Pale Emblem

Chapter 20 The Language of Shamans
The plantation is located on the shore of Lake Braun, not far from the stronghold town, and they are connected by a winding forest path.The forest on both sides of the road wafted with mist, and on the shadowy treetops there were unknown birds screeching to the pedestrians.

Everything around him made Vertok feel very fresh and had a vague sense of familiarity. The birds in the center are sounding the alarm, and their calls may attract unknown enemies.

So, Vertok walked in the middle of the team honestly, and he lightly put his hand on the hilt of the sword in his cloak, and he could pull it out at any time.

John, who has been following Vertok's side, noticed Vertok's unusual state, and he chuckled in a low voice: "Vill, you don't need to be nervous. There are not many ferocious beasts and monsters in the forest near Braun Town, within a radius of 100 Within a kilometer is our territory, and the Hemer female warriors especially like to hunt down the beasts and monsters that break into the territory."

Vertok looked away from a big tree with weird branches, turned his head and asked, "Ah? Why do you say I don't need to be nervous? I'm not nervous."

John was silent for a while, and said in a lower voice: "Vill, you may not remember the past, but I guess you are a well-trained forest adventurer. Look at them..."

Vertoc followed John's line of sight and found that the four young professionals of the Jyn and Whistle Adventure Group had left the road and were walking in the outer forest.They looked up at the canopy and commented on the birds above; they squatted down again and happily pulled up a herb and stuffed it into their packets.

"Even if there is no danger around, adventurers should always be vigilant in unfamiliar environments... They are confident, but at first glance they know that they are not adventurers. I thought you would be like them, but I found out that you have A habit of many forest adventurers."

Vertok nodded and said: "You said that, I also think that I used to be a member of the 'White Horn' adventure group... When my illness is better, I want to go to them."

John's heart suddenly became heavy.Boss Bartom has already expressed the idea of ​​recruiting Vertoc, and even wants to incorporate him into the core layer of the Adventurer's Home.John was a little unhappy at first, but the more he came into contact with Vertoc, he found it hard to hate this innocent-minded, handsome half-elf boy, and was even more amazed at his excellent talent.If Vertok really wants to return to the White Horn Adventure Group, he will feel very sorry.

"This winter, your sister Lina may come to pick you up at Braun Town." John paused, then changed his mind: "However, the adventure group has been away from the stronghold for a long time, and anything can happen... Moreover, the adventure group gave up Injured companions are also common, and Braun Town has many disabled residents who were also adventurers before."

"If, I mean, if the White Horn Adventure Group broke up and no one came to pick you up at Braun Town, what are your plans?" John tried to ask.

Vertok thought for a while, then shook his head and said: "I have no plans. Anyway, if they don't come to pick me up, I will go to them."

"Well." John cleared his throat and said, "I didn't make it clear just now, what I mean is that if the White Horn Adventure Group encounters a strong enemy and is destroyed by the enemy. They can't come to you, and you can't find them... ...what do you do?"

Vertoc looked at John with strange eyes, and asked: "The White Horn Adventure Group was wiped out by a powerful enemy, what does it have to do with me going to them?"

He had no impression of Baijiao or his sister Lina, and naturally there was no emotional bond between them.Vertoc took it for granted that White Horn and Lina were a clue to retrieve his memory. If he had the ability, he should not give up this clue.

John found himself speechless, and he couldn't help thinking of Dr. Cole's assessment of Vertok: This guy, who looks stupid, is actually very thoughtful.

"Uh...we will help you find the 'White Horn' adventure group in the future."

"I know that you are all good people, but good people are good people. I still have to prepare a sum of money to issue an intelligence collection mission at the Adventurer's Home." Vertok said in the style of an innkeeper.

John couldn't help laughing. Boss Bartom always counted everyone's accounts clearly. John couldn't understand when he was taken in by the Adventurer's Home at first.However, everyone in the Adventurer's House has amassed a more or less personal fortune.

Nothing is more reassuring than the fact.

Everyone walked and chatted while walking, the sky was shining through the clouds, the wet cold mist gradually dissipated, and the forests on both sides of the road changed.Gone were the various wild trees, replaced by neat rows of dwarf trees, which were apparently artificial crops.

