Mercenaries and Adventurers

In the end, Keir found no bones in that hall. There are traces of the battle, but other corresponding things are not there. He guessed that those things were either taken away by the knights who fought here, or that the useless dwarf corpses were thrown down the spiral staircase in the middle of the hall directly after the battle.

It's so deep down there that it couldn't be easier to drop and dispose of.

Thinking about it this way, it was obvious that the entire passage was frozen after the battle.

Keir guessed that it might have been done by a magician or a senior priest of a certain church. Before the supporting dwarf soldiers came out, the man got a large amount of water from nowhere and filled it up along the channel. But this was not safe. The man then used a powerful magic item (possibly.) to quickly freeze the water-filled passage.

Until now.

Kil didn't dare to get those magical items that released cold. If he thought of a way, he could probably get rid of those things. But since the other party was to prevent the dwarves from invading, he naturally didn't dare to mess with it for the sake of the peace of Kendall County.

The Knights must have blocked the entrance here with rocks and prevented people from getting close to it. They probably had such a plan.

-

Not finding anything fruitful inside the rocky mountain, Kil was a little regretful and had to return the way he came.

He only harvested half a bag of dwarf coins and personal amulets, and also picked up a small half bag of broken fragments of weapons. He checked and found that the weapon fragments were all made of good materials. He couldn't say anything, but from the fact that the fragments were still sharp and strong, he knew that they were originally made from some good weapons. Fallen.

All the way up, Keir quickly walked out of this dark passage winding downwards.

He simply covered the hole he made, moved some rocks to block it, and then climbed up the rope to the top of the rocky mountain.

Although he understood what was inside the rocky mountain, Kil still didn't know how those northern wolves that froze to death in the rocky passage died. If it was the six magic blue rock balls in the hall deep in the mountain that were responsible, why wasn't Keir attacked by them when he entered the hall?

In addition, the thin layer of fog shrouding the outside of the rocky mountain also appeared inexplicably in winter in violation of natural celestial phenomena, and it has not disappeared until now.

This is also something that Kiel can't understand.

But he doesn't care, just do the job well.

He returned to the supplies area, filled his backpack with supplies, and then strode down the mountain.

After exiting the rock passage, they went straight through the fog, and soon came to the forest where the fog could not spread. Determining the direction, he quickly found his companions waiting for him.

The fellow hunters were also very cautious. As agreed before they parted, they each asked Kil two questions about the previous battle, and Kil answered them smoothly. Thus, as usual, the possibility that Keir was impersonated by some weird thing in the forest was ruled out.

Keir explained what he saw in the rocky mountain. Of course, he did not talk about the passage leading to the inside of the mountain. He simply explained that the strange fog had not dissipated and that there were dozens of frozen animals frozen to death in the rocky passage. Northern wolf.

The two companions were a little worried after hearing this, but it seemed like Keel didn't seem to be in trouble. After gathering up their courage, they followed Keel in driving the carriage outside the rocky mountain.

This time, Kil was no longer worried. He asked a hunter to climb onto the shed cover of the carriage body and guide them with his sight above the fog on the ground.

After passing through the fog in such a simple way, the three of them became more courageous. They parked the carriage directly at the entrance of the rock passage, took off the shackles of the horses, led the two horses directly, and walked to the top of the mountain.

They used horses to carry a large amount of leftover supplies, and then slowly walked down the mountain.

When walking from the top to the bottom, the three of them also brought as many metal clips as possible along the way. Of course they couldn't lift so many heavy metal clips, so they directly dragged the wolf leather straps tied to the metal clips with their hands, clanking and dragging a dozen metal clips all the way back to the entrance of the passage.

After doing this two or three times, the materials left here before were all moved.

Before leaving here, Kil seemed to feel a faint malice coming from the surroundings, as if something had been disturbed. This made him a little scared, and he didn't dare to delay. He called his companions, tied the two horses to the carriage, and immediately left here with a whip.

-

Not long after the three of them left, some black shadows twisted together in the white mist, and gradually converged into multiple wolf-shaped shadows composed of twisted black shadows.

