The Swordsman of Faerûn

Chapter 8 Deer Hunting
The snow at night is getting bigger and bigger, and the strong wind that follows is even more terrifying.

According to Alos, there has never been such a heavy snowfall in the beginning of winter in the past few years. The hissing sound of the north wind is even sharper than the screaming sound of the cannonball piercing the sky. I really don't know if Seru's team has rushed to Mirabar City now.

William sat by the fireplace in the cellar, cutting a sleeping bag with a dagger as he prepared to make a pair of boots for each of his siblings.In the past, the three brothers and sisters had only a pair of broken moccasin boots left by a lame old adventurer.Usually, only William who went deep into the jungle is eligible to wear it, and they usually run barefoot on the ground.Over the years, the pair of old boots were so worn out that they could only be tied to the feet with rags, and they had been reduced to ashes along with the flames long before Chen Jinyang was reborn.

Usually in winter, little Alos would collect some fluffy hay, mix it with the cow wool he usually collects, make a big ball and put it on his feet, and wrap the outside with torn linen pieces and hemp rope. This is what he did in the tavern When doing odd jobs, I learned some tricks from passing adventurers.After all, in the Northland, there are always some adventurers who are troubled by extreme weather, and they often show off their experience of overcoming difficulties as a talk.

But this kind of simple shoes can fool yourself at most, because it is too rough to wear, and problems will occur after a few steps.As for Misha'er, she has never even seen a pair of little girls' shoes after being bedridden all year round.

William didn't expect the winter here to be so cold. I'm afraid the winter in Siberia in his previous life was no more than this.In his opinion, the two little guys want to go out with bare feet in such weather, it is simply desperate.After returning from a picnic three days ago, the two little guys had frostbite to varying degrees on their bodies, especially their feet, which were often red and swollen.

The fire in the fireplace was burning very vigorously, and the long pitch pine wood burned quietly and persistently, turning the originally gloomy cellar into a warm and fragrant paradise.The red and blue flames licked the black iron pot, and the iron pot was gurgling with hot steam.The top of the cellar is several meters thick from the surface. The entire cellar is composed of several small storage rooms and a large basement of fifteen feet in length and width. There are three exits from the cellar, one is in the kitchen of the tavern, and the other is in the stables. Nearby, there is another one that leads directly to the outside of the village, but the exit outside the village is not usually used, and is usually sealed. The location of the exit is also very hidden, and it is difficult for people who don't know the situation to find it.Now the three brothers and sisters used the exit next to the stable to enter and exit, and it was this exit that William needed to protect.

The two little ones were sleeping soundly in their sleeping bags, which were covered with animal skins and blankets.If you want to survive the winter smoothly, you need to do a lot of preparation work. The first thing is to take good care of your body, and then prepare sufficient and nutritious food.

The little brothers and sisters are too thin, especially Misha. Almost everyone thinks that she may not be able to survive this cold and long winter this year.William also thought that it would be difficult for Misha to survive this winter if she didn't do something about it.Even without the animal skin mattress and sleeping bag he brought back, and without sufficient soup and food for the past two days, this poor little girl might not even be able to survive the first snow at this time.

In the final analysis, little Alos and Misha'er's frailty were both the result of long-term malnutrition, and Misha'er suffered from the cold last winter.

William was going to wait until tomorrow to finish the boots, and he went hunting deer in the forest.

When it comes to nourishing vitality, ginseng, bird's nest, and velvet antler are the most important; ginseng is too powerful, while bird's nest is calm but a bit slack, and given Chen Jinyang's current conditions, it is not easy to find these two things.Only deer antler is easy to get.

The whole body of a deer is a treasure.Deer antler is a precious Chinese herbal medicine, which has the effects of promoting body fluid and tonifying marrow, nourishing blood and benefiting yang, and strengthening muscles and bones.Even if there is no deer antler in this season, deer antlers, deer bones, deer embryos, deer heart, deer blood, deer tendons, and deer tail are all valuable nourishing ingredients, and venison meat is tender, delicious, rich in red meat, less connective tissue, and nourishes the spleen It is a good food for nourishing Qi, warming the kidney and strengthening the marrow, especially for people who often have cold hands and feet.

There is nothing else in the hidden forest, and all kinds of deer can be found everywhere.

