Mercenaries and Adventurers

In a panic, Keel picked up the broken metal window from the silver metal plate, put it back in place and jammed it. He opened and closed it twice, and found that it was still broken. It couldn't be seen when it was closed, but it would fall off when it was opened.

"It's not useful, it's too delicate, but the furniture design is only a superficial learning." Keel talked nonsense, and quickly found someone else's fault for his own shame.

He talked more and more vigorously, and even reasoned: "Human wooden windows are made of wood, which is relatively light, so the opening and closing parts can support the overall weight of the wooden window, but this little thing, the wooden window is all made of metal. , but the structure of the opening and closing has not been strengthened or redesigned. It’s really hard work.”

Keel himself believed his own words, so after closing the small metal window, it was almost invisible, and he quietly moved his **** away, and sat on the edge of the pond to eat.

After a while, the goblin came back riding a huge snail shell. Keel took a look and found that the snail shell had carried a lot of dangling mushroom 'people'. They were the ones he had seen before who could walk around. The poisonous mushroom brother.

The goblin was so proud that he rode the snail shell around his metal hut a few times and whispered something to his mushroom friends.

Those poisonous mushrooms have no faces, mouths, or even eyes. Although they have small mycelium feet that can move, Keel doesn't know whether they have intelligence.

A few mushrooms shook their bodies and seemed to 'say' something, and the little goblin squealed happily.

Stop the snail shell, and a group of them came down. The mushrooms wobbled and fell off the snail shell one by one, but these mushrooms were also strong, shaking their bodies, the little feet of the root fungus twitched a few times, and re-opened again. Get up.

Led by the goblin, they circled the small metal house a few times, and soon got into the metal house.

Crouching outside the hut door, Keel stared inside and saw that the happy goblin had prepared several plates of rotting sawdust for his mushroom friends as a delicious treat.

I have to say that this guy has some skills in taking care of mushrooms.

Poisonous mushrooms, big and small, are very fond of the rotten wood chips on the small metal dinner plate, and the hyphae get entangled, and after a while, they wrap it and tie it on the stalk.

Estimated to be walking while eating.

The goblin took his friends and started walking towards the second floor of the metal hut. At this time, Keel held his breath and watched carefully.

The small metal window of the first room on the second floor was opened, and the goblin introduced some incomprehensible words to the mushrooms. Then they went to the second room on the second floor.

Squeak—bang!

The goblin said the window was half open when the metal window fell with a thud on the silver panels outside.

The little goblin stopped talking halfway through his muttering, and the mushrooms wobbled around to 'see' what happened, but the little goblin screamed and pushed his friends to the third room.

It seems that nothing just happened.

Kiel just exhaled, but when he raised his head, his glowing eyes met with the small eyes of the goblin who turned his head to look over.

Keir has good eyesight, and he saw the doubt and sudden understanding in the goblin's eyes, so he hurriedly said, "Wait, there is something wrong with the design of your window."

So Kiel spoke out all his so-called assumptions and theories in a single brain. At first, the little goblin felt that it seemed to be his own problem, but then it repeatedly opened and closed the small metal window in the third room, but this window After more than ten times of opening and closing, they are all stable.

Now it didn't believe Kiel's nonsense, and jumped up and down in the room angrily, while Kiel laughed in embarrassment, picked up the removed steel helmet, and prepared to run away.

Seeing that the 'huge' human was about to run away after destroying its new house, the little goblin rolled its eyes a few times, wiped a few on its mushroom friend with its hands, and then turned towards the back of the human with a wave.

A small puff of shining powder flew out, flew up far away to catch up, and threw it on Keel's body.

The goblin laughed, but Keel felt itchy on the back of his neck.

-

Keel climbed out of the carriage, although in the dream he watched the goblins tinker with the house, invited mushroom friends to visit, and ate some hard-to-chew jerky monster meat, but in fact the outside time had only passed a few breaths.

After coming out, Keel looked at the sky, held a rope, carried the suspicious wooden box dug out of the bandit's lair, and walked towards the stream to the south.

Curious about what Keir was doing, Bloodfangs followed him.

