Chapter 679: Zoe Babbitt
After the butler left, Earl Malen, who had relaxed a little, frowned slightly.
“Zoe, this kid…”
"Why can't you be as sensible as Mei?"
Earl Maren sighed in his heart.
He has two daughters. The eldest daughter is named May Blair. She is 26 years old and is already the mother of three children. The young generation who married the Blair family are known as the sunset warriors. They are the most important mining state in the south. City of Adeburgh.
Its strategic significance even exceeds that of Winterlow State.
Adeburg is adjacent to the Steel Sand Gobi in the south, where there is the largest mining area in the southern Nord Kingdom.
In addition to Adeburg, there are many state cities and a huge city in that mining area.
It's just that Adeborg, like the city of Wintrobon, is on the riverside of Nivare.
The rivers near the mining area are all red, and a large amount of finely divided slag has settled into the river channels.
The situation did not ease until Nivare had flowed hundreds of kilometers away.
The terrain of the Steel Sand Gobi is higher than that of the lower reaches. The mineral reserves there are extremely rich. In the last era, the Sanbao dwarves built furnaces there and opened up a large number of mine tunnels.
After the Nords took over, they mined it for thousands of years, but it was still not exhausted.
Therefore, there are many [blacksmith shops] and [workshops] in the nearby cities.
Many of them are directly controlled by the kingdom.
Adeburg is an industrial city integrating ore mining, smelting, equipment forging, ironware manufacturing, and engineering machinery parts manufacturing.
Coupled with the blessing of the Nivare River waterway, it has become extremely prosperous.
There are many high-level and even special-level craftsmen in the city.
Including dwarves, goblins, and humans.
The eldest daughter of Earl Mullen, May, married the leader of Ardburgh. She took her husband's surname and later changed Babbitt's surname to Blair.
Since Mei married into Adeburg, the exchanges between the two cities have become closer.
The Steel Sand Gobi is not suitable for growing food. In addition to the allocation from the Kingdom, all the required food is purchased from Winterlow State City. At the same time, the [Blacksmith Shop] and [Workshop] in Adeburg are managed by May's husband Reggie Blair. Workshop] and [Ore Smelting Factory] transported various standard equipment, iron tools, and ore raw materials lower than the fourth level to Winterlow City, and handed them over to the business group under his father-in-law, Earl Maren, for sale.
All the profits were given to Count Mullen to be used to offset the food payment.
In fact, he was basically sending money to Count Mullen.
Standard equipment below level four is extremely popular in Winterloo State, and is a commodity with a price but no market.
Those mercenaries and adventurers flocked to this.
When walking outside, you can often see some mercenaries and adventurers wearing the standard equipment of the Nord Kingdom.
However, these standard equipment will not be branded with the ax and hammer emblem of the Nord Kingdom.
In addition, the value of various ores and iron tools is much more expensive than food.
Because it is "filial piety" to my father-in-law, there are also various levels of magic energy crystals and elemental crystals.
As well as adamantine, mithril and a small number of good-grade magic gems.
Earl Mullen was also very satisfied with this.
Compared to his eldest daughter May, his second daughter Zoe Babbitt worries him a lot.
Zoe is 21 years old this year and has already reached the age of marriage.
Many young men from various aristocrats came to propose marriage and pursue them, but Zoe couldn't look down on any of them.
Speaking of which, Zoe is more beautiful than May.
The Nord's signature brown hair was as smooth as if it had been polished.
He is tall, 1.73 meters tall.
Her appearance also perfectly inherits the advantages of Nord women. She looks not only beautiful but also heroic.
When she put on women's light armor and tied up her brown hair, she looked like a mighty general.
Originally, with Zoe's appearance, condition and family background, it was very likely that she would marry a young and promising nobleman like Mei.
But Zoe is not interested in all suitors.
Growing up, she was not interested in things like painting, poetry, and hand-knitting.
Every day, she begged the veteran commander of the Wild Ax Regiment in Winterlow City to teach her the ax fighting skills.
Up to now, she is not only good at fighting with an axe, but also has experience with two-handed swords and single-handed heavy crossbows.
His physical fitness in all aspects is no less than that of a fourth-level Nord warrior.