As soon as these unknown objects appeared, they seemed to absorb the power of the surrounding fog. The fog became lighter and they condensed.

Then these dark wolf-shaped shadows walked stiffly, like newborn wolf pups, towards the place where Kiel and the others had dragged the metal clips.

They walk awkwardly along the way, and as they move, a trail similar to a road will appear on the ground that is frozen by extremely low temperatures.

But these unknown things found nothing, because Kiel and the others had already left the local area and would not come back.

Several black figures imitated the northern wolves, roaring silently, which caused the surrounding temperature to drop sharply, but the rocky mountains were full of stones, so naturally no one knew how terrifying they were.

-

Keir and the others drove the carriage carefully through the depths of the forest. Because of the obstruction of the trees, they had to pay attention to avoid the big trees that appeared in front of the carriage.

The most dangerous thing was the tree roots hidden under the snow in the forest. They either hindered the horses from moving forward, or sent Kiel and the others flying when the wheels rolled over them.

"Ouch!"

Kil's butt was bumped up, and then he fell heavily on the board, causing his butt to hurt from the bump.

"This won't work! Fick, you climb up to the hood of the car, lie down on it, and pay attention to the undulations of the ground in front of us. As long as there are sudden undulations on the ground, they must be tree roots!" Keir commanded as he was knocked around in the carriage. of stumbling companions.

Fike nodded and immediately turned over, carefully lying on the roof of the car to avoid being caught by the branches of the big tree.

With his instructions, Keir was able to avoid the obstructing tree roots roughly in advance.

Soon, they came to the place where they fought before.

The fallen trees, the messy ground, and the sparse snow on the surrounding trees. This place was exactly the same as when they fought a few days ago.

But the environment has not changed, but there are some differences on the ground.

Some small beasts that looked like jackals or foxes were wandering around the original battlefield, looking for something edible from the burnt black wolf carcasses.

There are even some strong ones who are digging in the soil where Kiel and the others buried the wolf skin, intending to follow the smell and find out what smells like blood underneath and eat it.

But all of this was driven away by the loud shouts and roars of Kiel and the others. As the carriages and horses rumbled here, the timid little animals all dispersed.

However, they did not disperse very far. The good ones jumped directly onto the branches of the big trees, and the heavy ones also rolled over, hiding behind the trunks of the big trees and quietly observing humans like Keir.

"Go away!"

"Go away, go away!"

Seeing how bold the little animals were, the two young hunters waved their arms to drive them away. Seeing that these animals, which had never seen humans at all, refused to leave, the two guys looked at each other and laughed.

They took out their respective bows and arrows.

"My mother just needs a cloak to keep out the cold."

"The one in my family always complains that the rabbit fur boots are a bit ordinary."

Kil shook his head and ignored his two companions. He jumped out of the car with a simple wooden shovel cut out of wood and dug up the soil directly where the wolf skin was buried.

This is just right. You can eat some alternative small animal meat at night. I wonder how it tastes?

-

As soon as he started digging, Kiel felt like he was assisted by a god. The power of the god of agriculture in his body seemed to know what Kiel was doing, so he immediately provided more support than usual in the fight. This allowed Kiel to swing the shovel like flying, and he could do it alone. Serves five people.

At first, many of them worked together, but because Kil was not too special, his workload was similar to that of his companions. At most, he did more, and everyone just regarded him as a young man with high energy.

But there were not many people around now, and the two companions were focused on hunting the small animals wandering around, so Keir dug hard and dug out the wolf skin buried more than one meter underground in just one meal. .

This is also due to the previous burial that loosened the soil on the ground, and it is not just because of Kiel's strong work ability.

So, when the two young hunters came back with five small animals each, Kil was already standing in the pit, throwing the frozen and rough wolf skins out of the pit.

"So fast?"

"What do you think? It's just such a small job. If three people do it, we will have returned by now." Keir's voice came from the pit.

