Chapter 11, Confirming the Direction

Ryan's hand first walked eastward along Nord's royal capital of Winter City, along a road, passing through a large number of towns and forests, and his fingers came to a place covered by white deserts on the map: " The first road is to take Keith Avenue eastward, at the end of which is the giant snowfield desert left by the original wizard empire-Tazir Desert, and then pass through the Roof of the World Mountain Range ruled by the dwarves to the Dark Realm, where the worship of Chaos The huge wasteland ruled by the chaotic ogre, Belt can find his home there... But he did not take that road, because the road is too far away, more than two thousand kilometers, and Tazi That place in Er is a barren land, and the area close to two-thirds of the size of Nord has only three cities, no towns and villages - most of the land is severely polluted by alchemy and cannot be cultivated, so it is extremely difficult to obtain supplies , and then even if Belt passed through Taziel, he would have difficulty passing through the Roof of the World Mountains guarded by the dwarves. The countless extremely complicated mountain paths and underground tunnels are enough to drive Belt crazy, so we can basically rule out him going this way The possibility of a road, and the fact is as we imagined, Belt chose to go west."

Everyone nodded, no one would choose to go with Tazier.

"Second, go west, go north, go to the wasteland of chaos through the port of Lapland, and meet the northern barbarians entrenched there." Ryan touched his chin, and shook his head: "This is a choice, but the north Every port is heavily occupied by the army of the Nord Kingdom, and every ship heading to the wasteland of chaos will encounter severe investigations. Based on Belt's rich experience, he will never choose to take such a big risk, the evil god His will will make him violent, but it won't make him stupid."

"Then the remaining choice is..." Ryan's hand continued to move westward along the Mien Forest, and everyone's eyes moved accordingly, and they saw Ryan's finger pointing at the Adar River, the river that runs through the Mien Forest. The Adal River flowed down, and after passing through a few villages, Lane's fingers came to a port city.

"Kalzenhaven?" Teresa whispered, her beautiful silver pupils slightly widened, her vermilion lips pursed.

"Well, this is Belt's third way, which is to go to sea from Nord's western port, and find a way to go to the south. Britannia, which believes in the fairies in the lake, and a powerful empire are naturally not in Belt's consideration. Inside, the southern country where beliefs are chaotic and the evil god of chaos is openly worshiped as a god, or Marienburg, the largest port and trade center on the mainland where people come and go, where fish and dragons are mixed, is the place Belter wants to go to."

"Mr. Ryan's words are good, but this does not mean that Belt will definitely go to sea in Carzenhaven?" Wirth raised his own doubts.

"Indeed, if not for this." Ryan took out a piece of bloody paper from his arms.

That was the death message written in blood by the dead old witcher: "Belt X Aesthetic Society."

"Aesthetic Society?! Isn't that... isn't that an organization established in Marienburg by a group of scholars and socialites who are famous for their efforts to spread beauty?" Teresa opened her mouth in surprise, she couldn't believe it.

Aesthetic Society is a well-known organization on the mainland. This organization is composed of a large number of well-behaved and attractive upper-class people who follow fashion trends. It advocates the pursuit of "beauty" and leads people to "love and harmony".

"Yes, it seems that because of Belt's defection, more and deeper secrets were involved. No one thought of holding regular salons, sponsoring art groups in more than a dozen cities in ten years, and giving countless art youth training opportunities. It has something to do with chaos." Ryan frowned even tighter: "We have no way to be sure that Belt will go to Karzenhaven, but I can be sure that he will definitely go to the western port and take a boat to Marienburg!"

"And our opponent is already a day ahead of us,

As long as he goes to the western port to go out to sea day and night, and then hides at the joint between Marienburg and the Beautiful Society, then it will be difficult for us to find him. "

Everyone was frowning.

