No one knows when the Valen Fortress was built, and the ancient castle seems to be as old as the Uzig Mountain it guards. The walls are rough and heavy, and I don't know how many years they have been grinding.

Judging by the name, the fortress of Valen should have once been a purely military fortress used entirely for garrisoning troops, but that was clearly a long time ago. Today, the fortress is no different from an ordinary town, lined with shops selling all kinds of goods, idle pedestrians walking the city's roads, and gates made of thick beech are open, never closed, allowing people to come and go.

It's been two or three days since I've been at Valen, and it's the first time I've left the territory of Campunavia. For me, who had little travel experience, it was by no means an enjoyable long journey.

The Valen Fortress is located in the mountainous terrain of the southeastern part of the Uzig Mountains, and since I have never been here, my magic map is not marked, and I can only go in the general direction like a fly without a head. I suffered a lot from the rugged and narrow roads of the mountains, and the trails here were always hidden in the dense weeds and bushes without paying attention, and I found myself lost when I went straight to the middle of nowhere.

Worst of all, no matter where you get lost, you'll always come across a horde of wolves, poisonous spiders, boars, or other vicious beasts with good appetites, forever impressed with your juicy flesh and entrails, hoping to invite you to stay and have dinner with them – of course, if you're unlucky, you'll be the "in" dinner.

At the Valen Fortress, I first fulfilled Mr. Gerald's request to give the report on the analysis of the blood of the rabid dog Capland to the commander of the garrison of the fortress, Colonel Pekra. Colonel Pekra was about fifty years old, and had nothing attractive about it except for his gray hair, and he didn't look like a soldier, but rather like a pedantic teacher or something.

The report didn't seem to get enough attention from him, "Ah, the Blighted Land, I haven't heard the name since I was ten years old, and I've almost forgotten it. Gerald has always been a bit nervous, but I still want to thank you for bringing me this news. Anyway, I'll send someone to look into this...... If I still have someone to send. Colonel Pekra said to me slowly, and as he said he threw me a small bag of silver coins.

I felt compelled to tell him what had happened at the bottom of the abandoned mine, that the Soul Archlich Mackenskar had escaped the seal for two hundred years, and my gut told me that it might have something to do with the mutation of the rabid dog Capland. But no matter what I said, Colonel Pekra always shook his head impatiently and said, "I'll have to go and see my schedule." At my age, you know that there is nothing in this world that you can't forget...... Hey, did I just say something? ”

I had no choice but to say goodbye to this forgetful officer. As I passed by the door of his office, a dusty wader like me was walking through the door. By accident, I saw what he was holding, it was a piece of letterhead, a dark yellow envelope with a bright red fire paint mark on the intersection, and it looked familiar—I mean, a lot like the report I had just handed to the colonel.

What's going on? Could it be that Mr. Gerald, fearing that I would not be able to bring this report to the Valen Fortress, sent another messenger to deliver the letter?

"You're also from Campunavia?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Ah......" He probably didn't expect me to ask a question suddenly, he was stunned, and then nodded subconsciously, "yes." ”

"You also sent a blood report?"

"yes, what, you too?"

"yes. You don't have to give him the report anymore, I did, it's useless. I said to him. I mean, I've already given the report to the Colonel, and the Colonel doesn't care much about the matter itself. There was no need for him to touch the nail again.

"Ah, no, wouldn't it?" He was stunned again, "I asked a lot of people, and they all said that it would be enough to leave it to him." ”

"Hmph, look at him......" I glanced back at the Colonel, who was still sitting in a large, comfortable office chair dozing leisurely, "...... See, even if it is handed over to him, it will not be useful. I said with annoyance.

The spacewader seemed to understand a little, but seemed to be getting more confused, and he answered with a "ah, ah" twice, looked at me, then at the colonel, then nodded at me stupidly, "thank you...... and turned and walked out.

Later, I saw this man a few more times on the street, perhaps because I changed my armor and he didn't recognize me. Every time I saw him, he would stop people on the street and ask for something "report...... Assignment ...... Who to look for...... Where to ......", it seems to be quite anxious. I didn't listen carefully either.

After that, I never saw this person again. However, I heard that there was a bad-hearted guy in the Valen Fortress who deliberately prevented others from handing in the task, and deliberately pointed people in the wrong direction, so that a poor man who had fallen into the city ran several laps around the city to complete the mission.

If I were to meet such a boring and shameless person, I would have to teach him a hard lesson.

