Chapter 74: The Winter Sacrifice of Pezarus (Part I)
"Open the door! Open the door! Hammer Tower banged on the small door under the city gate with his huge fist, a place that is generally reserved for messengers who need to enter the city at night in case of emergency, but during the winter festival, even large caravans can enter Pezarus as long as there are tokens that can enter and leave the town, instead of waiting until the next morning.
"Who!" The soldier guarding the door was obviously very upset, and opened the observation hole in the small door and looked at Hammer Tower with very angry eyes. It's just that he was stunned for a moment when he saw Chen Kai behind Hammer Tower, who could only see his thighs, because Chen Kai's height was much taller than Xiaomen. Therefore, the soldier subconsciously grabbed his weapon, and after the first sentence, he shouted in very vigilant words: "Who are you!" ”
"Merchant! Mercenary! Hammertower's words were very simple, and then he beckoned Chen Kai and motioned for Chen Kai to take out the letter from Count Zaf. He had to rely on the seal on the letter, and only then could Chen Kai's goods be exempt from tax.
"We are the men of Count Zaf, a redstone fortress! Deliver the goods to Kazmodo for sale, and this is a letter to Count Hufele of Hansting, Kazmodo, which is also our voucher! Remember not to open the letter, or you will die a terrible death, I promise! Hammer Tower slowly handed the letter to the soldier, in fact, when he saw the golden seal on the letter that exuded a special luster, the soldier knew that this seal was very true. Only the seals of the great nobles will use this special material to make the sealing mud, and the golden sealing mud represents not only the meaning of the closure of the letter, but more importantly, such a seal is equal to a small protection spell. The magic of the ink makes the letter waterproof and moisture-proof, but these effects disappear when the envelope is opened, and only this protection can ensure that the letter will not be opened by someone else first.
In fact, after hearing Hammertower's words, the soldier did not reach for the letter, but glanced at the seal on it, and then turned his head to look at the small notebook located under the door. This small book is full of the seals of various nobles, of course, most of them are native to Pezarus, and only a few are from other territories. As Hammertower said, only nobles above the rank of lord are exempt from taxes, and in order for the gates of Pezaros to open after the sun goes down, a noble title of viscount or higher is required.
The Earl is naturally eligible. Moreover, as the current supreme commander of the Redstone Fortress, Count Zaf definitely has the right to demand that the gates of Pezaros be opened at night, only for the entry and exit of the caravans, of course. If it was an army, then give this soldier ten dares, and he would not dare to open it, because he was afraid that he would be hacked to death directly after opening the gate.
After waiting for nearly ten minutes, Pezzaros' huge copper-clad door slowly opened with a creak, but the angle of the door opening was small, and Chen Kai could see at least two rows of hundreds of soldiers standing behind the gate. On the one hand, it is to facilitate the opening of the gate, and on the other hand, if Chen Kai is an enemy, these soldiers can resist a little.
Of course, the convenience of these soldiers was slightly redundant. Because Chen Kai and they are not robbers or any other enemies, on the contrary, they catch robbers. Looking at the robber captives who were tied with ropes and followed the caravan into Pezaros, the eyes of all the soldiers were round and round. That's more than two hundred robber captives, and that number doesn't include the robber heads that were placed in the back of the wagon in exchange for bounty. According to the soldiers' estimates, there were at least three or four hundred heads piled up on the last wagon, and the top ones were the leaders of the robbers. Among them is the Night Hunter Bamezawa. Of course, these soldiers had not seen the Night Hunter Bamezava, but they had seen his helmet, and when the helmet that must have represented a special meaning appeared in the eyes of these soldiers, many of them were directly stunned. …,
As the last of the robber captives entered Pezaros, the gate closed again with a loud thud. All the soldiers watched Chen Kai and them walk into the city, of course, they should have reported to the local sheriff, but everyone knew that the sheriff was busy picking up girls at the city lord's banquet and didn't have the heart to take care of Chen Kai and them. Therefore, it was not until the next day, when the sheriff went to work with lip prints on his neck, that he learned that Chen Kai and the others had entered the city with more than 200 robber captives. By the time he reached the hotel where Chen Kai and the others were renting, the robber captives had been packaged and sold by Chen Kai to a local iron ore merchant. Of course, the merchant was only hiring these robber captives to mine. But in fact he bought them as slaves, and he was the most pitiful of mine slaves.
As for the sheriff named Frank, he originally wanted to win over some robber captives so that he could resell them to the slave mine owners. As a result, when he arrived at the hotel, all he received was a bunch of heads handed to him by Chen Kai, and the worst thing was that he had to accept it. Of course, after handing over those heads, Chen Kai and the others received a large amount of experience, and the experience points were so rich that an ordinary player could cry with joy. Because all the experience points add up to enough to make a player above level 60 improve by one level, but because it is divided by six people, the experience points that each person gets in the end are 30%. This is a very rich experience, so rich that it directly makes Su Wan rush directly to level 61. Only the other three had been hung up because they had been fighting. XP has been emptied several times and has not reached the level of leveling. But everyone felt that if such a good thing happened a few more times, it was estimated that by the time they reached Kazmodo, basically everyone would have been promoted by one level.
