Chapter 80, Dwarf Homeland and Mushroom Soup

"You may know, Keir."

Knight Crow fiddled with his neatly trimmed beard and said casually: "The land under our feet belongs to the Kingdom of Saint Halls. It was a reward given by the gods to a group of human heroes nearly a hundred years ago."

He paused: "The implicit meaning of this sentence is that this land was not the inherent territory of us humans at that time. At that time, the owners here were dwarves and a kind of alien race that was half human and half beast."

The knight opened his palm and waved it flatly: "The plains and forests suitable for habitation are the territory of the dwarves. As for the mountains, forests and valleys, there are alien tribes that are half human and half beast. Generally speaking, the dwarves are the original inhabitants of this area. Owner."

Knight Crow said quietly with a serious expression: "And the gods above."

He pointed his finger in the direction of the sky to show who he was talking about.

Kil understood that the knight was talking about the emblems of gods hanging in the sky with strange tracks in the sky. Here, people always refer to the most powerful gods by pointing to the sky.

"After the gods above handed over this land to human rule and settlement, the dwarves and the half-human and half-animal alien races here were in chaos for a long time. The dwarf countries have vast lands, and most of the dwarves brought them with them. Unwilling to move away, the foreign race, which had no place to go elsewhere, retreated into the mountains and forests."

"Let's not talk about anything else, let's talk about the dwarves. Not all dwarves are willing to be forced to move away from their homeland, even if this is originally the border of the dwarf territory and the population is sparse."

Having said this, Knight Crowe exhaled from his nose: "You can probably guess what happens next, right?"

Kil nodded: "They keep attacking the kingdom? And they have been doing this for a hundred years?"

"That's right, a hundred years. Boy, a hundred years is a long time for us humans, but it's not the same thing for dwarves. Those helmets with long horns on their heads only reach the human chest. The lifespan of a dwarf is at least two to three hundred years, and a hundred years is not that long. It is so long that you forget the homeland you left when you were young, your original hometown."

"Think about it, if a dwarf left this place as a boy a hundred years ago, then a hundred years later, he would be in his prime. If possible, they would definitely try to take back part of the original land. . Even the kingdom itself does not prohibit foreigners from settling in the kingdom. In fact, if you are lucky enough to go to the royal capital, you will find that there are many dwarves there. There are many excavations in the mountains near the royal capital. Minerals supply the dwarf villages and towns in the royal capital.”

At this point, Knight Crow pointed to the ground and said with a mysterious and exaggerated expression: "It's a village built inside the mountain! It's very interesting. In the past, we humans had to wear a metal helmet with a soft lining. .”

Kil asked a few questions about the royal capital. Knight Crow said a few words and then turned the topic back to the dwarves' attack. It seemed that Knight Crow didn't like the Royal Capital and didn't know what was going on.

"Actually, you heard how grand the war was described by the guard, but in fact, because the western border area near the western province is sparsely populated and the terrain is flat, which is convenient for the dwarves to attack, so not many people settled there."

"In that border area, there are more than a few strong castles, which were built to deal with the dwarves. Those dwarves whose heads are filled with mud and ore are also the most stubborn guys. If they don't uproot the human castles, they will not survive. Will bypass them."

He shook his head: "So, despite the intensity of the fight, in fact, both sides have stayed in place for so many years, still facing each other on both sides of the boundary stone erected by the gods. We can't fight out, and the dwarves have also entered the human world because of Later, his strength was greatly reduced and he was driven back repeatedly."

Kil rubbed his hands: "Sir, if you know so much, you must have been on the battlefield a few years ago, right?"

"Hmph, you wouldn't believe it if I said he wasn't there, right? Of course, of course I was there. I was one of the knights carried on the gryphon."

Just after he finished speaking proudly, Knight Crow realized that he had said too much, and then he kept silent, allowing Kil to repeatedly beg him to say more. Knight Crow would not say anything more about the Imperial Frontier Knights.

Afterwards, the two of them began to provide guidance on knight training.

Knight Crow plans to give Kil something new, so that Kil will stop asking him about things that cannot be said.

This is a little trick about the use of life energy in the human body.

In general, trainers like Kiel will use the life energy to flow into the legs along with the blood along the main blood vessels of the legs, and use this controlled life energy to assist the blood flow in the legs, as well as the legs. Maintenance and protection of body tissues during movement.

After such operation, the trainer can keep running at high speed until the life energy of the legs is exhausted, such as fast running, which consumes a lot of physical energy.

"But you have to pay attention. It's okay at the beginning, and the consumption of life energy is limited. The longer it lasts, the greater the consumption of life energy will be."

Kil scratched his head, hesitated for a while, and then told him about the power of the god of agriculture in his body and the blessed wood hilt on the sword hilt that could provide physical energy.

"Good luck boy. But the two are different."

Knight Crow thought for a while and said: "The divine power of the gods is a universal power. It is usually the reward that the church priests receive after serving the gods. It is really a waste for you to use it to maintain the physical strength of armor penetration. But generally Apart from developing new priests, few churches specifically give divine power to a warrior."