Fortunately, not everyone was as lazy as Colonel Pekra, and as the consul of the Valen Fortress, the Marquis de Meneval welcomed me with his doors open. He was a patron and supporter of Robert Willant, the Quencher, and the Marquis expressed his grief and condolences for the misfortune of the dwarven metallurgist:

"Oh, my poor friend, he always likes to dig up secrets buried deep underground, but there are always secrets that should not be discovered. May Darimos have mercy on him, and may his faults not bring us irreparable losses......"

The Marquis was a pale-faced old man, his cheekbones raised high from emaciation, which made his eye sockets sunken and his gaze gloomy and calm. Perhaps it was Mr. Wilanst's death that shocked him, and he looked a little agitated, with an unusually intense flush under his white skin, making it hard not to worry about his health.

The Marquis promised me that he would soon inform His Majesty the King of the escape of the Great Lich of Souls, Mackenskal, and gather all the forces of the continent of Farvi to defend against this impending catastrophe. As a reward for my hard work, the Marquis gave me a "delicate chain mail". This armor is made of many metal rings, and the weight is not very heavy, and it is more resistant to slashing with knives and axes. Moreover, this armor is obviously attached to some kind of special magic effect, which can increase my defense by 10 points, and can also increase my health by 100 points.

Leaving the Marquis' Palace, I felt good, and an uncontrollable sense of pride came from my heart. I feel like I've done something remarkable, and perhaps it's because I've delivered the news to this loyal nobleman in time that the future of the entire continent will change. All the intelligent races living under this blue sky will be given a chance to join hands and stand up against the coming evil, life and liberty will be preserved, and killing and tyranny will be stopped, all because I have delivered a message to the right people in time.

It wasn't long before I learned that until the real facts were presented, all so-called "correctness" was nothing more than a temporary illusion of beauty. Many times, the cruel reality will always tear this illusion apart in front of you with your own hands, and use a painful needle to stab you from the illusion, and the so-called "facing reality" always seems to be synonymous with bearing pain and remorse.

And it was a long time before I realized that in this world, many things were actually predestined. You can't stop them from happening, you can't change their course, you can't decide on their end, no matter how desperately you try.

If there's anything you can change, it's just you. Your life is like a boat in the raging waves, destined to drift in this wave that will drown time, and the only thing you can do is to strengthen your planks, steer your sails, and pray to all the gods you believe in that your luck will not be swallowed up by this irresistible wave.

So much for!

At that time, I didn't know anything about the future. Ignorant people are happy, but alas, for many people, this happiness does not always last.

Just as I was leaving the Marquis' Palace, my diary of magical adventures alerted me to a message that someone had sent me some goods.

I don't know exactly who created the amazing idea of the "postal system" and put it into practice in the first place, but I firmly believe that it is one of the greatest inventions of all time. No matter who you are, no matter where you are, just give the postman of any city or village the name of the goods and the consignee, and you can deliver anything to anyone you know. He can pick up the goods at any time from the postman.

It was a crazy idea, and the craziest thing was that it was actually put into practice. Whether humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, or minotaurs, all the intelligent races that walk the continent of Falvi are actively engaged in this great feat. Every village—even a small tribe of a dozen people—has someone who specializes in this postal profession. Other than this, the intelligent beings on the continent of Falvi have never reached such a consensus on any other matter, breaking down the barriers between them. In this sense, the "postal system" is perhaps far more powerful than any religious belief and cultural transmission, because it succeeded in bringing together the various races of the world for the first time.

The cost of this kind of mail is also not cheap, and you have to pay five percent of the value of the items you mail. If anyone is willing to carefully calculate how many people across the continent receive gifts from friends and relatives every day, they will see what a staggering sum of money.

Probably that's the real power to get the brutal Minotaur and the proud elf to work together.

Suspicious, I found the postman at the Valen Fortress, and found out that it was Ding Ding Xiaoge who sent me something. This slow but generous orc miner faithfully fulfilled his promise, sending me a lot of metals and minerals. His gifts were so great that I didn't know how to thank him. It was a kindness I couldn't refuse—all the money I had on me didn't add up enough to get the postage back. So, I had no choice but to reluctantly—and with no lack of joy in my heart—to pack these heavy and valuable gifts into my magical backpack.

The experience at Valen Fortress was a continuation of my life in Campunavia, where I spent almost half of my day helping the people of the city with their work, receiving their remuneration from them. Sometimes I'll come across jobs that put me in danger, and I'd rather put them aside for a while and do something else until I find the right companions, or when I'm up to the level where I'm confident that I'll be able to complete them.