Carl and Anne and the others didn't seem to be interested in these dwarf tree crops, so they returned to the middle of the team from the forest outside the road.Vertok ran out. Since the surrounding trees were artificially planted crops, there would be no danger in the vicinity. He could just explore these short tree crops and satisfy his long-suppressed curiosity.

"It's a cotton tree."

Carrying her little leather whip, Katie walked over with Annie, who was carrying a bow and shield, and said to Vertok with a smile: "I guess you have seen them. They are very common, but you have forgotten."

Vertok stroked the smooth barkless trunk with both hands and shook his head, expressing that he had no impression of this kind of tree.

Annie pursed her lips and said with a smile: "The fruits of cotton fruit trees are not edible. After they are mature, the dry skin of the fruit is covered with gray filaments, which can be used to weave cotton cloth. The cotton clothes on your body are made of cotton nuts. Five trees The cotton buds produced by the cotton nut trees each year can probably be spun into a suit of cotton clothes."

"Dried cotton fruit bark can be used for writing with a little processing, but it can only be preserved for up to two years. Highlanders do not use cotton paper, they use higher-grade hide paper to record writing. The dry bark of cotton fruit trees is the same as the fruit. It is flammable, and every autumn, when barbarians pick cotton nuts, they must strip off the old bark, so the trunks of the fruit trees here are all bare.”

"Almost every plantation in the alliance will plant cotton trees. If there are cotton trees here, it means that we are already in the plantation."

Of course, the plantation will not only plant cotton fruit trees. Behind this fruit forest is a large flat farmland.The crops and vegetables in the field have been harvested cleanly.A group of sturdy barbarian female slaves with leather collars on their necks were busy ploughing the land.There are many of them, and they appear sparsely distributed in the wide fields.For the arrival of the half-elf adventurer, they have already taken it seriously, and no one has stopped the work at hand.

Captain Charlie stared at it, frowned and said, "It's strange that the barbarians here are not guarded, aren't they afraid of them escaping?"

Captain Huck laughed and said, "The plantation is their home. Why did they run away and where did they go? As for the guards, aren't they the guards?"

There are about 5 or 6 barbarian female slaves digging the soil with hoes in each field. Some of them are skilled, and two or three are clumsy. When they try to be lazy or work inefficiently, those who are skilled The barbarian slaves of the land would yell at them, and even beat them.

The barbarian female slaves who were beaten were generally younger and weaker. They did not dare to resist those who taught them a lesson, so they hugged their heads and cried, looking very pitiful.The older barbarian slaves could not bear to continue punishing them, so they could only undertake most of the field work.

This is not so much a guard, but more like a parent teaching a child who is unwilling to work and deliberately lazy.

Huck shook his head and said, "There aren't that many people guarding the slaves on the frontier plantation. They work by themselves and go back to the plantation to rest. Almost no one escapes. Instead, we feel that there are too many slaves in the Braun plantation. A bit unbearable... let's go, I'll take you to the plantation village, and you'll understand what's going on."

At the end of the road, the village of Plantation appeared in Vertok's field of vision.It's surrounded by a huge fence almost the size of the terracotta stone walls of Braun Town, meaning the village is no less than an adventurer's stronghold.

The fence is built with double-layered logs, about 20 meters high, each log is thicker than the half-elf's thigh, and it is deeply embedded in the ground and looks very solid.The middle of the double fence may be filled with rammed earth, wide enough for half-elf archers to patrol it.There is an arrow tower every 80 meters on the fence, and a ballista is erected inside, and the shining crossbow arrow is aimed at the entrance of the village.

At the gate of the fence, a group of barbarians are quarreling fiercely with a group of half-elves.

These barbarians have a large number of adult males. They have thick bones and knotted muscles. The heavily armed half-elf warriors are slender compared to them, but the barbarians are all naked and sunken cheeks. The weapons they equip It is also very simple, with only polished stone axes, stone spears and a wooden shield. In front of the half-elf warriors, it is like a group of beggars who have been hungry for many days.

A barbarian man with a rough face and a tall stature dragged a thin barbarian girl and shouted loudly: "Look clearly, she is the ugliest barbarian girl in our tribe, you can't find a barbarian girl uglier than her. I You know, the uglier the barbarian girl is, the more valuable she is, she can exchange for a truckload of grain and a truckload of cotton cloth, as long as you give me half a truckload of grain and half a truckload of cotton cloth, she will be yours!"

