Chapter 668: Do business wherever you go

"Since the general has said so, if I refuse again, it would be a bit awkward. I want to see who is playing this trick on me in my territory. Gather people and set off immediately. We will talk about the rest while we are walking." The Crown Princess showed strong confidence, both in her own strength and in the Kingdom of Cormier.

If those rats stay in the rat holes honestly, there is still a possibility of survival in the Kingdom of Cormier. Once they crawl out of the rat holes and make trouble, it will be the time for them to be uprooted.

For such things, both the Crown Princess and King Yasan have zero tolerance.

As for the safety of King Yasan and the court wizard, it was not within the Crown Princess's consideration from beginning to end. With their strength, if they can't solve something, she certainly can't solve it. Instead of considering those useless things, it is better to focus on the present.

Both Gavin and Tynarastra led the elite of the elite. Even though they were called together late at night, it took less than half an hour from issuing the order to setting off for the town of Dedruk.

They did not go directly to the town of Luji where the incident occurred. Gavin and Tynarastra had the same opinion on this missing person investigation. As the source of information, they might be able to track down important clues based on the clues.

Lord Seob did not find it, but it did not mean that they could not find it.

Gavin and his team were originally going to turn to the Manticore Road in the town of Hilp and go directly through the King's Forest to Susal City. Now they can only continue to walk more than 80 kilometers along the Carantel Road. Before reaching the Star Wave River, the largest inland river in the Kingdom of Cormier, they turned south and entered the Star Wave Road. Dedruk Town is located at the intersection of it and the Ranger Road. It is an authentic forest town.

The Kingdom of Cormyr has a recognized title, the Kingdom of the Forest. The land where it is located once belonged to the Great Forest of Cormanthor and was once covered by dense ancient forests. As humans cultivated and settled here, the forest began to gradually give way.

But even so, the area of ​​the ancient forest still occupies one-third of the entire country. The largest area is the King's Forest, also known as the King's Forest, where the town of Daedruk is located. It is located in the heart of the entire Kingdom of Cormyr.

The royal family of Obaiszir enacted a strict King's Forest Protection Act several centuries ago, strictly prohibiting private felling of trees in the King's Forest and private hunting. Once private fellers are found, they will be fined and replanted trees, or they will face the torture of being bound in the trees and becoming a tree demon, and will forgive their selfish behavior for the rest of their lives-this torture is said to be derived from the spirits, used to punish those natural creatures that blasphemed the forest, and thus the tree spirits were born.

"The King's Forest is the greatest treasure of our Kingdom of Cormyr. It is our natural strategic depth and granary. The few times of famine and war in the history of the Kingdom of Cormyr were all survived by relying on the output of the King's Forest, and the town of Luji is the most important center.

Its other function is to serve as a barrier, confining the monster tribes that breed in the Storm Cape Mountains to the mountains, or forcing them to seek development on the other side of the mountains instead of pouring into the interior of the kingdom."

The Crown Princess has a more official explanation for the royal family's protection of the King's Forest. This is out of national strategic considerations. Some of the needs of the lower-class people cannot be taken into account, even if there is a lot of public resentment.

"I've learned." Gavin disagrees with this one-size-fits-all approach. In this matter, the approach of the Cormyr royal family is somewhat simple and crude. As long as they are willing to work hard, there must be a more harmonious way of development. In the future, their own territory will definitely not simply adopt this approach.

When the group arrived at the town of Dedruk, the sun had risen to the middle, and it didn't feel particularly obvious in this small town in the forest.

This is a picturesque place, with log farmhouses nestled among dense trees, and miniature gardens and small vegetable plots dotted outside. The bright sunshine shines through the gaps in the forest, casting mottled shadows all over the ground. Birds chirping gracefully fly overhead from time to time, not afraid of people at all. The towering old trees that tell of the vicissitudes of time are covered with moss. Here, the ethereal beauty of elves and the fireworks of humans are perfectly integrated.

Outside the village are small swamps, which are caused by the flooding of the Xingbo River. What attracts Gavin's attention and interest are the giant storks that roam freely in the village. They are taller than adults, with pointed beaks that are meters long, red tops and black beaks, and are very majestic.

As if noticing Gavin's gaze, Lord Seob took the initiative to explain: "This giant stork is called the Swamp Giant Stork. Although it is huge, it is actually very docile and will not attack any humanoid creatures. It is said to be introduced from other places, but the place of origin is unknown. Compared with fish, they prefer snakes, water rats and other rodents.

Since they have been in our village, there has been no more snake and rat infestation. Their eggs are also a great delicacy. There is no need to spend effort to cook them. Just boil them in water and people who have eaten them will never forget them. They are sought after by countless nobles in the royal capital Susal and can be sold for one gold coin. Their meat can also be made into several delicacies, which is no less delicious than their eggs.

