The barbarian camp is not far from Raven Town, but the mountain road is rugged and winding, and the half-meter-thick snow obscures the mountain road, and if you are not careful, you will step into the air and roll into the deep ravine of the valley.

Fortunately, Victor, the Reverend of Kent, and several of his followers are not ordinary people. The Legendary Priest with two Judgment Warriors, four mid-tier Paladins, plus the Windswept Marksman and two Elite Guards is more than enough to handle most treacherous environments. And Caligula's performance is even more amazing.

The stupid big guy carried hundreds of pounds of metal ingots and walked at the front of the line. He seemed to regard snow shoveling as a game, and the long stick he used to explore the snow was long gone, and as soon as the Reverend Kent pointed out a direction, he took two long thick legs, ploughed the snow out of a path, and then, with a smirk on his face, stood a hundred meters away and waited for the team to approach.

The Legendary Battle Priest stepped on the snow trail opened up by Caligula and said with emotion, "Your Excellency, this retinue of yours is not an ordinary person. ”

With this strength and physical strength alone, Caligula can be compared to the barbarian warriors. He also chooses the path very accurately, as if he was born knowing that there is a road and there is a pit.

Victor Blind has a maximum radius of 2.2 meters, but it cannot penetrate the physical object that shields the air. The air inside the snow is thinner, and Victor can perceive the road conditions half a meter below the snow. If he hadn't sparked his talent and lost weight, he wouldn't have been able to run wild on the snow in the mountains like Caligula did without losing his footing.

It can only be said that Caligula's mental intuition is extremely sharp. To describe it with the theory of the secret form of the golden toad, that is the realm of "reflecting the scene with the heart".

Victor was half jealous, and half-concealed shook his head: "It's a pity that he is a cowardly fool, he doesn't dare to kill cattle, and he hasn't learned to pray." ”

The Kent priest had lost interest in Caligula, and the youngest paladin even looked disdainful.

In the eyes of the clergy, an idiot who does not pray is a forgotten lamb of the Lord, and if the clergy cannot redeem him, then he must be guilty of original sin. The church should leave these people to fend for themselves. Viscount Randall took in the stupid big man, mostly because he valued his strength, and by the way, flaunted the benevolent virtues of the nobles.

Victor actually has high expectations for Caligula. His intellect is developing in tandem with his teeth. In case, Caligula had enlightened that day, maybe even Nelson would not be his opponent.

Of course, it doesn't matter if Caligula can't overcome his cowardly character flaws in the end. After so many days of getting along, Victor has established a master-servant friendship with this kind and simple stupid big man. At least he has the brute strength and intuition of a gourmet demon and his ability to find a way to avoid danger is also commendable.

With Caligula in front of him, it took only two quarters of an hour for Victor and his party to reach the barbarian gathering.

The camp is set on the summit of the highest hill, without a fence wall, and the log huts are like snow bags and sit on a thick blanket of snow. The two barbarians saw the team from a distance and met them. They all wore only a pair of animal skin trousers, bare chests full of tattoos and scars, knotted muscles that seemed to contain infinite strength, and a necklace of animal teeth, most of which were gnolls, hung from their thick necks.

Ever since the barbarians moved into Skylark Hill on the west side of Raven Town, the surrounding population of jackals has fallen into blood mold. The paladin led the barbarians to the Jackal Trial, and Viscount Negus occupied 2,000 square kilometers of wilderness with great ease. In a sense, it is the result of the alliance and cooperation between humans and barbarians.

The Kent priest was apparently familiar with the two barbarian sentinels. He left the group alone and spoke cordially to them in the barbarian language. Caligula shrank behind Renault, as if trying to hide his 2.3-meter-tall body with Renault's 1.9-meter-tall body.

When this guy saw a barbarian who was taller and stronger than himself, he immediately became intimidated.

Over there, the two barbarian warriors exchanged moments with the Kent priest, then turned around and led Victor and the others into the camp.

