Serious Witch's Travel Book

According to different ancestors and beliefs, the forms of orcs are ever-changing, and the differences between most species can even be distinguished at a glance.

The most common commonality of the orcs in the North is that they have a strong physique, a head taller than ordinary humans and elves, protruding jaws, obvious fangs, and gray skin, like white stone or metal color.In addition, there are exuberant animal hairs—they mainly grow on the ears, back, and chest, providing an obvious way to distinguish the appearance of different species of orcs (Note 3).

They worship ancestors and the gods of the Northland, follow shamanism, unite in clans and tribes, and regard the imperial people who believe in the Holy Spirit as heretics-reciprocal, of course.

Most of the barbarians in Germania—including human clans—come from the bitter cold and barren land in the northeast. The harsh living environment makes the barbarians have to be stronger in order to win the competition for survival. The worship of physique has gradually become A social commonality: even a shaman who uses those mysterious rune powers must have a size that can stand on a fist and run a horse on an arm.

Under such a general trend, those clans that are not born with muscles are naturally prone to hostility.

The Black Tails are such a clan.

They are not members of the barbarians who migrated to the west, but the orc clan that lived in the Black Forest a long time ago. As the Huns moved westward, more and more orcs were driven to the periphery of the Black Forest and the northern coastal corridor After the region, these orcs living on the outskirts of the Black Forest were gradually incorporated by larger clans and became their servants.

These guys from the Black Forest...compared with the brothers and enemies who came from the south, they seem a bit out of place.

Although they still offer sacrifices to their ancestors, they no longer believe in the gods of the north, but joined a "snake religion" from the east... It sounds like some kind of ancient beast worship, at least not the most holy, so it's not so Considered a heretic by other orcs.

But their bodies are too short and thin, their average height is worse than that of humans, and their physical development level can only be said to be so-so. They may be stronger than humans and elves, but they are more than four cubits per capita (about 45 cm) among the orc clans, they are as inconspicuous as a group of sick children.

And, very ugly.

There are no rough and well-developed fangs, no muscles as strong as mountains, and not much body hair——

The spirit of the orcs was gone from them.

Such a woman will not be accepted by any clan, which will pollute the blood of the clan.

They can only mix in the battle group to cheat, eat and drink, and become cowardly fighters who are only needed in rare cases.

Now is the time.

"Miscellaneous hair (note 4), now it's your turn to play."

The scout captain gestured to the dwarf who was hiding alone.

He is already very friendly, and orcs have always been very hostile to aliens, just a little habitual expression... She should be content.

The man squatting by the tree stood up under the command.

She stepped out of the shadows, allowing others to get a glimpse of what she looked like.

A young huntress who looks almost like an elf.

Her bow looks like a joke to others: I don’t need any outstanding fighters, I’m afraid as long as it’s a newly grown orc, it can easily break that toy-like thing. The weapons used by such cowards have always been only humans. Spears and axes are the first choice for orcs when they need to solve the distance problem.

If it weren't for her having sufficient characteristics of the Germanian tribal civilization, most orcs would not regard her as their own race at all:

Her skin color is light brown, which is close to the color of fair skin after long-term sun exposure. Although the weather is turning cold, her clothes are still simple, only a gray apron made of animal skin, and a few The chest wrap wrapped with rags with blessing words is in line with the consistent characteristics of orcs-they have a high body temperature by nature, and they only buy winter clothes when it starts to snow.

On the outside of her arms, on her face, and on her abdomen, she drew many lines and letters on her body with white paint. She also wore a necklace made of teeth and broken bones. These are traditional and considered The practice of getting the blessings of the ancestors and beast spirits, although the scout captain thinks that a weak woman like her should not ask for such treatment, it is not a violation of the ancestor's precepts.

In addition, her whole body can best indicate her orc identity, undoubtedly the fluffy black ears that are similar in color to her light brown hair, and the thin tail like a cat with the same fur color.

It's really ugly, like a hairless monkey.

The companions hissed a few times when they saw her, and based on the principle of respecting every compatriot, the scout captain stopped their offense, and ordered this member of the different clan who had never made a move from the beginning to the end: "The shaman said You're good at taking out your enemies in...disgraceful ways, so go ahead and kill them without letting them raise any alarms."

She accepted the order and didn't reply. She just bent down and climbed up the hill alone, looking at the few people hiding behind the wall, and measuring the distance with her fingers.

Under the puzzled eyes of several orc scouts, she suddenly turned her head and retreated down the hillside. Immediately afterwards, she took off the bow on her back behind the hillside.

"Wait, what are you going to do?"

Seeing her bow and arrow pointing straight into the air, even the captain of the scout felt bad.