Especially a ferocious elk, with a majestic physique like an elephant, a fierce and aggressive temperament, and infinite strength. The body is covered with dark fluffy hair, and sharp bone plate armor extends from the shoulders, back and legs. It can exceed three and a half meters, and its weight can reach more than three tons.William had seen this ferocious animal once before. It was a huge, heavily armored life form with a head and shoulder height of three meters, and a body length of more than six meters without the tail, and its antlers were almost as big as its body.

The heavy snow stopped on the third night, and the howling wind also disappeared on the morning of the fourth day. William pushed open the baffle of the cellar, and a bitter cold came to his face with numerous snowflakes. After a cold war, he wrapped himself in a thick blanket and bravely left the cellar.

The snow on the ground is more than two feet thick, and when you step on it, it directly covers your knees. The clear sunlight reflects magnificent colorful colors on the snow.A few unknown birds were jumping and jumping in the stable, and when they saw William's figure, they twittered and flew away without a trace. The two goats lay on the haystack that had not been cleared, chewing and regurgitating their cud once in a while. The haughty one refused to look William in the eye.

When Alos and Misha woke up, William had already cleared a path in the snow and cleared a small space in the small square in front of the tavern.

The flame in the fireplace was still so strong, and the gurgling in the iron pot exuded the aroma of stewed sausage with lettuce.Little Alos rubbed his eyes, stretched his waist, sat up, and saw Misha lying on the sleeping bag, fiddling with a weird little boot, with two big ones and one small next to it, The three were almost ugly and weird. He swore he had never seen such ugly boots, and they were only a little better than his own fur shoes, um, just a little.

"Misha, where's the elder brother?"

"William is out. Look, Alos! Look!" Misha reached into her boots and reached out to Alos. "This suit—it's so ugly!"

William, who had just entered, staggered and nearly fell. Although he knew that his workmanship was poor, Misha'er's words were too shocking. The boots that he had worked so hard for were considered gloves. He walked in as if nothing had happened. , ready to severely criticize Misha'er's aesthetic vision.

"William! Look! Ah! Your condom—it's so big!" Seeing William coming in, the little girl who was about to present the treasure couldn't help expressing emotion when she saw the "gloves" on his feet.

William was completely defeated by the little girl's Tong Yan Wuji.

Little Alos shrugged his shoulders helplessly at William who was looking over. Although he knew that his elder brother had been busy with this thing these two days, he had to admit that Misha's boots really looked like gloves without fingers.Making boots by hand, especially out of a hard substrate like sleeping bag soles, is a tough test of the shoemaker's skill.It's okay to make this thing bigger, but to make it as small as Misha'er, you can only make it look different.

After a while of romping, William put on boots, or "foot wraps" for Mischa, which were wrapped with thin soft blankets as socks and foot wraps. Stepping on small steps, walking on the ground with a high spirit.

Ok!It was warm indeed.

After breakfast, William asked Alos to close the door and take care of his sister at home.He wrapped a blanket around his body, put an iron sword and dagger in his waist, carried two wooden javelins in his hand, carried a backpack and rope, and walked out of the village.

The whole land is vast, covered with thousands of miles of silver, and the sky is boundless as far as the eye can see.He was walking in the forest on foot, the strong wind last night made this generation of birds and beasts disappear, and there was silence.

Stepping on the knee-deep snow, William headed towards a valley that could shelter from the wind. There should be animals sheltering from the wind and snow nearby. Of course, there may also be various monsters hunting there, but he is not as bold as a skilled man. It's not very worrying, but it makes people wonder whether to say that he is arrogant or ignorant and fearless.

After walking hard in the snow for a long time, William finally approached the sheltered valley.He found footprints in the snow of what appeared to be a toddler-like predator.William looked up and looked at the wind direction. It was a very small headwind. The terrain in the jungle is complex and the wind direction is unpredictable. If you want to hunt animals with a keen sense of smell and high alertness, hunters need to always pay attention to where they are.

William quickly followed along the footprints, and soon he found movement ahead.He observed carefully, but saw a jungle gray leopard slowly approaching a flock of snow guinea fowls with standard feline stealth skills.

As a human being, William's footsteps are almost like thunder compared to the gray leopard in the jungle, so no matter whether it is a predator or a prey, they all found him as an uninvited guest. All of them fled in all directions, leaving only chicken feathers and ignorant predators all over the floor.

The jungle gray leopard, which failed in its sneak attack, let out a demonstrative growl at William, and walked away in disappointment.

William, who was not ashamed of the bad behavior of disturbing others' "breakfast", continued to march towards the valley.When he climbed up a soil slope and looked around, a large group of different types of herbivores suddenly appeared in front of him.