The half-elf who negotiated with the barbarian man was Rhodes of the Iron Cross Adventure Group, but the person who responded was a chubby and beautiful barbarian woman beside him.She also wears a collar that symbolizes slave status on her neck, but the collar is made of red copper, like a piece of jewelry, showing the difference between her and ordinary barbarian slaves.

"No! The plantation's reserves of food and cotton are only enough for us to survive this winter, and we can no longer accept more slave girls. You all go back, don't waste your time with me!" Tough, he responded to the absolute party's transaction request in one go, ignoring the head of Rhode next to him.

The barbarian man was instantly furious, stared at her viciously, and shouted: "Bah, ugly and vicious woman, the fire of the sky will kill you, the beetle will eat your eyes, and the snake-tailed vulture will eat your bones. What qualifications do you have to speak to the warriors of the Taka Division?"

The barbarian slave girl looked indifferent, and was not moved by the insults of the Taka warriors.Instead, Captain Rhode pulled her aside and talked in a low voice.

Captain Huck, who was watching the lively outside, explained to everyone: "The Taka tribe is a nearby barbarian tribe with a very small scale. There are many small barbarian tribes like this in the Braun Lake basin. They usually rely on farming and hunting for their livelihoods. They also raised some short-horned antelopes, and they would not have been unable to survive. But every autumn, the orcs of the Blackrock tribe would come over and forcibly collect food supplies from the small tribes of barbarians, and would not leave them one. Mud gourd, a piece of animal meat."

"The small barbarian tribes will hide some food in advance, but it is not enough for all the tribesmen to survive the winter. Therefore, they can only bring the thinnest and ugliest girls and boys in the tribe to the border plantations of the Alliance and sell them to slave traders. In exchange for some food supplies for the winter. The Orcs of the Blackrock Tribe use this method to limit the population of the barbarians and prevent them from growing."

Carl of the Qin and Whistle Adventure Group immediately understood that the Taka warriors brought these children here to find a way for them. If Captain Rhode refused this slave trade, they would definitely not survive this winter.

He couldn't help asking: "Who is that barbarian slave girl wearing the copper collar? How can she have the power to stop the slave trade?"

"Oh, you mean Ingrid." Captain Huck scratched his head and said, "She is the leader of the barbarian slaves in the plantation, and more than 400 barbarian slaves in the plantation are under her control. She has no right to stop Rhodes and Card The Tower Department trades slaves, but she can make the little barbarian slaves Rhodes bought starve to death, and Rhodes can only get a dozen worthless corpses."

"I said before that the Braun Plantation is the home of these slaves. Ingrid must first ensure the food supply of Braun Town, and also leave enough food for the slaves in the plantation for the winter, and the surplus food supplies can be sold to Lord, let him use it to buy slaves and put them temporarily on the plantation."

"This year, the grain harvest in the plantation is not very good, and there must be something wrong with the grain that the Taka Department stole. It's too late for them to come over and trade at this time." Captain Huck shook his head and said, "Mayor Mayen himself does not Come forward and let Ingrid call the shots, she doesn't nod, these little slaves brought by Taka can only be thrown into the wild and let them fend for themselves."

Over there, the negotiation between Rhodes and Ingrid came to a conclusion. I don't know what conditions he offered. The barbarian female leader reluctantly agreed to keep a few barbarian girls from the Taka tribe, while all the remaining barbarian boys were rejected. outside the door.

Although the barbarian warriors of the Taka tribe were unwilling, under the deterrence of the arrow tower ballista, they could only accept the reality and moved all the food supplies they had exchanged to the cart pulled by the antelope, ready to leave the plantation.

Rhodes seemed to be in a good mood after completing the deal. He walked over with a smile on his face, first nodded to Vertok, and then took the initiative to say hello to Charlie and Huck.

Annie saw the group of ignorant barbarian boys. They didn't seem to realize what they were going to face, so she asked Rhodes: "Why don't you buy them too?"