When I don't have a suitable mission, I choose to go to the mountains and forests outside the fortress to hunt some fierce beasts or monsters. To the northwest of the fortress there is a sticky mud swamp that often produces mutated giant poisonous mosquitoes and pythons and the like, which is my main place for hunting.

There's also a creature called a "clay monster". These stupid creatures seem to be made up of clay and mud all over their bodies, and when they move, they roll like a bag of water on the ground, making it difficult to tell the difference between head and face. You'd better not be fooled by its appearance, this seemingly effeminate and eccentric creature will actively attack all creatures that come near them, wrapping them inside itself until they are fully digested. If you look closely, you can see that almost every clay monster has a few bones, large or small, wrapped in the remains of the unfortunate creatures it has devoured.

Kill these monsters and you'll find some slime called "Dissolving Water" from their corpses, which is an important medicine for some alchemical experiments. That's why my hunt is focused on this creature.

For the rest of the day, I was constantly going back and forth between Valen's Fortress and Campunavia's Fortress - Valen's Fortress wasn't a city of abundance, and at least it lacked an alchemy teacher who could guide me and make explosions. Getting around the two cities wasn't a chore—in fact, there were caravans in these cities, and you could rent a horse-drawn carriage to get to the other city for a fee, and it didn't take long to get there—and honestly, it was surprisingly fast, and I almost always got on the bus so long before I got there, that I always wondered if it had never set off at all.

Because Ding Ding Xiaoge provided the raw materials, it saved me a lot of money for buying raw materials, which really helped me a lot. After four or five trips, I had learned how to make alloys, as well as techniques such as extracting glass from ores. The most gratifying thing is that the time and money I have spent on alchemy is finally starting to pay off, and many people are willing to pay for the metals and purified substances I synthesize, which not only make up for all the expenses I spend on the raw materials for alchemy, but also have a small surplus—there is nothing more motivating for me to study alchemy.

Soon, my alchemy had reached level five, and simple material synthesis could no longer give me any experience, and Edgewell could not provide me with more alchemy recipes, and my alchemy studies had reached a bottleneck, and it was difficult to continue to improve - unless I could get new recipes and blueprints and make something new.

Completing quests, clearing monsters, learning combat skills, learning alchemy, and selling alchemy products are all I have to every day. Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I want to live like this. Does raising the level have an inevitable meaning for my life? Is learning skills a necessity for my soul? I'm trying to earn money, is it out of necessity or greed? Because I often have the feeling that even if I don't do all this, there will be no problem with maintaining my life and allowing me to live a peaceful and ordinary life.

I came to realize that I didn't do it because I had to, but because it was for everyone but me—all the air-seekers, the surprising and delightful people who were full of adventure and whimsy. I prefer to be in the company of them and talk to them rather than the rigid and dull natives. I chose my friends, and they all live like this, so I feel like I should go and live the same life as them.

It's actually a funny phenomenon, and a lot of times, we do certain things not really because we want to, but because everyone else does. We are afraid of being alone, afraid that we will be different from others, and afraid that our differences will lead to suspicion, so we have to follow the majority and be a helpless and peaceful mediocrity.

In fact, there are some things that we really don't have to do; And there are some things that only we can do.

If I had been given another choice, I would probably have made a completely different decision.

Sometimes I think of the imminent invasion of the continent of Falvi by the undead Corruptards, the escaped Soul Lich, and the Doomsday King Darendir, and the Marquis de Meneval has promised me to make arrangements to defend against it as soon as possible. However, I did not see at all that the fortress of Valen was ready for a war—perhaps, all the preparations were being carried out in a tense and orderly manner in private—I told myself.

In fact, even I myself have gradually lost my vigilance and doubted my own judgment. Colonel Pecora was right, we had not heard of the Blighted Lands for too long, and that any wind and grass could cause nervous tension in us, and that such allergic panic was often unnecessary. For us, many things have been forgotten. And for the lives of the withered land, many things from the past may not be remembered. War may not happen, and all we fear may be a senseless self-scare.

In this way, in a state of life that is intertwined with fullness and emptiness, before I know it, my level has broken through the thirty levels......

(Recommend a new book, "Star Demons", author Demon Realm.) I thought that the article in the preface of this novel was very worth reading, and after I finished reading the short article "The History of Science Fiction Wuhuang", I felt that it was worth clicking on this novel.

Go check it out, even if it's just the article in the preface, it's really interesting.

I'm a portal that doesn't do business :http:///Book/1000587.aspx)