Mercenaries and Adventurers

Seeing his warning, Kil seemed to have no intention of stopping to prepare his luggage. Priest Batal became nervous: "Where is the refugee team? If you leave the team out of curiosity, what will happen to the refugee team? And the mission..."

Kil patted the priest's shoulder: "Don't worry, I just went to take a look out of curiosity. It's no problem. As for the forest where you can't come back after entering it, I would rather believe that there are powerful monsters in the forest. I believe there is something really strange. Don’t forget, with my abilities, you can’t do anything to me under ordinary circumstances.”

The two companions looked at each other and saw the interested expression on Kil's face. Knowing that they couldn't be persuaded, they took a step back and said, "How about you at least give me time to return?"

Bloody Fangster also said: "You are leaving the team temporarily, how should we tell the rest of the team?"

Kil rolled his eyes and said with a half-serious smile: "How about this? If anyone in the team asks, just say that I went to find a safe place for everyone to settle."

Bloody Fangster rolled his eyes: "What is this? If you use this excuse, then why not just place the team in Stone Hammer Village? Anyway, it seems that there are no parasitic monsters here, and the surrounding environment is okay, including houses and walls. , farmland and so on are all ready-made. We can all live here until the original farmers and villagers come back."

Priest Batal disagreed: "This won't work! How many people were there in Shichui Village originally? How many people are there in our team now? Not to mention other things, the houses in the village are not enough for everyone, so new houses must be built. But this village The area of ​​the fence is too small and there is simply not enough space. Even if the new house is placed outside the village, it is not safe enough. And when the original villagers of Shichui Village return in six months and a year, what will they do then?"

"Serious conflicts will break out!"

Bloody Fangster was not happy: "This won't work, and that won't work either! What do you think we should do?"

Seeing that the two of them were about to quarrel, Kil quickly stopped the two of them: "Okay, I am not a willful person. This time I went to the Huitou Forest and found that there were really people looking for safe settlements for refugees. The target is inside."

Priest Batal looked helpless: "You are talking nonsense. It is really dangerous to go back to the forest. No one who went in out of curiosity or looking for someone came back."

-

Having said that, Kil prepared a backpack of supplies and went out to put it on the horse. Then he jumped on the horse and said to his two companions: "Three days! No matter what, I will definitely come back in three days! The team will go first Take a rest in Shizui Village, and I’ll leave the job of appeasing the people to you.”

"By the way, Priest Batal, during this period, you should try your best to persuade the believers from Yemei Town to find a place to hide the extra things you bring with you. Don't carry them with you and slow down the team."

"Mr. Ste, you and Will pay attention to the safety of the village, especially the small number of parasitic monsters that may follow. If you can prevent the people in the team from leaving the village, try to keep them from leaving the village. Although everyone has left Yemei Town after I haven’t seen those guys, but I think these guys should be following us.”

After explaining, Keir rode out of the village.

When they reached the entrance of the village, the armed people guarding the village gate looked at the knight Kiel who was about to leave the village in confusion, but under Kiel's order, they opened the gate of the village and let Kiel ride out.

"The gate of this village looks too shabby. This is not good. You go find Mr. Barfoot in the team and ask him to find people in the team who know some craftsmanship to strengthen the gate of the village."

After Kil came out of the gate, he turned around and gave instructions to the captain of the armed team who was looking at him.

"I understand, sir. But Knight Kil, what are you going to do? Are you going out?"

After asking this question, the captain of the armed team still had something to ask, but he still stopped, with a look on his face that he was hesitant to speak.

Keir smiled: "Don't worry, I think the environment here is good, and I plan to conduct a survey around this village, which will only take two or three days. If it is suitable, the team will settle here."

Hearing this, the captain of the armed team felt relieved. The tall and strong man wearing the captured leather armor patted the rock wall of Shichui Village and said with peace of mind: "That's right. Compared with other places, this village is There is even a stone wall, which does look more reassuring.”