"At first, I thought this thing might be some kind of treasure, but at the time I thought it was very likely that this thing was a trap."

Keir briefly told Bloodfang what happened before.

"Then you will bring this thing back? Wouldn't it be better to leave it where it is forgotten?"

Xueyasite was a little puzzled, and Keel shrugged and explained: "The metal box with the killing mechanism before actually contained coins. This box is much bigger, so it shouldn't be possible to keep all valuables. ? As far as I can see the cunning mind of the bandit leader, emergency escape routes should be set up in the trap area, and coins should be contained in the box with traps, so this?"

The meaning is self-evident, a cunning bandit leader will not do anything in such a cunning trap, and there must always be room for him to argue.

That is to say, a trap is left, and there is also a place for him, or other cronies who know about it, to argue.

For this complicated thought, Xueyaster was speechless and could only curse the weirdo a few words.

"It's a dead man, haha, how can I control so much, I can't believe this kind of insidious guy, after asking him what he said, he broke his neck. Hmph, that guy wanted to take his The old lover is going to die together. But the price given by the lady Feignia is not low."

Kiel talked about how the two confronted each other, and Xueyasite gritted his teeth: "This lady doesn't sound like a nice person, why did you bring her back?"

Keir waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, she can't hurt us people. This kind of person, alone can't do evil, and must be paired with other simple-minded people to be dominated by it to cause harm. At least we are with her There was no intersection afterwards."

"Okay, you think it's okay, that's all."

The two came to the bank of the small river where there were still a lot of blood and high-temperature flames.

Find a place away from the open space and put the wooden box down where it will not face the open space. Keel fiddled for a while, removed the lock on the top, and tied the rope to the wooden box cover. After that, he held the rope and walked away step by step. this thing.

"Find a place to hide!"

Calling his companions, Kiel took off his elven metal shield and blocked it in front of him.

"Are you ready? I'm ready to open it!"

Keel asked Bloodfang not far behind him. He stood closer because of his full metal armor and shield.

Xueyasite found a rock on the river bank, squatted and hid behind: "Okay, I'm fine, let's drive."

"Then drive! Go!"

Keir repeatedly pulled the rope on his right hand, and soon the rope on the ground was straightened, and then he pulled it again, pulling the lid on the upper part of the wooden box to open backward.

Crunch - bang! Jingle jingle jingle! !

First there was a bang, followed by the sound of metal colliding and scattering.

Keel's sharp eyes saw that the top opened from the wooden box sprayed a large pile of deadly metal spikes upwards. These metal spikes first flew upwards, and then fell in a large area around them.

The design of this thing is insidious, the metal spikes that fall are heavy at the bottom, so the sharp points are pierced downwards, and the bushes, grass, streams, soil, and stones are all pierced by these spikes.

Kiel quickly put the shield on top of his head, and then there was a knocking sound from above his head. He turned his head to look at Bloodyaster, and found that this guy had already seen the situation badly, and rolled backwards a few times, away from the falling range of the metal spikes in time.

"Good guy, not to mention the complicated and insidious design of this thing, I guess the production cost of this thing is not low."

With a shake of the shield in his left hand, Kiel threw aside more than a dozen metal spikes on the shield.

And Bloodfangstore recognized it by the light of the luminous magic pendant on Kiel's body.

"Keir, I know what this is." He didn't dare to get close to the range where the metal spikes fell, and said a few meters away: "I heard about this thing from friends of other caravan guards. It seems to be some A large chamber of commerce that is not short of money, specially prepares a cargo trap for itself in a large number of goods."

"Oh? Tell me carefully."

Keir didn't take care of the things in the wooden box first, after all, the things were left in place, and they wouldn't run away with long legs.

Just as he was about to take a few steps in the direction of Bloodyaster, and approached to speak, he felt a sharp object step on the sole of his foot. But fortunately, his combat boots are also made of metal. Not only are the bottoms filled with steel plates, but there are also metal spikes on the boots that can firmly step on the ground.

