Chapter 3: Iron-Horned Horses
Hearing Morgan's words, Richard's heart moved.
"I have been in this world for six years and have been under the protection of my elders. It seems that this time my father arranged for us to capture the iron-horned horse, and he should want us to gain some experience."
Kent is Richard's eldest cousin, ten years older than him. Unlike Morgan, the lucky guy, Kent has not awakened the knight's bloodline.
After ten years of hard training, he has just completed the professional advancement.
His talent is very ordinary.
After the advancement, Kent did not join his father Soros's mercenary group, but joined the Sixth Battalion of the Northern Legion. He served as the deputy captain of the scout squadron under William.
In the Dawn Continent, there are four classes from top to bottom.
The top class is the hereditary nobility, whether it is the king at the top of the pyramid or the lowest hereditary baron, they all belong to this class.
The second class is the professional family, which is mainly composed of low-level officers in the army and low-level civil servants.
The Harland family has now developed to the top of this class. If you accumulate enough military merits, you can become a hereditary noble. If you take a step back, you may fall to the ranks of ordinary freemen.
The third class is the freemen class, which is mainly composed of urban residents, handicraftsmen, and small and medium-sized self-cultivating farmers. If freemen want to cross the class, unless they have a great opportunity, they can only fight with their lives, and very few people succeed.
In the past twenty years, there are no more than 30 families in Black River Castle who have advanced from freemen to professionals. If you expand it to the entire North, there are only a few hundred families, just like a carp leaping over the dragon gate.
There are millions of people in the North, and ordinary people can only be one in a million to become professionals, which is more difficult than Richard's top 2 in his previous life.
The bottom is the slave class, including serfs, labor slaves, and noble private slaves. Slaves have no freedom in life, and the opportunity to change their destiny is even rarer.
In this world where extraordinary powers exist, class solidification is extremely serious, and those who can cross the class can be called outstanding people.
Black River Castle is located at the northernmost end of the Dragon Canyon and is the garrison of the North Army.
The Grant Kingdom has been operating in Black River Fort for many years. There are hundreds of villages scattered around. The population of tens of thousands of square kilometers nearby is 400,000 to 500,000. It is the core territory of the royal family in the North.
The Knight Academy is located in the middle of the Dragon Canyon, 100 kilometers away from Black River Fort.
Richard and Morgan joined Hayden and rode fast horses for two days before arriving at Black River Fort. Kent, Powell, Roland, and Soros, four professionals, have been waiting for them for a long time.
Hayden is Richard's third brother and his brother from the same mother. He is two years older than him and has not awakened the knight bloodline. He has been in Grant Knight Academy for three years and is a medium-level warrior student.
Powell is Richard's uncle and is already a second-level warrior. After retiring from the Northern Legion, he opened a tavern in Black River Fort.
Roland is Soros's brother-in-law. He is just 30 years old, but he has become a fourth-level professional and serves the Mad Lion Legion. In terms of talent alone, he is better than Soros and is comparable to William.
After William became a professional, the Harland family experienced a tremendous development. With William's support, the two brothers successively entered the Northern Legion and successfully became professionals.
It became a top family under the hereditary nobility.
"The reason why I took you deep into the Eagle Mountains and into the range of the orc tribe this time is not only to capture the iron-horned horse, but also to let you gain experience in fighting the enemy.
We northerners encounter an orc invasion every few years. If we don't understand the enemy, it is difficult to survive in the war. Every northerner needs the experience of facing war."
Uncle Soros patted Richard on the shoulder and gave him a few earnest instructions.
February 8, 3252 of the Dawn Calendar.
The seven people rested for half a day, and left Black River Castle overnight to prevent leaks and entered the depths of the Eagle Mountains.
The time of this operation was already spring. After a long winter, the forest was no longer particularly cold, but there was still thick snow in the shade.
There are almost no villages in the mountains, and signs of human activities are very rare. After entering the Eagle Mountains for half a month, Richard couldn't even find a hunter's hut.
Everyone carefully searched the beast path, and suddenly Powell whispered: "Be careful, it's the feces left by the earth dragon beast. This place is not far from the earth dragon beast's nest."
"How big is the hunting range of the earth dragon beast?"
"The 60 kilometers around the nest are all the territory of the earth dragon beast."
Second uncle Powell is a retired old scout. He used to be the captain of the reconnaissance squadron of the fourth battalion of the Northern Legion. He not only has superb reconnaissance skills, but also has an extraordinary natural sense of smell, which can smell odors that ordinary people cannot detect.
This talent has allowed him to turn danger into safety many times and avoid several fatal dangers.
The earth dragon beast is a high-level magic beast. The adult earth dragon beast is a seventh-level magic beast. Some powerful male earth dragon beasts can even grow to the ninth level.
Even if there are two mid-level professionals in the team, there is still a risk of annihilation when encountering an adult earth dragon beast.
"Roland, go to the tallest tree in the west and have a look. Everyone else, leave here as soon as possible. Everyone, smear some of the earth dragon beast's feces on your body to prevent the earth dragon beast from smelling strange smells."
Many magic beasts have the habit of hibernation, and the earth dragon beast is no exception.
Earth dragon beasts in spring are very dangerous and extremely aggressive. They will kill all prey that enter their territory.
But earth dragon beasts in spring are also very valuable. The glands in the mouth of earth dragon beasts will secrete dragon marrow fluid in spring, which can be used to refine extraordinary potions containing dragon blood to assist the sixth-level knights to break through the realm.
If there is a knight of level 7 or above leading the team today, there will be a chance to hunt the earth dragon beast and get the dragon marrow fluid.
Soros is only a level 5 warrior, not a bold and idiot. He is surrounded by either sons or nephews, so he dare not provoke the earth dragon beast at all, and commanded everyone to stay away from danger.
The seven people were lucky, and they were not discovered by the earth dragon beast when they left.
After wandering in the depths of the forest for more than ten days, from February to March, they finally found the footprints left by the iron-horned horse. After three days of tracking along the beast path, thirteen iron-horned horses have been looming.
Iron-horned horses are low-level magic beasts. Adult male horses are usually second-level magic beasts, and some strong horse kings occasionally grow to third level.
Mares are usually first-level magic beasts, and a small number of them can advance to second and third levels.
This group of iron-horned horses is small in size, and there is no third-level horse king.
According to Powell's observation, four male horses have reached the second level, four ponies have not yet reached adulthood, and the remaining five mares have one second-level, and the remaining four are all first-level.
Magic beasts have thick skin and flesh, and can also use bloodline spells. In direct combat, their combat power is usually stronger than that of warriors of the same level.
Although there are no intermediate magic beasts in this group of iron-horned horses, their number is twice that of Richard's seven people.
If they are not careful, the seven people will be reduced.
The two families of William and Soros have more than a dozen children in total, and only Richard and Morgan are worth cultivating.
Morgan has awakened the blood of knights, and Richard has shown extraordinary talent.
If the two are lost here, even if the iron-horned horses are captured, the two families will lose their future.
Besides, Soros also loves his son and nephew, so of course he will not choose to act recklessly.
"Uncle, I am afraid we have no chance of winning in a direct fight?"
Soros nodded gently and said very confidently: "The most difficult part of this operation is to find the herd of horses. As long as the herd of horses is found, it will become very simple to capture the iron-horned horses."