"Sorry." The young hunter scratched his cold-proof cloak and hat: "I'll treat you to the prey I killed tonight. Although the ones in winter are a little thin, they are all fine meat."

"Hey." Kil smiled: "Hurry up and put the prey in the car. Let's go back early. I don't want to stay in this forest at all now."

"makes sense."

So, two young hunters tied the newly shot small animals together with ropes and hung them on the ceiling of the carriage. Then they came over to pick up the dry and hard wolf skins that had fallen outside and shook them, removing the mud and leaves stained on them. Shake things like that away.

He patted it again to remove some dust and frozen parasites from the wolf skin, and then threw it into the back of the carriage.

Five wolf skins were tied up in groups to prevent them from falling apart.

After a while, everyone was done.

Kiel didn't want the simple wooden shovel anymore, and threw it directly into the pit, then jumped up on the edge, and everyone slapped each other, and then got in the car and returned the same way.

-

The return trip took another whole day, but after all, there was no danger. They quickly met up in the wooden sentry tower with Knight Lanisa and her party who had just returned from the Wumi Lake Village to celebrate that night.

Since there was nothing worth mentioning inside the rocky mountain, Kiel had a strong desire to return to the town. Although he had discovered some unspeakable secrets inside the rocky mountain before, he could not act rashly on those dangerous things, whether they were visible crises on the surface or the power of the knights' magicians behind them.

Occasionally touching the dwarf coins found in the bag, Kil rode his usual horse and slowly followed the team back south.

They were still taking the road heading north, and everyone hurried on at a leisurely pace. Instead of the worries and pride when setting off, there was more joy of victory and sadness of the death of their companions.

After more than two days, everyone finally approached the land of human civilization from the north side of Hekou Town.

The militiamen on sentry duty at the gate on the north side of the town saw Knight Lanissa's horse and her armor from a distance, opened the gate in compliments in advance, and swept away the snow at the gate with a broom.

Kil, who was riding a horse, received instructions from the old hunter. He rushed to the gate of the town one step ahead and shouted: "Lady Knight Lanisa killed the Northland Wolf King who was causing trouble in the northern forest the day before yesterday! And destroyed it." Wolves of the North! Go and inform the local lords. And inform the people along the way!"

Kil shouted with a loud voice and said this while riding on the horse without getting off the horse.

The few town militiamen who greeted them were shocked when they heard what Kiel said, but they quickly reacted to Kiel's repeated propaganda and immediately arranged for someone to run quickly along the main road of the town to the Lord Knight's house. past.

At the same time, the militiaman ran and loudly repeated what Kiir said on the road.

Kil saw that several militiamen at the door were just stopping on the ground, standing on tiptoes to look at Knight Lanisa who was slowly riding on horseback. So he took out a small handful of coins from the backpack on his back and pointed it at the stunned person. Several militiamen guarding the ground dispersed.

Copper coins and iron coins collided with each other in the air and made a crisp sound.

"Don't just sit here, start shouting, start shouting!"

When the militiamen saw Keir throwing away the money, they immediately bent down to pick it up with a smile. After taking the money, they naturally worked hard, and they immediately started shouting excitedly into the town.

"Knight Lanessa returns victorious! The wolves in the northern forest are finished!"

"Man defeats the beast! A great victory!"

Such words were shouted out from their mouths repeatedly, which made Keir quite satisfied.

In winter, except for the fishermen who break the ice to catch fish, most of the farmers and people working in the fields stay at home with nothing to do, either making people or beating their children. If there are some wealthy families with a small amount of money, most of the men of the family go to the pubs or red houses that are still open to drink and have fun, while the women of the house will most likely invite them to go to several small churches in the town to chat with the church priests. Those who behave in front of them will diligently help the church priests' assistants to clean the church.

This kind of attentive behavior is not something everyone can do. First of all, you must officially believe in the god of this church. Secondly, compared with other people who have the same idea, if you are neglectful in ordinary church affairs, Or something, then you have to wait in line to get your turn.

These things are not in vain. After all, the church has mastered real supernatural power entities. Some good things will only take care of the families with the strongest 'faith'.

