Mercenaries and Adventurers

After receiving the appraisal explanation from Knight Lanissa, both Kil and Fike settled down contentedly.

The next day, the hunters loaded all the tools and supplies they needed into the carriage, and the villagers also helped carry the things. After everything was packed up, Lanissa Knight led everyone to set off.

The villagers will stay in the safe sentry tower for the next time, and will need to use tools to simply process the wood that was brought back from the place where the trees were cut yesterday early in the morning.

Kiel and the others will look for a dangerous place in the forest to the north and build a crusade stronghold so that the female knights and hunters can have a safe resting place in the vast forest. Otherwise, it will be difficult to clear the settlement for a long time. Northern wolf.

After setting off, they quickly crossed the gravel-strewn ancient river and entered the vast forest covered with snow.

Although the forest here is not as open as the forest in the south, at least the terrain is not undulating obviously. Basically, the terrain is gentle and gradually rises.

If it hadn't been for Knight Lanisa's words, Kildu wouldn't have even felt that they were heading north to higher ground.

After walking for two days in the snowy forest, they met many animals that came out to look for food in the winter, but the hunters did not take action, and Knight Lanisa just drove them away on horseback and ignored them.

The hunters' bows and arrows are difficult to supply here, so it's better not to use them too much. The female knight also doesn't want to kill more prey, so she won't try to stimulate the Northland wolves before the sentry tower is established.

At least they couldn't let the wolf king of the pack know they were coming.

-

Knight Lanisha has already found a place to establish a stronghold in the forest. She had entered the forest many times in the past few years and discovered many places with special terrain in the forest.

The location they are going to now is one.

It was a rocky hill standing abruptly in the gentle forest. The terrain above and below is very rugged, with steep cliffs on three sides and large and small rocky slopes on one side. There is a small platform at the top, which can be used to build a stronghold.

At noon, they were in the forest and could see the rocky mountains in front of them through the trees.

Knight Lanisa said that the rocky mountain was not high, but even from such a distance, Kiel and the others could see it. It seems that the height of the rocky mountain is not low either.

As you get closer, as soon as you emerge from the forest, you can see a tall rocky mountain towering in front of you. Kil estimated that this thing was at least a hundred meters high, and it should have been caused by a whole piece of rock lifted up from the ground.

Their location is right on the side of the cliff of Rock Mountain, so if you want to go up, you have to take a detour to the front.

The inclined slope up and down the rocky mountain is located on the north side, which is the side facing away from the sun, so the snow here has not melted at all, and the whole thing is covered in the shadow of the rocky mountaintop.

The sloping rocky ramp looked almost impossible to climb, let alone a carriage or horse.

Regarding this problem, Knight Lanisa smiled and led everyone to dismount and lead the horses, bypassing rocks as big as houses, and unexpectedly found a smooth upward slope behind the rocks.

"Don't look at me. I discovered this place by accident. Who knew these 'people' built this thing? After all, a hundred years ago, this was not land owned by us humans." She said this, because She really couldn't stand the way everyone looked at her in surprise.

Keir secretly guessed that this must be something specially built by intelligent creatures in the forest, but it must have been abandoned.

As he walked up, Kil paid attention to the surrounding rocks to see if he could find any traces left by the original owner.

But he was disappointed. Along the way, he only found many marks left by weapons on the rocks, but no other traces of life at all.

If there hadn't been a tragic battle here, all the original traces would have been destroyed. Otherwise, this place was originally just a surveillance outpost, just like what Kiel and the others are doing now.

After all, this vast forest needs to be protected no matter what, right?

After all, they are all intelligent creatures. Human beings are invaded by monsters from the natural mountains and forests. Presumably other races living here are also invaded by them.

If those people didn't want to be invaded by things from the forest, they would definitely set up outposts in the forest to monitor the surroundings.

Thinking of this, Keir felt that he should have guessed well.

And this shouldn't be an ancient elf ruins. After all, there are always huge and towering plants where the elves live. There are rocks everywhere here, and they don't look like the remains left by the elves.

Keir led the horse and approached a rock on the edge of a slope. He caressed the rock surface with his thickly gloved hands, his fingers tracing carefully along the marks left by the sword.

A simple inspection surprised him. It was impossible for these cutting marks to be left a long time ago, because some of the places where the rocks were cut were still very sharp.

He told the knight and other hunters about this discovery, and everyone stopped to check the surrounding traces.

"Sure enough, this split is very neat. It looks like it was cut with a very powerful weapon." An old hunter pointed to the mark made by a knife next to him.

Lanissa Knight also touched several marks and inspected them.

She was silent for a while, and then pulled out the armor-piercing rapier she often used from her waist. Instantly swinging the rapier, the tip of the rapier scratched the hard rock surface. With a sharp cutting sound, the armor-piercing rapier left a two centimeter scratch on the rock surface.

Everyone went over to check and found that the new traces left by Knight Lanissa were different from the previous weapon traces. Although the weapons were of different types and the traces left were different, they also had the same destructive result.

