Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kil thought about a group of dwarfs sitting on the back of a crowned moose as big as a carriage, looking like chariots walking in the mountains and forests, and burst out laughing.

Although he had never seen the dwarves here, he knew from the bards who appeared in the tavern and the dwarf characters in the drama that they were a group of short aliens who were only a little over one meter tall.

Although they are short, they are strong and like to dig holes in the ground and mountain caves to survive. They have a highly prosperous civilization. Not only are there national settlements running through the ground and underground outside the land controlled by humans, but they also have their countries within the territories of many human kingdoms.

But they are all in the mountains, crowded together with other alien races.

They are tenacious and live long, so their population has never been large. The racial character is very stubborn, 'as stubborn as a dwarf. ’ It refers to their stubborn and stubborn character.

Although dwarves are a kind of alien race that often appears in stories, they rarely appear on human territory. Only a small number of dwarves, represented by technical talents who are excellent in all aspects, appear in human big cities.

Although places like Kendall City are not very far from dwarf settlements, there have never been traces of dwarves.

-

Knight Lanisa took everyone to the frozen river. Kil didn't know what they were going to do, but the hunters who often haunted the forest wilderness were all excited.

"It seems we are lucky this time!" someone said lively.

No one else refuted, only Keir didn't know what they meant. But when he knew he didn't understand, he just had to shut up and watch.

"Everyone, come down and hurry up!" An old hunter stopped the carriage on the gentle frozen river bank and said to the others.

"Okay, let's see what's in the river." The young hunters jumped off the carriage, and Kil also dismounted, following the two young hunters in front.

Knight Lanisa also dismounted. She held up her metal spear and came over with interest.

Only when Kil came to take a look did he know what they meant.

It turned out that after a family of crown moose drank water and ran away, they opened a gap in the river that had been frozen due to low temperature, leading directly to the outside world. The big fish at the bottom of the river were opening and closing their mouths in the breaks in the ice, breathing in the fresh outside air.

There were so many fish squeezed together that some small fish were even squeezed out of the ice break by other big fish and were swaying their fat tails on the ice next to them.

"Catch him quickly!"

Someone shouted, and everyone rushed forward to catch fish from the breach in the ice with their bare hands.

Kiel grinned widely, laughing as he rushed forward and grabbed a small fish flapping on the ice. As soon as the fish in his hand was caught, it swung its tail even more.

The cold fish tail flapped Kil's mouth left and right, making the unprepared Kil very embarrassed.

"Haha, Kil! Stop holding on to it, throw it over!" Behind the carriage, two old hunters slowly climbed out of the carriage, opened a large bag in their hands, and shouted to Kil happily.

He couldn't stand this guy's tossing, so he quickly threw it towards the old hunter. The fish drew an arc in the air and landed accurately in the center of the open pocket.

"Very accurate, Kil! One more!" the old hunters praised.

The two young hunters next to him grabbed the gills of a very big fish with four hands. The fish seemed to weigh more than ten kilograms, and it was difficult for the two young men to control it while struggling.

Seeing Kil in a daze, Knight Lanisa put her spear on the ground and said to Kil, "Why are you still dazed? You have to move faster. Once they get enough air here, they will swim quickly." Go. The number of river fish within a certain distance is limited, and they will disperse soon."

Kil originally wanted to ask you why you didn't take action, but considering that Knight Lanissa didn't interfere in such small matters, he didn't care about her anymore.

He knitted the sleeves of his hands and squatted on the edge of the thick ice to spot a river fish that was not that exaggerated in size. He reached out with both hands, placed a handful on the slippery fish head, and accurately picked out the gills on both sides of the fish head.

The fish was not very big, so Kiel fished it out with a single lift. No matter how much it swung its tail and struggled, Kil held on tightly.

Taking two quick steps off the ice, Kiel stood firm and used his strength to swing the fish through the air.

The two young hunters were still competing with the big fish on the river bank, and Kiel's second river fish had already fallen into the pockets of the old hunters.

