Ten kilometers south of the plantation, at the junction of the black forest and the artificial cotton forest.
More than twenty heavily armed half-elf soldiers were scattered everywhere, patrolling the surroundings vigilantly. Mayor Mine was wearing a gray-brown rainproof leather cloak, squatting on the ground, holding a crystal lantern with one hand, and using the candlelight in the lantern, he carefully examined the corpses of the three humanoid creatures.
They were naked and laid flat on the muddy ground. They were less than 1.7 meters long. The muscles on their waist and back were extremely developed, as if they were carrying a thick shield. Their whole bodies were covered with a layer of dark red horny skin. They had flat noses and wide pointed ears. There are two outward-turned fangs on the lower lip of the mouth, and horny skin accumulates on both sides of the forehead, forming two small horns, making them look even more vicious and ugly, like a demon crawling out of the abyss.
Mayor Main's expression at this moment was rare and serious, and his usually gentle and wise eyes were also covered with a layer of gloom, just like the dark clouds in the sky.
"He is indeed a half-orc warrior."
Main muttered, stood up, and whispered to the guard captain beside him: "Joseph, cut open their stomachs and see what they have eaten."
After saying that, he walked to the other side carrying the lantern. Big George, who was inspecting the orcs' relics, noticed that the mayor was coming, and said to him angrily: "Sir, the weapons and equipment of these three orcs are very special. They don't look like the orcs of the Blackfire tribe."
The orcs' belongings have been sorted and placed on the ground by Great George, which include three pieces of gray animal skin crotch cloth, three stone axes, ten pointed stone spears, and several pairs of animal tooth accessories. They don't look like anything special. place. The plantation's blacksmith, George, picked up a stone axe, took it to the mayor, and explained: "I have never seen this kind of stone."
Main took the stone ax and immediately felt its heavy weight, so he handed the lantern to Big George, holding the stone ax in both hands and looking at it carefully. He was surprised to find that the material and workmanship of this stone ax were excellent. The wooden handle of the stone ax was curved and suitable for chopping. The ax body had also been carefully polished. The blue stone reflected the faint light of the metal material. The ax blade was sharp and the back of the ax was sharp. It is thick and heavy, and a balance stone is installed at the end of the ax handle, which can be used for cutting, blunt blows, and can also be used as a throwing axe.
Ordinary orc warriors don't have the ability to do so many tricks with just a stone axe.
Through this exquisitely crafted stone ax, Myne judged that its owner was definitely an elite warrior of the orcs.
Stone tools play an important role in the history of the Dragon Kingdom. Whether it is the Orc Kingdom, the Blackfire Tribe, or the Disa Alliance, they all have a tradition of polishing stone weapons. Because Dragon Kingdom and its surrounding areas are rich in a variety of special stones, their toughness is no worse than metal. The rock elves particularly preferred stone tools, which led to the stone processing technology of the Disa half-elves reaching a very high level for a long time. The half-elf stonemason even invented a pottery stone processing technology that can produce extremely sharp pottery arrowheads, which are several times more expensive than metal arrowheads.
The disadvantage of stone weapons is that the processing process is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It takes at least more than a month to polish a stone spear, making it difficult to popularize them.
Later, the great sage Marv invented the smelting and casting technology, metal weapons were forged in batches, and armies were armed one after another. Only then did the rock elves' rule over the half-elves fall apart. Due to the popularity of iron tools, the military power of the Disa Alliance was once far ahead of the Blackfire Tribe and the Orc Kingdom.
Until the barbarians also learned to cast iron, the orc army of the Blackfire tribe gained the military strength to compete with the Disa Alliance.
Blackfire Orcs do not forge iron or farm. They regularly plunder the iron tools cast by the barbarian compatriots and the harvested grain. There is basically no decent weapon found among the barbarian tribes living on the other side of Lake Braun. The only benefit the Blackfire Orcs have to their fellow barbarians is the covenant they signed with the Disa Alliance.
If the Disa Alliance army dares to sweep away the barbarian tribes, the Blackfire Orcs will retaliate. Similarly, the Blackfire Orcs cannot take the initiative to attack the border strongholds of the Disa Alliance, otherwise they will be regarded as a full-scale war by the Disa Alliance.
Although the Peace Covenant is ineffective against half-elf adventurers and barbarian raiders, the regular legions on both sides are very restrained.
In the Braun Town area, it is bounded by Lake Braun and the Krill River. The west bank of the river is the territory of the Disa Alliance, and the east side of the river belongs to the territory of the Blackfire Tribe. Blackfire Orcs could not cross the river, and the Half-Elven Guard would not go to the east bank of the river.
