Mercenaries and Adventurers

At this time, on a carriage in the team, several fluffy heads suddenly appeared from several empty boxes with their mouths open. They were the furry heads that had been sleeping on the swaying carriage all day.

When it gets dark, they become more energetic.

One by one, they pricked up their ears and poked their heads out of the empty box on the top shelf of the carriage.

The surrounding environment was different from that during the day. Although leaving the human gathering place made the Maomaos feel that they were getting farther and farther away from human metal, fortunately, there were still many metal tools in this human team.

Their big eyes moved together with the armed teams patrolling around the camp. What they stared at was not the humans who looked similar to them, but the metal weapons on the waists and hands of those humans.

"Hululu."

The Maomaos were extremely envious. It would be great if their tribe had so many metal weapons.

Some monsters that infest the tribe will be defeated by them. The dried heads and processed furs are hung on the top of the tribe to show honor and intimidate other monsters and beasts.

In the deep mountain forest, there are a lot of stone flakes, rocks and various types of wood, but these things have little effect on the monsters with thick fur and scales. You still have to rely on hard and sharp metal weapons to defeat those monsters.

After a whole day of driving on the carriage, some Maomao jumped out of the box and were still a little weak, so Courage Maomao asked everyone to walk around the human team, looking for some insects and fresh flowers in the grass, and eat some food.

And it is going to find the leader of this human team, the strong human, to see if there is any new task that can be given to them.

With tasks, there are metal rewards.

Every time you accumulate more metal, everyone can return to the tribe earlier.

It has been a long time since they came out of the tribe. They were working for some other cunning humans, and they were delayed a lot of time because of being deceived. It was not a very smooth start.

After giving instructions to his subordinates, Courage Maomao climbed to the top of the carriage first. Taking advantage of the afterglow that was about to set in the evening sky, he looked around and found a strong human being carrying a blue axe.

So it fidgeted with its short legs, pushed away the wild flowers and grass along the way, and chased after it.

Various small insects were frightened and flew up in the weeds at any time. Courage walked nimbly and swung his long tail, knocking down one insect after another, and then jumped up slightly to catch it with his hands.

Check before eating. Do not eat beetles with hard shells. The shells are hard and can easily hurt the sharp teeth. Do not eat bugs with smelly tails. If you eat them, you will easily vomit and become dizzy. We all know that we cannot eat them, but we can collect them to make rotten eggs to drive away some powerful monsters with keen sense of smell that they cannot defeat. Insects that are too brightly colored cannot be eaten. Most of them are poisonous, including but not limited to poisonous scales. Powder, poison glands, stinging burrs, fangs, etc.; of course, some insects are actually not poisonous, but they also have patterns and body colors that imitate poisonous insects. For safety reasons, the furries never eat them.

Most of the insects that are green, earthy yellow, or slate gray are edible.

Courage Maomao caught it while walking. After a while, his mouth was full of insect juice.

It likes to eat green insects full of plant juices, which are cool, sweet and crunchy when eaten.

The furries who stayed in the temporary overnight camp could not walk around looking for insects in the bushes and bushes like their leader. They did not dare to go far and looked for everything they could eat near the empty box carriage where they lived. thing.

It’s not that human food is inedible, but they simply can’t get used to it. How can the dry and hard wheat cakes and boiling soup be as beautiful as the crispy and juicy insects?

These Maomao first checked all the grass and shrubs near the carriage, and each Maomao found several edible insects. They don't eat it themselves, but gather together and feed these things to a Maomao, so that the Maomao is full and strong.

Afterwards, he was satisfied with chewing the melee hairs full of insects in his mouth, took off what he thought was a long sword, but was actually a human iron dagger from his waist, used this thing as a shovel, and started digging on the surrounding land. Paddle with all your strength.

The other Maomao pointed and shouted, asking Maomao who had eaten first to dig up the ground according to the good place he had chosen. There must be fat worms inside, but Maomao who did it had his own ideas. With sharp eyes, it found a hole in the ground made by a big ant. Then, following the direction of the hole, it used its iron dagger to dig out the soft soil on the ground.

