Mercenaries and Adventurers

In the afternoon, after everyone had discussed, everyone accepted the various tasks assigned by the knight and then dispersed. The task that Kiel received was to strengthen the use of the carriage in the future, so as to avoid problems with the wheels or the carriage of the carriage after the carriage pulled goods in the wild.

After returning to the hunter's stronghold, Kil inspected the carriage that would be used later and found a lot of damage. He found new boards and took apart the original damaged areas and replaced them.

After that, Keel spent another day installing the wooden frame of the truck shed that he had prepared before, and then sewed the large pieces of animal skins that he had prepared piece by piece.

After installing a shed on the truck compartment, you no longer have to worry about the cold wind blowing and snow falling inside the compartment. If someone is unlucky and injured, the inside of the truck can also be regarded as a safe place to recuperate in the wild.

At the same time, while Kiel was retrofitting and modifying the truck, other hunters were not idle either. They kept moving metal clips that were made by craftsmen from the crafts area every day.

Each clamp is not light and looks very fierce. No one would be willing to put their legs and feet in the middle of these metal clamps to test its strength.

Therefore, in order to test the power of this thing, the hunters opened the originally closed iron clamp, placed it on the ground, took a wooden stick as the legs and feet of the wild wolf, and placed it in the middle of the metal clamp.

The sensitive central mechanism was stepped on by the wooden stick, and then, click!

There was a loud and fast closing sound, and the two sides of the originally open metal clamp quickly closed, clamping the wooden stick tightly in an instant.

The hunter holding the stick swings the stick quickly, imitating the trapped animal trying desperately to shake off the trap.

The result was very satisfying to everyone. After the thing was closed, it bit the stick tightly and couldn't shake it off at all.

"This thing seems to work quite well." A young hunter said excitedly. Although the old hunters were satisfied with the power of this thing, they began to discuss it with a bad face as to whether this kind of hunting clip would threaten their hunter's job in the future.

Other young hunters feel that this is unnecessary for the older hunters. After all, using metal clips for hunting is not something that ordinary people can afford.

After all, not to mention the material cost or forging cost of metal clips, if these all-metal clips are placed in the wild, the loss caused by rust alone is not something that ordinary people can bear.

As long as you calculate this, you will know that only local lords like knights can spend it.

We then took the trouble to test every metal clip made by the craftsmen to prevent it from being mixed with defective products that were not well made and incorporated.

In addition, several young hunters were also requested by Knight Lanissa to go to the workshop to learn the simple repair procedures of these metal clips.

A simple repair kit was specially prepared, which contains several of the most important elastic steel materials on the clips. It can be used to replace parts that are mostly damaged by the elastic steel after problems occur in the field.

In addition, other hunters also have other jobs. The old hunters first calculated the approximate maximum food supplies needed for this hunting trip. After calculating, the amount was handed over to Knight Lanissa for inspection, and then a young hunter was asked to leave the city early and arrive at Bayou Town to find the knight lord there to prepare the food as soon as possible.

The action will certainly require more than just hunting metal clips and food, a large supply of bows and arrows and possibly replacement forest coats, healing ointments and replacement hiking boots for all.

In terms of armor, hunters don't need any armor. They each have their own custom and comfortable hunter jackets. The armors of the knights Kil and Lanessa are their own responsibility.

Considering that he might have to deal with the claws and teeth of ferocious beasts in the future, Kil took out his hard cowhide full-coverage armor and asked a Ganner craftsman to make a simple set of thick external armor out of hard cowhide.

This simple thing is similar to a vest and can be put directly on top of the original armor, effectively increasing the armor's defensive capabilities. Ganner was still making parts for Kiel's new metal armor, pondering and researching while making them, but Kiel came over and was eager to get this set of simple hard cowhide auxiliary armor, so he had no choice but to spend half a day tinkering around. Come out with this thing.

After putting on this rough and simple thing, Kil tried it in the hunter stronghold and found that this thing greatly affected the flexibility of the original armor. It was inconvenient to move around and it was not light in weight. But apart from these disadvantages, In addition, it also strengthened the defense of the body's torso. Kil asked the hunter to hit his chest with a small hammer. Apart from taking two steps back from the impact, he felt nothing at all.

