wandering fairy

Preeg lay awake in the only small tent, tossing and turning over the corpse of the gnoll.As a faithful believer of the goddess of luck, he felt that the corpse he encountered today was actually a reminder from the goddess of luck.Otherwise, the wilderness is so big, there is no way for the wolf man to die, but he died in the place where his caravan passed by. Isn't this the goddess of luck telling him that there is danger around him?

"Goddess Timora, who sees everything, use your kind arms to guide me in the direction of my progress..." He began to pray to himself again.His subordinates are too worrying, he thought to himself, he always led his team to avoid the big business roads with many robbers, and took a twisted path.In the past few years, I have encountered some small groups of goblins, kobolds and the like, and the rough and tumblers were scared away.

And now the real jackals may be nearby, those beasts are real cannibals without spitting out bones!They have lived a life of fighting and killing since they were young, and any one of them is stronger than these guys from farmers.And their intelligence is not low, some intelligent individuals can even speak the common language, and do some weapons and leather business with humans and dwarves!Therefore, the general Gnoll would wear thick leather armor and hold weapons made by humans or dwarves.Coupled with their ferocious nature and honed martial skills, it only takes a dozen of them to crush Plague's small caravan with ease!

Maybe next time I should take these guys to the big business road to meet the big scene, let them know that if they are not careful, they will die?

But that would be too dangerous, Plague continued to think, his caravan was too small to stand any trouble.Speaking of which, those nobles, mages, and big merchants are no worse than jackals, and they can find a way to beat a small caravan like themselves.I have been in business for ten years, and at least half of my income has been exploited by those guys with various reasons and means.Every day I carefully deal with customers, big businessmen, officials, nobles and robbers, and I can only barely get by, but it is too difficult to really make a fortune.

He sighed, got up and put on his clothes and walked out of the tent.

The sight around him made him very angry.

The night watchmen were all dozing by their campfires!

If there really are jackals coming, that's fine!I don't even know how I died!

He cursed secretly, turned around and wanted to go back to the tent to get the stick.He's going to give these country bumpkins who don't take orders seriously!

Suddenly he heard the sound of "Boom, Boom".

He turned around and walked cautiously towards the place where the sound came from, pressing the hilt of his sword, ready to unsheath anytime.Then he saw a strange scene: the half-drow who was as skinny as a mummy during the day was lying on his side on the magic potion wooden box, hitting the box with his head.

"What is she doing?" Praeg was puzzled, he couldn't see clearly in the dim light of the fire.

Getting closer.He saw that terrifying thin face like a skeleton, covered with dark red blood!Then there's that big protruding nail on the wooden box below!This bitch is committing suicide!

He yelled violently: "What are you doing?" Then he ran up angrily and pulled her out of the carriage.

The half-drow female slave fell to the ground hard, panting with difficulty with her mouth open, like an old woman about to die.

Plague looked up angrily, and saw that the night guards woke up and looked over in a daze, so he pointed at them and cursed: "And you! Why are you all asleep? This The guy who asked for his own death bumped his head loudly, but you all slept like dead pigs! Let alone the wolf man! Do you want to die? Are you all ignoring my words?"

The more he scolded, the more angry he kicked Le Lin, who was lying stiff on the ground, and cursed angrily: "And you! Do you want to die now? No way! I will drag you to Weiwei even if I drag you Go to Erwach, and then throw you off the city wall to feed the centaur! Come and tie her up and gag her mouth, lest she commit suicide again! They are all ignorant country bumpkins, if this continues, you will kill her sooner or later die!"

He was still swearing, but a few shrewd men rushed forward, trapped the immobile Lelin, and stuffed a piece of smelly and rotten rag into her mouth.

Praeg scolded furiously, seeing that all the fellows were awake, and gathered around.Then he announced loudly: "Next time! Next time, I will take you on the road and let you see what the robbers look like! Don't think that you have driven away a few rotten goblins! They are all scum! Let you see 'Big scene', let you know how easy life is now!"

