The Journey of the Demon Hunter

In any case, he needs a means of transportation. Maybe he can find a farmer or merchant who sells old horses in Upper Aden. He doesn't need many gold coins, twenty crowns, and he can almost get a suitable mount. The good horses produced in the Kovind area are short but strong, suitable for long-term driving. Most of the horses in the kingdoms of Aden and Leiria-Livia are also Kovind horses. It is the backbone of Ridania’s economy, and the horses bred by Ridania’s horse farm are only suitable for horse racing and viewing.

"If you want to join the merchant's union, you have to pay a large amount of coins." The merchant is right. Most of the truck is made of cloth, and there are some locked boxes, which are probably the tools and coins he carried. Pen and paper, it is difficult to buy these things in Aden, because pen and paper, like their product books, are of little value in Aden.

"How do I know that the unions in the north have such regulations." The Ebin urged the poor gray horse that had been drenched on the back of the hut yesterday, and followed the path Zelin told him. "When I passed by Leiria At the time, the local city actually charged entrance fees, but these entrance fees were not placed in the city hall or used in the place where it should be used. It is impossible to imagine that I even saw people pouring excrement on the road, everywhere It's a disgusting smell, but the city guards and the mayor are indifferent to behaviors that may attract plagues. And I can't find a toilet in a city, even if it's just a temporary pit dug out. ."

"I can imagine." Actually, there is no need to imagine. Many places are not much better than the city that the merchant passed by. "And you will have to endure the same situation for a long time, unless you are willing to go to the city near the King's Castle. "

I have to say that these southerners always have some strange ideas, just like the many new equipment they showed in the war before the Battle of Sutton Hill, such as hand crossbows that can be used with one hand, and iron pills instead of expensive ones. Crossbow arrows. Although the Aibin is only a businessman, Zelin can still get a lot of useful news from him.

Emperor Enhill cleaned up his army after the war. It is said that the Emperor suddenly became opposed to the war of aggression. The attacks on Sintra were all done by opposition parties within the empire. All this was not the emperor’s order, but those who disobeyed his order. As the marshal did, blood flowed from the guillotine, and people's heads rolled under the guillotine.

At least eight generals were publicly executed. As for those who died mysteriously, those who died suddenly of illness, and those who voluntarily resigned were countless. People now say that the south bank of the Yaluga River Nifogad is quiet like a rat in a church. It is with this tranquility that the trade routes between the south and the north begin to gradually recover.

Of course, maritime access is still blocked. Skellig is the only country in the northern border that has not signed a peace agreement with the empire. Their pirate leader, Crazy Quay, the sea boar, is still burning and plundering on the western coast of the empire. This is why the Aibin people choose not to take a safer waterway, but choose to come here through Leiria.

"The huge number of membership fees will only hinder the development of the union. It is really stupid to hope that the way of profiting is to charge huge fees to members." The Aibinren unceremoniously criticized the behavior of the northern businessmen. "I originally thought that other northern merchants were the same as Cowell's colleagues, but now I understand why other colleagues are unwilling to accept this job. There are also these swamps and woods, people should not put roads in these dangerous places. "

"No one wants to take long roads, but some roads are so dangerous."

Forests and swamps, these are places where demon hunters can receive entrustment. When visiting villages outside forests and swamps, people often put papers on signboards and doorways that desperately need demon hunters. Sometimes lumberjacks never return, and sometimes family members go out but never come back.

But it has to be said that even so, the commission is not so easy to find. Zelin once could not find the commission for four consecutive months. There are always people who say that there is no need for demon hunters, but when they encounter creatures such as deer head monsters, female monsters, or demon giants, the soldiers of the kings also need demon hunters to help them solve the problem.

"But the king's army should always do something, they should protect citizens who pay taxes."

Southerners always have many whimsical ideas. Along the way, he said many interesting things to the demon hunters. For example, in the Imperial College, someone proposed a concept called citizenship. The professors believed that the emperor should delegate more power to the imperial council instead of Treat the parliament as an advisory body. Of course, in the end, those professors seemed to have resigned due to family and personal reasons.

A group of whimsical people.

"What you said...what is that?"

"Shares."

"In other words, as long as I give you part of the money, not all of it, when you make money, you will give me part of the gold. Am I right?"

"Yes, I don't need all of them." Ebin, after two days of journey, he told the demon hunter, Ignatz Sweet, the standard southern name "If more people can participate in us We can make more money in our business activities. After all, not everyone has the money to build a trading post, but this kind of cooperation can make more people become successful businessmen."

"I don't have the idea of ​​being a businessman. I am a demon hunter. There are many monsters waiting for me to solve. There are other things that are more important than making money waiting for me to do." Zelin shook his head. He really needs money. , But the money is not all "But what you said makes me quite heart-shaped, I have a part of gold here, if you want, I can make some...shares?"