Now, three elite orc warriors appeared in the black forest on the west bank of the Krill River, and happened to bump into the Qin and Whistle adventure group conducting camping training. There was a fierce battle between the two sides, and the three orcs were wiped out by the adventure group. But this is never a good sign.
It was the responsibility of Mayor Mine. After receiving the warning from Captain Charlie, he had to bring someone over to see the situation.
The thick trees in the forest blocked the freezing rain and blocked the skylight. Several half-elf guards held up crystal lanterns for lighting. The candlelight cast on the trees with knotted branches, leaving strange and swaying shadows. Captain Joseph squatted on the ground, dissecting the orc's corpse. The dagger cut through the muscles, and the sound of colliding with the bones made the surrounding atmosphere inexplicably terrifying.
Anne and Katie from Jean and the Whistle Adventure Group both looked disgusted. They would rather stand in the pouring rain at the edge of the forest than get close to the orc's body.
Mine raised his head and glanced at them, then turned to the leader of Qin and the Whistle Adventure Group and said: "One good news, one bad news. Let me tell you the good news first... The top stones that can be used to make weapons in the Dragon Kingdom are 4 types, less than 11 types of precious stones. But the stone material of these stone axes does not belong to any of them."
"Look, the polishing process of the stone ax is pretty good, but the blue texture of the stone is very beautiful, and it must contain unknown ingredients."
Charlie looked delighted and asked respectfully: "Sir, are you saying they are very precious?"
Main nodded and said with a smile: "This kind of stone may be very common in its place of origin, but nine times out of ten, it comes from outside the region. I initially judged this kind of stone to be top-notch. If you hand the stone ax to Stevenson, you will definitely get it from him." Reward. Maybe, they will also be included in the tribute list of the Dragon King Palace, and they will be ranked among the unknown treasures."
The Dragon King Philumat spends most of his time sleeping in the nest city, and his servants are responsible for collecting various treasures for him. When the Dragon King wakes up, the first thing he does is take stock of his treasures. If the tribute handed over by the Dragon King Palace satisfies him, Philumat will be very happy and even allow the treasure giver to enter his nest city to live for a period of time.
The nest city of Philumat once belonged to the holy land of the ancient rock elves. Legend has it that it is the throne of the Earth Mother, which has incredible mysterious power and can enhance the life level of living things.
The professional level and life level of Disa League are completely different. The most intuitive comparison is that fourth-level half-elves have longer lifespans and younger and stronger bodies than fifth-level professionals. If the life level of Disa half-elves reaches level 5, they will transform into rock elves and master the extraordinary power of lava or ice, but their character and will will not become like the Taku tribe or the Hemer tribe.
Even on the outskirts of the Dragon King's Nest City, if half-elves perform the secret ceremony of sublimation, the success rate of being promoted to a high-level professional will be greatly increased.
In order to get a spot to enter the Dragon King's Lair City, all the prominent highland families in the alliance were competing for their chance.
Carl, Thomas, Annie and Katie from the adventure group all ran over, grabbed the three stone axes and played with them. Charlie deliberately ignored the actions of his companions, bowed deeply to Mayor Mine, and said sincerely: "Sir, you are a famous sage in the alliance, can you issue an identification document for us?"
Mine burst into laughter, waved his hand and said, "It's been almost ten years since I was expelled by the city-state council to this miserable place... Appraisal document, you'd better let Stevenson find a way. I don't want to get involved in the affairs of the famous highland families anymore."
Charlie sighed regretfully and asked again: "Sir, do you think the other trophies we captured have any special value?"
Myen picked up an orc warrior's crotch hide from the ground, rubbed the leather back and forth with his fingers, put it under his nose and smelled it, and said: "The leather has not been tanned for a long time, it should not exceed 6 Months. The material of the leather... looks like mouse skin to me?"
Katie saw Myen sniffing the orc's crotch cloth with her nose. Her little face was wrinkled and she looked like she was about to vomit. But when Myen said this, she immediately jumped over and stretched out her little hand to carefully touch the leather. , said in surprise: "It really looks like mouse skin... There are no traces of sewing and pasting. If this is a complete piece of mouse skin, how big must the mouse be?"
Mayor Mine twisted his gray eyebrows and picked up another necklace of animal teeth from the ground. The animal teeth strung on the hemp rope were also of a type he had never seen before. The teeth were in the shape of triangular slices, and the blades had fine serrations, like sharp razors. He pondered and said: "Orcs have the custom of making ornaments from the teeth of powerful enemies. I have never seen such animal teeth, but judging from the luster and wear of the tooth ornaments, they were also made 6 months ago. It was made into a necklace, which coincides with the time when the animal skin was tanned... Maybe, they come from the same kind of monster. The monster's size is estimated to be about the same size as a tiger..."
