Mercenaries and Adventurers

Wumihu Village, that night.

Ruf Wolf took out an ice cube the size of a human head from the cellar of his house. Through the blurry surface of the ice cube, it seemed that there was a bloody heart frozen inside.

He carefully held the ice cube in one hand and climbed up the ladder into the house. Soon, he climbed back into the house along the ladder with one hand.

He secretly dug this cellar inside the house, which was nothing. Basically every household in the village would dig a small cellar for their home to store food and valuables.

It's just that his cellar is a little different.

The entrance and exit of the cellar was in his bedroom. Facing the lights in the room, Wolf admired the 'fresh' heart frozen in the ice.

And licked the corner of his mouth.

Finding a wooden dinner plate, he placed the ice cubes on the wooden dinner plate, and then his hands changed rapidly according to his wishes.

The hair on the back of the hands grows rapidly, and the nails on the fingertips magically become thicker, sharper, and elongate rapidly. Most importantly, the internal bones and muscles of the palm are also changing rapidly.

This change made Wolf's mouth tighten, locking the uncomfortable groan in his throat. But the twitching eyebrows and cheeks still showed how he felt at this time.

But soon, just a few seconds later, the changes in the hands stopped, and the original human male palms disappeared, replaced by a pair of half-human, half-wolf palms that were twice as big as before.

Wolf exhaled the air in his body, then took a deep breath, and then put a smile on his face again.

He pinched the ice cube with his huge palms, and with just a pinch of his hands, the originally solid frozen ice cube completely shattered, and the heart inside fell into the wooden dinner plate.

He casually placed the broken ice cubes in his palm into the wooden bowl aside, then picked up the wooden bowl and placed it next to the fireplace in the house.

Returning to the dining table, Wolf stretched out his fingers and examined his ten sharp and sharp fingers and the sharp claws on them. Finally, two commonly used fingers on the left and right were selected. One finger was pressed against the edge of the frozen heart to slightly fix it. The other finger was used to cut open one side of the heart along the ventricle, revealing the remaining frozen blood in the inner ventricle.

He sniffed excitedly, couldn't wait to move his mouth over, and carefully licked his favorite treasure with his tongue.

Literally a labor of love.

After licking up the remaining frozen blood in this ventricle, he then did the same with the remaining remaining blood in the ventricles. Then, he used his fingers and claws to chop up the remaining heart, pricked it one by one with his fingers, and put it into his mouth to taste.

He was very satisfied with the heart muscle, which had far more flavor than other muscles. However, the cherished nature of this 'delicious food' also made him feel pity.

It's a pity that I can't enjoy it like this every day.

The valves of the heart and the large blood vessels connected to the heart also have slightly different textures, which surprises him every time.

Human beings are such wonderful lives.

He wiped his palms with a dry cloth, and then with the drastic changes in his palms, he transformed into a normal human again.

After swallowing a few mouthfuls of ice water mixed with some blood from the wooden bowl next to the fireplace, Ruf-Wolf stood there for a while, thinking about the foreign hunter warrior.

"Hey, I still have to go and have a look. Well, I have to go and have a look." He said to himself.

Then he moved the firewood in the fireplace to the inside of the fireplace with an iron drill, changed into his clothes for going out, and then put on a cloak made of pure black mountain leopard skin.

After blowing out the oil lamp, Ruf Wolf came to the backyard of his house.

He didn't wear shoes or boots, so he walked barefoot into the yard where he rarely visited.

I looked around carefully and used my excellent hearing ears to carefully distinguish the sounds in the surrounding environment, but found no sound of anyone moving or hiding.

Then his legs changed slightly, and his feet completely transformed from human feet into a pair of beast's feet.

The originally loose pants looked very tight and short after the changes in his legs and feet, but he didn't care. He jumped from the backyard door to the roof of his house.

His house was only separated from the east gate of the village by a narrow, dark corridor, and the distance was very close.