The next day, the cloud parted a little, and the scattered sunlight shone through the gaps in the clouds, and the earth looked a little angry.The morale of Pregg's troops also improved slightly, for he ordered the troops to speed up and make sure to reach the town of Harmonwell before sunset.Wherever you get there, you can sleep in peace and boldly, and replenish your supplies by the way. If you are lucky, you can even get some bad wine to drink.Thinking of this, the guys' moods became active, and they acted extraordinarily hard.

Before the sun set, the caravan walked up to a low hill, facing a tall mountain range that stretched across the land, and at the foot of the mountain, a simple and simple city built against the mountain was quietly sitting there.As far as the eye can see, dozens of wisps of cooking smoke are vaguely floating upwards. There are only a few sparse trees and shrubs around the city wall, and small pieces of withered yellow farmland are scattered in the farther places, which looks sluggish. frontier scene.Praeg breathed a sigh of relief, and finally relaxed his nerves that had been tensed all day, because he could finally rest in peace tonight, and he will wait until he has cleared up the situation around him before making a schedule tomorrow.

The town of Harmonwell is said to be a town, but it is actually just a slightly larger rural gathering place, but the lord of this area, the old Baron Haril, lives here. In order to maintain the dignity of the nobles, he had to fight " town" title.The entire town was surrounded by a low city wall made of wood and stone. Although the enclosed area was large, the simple city wall was only 3 to 4 people high, and only two heavily armed soldiers could walk on top of it.If a city wall of this scale was placed in the Principality of Gloucester, it would be almost as if it had no defense.There are many hill giants about 3 people tall and as big as elephants living in the deep mountains and old forests there. This kind of 3-4 person-high city wall was overturned by them, and it was destroyed when they hit it.It would be even worse if it were placed in the Principality of Clarence!There are many mages who have changed their careers to become bandits, and many of them are mid-level mages who know arcane arts above level 3. If such people come to attack the city, they can burn the wood-stone mixed city wall to pieces with just a few spells!At that time, don't talk about defense, even if you want to escape, you won't be able to escape!

Fortunately, this place is located on the edge of the desert, and few robbers will attack here. For no other reason, it is too poor here, and people have no other property except the necessary rations.Those shrewd robbers don't want to come all the way to this barren land, and then force a few pieces of black bread against the desperate and angry villagers.And walking south along the high mountains in the west is the military town of Wilwach, with it, those larger-scale robbers would not dare to come.And in the north, there is a rocky desert where no one knows the edge!The grass and trees there are even rarer than here, and the stones are both broken and numerous. Once a strong wind blows, countless small stones will fly wildly with the wind, and it will be difficult for even mice to survive, let alone other large creatures.

The Principality of Hereford, which governs here, once sent a team of hundreds of people led by mages, priests, and paladins to the rocky desert, intending to cross the desert to find an area suitable for human habitation, but failed.After they entered the desert, they walked for more than 3000 miles with the support of spells, but they still couldn't see the edge.Instead, they were successively ambushed by many monsters lurking underground. After nearly a hundred people were downsizing, they had to withdraw from that desolate and terrifying area.Therefore, the town of Harmonwell has become the limit area that humans can reach in the northwest of this continent, perhaps a place where its intelligent races rarely appear.

There were a few soldiers standing sparsely on the walled city of Harmonwell Town. They saw the flag of Praeger's caravan from a long distance, so they sent two soldiers in simple leather armor out of the city to check, and after verifying their identities and led them into the city.

Looking around, the whole town was gray, and there was still a smell of livestock manure in the air.Except for the simple stone houses, there are no other buildings here, and most of them are short and small, with only thatched roofs, barely able to accommodate a few people.Occasionally, you can see a few isolated two-story stone houses. The lower floor is fed with cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs and other livestock, and the upper floor is occupied by people. It seems that they should belong to a few wealthy families.A "street" is an open space between houses without grass.