He originally expected that this woman could approach this outpost with her thin body, and then deal with these guys—of course, he didn't expect this bastard to be completely successful, he was already ready to respond, As long as this woman can keep the imperials at a close distance, her mission will be fulfilled. Once those imperials leave the bunker, they will be nothing to worry about. Frank Ax Thrower can easily deal with them.

He didn't expect this kind of useless woman to use a bow and arrow to kill four people in a short time, and it was still separated by a hill...

"Get your people ready."

"what?"

"In one breath of yours, I can shoot three arrows." The female orc's voice was stiff and cold, and her eyes showed no respect for these stronger compatriots, which made the scouts sulking with blue veins on their foreheads. "...Don't look at me like this. I can ensure that they lose their fighting power immediately, but sometimes it may not be able to kill them... Do some finishing work, can you do it?"

She even looked at the warriors of the World Eaters clan with some contempt in turn.

"...as long as you do what you say."

The scout captain gestured a few gestures, and the rest of the people temporarily put aside their opinions and hid one after another in the closest position to the dilapidated house.

There are thirty or forty steps away... With their body size, it is inevitable to go any further.

After everyone was in place, the scout captain made a signal.

The huntress raised her bow to the sky, and she held four arrows in her hand at the same time, but only the first arrow was placed on the string.

"rest in peace."

She muttered aloud, and then let go of the tight bowstring.

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Tips.1&2: The Franks live together in units of tribe → clan → family, and clan is usually the most important form of settlement.Both tribal leaders and clan leaders are "chiefs", but generally speaking, tribal leaders with multiple clans will add the word "big" in front of their address.When it is necessary to fight the imperials, the tribe will recruit troops from various clans in the form of crowdfunding with a bottom line. These temporarily formed troops usually range from one to two thousand people to several thousand, each of which will be led by an "overseer" , called a "battle group".

In terms of naming, the orcs adopted a standard close to the Romans, that is, the "three-name method": personal name-clan name-ancestor name.Ancestor worship is the most important belief item of orcs. An ancestor worth boasting is far more important than clan reputation. Of course, in normal use, orcs should often say this: "Son (descendant) of XXX XXXX XXXXX".

Tips.3: The orcs that appeared in the north are mainly divided into the following three categories: those with protruding jaws, fangs, and animal hair on their ears and body; those with animal hair on their ears and body, and tails; other features are not obvious, But the head has horns.The most important orc in Germania is the first type, with more than [-]% of them.

Tips.4: The most common and relatively conservative slur for orcs.Similar to "hybrid".

Tips.5: Although all kinds of means are allowed in war, in normal one-on-one combat, if you don’t use fists and conventional weapons to solve the problem, you will be regarded as “disgraceful” by the orcs—this is basically a two-handed battle. The standard link-of course, the orcs themselves have a certain degree of contempt for all kinds of crooked ways.It's worth mentioning that one of the most common fighting methods for Shamans is using rune-enhanced Lightning Claws instead of unleashing Sith Lightning.

Chapter 16 012. Four people's night talk

Beside the bonfire, four imperial soldiers cooked a pot of soup and were warming up around the fire surrounded by stones.

Now it’s the tenth month of the year, and the increasingly cold weather makes it difficult for the soldiers on night shift to bear. Coupled with the severe sleepiness before dawn, they have to rely on the warmth of the campfire and the aroma of the soup as they yawn Come refresh yourself.

"It's so cold, why do I have to suffer like this every day?"

A young soldier picked up a branch and stirred the blackened charcoal, muttering sullenly.

The veteran sitting beside him leaning against half of the stone wall grinned and said with a smile: "This is the fourth time you have complained tonight."

The young man blushed, and explained awkwardly: "But this is really uncomfortable..."

"Be content. Next week's rotation will be even worse. Anyway, we only have one turn every two months. It will be colder next time, and then we will be fine."

The young man smacked his lips and said no more.

They were by the nearest sentry post at Pine Candle Castle, and they had the least number of people. There were four in total, led by an adult soldier (Note 1), and the rest were young soldiers who hadn't been in the army for long.A young soldier was watching the fire, while the other two were leaning against the wall in a daze, while the other was holding a piece of bark and didn't know what to write.

Although Pine Candle Fort is close to the front line, but because it is separated by two border provinces, it is usually only used as a transit station for troops, so it rarely faces the real flames of war.

The most recent war was about half a year ago, when the Goths attacked here... But that was two generations ago. Besides, there are often some forest monsters harassing here every now and then. The green-skinned goblins living in the old mountains and old forests have very low IQs. They often attack humans or settlements of other intelligent races for no reason. They will consider the balance of power between the two sides. Even a dozen of them dare to attack Pinecandle Castle with great fanfare, and every young man who has just joined the army can solve two or three by himself...