With a flick of the soles of his feet, Kiel looked down and saw the metal spikes in the trap that fell on the ground. It was in the shape of a shuttle with two pointed ends, but one end was heavier and the other end was thinner, which ensured that the thing would be effective when it fell. Kill unprotected personnel within a certain range, and after falling to the ground, as long as the ground is not particularly hard ground or rocks, the soft ground will let the heavy end plunge into it, and the light end face up, and then entrap the enemy. .

After slapping his mouth, Kiel awkwardly walked out of the attack range of the trap by lying on the soles of his feet.

Bloodtooth was carefully picking up a metal spike with a bush branch at this time, pointing to it and said to Kiel: "The name of this thing seems to be 'Death Spike Rain'. It's a big one, it's specially made by craftsmen. The purpose is to randomly mix in a batch of goods with trap boxes containing such death mechanisms, so that the bandits who rob the caravan will touch them unintentionally. After being eliminated, the next time I will no longer use their chamber of commerce's idea."

After observing for a while, Xueyasite seemed to have figured out something, then gently pinched the metal spikes with gloved fingers, and looked carefully: "I heard that in order to increase the power, this kind of spikes will be specially designed before they are placed. It was poisoned last time. However, the toxicity of this one seems to have expired, and there is no sign of venom or poison powder on it."

Keir raised his eyebrows: "So insidious?"

"Of course, the purpose of the big chamber of commerce is to use the stuff announced in advance to deter the bandits on the road who want to attack them. You don't need to prepare a lot, a few are enough. Confidential information is mixed with ordinary goods. Among them, except for the steward in charge of the caravan, no one knows if there is such a deadly mechanism that can kill a dozen or even dozens of people at a time in a batch of goods."

Xueyasite even said mockingly: "A few years ago, this thing was popular for a while. At that time, a fellow caravan guard who was drinking with me said sadly that our jobs were gone, and we would be eliminated by this kind of thing. Lost."

He shook his head.

Keir smiled and said: "But no, right? The long-distance freight transportation situation is complicated, how can it be handled by just a few dead things? For example, the harpies we encountered on the strange wind grassland before They. Those monsters don’t know if there is a killing mechanism in the goods, and they don’t care, they just want to eat people.”

"It's even possible that human goods are directly discarded in the vast grassland and left to rot."

Xueyasite smiled self-deprecatingly: "I didn't think of this level directly like you did at the time. At that time, everyone was terrified. For a year or two, the hiring price of guards was kept very low by those peddlers. But everyone was worried about losing their jobs, so no one felt wrong."

"What happened next?" Keel asked.

"Later? Later, haha, it's very simple. I heard that after the bandits knocked down the caravan with reduced guards, they directly asked the arrested trade union staff, the trade union manager, to open each box of goods they carried one by one. The bandits Then they used bows and arrows to shoot guns at the person who opened the box from a distance. Oh, it’s that simple, the matter has been resolved.”

Kiel was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing.

After a while, he recovered from his joy, took the metal spike in Xueyasite's hand, looked at it and said: "Tell me, can this thing deal with the defeated army who looted the population later?" Use it online? As a means of mass destruction?"

Blood Fangster rubbed his chin: "I'm not sure, this thing doesn't seem cheap, whether it's the construction cost or the reloading after use. Moreover, the artisans who reload such a complicated mechanism seem to be only available in big towns. Are there places with more chambers of commerce? Like the previous Montoka City?"

"We don't want to go back because of this matter." Keir said, pointing to more than 600 young refugees in the open space: "And there are still these people who have to be resettled."

Speaking of this, Blood Fangste had no choice but to ask questions, so he said to Keir: "So, why do you bring all these oil bottles? This is a problem that can't be solved."

Keir knew that his companion would have such doubts, so he quietly told him what he hadn't said before.

"Well, is it to save the people of Changmai Village who were rescued? And the strong sympathy between you and Priest Batar? Well, although I can't understand it, but let me tell you, you will regret it sooner or later. Food, water , sanitation, moving, camping in the wild, keeping warm, and now it’s spring, look at the sky, it’s raining, the smaller ones are okay, the bigger ones, they will get sick one after another when they are weak.”