Therefore, he just took two steps on the roof with lightness and flexibility, then jumped across the dark corridor and jumped directly from the roof to the wall of the east gate.

On cold winter nights, the militiamen guarding the east gate huddled in the house on top of the gate. Only at fixed times would they come out of the warm house and patrol back and forth on the wall surrounding the village.

Therefore, Wolf was not afraid that he would be discovered by those lazy militiamen. He only stepped on the wall with his feet to gain strength, and climbed directly over the wall and landed outside the village.

His dark cloak also prevented the possibility of being seen.

It flashed past the wall without torch lighting. Even if someone saw it, they would only see a shadow darker than the night flashing past, treating everything as an illusion caused by boredom.

-

In the dark alley next to Ruf Wolf's house, the slovenly young man stretched his head out of his shabby shack, just in time to see the dark shadow flashing above his head.

When a very slight sound was heard from outside the wall in the silent winter night, the slovenly man showed a strange smile. His whole body was smiling silently, and the bottom of his eyes turned slightly red.

Those were two twisted and magical masses of blood twisting and controlling in his eyes.

After the blood calmed down, the sloppy man whispered to himself and retracted his head into the shack.

"Yes, yes, yes. Great Wolf King, I will wait, wait for that person to perish, wait for the news that that person will be eliminated. Hehehehe, he doesn't know it yet, his death is not far away , Not far away, hee hee, hee hee hee hee."

-

Ruf Wolf ran with all his strength into the dark winter night.

There were overcast clouds in the sky, so only a small amount of hazy moonlight spread down. Human eyes couldn't see anything clearly in this wilderness, so he quickly lifted the hood of his cloak to reveal his head and face.

As the beast's feet ran and jumped several times, the human head and face soon transformed into a werewolf's head.

A long snout, a mouth full of sharp teeth that are more terrifying than a logging saw, a pair of wolf ears that stand upright in the wind, and of course, the beastly eyes that he needs at this moment.

The eyes of beasts, which are far more useful than human eyes, can clearly see the road under their feet at night like this.

You can even slightly see the tall mill that is still turning in the distance, even if the mill is hidden in the darkness.

Although the entire body of a werewolf is far stronger than either a human or a wolf alone, there is only one thing that makes Wolf very dissatisfied.

That's because endurance is really bad.

After he transforms into a werewolf, he will become extremely hot if he runs or fights for a long time. At first he didn't understand what was going on, but later he realized that the original human sweat glands had disappeared when he transformed into a werewolf.

The ability to dissipate heat from the body by sweating is gone, but a werewolf does not have the ability to run on four legs like a wolfdog, and its speed and running ability are not as good as the real thing. If it weren't for the cold weather in winter, which was a good time to run, he wouldn't have dared to run for a long time after transforming into a werewolf.

The most troublesome thing is summer. Every summer, he has to prepare a pair of scissors with him to trim the overgrown and overheated hair of his werewolf self.

Not to mention fighting or anything like that.

Soon he ran to the mill, but did not climb directly up to it.

He first lay down and listened carefully to the movement of the mill, and then walked around the outside of the mill. After hearing no other noises or new smells except the windmill, I boldly walked into the mill.

His hands also transformed into wolf claws again, and he climbed up from the outer wall of the mill with ease.

The wooden outer wall was perfect for him to climb up with his hands and feet, but when he climbed up this time, he always remembered the bad memories from before.

The wolf king stubbornly attacked the roots and trunk of the big tree, but he could only stay helpless on the top of the tree, waiting painfully for the tree to fall and be injured.

But fortunately, that stupid female knight still stupidly killed the Wolf King.

"Hehehehe." Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh happily.

Once the Wolf King died, the crisis that had troubled him for several years disappeared, and his life became easier again.

but.

This joy that makes me feel happy every time I think about it only lasts for more than ten seconds, and then it is overwhelmed by panic and confusion, fear and rage.

Because when he arrived at the 'secret place' on the top of the mill, his huge animal eyes clearly saw the continuous boot footprints on the ground at the top left by the back and forth in the dark night.