"That's the second one, Kil! You're so fast. You two, don't compete with the fish on the spot, drag it to the shore, just drag it over!"

"Hey! Here we come."

This time, Keir grabbed two forearm-long river fish with one hand in each hand, grabbed their open mouths with his hands, and caught the two fish out of the river water.

One fish flicked in the air, and Kil stood firm and took off with a flying kick, kicking the fish in the air toward the old hunter.

However, the body of the fish was slippery and it was eaten hard, but the angle was not good and it fell outside the bag.

"It's okay, come again." The old hunter encouraged Keer to get the fish out of the river.

Keir didn't believe in evil, so he kicked it again. This time, the fish hit the mouth of the bag and flew into the bag from the air.

The big fish seem to have sucked in the air early and fled away, and now the only fish left are not that big fish. One by one, Keir took them out of the water and left them on the ice.

Indeed, looking at the momentum, the fish will soon disperse and time is running out.

The fish that Keel caught from the break in the ice became smaller and smaller. When they were smaller than the palm of his hand, Keel stopped taking action and began to use his feet to kick the fish he fished out from the edge of the break to the shore. .

At this moment, Knight Lanissa suddenly pulled out the heavy metal spear from the ground and stabbed it into the breach in the ice in an instant.

There was no splash when the spear tip entered the water, but there were waves surging under the water. One after another gushes out from the breach in the ice.

Knight Lanisa used both hands to stand firm, and with a burst of strength, she lifted the spear from the breach in the ice. A huge black fish with its head pierced was lifted from the breach.

This is a very big fish, with a slender body, at least one and a half meters in length. If it stands upright, including its tail, it would be at least as tall as many people.

Knight Lanisa turned around and smashed down the big black fish picked out by the spear. With a bang, the tenacious black fish was brought to the shore.

She thought it was not safe, so she kicked the big black fish again and pushed it to the side of the carriage.

The three horses were a little scared when they saw the big black fish and kept neighing. The old hunters quickly put down their fish bags to comfort them.

"What is this?" Kil asked dumbfounded, not forgetting to throw the small fish on the ice to the fish bag beside the carriage.

Knight Lanisa took out a piece of fine cloth from the bag on her waist and wiped the tip of the metal spear with a frown: "This is a carnivorous fish that has appeared in recent years. It is huge and eats everything in the water. It's very Hate."

An old hunter who calmed the horses took over: "I heard that in recent years they have not only caused a decrease in fish catch in Wumi Lake, but also bitten the fishing nets of some fishermen in the village, making it difficult for everyone to catch fish. Some People went into the water to swim, and several people were maimed, with their hands or feet bitten off."

After cleaning the newly cleaned spear, Knight Lanisha said unhappily: "These guys are claiming territory. Although they are animals, they also know that they cannot completely offend humans, so they only hurt people and do not kill." Originally, the villagers used to go fishing in the center of the lake, but now they can only give up a large area of ​​​​the lake and have to fish near the village. However, these are small problems, really big fish" she finished , shook his head.

Kil scratched his nose and smelled a fishy smell. He quickly wiped his hands in the snow on the river bank to wipe off the fish mucus on his hands.

Even so, everyone still gained a lot before the fish left.

In addition to the big fish from Lake Umi caught by two young people, Lanisha Knight also killed a big black fish whose meat was said to be very delicious. A fish weighs hundreds of kilograms. It is estimated that these people can eat it for more than half a month.

Kiel also caught a lot of river fish, both large and small. Fish of this size are perfect for grilling next to the campfire.

-

At night, everyone camped in a place with several large rocks. The rock is so big that animals can't climb it, so it's very safe.

If the carriage is blocked at the entrance, other animals will not be able to climb in. As for the bottom of the car, Kiel moved a few wooden boxes with metal clips and stuffed them down, completely blocking the road.

The old hunters had never seen the power of metal clamps with their own eyes, so after specially processing the barbecued fish, they took the fish head and fish viscera, and two metal clamps each, and made four operations not far outside the camp. A separate trap.