There are all kinds of deer, muntjac, antelope, bison, wild sheep, woolly rhinoceros and gray mastodon, and even a few razor boars. Shrubs and dry vines, the strongest gray mastodon struggled to bring down some not so strong Chinese pines and gnawed on the pine needles on the treetops.

William's target is the swollen bone deer, a kind of jungle deer with fine and smooth fur and the size of a light horse.The horns of the swollen deer are quite large and strong, and the brow branch is vertically flattened, and the distal end of the main branch is palmately branched.This kind of deer has a gentle temperament and is cautious and alert. It likes to forage for moss, small shrub branches and needles, and it can also be domesticated and raised.

There is a lot of hay stored in the village to feed livestock. He plans to capture a few of them alive. The captive swollen deer will shed their old antlers next spring and grow new antlers. By then, harvesting them will be more reliable than hunting in the wild. Fresh deer blood can be used at any time.

William took off the rope on his body, tied it into a loop and held it in his hand, and slowly approached the location of the swollen bone deer.

Suddenly there was a chaotic shouting and shouting around, and a group of goblins rushed out from another direction led by two ogres.The herd was in chaos, screaming and jumping and fleeing in the deep snow.

William, who was about to strike, could only throw out the rope in a hurry, and the two swollen deer, who couldn't dodge in time, were entangled in their antlers and struggled together in panic.He stood up, dodged the rushing herd of beasts, grabbed a muntjac that was running by and pressed it to the ground, tied its limbs with ropes, dragged it to the swollen bone deer, and tied the three prey together .

A dozen old and weak small animals ran on the thick snow for a while and couldn't run anymore. The goblins rushed up and clubbed them to death, vying with each other to divide their prey.

The two ogres who were chasing the herd of beasts found William. They immediately gave up their prey and ran towards him one after the other. Compared with those rough beasts, the ogres are still stronger People who like to eat smooth and tender.

Standing on the snow ground trampled by the herd of beasts, William drew out a javelin, his entire spine twitched like a python, his feet sank, and the force came from the root, the javelin was thrown out with the flashlight, and it went through the air with a "swoosh".The ogre in front was grinning and running excitedly, but only felt a pain in his mouth, but the javelin was just inserted into its big mouth, and then came out through the brain, bringing a stream of dirty blood into the snow. on the ground.

The ogre couldn't control himself and threw himself into the snow, his chaotic consciousness plunged into the boundless darkness.

William, who succeeded in the first blow, couldn't help cheering from the bottom of his heart: "Damn! It's so powerful! By the way, I originally wanted to shoot it in the chest, but thanks to the slip on the sole of my foot, it hit the nail on the head."

The ogre who ran a little slower was overjoyed when his competitor fell down. It felt that its chance had come, so it ran even more vigorously.After running for a while, it turned back subconsciously to see if the companion was catching up, but found that the companion was lying on the ground and twitching. Only then did the ogre feel that something was wrong, and then it found the thorn in the snow. A bloody javelin.

Don't think that ogre's brains are not easy to use. In fact, they are very smart, and their intelligence level is no worse than that of humans.It's just that most of the ogres are raised in the wild, have no knowledge inheritance, no elders to teach, and are naturally savage, greedy, and cruel, so they appear to be very stupid and stupid.

The living ogre finally realized that its companion had been killed. When it turned around, it happened to see William holding another javelin as if he was about to surrender. He was frightened out of his wits, and the terrified big guy let out a desperate howl and stopped. Before it fell to the ground, it slid another ten meters away, and then it looked up, only to find that it was getting closer to William, the god of death.

The already frightened ogre hugged its head thoughtlessly, rolled and scrambled, turned somersaults, and fled away in a direction away from William, howling all the way.

The bountiful goblins were gathering around, ready to watch the excitement, and then they watched the ogre brothers die and flee in a daze, and when William caught their eyes, they also dropped the prey they had just obtained in fright, and ran away in a hurry. The escape speed of these little things is really outstanding.

William, who originally thought he was going to have a fierce battle, also stared dumbfounded at the monster going away, only feeling that the victory of this battle was a bit inexplicable.It's too easy for these monsters to retreat. Isn't it said that powerful monsters like to fight to the death?Ogre, where is your courage?

William, who couldn't figure it out, didn't think about it anymore. He happily picked up a few extra trophies, then cut a few branches to build a trailer, dragged the prey and turned back home.

(End of this chapter)