Soon, the ant colony, feeling shocked and frightened and feeling that it was being attacked, sent out a large group of dark soldier ants the size of human toes to fight back against the 'enemy'.

This happened to fall into Mao Mao's plan.

It stopped digging and threw away the iron dagger in excitement. It caught two big black ants in each hand and jumped out of the dug pit like a show off.

"Meow meow!! Lurrulu da da!"

Its plush fingers avoided the powerful jaws that were opening and closing the front of the soldier ant with all its strength. It took one mouthful at a time as if to show off, and took the plump tail of the soldier ant into its mouth. With a crunch, it was full of ant internal organs and accumulation. The smooth feeling brought by the nutrients makes this Maomao very satisfied.

Seeing this guy showing off like this, other Maomao could no longer hold back and swarmed forward, filling the dug hole until it was filled with water. The big black ants who were frightened and fought back were so stupid that they didn't know that they had encountered a natural enemy whose intelligence and mobility overwhelmed them. They poured out of the ant nest one after another, with their big teeth making a clicking sound.

But it was useless. As soon as they crawled out of the ant nest, before they could swing their tentacles to find the enemies that invaded their homes, they were caught by the furries and bitten, losing their fat abdomen.

The playful Maomaos did not then eat the head and chest of the ant, which was hard and contained a small amount of acid. Instead, they pulled out the sensory tentacles of the big black ant and let the big ant bite with all its strength. The mandibles grabbed the chest of the previous ant, one by one, and soon the big black ants that had lost their abdomens hung up in a long string.

The Maomaos excitedly made a long string of ants into a circle and hung them outside the empty box of the carriage as an alternative trophy.

From a distance, the ant circle looks like a black rope as thick as a finger, but when you look closer, you find that the 'black rope' is still moving and is covered with large black ants swinging their legs and feet from side to side. Every big black ant is unwilling to let go of its big teeth, even if they know that they are biting other soldier ants.

The guys were soon full from the ants' bellies.

But I don’t know how many of these big black ants there are underground, and soldier ants are constantly pouring out of this ant nest. But this was not a problem for the Maomaos. They pushed back all the soft soil they had dug out before, and then meowed to a young human boy who was curiously exploring them, asking the human to follow their movements. They were jumping on the soft soil above the entrance of the ant nest, blocking the place firmly.

It will take a while before the ants want to come out again. By then everyone will have already left the place, leaving only a group of angry soldier ants who cannot find the enemy.

Of course, there is more than one entrance to the ant nest, but the nest of this kind of big black ant is very large and has a large territory. It is not obvious from the outside. In fact, the land at the feet of Kiel and his team, as well as the large area around them that can be seen, They are all the territory of this anthill.

Ants differentiate and value their territory far more than the kingdom territories of human society.

Under the soil unknown to everyone, tens of thousands of soldier ants patrol the underground ant kingdom every day, looking for and attacking reckless worker ants in other ant colonies, and re-opening the border roads dug by worker ants in other ant colonies. Block it.

Sometimes the soldier ants in the two nests have accumulated enough hatred and will report it to the queen. After getting the queen's permission, it will be a "huge" border war in the ant kingdom.

They compete for the solid space that has been excavated underground, the water chamber that absorbs the juice from the roots of water-loving plants, the 'sweet pasture' where aphids are kept for nectar, and the large 'luminous fungus farm' that has been cultivated, and there are also passages Ventilation 'patios' to the ground, important larval nests, and even deep holes for excretion and accumulation of waste.

Some powerful soldier ants will also creatively absorb the flammable and corrupt gases in deep caves and use them as their own secret weapons. They will spit out fierce flames that can burn the entire passage on the front line of the battle, thereby changing the situation of the battle and becoming elite soldier ants.

And all of this is mostly unknown, because they all happen in the lightless shallow soil below the ground. They have been happening since millions of years ago and continue to this day and into the longer future.

-

The other side.

"The tree fell! Be careful——"

Kiel shouted loudly, reminding the woodcutters around him not to accidentally get hit by the big trees he felled.

