rune hunter

Chapter 394 The Silent City

Compared with Istaren, which has developed into a semi-commercial city, Thunder Fortress still maintains its military function thousands of years ago. The city area of ​​Thunderbolt is four times that of Istaren, but its population does not exceed [-]. , only close to the population of Istaren at its peak.

Moreover, these 10 people are not real residents. They are civilian husbands and reserve soldiers recruited by the Kingdom of Auckland from all over the world to provide logistical support for the regular army stationed at Thunder Fortress.

El was once curious about this. You must know that most of the noble families that have survived from ancient times to the present have flourishing branches and many descendants. Such a large number of noble descendants naturally need more civilians to support them.For example, Istaron gradually developed by relying on the descendants of the army, and Fort Thunder is a purely military fortress. Who can a hundred thousand strong men turn to to solve their physiological needs?
Even Dreyer has a hard time answering this question, and he only heard the information about the Thunder Fortress.In the past peaceful years, the name of this barren land has almost become a legend, except for a few upper-class people, few nobles are interested in it.

This is the consistent nature of the nobles-they sing the hero and forget him in a second.

"They are all soldiers." Prince Romus said in a simple and horrified manner.As the queen's elder brother, Prince Iron Guard, he is just one of the "few upper-class people", and he has a much deeper understanding of Thunder Fortress than Dreyer.But for some unknown reason, after coming to Thunder Fortress, Roms not only did not publicize his identity, but kept acting in a low-key manner, trying his best to downplay his sense of existence.

He didn't want to say much about the Thunder Fortress at all, and it could even be said that he kept it secret.

The camp where the exiles were temporarily stationed was not too close to Fort Thunder. Tiana and her party followed the lord's special envoy through the city wall, only to realize that it was just the first outer line of defense for Thunder Fortress.

The well-arranged fortresses and passes have conquered almost every dangerous place on this wasteland, and surrounded it with water.Along the way, it only took half an hour for customs clearance and release.

El noticed that behind the first fence, the color of the land had changed significantly, and it looked almost the same as the real soil, giving people a feeling of life.The crops that are close to maturity are planted on the land, but they are not the common wheat on the southern plains, but potatoes that are more suitable for growing on barren land. The leaf seedlings are not as lush as normal, at most half of the average farmland output.

After all, the land was restored after all, and it was better than nothing.

Since there is land that can be cultivated, there will naturally be farmers who are responsible for cultivating it.El glanced over the farmland, and saw scattered villages and working figures in the distance.Although those laborers did look like they were wearing ordinary people's shabby coats, they couldn't maintain their muscular figure and calm demeanor just by relying on potatoes.

El shook his head. These villages and farmers did not bring him the familiarity and friendliness of his hometown town at all, but instead gave him a chilling feeling.

After turning over a mountain ridge, the remains of two huge rock cylinders with a diameter of more than ten meters appeared in front of them. This is the legendary arch of hell, where the human civilization world and the wilderness bordered.Until 1000 years ago, the ancestor of Auckland broke through this gate and expanded the territory of human beings thousands of kilometers northward.

Today, only ruins remain of this arch, but you can still feel its majesty and magnificence.

South of Hell's Arch is the highland where Castle Thunder is located. This castle is built entirely of rock, full of rough and tough beauty, and also has a strange familiar feeling.

El thought about it carefully, and found that the architectural style here is quite similar to the underground ruins of the brown earth hills.The former city of hope, Dimiant, also adopted this rough and unrestrained rock architectural style.

However, if you compare them carefully, you can see that the rock buildings of Dimiant have already exhibited exquisite carving art. From another perspective, it is an obvious phenomenon of the differentiation between the rich and the poor.And the rock of Fort Thunder is pure rock, with almost no external decoration.

This may be the reason why the former disappeared in the long river of history, while the latter still exists here.

There are almost no active residents in this castle, and there is almost no difference between the uniform rock buildings on both sides of the street. The patrol troops that occasionally appear in the field of vision also maintain a strange silence.The whole city looks like a silent dead city.

This oppressive feeling persisted outside the Lord's Mansion - here finally there were signs of normal human activity.In fact, their group came to the back of the Lord's Mansion, where the caravans came and went to establish a medium-sized trading market.Some caravans need to clear the customs to move on, while most of the merchants trade directly with the army, so the order here is also very stable, and the bazaar in Biel's impression is much quieter.

