Although the group set out early in the morning, in order to search for survivors as much as possible, Cheese and the others still followed Sweetwater Town, detouring nearly four villages without stray too far from the road. Most of these villages, scattered between Sweetwaters and Vale, began as a source of consumption for the carriages, but as recent generations of Earls of Saron have encouraged the inhabitants of the realm to open up land, fields began to appear near these small inns, and then gradually expanded, forming these settlements. However, now these sparsely populated settlements have long been empty, and the group has not found anything of value.

"I'm curious, why does relying on such a large waterway as Dragon's Blood Creek still need a lot of cars and horses for freight transportation in the territory?"

Cheese asked, after learning the reason for the formation of these settlements. This question is equally confusing for Elsa and others, who spend most of their time in the small town under the mountain. Looking at the mighty river, the mage couldn't quite understand why there was a need to build these stations with such a waterway.

"Almost all of the water in Dragon's Blood Creek comes from the Dragon's Back Mountains, which is where its name comes from, and the melting snow and groundwater from the mountains are the main components of Dragon's Blood Creek. However, I've heard that you've been to Longji Mountain, and you should know the climate there. Heather replied, riding on his horse. Seeing that Cheese nodded, the female knight chief continued.

"The snow in Longji Mountain does not melt all year round, and the cold weather in the north makes it easy for the upper reaches of Longxue Creek to freeze, so although the weather has melted these ice and snow in recent days, often after a snowstorm, the water potential of Longxue Creek will become smaller or even cut off. Although there were some small fleets that used Dragon's Blood Creek to transport their goods, they eventually gave up due to the changing currents. ”

"It's hard to believe that you, as a Duchess of Hammer, know the North so well. Mona said, but there was something else in her words. Without him, as a soldier, the reason why Heather knows the northern territory so well must be because it may become a battlefield for her to fight, and the only people who are targeted by the empire in the northern territory are the northerners.

This wasn't the first time such a conversation had happened, and even though it had only been a one-day walk, Cheese had already discovered the Northlanders' hidden hostility towards the Southern Imperial army. Of course, this hostility is not because there is actually any armed conflict between the two, but just that the Frost Guardians are a little unhappy with these Southerners who have been thinking of themselves as time bombs all the time. In this regard, Heather could only smile awkwardly, this female knight did not hate the straightforward character of the Northlanders, but after all, she had been in the circle of nobles for a long time, and she had no way to refute these straightforward complaints for a while.

"Well, anyway, Lady Heather's intelligence is of great help to us now. Cheese was helpless in the round, he was not good at dealing with interpersonal relationships, let alone reconciling the gap between the two forces. Fortunately, Mona didn't mean to continue, but Elsa gave the mage a fierce look when others weren't paying attention, as if she was blaming him for exculpating Heather.

"I've heard that you've confronted those nezumi head-on compared to this trivial geographical knowledge, can you tell me more about them, especially in terms of combat, which might help us in the rest of our operations. Heather said, although this also meant to divert the topic, but the female knight was really curious about this human-turned-xenomorph creature.

Since the other party asked, and in the foreseeable future, these knights will definitely fight with the nezumi, and there is no need for Cheese to hide his experience, although he has explained the cause of the nezumi to the female knight, but at that time, because there were still many things to discuss, so there was no detailed introduction to the nezumi's combat power, and although Cheese had fought with the nezumi, but it was only Gloria, out of rigorous considerations, the mage decided to only pick out some characteristics that he thought were common.

"Well, first of all, I want to say that these people who have been twisted by the plague should be called proto-nezumi, and on the other hand, I have successfully stabilized a mutation of the proto-nezumi, and this new species that no longer mutates can be called nezumi. ”

Looking at the confused eyes around him, Cheese knew that the knights might not be able to understand his words, and while feeling slightly disappointed, the mage continued.

"And then I would say that while these proto-rat people are mutated from the intested, I hope you don't just think of them as hairy humans, as I said before, the plague virus has completely changed their bodies. So please don't extrapolate their bodily functions by human standards. ”

"You mean that these proto-nezumi may have far surpassed normal people's physical fitness?" Heather asked, thinking for a moment about Cheese's words.

"In theory, that's true. While it's impossible to draw conclusions, there is no doubt that the proto-nezumi have improved their muscle strength and reflexes much better than they did before they were infected. The mage nodded, at least this time someone understood what he was saying.

"In addition, it is important to note that the virus in the proto-rat has not lost its infectivity, and their teeth and claws have secretions containing the plague virus, so once they are scratched or bitten, they must dig up nearby tissues as soon as possible to prevent the virus from spreading. As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the knights, including Heather, became a little unpleasant.

And although Elsa and the others had been told this by Cheese before, they did not laugh at these southerners this time, because it was really terrible. The only way to stop the injury is to remove the injured part as soon as possible, which may make the warriors feel constrained in the face of the nezumi battle, and if they are scratched casually, they will lose a piece of meat, which is too painful to pay.

At this moment, the scout, who was walking at the front of the group, suddenly turned back.

"Your Excellency, there's a dead body in front of you!" the knight's face made everyone instinctively feel that something was wrong, it was not the expression that a seasoned knight would make when facing a normal human corpse. Without much thought, the few people quickly sped up to check the corpse in the scout's mouth.

The corpse was in the shade of a tree not far from the front of the group, and by the smell it might have been dead for some time, probably due to the cold climate of the north and the shade of the trees, the corpse was still intact. The horses refused to advance at a distance of fifty paces from the dead body, and these trained horses would not theoretically be afraid of the smell of corpses, but now they refused to advance because of a corpse lying on the side of the road. In desperation, several people had to dismount and walk, and they took out a cloth soaked in water from their arms to cover their mouths and noses, which was a precaution recommended by cheese.

"This ...... Unbelievable. ”

After walking about ten steps, the appearance of the corpse was already unobstructed, but as they saw it more clearly, several people felt even more creepy at this strange corpse. Black hairs emerged from under the corpse's epidermis, leaving the otherwise flat skin in a wrecked state. Dark brown pus flowed down the cracked wounds on the skin, emitting a terrible stench.

"I'm sure even scavengers don't want to touch this corpse. "Monkey" muttered quietly, and as he said, there were no traces of bugs on the corpse.

Cheese put on a strange pair of gloves, took off his robe and handed it to Elsa, and stepped forward alone to inspect the details of the corpse up close. Although the rest of the people did not want to approach the corpse, they also approached the corpse with their noses pinched due to the safety of the mage. For the mage, the more horrific and disgusting corpses in the teacher's class were all dissected, so the visual and olfactory pressure alone did not deter Cheese. He carefully examined the corpse with his hands, especially the eyes, mouth and nose, and even asked Heather to borrow a knife to cut open the corpse's stomach and examine the infected organs.

The mage's actions made everyone around them feel uncomfortable, and although they knew that it was for the study of the plague, it was still physically difficult to accept. Soon, in addition to the proprietress will be able to stand around the cheese and help the mage who needs help because he can't move one hand. The others, including Heather, kept a distance from the corpse after confirming that there was no danger.

Time passed quickly, and Cheese's study of the corpse continued until dusk, and the others had already begun to set up camp, knowing that they would not be able to reach Vale today. As the sun disappeared into the distance, the torches and starlight became the only light between heaven and earth, and Cheese had to stop his research, and after carefully washing his gloves and other utensils, he and the pale Elsa returned to the camp not far away.

"There are proto-nezumi around here, please be prepared for battle. With the words of the mage, a lively night began.