This stuff is okay.

After working hard for a few days, everyone finally got the fifty metal clips they needed, and some supplies that were only available in Kendall City. They were all packed into the carriage and stacked. Then everyone prepared their weapons and equipment and informed Knight Lanisha.

That morning, Knight Lanessa also rode a horse with a vest, and she was also fully armed. Except for a wooden box that Kil had seen before, which was carried behind her back, the knight did not carry a large weapon slot on the horse this time. Inside, there is a full metal black spear.

The barrel of the gun was slender and pure black. Kil guessed that the entire spear might be a magical weapon forged from black iron.

Not to mention its power, the weight of this spear alone would be too heavy for a young man to carry.

Kiel did not give in too much. Except for the two horses pulling the carriage, he let his other horse carry all the extra weapons and equipment. In addition to a box of full armor and newly added simple armor, the other side contained his two long guns, a two-handed ax and an extra backpack full of supplies. Since it was not light, he did not sit on the horse. Instead, he wore his hunting sword and dagger on his waist, his extremely light metal shield hung on his back, and he led the horse while walking lightly.

After checking everyone's preparations, Knight Lanisa confirmed that the young hunter had gone to Bayou Town two days ago.

So, without doing anything extra, Knight Lanessa waved her hand, and everyone followed the knight one after another, leaving the hunter's stronghold, closing the big and small doors of the stronghold, and walked out of Kendall City.

Kiel was not worried that the stronghold would be unattended. Not to mention that it was next to the government office and there were security issues. The hunters also invited familiar people to come over every day to check the doors and windows of the stronghold.

Kil also hid his money and valuables in a treasure box outside the city early. He also gave a large piece of elemental crystal in the box to James La of the Foxtail Chamber of Commerce early.

Please Jamra wait until Knight Crow returns to the city and then transfer this thing to the knight himself.

-

After everyone left the city, four elderly hunters climbed onto the truck, two got into the hood, and two sat in front, hurriedly imitating the drivers to drive the carriage.

Fortunately, the two horses pulling the cart were very well-behaved. Basically, they would follow their friend led by Keir without much instruction.

If Kil falls behind the carriage, they will also follow Knight Lanissa's horse, very well-behaved.

Kil and the other young hunters slowly followed the slowly moving carriage. Although the speed was slow, a cart full of supplies was still very important.

After they left Kendall City, they quickly came to the small temple of the God of Rivers and Lakes. Knight Lanisa is quite familiar with the two priests here who are said to have great powers. She originally wanted to say a few words, but I heard from the orphans raised by these two priests that the two priests were taught by the God of the Dead. The priest has left and has not returned yet.

Kil happened to know about this, so he told the news that after the Church of the God of the Dead eliminated the corpse pit created by the bandits, it asked these two people to turn the pit into a lake.

Lanissa Knight smiled: "It sounds very interesting, but it's a pity that I'm busy right now and can't go over to take a look. This is quite a pity."

After that, they said goodbye to the children, and instead of walking on the wooden bridge next to them, they went directly along the west side of the river and started heading north along the road along the river.

Generally heading north.

You can actually reach Hekou Town by walking on both sides of the Kendall River, but compared to the wilderness on the east side of the river, which is the road that Kiel often takes to reach Doral Forest Village, the west side of the river is a large There are large blocks of impact plains, with neat fields everywhere, and scattered farms that look more like simple castles than farms.

Because it was snowing, although the snow was not heavy, no one was walking on the road along the river. Looking back and forth, they could only be seen walking slowly on the vaguely discernible road.

Another advantage of walking this way is that the road conditions here are much better than those on the east side of the river. Because it is the main road for these farms to go to Kendall City, people from each farm will often repair the roads.

When it rains in spring, gravel will be added to the road, or branches will be spread across the road to prevent passing caravans and trucks from getting stuck in the mud.

When plants are luxuriant in summer, farmers will spontaneously clear the plants on the roads during their free time to ensure smooth roads.