But there aren't many such good things after all, and not every place has so many robbers who can be used to pay for tasks. Not all the time you can encounter so many robbers, the most important thing is that if you encounter robbers, you will not always succeed in repelling them. Once the battle is lost, Chen Kai and the others will lose far more than these experiences.
"Huh! This Frankish sheriff is rich, and he carries a dozen White Devil Crystal Coins with him! Chen Kai weighed the money bag in his hand, and then threw it directly to Hammer Tower without opening it. Hammertower looked at the money bag that he threw over, opened it directly, and counted it, and then took out two crystal white magic crystal coins and threw them to Chen Kai.
"If we take it all, it will be too greedy! After all, you have also put in a lot of effort, and as mercenaries, it is your duty to protect your employer, so these belong to us, and these two belong to you! "20,000 gold coins is already a lot of money in the eyes of ordinary people, although Hammer Tower knows that Chen Kai will basically not lack 20,000 gold coins, but he knows better that he can't be too greedy.
"That's fine! I'll take it! Xiaofei, take it to buy food, buy a little better and eat it on the way! Xu Fei took the two white magic crystal coins in his hand and handed them directly to Xu Fei beside him. Let him use it to buy all kinds of ingredients to eat on the road. On the eve of the Pezaros Winter Festival, the entire Pezzaros market is filled with fresh ingredients, from freshwater fish and shellfish to mountain game. As long as you have money, even dragon meat can be bought, at least Chen Kai saw a restaurant called Dragon and Beauty put out a menu of roast dragon meat, and the dishes were priced at 9888 gold coins. Of course, the so-called dragon meat is definitely not a giant dragon or a flying dragon, but some kind of large dragon lizard, which lives in the steppes northeast of Pezarus. It is said that the strength is about the eighth order. Due to its scarcity and unique quality, it has always been a top ingredient in Pezzaros' top restaurants. But this kind of top-notch ingredient is not something that everyone can afford to eat, that kind of dragon lizard is so strong that ordinary mercenaries can't beat it at all, even if Hammertower thinks that his strength has reached the ninth order, he will be able to walk around that kind of dragon lizard as much as he can. …,
Known to the inhabitants of Pezarus as Pephas, the dragon lizard possesses both lightning and toxin powers, and contains terrifying lightning powers and toxins that can paralyze the entire body. But when these two forces are cooked, they form a unique and delicious food that makes every bite of meat tingle on the tip of the tongue. Then the whole body trembled slightly, but it was extremely refreshing. Of course, you can't eat too much of this food, and if you eat too much, paralyzing toxins will accumulate in the body, and finally poison people directly into a vegetative state. Only powerful professionals or priests who have mastered the art of body purification will use it for a long time, but only if they have money, of course. The dragon meat worth 9888 or the Pethas dragon lizard meat is only half the size of Chen Kai's palm, and Chen Kai wants to fill his stomach with at least a dozen pieces, and ordinary professionals have to eat three or four pieces to be full. If you eat it every day, even if you have a lot of money, you will lose it all in a few months.
Of course, many high-level professionals do not go to restaurants to buy, but go directly to the grasslands northeast of Pezaros to catch them, but the strength of the Pepas dragon lizard is very strong. The power of lightning and toxins can torture a tenth-order knight to death, and running alone without the strength of the Sanctuary is completely looking for death. And a team of twelve-person eighth-order mercenaries may not be able to overturn a dragon lizard, and the worst thing is that this kind of lizard lives in groups. Either it doesn't appear, and when it appears, it will definitely be a family of all ages, so there are not a few Sacred Domain powerhouses to do it together, and it is completely wishful thinking to want to eat dragon lizard meat.
Chen Kai: They just took a look at such dishes, and even if Chen Kai thought that he was a full foodie now, he might not be able to eat such an expensive thing, and according to Hammer Tower, the dragon lizard meat sold in this store was basically not very fresh, and the taste was far from the fresh dragon lizard, and it was still stinky if it was not good. Therefore, Chen Kai would not spend this unjust money to eat, of course, in his heart, Chen Kai thought that Hummerta's words were used to prevaricate the little wife beside him, so as not to spend all the money in his pocket with the other party's greed. However, relatively speaking, Chen Kai pays more attention to his little sister. Therefore, he directly dragged out Chen Yi, who wanted to run to see what the dragon lizard meat looked like, and left the restaurant.
In addition to selling the most bread snacks for daily needs, it is the largest in every city. The most prosperous area is the market area. All the large chambers of commerce and blacksmith shops are located in the market area, but most importantly the market area also houses all the ingredients that the whole city of Pezaros needs every day. Although the cities in the game resemble medieval city-state architecture. But the prosperity of the market is not necessarily worse than that of the town market in reality. Every city lord wants his position to be firm enough, and he needs to care about the three things of the residents of his territory, food, clothing, and housing. This is true even in reality, but there is just one more line of words in reality than in the game. Many of the lord's lords in the game have stayed in one territory all their lives, and the communication between them is limited to the former city, so the lord does not have to think about the travel of the residents at all, and the only thing to do is to deal with the problem of food, clothing and housing.