"That's right. Compared with the trenches dug by humans outside the town, there is still a solid wall that makes people feel safer." The deputy captain of the team next to him also said.

Kil waved his hands to them: "Since everyone thinks so, that's great. Guard the gate of the village and don't let anyone leave the village without orders from priests or Bloodfangs. Is it safe outside? Who knows now? Not sure. Remember to reinforce the door!"

After saying that, Kil licked the belly of the blood grass vigorously, and the war horse raised its hooves and ran forward.

Pulling and controlling the reins, Kil let the blood-licking grass run in small steps on the dirt road outside the village. On both sides were neat farmland that had been abandoned for some time. The population of Shichui Village cannot be said to be small, but it is not large either, so the farmland outside the village only extends a short distance.

Interestingly, as Priest Batal said, because the village is backed by a rocky hill and stones are easy to obtain, the villagers here chose to use stones to build the ‘scarecrows’ in the fields.

In the center of a piece of farmland that is either neat or deformed according to the terrain, there is often a 'scarecrow' made of stacked stones. The body is made of one or more stones. The cylindrical body is also wrapped in leaves or woven wheat straw. The simple 'clothes', the arms are either wooden sticks inserted horizontally, or rare stick-shaped stone strips, inserted left and right on the 'scarecrow''s body.

The head is mostly an oval stone brought from the river, with a human face painted on it using simple local natural pigments. Either smiling or looking unhappy.

The corners of Kil's mouth turned up.

Although these 'scarecrows' look strange, they are effective. I don't know whether it is because there are no crops planted in the farmland, or because of the protection of the 'scarecrows', the birds outside the village really don't go near the farmland. Even if there are, they will only fly around the edges of the farmland to prey on the small bugs flying around in the farmland.

-

First, he followed the road outside the village away from Shizui Village. Then, Keel identified the direction through the sun and found the east-north direction of the village.

The blood-licking grass left the dirt road, then walked through abandoned farmland full of wild grass and wild flowers, and then came to the wild with lush shrubs. After checking the direction, Kil used the prominent rocky hills behind him as a reference, trying not to lose his bearings in this place he had never been before.

Detouring from a sparse forest not far from the village where villagers usually collect firewood, Kil asked the blood-licking grass to run to higher ground on the gradually undulating terrain to avoid going in the wrong direction.

Before dusk, he found a murky creek.

Keir identified it and confirmed that this small river was the one where the two small rivers in different states that he had seen before came together. Therefore, as long as he walked upstream along this small river, he could find the distant river in front of him. The ominous gray-black river.

"Let's go, lick the blood grass, and go upstream along the river!"

Kil urged him to lick the blood grass, but his horse didn't seem to like the river next to it, and he didn't want to get close to the river.

He observed it and found that it wasn't that the horse thought the river was dangerous or anything, but it just seemed a little disgusting.

"What's wrong with you? Tell me what happens."

"Oh, I forgot, you can't speak. Maomao can speak some common language, so why can't you speak it?"

Licking Blood Grass snorted in dissatisfaction, muttering and making some dissatisfied hums.

In the deserted wilderness environment, Kiel finally let go of the airs he had previously held in front of the refugee team and expressed himself freely. Although his soul is not as young as his body appears, his young body still makes him look like a young man.

After walking along the river for a while, although Kil seemed to be doing nothing while sitting on the horse, he was actually paying attention to the surrounding situation. After all, it was in the wild, and a ferocious beast or weird monster could appear from anywhere.

Moreover, it is not far from the rolling mountains. Although I heard from Priest Batal that there have been no Warcraft activities in Sars County for a long time, he still has to be vigilant when he is alone in a strange land.

"Gah——"

There was a hoarse and unpleasant crow sound. Kil subconsciously looked to his chest. He thought it was the big bird god talking to him. However, after he fed him a few times, the unpleasant crow sound came from the sky. of.

