readx; As July approaches, the temperature in Thoratin is rising again and again. If you don’t take the tree-shaded paths or both sides of the avenue, but walk directly along the middle of the unobstructed road, you will easily be exposed to the sun. Heat stroke.
The hot and airtight protective gear greatly increased the physical exertion in the increasingly hot weather. Considering the difficulty of water supply, after careful consideration, Henry and Mira decided to remove the armor, wrap it up and put it away. On horseback.
It’s easy to see why armors that are lagging behind the times, such as mail armor and lighter leather armor, are still popular among mercenaries and adventurers today. Although plate armor and piercing armor that use more metal do cost more to build. More expensive, but that's based on the full set of configurations. If, like ordinary mercenaries, they only wear breastplates and a few wrist guards and leg guards, the price difference between chain armor, pierced armor and plate armor is not as outrageous as most people imagine.
The forging process of ordinary mail armor, regardless of iron smelting, starts directly from the finished metal. First, the blacksmiths will put the whole piece of metal into the stove, and soften the metal through high temperature like any other forging. Using a hammer, pliers, and iron felt, start pounding and pushing and pulling out the shape.
But this alone cannot make mail armor. No matter how superb the skills are, few people can make iron wire with a uniform diameter using only hammers, iron pliers and iron felt - or in other words, the cost of doing so will be too high. high.
After knocking and stretching the rough shape, the blacksmiths will take out a special tool made of an iron plate several millimeters thick - a wire pull plate.
There are several holes of different sizes on the top of the solid iron plate. Putting one end of the softer wrought iron in and pulling it out with force can force them to become wires of the same diameter. Then cut off several sections of the same length, make them into circles on the iron felt, join them together and fix them with rivets.
Mail armor, invented centuries ago, is now a relatively outdated piece of armor. Made of wrought iron, it can only protect against the edge of a sword. Even with rivet links, it can protect against piercing attacks. The strength is also unsatisfactory.
Coupled with the time it takes to work, in fact, slightly more capable blacksmiths are more willing to make a pair of armor or plate armor than mail armor - and even the mercenaries and adventurers who are still using them today, Most of them use a whole piece of cowhide as the lining, and a small piece of mail is added to the key parts as an enhanced composite lightweight armor, instead of customizing a complete set of mail.
The price is high and it lags behind the times. In fact, many of the people who are still seen wearing full-body mail armor on the battlefield today can be traced back to find that their ancestors were actually nobles or warriors in a certain place.
In other words, the mail armor on their bodies may have been passed down for several generations, or it may have been obtained from a second-hand dealer somewhere.
Returning to the original point, in short, Mira, who missed the light armor paired with her previous leather locks, felt the unbearable heat of the weather, while the group kept moving forward.
After becoming a blue-label mercenary, as long as there are tasks to take on, there will basically be no such situation as making ends meet. The money earned at the previous hotel was not consumed much during the past few days of travel. However, money is never too much, and where there are people, there will naturally be commissions. exist.
Yesterday evening, there was a drizzle of light rain in the sky. This seemed a bit rare in the midsummer in the Thoradin region. After all, it was usually either too hot to death or heavy rain.
Rain, something that Mira was annoyed about a while ago and would make everything wet, now seems to her like a precious savior. The Luoan people are a relatively northern nation. The Ecasta Plain where she lives is not as hot as here. Mira, who is not well adapted to the local climate, has not had a good night's sleep for several days in a row. But that’s how it is when traveling around. The girl’s mental state was not in the best shape, but she gradually adapted to it.
After a night of light rain, the temperature dropped somewhat, and Mira slept peacefully that day. But rainy days are good and bad. Although the temperature has dropped a lot, tending the campfire has become more difficult.
In the tropics at the height of summer, campfires do more than just keep wild beasts away. The mosquitoes that fly in swarms in mid-air near ponds and small puddles in the evening are more terrifying than leeches when they suck blood. It was fine when I started to move. If there was no bonfire to drive me away when I stopped to rest at night, I would be lucky if I only woke up with itchy red bumps all over my body.
The same is true on rainy days. Although the number of mosquitoes will be greatly reduced, the absence of a campfire will still cause a lot of trouble.
The waterproof linen stretched between the tree trunks covered the sky above the campfire to prevent rain from falling and wet the firewood, but it also limited its size. In order to avoid fires, the bonfire must be limited to a certain area and not too much firewood can be added at one time. The problem directly caused by this is that someone must wake up every two or three hours to add firewood to keep it burning.
This customary rule of multiple people working together outside was actually originally born to guard campfires. Even though people today don't need to go to the trouble of drilling wood to make fire or the like and can easily light a fire with the flint and steel they carry with them, but Considering many factors, it is better to have someone guarding the campfire.
Mira can already know these details of knowledge, but when she and Henry act together, the sage rarely lets her worry.
Silent care, Henry would never deliberately mention these things in anticipation of Mira's gratitude. To him, this might just be a matter of course.
…
Time passed slowly, and towards noon, the feeling of hunger began to linger. Because the weather was so hot in the morning, the four of them didn’t even think about lighting a fire to cook. They drank water, ate the bread, and moved on. At this time, the physical exertion of a morning, even if they were just moving forward, was at a temperature of over 40 degrees. It is also quite tiring.
There are no human settlements for a long distance past the middle section, but as if to balance all this, when Henry and the four of them slowly walked through this section of the road, they came to a point where they could hear the flow of Chun Chun. Somewhere along the sound of the stream, a multi-person settlement that was more or less a village appeared in front of them.
The reason why you notice it is because a lot of trees and bamboos on this side have been cut down.