The "biggest" building is the lord's "little castle" in the center.

That "little castle" is really small, and it's hilarious.It is only as wide as three large rooms and as high as a four-story building, and the slightly larger hotels in big cities are more magnificent than it.The lower part of it is a large stone structure, while the upper part is like a tavern in a big city, a mixed structure of wood and stone, with wood as the vertical and horizontal support and stone as the wall.On the other hand, the walls were hastily painted with white ash, and the uneven gray and white mottled walls looked like big painted faces.On the few wooden windows, most of the paint has peeled off, revealing some decayed wooden frames.Does it look like a "castle"?A solid four-story hotel is stronger and tidy than this!

A few buddies who came here for the first time looked around, and suddenly someone asked the people around them in a low voice: "Why didn't you see the temple? There is no temple for any god!"

Several other people laughed lightly: "Which god is willing to come to this place where the birds don't shit?"

Another person said: "I heard that they used to believe in the goddess of the earth, Yatri. It's a pity that the goddess seems to be too lazy to take care of this place, and she didn't even send a decent priest. The people in the town have been priests for more than ten years, but there is no response. The land and life have not changed in any way, and they were abandoned later." They pointed to a two-story building that looked like a tavern and said, "That is the original Temple of the Goddess of the Earth, which was later changed into a place where soldiers drank and played cards."

"Don't talk too much!" Plague stopped talking about the gods, and stopped talking about the gods. We just need to make money in peace. In this world, talking about gods casually is a very immoral way Behavior, every place will believe in which gods or give up which gods for various reasons. It is very offensive for outsiders to make irresponsible remarks about this.Preeg didn't want to get into trouble here.

A bearded middle-aged strong man wearing heavy scale armor walked towards him, with a three-finger-wide and five-foot (about 1.5 meters) long sword hanging from his waist. This was a genuine murder weapon, although the sword The scabbard and hilt are very old, far less beautiful and gorgeous than the rapiers of those dandy nobles, but with the spell of elementary "magic weapon" attached to it, it can cut an equivalent ordinary sword!This is the most efficient weapon for fighting for blood!

He was Tiwedes, the leader of these soldiers, and the governor of this area——the only one among the old Baron Khalil's subordinates who had the status of a knight.He smiled and opened his arms, hugging the dismounted Plague tightly.

"Meet you again, old friend." He said with a chuckle, "I haven't seen an outsider for almost a year, and today you are finally here. I will go drink with me later! Although the wine is not very good, but I I guess you didn't even take a drop of wine along the way. You and your guys can have a safe meal tonight."

Plague's mood also became more relaxed. They are old friends. Being with a regular soldier like him is more reassuring than his useless fellows. He said with a smile on his face: "Yes, from Di Carlo After I set off from Macheng, I haven't had a good night's sleep! Today I finally saw a savior, so I'll have a good drink tonight, and tomorrow I'll sleep the whole fucking day!"

The two patted their shoulders and talked while leading the caravan to a grass-covered open space.

"By the way, Tiweedes." While the guys in the car were tidying up the vehicles and horses, Plague pulled Tiwedes aside and asked in a low voice, "Has there been gnolls here recently? We have been on the road I saw the remains of a gnoll, and the bones are relatively complete, unlike beasts or goblins." He didn't want the guys to hear too bad news, which would affect the morale of the team, and in serious cases would even lead to The caravan fell apart!So find a chance to ask first.

The tall Tiwedes nodded heavily and said: "There is indeed a group of jackals operating in this area, which is the group that came here a few years ago. But now with the help of Master Dong Hezi, every time They can even lick their buttocks and chase them fiercely, and they don’t dare to move around anymore. The one you saw should be a scout that my soldiers went out to kill two weeks ago.”

"Boom... and...?" Plague asked a little surprised: "What a strange pronunciation, who is he? Is he a new mage? I said that there are still mages who are willing to live in remote places like yours. Come here? Does he have a lot of money and nowhere to spend it, so he came here to burn money for fun?"