He looked up and saw a huge black-feathered bird flying from the air directly in front of him. This thing did not look unfamiliar. It was a large raven that had been following the refugee team recently.

Having communicated with the Big Bird God before, he knew that this big raven was a messenger sent by the Big Bird God.

"Hey! I'm here-"

Kil waved at the raven. This was really unnecessary. The eyesight of birds is not bad, let alone this raven that has been specially strengthened by the big bird god. The opponent had already seen Kiel and his horse, so he took the wind and flew over slowly.

However, after the raven flew close, it did not fly down as Kiln expected, showing his closeness. Instead, it kept hovering over his head, which made Kiln a little dissatisfied.

He still remembered that when the raven was following the refugee team, it especially liked to fly over the team's head and then excrete feces, causing a commotion and dissatisfaction in the team.

And this guy sometimes likes to get close to Kiel's one-man tent at night and bite and pull on the top of his tent with his beak.

Hey! You must know that the tent was newly purchased, and it was not cheap. Therefore, when sleeping, Keir would always instruct the guards on duty outside the camp to drive away this annoying big raven.

After greeting the raven a few times, and seeing that the guy had no intention of getting close to him, Kil ignored him and rode his horse over clumps of wilting shrubs along the river, continuing up the river.

The flow of this river is not large, but the river channel is not small. Obviously, the river flow changes with the seasonal changes. Although it was spring at this time, it had not rained recently. On the pebbled river as wide as two carriages, there was only a small amount of water flowing in the center.

Unlike rivers in other places, there are no common frog calls in this river, and the plants on both sides of the river are not lush. Even the various small flying insects that often fly above the river are not seen here.

Keir has a lot of experience in the wild and has long discovered that something is wrong.

The further he walked, the more doubts he had in his mind.

Soon, he jumped off the horse and let the blood-licking grass follow him on the river bank. He himself came to the center of the river, stepping on the large and small pebbles that were dry on the surface, and observing the conditions of the river, which was only half a meter wide.

The water in the river was a little turbid, but I could see the bottom of the river clearly. After sniffing it, Keir didn't smell the fishy smell of water that is often smelled by the river, but there was indeed an indescribable strange smell, but the smell was very light.

Slowly walking up the river, Kil was surprised to find that he didn't see a single small fish in a few pools of water in the river, where it was logical that there must be small fish.

He pulled out his long sword to hunt, stirred the bottom of the water with the tip of the sword, and lifted up a few rocks on the edge and bottom of the small pool. He found no small fish or shrimp hiding, or even signs of other aquatic animals living.

If it weren't for a few thin aquatic plants occasionally floating in the water, Keir would have even doubted that the water in the river was poisonous, right?

It poisoned all the animals and plants in the river.

Shaking his head, Kil muttered: "There are indeed some weird signs in the weird place."

Although it was a bit strange, Kil was not frightened. He wiped the tip of the sword without putting away the sword, and just carried the sword forward along the river. The blood-licking grass followed slowly on the riverbank grass not far away, enjoying its leisurely pace.

After walking for a while, the big raven above his head let out a loud crow. This was different from the call this guy usually made when flapping its wings, and it was more like a warning to Kil in advance.

Looking up at the guy, Kil silently put down the visor of his helmet, left the river, and returned to the horse. He did not mount the horse, but let the horse follow behind him, and he walked along the river bank.

Sure enough, after walking more than a hundred meters, Kiel saw the place where the rivers converged.

Although he saw something was wrong when he looked at it from a distance on the top of the rocky hill, when he came there in person, he realized that this place was even weirder.

The water quality of the small river on the left is black and gray. Not only does the water look very suspicious, but there is no plant growing on the river bank. It completely looks like it is not suitable for living creatures to survive.

The water quality of the small river on the right is clear and clear. The large and small pebbles in the river are covered with all kinds of moss, and the sound of frogs can be heard in the river. Various flying insects are flying in the air, and there are even small fish swimming hard in the river. , It seems that he doesn’t want to be washed away by the current passively.