The knight narrowed his eyes and looked at Keir: "Unless they want to develop you into a lackey of the church."

"Sir, what you said is too harsh. I remember in the story whether it was called the Knight of the Church or the Knight of Blessing."

Kil retorted feebly.

"Boy, church knights and blessing knights are different. In fact, they should be officially called divine warriors. Divine warriors use divine power to fight in their bodies and use some blessed weapons and armors tinkered by the church. In terms of strength, they have some , but it is very difficult to become more powerful, unless you are favored by the gods, or hold a certain artifact."

The knight shrugged, mocking the direction of this force development.

"As for the church knights, they are actually ordinary knights who have taken refuge in the church. They mainly use the skills of knights to fight, and then add some ordinary blessed weapons and so on. They are not valued by various churches."

"The Blessing Knights are quite different. I heard that every part of those guys' bodies were blessed by the priests as blessing weapons, and they no longer looked like humans. Of course, such guys are usually found in those churches. The presence of force is maintained in the holy land. Unless the gods take major actions, there will be no blessed knights walking in the world."

After the knight finished speaking, he nodded to Kil: "Your boy was almost abducted by those guys from the Church of Saturn in Kendall City. If you hadn't run into me, you would probably still be trying to get rewards from the Church of Saturn. , and constantly traveling around to complete the tasks issued by various Saturnalia churches."

"Hmph, power is easy to come by, but you can't help yourself when you lose it. Remember this truth."

"The knight's life energy training is a real force that belongs to you. Because of the exclusivity of life, they can only be controlled by you and no one can take them away. No matter who you disobey or what you do in the future, they will I won't betray you, I will only follow you until the end of your life."

The knight stared closely into Kil's eyes, his expression extremely serious: "They are here when you are alive. They are not there when you die. Trust them! Just like countless other knights, they are promoted by the life energy produced by their own bodies. Now, go into your own life."

Kil took a deep breath and nodded heavily in response.

-

Afterwards, after the instruction, Knight Crow asked Kil to go back to his tent to continue training. He wanted to go out to inspect a circle of military camps.

When we returned to our tent, it was still raining sparsely. Therefore, the military camp specially chose a gentle slope with a slight curvature so that rainwater could easily flow through each tent without causing the trouble of water accumulation.

Lying in the uneven tent, Kil put his mind into his body. He first touched the wooden doll in the leather bag beside him. After being stimulated, Kil quickly sensed the sensations distributed throughout his body. of life energy.

After careful sensing, Kil found that the concentration of life energy in his body was about twice that of his previous body.

Not only that, in the trunk of the body, through the continuous operation of the digestive system and other internal organs, streams of new life energy are gradually added to the body through the blood and various body tissues.

According to the teachings of Knight Crow, Kil gathered all the life energy in his body, and then pushed it on the flesh and bones of the limbs, freeing up the torso of the body to allow new life energy to appear, and then he captured it one by one and joined them. Go to the seniors.

After mumbling for a while, Kil felt low on energy, so he got into the dog skin sleeping bag and fell into a deep sleep.

-

Although he was said to be a deep sleeper, Kil was still a very light sleeper.

When the rainy sky in the morning has not yet become bright, the cooks who went to bed early and got up early in the distance of the tent began to tinker with breakfast. Keir was awakened by the sound of the cooks pouring water into the cauldron and baking dry biscuits.

After clenching his fist, he felt that his hand was stronger than before.

According to Knight Crow, this process of accumulating life energy beyond the level of ordinary people is the most basic and important step in knight training.

Everyone has their own body's upper limit of life energy accumulation, and of course this upper limit is mostly different.

However, when the accumulation is overflowing, the foundation of knight training is finally laid.

The next training is how to use this life energy reasonably and naturally in combat. Defense, running, jumping, fighting, self-healing, etc. all have their own skills, and some knights have their own family or self-created unique skills.

For example, the Lanissa knight family, who also serve the baron in Kendall County, has a special method of seeing magic with the naked eye. Of course Knight Crow himself has some, but most of them are combat skills learned in the army and mastered in actual combat.

In this regard, Knight Crow was the first to say that he wanted to pass on the skills he had mastered to his family. Apart from the basic aspects of knight combat, Kil himself has to find and understand everything by himself.

But Knight Crow also pointed out some ways.

For example, Kil can go around to find famous knights as apprentices, and use himself as a servant of famous knights to learn their knight skills.

Or you can join an organization that controls a lot of resources, such as the kingdom's army, or some powerful organizations that have strict conditions for joining, such as the Imperial Frontier Knights.

Of course, local organizations are also possible. The big nobles naturally have many knights under their command, and they have mastered many knight skills. Kil can definitely join the small knights under the command of the big nobles, fight in them and perform meritorious service, and he will naturally be rewarded.

In addition, Knight Crow does not recommend that Kiel seek allegiance to a certain local noble like him. Although this is beneficial to social status and control of power, it is not good for the growth of his own strength.

After all, the local minor nobles did not have deep roots and had many affairs. Once Keir surrendered to the local nobles, it would be difficult to go further on the road of knighthood.