Marienburg was originally a part of the empire, or it is now also a part of the empire. This port is located at the place where the three great rivers of the empire meet and enters the sea. It is the number one port in the world. Marienburg has unique geographical conditions. Here is A plain with a pleasant climate and suitable for living, but also dangerous terrain - the deep-water port, which can handle tens of thousands of tons of throughput, is surrounded by two peninsulas, and the mountains on one side are natural barriers.

Tens of thousands of caravans travel to and from Marienburg every year. Astonishing gold continues to flow into this rich and huge port city, but rarely flows out. It is the Iris family that rules Marienburg, Marienburg The Grand Duke is very likely to be the wealthiest person in the world, because very few forces can issue orders to him. After the end of the second Chaos invasion 150 years ago, the restructured new empire was in shambles. At this time, the previous Grand Duke of Marienburg suddenly found Ludwig, and he took out an astonishing amount of wealth. It is reported that it was at least ten years of fiscal revenue for the empire. In exchange for the right of autonomy in hand, it was included in the founding ceremony. Since then, the empire can only collect a defense fee from Marienburg every year, and must not interfere in any internal affairs of Marienburg.

Many people have objections to Ludwig's behavior, thinking that he is splitting the country, but Ludwig said meaningfully: "The reconstruction of the empire urgently needs an amazing fortune, and the chaos in the north will eventually return. , being too comfortable and seeking pleasure is not good for fighting chaos."

Therefore, Marienburg is in a "no matter what" zone. Apart from paying a huge amount of defense fees to the empire, the amazing taxes all flow into the pockets of the upper nobles of Marienburg. Every year, countless refugees and The mercenaries came and went in and out of the city, looking for opportunities to get ahead. There are also huge and extremely complicated underground tunnels under the city for smuggling and hiding goods. If Belt escaped to Marienburg, he must be fished out again. It's hard!

"It is already difficult for us to catch up with Belt, so what we have to do now is to go to Kaltzenhaven, because Kaltzenhaven is the closest to here. After arriving in Kaltzenhaven, the Justice Church will help us check the recent record of going to sea, and we will continue Go after Belter." Ryan made a plan, and his remarks were recognized by everyone. It is actually useless to travel starry night now. On the contrary, if the movement is too loud, it is easy to be noticed by Belter, so Ryan's plan is not to panic. He hurriedly went to Karzenhaven according to the normal schedule, hid himself, and waited for Belt's next outcrop.

With the clue of the Aesthetic Society, looking for Belt will not be like finding a needle in a haystack. There are several ports on the western coast of Nord. With the strength of the fallen hunters, it is impossible to send so many people to see the dead one by one, and the distance is extended. , can only choose this way.

"Okay, then we will go to Karzenhaven tomorrow. According to our speed, we will leave at 7:00 tomorrow morning and arrive at Karzenhaven at about noon. At that time, Ryan and I will go to the Justice Church and ask for their news." Teresa nodded Said, Boris and Werther both agreed, so many things happened today, the sorceress was very tired, after everyone set a specific action plan, they left separately.

It was already late at night, and the place where the camp was set up was on a rocky hill. Ryan saw Teresa barely walking with a staff, and took the initiative to support her jade arm wrapped in long white lace gloves: "Let me help you Do it, dear Ms. Trovik."

The sorceress squinted at him and felt a strong sense of support from her arm. She didn't refuse, but sighed in a low voice: "Are you thinking about my body when you offer not to rush? Then you don't have to." Don't worry, my current situation is much better than you imagined, and I will be able to recover tomorrow."

"Oh? Really? Don't lie to me, don't say tomorrow, you won't be able to recover within three days, right?" Ryan directly exposed the sorceress' lie.

"Tch, you are responsible for my safety during this time." Teresa's lie was exposed, and her pretty face blushed, as beautiful as a ripe peach. A proud and arrogant female spellcaster would feel uncomfortable in such a situation where she was at the mercy of others.

It can only be said that Ryan knows too much about spellcasters.

Spell casters are roughly divided into three systems, namely wizards, shamans, and warlocks.