Under the leadership of the special envoy, a group of people walked through the market and entered the back door of the Lord's Mansion, sneaking around like thieves.Until this time, Lord Churkin's welcoming team was still not seen, and even a symbolic escort was not prepared. Beggars.

Out of reserve, Tiana did not open her mouth throughout the journey. Prince Roms didn't know what he was jealous of, and he didn't force himself to stand out, but the faces of the others were not very good-looking.

"Master Special Envoy, are you sure you brought us to the Lord's Mansion, not some abandoned temple? Could it be that we need to bathe, change clothes and pray sincerely before meeting the Lord Lord?" El and Tiana concealed They exchanged glances, suddenly stepped forward to stop the special envoy's horse's head, and asked with an unhappy face.

In fact, it’s not surprising that he asked such a question. Generally speaking, most of the lord’s mansions are castle buildings. To be precise, the castles should be built by the nobles first, and then there will be residential buildings attached to the castles that gradually developed. , and finally gradually formed a complete city.

And the Lord's Mansion in front of him looks more like a super-standard religious building. In addition to its own rock structure, the walls of this building are actually covered with a layer of pitch-black metal decks. A row of spear-like sharp metal spikes pierced straight into the sky, looking like a hedgehog made of steel.

"Don't worry too much. This is not a temple. It was built for another reason, and it's not a hedgehog, but the image of a steel bristled boar, which is the symbol of the boar family." The lord's special envoy was also a young man, although his face He has no expression, but he is not taciturn. On the contrary, he patiently explains the scenery and historical allusions along the way.The only thing that makes people uncomfortable is that this guy avoids all other issues on the grounds of military confidentiality.

True nobles would not waste their tongues with servants, and Tiana, as the guest of honor, was not suitable to speak, and at this time she showed the role of an aide.El firmly held on to the special envoy's horse rein, stared into his eyes and asked, "We've already come here, but there's not even a guest to greet the guests. Does it mean that the lord is very honorable if the news spreads? My lord, special envoy, I think you should at least give us an explanation?"

"My duty is only to guide you to meet the lord. As for the issue of welcoming guests, it is not in the area under my jurisdiction, but..." the special envoy looked at El, shook his head and said: "With all due respect, you are not qualified to ask for this explanation .”

Before the special envoy's words were finished, a sharp arrow rushed from mid-air, and in the blink of an eye, it had already arrived in front of El.

This is a specially made elongated mace arrow. The archer must use a strengthened longbow, otherwise it is not enough to drive this long arrow.If it were an ordinary soldier, this arrow would be able to pierce through the bodies and armor of three people.Those who can shoot this arrow have at least reached the level of a "sharp shooter"
It's a pity that El is not an ordinary person, and the archer's target was not his vitals, but his cheek, trying to make him make a big fool of himself.The moment the long sword passed in front of him, El tilted his head indistinctly, out of the path of the long arrow, and at the same time stretched out his mouth to bite hard.

Under the horrified eyes of the special envoy, El's teeth made a noise like rubbing against metal, and a puff of white smoke came out from the arrow shaft under the teeth, but he finally bit it off.El spat out the long arrow, took off the Dragon Tooth Bow behind his backhand, turned his head, drew the bow and set the arrow, and returned the original object in the direction the long arrow came from.

There was only a scream, and suddenly a figure jumped up from the distant wall, clutching his shoulders and falling backwards.El's arrow was like stabbing a hornet's nest, and murderous aura burst out from all directions.

It has to be said that these nearby rock buildings are really excellent alley battlefields. The thick stone slabs cover the line of sight and at the same time block the breath leaked by the army.In a blink of an eye, the surrounding rock buildings suddenly came alive, and teams of heavily armed warriors came out from every corner, completely surrounding the group of people.

"This is the way to welcome guests." Feeling the undisguised killing intent around him, El curled his lips and laughed. Compared with the strange silent atmosphere in this city, this kind of violent scene is more exciting. He feels kind.

"Your behavior will be regarded as..." The special envoy of the lord's face darkened, and was about to reprimand him when he was suddenly grabbed by his collar and pulled up.When he turned his head, he saw the sweetly smiling girl approaching his face.

The fragrance like a rose made his mind go blank instantly.

(End of this chapter)