Inside the camp, the sound of hammers pounding on the cutting boards was incessant, and most of the barbarians were busy forging weapons, except for a few barbarian women who moved outside the house, forming small circles in groups of three or five, and wiping the bodies of newborns with snow incessantly.

Compared to human babies, savage newborns are oversized, with distinct muscular lines on their small arms and legs, and the cold, biting snow touches their red skin, stirring up bursts of white mist. Such a cold environment is too harsh for savage infants. When the cry of a baby ceases to be loud, the female savage will pull a panting red-haired male bison, knock the 3,000-pound beast to the ground with a single punch, take out a sharp axe, slit open its belly, and stuff the dying baby into the blood-hot abdominal cavity, leaving only the head outside.

At this moment, an older savage woman whispered to the baby in the belly of the cow, the syllables that were purely meaningless, but full of mystical power. It wasn't until the baby made a steady snoring sound that she moved on to her next target.

Victor perceives that the song vibrates the baby's heartbeat and the bison's blood, and realizes the continuous resonance of the two, forming a full range of stimulation for the baby's body inside and out.

"Kargin the Singer, a female barbarian who wields mystical powers. It is said that this ritual is able to help the barbarian toddlers absorb the life force of the beasts, making them stronger and tougher, equivalent to the remodeled body of a human arcane warrior. Pastor Kent introduced Victor.

The tooth necklace and newborn rites represent the barbarian traditions, and the iron-forged ones represent the barbarian innovations. Victor had a vague guess in his heart, nodded, and followed the Kent priest to the largest wooden house in the center of the camp.

"You stay outside. ”

The priest of Kent commanded, and lifted the reindeer-skin curtain. Victor nodded at Renault and Shak, motioned for them to follow the priest's instructions, and turned to enter the house. The barbarian sentry took the large wooden box from Caligula and followed. The Alchemy Militia and Caligula were led away by the Paladins.

Orange flames leaped within the firepit, illuminating the barbarian elder's scarred and muscular body. He sat on a rough and ugly, but absolutely durable oak bench, holding a piece of sparkling obsidian, polishing the great axe in his hand. He looked up, cornflower-blue eyes looking at the visitor, and a heavy mountain feeling of oppression was about to emerge.

Victor turned on the X-3, disintegrating the pressure on his mind, and his dark pupils became deep and cold, like a bottomless abyss capable of absorbing all light.

Harald's pupils shrank slightly, and he retracted his momentum, and said in the lingua franca of humanity: "Young elf, I can feel the sharp and ruthless power within you, and you are qualified to be my enemy, or friend. ”

Priest Kent's eyes flashed like flames, and he stepped forward and said in the barbarian language, "Elder Harald, this is Sophia Urusa's husband, and he is not your enemy. ”

"I'm not an elf either. ”

Victor said in fluent barbarian language: "Harald Gorsa, you seem to be hostile to the elves?"

The Reverend of Kent was stunned, turned his head, and asked in surprise, "Lord Randall, do you speak barbarian?"

"I only learned it in the last three months. Victor replied blandly.

Kent was speechless, he came from a vassal family in the Duchy of Teuton, and began to deal with the barbarians under the mountain as a teenager, and it took him a full five years to master the barbarian language. It took only three months for Victor to speak fluently in the barbarian language.

How can the gap between natural transcendents and ordinary people be so big?

With X-3's powerful memory, analysis, and inductive capabilities, Victor can easily master any human language as long as the vocal cords are anathemically similar. In fact, he devoted only three afternoons to the Barbarian language, in a carriage in a classroom with Sophia and Natalia as teachers.

"I know you, but I'm not sure if you're Sophia Urusa's spouse, or Lady Sylvia's?" said the Barbarian Elder in confusion as he sharpened his axe, "I have never been able to comprehend the complex family relationships of you humans. ”

Victor looked embarrassed, not knowing what to say. Pastor Kent relieved himself and explained dryly, "Uh...... This is that knights are not ordinary humans, especially female knights, and they have the responsibility to improve the knightly bloodline of their offspring so that the knight's bloodline does not decay, so they will share a partner with a strong bloodline. ”

"The same is true of the barbarians, the strong have more than one female barbarian mate, and the weak are not qualified to reproduce. ”

Harald looked up and said, "However, in Raven Town, I have seen many fat, frail and aging men who have multiple wives, and those strong young humans who have no spouses...... The average human male seems to decide who has the right to have offspring based on different clothes...... Would such a human baby be strong?"