"Oh~ this is really great, we should go to the city and sign a contract."

"Contract? What is this, power of attorney? You can give me one, but it is not important. I have other more important things to do. After a month, I will come to Shang Aden again. As long as you are not lying to me, you don't need to worry about anything, Ebin."

Chapter 208 The Truth of Gold

Pierrot Swordsmanship.

When demon hunters encounter battle, they often face more than one enemy, just like the main enemy they have to deal with. Water ghosts, evil ghosts, and ghouls, these three types of ghouls are not so powerful among monsters, but when you meet one of them, you must be prepared to face three or four at the same time, because They are never lone creatures, so demon hunters need corresponding swordsmanship to face threats.

Seven ghouls, from seeing the Aibin people until they came to Upper Aden, these are all the monsters captured by the demon hunters. The Ebin's truck happened to pass by a ghoul's lair, and the demon hunter killed the ghouls who were active outside, and then used a bomb to blow up the lair.

He thought he would encounter some robbers. After the war, the kings would not pardon the deserters in the war. These deserters might throw away their weapons and armors, flee to other places and start a new life, but More will come together and become thieves and robbers.

But now it seems that the cold winter makes these possible gangsters hide in their lairs like a rat whose spine has been interrupted.

In fact, all kinds of monsters that can be called monsters may be social creatures. Kill these monsters, this is the goal of a demon hunter. The world is full of evil, so they only use their own eyes to guide themselves and eliminate any evil things they encounter on the road. They work like this when they receive a reward order, and the others just let the flow go. In other words, actions are everything, goals are nothing.

The cold wind and white snow constitute the winter in the northern border. On the road from Van Geborg to Upper Aden, the rut presses a long trace on the mud until it is completely washed away by a rain.

The businessman from the empire arrived at his destination safely. He had to find the local merchant union. He had a lot to do, but it had nothing to do with the demon hunter. Zelin would not become a businessman. What he had to do was simple. Go to the market in the town and take a look. As long as the area has not been washed away by the heavy rain, he should be able to find someone willing to sell horses.

In the town, unexpectedly, Zelin found a paper on the notice board with the need to hunt a demon hunter. This paper was pasted for a long time, and the writing on it became a little blurred due to wind and rain, but It can also make it clear what has been written. In the ruins of a castle next to a quarry outside the city, there seemed to be traces of ghosts. It seems that this piece of paper has been pasted for a long time, but it is surprising that there is no demon hunter to accept the commission.

But Zelin didn't plan to take it. Winter would pass soon, and he had to get to Kyle Morhan as soon as possible. This commission does not look like a simple thing like cleaning up monsters. Anything related to monsters will not be so simple. The reason why monsters stay in the world must have certain reasons, and finding these reasons will always cost money. A lot of time.

"Thank you for your investment. Please accept this contract. If possible, you can go to the headquarters of the Kevel Company. By the way, please remember to say my name." Ignatz Sweet prepared him The contract is handed over to the Demon Hunter. After his explanation, Zelin almost understood what the contract he was talking about was, but it was just a very complicated contract. As Zelin had seen, the old dwarf would also write a contract when buying wood, but most of them were just a few sentences stating how much the buyer bought and how much, plus a few sentences about the delivery date and the quality of the goods. Then he signed the names of both parties, but Nilfgard Merchant, he wrote a full seven pages.

"Don't you feel that these things are too much?" The demon hunter looked at these three things called contracts. Damn it, it's all professional language. Zelin did not know the specific activities of the trading company, but he could see that this was something that an expert could write.

"Of course not, we should be more rigorous, so as to reduce unnecessary disputes as much as possible."

The demon hunter found a way to deal with ducats. Ignatz believes that as long as it is gold, it is valuable, no matter which king's head is printed on the outside of the gold coin. So Zelin and the merchant quickly reached a consensus that all the ducats that caused Zelin's headaches were handed over to Ignatz, and the price was regarded as the price of half a crown.

"A small contract will not cause disputes either."

"No, the contract is not reliable, because the fewer words, the more loopholes." The businessman shook his head, bouncing off the sawdust falling on his shoulder. The Nilfgard people are very efficient. Zelin only stayed in this town for one night, and the merchant had actually negotiated the location of the trading post with the local chamber of commerce the next day.

Zelin shook his head and put the paper away.

"How did you persuade them?" He looked at the place that was still being repaired. Five workers were busy inside. "Let the union provide you with workers?"

This was a Nilfgaard. When the Imperial army broke through the city of Sintra and caused the Sintra massacre, more than 6,000 people died. The local trade unions were also massacred, and the tragedy passed only eight. Months.

The demon hunter still remembered how outrageous the unions in the north were at that time. But now, it seems that nothing has happened.