You must know that he never wears shoes when he comes here.

Even if you bring shoes, because you have to use wolf claws and wolf legs to climb up, the shoes will only be placed in your pocket or backpack and will not be put on personally.

The wolf's mouth opened slightly, and the entire expression on the wolf's head was slightly distorted.

Then he couldn't hold it any longer, and his whole expression became furious and twisted. He leaned over excitedly, bent down and sniffed the footprints with his nose, and climbed back to the top of the mill along the wooden shaft of the windmill.

The smell of Martin and Kiel's visit, the long wooden sticks randomly discarded in the house, and the dirty piece of coarse cloth on the sticks.

He couldn't stop his heavy breathing and immediately picked up the thing. After a slight sniff, he smelled the smell of rancid liquid. He gestured with the wooden stick in his hand and looked up.

With his animal eyes, he could vaguely see the stains leaking between the roof planks on the top of the mill.

"Ah." He took a deep breath, then opened his mouth and silently exhaled the heated air. Accompanying the hot air were his trembling words: "Martin Puth! This is what you don't want to say. Is that something?"

"Haha, do you think that boy can find me and kill me? It's impossible."

"No way."

He casually crushed the stick in his hand and threw the pieces away. He thought for a while, and a surprise smile appeared on the wolf's face: "Ha, just right. That young man is not in the village, hehe, if he is not in the village."

His long tongue licked his teeth.

"Kill him, and then kill the fishermen who went out with him. No one will know I did it, because no one will find their bones."

"Just in time, those stingy and greedy businessmen are gone, and I have enough time to have fun with you in the wild."

“Or, enjoy the fresh ones.”

Gu Long, he swallowed: "Fresh heart."

-

Keir is leading the team towards the place where they hunted the giant wild boar before.

Since there was no long detour and he basically headed straight in the intended direction, the day after leaving the village, Keir found the frozen creek in the unfamiliar wilderness.

He asked the party to follow him down the river, saying it was not far away.

"Kiel, are you sure? I think in other people's stories, they all rely on the magic pointer and the map to move forward in strange places?" The middle-aged man Wick walked beside Kiel and complained to Kiel. With.

Keir did not ride on horseback, but walked along the frozen river with others. Hearing Wick's question, he smiled: "Stories are stories, reality is reality. To be honest, this is the road. In this place, I won’t get lost no matter what. You have to trust me.”

Kil patted the weapon on his waist: "Besides, with this guy, it doesn't matter if you get lost, just kill some animals."

Wick also smiled and looked at the several long-eared hares hanging on Kiel's horse. He covered his full belly and smiled with satisfaction: "That's right. In the past two days, everyone has been satisfied with eating rabbits." I didn’t expect that the one you used was really good."

Wick made a circular motion with his right hand, imagining how Gill would use a sling.

Thokir is still a trophy snatched from the goblins. It is of course useless against alert bandits and northern wolves. However, you can pick up a stone on the ground and use it to hit the snow and bushes from a distance. Small animals are particularly useful.

And for some reason, Kil was quite skilled in using this thing, at least much better than his bow and arrow skills. Even if there is no one to guide me on the sling, I just practice it blindly by myself, and on the bow and arrow, there is an old hunter with superb archery to guide me.

As they spoke, they turned a corner along the frozen wilderness river. When they looked up, they saw two wild dog-like animals fighting for a piece of animal legs.

When two wild dogs fighting for food heard the footsteps of humans, they immediately became alert and stopped fighting. However, neither of them wanted to give up the food that was about to reach their mouths, so even if the humans came closer and closer teasingly, They still refused to leave.

"Woof woof woof!"

"Oooh ooh woof!"

Both wild dogs barked at humans, but Kil reached out to get a defensive stick from Wick beside him, weighed it for a moment, and then threw the wooden stick in his hand hard.

Whirring whirring.