Wizards use their rich knowledge and exquisite magic manipulation ability to cast spells. They can theoretically learn all known spells. They consume their own magic power to construct spells and then complete the spellcasting. Therefore, to release a spell, wizards need to know spells In addition to spells, they also need to know how to construct spells, so a wizard from an apprentice is trained to be a great wizard who can stand alone. The money is used to support them, let them experiment, learn, and even grow up through repeated failures. Most of the money is wasted, which makes many farmers have children with magical talents but have no money to train them. However, they can only be sent to the Church of Magic to be apprentices to other wizards. Many children's magical talents are wasted in the apprenticeship work year after year.

Unlike wizards, shaman's spellcasting is not so much a spellcasting as a guide. Shaman's magic power comes from the magic elements wandering between heaven and earth. They communicate with the power of elements through totems and meditation, and use their own magic power To guide the magical elements between the heaven and the earth to complete the casting, the shaman can cast fast and consume less mana, but the casting is severely restricted by the environment. For example, in the icy and snowy land of Nord, the shaman cannot release fire magic. In an area where the magic elements are chaotic, the shaman may release a water cannon to hit the enemy and become a spa treatment, but help the enemy to heal. In some areas, the magic elements are scarce, and the shaman is no different from a normal person.

Finally, there are warlocks. Warlocks are known as "tall, rich, handsome, and rich and beautiful" among spellcasters, because they are born to cast spells. The origin of warlocks is rather strange. Some people suddenly have the ability to cast spells after experiencing a storm. Some people also have the ability to cast spells after some adventures in mines or beast lairs, but the vast majority of warlocks appear because of blood, that is, one of his or her parents is a spellcaster, and the spellcaster has The blood of magic power will be passed on to the next generation, and they will automatically learn to cast spells as they grow older. They often don't need to know how the spell is constructed and what the principle of spell casting is, because those things are engraved in their blood. They only need to chant the spell according to the scriptures to cast the spell.

Just because they are born to cast spells, warlocks often feel superior to others, and they disdain those who work in the mud all day long, so warlocks will not appear in the good camp, that is, there is no "Holy Mother" and "fraternity". In Ryan's mind, if necessary, Teresa could sacrifice these mercenaries without hesitation in exchange for a chance to escape.

There is no perfect profession, and the ability of a warlock to cast spells is also limited. For example, if the blood of a warlock is the blood of a great wizard of the thunder system, then he may not be able to learn one or two healing spells in his entire life, even if it is the simplest. Similarly, it may take years for a warlock with fire blood to master a simple water spell.

The warlock's spellcasting relies on the power of the blood, so Teresa forcibly urged the power of the blood to cast the spell when the magic power was exhausted at that time. The result was that the body was seriously overdrawn. In a few days, not to mention the magic power, even the physical strength was in serious condition. trough.

"With me here, don't worry, I will protect you just for Ms. Aurora's face." Ryan first smiled, and then the corners of his eyes quickly turned up: "But I am not yours." Maid, I hope you understand."

"I know, no one would treat a kingdom knight as a servant." Teresa nodded. The woman was reminded by the man, and realized that her tone was a bit like the tone of a servant at home.

Aurora Trovik, the elder of the Garland Council, saved the life of Ryan's adoptive father, Norman. That was before Ryan was adopted. The specific situation was only when the young knight Norman was fighting against the barbarians on the battlefield. Man was knocked off his horse and almost died in battle. Aurora's spell saved his life. Although Aurora didn't take it seriously, Norman always kept it in mind. For this reason, Ryan was willing to let Teresa a little , willing to take good care of her.

However, this does not mean that he is willing to give her the current person and bodyguard. The relationship between him and the sorceress is complementary, they are companions, not subordinates.

Helping the sorceress to raise the curtain of the tent, Ryan said with a smile: "Good night, Teresa, may you have a good dream."

"Good night, Ryan."