Qiang, she sheathed her rapier and said: "Indeed, these traces left in the passage from the entrance to the top of the rock must have been left by some human knights. Look at the attack height of these weapons, this must be Leftovers from battles between humans or humanoid creatures. Judging from the different results of environmental erosion between the two, it ranges from a hundred to a few decades."

She continued: "It's definitely not traces from recent years. There are no relevant records in Kendall City. So many traces indicate that an extremely fierce battle broke out here."

Kil interjected: "And both sides are strong knights! Otherwise, they wouldn't have fought all the way from the bottom of the passage to the top of the mountain."

"Kiel is right. I blame me for not paying attention before. After discovering this place, I simply checked to see if there were any hiding northern wolves and left in a hurry. It seems that a war broke out here before the Baron Kendall family came. Fighting. Oh, to be able to dispatch so many knight-level warriors, it goes without saying that the battle must have been initiated by the knights guarding the border."

After she was silent for a moment, she continued: "I just don't know who my opponent is? Why is there a fight with the Knights here?"

Everyone put away their curiosity. After all, the battle that happened decades ago had nothing to do with them now. They just used the terrain here to build a safe stronghold.

-

Walking along the not too steep slope to the top of the rock, they finally reached the top of the mountain.

However, they retreated from the top of the mountain where there was a clearing. It's not because of anything else, it's simply because the wind is too strong. They felt uncomfortable walking on the rocky passage on both sides, but once they reached the top of the mountain, they found that the cold wind above was too strong.

Kendall County in winter is already below freezing, and where there are cold winds blowing above, the temperature is much lower. The clothes on everyone's body couldn't resist the cold wind that continuously took away body heat, and even the tents they set up were always blown over by the wind.

As a last resort, everyone had no choice but to establish a safe base in a sloping passage with large and small rocks in the sky above their heads.

At least there is no wind here due to the blocking on the left and right sides. Even because the inclined channel is not a straight line, the wind from the bottom of the mountain cannot blow straight up along the channel.

The ground is sloping, making it difficult to build a living platform.

Therefore, the first step in building a stronghold was to move large and small rocks from the channel and build small platforms in the sloping channel for them to put down their tents.

The carriage is only used to stop sideways at the entrance of the passage at the bottom of the mountain. Firstly, it can be used as a gate, and secondly, the carriage itself can be used as an obstacle to block the road.

Half of the people followed the knight to move rocks to establish a stronghold in the middle of the passage. Half of the people took out boxes of metal clips from the carriage. Everyone carefully opened the sharp teeth of the metal clips, and waited until the metal piece at the bottom was bent and stuck by the mechanism, making a soft clicking sound.

Then you have to gently place the metal clamp in the rock channel.

Everyone's clips are placed conspicuously and irregularly to guard against wolves.

After that, everyone who had placed the clips loaded the supplies on the carriage onto the horses, and carefully led the horses to the middle of the passage, where the stronghold was under construction.

This was repeated, and soon all the supplies on the carriage were transported to the stronghold by people on horseback.

-

Here at the stronghold, the platform that allows people to stand and live is mainly made of rocks, ice and snow.

Since the ground is uneven, the ground of the passage does not need to be treated. You only need to sweep away the ice and snow on the ground first, and then place rocks of different sizes along the slope.

Start with small rocks, and then the steeper the slope, the larger the rocks you put down.

But it is impossible to use too big a stone. After all, even Knight Lanissa cannot carry several tons of rocks in the sloping passage.

The old hunters built a fire with the wood they brought with them, and then used the small iron pot they brought to put the ice and snow they found in it and burn it. No need to boil it, just melt it into water.

Then pour the newly melted cold water onto the rock platform.

The ice water slid down the cold rocks, and when it first flowed down, it had been frozen into ice again by the temperature and the cold rocks.

We stuffed some small stones into the cracks in the rocks, then shoveled away the frozen ice, reheated it to melt, and then poured water.

In this way, the stones are repeatedly placed, poured with ice water and frozen into hard ice cubes.

Everyone worked hard, and after a long time after dark, four relatively stable platforms were finally built.

So the four horses were driven to a platform and crowded together, and they were wrapped in tarpaulins to protect them from the cold. After being fed, although the horses were crowded, they all stayed close to each other obediently and stood still.

On the remaining three platforms, everyone set up tents for people to live in.

Knight Lanisa had a small tent, and at the same time, many metal clips that had not been used up in boxes were also placed around her tent, which could not only keep out the wind and keep warm, but also create an independent space for the female knight.

Others connected small tents together to build two larger tents on two separate platforms. All the hunters were crowded inside. Although it was a bit crowded, at least they were sheltered from the wind and rain, and they were still warm.

The cooking area was a depression that Knight Lanissa had chopped directly with her metal gun. In this way, a small iron pot is placed on top, and a small fire can be raised below for heating.

-

On the next day, everyone was divided into two teams again. One team continued to build a platform for stable living in the middle of the rock passage, while the others, led by Knight Lanisa, went to the forest at the bottom of the mountain to cut down trees.