You must know that she has not undergone formal military camp training, nor has she been baptized.
Being able to possess such strength even though she is self-taught is a testament to her talent in combat.
In addition, Zoe has had the dream of becoming an adventurer since she was a child.
This originated from a book she read as a child, "The Biography of Legendary Adventurer Tim Acklin"
This book is the autobiography of a man named Tim Ackerling.
Telling the story of his years of exploring the continent.
It describes many dangerous situations and strange landscapes in the continent.
There are also various monsters and ferocious alien races.
Perhaps Zoe has had a restless heart since she was a child.
She was deeply attracted by the descriptions in the book.
And he regards what Tim Ackerling often said as his life creed.
[In this world, the value of a person's life is measured by how far he has traveled and how many people he has met. 】
This sentence is regarded as a standard by Zoe and is often mentioned by her.
It is worth mentioning that Tim Acklin is a real and legendary peak human being.
He even assisted several founding kings of mankind on the continent, leaving behind rich adventure stories and legends.
Basically he was a legendary figure from the same period as the first king thousands of years ago!
He also has a book called "The Endless Species Archives", which is a rare encyclopedia-like book.
It is divided into [Warcraft Chapter], [Beast Chapter], [Alien Chapter], [Plant Chapter], [Element Chapter], [Crypt Chapter], and [Foreign Land Chapter].
The characteristics and appearance of hundreds of thousands of different species have been recorded.
Enough to fill several sets of bookcases.
It's a pity that this book only exists in legends and has never been circulated in the public.
Only the "Biography of Legendary Adventurer Tim Acklin" has been handed down to this day and has become one of the classic books in various countries.
Regarding the existence of "Endless Species Files", it is also due to the reasons mentioned in the biography.
There is also a legend that the seven volumes of "The Archives of Endless Species" were given by Tim Acklin as founding gifts to Nord, Avalon, Vigia, Salander, Swadia, and Roland respectively. Doc and Kugit were the founding kings of the seven kingdoms.
But no one knows the specific situation.
It is also true that "Endless Species Files" has not been circulated.
Ever since reading "The Biography of Legendary Adventurer Tim Acklin", Zoe has been obsessed with wanting to become a legendary female adventurer!
In the four years since she was 17, she has run away from home three times.
The longest time, Zoe stayed in the cypress forest for more than a month and was chased by a furbolg.
Hiding in the East, sleeping in the open air.
When he was found by the mountain rangers sent by Count Mullen, he was already looking disheveled.
Another time, she disguised herself as a man and boarded a magical merchant ship heading upriver.
He was stopped at Shizha, more than 20 kilometers away from his post, and his identity was exposed during inspection.
The third time she ran away, she disguised herself as a man and joined a group of traveling traders as a scattered mercenary guard, preparing to go south through the cypress forest along the forest trade road.
After traveling for more than half a month, the caravan was attacked by a group of green forest bandits.
Everyone in the caravan was dispersed, including Zoe.
Finally, after surviving in the wilderness in the Green Cypress Forest for another week, she met a team of Nord sergeants who had set up a secret outpost in the forest.
Then he was taken back to Bangcheng...
Although there are dangers every time, Zoe can get through it safely.
In addition to her own small strength, she also wears a high-grade storage necklace with her.
There is a large amount of shelf-stable dry food and various types of food in the internal storage space.
There are also many emergency supplies, clothing, magic scrolls, weapons and equipment, etc.
There is even a lot of water that has been subjected to purification techniques.
All of them are packed in sealed luggage barrels. Due to the purification technology and relative sealing, these barreled water can be stored for decades.
These supplies are enough for Zoe to deal with various dangerous situations.
Unless she is attacked by a large number of high-level enemies, but this probability is too low.
I don't know how many small caravans he has in the Endless Continent.
Even a business group like Jin Pocket Watch can only be regarded as a medium-sized business group.
There are also countless adventurers and mercenaries of all kinds.
Strictly speaking, it is a situation where there are constant small dangers but no big dangers.
It's just that this time I don't know how long she will be prepared to fool around.
Earl Mullen walked away for a while, and after the butler reported that the Ranger Captain had been notified, he stood up and spoke to everyone.
"Then this is the end of this meeting."