There are also small crabs crawling on the rocks in the river with their pincers raised. I don’t know what they are doing, but they are very easy to attract the birds flying out of the woods nearby to peck and take them away.

The river on the right side has lush vegetation, which is obviously completely different from the left side where no grass grows.

"What are you doing? Is this water really poisonous?"

Keir was a little surprised. He knew that he could find Huitou Forest by walking upstream along the black and gray river on the left. But looking at this suspicious river with no grass and no insects, he felt more and more that there were some things in Huitou Forest. Weird.

"Most of the people who live in the valley at the other end of the forest are related to this river."

Kil guessed and said to the blood-licking grass.

"Lulu Lu!"

Blood Licker nodded, feeling that the master was right. After all, Keir was the master, and whatever he said was right.

"You think so too, right?"

After finishing speaking, Keir touched the water-crossing head on his back. After strengthening his confidence, he moved forward along the black-gray river on the left.

In places in the wild and close to mountains, it gets dark early.

It was still bright just now, but not long after Keir led the horse away, the surroundings became dark.

He was just about to draw out his sword for lighting, but after thinking more, he gave up and instead took out a torch from the backpack on Blood Licker's back. The torch he used was of course the best torch in the team. The main stick was a piece of dry wood, split into one section by an axe, and then wrapped multiple times with oil-soaked linen cloth. As long as it was lit, it was not only better than a crudely made The torches are brighter and burn much longer.

Of course, Kiel had also seen reused torches with oil cans, or metal lanterns, and lighting aids with glowing stones in previous Dorne towns.

But those things are expensive, and one is more expensive than the other. He can buy it for a single person, but it is impossible to promote it to the entire refugee team. Since he hunted with a longsword himself, Kiel did not purchase any kind of efficient lighting at the time.

He touched a magic badge on his waist that had completely expired. This thing was obtained by fighting the 'King of White Walls', but as the energy was exhausted and Kil didn't know how to use it, it was no longer available. Glowed.

This is quite a pity. If possible, I hope to find someone in a big city to re-activate this prop.

As long as the price is not too expensive.

After all, if it was too expensive, then Gil would rather use a torch with an oil can or a lantern than spend money on these things.

There are many methods of lighting, among which the most expensive and most pretentious is the method that relies on magic lighting. He is not Baron Kendall, who is full of magic tools. After all, he does not have a prosperous territory behind him to supply his consumption.

Holding the torch and holding the horse, Kil listened to the sound of the flowing river not far away and walked forward step by step.

As he moved forward, he got closer and closer to the mountain. The surrounding woods also became more numerous and gradually became denser and taller.

In the wild at night, animals that were not commonly seen during the day also became active. They cautiously walked out of their nests and looked at the rarely seen humans and horses from the dense woods.

There were wolves howling from afar, and the frightening whistles of nocturnal birds also sounded in the woods. There was nothing like the tenderness, gentleness and elegance of the forests at night elsewhere.

But what’s interesting is that even though Kiel saw pairs of reflective eyes lighting up in the grass and shrubs in the woods nearby, as well as pairs of eyes clinging to tree trunks, and fluorescent eyes flying silently on the branches, these invisible eyes None of the invisible animals came close to Kiel.

"No."

He said so.

It's not that these animals don't get close to the human being Keir. After all, they have rarely seen humans, so naturally they don't know how scary humans are. They are unwilling to go near the river next to Kiel.

"Since you don't want to get close, then goodbye everyone!"

Keir waved his hands to the animals looking at him in the woods, and continued to walk upstream along the river with a smile.

He has plenty of energy and physical strength, and is not afraid of the night in the wild. Therefore, even if it is so dark that he can't see his fingers, he has no intention of finding a place to spend the night, and there is no problem in traveling all night.

It's no problem if it's dark, he just likes darkness.