The wooden stick was nearly one meter long, thick at one end and thin at the other. It spun and made a windy sound and hit the wild dog behind.

"Hey, I missed it!" Wick just said, but Kil immediately retorted: "Watch it!"

When the two wild dogs saw humans throwing things at them, they immediately aroused the hidden instinct in their bodies: they fled backwards in panic.

But one of them happened to coincide with the impact point of the stick thrown by Kiel when it was running backwards, and its head was smashed with a bang, and it fell to the ground without saying a word.

The other wild dog was also frightened by the encounter of the same kind, but saw that its companion was dead, and the human opposite did not continue to walk in. The wild dog's courage instantly increased, and it returned to where it was before, grabbing the legs and feet of other animals on the ground, biting the food directly, and ran away towards the hillside with its legs flying.

"Hey hey hey." When the fishermen saw this scene, they all burst into laughter.

Wick flashed his thumb at Kil, then strode over and picked up his wooden stick. Seeing that the wild dog that had been knocked down by the stick was still twitching its legs and feet, he immediately picked up the stick and made up for it.

"Kiel, can you give me this wild dog skin? My little cub still lacks a set of warm clothes?" Wick licked his face and said to Kil with a grin.

Keir shrugged and said indifferently: "I'll give you the skin, but the meat will have to wait for everyone to eat together."

Kiel gave all the long-eared rabbit skins to the fishermen in the team for free. Because people haven’t left the village to hunt for a long time, and the fish caught in the water are not easy to make warm clothes, so these leather products are in short supply in the village.

It is really not cost-effective to buy it from the passing caravans.

Wick mentioned the dead wild dog and was about to say something to Kil and the others who were walking over. Kil pointed to the far side where the river turned, where everyone followed Kil's instructions to look.

There is a messy place beside the frozen river. A path was opened on the ground by something big. At the same time, a piece of snow on the hillside was messy in color. Not only that, there were many other animal carcasses and bones scattered around.

Just when Kil looked over, the many crows tearing and pecking at animal carcasses on the hillside also saw Kil.

"Quack!"

"Gah!"

"Gah!"

They seemed to have remembered something and immediately screamed excitedly. Some crows immediately took off and flew towards the nearby woods, seeming to call other crows. Some flew into the air angrily and soon arrived at Kiel Head. , flying a circle in the air, and cursed the helpless Kir with an evil cry.

"What's going on? Those crows?"

Wick and the fishermen looked panicked.

Kil scratched his cheeks that were slightly red from the cold, and said sheepishly: "Hey, it's nothing. I thought those crows were troublesome, so I just killed a few of them."

"I didn't expect that they would be like this after that. When I returned to Wumihu Village, I thought those guys had gradually given up, but I didn't expect that they hadn't forgotten them yet."

But Wick and the other fishermen felt a little relieved after hearing Kil's explanation. But when they looked up, they could see the crows doing such an unnatural behavior. They were still scared, and told Keel some stories from rural legends.

Children who don't enjoy the food cooked by their mothers will be snatched away by a flock of crows.

If a child doesn't sleep well at night and disturbs the elders in the family to do that, his eyes will be pecked by crows.

If there are more crows than that family's population on the roof of a house, it means that disaster will befall that family.

What kind of crows would eat the fingers of a swaddled baby as if they were flesh worms? An incompetent young mother would be disliked by her husband's family for this.

If you dig out the crow's nest, the crow will fly overhead, and then you will be surrounded by bad luck.

Now the fishermen are looking at the large number of crows flying dozens of meters above Kiel's head, and they all say that this young warrior, Kiel, may be met with bad luck.

Scratching his helmet, Kil didn't think what these little briquettes with wings could do to him.

"Oh, everyone, forget about that. Do you see the front? The place is right there. Dig up the ground and I will hide the wild boar carcass underground."

"Fortunately, it seems that although other animals have come later, no animals have dug up that area. Let's go over there quickly." After Kil said, he no longer paid attention to the crows above his head, calling and shivering. The fishermen walked forward.