The Kent priest was dumbfounded and choked for a long time before he said, "Uh...... I think what Gorsa said makes a lot of sense. ”

"What a strange race. The Barbarian Elder shook his head and continued with his work.

Victor coughed dryly and asked, "Harald Gorsa, why are you hostile to elves?"

"The elves have taken the mountain dwarves and forced me to leave the great and harsh Mount Harlots. ”

"Can you elaborate on that?"

Harald was so engrossed in polishing his weapon that the obsidian and axe blades rubbed against sparks, and the cacophony echoed lonely in the room.

"I brought gifts to the barbarians. ”

Victor turned to open the wooden box, which contained a stack of lilac metal ingots, "There are 500 pounds of fine iron ingots doped with adamantite gold to make strong and sharp adamantite weapons. ”

Harald stood up, his tall back covering half of the wall, and said, "What do you need the son of Arret to do for you?"

"I want to help my savage friends. Victor shook his head and said with a smile: "The natural environment of the Southern Continent is different from that of the Arrett Plateau. I think that Elder Harald asked the tribesmen to learn the production techniques of human beings, so that the tribe could survive and reproduce in the Southern Continent. You are not very sure about finding the relics, and it may take hundreds of years, if not longer...... Or maybe you'll never find it. ”

"I'm willing to help the barbarians find holy relics, and although I don't necessarily succeed, there are many human beings. With your help, you have a better chance of recovering the relics. Perhaps, in your lifetime, you will be able to return to Arret's homeland. ”

Harald glanced at the priest of Kent and asked, "Your king has promised to help me find the holy relics, is he going to break his promise?"

The Kent priest glanced at Victor, but Victor shook his head and said, "Of course the promise of the king and the church is valid, I just came to confirm the appearance of the barbarian relics. As he spoke, he took out a piece of Salon's Magic Iron Ore from his waist pouch and handed it to the Kent priest beside him.

Kent looked at the ore in his hand and asked in surprise, "This is black iron ore?"

Victor's heart moved, and he shook his head casually: "I don't know what kind of ore it is...... My swamp scouts have found this mineral in the Lizard Swamp, and I think it's similar in color to the runes on the barbarian reliquacy artbook provided by Lord Constantine, so I'll bring it to Elder Harald for identification. ”

"It's called black iron, but I've never heard of black iron. ”

Kent took the Salon's Magic Iron Ore and tossed it to Harald, smiling and explaining to Victor, "Black iron only exists in the Age of the Chosen. It has the property of conducting the elements of the void. The Ancient Knights' equipment crafted from Black Iron, Mithril, and Adamantite was superior to today's Mithril equipment. However, smelting pyrite requires extremely high temperatures, which our current furnaces can't handle. The forging method of black iron equipment has been lost. The Nakhtigar family's 'Dawn Light' may be the only black-iron longsword in existence. ”

Harald looked at the ore in his hand and nodded, "This is indeed the favorite black iron ore of the mountain dwarves. ”

Victor adds information to the X-3 and asks, "I heard that Harald Gorsa has a replica of a relic in his hand, can you show it to me?"

The Barbarian Elder lifted the carpet of animal skins, took the replica from the underground compartment, and threw it to Victor.

It is a semi-circular metal artifact, crafted entirely from Mithril, with black runes carved on the front and back in the Saron Magic Iron Seal.

"Looks like part of a device?" said Victor, tentatively, stepping forward and returning the replica to Harald.