After getting up from the tent, Kil tidied up, then rode on another horse with a rain protection device installed on its belly. He walked out of the barracks and found Bloodfangster wandering at the entrance of the barracks.

"You haven't eaten, have you? Come in with me and have some breakfast."

Even though Bloodtusk took out a piece of baked dry bread from the hip pocket on his waist, Kil still pulled him back to the barracks to enjoy the freshly baked hot soup and dry biscuits.

The wheat cakes kneaded with coarse wheat flour and water are made thin and dry by the cooks on the baking iron plate that is carried in the car. If you eat it alone, it will cause some complaints.

But paired with the piping hot soup just out of the pot, everything is just right.

The thick soup was added with many prairie mushrooms that the logistics clerk and the cooks brought from the nearby village last night. These mushrooms were collected collectively by people in the village after the rainfall. The best batch of huge mushrooms were purchased at low prices by barter by Kendall's army caravan who entered first, and then handed over to the scribes in the army who came to collect supplies.

Although bartering is primitive, it is a suitable method for a village like Sleeping Wolf Village. A village like theirs located on a commercial road is rich in products. The villagers in the village can't use up all the food and drink they need, and the upper limit of population is right here.

Therefore, it would be perfect to exchange the surplus supplies with merchants for something they don't have.

As for coins, this kind of hard currency that can be exchanged for everything must be kept in your hands as long as possible. It is not only useful when paying taxes to the lord, but also once some disaster occurs, these coins will be even more useful.

Back to the topic. The thick soup with newly grown prairie mushrooms is extremely delicious, and it is pushed into the mouth with the broken dry biscuits, which just offsets all the shortcomings of the dry and hard wheat cakes. After chewing, the soup and dry biscuits reach a just right balance in the mouth. The soup is not too thin and watery, and it is not too dry and hard to swallow.

After swallowing it, even the cold and wet rain on the body seemed to be swept away, and my spirit and strength were revived.

Gil ate monster meat last night, so he wasn't hungry, but he just ate some to satisfy his stomach.

Bloodfangster, on the other hand, stared and ordered two bowls of mushroom soup, and even chewed three dry biscuits.

If the chef hadn't known Kiel and saw that Bloodfangster was an outsider brought by Kiel, the chef wouldn't have given so much food to this guy who was obviously not from Kendall.

"Okay, okay, are you so exaggerated? Our cook doesn't need you to show your attentiveness like this." Kilian pushed the Bloodfangster who was still eating, telling him to stop.

"Anyway, I don't see anyone around here giving me any money. Isn't it free food?"

Xueyaster said vaguely, but stopped touching the next dry biscuit.

He was a little embarrassed: "It's not that the food here is really so delicious, it's just that when I went back last night, there was no food in the caravan. They thought I would eat at your place, but you thought I would Go back and have dinner.”

Keir's eyes widened: "So you didn't eat anything last night?"

"I ate some dry food that I had reserved, and then went to the tavern in the nearby village to drink a glass of ale. Those damn villagers saw so many drinkers that they actually sold ordinary ale so expensively. What's even more damning is that there are so many people in the village. There are so many rich businessmen. They are all willing to spend money on cheap ale to show their strength. I can’t bear to drink even one glass.”

Keir patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay. When we get to a bigger town on the way, I'll treat you to ale."

"Really?" Bloody Fangster looked at young Kil up and down. He originally thought that the young man was bragging. After all, he had met countless reckless young people who relied on bragging to show off themselves.

But looking at Kil's whole body, he was wearing a complicated and tight full-cover hard cowhide armor, with a sword hanging on his waist that shone slightly in the dark weather. Bloody Fangster felt that Keir was quite capable, at least a young man with financial resources, so he shouldn't discount his words.

"What did you say? Then I'll wait for the next town we meet along the way. Let me do the math, it should be Rotten Feather Town. Just treat me to a drink there!"

Putting down the wooden bowl, Bloody Fangster patted Kil on the back and quickly settled the matter.

"Bad Feather Town, what the hell is it called?"

Kil and Bloodtusk rode out of the military camp. On the way, Kil asked about this town with a weird name.

"Harpies have always been a problem there, and the residents there wished that every flying animal in the world would rot their feathers, so they gave their town this name."

Later, Bloodfangster whispered to Kil in a mysterious voice: "I heard that there is no knight lord there. It's not that the higher-ups didn't send knights to guard it, or that the town didn't invite wandering knights to settle there. I heard, I heard. All the knight lords there died fighting the harpies."

"How can that town survive the invasion of monsters?"

"After all, they are monsters. They can kill people, but they cannot enter human houses. The residents there just need to build stronger roofs. Although they cannot destroy the harpies, the monsters cannot do anything to the people in the town. "

As they spoke, the two walked out of the military camp, and then started to get down to business. They bypassed the nearby village and started from the other exit gate of the village to find the guiding stone pillars that guided the business road.

When passing by the wall of Mianlang Village nearby, Bloody Fangster spat in the direction of the village, muttering something about wanting money.