Of course, generally speaking, as long as there are more dead, the forest monsters will quickly disperse. Just three days ago, there was a group of nearly a hundred forest monsters that attacked Pine Candle Castle, and only a few were unlucky. Dan was disabled, but no one died.

The front line of Lower Germania is the Lonely Mountain Fortress, which is three days' walk away. The main task of Pine Candle Castle is to serve as a military transfer station and serve as a nearby security maintenance center to suppress the bandits and monsters that spread. Because of the long-term peace, The defense of the imperial army on duty here is naturally relaxed. Although the daily night shift is still going on, it is not enough to say how much you care. Even most of the guards are not full of staff, because ordinary villains will not have the courage at all. Provoke the regular army.

When the water in the pot was heated up, the veterans poured some cold water into it with clay pots; the officers would give extra food to those who went out on night duty, and the treatment was better than those on duty during the day. The sentry posts, which are inconvenient to change people frequently, even have fresh meat to eat every day, which of course they can't do here.

But they can have a few pieces of dried meat every night, these hard, salty and cold meat jerky, which can hardly be cut with a small knife, and can only be divided by smashing the back of the knife with an ax or a stone. Although chewing it directly is like making trouble with one's own teeth, but I have to say, put them under this broken pot and heat them until they are fragrant, then fill them with clear river water, sprinkle a thin layer of grains, and put some local Spice (Note 2) leaves, throw a few mountain mushrooms in... Sometimes they will have diarrhea, but most of the time, this pot of broth with a strong aroma can make them spend a good night.

The four of them were dumbfounded without saying a word. When the water in the pot started to bubble again, the young man who had spoken earlier stirred the bottom of the pot a few times with a spoon, and then took it down with stones and broken bricks. Simple cooktop.

"Drink something hot, it will be dawn soon."

He touched the cold back of his neck and pulled the neckline up a little.

It was extremely cold tonight... The young man couldn't help muttering again: "It's really uncomfortable, ah, I haven't had such a crime yet."

"Why, this can't work?" The young man stirring the charcoal fire stopped his hands, leaned back, and joked with a smile: "Is it from the south?"

"That's right, I'm from Narbo (Note 3)."

"The first province?"

"In the second province, my family lives by the Mediterranean Sea."

"Hey—it's really nice there, but why did you go so far to join the army? If it's in Second Narbo, isn't it very close to Italy? Go to the capital to find an errand, always Better than here..."

"You don't know, since the death of Aetius, not to mention how chaotic Italy is, the generals, senators and Augustus are busy attacking each other to seize power, and there is not even a decent speaker in the whole of Italy. The spirits of Carthage took the opportunity to ferry out to sea and attack every inch of the empire's coast—"

"There is no more sad day than this. People expect the five holy emperors to return to the mortal world, wipe out all ghosts and snakes under the leadership of the most holy, and let the glory of Omega (Note 4) shine again... "

"Shh." The young man watching the fire suddenly hissed, grinned and moved towards the veteran.

The young man who complained suddenly stopped talking.

What they were worried about didn't happen. The veteran just smiled amiably and joined their conversation: "So you moved to the north? Let me say that this choice is not very good. It's too cold here, isn't it? "

The young man who had been complaining took a few breaths, and couldn't help but continued: "Yeah...but my father has some acquaintances in Gaul, and he is very afraid of the Goths who live on the mountains in Italy, saying that sooner or later they will Destroyed Ravenna, as the Goths did before... He also said that the Governor of Gaul was a capable man, he was really great, just, and brave, and he called him "the last 'Romans', and expect me to have some errand here..."

"But it's not a good job here..." The veteran sighed: "It is said that the empire has formed an alliance with the surrounding barbarians, but I think Augustus' judgment is really unwise. They would rather give up their land. Give it up to outsiders—like the so-called 'Visigothic country' in the south, and they are unwilling to let their generals have a little bit of merit and a chance to take power... No, now the Augustus are all He died, but Risimer took power instead, and I heard that the Eastern Empire sent a new Augustus a few years ago, so I don’t know what’s going on now.”

The more the old soldier talked, the more he felt disappointed. In the end, he couldn't help but warn the young people: "If you have connections, you should find a way to return to your hometown after working for two years. Go to Paris, or any place in the interior. I think the Franks will sooner or later If you want to fight here, instead of dying for useless heads of state, why not go back and marry a wife and have a child, maybe you can have another Caesar?"