"The style, size, material, and pattern are the same as the holy relic, but it is not a holy relic. Harald put the replica back in the dark compartment, sat down, and said, "The mountain dwarves created a replica of the relic, and we thought it was a holy relic until the mountain dwarves asked Harrotus for the relic, and we and the dwarves knew it was a fake. ”

"The dwarves are asking you for relics, aren't they barbarians?" asked Victor, confused.

"It's not. Harald shook his head and said, "Barbarians have no holy relics, no prophecies...... Both the relics and the prophecies are dwarven...... The sons of the mountains have made a promise, and the mountain dwarves have left us. ”

Victor froze, sat down on the box, and asked, "What happened to Arret more than eighty years ago? Why did the mountain dwarves migrate?"

"More than eighty years ago, I was not yet born. The barbarian elder brushed his rough thumb over the blade of the axe and said lightly.

“......”

"According to the Great Elder, more than eighty years ago, several elves came to Arret, and they demanded that the mountain dwarven king keep the ancient covenant and surrender the source of power. The Dwarven King demanded that Harrotes hand over the relics that had been kept by the barbarians for generations. But the holy thing is fake. The Dwarven King could not hand over the source of his strength, so he could only abide by the ancient covenant and lead millions of mountain dwarves to migrate with the elven messengers. ”

Harald dropped his axe and continued, "Before leaving, the dwarven king accused Harlotus of failing to keep his oath and keep the relics for the dwarves. He asks the Sons of the Mountains to go to the Southern Continent to retrieve the lost relics, or the Barbarians will suffer the consequences of breaking their oath. ”

Victor touched his nose and asked the Priest of Kent, "What the hell is going on?"

Pastor Kent hesitated, but finally said, "Based on the historical documents of the church and the accounts of Elder Harald, we can deduce the course of events ......"

"About 9,000 years ago, the Pantheon organized an army to invade the forbidden land, the Arret Plateau, with the intention of seizing the sacred relics that the dwarves had given to the barbarians for safekeeping. The Pantheon's expeditionary force was almost wiped out, but their legendary knights defeated the barbarian elders of Harrotes in a duel to win the Relic. The legendary knight surrendered his faith to His Majesty Enoch by handing over the relics to the paladin family. ”

"We don't know what the relics meant to the dwarves and barbarians, but we suspect that some of the dwarven craftsmen at the time created a fake and gave it to the barbarians for safekeeping. The real relics, or the dwarves' of power, are in the treasury of the Church, and are eventually stolen by the wizards...... There are indications that the relics ended up in the southern continent. This coincides with the divination of the dwarven king. ”

"Neither the mountain dwarves nor the barbarians today know the truth...... The elves may be in trouble, they sent messengers to ask the mountain dwarves to abide by some ancient covenant and hand over the holy relics, but the dwarf king could not hand it over, so they could only lead the people to help the elves fight. ”

Kent paused, glanced at the Barbarian Elder, and said with some embarrassment, "This...... Firewood was scarce in the Arrett Plateau, and the mountain dwarves used underground fire to forge weapons and armor and grow cave mushrooms. After the Dwarves migrated, the Guerrero Goblin took over the dwarven tunnels...... You know, barbarians are so tall they can't get into the dwarven tunnels. The sheep monster took advantage of the terrain and ate the dwarves' cave mushrooms, which gradually multiplied and grew, and already threatened the survival of the barbarians. ”

"This is the consequence of the barbarian's broken oath!"

Harald touched the scar on his chest and abdomen, and said, "The glory that the Greylo Goats have left me. ”

Victor looked at the shocking huge scar of the barbarian elder and said in disbelief, "It seems to be a wound caused by some kind of large monster...... How can they get into the dwarven tunnels?"