In autumn, people will spontaneously organize militia teams to help protect caravans in need of help on the road, because the food they have worked for a year will be sold to these caravans who come to collect grain with coins.

Different from farmers in other remote areas, because they are close to Kendall City, which produces various tools and goodies, the farmers on the farm ask the caravans who collect the grain to directly exchange coins for the newly produced grain.

And they would then take these coins, take the women and children at home, and go to Kendall City to spend money. Buy a new dress for your mother-in-law, or buy an exquisite wooden toy made by craftsmen for your child, or plan to buy a new farm tool promoted by the Church of the God of Saturn for your home. Calculate the cost of using the new farm tool in the coming year. , how many more fields can be cultivated.

Although many of the fields near the farms are not owned by individual farmers, after paying the lord's grain tax and then giving the farm owner a tax or tax, they can still earn enough income for their families.

Otherwise, the smart farmers would have left here long ago and gone to other remote villages in the county to cultivate a field of their own.

In fact, most farmers think so. Many new immigrants who migrated from other places first settled in the farms near Kendall City, or started new families, or saved a sum of money that was consumed by migration. After a few years, they came to Settlement in other villages with better conditions.

After all, compared with remote villages, farm owners have to pay an extra field tax to the land owners. Farmers who are as smart as these new landowners also see this clearly, so they often go to other villages to settle down after a few years.

Compared with the empire and the areas close to the empire where people are strongly bound to the land, the management of these border counties on the border of the kingdom is very relaxed. As long as you are willing to work hard, you can basically get harvest easily.

The group of people walked on the snowy road, listening to the crunching sound of ice squeezing and breaking on the surface of the river in the nearby river, while discussing the lives of the farmers in the farms passing by one by one.

Compared with the life of farming, although hunters seem to be very free after leaving the land, after all, they still have to go to remote places in wind, rain, and heavy snow all day long. Not only is it dangerous, but the hunting life also depends on their own abilities. Have a meal.

Speaking of this, the old hunters talked about the days when they were young and hungry.

At that time, they were not very good at archery, and they often hunted for many days. As a result, they could not catch big prey, so they could only get some rabbits and voles to satisfy their hunger.

You can't make any money at all throughout the year.

After all, compared to these small things, larger prey such as deer, wild boars, wolves, and bobcats with fur can be sold at a higher price.

When hunting these prey as a single person or as a team of two, it often takes many days of activities in the wild to search for their habitats, water sources, and feces, so that they can accurately get ahead of the prey and ambush in advance to capture the prey.

Live prey is of course more valuable than dead prey.

But it is basically difficult to capture large animals alive. They often die quickly after being captured without eating or drinking.

At the same time, the old hunters also talked about some key points from their long-term experience: they must not enter the woods or mountains. If they encounter some unusual signs, they must retreat quickly.

After all, although in the early days of Kendall County, the fierce knights of various knight orders had wiped out the previously raging warcraft and monsters in large numbers, monsters still existed outside the plain areas far away from human life.

Weird things still linger in places far away from humans. Speaking of this, an old hunter told a strange story he encountered when he was young.

-

That was when he was young. He was still young at the time, and together with other young people who got along well, he hunted near Hekou Town to make a living.

In the wilderness heading west from Hekou Town, where they often hunted, it was obviously a familiar place, but one day, a strange house suddenly appeared in the wilderness.

It was a tall and weird house. It was obviously only a two-story house, but the size of each floor far exceeded the height of a human being.

Although everyone was shocked at the time, seeing that the house seemed empty, some young people who wanted to take risks couldn't help but decided to go in and take a look.

The old hunter who told the story was timid and did not follow him in. He stayed on the top of a high slope outside. He watched helplessly as his friends circled the house and then climbed in through the huge open window instead of the front door.

The old hunter waited from day to dusk. Although his friends came out to wave to him at the beginning and asked him to go in and have a look, the old hunter still did not go there.

Then at dusk, the tall and weird house actually pulled itself up from the ground with tremors. Huge weird hands stretched out from the windows on both sides of the house, and slender legs grew out of the original foundation.

