to Kendall City, spend money to find a craftsman with excellent skills, and use fire to drive away the evil attached to it."

Kil felt that this was the best way. He really didn't trust the crude forging tools of the Conquinars craftsmen. After all, the hunting sword was his main enemy-killing weapon. Now he encountered such a difficult situation. difficulties, we must make the best preparations.

His other weapons and equipment had already been repaired by the craftsmen, so Kiel returned to his camp holding the box containing the armor, the sword and the spear.

After returning, he checked the hunting that was in poor condition. In the quieter tent, he put his ear close to the sword and seemed to hear the roar of a dead body. This startled him, but he finally put it into the scabbard and put it aside. It should be difficult for it to fight in the subsequent battles, at least until the abnormal condition on the sword is resolved.

At night, he asked Knight Crow for a token to enter and leave the camp, and then took advantage of the night to carry a heavy wooden box out of the camp. After walking a long way, he found a place to hide the wooden box under the thick blanket. Under the snow. Then he put on a disguise so that even he himself couldn't tell at a glance that there was something wrong with him.

The next day, the militia camp began to be dismantled. After the militia team received the second wave of supplies, they spent a day distributing various supplies and then set off a day later.

Kil was asked to go at the forefront and lead the large group of militiamen to the forest where the bandits spent the winter and find the corpse of the giant monster.

The guides and people who had been rescued by Kil, after seeing with their own eyes that all the bandits in the Luo Dang Cave were dead, followed Longsos' team and began to return to Bingxun Pass.

Of course, the mercenaries sent by the merchants will continue to advance together with the large group of militiamen. And because there were still too many supplies in the bandit's lair in Luobao Cave, and there were still a lot of dead bodies, Knight Crow left behind three spear militiamen to guard the unmanned bandit's lair and help burn down the bandits. Their dead bodies.

They still have to wait for the third batch of supplies, and then cooperate with the priests from the Church of the God of the Dead who will definitely come to deal with the corpse pit not far away.