After cutting down two large trees, Knight Lanisa dragged one tree up by herself, while the others dragged a smaller tree up together. Naturally, the metal clips at the bottom of the channel were carefully moved to the corners on both sides of the channel in advance so that they would not collide with the big trees.

The larger ones were cut into blocks and used for heating.

The smaller ones were wrapped with ropes to form a simple tree branch wall to block the wind.

There are no tools here, and things like planks have to be produced by villagers at the previous supply point camp.

After the construction of the stronghold was almost completed today, Knight Lanisa took a small number of people and returned south to the supply point camp to transport more supplies there.

In this way, as long as the supplies at the forward stronghold are insufficient, you can go back and forth between the two strongholds within four or five days to replenish supplies.

The villagers only need to continue processing the big trees cut down by the knights into the materials needed by the hunters in the safe guard tower camp.

-

More than ten days later.

After three trips back and forth, transporting a large amount of various materials, mainly processed wood, Kiel and the others have successfully established a safe base in the Rock Mountain stronghold.

The gate of the stronghold was specially built in the middle of the passage, right next to the stronghold, and was not placed at the entrance of the passage at the bottom of the mountain.

At the entrance, hunters placed most of the metal clips, and carefully placed the remains of eaten carnivorous food in the middle of the clips to lure all kinds of hungry animals to venture over.

There are many dangerous metal clamps placed here to let the northern wolves rush. The passage is narrow and the wolves running on all fours will definitely try to come up along the passage in the subsequent battle. When the time comes, they can be given a taste of human flesh. What a trap tool is.

Now that the construction of the advancing rock mountain stronghold is completed, everyone can start the crusade against the wolves in the North.

Since this stronghold was already deep into the forest, Knight Lanisa led the hunters to start conducting reconnaissance in a circle with the Rock Mountain stronghold as the center.

Kil was naturally among the team, and among the hunters, an old hunter who had been unwell recently was left in the Rock Mountain stronghold to take care of Kil's three horses and maintain the operation of the entire stronghold.

You have to go to the entrance of the passage at least every day to see if any new animals have fallen under the metal clamps.

At the same time, he can also make each platform more stable so that everyone who comes back later can sleep more comfortably.

-

Led by Knight Lanisa on horseback, and followed by all the hunters (including Kil), the difference between everyone coming out this time is that everyone is wearing a metal clip on their backs.

Although this thing is very heavy, once you find traces of wolves, you can arrange it in front of you in advance and huddle behind the clip to attack.

This may or may not be useful, but at least it has one more method compared to nothing before, right?

This time, Kil went out hunting without a long sword. He left the long sword on the top of the rocky mountain, specially made a pit on the top platform, put the hilt of the long sword into the pit, and then used ice and snow to seal the long sword. Frozen and fixed, the blade of the sword points straight to the sky.

He specially made the side with the church hymns facing south, so that it can be exposed to the sun every day on the top of the mountain, if there is sun.

After walking in circles for a long time in the forest, they found some traces in the snow, but they were not from wolves. Some of the traces are extremely weird, and Lanissa Knight asks everyone not to follow the weird footprints and look for trouble.

Even she has to remain in awe in the forest, because you don't know what has been nurtured in these forests from ancient times to the present.

"Sir Knight, you have to come over and take a look at the footprints here. Something seems wrong." A young hunter checked the footprints they had checked before while taking a rest.

"What's the problem? Haven't you seen this? The traces of a group of wild boars." The knight went over, and everyone followed him to take a look.

This is a large number of traces left by a family of wild boars after they lay down in the snow in the forest. They are not just footprints. In order to find food under the snow, the wild boars turn over the snow and soil near the roots of the trees, making them dirty. It must be a complete mess.

Although everyone had already discovered the existence of this wild boar when they went to the small circle before, but since these wild boars are still there, it means that there are no traces of wolves near this wild boar.

Because northern wolves are larger than wild wolves in other places, they can hunt dangerous wild boars in the forest.

For other animals, wild boar, no matter what species it is, is a dangerous and violent animal. But for the Northland wolves, who are huge and hunt in groups, ordinary wild boars are just delicious food that they can catch in three strokes.

Everyone leaned over to take a look, and the young hunter pointed around the roots of the tree that had been turned over by the wild boar.

"Look, everyone, I found that among the various traces left by the wild boar, there are also some wolf footprints mixed in. But the number is not very large." He said this, and then pointed at one place with his bow and didn't look carefully. He couldn't see it at all. What came out were traces of wolf footprints.

These traces are buried in the traces left by the wild boar, and you can't find them unless you look carefully.

"Yes, the size of this footprint is indeed that of a northern wolf. After everyone spotted it, they all searched nearby to make sure how many northern wolves were following the wild boars."

"yes."

So, everyone started to explore along the footprints with this trace as the center, and found more footprints hidden in the traces of wild boars moving forward to find food.

"What a cunning animal." Kiel said to himself.