Reverend Kent explained, "The Guerrero Sheep Monster is divided into a dwarf vegetarian sheep monster and a giant carnivorous sheep monster. There are many vegetarian sheep monsters, and they have developed to a certain extent, and there will be an omnivorous sheep queen and many carnivorous ram monsters in the group. The queen sheep and the ram monster breed vegetarian sheep monster cubs, and when the cubs grow up, they eat some of them, and the queen sheep and the carnivorous ram monster are getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more lamb monsters giving birth. ”

"The large groups in the tunnels split into small groups and expanded out of the caves, and new queens and carnivorous rams appeared. Those carnivorous rams are 2.8 meters tall, making them stronger and brainless than flesh eaters. They spread everywhere, coinciding with the safari routes of the barbarians, and even desecrated the cemeteries of the barbarian warriors, taking out the weapons and armor that accompanied the burial, and hunting the reindeer and beasts of the Arrett Plateau. ”

Harald said: "My people lack prey, they lack weapons, and the young children of the barbarians do not have enough beasts of prey for the rites of rebirth. Frail young children die of hunger and cannot withstand the cold winds. Even though we've killed countless sheep monsters, it's useless not to kill the sheep queen in the tunnel!"

The priest of Kent whispered to Victor, "The flesh of the Greylo goat monster is poisonous...... Barbarians who eat sheep monsters will become stupid. In just 80 years, the number of barbarians has plummeted by half......"

Victor's expression was extremely serious at this moment, and he was silent for a long time before he asked, "Ogre, goblins, and gnolls all have the behavior of eating their own kind. But they will never eat their own kind of food unless they have to...... Is the Guerrero Goats really a naturally evolving monster?"

Harrotes was silent for a few seconds before saying, "The sons of Arret have guarded the sacred mountain for generations, and our people have hunted around the Great Rift. Legend has it that there is an entrance to hell, and the Grero goats are descendants of the monsters of hell. Without the protection of the barbarians, the mountain dwarves could not deal with Guerrero. Without the mountain dwarves, the barbarians can't protect the great Mount Harlotus!"

"I must find the source of the dwarven power!"

The Reverend of Kent exclaimed, "Valliant Gorsa, please believe that humans can help the barbarians to protect the sacred mountain!

With a rare smile on his rough face, Harlotes waved his huge battle axe and said, "Pastor, I have seen the hope that humanity brings to the barbarians, but the ancestors of the barbarians have betrayed their oaths, and I cannot escape my obligations. ”

Victor nodded silently and said, "I will do my best to help the barbarians regain their glory and dignity." Elder Harald, let's take our leave. ”

Leaving the barbarian camp, Victor was in a heavy mood and did not speak all the way. As he was about to descend the mountain, the Priest of Kent pulled Victor aside and whispered, "Lord Randall, please do not spread the word about the Greylore Sheep. In fact, His Highness and Sophia of the Human Kingdom knew the inside story, but they all swore an oath that they would never reveal it to the outside world. We are preparing to transfer the population to the Duchy of Teutoni and establish a solid line of defense. If the outcasts knew that there were millions of monsters in the Arrett Plateau, and they could pounce at any time, they would just scatter in a hurry. ”

Victor shook his head and said in a deep voice, "Maybe...... It's not just the Guerrero goats who pounced. ”

"Yes, maybe more than 300,000 barbarians pounced first. Reverend Kent sighed with emotion.

Victor furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "The church didn't think that there might really be an abyssal monster under the Great Rift?"

The Kent priest pursed his lips, was silent for a moment, and said with a firm expression: "Supreme Lord, no matter what is inside the Great Rift of Arret, we must unite the barbarians!"

"Yes...... I hereby swear to the Supreme Lord of Light that I will never spread anything about the Greylo Goat. ”

Victor made a triangular gesture on his chest representing the Holy Mountain of Light, raised his head, stared at the Battle Priest with burning eyes, and asked, "Since only His Highness the Human Kingdom can know the truth, why did Lord Kent agree to take me to Elder Harlots?

The Reverend Kent laughed and said mysteriously, "I've found everything...... If you have any questions, you can ask Her Highness Sylvia. ”

Victor looked in the direction of Jinshui City, the corners of his mouth hooked up a gentle smile, and secretly thought:

"No need to ask, I know. She doesn't allow anyone else to interfere with my choices, whether it's elves or humans. ”