If someone in the family is injured at work or something, the believers will automatically save themselves the expense of having the minor injuries healed by the priests.

Turning back to the words, with the cheerful shouts of the militiamen at the north gate of the town, every house on the winter street, which was originally deserted during the day, opened its doors. The men in the family stuck their heads out of the door and pricked up their ears to listen carefully. Soon they laughed happily and invited everyone at home to go out and have a look.

There are large fields in the north of the town, so the area near the north gate that leads in and out is naturally filled with farming families. The defeat of the northern wolf is naturally a good thing for them. After all, the northern wolf attack that occurred on Muxingtai this summer did not last long.

Since the Northland wolves became more and more rampant, they had to be careful when going out to the fields. Naturally, their children no longer dared to let wild animals roam naturally on the ridges of the fields.

Without those half-grown children who are considered half of the labor force, the food income of each household has been partially reduced due to labor factors. But the taxes paid to the lords will not be small, so the past two years have been relatively difficult.

Now that they heard that the northern wolf had been eradicated, they were naturally overjoyed.

The vigorous young men from the farmer's family put on their father's fur coats, rubbed their hands and ran all the way to the north gate of the town. After crossing the gate and seeing Knight Lanisa and her group getting closer and closer, he immediately trotted back home and called his family members to come out and watch.

-

Approaching Bayou Town, Knight Lanissa asked the hunters to get off the carriage, leaving only one person to drive the carriage. In addition, the old hunter also asked the young hunters to take out the wolf skin from the carriage and hang it on the outside of the carriage with a rope, so that the people waiting to watch could see some of the results of their victory.

In fact, the public does not have an accurate estimate of how many Northern wolves there are. Therefore, even if hunters tell the public that they have killed hundreds of Northern wolves during this trip, it is probably not true. Even if the wolf skin was used as evidence, no one would believe it.

After all, most of the wolf skins had been burned along with the wooden walls in the Battle of Rock Mountain. They believed in how many northern wolves they had killed, and so did the knight Lanissa who fought together. But it is very difficult for outsiders to believe it.

So they had discussed it before. On the surface, they had killed about a hundred northern wolves. The actual accurate number would only be reported to the noble lords at Knight Lanisa's level, and to Ken, who was above him. Lord of Daleshire.

The hunters were walking on both sides of the carriage, with their hunting bows behind them and the quivers on their waists exposed. The injured young hunter put his injured arm in the most conspicuous place, planning to show it to the onlookers later.

A similar thing had happened once before in Wumihu Village, so this time the hunter secretly decided that he would not be overwhelmed by the people's onlookers and inquiries.

Knight Lanisha also hung her severed arm with a cloth strip in a conspicuous place. She also temporarily borrowed Kil's double-edged metal spear and used it as her own weapon in the weapon rack behind the saddle.

Naturally, she put away her commonly used one-handed heavy sword, and only hung on her waist the common armor-piercing thin sword.

She patted her beloved horse to slow it down and cheered up for the crowd to watch.

When Keir saw the team approaching and more and more people gathering at the gate of the town, he rode back to the team and entered the town together.

The shouting guard militiamen saw more and more people surrounding them, and their shouts became louder and more excited.

Before the team actually entered the town, the people at the door started shouting.

"Oh oh oh! Lord Knight Lanisa!" These are the young guys shouting.

"Look at those wolf skins, they are really big! One person can make a leather coat with one piece." This is the married women who are good at sewing talking to each other.

"So many wolf skins, good, good. Now I no longer have to worry about being attacked by wolves when farming next year." This is the mutual celebration of the adult farmers who are the main laborers.

More children casually wrapped themselves in some adults' clothes and stripped their families, looking excitedly at the tall war horse ridden by Knight Lanisa and the thick steel vest worn on the war horse.

"He is a great hero, he is a great hero. He is a great hero in the story!" they shouted.

After Knight Lanissa heard what the children said, she rarely blushed. For fear of destroying the children's dreams, she immediately closed the visor of her helmet and waved her good hand to greet the people.