The number of residents of Pezaros is not large, compared to Hansting, the population of Pezaros, which is also a third-level main city, is less than 600,000. But there are 17 farmer's markets in the city for food trade, and the largest of them is the market next to the south gate where Chen Kai and his family are staying. Because there is a huge saltwater lake around Pezzaros, you can see fish similar to the ocean, in fact, many people think that the saltwater lake is directly connected to the ocean, which is why so many marine life thrive in this lake. Due to the climate of Pezzaros, the fish in the saltwater lake are generally similar to those in the northern temperate marine environment, and the fish grown in this environment are very tender and fatty, and the most delicious. Even Chen Kai saw a sushi sashimi restaurant opened by a player. Apparently it was the fish from that lake. …,
The most common species of marine fish in the saltwater lakes of Pezaros are not salmon-like fish, but a kind of tuna that resembles the bluefin tuna in real life. However, the flesh is not bright red, but pink, which is very beautiful, and there was even a tuna with a cherry blossom-like texture on the flesh once caught.
When Chen Kai and the others walked into the market, it happened to be a truckload of tuna that had just been caught from the saltwater lake. Seeing the tuna that was not completely dead, Chen Kai felt that the worms in his stomach were beating, and he didn't even think about stopping the carriage transporting the fishing goods directly, and directly took out the gold coins to buy it. Seeing the gold coins shaking in Chen Kai's money bag, the eyes of the fishermen transporting the fishing goods lit up directly. It's just that the thought of the contract he signed with the merchant dimmed a little. But then he thought that he was transporting twice as many fish as usual this time, and it didn't matter if he sold some to Chen Kai.
As a result, Chen Kai spent nearly fifty gold coins to buy three still alive tuna from the fisherman, and directly packed them with ice cubes and stuffed them into the space bag he carried. Now there are more than a dozen space bags hanging on Chen Kai's belt, these space bags are not large in size, that is, three or four cubic meters and very dilapidated, they originally belonged to those bandit leaders, but now they are used by Chen Kai to transport things. But anyone who saw the space bag on Chen Kai's waist would be surprised. Because that's all the reality of being financially powerful. Even a rich mage wouldn't hang a pocket of space around his waist, only an upstart with so much money would do that. Of course, Chen Kai is not an upstart, he just wants to use waste. After all, even if these space bags are sold, they are the price of second-hand goods, and it is not necessarily how expensive they are to buy, rather than letting the owners of those spell supply stores take them and renovate them and then trick people, it is better to let Chen Kai stay and use them himself. Especially at a time like this, the best thing to buy in large quantities of ingredients and supplies is these space bags, not to mention the food of more than a hundred people, even if it is the food of three or four hundred people. In fact, when a group of people walked into this bazaar, everyone began to buy **. Especially Chen Kai has eaten barbecue for so much time, and now he feels like vomiting when he sees barbecue. Therefore, seeing so many ingredients in the market, even if only a few of them reached his mouth in the end, it was enough, so he began to happily go on a journey to buy ingredients.
"What is this? Saltwater lobster? Good! Bring me two hundred kilograms! No! Then a hundred pounds! And the king crab will also bring me ten, this one too, and this one! Chen Yi, who loves seafood, is sweeping the stalls of aquatic products, and no matter which boss sees Chen Yi, a girl with a strong divine aura all over her body, she is full of joy. Not only because the life power on her body is very comfortable, but also because these bosses saw the arrival of the wealth boy.
This kind of thing didn't just happen to Chen Yi, but also happened to other people. Wait until everyone has enough to buy enough or even a little too many ingredients. Chen Kai found that they had not only used the two White Magic Crystal Coins that Hammerta had returned to them, but also filled in one and a half more. In other words, they bought ingredients worth 35,000 gold coins. This is a very expensive amount of money in the history of Pezzaros, because unless it is the best food, such as the Pepas dragon lizard, ordinary ingredients cannot be sold for more than 30,000 gold coins. Because ordinary ingredients, even if they are expensive, only need a dozen silver coins or one or two gold coins, and the ingredients purchased with more than 30,000 gold coins can basically make more than a hundred mercenaries eat for three or four months.
By the time Chen Kai and the others found out, they had already returned to the hotel, and the final result was that the lobster crabs that could not be stored had entered the mercenaries' stomachs that night, and Chen Kai had eaten the crabs and lobsters for the first time until he vomited. In fact, he had no way not to vomit, because Chen Yi and Su Wan both threw the lobster's big chelicerae that were difficult to crack open to him, and only ate the meat in the lobster's belly. Chen Kai had to ask Donnie to help knock on those big claws in order to knock them open, and as a result, after dinner, his mouth was full of wounds, and Donnie became the first flying dragon to learn to peel lobster shells and crab shells.