The most common tree species in tropical rainforest areas are balsa trees and palms. Let’s not mention the latter for now. The main reason why there are so many balsa trees is related to human activities.
The extremely fast-growing balsa wood is a dominant species that emerges first in the rainforest after a storm. When big trees that take tens or hundreds of years to grow fall down, trees that grow faster will naturally have an advantage in competing for their vacant sunny spots.
Human felling has the same effect as storm damage. The light and soft balsa wood is not suitable as a load-bearing material for houses, so more and more of it is left behind.
The impact of human production activities on the natural environment is obvious. Coupled with the more eye-catching narrow dirt road, a group of people walking near the intersection could easily follow it and see the village with smoke lingering inside.
"village" is not yet considered. As we said before, what exists here is just a small settlement composed of twos and threes of idle people. But even so, these few houses next to the creek look like It is a pretty good supply point.
"Let's go." Henry held the reins and walked forward first. Because they were not in a hurry, and carrying two people with supplies on their backs would require too much effort on the horses, so the group always only used the horses as equipment carriers, and then walked on foot.
The soil under your feet is dry on the surface but relatively moist inside. When you step on it, you can feel that it is not completely dry. This is obviously because the nearby vegetation retains moisture and blocks the sun.
But after walking out of the trail, the settlement we went to was sunny again. The trees were cut down and a large area was opened up. There were about seven or eight houses scattered in twos and threes. It was difficult to determine the specific reason because some of the houses were next to each other. It's hard to tell whether it's two families or just a woodshed.
The stream winding down from Lake Leyika in the rear reflected the sunlight and showed a little bit of silver. Two civilians wearing sunshade hats made of vines sat on the rocks beside the stream as if they were fishing. Henry and the others The group of people was obviously not the only one who chose to come here to resupply, because they were noticed by the residents next to them as soon as they came in, but the other party did not react much to it.
Every move of human beings can always reveal detailed information about the kind of life they live. A young man who is new to the world may be excited and longing for a noble and beautiful daughter. The descendants of nobles who live such a life will be more indifferent to it.
Excitement and surprise will wear off as the number of contacts increases, and will eventually be replaced by habits. If we focus on the current situation, there is no panic or fawning over the arrival of the heavily armed group of people with mercenary signs, which is proof that these villagers are used to mercenaries.
"Supplies?" This resident, who also wore a bamboo hat, said in half-baked West Coast Common Tongue. The place where he was standing was in the middle of a small field, and the surrounding environment was covered by bamboo fences. He rolled up his sleeves and the exposed skin of his hands was dirty and covered with dirt.
"Yes, what are some?" Henry stopped. Mira behind him looked around curiously, while the civilian Corey Conrad took out several large belts from the pile of vine leaves on the ground. Tubers covered with soil.
"Potatoes?" Mira, who looked quite similar and had never seen them before, couldn't help but admit her mistake. The white-haired Luoan girl frowned, while Emonica behind her let out a "puff" of laughter.
"That's a sweet potato..." The blond girl who seemed to have returned to normal explained to her: "The weather here is too hot to grow that. It's also delicious, sweet potato."
As a native of Thoradin, she obviously knew more about these things. Mira looked carefully and saw that the trees in a large area nearby had been cut down, obviously to make room for sunshine in the sweet potato field.
According to Emmanica’s explanation, this kind of crop that does not require much fertilizer can grow very vigorously under sufficient sunlight, and unlike cassava, which is toxic, most sweet potatoes can be directly roasted with fire. edible.
In addition to tubers, its leaves are also a kind of food, which is obviously unmatched by other yams.
As long as people in small settlements carve out such a small area in a well-lit area behind their houses and put up fences to prevent wild deer from eating the leaves, they can basically be self-sufficient or even somewhat prosperous.
"The big one is three dannuos, the small one is one dannuo and two." The local resident, who could only pronounce "dannuo" very clearly, gestured and said. Henry nodded, then took out some coins and started to buy.
"Let's go refill the water and see what else there is." Emmanica smiled at Mira and said this. The two girls took off the water bottle from the horse, and then brought some coins with them. Ran to the front.
"Huh..." Joshua behind him stretched, and the long sword at his waist swayed slightly due to his movements. The red-haired swordsman sighed, and then sighed.
"It's so leisurely——"
…
With only one silver coin spent, the group was fully supplied again. It was still early at this time, and because there were no spare rooms in the residential villages here, they decided to move forward again.
The hotels in the Core Conrad area usually have some connection with the mercenary guild, or in other words, in this mercenary country, if you don't have a connection with the guild, you can't even open a hotel. Therefore, going to the hotel in front to inquire or accept missions while resting is what most idle mercenaries who have not received escort missions will do.
But he needed to fill his stomach before moving forward. Considering the storage time and portability of the horses, Henry did not buy too many sweet potatoes. When Mira and Emmanica ran to fill the water, they bought a lot of dried fish from the residents' houses there. After all, fresh fish is difficult to preserve in this weather, and as a gateway to the dock On the road, there is naturally no shortage of sea salt for pickling.
The firewood made a "crackling" sound, but the pot was not placed on it. After they were burned into charcoal, several sweet potatoes were put in, and then new firewood was covered again, and then small twigs were put on the dried fish to stand beside it. barbecue.
The roasted sweet potatoes that took a lot of time to bake are a bit hot to the touch, and eating hot food in the already hot weather makes Mira feel sweaty. However, when paired with two, the sweet potatoes have a sweeter taste than potatoes and are salty. The fragrant little fish made her very hungry.
Time passes and traveling with someone is always such a joy. (To be continued.)
