"Hello, distinguished guest, welcome. An old woman from behind the counter greeted Thor.

Thor smiled and nodded, then entered the store to take a look.

This is a general jewelry store, in which the best quality of jewelry is only gold, and the quantity is relatively rare. There are more silver, copper rings, copper earrings, and ordinary civilian jewelry occupy most of the counter.

Aside from the difference in metal, these jewels rarely use gemstones, but instead of being decorative by polishing and setting corals of various colors, which is perhaps also a characteristic of the seaside area.

Saul's main purpose for entering this jewelry store is twofold, one is to remember that there is a group of shiitake mushrooms at home, and just bring something back to them by the way, so as not to be constantly chased by them for gifts.

The second is that Thor is going to inquire about the environment around the territory of Silent Hill, whether there are any forests and other terrain. Now that I have a relationship with the shopkeeper, I can get relatively reliable information.

Sol has never had much insight into this piece of jewelry, so he can only roughly rely on his own feelings, and choose some colors and good quality. It wasn't until after the checkout that Thor asked about his concerns.

The old woman, as a local, answered very matter-of-factly.

She told Thor that there were two towns and one village in the entire Garanda territory, with Silent Hill as the main town and the sea to the west. When the terrain is magnified, it can be said that Garanda has forests on both the north and south sides, and the east side is a messy wilderness terrain with only a few small groves.

When asked about the interior of the forest, the old woman said that in the mild season, the woodcutters and hunters of the town often entered it, and that the danger of the forest was only average, and in any case far from the point of changing color.

Thor then claimed that he had always been a traveling adventurer, interested in the knowledge of the cultures of various alien races on the continent, and asked if there were any alien species in the forests around the old woman's territory.

The old woman smiled and shook her head, and replied that she had never heard of it in forty or fifty years of living in the town.

After thanking him, Thor left the jewelry shop and went to sit in a tavern where local information was more circulating, but nothing new was found.

This made Thor a little undecided for a moment.

Judging from the information obtained, the two forests in the north and south of Garanda do not even have names, and they should be just ordinary forests. Like the Sleeping Forest to the east of the original Grey Curtain Town, it doesn't get its name for nothing, and Thor has indeed been deeply aware of the vastness and danger of the Sleeping Forest.

At present, since the destination is not clear, it is natural that there is no efficiency, and we can only carry out clumsy searches one by one.

Forget it, since it is a search, the hard work that should be paid must be paid.

So in the days that followed, Thor began to wander through the forests of Garanda, north and south.

Every day, he went into different areas of the forest and searched according to his makeshift hand-drawn map. Unfortunately, many days passed, and he found nothing but a series of futile footprints.

Now the snow has sealed the land, and the snowflakes have flooded the continent, and the forests have not been spared.

Everywhere you look, you can see the branches bent by the snow, and the wild grass and fallen leaves are buried in patches of white. The howling cold wind carried the biting chill on the rampage, and when there was no wind, there was silence and no trace of people, and this harsh climate was indeed suffering to come out to find people.

One day he encounters a bear that hibernates in search of food, and Thor expects a fight, but the bear just watches from afar. A man and a bear looked at each other affectionately, and then went home separately, this was the only encounter Thor had in this half winter.

Soon the first two months of winter came to an end in Thor's nothingness.

Back at the town's inn, drying his wet coat in the heat of the fire, Thor felt that he couldn't go on any longer.

The hard work is secondary, and the point is that Saul doesn't think there is any point in going on like this.

Ygrit once said that she had met a human maiden in the forest, which led Thor to subconsciously think that Ygrit's tribe might not be far from the human settlement, and that it was very likely that they were related to the forest.

But in the end, these are just Saul's blind judgments, and there is no basis for them.

Because Ygrit didn't say in person whether their tribe lived in seclusion in the forest, if they were close to humans. Even if Thor did guess correctly, how deep did their tribe have with humans, and would there be no communication for many years?

As a result, Thor was confined to the outer surface of the forest for his daily search, not daring to go too deep.

The danger is secondary, the point is that the area of these two forests is actually not small, and if he wants to completely search every corner, Thor estimates that even if he spends the whole winter on it, it may not be enough.

So Thor decided to leave and take a boat to the Black Reef Territory to see it, leaving the last month as a drop-in trip.

Unable to find Ygrete, Thor didn't feel too sorry, after all, he had been mentally prepared before the trip began.

Many things in life are like this, sometimes if you miss it, you can't find it again.

After a short rest, it was the next day.