Everyone who was close had already moved away from here, and a small number of people were following Keir in logging. We didn’t need to cut down many trees, just enough firewood for tonight and tomorrow morning. And more people, holding one-handed hatchets, were busy removing excess branches from the fallen trees, and then tied them with ropes, and worked together to drag the trees to the temporary overnight camp.

If the big tree is too big and heavy for everyone to pull, you can cut the trunk of the fallen tree into two pieces in the middle. This will reduce the weight by half and everyone will be able to pull it.

Of course, with the help of Knight Kiel, the logging crew did not have to work so hard. After all, Kiel could drag about half of the trunks of the big tree back to the camp alone.

But today Kiel seemed to be out of shape. After he felled a big tree, he did not continue working. Instead, he struck the trunk of the big tree with his ax and fixed it. He lazily leaned against the trunk and yawned, occasionally He also took out a small piece of hard, dark meat from the small leather bag on his waist, put it in his mouth and chewed it hard.

On the trees in the distance, Courage Maomao jumped from one big tree to another big branch. It was completing the newly assigned tasks according to the requirements of powerful humans.

The powerful human saw signs of other humans in the woods in this direction, so he sent it over to investigate.

Courage's furry tail is more flexible than that of a monkey. The tip of its tail is curled up on the branch, and its whole body is hanging in the air. Maomao, on the other hand, moved his head left and right, looking for any unusual traces on the forest floor.

Soon it made a discovery. After a few leaps, Maomao fell down along the trunk of the ancient mottled tree.

It sniffed on the ground first and smelled the smell of human feet. Then it searched around and found a small piece of loose material on a low plant with barbs where the human had been sitting before. Torn scraps of linen.

After a sniff, Courage Maomao thought it was the smell of the human with stinky feet.

Putting this thing away, it then searched the place where the person rested. Sure enough, opposite the place where the person had stayed, on the trunk of a conspicuous big tree, more than one meter high, it was the normal place. At human eye level, there are several simple patterns carved by humans on the trunks of the big trees.

Courage Maomao carefully wrote down its shape, and then after consciously completing the task, it left here and went back to seek credit and reward.

-

Kil waited for Maomao, who was sent out to investigate, to return. At this time, he was holding a small piece of linen in his hand and rubbing it with his fingertips.

This thing was too fragile. After rubbing it twice with his rough fingers, it fell apart and turned into linen fibers and spread out. This made Courage Maomao yell: "Thing, delivered, powerful, human. Damage, no, Maomao." ,relation!"

Kil was speechless: "Yes, yes, I broke it. It has nothing to do with Maomao who completed the task."

After saying that, Kil took out a copper coin from his pocket and threw it to the other party: "Then, this is the mission reward. Then draw the pattern you found, right?"

Using its tail to catch the copper coin deftly, Courage neatly put the human coin away - clamped it under the armpit of its left arm. Then it picked up a branch from the ground and found a slightly open place. , struggling to use branches to draw the patterns it found on the ground.

If it wants to make a pattern for tall humans to see, it naturally has to be bigger.

Keir squatted down and looked at this thing curiously: "Well, a sinuous line with a slash at the bottom. A triangle with four slashes at the bottom. A long rectangle with a slash at the bottom. A simple skull with three slashes. Bang. Hmm, the positions between them are also in different directions."

Staring at these patterns, Kil quickly guessed that the slashes at the bottom of the patterns represented distance and distance, but he had to guess again as to what the patterns above represented.

Since the bottom is the distance, then starting from the place where the pattern is found, what is there in the area with a slash around it?

Trade route? Yes, trade routes!

What's more, Kil leaned on the fallen tree trunk and thought.

At this time, my ears, which have become more sensitive in recent days, noticed the faint sound of water on the opposite side of this small forest. The sound was faint, but Keel caught it.

There are commercial roads and water sources nearby, that is, water points, which correspond to the two patterns of a slash in the pattern. However, the winding lines can represent both commercial roads and water sources, and the long rectangle, how does it represent What about trade routes and water sources?