Rhodes glanced at Vertok, saw that he did not express sympathy, and said with a smile: "It's very tragic... The Black Rock orcs caused all this, and the barbarians live like this under their rule, you can't count on it. I can solve the internal problems of the Blackrock clan."

"Instead of barbarians ruling the half-orcs, it's just as miserable as half-orcs." Captain Charlie, who was from the Legion, said in a cold tone, "I hope that the barbarians in Blackstone will always be ruled by half-orcs."

"I want to go and have a look." Vertok said suddenly.Those grown-up barbarian males seemed to touch some of his memories, and couldn't help but want to get closer and observe them.

Rhode hesitated for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take you there."

"Don't touch them. These barbarian warriors are very powerful. If there are fighters among them, it is even more dangerous." John reminded Vertok next to him, and made a gesture to let his companions follow.

As soon as Vertoc set off, the half-elves of the Jyn and Whistle Adventure Group and the Iron Cross Adventure Group naturally approached him.The Taka barbarians also noticed the movement here. They may know that the more "ugly" half-elves have higher status. Seeing that Vertok was surrounded by a group of half-elves, instead of being alert, they automatically dispersed to show those barbarian boys. Show him.

However, Vertok didn't care about the expectations of the Taka barbarians at all. He had already determined that he was in a daze just now because he was sensitive to the language of the barbarians.The grown barbarians stopped talking, and his attention fell on the barbarian boys.

These little guys are thin, starved, and have no strength to cry, and their voices are weak and indistinct.When they saw a large group of fully armed half-elves approaching, they were too frightened to make a sound.

Victor circled around, disappointed, but an adult barbarian girl lying on the ground and a half-sized barbarian boy caught his attention.

The barbarian woman is no longer young, and her haggard face cannot hide her beautiful appearance.It can be said that she is the most beautiful barbarian girl Vertok has ever seen.However, she was so angry at the moment, her eyes only had a gap, she was lying on the ground unable to move, and her head was held in the arms of the barbarian boy.

The barbarian boy looks like fourteen or five years old, his facial features and appearance are similar to those of a barbarian girl, and he is equally handsome, but there are radioactive scars on his left cheek, with a faint blue luster, which is very eye-catching.

"She is Siya, the daughter of our Taka tribe. She was injured by a half-orc from the Blackrock Tribe some time ago. If you can cure her, she can sell for a lot of money." The barbarian leader spoke fluently. Introduced to Vertoc in half-elven language.

Captain Rhode said: "Yes, she is very valuable. Unfortunately, she was injured too badly and was about to die. Moreover, a barbarian female shaman could not heal her injuries, there was only one possibility, she Cursed by the Orc Shaman. We can't cure her."

Vertok cast his gaze on the face of the barbarian boy and asked, "What's wrong with his face?"

The barbarian leader was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: "His name is Yog, the son of Xi Ya. When he was very young, he was hit by fire from the sky, but he didn't die, leaving a blue scar on his face. If you fancy it. Yog, just keep him, no need for food in exchange..."

Rhode shook his head contemptuously with a smile and said, "What's the use of a good-looking male slave? Besides, he still has scars on his face... The most important problem is that he is too old, and no half-elf will accept him. "

Vertoc gradually lost interest in these barbarians, and turned to leave.At this moment, Xia, who had been in a semi-conscious state, suddenly opened her eyes and spit out a series of strange syllables.

Vertok stopped abruptly, turned around, crouched down hesitantly, and held Xia's hand under the surprised eyes of everyone.

The barbarian woman showed a soft smile on her haggard face. She said to Vertok in half-elf language: "Please leave my Yog, this is your fateful meeting."

Vertoc looked at Xiya deeply, stood up slowly, took out the excellent long sword presented by Captain Harker from the cloak, and handed it to the barbarian leader, "I want both of them, I will exchange this sword, is it okay."

In the end, the Taka barbarians did not accept Vertok's long sword. They left the mother and son of Xia in place, drove the antelope cart away from the plantation, and said their final farewell to the female shaman of the tribe with desolate songs.

Captain Rhode of the Iron Cross lowered his head, trying his best to hide the horror in his heart.He could understand what the barbarian female shaman had said to Vertok before. It was an obscure half-orc dialect, and translating it into half-elven language was:

There is a God living in your body!

(End of this chapter)