Thor went to Silent Hill Harbour to buy a ticket for the morning and boarded a wooden brig called the Sail.

The Sail is a merchant ship, in fact, there are no special passenger ships in the harbor town of Silent Hill, and it is usually a number of merchant ships and fishing boats fishing inshore, which will pull a wave of customers to earn some loose coins when sailing.

So if you buy a ticket at Silent Hill, there are always passing boats that can carry people, so you don't have to wait too long.

Holding on to the side of the boat and breathing the oncoming sea breeze, the experience of taking a boat for the first time in his life made Thor feel very fresh, of course, at this time, nothing could be seen in the dark area of the open sea, only a small amount of ice floe could be seen in the near distance.

The captain of this merchant ship is a spirited old man who is also a merchant. He seemed to know at a glance that Thor was not a local, so he smiled and told Thor not to get too close to the side of the ship, lest he fall into the sea because of the bumps of the waves.

Thor smiled and turned his head in greeting, although he had learned to swim by the lake in the sleeping forest outside Greycurtain, it would be a sad story to jump into the icy waters in this weather.

Getting from Silent Hill Harbor to Black Reef Harbor is equivalent to going from one territory to another, and it takes about six days by land, but it takes less than three days by boat.

Thor began to wonder if there was any value in building a port in the endless sea behind the territory of Liberty City.

If the area around Liberty City is traded by sea, it seems that the voyage distance from other territories is a little farther, and there is no dock for the other party, but the harvest of fishing and hunting should be considerable. But before that, the threat in the sea must be cleared.

For example, the environment here in the Silent Strait is very calm, and it is said that it is rare to see monsters landing in the sea.

Thor wasn't the only guest on this sea journey, he was accompanied by a female adventurer, two men dressed as merchants.

After spending two or three days at sea, Thor thought he would get seasick, but he only felt a little uncomfortable after waiting. The old captain explained that adventurers usually pay attention to exercising their balance in all aspects, so there are not many seasickness.

After dinner the next day, the female adventurer suddenly went to the bow deck and placed her yar-cap on the ground. Then she took out a small harp, sat down on a barrel, and began her improvisation.

Looking at the woman's slightly formal appearance, everyone on the deck listened for a moment before they reacted, it was obvious that this was a troubadour on a journey. Her singing voice is not bad, at least her voice and music are pleasant.

After the performance, Thor chatted with her with great interest, inviting her to visit the northern frontier of the North, claiming that the Free City Territory there was a thirst for art and music.

After placing two silver coins in his small fur hat, Thor thought about it and put down two more silver coins and told her that if she could persuade some people to settle in Liberty City during her journey, each household should have one silver coin for each head, and fifty copper coins per person for a single head.

Apparently Thor had rekindled his habit of digging corners, but the troubadour said she would do her best. At the same time, she also invited Saul to spend the night in the cabin, claiming that there would be no cost and that it was just an artistic dedication.

The sea breeze is blowing, still on the boat, two souls eager for art, and the atmosphere in all aspects has undoubtedly been baked in place.

In the end, Saul declined the invitation with regret and expressed his admiration for the female poet's dedication.

When you build your own fishing boat, you can trick Beth into the boat, maybe ...... Or let her wear a pirate outfit, and let her wear a black blindfold just in time to play the role of a pirate captain, Thor happily made a decision by crushing the side of the ship.

Not knowing how thrilling it would be to bully a female pirate captain, Thor thought it was necessary to make Beth and Shiitake understand the dangers of reckless sailing.

By the afternoon of the third day, the merchant ships had arrived at the port of Black Reef punctually, and the troubadour took the initiative to hug Saul goodbye.

After a decent trip to the sea, Thor went straight to the tavern in Black Reef.

After a few drinks and a bunch of jokes about boobs and butts from the drunkards, Thor asks for news of his concern.

The environment of the territory of Black Reef is even more desolate than that of Silent Hill, there is only one town and two villages in the entire territory, and in Thor's eyes, this town is actually similar to a village.

The territory is surrounded by two forests, north and south.

It's just that the forest south of Black Reef is actually the back of the northern forest of Silent Ridge, and if you pass through the forest north of Black Reef, you can reach a nameless mountain range.

At this time, there was still a month left in the cold winter, and Thor was ready to split the time in half and go to the forest in the north and south directions for one last time. Then, whatever the outcome, go home.

Just when Thor thought that this journey would pass so peacefully and windlessly, things took a new turn.

Remember the permanent address of the Children of the Old Day