Unfortunately, their picky eating habits make it impossible for our farms to expand. Sometimes we have to buy snakes from those snake catchers to feed them."

"Lord, I have a headache because there are no snakes. I have a headache because there are too many snakes. All kinds of snakes in Thun Swamp are about to overrun." Gavin suggested, "Lord, are you interested in a joint venture? Breeding farm? I will provide the site, and the Lord will provide the swamp stork, and we will share the produce in half.”

Gavin wants to introduce giant swamp storks from Dadeluk Town. Making profit is secondary. He mainly wants to control the snake problem in Thun Swamp. The war between the black-scaled lizard people and the Thun snake people is in full swing. Then, the Thun Snakemen, whose top leaders had been uprooted by Gavin, were defeated by the powerful offensive of the black-scaled lizardmen.

But it is not that easy for the black-scaled lizardmen to uproot the Thun Snakemen from the Thun Swamp. After all, the Thun Swamp is so big. It would be much more difficult for them to find them if they drilled into the depths of the swamp. Improvements, especially the cursed snakes and snake-hating ones, also have the ability to transform into snakes, which makes hunting them down even more difficult.

Those cunning Thun Snakemen have now changed their war strategy. They no longer show up easily in front of the Black Scale Lizardmen. Instead, they drive those snakes to attack the Black Scale Lizardmen tribe. This attack is not limited to the Black Scale Lizardmen. People themselves, including the livestock and fish they raise, if possible, those snakes will naturally attack the children or eggs of the black-scaled lizard people. That is to say, the black-scaled lizard people have the blood of the black dragon flowing in their bodies, and their poison resistance is relatively high. If If it were an ordinary person, a large area would have been poisoned by those poisonous snakes.

Gavin is urgently deploying a snake-catching army from the Dragon Oak Territory - the Kobold's exclusive mount, the Dire Weasel.

They are equally good at catching snakes, rats, and rabbits. They are close relatives of the flat-headed brothers and are immune to most snake venom. If bitten by a venomous snake, they will fall asleep for a few hours at most.

It's just that their home field is mountains and jungles, and their combat effectiveness in the water will be greatly reduced. If they are not careful, they will become food in the mouths of those pythons and be dragged into deep water and drown. At best, they can only provide support in those dry areas. It is placed in the black scale lizardman tribe to protect the safety of the tribe.

If you add this kind of giant swamp stork, you can not only defend, but also launch an appropriate counterattack. The size of the giant swamp stork determines that they have an absolute advantage in most swamp waters, even if they are adults with thick arms. Pythons are just a mouthful, and their size is designed to hunt snakes.

Swamp giant storks have an advantage that ferocious storks do not have. They are birds and can hatch in batches. As long as there is sufficient food, they can reach a large scale in less than two years. Even if the snake problem is suppressed later, they will still be able to hatch. It has good commercial value, will not lose money inside or outside, and can also increase the diversified industries of the black-scaled lizard people.

"The general is indeed a cheerful man. We have settled this matter." Lord Siobo responded cheerfully.

When he was young, he had taken risks around the Thun Swamp and was very aware of the situation in the Thun Swamp. He had this idea when he introduced the giant swamp stork in front of Gavin. Unexpectedly, the young general was better than he expected. He also needs to be generous. Not only was he proposed in advance, but the price was also irresistible. If he bargained again, he would be pushing the envelope even further.

"Everywhere the general goes, business can be done." Princess Crown couldn't help but look sideways. If Gavin had already prepared for the business in Shilp Town, then in Dadeluk Town, It is typical that it is a temporary move. After all, they changed their route here due to an unexpected incident. Even if he is a voter of Ms. Strategy, it is impossible to budget for this step.

"It's just a coincidence." Gavin could only explain it this way.

Gavin had read about the giant swamp stork in Dadeluk Town in Varro's Travel Notes. However, this alone was not worth a trip to this place in person. He planned to leave this matter to the Conqueror's Caravan. Pushing forward.

Unexpectedly, unexpectedly, I had the opportunity to visit Dadeluk Town in person, so I naturally decided on this matter.

Neither Gavin nor Tainarasta struggled too much with this issue. After all, for them, this relatively single breeding industry, no matter how large it is, has relatively limited value. As long as the intention is finalized, Detailed issues will naturally be promoted by the people below, and their main energy is still in Luji Town.

Just like Saiob said, no one can explain clearly how they knew that Luji Town had disappeared. It seemed that everyone knew about it when they woke up one night, as if someone was telling the news in their sleep. Informed them the same.

Even if they used charm spells to deeply hypnotize them, the answers they received were the same. Neither the source of the information nor any more useful information could be collected.