"Lord Myen, I have a result here." The guard captain in charge of dissecting the orc corpse suddenly shouted.
Mine turned around and walked over quickly and asked, "What do they eat?"
Joseph pulled off his blood-stained leather gloves and said in a deep voice: "They are all frozen birds. They haven't even plucked their feathers. I can recognize them at a glance."
Mayor Main's face instantly turned ugly. He shook his head and sighed: "Frozen birds...the easiest food to get in the forest during the freezing rain season. This is the bad news I'm talking about."
He was silent for a moment, frowned and said: "These three orc warriors were surrounded by more than 20 people from the Qin and Whistle adventure group. They were able to kill two young adventurers and injured Captain Charlie. They are all elite orcs. Fighters. If they were in the Blackfire Tribe, elite fighters like them would at least be equipped with metal maces and a set of hard leather armor, and the raw materials of these stone axes come from the outside world... I speculate that this group of orcs are not fighters of the Blackfire Tribe, but A scout from some foreign tribe."
Charlie nodded and said: "We also speculated at the time that they were half-orc fighters from the outer tribe. However, why did they choose to abandon their territory in winter and migrate to the vicinity of Lake Braun? Isn't this looking for death?"
Mayor Myen said solemnly: "The elite fighters act as scouts and do not carry enough supplies with them. They rely on picking up frozen birds in the forest to satisfy their hunger...the living conditions of these orcs are very bad. From a common sense point of view, the reproduction of rats They are very capable and have a large number. Suppose that the reproductive ability of that kind of rat monster is similar to that of ordinary rats, and it attacks the territory of these outland orcs. It would be difficult for the orc tribe to deal with the hordes of rat monsters alone. So these orcs Wait until the end of autumn this year to slaughter the livestock in the tribe, and then migrate the whole clan to take refuge. Just in time, the freezing rain season can cover up the traces and smells left by the migration of the orcs, so that the rat monsters cannot track them..."
Captain Joseph said: "Your Majesty's speculation is very reasonable... At present, we don't know the size of this orc tribe, but if they started to migrate and take refuge in the late autumn of this year, and walked for more than three months to the vicinity of Lake Braun, They have traveled more than 1,000 kilometers anyway. Their food rations for the winter have become a big problem."
Myne nodded and said: "The orcs from the outer realm invaded the territory of the Blackfire Tribe. According to the tradition of the orcs, their butchers must of course challenge the butchers of the Blackfire Tribe, go through the test of blood and death, and complete the integration of the two tribes. This is none of our business. Chief Blackfire will send out his most capable butchers to deal with these invaders. However, the Outland tribe's food rations are tight, and there is no guarantee that they will not attack Braun Town and the plantation. They don't know that the Blackfire tribe has No matter how powerful it is, it will not abide by the peace covenant signed by Blackfire and Disa."
"We should send out scouts to detect intelligence on the orc invaders. However, according to Disa's alliance with Blackfire, the Braun Town Guards cannot cross the Krill River and enter the Blackfire tribe's territory to perform reconnaissance missions." Looking at Charlie, he nodded and said, "This kind of thing needs to be done by adventurers."
The regular regiment of the Disa Alliance consists of 30 soldiers forming a small team, 4 small teams forming a squadron, 3 squadrons forming a large group, and 10 large groups forming a legion. The awakened ones in each legion must account for at least half of the total force, and the awakened ones are the main combat strength of the legion. In top-level legions like the Rock Giants, all legionnaires are awakened, and the number of professionals accounts for one-third of the total force.
Charlie was born in the Rock Giant Legion, and he knew very well what the Border Guards were. What's more, the Braun Town Guard does not even have the strength of a squadron, so they cannot be expected to resist the orc invaders. Of course, the ones who can really defend Braun Town are not adventurers, but the brave and capable female warriors of Hemer.
The relationship between the Taku and Hemo tribes and border officials is extremely cold, and that does not mean that Mayor Main is an exception.
"I understand." Charlie nodded to Mayor Mine: "Lord Bartome of the Adventurer's House once participated in the February War. He has very rich combat experience and knows how to deal with the orc invaders. We here Just go to Braun Town to find him.”
Mayor Main relaxed his frown slightly and said, "Well, take the corpses of these three orcs with you, and I will send two more people to go with you."
Normal updates will resume tomorrow.