"The internal affairs officer in Bangcheng will contact you regarding the relevant money and materials."
"Everyone, if you receive any news of unrest in the kingdom, please report it to me."
Count Mullen put his hands on the table and announced the dissolution.
Everyone stood up and bowed to him either seriously, lazily or absentmindedly.
They filed out of the side door of the conference hall.
The housekeeper had been on standby for a long time. He stopped several gangsters alone and took them to the living room.
He told them what Earl Mullen had told him about finding Miss Zoe.
These gangsters are Little Ears Pata, Broken Finger Sason, Black Blood Kaka, and Withered Vine Mo. They represent the four major gangsters of Little Ears, Broken Finger, Black Blood, and Withered Vine respectively. Street power.
These underworld forces are not only active in Winterlow City, they are active throughout the south and even in the Imperial City, but the scale is different.
Just like Wintrobon City, there are dozens of local underworld forces of its own.
The small underworld forces are indirectly controlled by the four major underworld forces.
A pyramid-shaped structure is also formed.
Several gangsters nodded in agreement after listening to the housekeeper's words. They seemed not surprised that Miss Zoe ran away from home.
"I will inform all the members who have lost their fingers to secretly inquire about Miss Zoe's whereabouts."
Broken Finger Sasson was the first to express his attitude.
"Judging from Miss Zoe's previous actions, she should be in disguise."
"Little Ear will let all the tavern managers, including Little Ear's mercenary group, pay attention."
Little Ear Pata also said quickly.
The remaining two gangsters also expressed their opinions, saying that they would immediately contact their subordinates to find traces of Zoe.
The butler didn't say much, just nodded silently and expressionlessly.
The four of them then said their goodbyes and left.
This is not the first time that they have assisted Count Mullen in finding Miss Zoe.
As people left, the Winterlow Center Castle returned to silence.
In the garden outside the castle, the countess sat worriedly on a bench.
She is a noble lady with dignified temperament.
“Zoe, this kid…”
As a mother, she would be worried every time Zoe Babbitt ran away from home.
Zoe is a girl and is easily hurt.
Earl Mullen also left the conference hall at some point and came to the garden from the castle path.
He knew that it was relatively quiet here, and his wife often read and drank tea here.
So he walked over slowly and made a silent gesture to the two maids beside him.
He quietly came up behind his wife and was about to reach out to cover her eyes when she spoke.
"My dear, after all these years, you still like to tease me..."
"I have already memorized the sound of your footsteps."
"No matter how slight your steps are, you can't hide it from me."
Her words caused Earl Maren to stop.
“Hey, are you still worried about Zoe?”
he asked softly.
The lady nodded and said sadly.
"When will she give up on her dream of becoming an adventurer?"
After hearing this, Earl Maron sat next to her and took the lady's hand.
“That kid Zoe has been like this since she was little.”
"We can't stop her..."
"We can only prepare as many self-defense items for her as possible."
He had already looked away, and at the same time he was confident that he would get the child Zoe back within two months.
In fact, Earl Mullen had already prepared.
He placed a tracking spell in the storage necklace.
Every time Zoe opens the storage necklace, he can get her approximate location through the induction ball.
The premise is that the distance is within 10,000 kilometers.
This distance scale is still very safe.
Without the teleportation circle, Zoe didn't go far.
The teleportation circle is not a big deal, let alone a distance of 10,000 kilometers.
…
On the other side, Zoe Babbitt, whom Earl Mullen and Countess missed, came to the dock area.
Just as expected from those gangster projects.
This time she left the castle in disguise.
He wore a gray linen robe on the outside, and a flat light armor on the inside.
She wiped a few handfuls of ashes on her face and used the [Transformation Potion] to transform herself into a young man.
At the same time, the obstructive peaks and mountains have also disappeared.
There was a broken money bag in his arms, with less than a hundred dinars in it.
This is the fare she has prepared.
This time she was still planning to take a boat to go north.
It would be too troublesome to go to the east, west or south.
You can only ride a horse, and you will encounter attacks from bandits and monsters from time to time.
The river is still reliable, and the speed of the magic paddle steamer is not slow.
She has already found a boat and will set off tonight after loading the fruits and grain purchased from Wintero!