"We are walking along the Ranger Road. I have been walking on this road for nearly 30 years. I am very familiar with every plant and tree here. Because this road is quite circuitous, there are many roads from our town to Luji Town. Eighteen kilometers, even if we walk, it takes less than two hours. Normally we can get there in less than an hour. As a result, we ran on this road for three hours without seeing any sign of Luji Town. , Luji Town is so big that we couldn’t miss it, so we discussed it and walked forward for another two hours, but still didn’t see any sign of Luji Town, and then turned back.”

"How long did it take you to walk back?"

"We didn't remember this accurately. We set out in the morning and turned back at noon. When we returned to the town, the sky was already dark."

"Have you noticed anything unusual along the way? Do you feel like something is missing somewhere? Or is there something extra, something that doesn't feel right?"

"I didn't feel anything was wrong before, but now that I think about it, something is wrong. It seems like we have been wandering in the jungle."

"Yes, that's the feeling. Many places seem to be printed from the same mold."

"The forest road itself has this kind of situation. Only the elves can distinguish each tree and give them names. If there is a situation like the disappearance of the road market town, we will subconsciously give the uneasiness caused by this situation to Zoomed in."

"Okay, thank you for your cooperation. You can leave now and let the aerial reconnaissance team come in."

"As you command, Your Highness."

"Tell me what you saw."

"Reporting to Your Highness, we are going along the Logger Trail. This is a trail from Dadeluk Town to Luji Town. It is only five kilometers away, but it passes through the densest area of ​​the King's Forest. The sign in the air It is not very clear in itself and can only be used as an auxiliary reference to help identify the direction. In addition, we will also use some taller trees as flying landmarks. Whenever we fly over a place three kilometers away from the town of Dadeluk After flying to the landmark, the Logger Trail disappeared, even if we came down to search, let alone heading to Road Market Town. By the time we found the Logger Trail, we had already returned to the town of Dadeluk. "

"So you've been lost since the Loggers Trail disappeared?"

"Yes, at that time, the woods were everywhere, and they all looked the same. We really lost our way."

"Where's the sun? Why don't you rely on the sun to tell the direction?"

"We did rely on the sun to identify the direction, but when we returned to the town of Dadeluk, we found that we had strayed far away from the logger's trail. We had clearly headed southwest before, but when we came back, But it is located in the northeast of the town. We didn’t know when we had made a big circle.”

"How many times have you flown in total?"

"Eight times, we tried a total of eight times before and after, until it got dark and there was no way to fly anymore."

"Is this the case every time?"

"Yes, it is like this every time. The only difference is that the direction of return is not fixed."

"Okay, I know, thank you for the information."

"This is what we should do, and it's a pity that it can't be of any help."

"Lord Siob, the missing road was also along the woodcutter's trail, right?"

"Yes, after the aerial reconnaissance failed one after another, I organized the purple dragon knights and war mages in the town, and with the help of a ranger and a druid, let them go along the logger's trail. With their At such a speed, I could make a round trip in an hour, but I didn’t expect that they would never come back. I was afraid of any danger in the middle, so I didn’t rush to send a second wave and went to the palace to ask for help as soon as possible. The rest was , Your Highness knows everything.”

"Okay, I know almost everything that I need to know. Let's summarize all the information in hand. Let's see if you have any good ideas. Tell them and listen. There is no right or wrong. It's just to provide a direction of thinking."

In order to get first-hand information, Crown Princess met with all the relevant personnel and asked them in detail about their search process. The answers they received were all vague. They also had a lot of questions in their stomachs, let alone The answer is given.

The forest road itself is different from ordinary roads. The line of sight here is very limited and the scenery is the same. It is easy to lose the sense of direction and distance. The only thing you can do is to walk forward along the road. If there is no road , if you are not careful, you will be completely lost in the primeval forest and become a meal in the belly of various forest monsters.

If the forest is big enough, even flying in the air will cause disorientation. Even if you think you are flying straight forward, if it is really marked, the flight path is not necessarily straight. In many cases , human perception is inaccurate.

Lord Siobo was the first to speak: "I tend to think that this is an illusion, a large-scale illusion barrier that wraps up Luji Town and the surrounding roads and forests. It doesn't really disappear, it's just our Their senses were misled, and they didn’t know it even if they passed by him. The people in Luji Town were also trapped by this illusion and had no way to get out. "

"I'm afraid it's not that simple." Tainarasta shook her head and said, "There are resident extraordinary mages in Luji Town. If it is really a pure illusion, they can penetrate the illusion with their true eyes even if they don't have the ability to break it. , come out and ask for help. The most important thing is that illusions usually do not have the ability to prohibit teleportation. "

"There is another possibility." Gavin threw out his own guess, "That is, the planes overlapped, and Luji Town was swallowed up by the transparent plane of the etheric plane or the shadow plane. When it is no longer in this plane, it is naturally impossible to find it. The swallowed position will be avoided and blurred, producing an effect similar to illusion, until it is completely digested and merged into a part of itself, and the two worlds are separated again."