What's even more terrifying is that a huge face covered with messy hair popped out of the door that was originally open. The face was as tall as two people. After stretching out, it actually looked at the old hunter and greeted him with the voice of his friends, asking him to come over.

He was frightened to death on the spot. He didn't even need his bow, arrows, backpack or anything else, and ran directly to Hekou Town.

He kept running, and kept running, and the greetings from his friends kept coming from behind him.

Getting closer.

It wasn't until he ran to a place where he could see Bayou Town that the greeting behind him disappeared before the last ray of sunset fell.

The old hunter did not dare to look back and ran to the ferry in one breath. He breathed a sigh of relief next to a stone pillar with the talisman of the God of Rivers and Lakes painted on it.

Although this is still a ferry crossing the Kendall River from Hekou Town, there are still people around it.

He hid behind the god's stone pillar and looked towards the place where he had just run. He was horrified to see that tall and strange house with arms, legs and heads growing out, which was located directly in the wilderness not far away.

And the lights were on inside the house.

This frightened the old hunter almost crazy at that time, and he started shouting and quarreling all the families in the ferry.

Following the identification of the old hunter, the villagers also noticed the house standing abruptly in the wilderness not far away.

Although the old hunter said that the house grew arms and legs to chase him, not everyone believed the words of this young man from out of town. Especially the way he looked panicked at the time, he really looked like he was going crazy.

At night, two young men walked boldly with torches and machetes and axes.

The torches were extremely conspicuous in the night, so they watched the young man go in. After a long time, they came out of the house and waved to other family members to come over and have a look.

Only the old hunter noticed that the young man who passed by had no torch in his hand, and only the light from the door of the house showed his body movements.

The old hunter held on to several residents and even knelt on the ground and kowtowed to them, which prevented others from following them.

result.

The two young men did not come out of the house again until the sun came up.

And that house has always stood there.

Everyone was frightened. Some people said they would pick up firewood and torches and set the house on fire directly outside without entering the house. But the old hunter persuaded them to suppress their urge for revenge, and everyone rowed a wooden boat directly to Hekou Village, which was not a town at that time.

After finding the knights at that time, gathering more than a dozen boats and hundreds of people, and all armed with weapons, they rushed over.

But when I came over and took a look, there was no trace of that house where the house used to be. Only in a place that had obviously been crushed by a large and heavy object did they find two human skeletons and broken clothing.

There was no trace of flesh or blood on the human bones, and people even felt as if they had been carefully licked by a monster.

Led by the knight, hundreds of them went to the place where the old hunter companions found the strange house. Sure enough, they found several fresh human skeletons and broken hunter equipment.

But there was no trace of the house that would grow arms, legs, heads and faces.

Speaking of this, Keir felt his teeth trembling, and he squeezed out a sentence from his mouth: "Then what about the end? Did you defeat that house in the end?"

The old hunter shook his head and said nothing, but it made others feel a different kind of chill, different from the heavy snow, rising from their hearts.

Knight Lanessa in front obviously also heard the story of the old hunter. She lowered her horse speed and approached everyone: "I have heard of this story. It frightened many people at the time, because it seemed that that thing was not something that ordinary knights could deal with."

"Sir, do you know what that thing is?" Kil asked directly. This is what he wants to know most now.

Knight Lanisa thought for a while: "I heard someone say it when I was studying. That thing seems to be called a weird house. I heard it, I heard it. After the death of a powerful mage, the camping magic house they brought with them came to life. Walking all the way from the place where the mage died, carrying the mage's remains and belongings, they will go back to the mage's family along the road and go home. Without the restraint of the mage, they will continue to harm everyone they encounter as they please, and Because they possess various magical treasures of mages, few people can defeat them after discovering them.

Until they return to the mage's family, they will be restrained and controlled by other mages again.

Of course, I heard that there are some mages who do not have families. After their death, weird houses with nowhere to go will wander around the human world, or stand quietly somewhere, or they will constantly pretend to be normal houses to hunt and lure humans in. It devours. "

After hearing this, Keir, like everyone else, was shocked by the news that it was like this.