Bloody Fang patted and said: "Not to mention whether priest Batar can manage it alone, if he can't, the herbal powder and herbal water for treating diseases are a lot of money. Don't tell me You never thought of me."

Kiel waved his hand and said perfunctorily: "Okay, the harvest tonight is actually not small. Although there are a lot of people lost, the supplies and looted goods obtained from the bandits, not counting coins, can support them for a long time."

"You are the boss, you have the final say."

In the end, Xueyaster's reminder and advice ended, as long as Keel, a young knight, knew what he knew. He, an old caravan guard in his thirties, didn't need to repeat it until he annoyed the other party.

-

Since Keir planned to reinstall this good-looking murder and anti-theft mechanism, he asked Blood Fang to find a group of careful young refugees in the open space and pick up the metal spikes that fell around.

And he himself waded on the ground and came to the opened wooden box to see what was in the mechanism trap box that had not been opened after being obtained by Barney the mountain wolf.

The opened box turned to the sky, revealing a complex composite mechanism made of metal and wood, and he even saw burn marks in the space at the bottom of the mechanism, which resembled the burning and deflagration of gunpowder.

He didn't know if there was gunpowder or something like that in the other world, but it looked a lot like it.

Carefully remove the upper mechanism of the fixed and solid wooden box, and there is indeed a snow storage area that occupies a small half of the wooden box. But to Kiel's disappointment, there were no valuable gold coins or valuable goods inside. On the contrary, there were only some yellowed letters in small wooden boxes.

He opened the little wooden box expecting a box full of precious jewels or gems, but instead there were delicate yellowed letters, or rolled parchment.

When Keir was speechless, he opened the letter at will, and he didn't know the words inside.

It is not written in the common language of the empire, but letters written in the high noble language.

He opened the rolled parchment and found that these words were also written inside.

This made him very frustrated, and Keir was not convinced, so he took them apart and checked them one by one.

Finally, he discovered that a letter in the corner was not written in a high-level noble language, and he was finally able to understand it.

"Let me see what it is."

With the illumination of the luminous magic pendant, he carefully read the words on it.

-

[Trade request to the Tinder Cotton Chamber of Commerce]

[Our chamber of commerce urgently needs a batch of high-quality worsted velvet cotton cloth, the quantity should be 2,000 rolls, and the quality should not be significantly lower than the sample sent back by your chamber of commerce. 】

[These velvet cotton cloths, last month when we wrote this trade request, we specially used the sample provided by your chamber of commerce to make a set of winter warm underwear for the wealthy class in town~www.readwn.com~ I have to say, This kind of special cotton cloth that can automatically absorb the heat generated during activities and automatically release heat evenly when inactive is really shocking, and everyone who tried it praised it. It never occurred to us that the Southern Kingdoms would have this much-needed fabric for those living in the colder north. 】

【They have a wide range of applications, not just warm clothing for the human body. Our good friends, the amount of heat insulation in the manor outside the city of the nobles will be greater, and these gentlemen can also afford higher prices. 】

[Not only that, we have connections, and I heard that the master magician also needs this special cotton cloth to provide natural and automatic insulation measures for their expensive mysterious devices. 】

[So, regarding the exclusive right to operate the northern franchise of velvet cotton cloth, can we find time to discuss this matter specifically? 】

[Even if the road is far away, it is worth a trip for this. After receiving the letter, please send this batch of worsted velvet cotton cloth to our chamber of commerce through a safe channel. As for the money, it has been deposited in the kingdom treasury. Please use this letter to receive 20% of the purchase money every month. You can get 40% of the money for two months before we receive the goods you want to buy. 】

[The remaining payment will be collected immediately after we receive this batch of goods. The whole process of this trade transfer is guaranteed by Kingdom Treasury. Please ship as soon as possible after receiving the letter. 】

-

Keir was a little speechless after reading this thing. The 40% of the money that can be received directly by letter is probably not a small number. If these yellow letters were opened and read by Mountain Wolf Barney, this guy probably would have taken it with him. Madame Feneya is no longer a bandit.

But now, looking at the time stamp on the letter, Kiel knew that no matter who it was, they missed the deal.

Missed the money.