"I have always believed one thing, that is, gold has no borders." The capable businessman frowned. "But one thing is certain, even for gold coins, it is impossible for these workers to remember to wash their hands before eating. It's really bad, this one. No one in the city seems to know the importance of hygiene. Even if my job for them today is just to build a simple toilet near the construction site."

"I guess you are busy." The demon hunter shrugged. "I will probably be back within a month. Passing by Shang Yadian, it should not be difficult to come here to see your work. I hope you can take it with you. Come to the value you talked about."

Thanks to the war that made monsters rampant, whether it was an existing monster or a monster that later became a monster, Zelin earned a lot of commissions on the front line, so he was able to establish an academy, but it will be a while. Peace, the demon hunter doesn't know how long the peace will last, just as he doesn't know whether he can earn the gold coins that the academy will need in the future in peacetime.

If there is a place that can provide him with a stable source of gold coins, although I don't know if the problem can be solved once and for all, it can at least spare him time to solve other problems. For example, what Zelin is doing, go to Kyle Morhan, for this you can ignore the suspicious ghost entrustment on the notice board. The former demon hunter never neglected any commissions, after all, he had no money.

"I wish you all the best, Demon Hunter."

"Good luck to you, too." Supervisor Zelin glanced at the surrounding streets. "I suggest you hire some guards. Taking advantage of the retired veterans in the city, tell them that you are from Kovier, don't say anything. The nonsense of Bin and Nilfgaard, and." He lowered his voice, "Don't trust the workers introduced to you by the union."

"Is this a warning?"

"No, just a little life experience."

PS: At that time King Bran was still alive, but in the novel, it was Crazy Quete who led the pirates to plunder the coastline of Nilfgaard.

Chapter 209 The Trip to Kyle Morhan

The budget of the demon hunter originally did not include part of the money given to the Aibin people. Taking into account the excess expenditure and the sparsely populated areas of Ben Ade and Kelmohan, Zelin began to strictly control his own food. It is winter. Food The price was far beyond what it should have been. In the tavern, you could buy a piece of chicken coin, but now you can only get a piece of black bread, and Zelin does not intend to waste his nervous gold on food.

Zelin rubbed his frozen hands. The coldness in the Kovind area was as usual. Gloves made of griffon leather were not as good as cotton gloves in terms of cold protection. He no longer knew how many times he had rubbed them like this. The cold wind is constantly pouring in from the gap between the neck and the clothes. They are everywhere and pervasive. The steer that the demon hunter sat down was snorting, walking step by step on the ground made of gray rocks.

From Upper Aden, across the Ponta River to Ben Ade, I did not encounter any problems along the way. At least for now, Kovind is far from war. This kingdom has a small population. Correspondingly, there are also very few thieves in the kingdom, because mountains and forests are inaccessible places, even if thieves set up camps there. , It is estimated that for a few months, you will not encounter passing travelers. The most obvious is that when Zelin left the border of Ban Ade, the road that could barely be called a sidewalk even ceased to exist.

Desolate, this is a place where humans rarely set foot, but it is a paradise for monsters. The castle of the demon hunter was built here, precisely because the monsters here can easily hunt what they need, whether it is the fur of the monster or the mutant. It's just that hundreds of years have passed, and the monsters remain the same, but most of the demon hunters have become bones under the riverbed of Kyle Morhan.

Zelin urged the horses into a valley covered with gravel. Next to the valley, the river named Gwenliqu---Baishihe rushed forward. He carefully controlled the mount to walk on the shallows. Any stepping on the air can cause the mount to stand unstable, throw the demon hunter on the back into the river to feel the low temperature of the river. But this river pointed out the direction for Zelin. At least one such river would be better than staring at a series of gray mountain walls and snow-covered peaks all year round.

Demon hunters almost knew about Kyle Morkhan and its famous and difficult road. Many people can hardly imagine that on this vast expanse of land, among the mountains with high peaks, lies the castle called Caera\'Muirenhen---ancient sea fortress in ancient Chinese. . Of course, this castle has long lost its glory. This fortress stands on the edge of the civilized world and is located in the blue mountains in the territory of Kodwin. It has been forgotten by the world for a long time, and few people know the way to the castle.

The stream is relatively shallow, and here is the upper reaches of the Baishi River, and the current is worthy of a horseshoe. Zelin walked on the gravel and pebbles by the river. The river took him out of the valley and into a vast basin covered by forest. Surrounded by mountains, horseshoes stepped on the dry branches, making shrill cracks. The familiar roar sounded in the distant sky, pterodactyls, and possibly other dragon-like creatures, their voices echoing among the mountain peaks.

Kyle Morkhan was not far from here, Zelin estimated his journey, and it was less than March, the demon hunters he was looking for should still be in Kyle Morkhan.