His words caused several people to laugh happily, but the momentary joy soon subsided. The young man watching the fire began to take a bowl to ladle soup for several people, and the young man who had been complaining sighed again: "The empire How did it become like this..."

All three got the soup, and it was the last person's turn.

The green-faced young man was still holding a piece of charcoal and drawing something on the torn piece of palm-sized bark. The veteran leaned over to take a look, and found that there were some incomprehensible words.

"Feng (Note 5)?"

The old soldier asked tentatively. The young man seemed a little lost, but when he was disturbed, he immediately came back to his senses.He looked up at the veteran, put down the bark shyly, and nodded at the veteran: "I'm listening."

"Eat something." The veteran handed over the bowl.

The steaming soup made the young man swallow his mouth water. He took the bowl, thanked the old soldier, and buried his head in looking at the broth in the bowl.

"You don't talk much." The veteran patted him on the shoulder: "It's not good, it's good, there are not many young people like you, people nowadays like to talk and use all kinds of weird ways to attract others He probably felt that as long as his voice was loud enough, he was right—let’s talk, boy, where did your family come from? The form of 'Feng' is not common, and it doesn't sound like a local. "

"That's right, my family is from the East..."

"Oriental? Are you Italian too?"

"No, it's farther than that." The young man smiled shyly: "I heard that they came from farther than the Eastern Region (Note 6)... My ancestors once lived in the Persians. I was a general, but I... we lost the battle in Samarkand, so we had to flee to Rome."

"Farther than the Eastern Region? Then..."

The veteran thought for a while, this shows that the ancestors of this young man should not be pure imperial people from Rome or Greece.

It's no wonder that he looks different from others... His overall body shape is thinner, his facial features are smaller, and his face is round. Although everyone has black hair and black eyes, he still looks like a woman. The slender ones... which have bad associations with old soldiers - big boys like this should be the most popular batch in public baths - but only noble citizens (Note 7) can enjoy such luxury entertainment.

But, whatever, these days even bird-headed people, things with long horns and long tails, and four-legged things can get citizenship. Foreigners can do whatever they want, at least everyone is still human...

In the end, the veteran gave up his original words, and changed to a slightly more cordial greeting: "... Forget it, Feng, have you found someone yet?"

"...Uh, I..." The young man was stunned for a moment, his expression became a little strange: "Uh, that... well, you can call me Linden, I'm used to it, as for my wife..."

His complexion was slightly complicated, as if the veteran mentioned something bad. After thinking for a while, he finally dealt with it: "I have a girl I like, but it's not going well...they..."

He moved his mouth a few times, but still didn't continue: "It's nothing. I will take revenge on her sooner or later..."

He looked a little sad, and the others saw that he didn't want to mention this, so let it go.

They started drinking soup and chatting intermittently about other things.

There are always a lot of gossip in the area close to the border, especially Pine Candle Castle is still guarding the intersection of Upper Germania, Lower Germania, and the Belgica trade road. Some carriage merchants who travel north and south often stop here to rest. The news they brought naturally stayed here.

There are good things and there are bad things.

Some people say that the White Knights of the Greater Sequanolon province have completed their reorganization. They are further replenishing their military strength and preparing to go north from the Swiss plateau into the Black Forest. Just like in the time of Octavian, they will once again demonstrate the power of the empire to those hateful barbarians. .

It is also said that the Great Khan began to change the target, preparing to let her orcs open a road from the Black Forest, from her Khan Court in Bohemia to the Lower Germanic Province-this sounds too exaggerated , but some people who have been to the eastern part of the Black Forest speak with certainty.

The worse news is that the governor of Beljica has disappeared.

The notice posted in the barracks said that she was attacked by a group of hunters with unknown subordinates, her guards were almost wiped out, and her whereabouts were unknown. Now Beljika will soon appoint a new governor to stabilize the situation, but anyway, since Even the governor is in danger, which will always make people feel panic.

They started to turn the topic to the orc, but Linden was taken aback suddenly, and slowly put down the bowl in his hand.

"The wind is a bit noisy today..."

He pretended to have his hair messed up by the wind, and casually picked up the helmet on the ground, but he didn't wear it, but placed it lightly on a raised stone seam beside his face.

The sense of crisis in his heart told him that someone was watching this place.

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Tips.1: The Roman organization in this article is a full ten-man team as the basic unit, including eight regular soldiers and two followers responsible for logistics.According to their qualifications, age and ability, the regular army has four ranks: light infantry, juvenile soldiers, youth soldiers and adult soldiers. When forming a phalanx, they are usually divided into different batches, with poor to good equipment.Lightly armed soldiers hardly appear in the regular army at present, but are served by "civilians" in areas conquered by the empire.