Tiwedes said with a chuckle: "A mage came, but it was not Master Dong Hezi, but a nephew of the baron, Grimm, a junior mage who used to study magic in Giffen City, and then he might have heard about us. The old baron would not live long, and he had no heirs, so he ran all the way to live in such a poor place. It seemed that the old baron was planning to inherit his title after his death.

There was a look of contempt in his eyes, and he continued: "This kid is not very capable, he can do some second-level spells, but he is very greedy, and he will not let go of any small money. The baron is not healthy anymore, and many things can only be done." Let him deal with it, but this guy always finds opportunities to deduct our salary, and he calls it strengthening management. Huh! He thought we didn't know that the money would be his when the baron died. At some point he'll take all the money here and run back to Giffen City to learn magic! Then leave us alone."

It was another old-fashioned story about titles and property. Praeg smiled knowingly, and asked again: "Then who is the master you are talking about...?"

"The master is a druid." Tiwedes leaned close to his ear and whispered mysteriously: "A very high-level druid, I don't know how tall it is, but it's really powerful! The master said that in two more days Help us wipe out all the gnolls in this area when winter comes! At that time, you can go this way with confidence."

Pregg didn't bother to care about druid Louis, this outdated profession has long since withdrawn from the stage of history.Except for a small number of druid activities in poor and poor places with low civilization, they have been completely replaced by mages and priests in other places!Whether the druids here are advanced or not is none of their business?So he interrupted him and asked, "Is it safe to go south now? Is there any wolf man activity there?"

Tiwedes replied firmly: "No! All the gnolls in this area have been driven to the desert in the north. Master Dong Hezi has confirmed this with his magic. We intend to let these beasts live in the desert." Starve for two months, wait until they have nothing to eat, and they are almost killing each other, and then annihilate them in one fell swoop!"

After sending Tiwedes away, Plague's heart became heavy, because Tiwedes reminded him before leaving: "That little mage is very greedy, you have to deal with it carefully."

It looks like he's going to be blackmailed again this time, how can a small businessman like himself deal with a quasi-noble?And junior mages are far more greedy than other levels of mages, because learning arcane arts is very expensive, and junior mages can hardly do anything that can make a lot of money except for some money provided by their families.Like the junior female mage met in Dika Loma City, who was low-level and ran around like the protagonist in the adventure novel, she was just looking for death!Praeg has seen the price tags of xx girl mages in many middle-level brothels.

So it would be crazy if an ordinary junior mage could get a profitable business.There is no way, the tuition fees are too expensive, if you want to be successful, you must first endure the financial squeeze of those middle and high-level mages.But how many people survived?

Depressed, Praeg turned back and instructed the guys to organize the goods and set up tents.

The people in the town leaned far away in front of their houses, watching the dozens of small caravans busy with expressionless faces and numb eyes, and no one came to join in the fun, because - they had no money.Surviving in such a place with harsh environment and thin land, it is considered a "good life" if you can have a meal and have a few animal skins and linen as clothes. How can there be any extra income?Some people here have never even touched silver coins in their lives!They just looked at these foreign businessmen numbly, because what the outside world looked like didn't matter to them.It's good to be alive.

Several four or five-year-old children with plastered faces, dressed in rags that could barely be called "clothes", looked here curiously. They were just sensible, and they were curious about everything new.Praeg smiled at them, and made a gesture of offering them slices of sweet bread.The children looked back at their parents pitifully. Those people nodded their heads, and the children carefully took the slices of bread with their dirty little hands full of red and purple chilblains.

Seeing these children rushing away, Plague smiled wryly. After all, they were born in the wilderness, and they didn't even say thank you. Even when they received the bread, their expressions were numb, without a smile.What a dreary place.

Just as he was thinking, when he raised his head, his heart suddenly "thumped".

Three people walked towards each other.

The middle one is the mage.