They first wiped the metallic smell off the surface of the metal clip with snow, then unfolded the clip vigorously, placed it on a ground that had been cleared of snow, then sprinkled the dead leaves under the snow on the clip, and then carefully used wood Use the stick to stir up the fish head or fish intestines and place them next to the central part of the clamp.

This step must not be done with hands, otherwise if the hand is pinched, the hand will be disabled. Although the church can use miraculous magic to restore wounds and stumps, the price is too high for ordinary people to afford.

Older hunters don't have that kind of money either.

As for Knight Lanissa, when she hired the hunters, she said that she could find someone to use divine magic to deal with the injuries she sustained while fighting the wolves. But the other injuries had nothing to do with her.

After setting the trap, the old hunters came back.

Gere strung the processed headless fish body on a dry branch, and while applying salt grains, he used a dagger to cut through the thick parts of the fish. As mentioned before, in order to prevent parasite damage in the fish heads and fish internal organs, Keir directly disposed of the river fish he caught. The fish head is omitted, and all the fish internal organs are omitted, leaving only the fish body with clean fish scales.

After coating it with grains of salt, Kiel grilled the fish close to the campfire. Overwintering fish are very plump, and the fat in the belly will leak out even if it is simply grilled.

The aroma of roasted fat overflows.

As for the other big fish they caught, because the weather was cold, they didn’t worry about damage, so they put them directly into fish bags and hung them on the front of the carriage. Prevent some nimble bobcat and leopard from stealing it.

The surrounding huge rocks also blocked the night wind in the wild. After arranging the night sentry, Kiel and his party ate and slept soundly.

-

Kil's night watch was in the early morning before dawn, so he ate early and fell asleep. Didn't participate in the hunters' nighttime storytelling session.

When he was shaken awake, he learned from the old hunter that two of the traps he had set before eating had been set off.

This could be heard in the intermittent whining of animals drifting over the rocks.

After adding some firewood to the campfire, Kil held his sword and waited for dawn.

-

After dawn, the snow gradually became lighter last night. I don't know if the snowfall for days has finally stopped, or if they have already passed through the snowy area. After everyone got up, Kil rubbed his face with snow to cheer up, and then he couldn't wait to go out to see what he had caught last night.

We found no animals touching the first trap, so we had to put away the metal clips.

At the second trap, everyone found that they had caught a huge owl carcass. The whole body was clamped in half. It seemed that it had died at that time.

Knight Lanissa took a fancy to the owl's feathers, picked up the raptor carcass and returned to the campfire.

At the third trap, everyone was amused to find that the clip was closed, but the original bait fish head was missing. The old hunter checked the animal footprints near the trap and announced that it was a small and clever animal that had eaten the bait and had seen through the trap without being hurt by the trap.

Somewhat regretfully, the hunters discussed how to modify this metal clip.

Kiel proposed a method. The main killing ability of the clip is to rely on the bite and cutting of the outer ring of metal teeth to kill the animal. To prevent this, all you need to do is add two more circles of smaller teeth to the outer clip teeth.

This will prevent small animals from eating the bait and being injured by the trap.

At the last bait, everyone was very satisfied with the final animal, because everyone found that it turned out to be a red fox that was larger than a dog and looked somewhat like a wild wolf.

The fox's right hind leg was severely clamped by the clamp, but because it was clamped in a thick place, although the injury was serious, the red fox was still alive in the trap.

He stared at Keir and his group in horror with his wide eyes, whimpering and begging for mercy. However, no one was impressed by it. Everyone, including Keir, commented on the prey that fell into the trap.

Finally, Keir stabbed the red fox through the eye with a dagger, closed its mouth tightly to prevent it from biting, and killed the red fox in one stroke.

Some hunters who believe in the God of Hunting think they can catch red foxes with traps, which shows that the gods are silently blessing them on their hunting trip. The metal clips have also been proven to be capable of hunting medium-sized dog-like animals.

Although it has not yet been tested on larger northern wolves, hunters are satisfied.