Keir couldn't understand the thoughts of those bandits. Perhaps the vast majority of bandits were uneducated, so their thoughts were usually easy to guess, but sometimes it was very difficult to understand.

Who knows, family members.

What do the farthest triangle pattern and the skull pattern at a certain distance represent?

Speaking of skulls, Keir naturally thought of those poor people who were killed by bandits and then thrown somewhere, thus turning into living corpses. Does this skull pattern represent this meaning at this time?

Maybe somewhere a little distance from here, there happens to be a corpse pit where bandits dispose of corpses?

Maybe.

As for the triangle, Keir thinks it looks like an ordinary triangular simple tent. Perhaps it means that the bandits represent their stronghold or lair?

Thinking of this, Kil considered whether to attack those bandits?

But the delayed time is another problem, and it is not good to be delayed all the way. Especially in the past two days, since Priest Batar learned that something happened to the Church of the God of Saturn in the city of Belisfa, he has been frowning.

Kiel didn't know what the mental state of Priest Batal was after the incident in Changmai Village, but at least he felt that the priest's mental state was not very good after learning about the incident in Bliss.

The whole person became more and more silent.

It looks like something will happen one day.

"Forget it, forget about those damn bandits, I still have a lot of trouble here. If they don't mess with me, I won't mess with them either."

Kil shook his head and waved to Courageous Fluffy, beckoning him to return to the camp. He plucked Yueshui's head from the trunk of a fallen tree that had dried up in a large area, and simply hung it on his waist.

Then Keir grabbed the top of the big tree, grasped it with both hands, inserted it tightly, and then repeatedly squatted up and dragged the heavy trunk of the tree.

As the tree trunk slid on the ground between the trees, Kil reduced his strength, turned around and dragged the tree towards the camp.

The people logging nearby cheered when they saw this scene.

That night, everyone temporarily spent the night here.

It has to be said that unlike the previous overnight camping in the wild, after some material purchases in Dorne Town, Kil's team has taken on a completely new look. After acquiring all the necessary tools in life, many people who had nothing to do before have become like this. Then there is something to do.

They are all from farmers, so they know a lot of folk life skills.

A tall, strong plant stem was uprooted, and then the excess branches were removed, leaving only the stem body. After drying the water on the plant, the thing was rubbed repeatedly, and it could be used directly as a rope.

If it's a bit rough, this thing can be used as temporary wiring repair clothing.

There are also people who know how to make charcoal. They use the wood that the lumberjacks cut down to smolder underground, and they can barely get some charcoal out the next morning.

These charcoal are not used for burning, but for water purification. Therefore, the effect is much greater.

The next morning, Keel took a few people, buckets and charcoal, followed the humid air and the faint sound of water, and found a covered pond behind the woods.

The water source of the pond actually seeped out from a large rock protruding from the ground. A shallow pond was formed around this abrupt rock.

However, the disadvantage for the team is that this water source is obviously a place where wild animals in the surrounding area draw water, so animal footprints are everywhere. Although there is no animal feces, the water at the edge of the pond is quite turbid.

Only near the center of the pond does the water become clear.

If it were before, Kiel might have asked everyone to dig a deep pit beside the pond to filter the unclean water through soil penetration.

But this time they have freshly made loose charcoal, so filtering the water doesn't have to be so troublesome.

The buckets were filled directly on the edge of the pond, and then Keel filled an original small ale bucket with loose charcoal, and then used a large wooden spoon to scoop the turbid pond water in the large wooden bucket into the small ale bucket.

Clear water with the smell of carbon ash soon came out of the small barrel with an open bottom.

Although it has a taste, there is no problem in drinking it.

In this way, Kiel arranged for two more people on the carriage where the bucket was placed. One person scooped the water from the natural pond into the filter bucket with a wooden spoon, and the other person used a wooden cup to collect the clean water flowing out of the filter bucket, and then Once full, pour it into a bucket of clean water.

The filtration work was placed on the carriage, and everyone was provided with clean water as they walked.

No delay in traveling at all!