Fox meat is not delicious, and it is unlucky to eat it. So under the guidance of the old hunter, Kil carefully peeled off the red fox's fur, took away the metal clip and left.

After everyone had their fill of freshly grilled fish at the camp, they left a mark outside the natural rock camp and set off again.

According to the old hunter's estimation, they should be able to reach the supply point camp established during previous hunting expeditions around noon tomorrow.

However, due to a different starting point, they did not set off from Wumihu Village this time. They were still not very familiar with the environment along the way, so if they were lucky, they could find a supply point camp directly in the general area.

If you are unlucky, you must first follow the terrain and rivers to find Umi Lake, and then follow the previous route to find the supply point camp.

-

At noon the next day, it was said to be what he said before, but Knight Lanisa was afraid of wasting time, so he went out in person to ride a horse and directly led everyone to the supply point camp.

The supply point camp is located in a treeless clearing between two forests. There were many large and small round stones half the size of a man scattered in this open space. At a glance, Keir could tell that these were ancient channels left by rivers long ago.

Knight Lanessa was a little surprised. She only found out that this was an ancient river after asking the priest who was the master of rivers and lakes, and using the priest's magic to channel the lake.

Unexpectedly, the young Kiel could see the history behind this open space at a glance.

"Kiel, how did you know?" the female knight asked, staring at Kil.

Only then did Keir think of how he should explain it. He could only say that he could see it at a glance, but why he knew it was that he had lost his memory and couldn't remember what happened before.

"It seems that Keir must have grown up in a family of scholars." Someone said.

"I don't think so. Kil is a very powerful guy at first glance. It's okay to let him chop people. I guess he can't read books and words." Some people didn't believe it and pointed out that Kil was thicker and taller than them. said the strong arm.

I really want to thank you," Kil said with a wry smile.

He has lost his memory. There is no other way. Kil cannot tell what happened before he came to this world. He has no memory at all. So it's not like he was pretending at all.

Knight Lanisa no longer asked about this, and led everyone to find a road through the round stones that could be used by the carriage to reach the supply point camp.

There were some small stones on the road that were impossible to avoid, so everyone had to borrow the power of knight Lanissa's horse and Kil's horse to dig out the bottom of the stones, then tie ropes and carefully move them away.

Then we added stone holes, and after a long day of work, we finally arrived at the downstairs of the supply point camp in the afternoon.

That's right, it's downstairs.

In order to make it easier to deal with the wolves in the North, Knight Lanisha had specially mobilized the labor of the villagers in her territory. During the slack season in winter, she quickly used local materials to build this three-story wide wooden sentry tower.

This thing looks like a wooden arrow tower in a castle. It has a square base and each side is fifteen meters long. Although it tilts inward and becomes smaller as you go up to the third floor, the entire supply point The campground is still a very wealthy place.

The wooden door at the bottom was blocked from the inside. Knight Lanisa jumped from the ground to the third floor of the camp and climbed in through a reserved window above.

After a while, she opened the large wooden gate at the bottom of the camp that allowed carriages to enter and exit.

"It's getting late today. After unloading your things, let's have a night's rest and start early tomorrow morning!" Knight Lanisa said as she looked at the rapidly darkening sky and earth outside.

Everyone felt that this should be the case, so after taking out the lamp oil stored in the storage room on the second floor, they filled the lighting oil lamps on the first floor with enough lamp oil and lit them.

The entire camp became brighter on the first floor.

Keir closed the door that let in the cold air, slammed the buckle made of wooden stakes, and closed the door. He turned around and surveyed the supply camp.

The appearance of the camp is a three-story wooden sentry tower. The inner floor is completely hollowed out. Only some thick standing tree trunks support the upper building. The bottom floor is quite empty.

In one corner, there is a fire pit surrounded by stones, surrounded by a circle of rough stone benches carved from stone. This is where cooking is done.

The stairs leading to the second floor are on one side of the wall. After unloading all the supplies on the carriage, while the hunters were thawing and decomposing the frozen Umi Lake fish, Kil told the others, Go up and have a look out of curiosity.