The rain continued until the second half of the night, when it weakened into a drizzling rain. The elves only need 4 hours of sleep a day, so Leah has already finished resting and left the tent by this time. The elves stood in the moonlight, shining only a faint light from behind the clouds, combing and tending the horses and tidying up the rain-soaked wagons.

At this time, there was a strange movement from the field, accompanied by the sound of countless small animals crawling. The elf became alert, and she smashed the tent with all her might, waking Siegel inside. At the same time, he drew his longbow and was on guard at all times.

To her surprise, these strange noises did not alert the horses, and the two mules were also leisurely eating grass. In general, these herbivores will have a keen sense, especially a premonition of danger. 'What's going on?' Leah narrowed her eyes and saw the stalks in the field swaying slightly, and could only guess that an animal had come underneath.

Siegel jumped out of the tent with a long whip, he hadn't even put on his armor. The young man looked around nervously, but didn't notice anything unusual, so he asked, "Master Leah, what happened?"

"Shhhh The elf gestured.

The two men were cautiously guarded by the tent, waiting. After a while, there was no movement. Even Leah couldn't feel the sound of the animals crawling.

After a while, the elf said, "Maybe it's my delusion, it's okay, you can go back and sleep for a while." ”

But how could Siegel be sleepy at this time. He laid down his weapon, got dressed again, and got to work. They had a lot of firewood tied with canvas under the truck, which was not wet from the rain, and now they could take it down and make a fire to cook.

The elves are more discerning in taste, and only have rice porridge to prepare for her - add a little dried apples and sprinkle a few vanilla leaves, and make it a simple breakfast. After that, Siegel boiled some minced meat with the leftover rice porridge and ate it with pickles.

As he ate these, Siegel was full of stories that Sir Bill had ever told. "The hospitality there at the dwarves was the best, with large pieces of roast and a cold beer every day. The meat is skewered with a large iron skewer that is the thickness of your thumb and a piece of meat as big as a fist. The dwarves would suspend the meat on the lava, and the scorching heat would quickly cook the surface of the meat, forcing all the aromas inward, while the inside was still raw. Beer is brewed with seasonal oats and ice fountains in the center of the earth, just to eliminate the heat of lava. I'll never forget that!"

Whenever he thinks of this, Siegel is full of longing, and he can't go to the top of Mora immediately. The tallest snow-capped mountain still stands in the sky and can be seen every day. They are getting closer and closer day by day, but it is estimated that it will take another month to arrive.

At least, with this imagination, breakfast is much better.

After the thunderstorm, the air was fresh, and everyone's heart and lungs were happy, so the two decided to take advantage of the good mood to go on the road in advance. Siegel carried his tent to the tower and shouted a few times, but no dwarf paid any attention to him. The young man didn't think much about it, thinking that maybe he was too young and the other party didn't pay attention to it. He pressed the tent with stones, placed it under the tower, and then turned back.

Elf Lea goes to the wheat field to see where something happened last night. She smelled a pungent stench, and some of the wheat straw showed signs of blackening. The heavy rain had damaged the dirt and destroyed many of the marks, so there was no more clue than finding a few small footprints that looked like rats, even if Leah was an elite ranger.

'What the hell could it be?' she had been pondering, so Siegel didn't ask about the dwarves when she came back, just signaling that she was ready to set off on her way.

They learned their lesson that day and stopped in the afternoon at a village called Straw Village. Here they met a caravan that had just left the top of Mora and was on their way to Fort Hub. Their wagons were filled with dwarven treasures: vats of spirits, horns of underground creatures, refined ingots, powders of burning and exploding, and a few pieces of delicate armor.

"Beautiful lady, what a blessing to meet you. The leader of the caravan, an enthusiastic acquaintance, quickly came up and said, "May I ask where you are from, and can you tell me what is going on in front of you?"

Travelers exchange information with each other when they meet, which greatly reduces the possibility of getting into trouble. There are also many tips on how to protect yourself or, furthermore, how to make your journey more convenient through the process of exchanging information.

I don't know how Leah talked to the people of this caravan, maybe it was simply because she was too charismatic. In the evening, the caravan invited the two to dine together, and talked about the events of the Mora Peak.

"Oh, ma'am, if possible, I don't really want to leave Mora's Top at this time. The man knew almost everything: "The dwarves have come to the New World, and it will be 674 years since they struck the first hammer on the top of Mora." I don't know why they celebrated that number, but I knew it was going to be unprecedented. The dwarves took out a lot of good things and bought festive supplies on a large scale. They will also embark on a series of blacksmithing, jousting and wine tastings to pay homage to the patron saints of the dwarves. It's going to be a rare sight!"

"Why don't you stay and see that?" Siegel asked

"I've got to feed my family, boy. The man smiled and said, "When you have a son and three daughters, you can't travel as freely as you do now." ”

"I can't think of that yet. Siegel replied, "The old captain told me to strive to become a knight, and Sir wanted me to be a real nobleman, saying that I would be able to get ahead." I don't know exactly what it's like to get ahead, but I just have to train hard now. ”

"Become a knight, or knighthood one day. That's a good idea, lad. When you become a noble lord one day, don't forget us poor people. If I could collect less tolls, I'd sing your praises. ”

"I can assure you of that. I also hate those who collect taxes. Siegel said, "When our big ships enter the port, we have to pay a tax of one hundred gold coins every time. Oh my God, I can only earn that much in ten years on a ship. Fortunately, I came out to take the risk now, and I didn't have this expense. ”

"There's also a gate tax, a lodging tax, a bridge tax, and even a garbage production tax. Haven't you been harassed by your lord's tax collector?"

"He's a knight's retinue, and he's been following Lord Sir before. The elves explained, "And now with me, the elves don't pay taxes to humans. This behavior is incomprehensible to us. ”

The caravan laughed and said, "Let's cheer for the tax-free gentlemen!"

A hurried hoof sound rang out from outside the village, accompanied by the rattle of metal armor. A few men looked out and saw twenty heavily armed dwarven warriors riding berserkers, a large, strong hunting dog, coming from the direction of Fort Hub. They stopped in front of the caravan, looking heavily guarded.

Several berserker dogs stuck out their noses, sniffed hard, and then yelled at Siegel and Leah. The dwarves either drew their hammers or grabbed throwing axes, and surrounded the two. Three dwarves jumped off the dog, raised their shields as well, and drew their chains with their other hands.

"You have been arrested on suspicion of attacking a sentry. A dwarf with extremely thick eyebrows and beard, completely obscuring his expression, announced loudly, "Don't forget to resist, we are happy to use force!"

When the people of the caravan heard this, they immediately retreated, they would never get involved in such a thing. Siegel was a little stunned, completely confused by what was going on. The dwarves surrounded them with weapons, all of which were sophisticated and sharp weapons from the hands of the master dwarven blacksmiths. The two of them had no choice but to tie their hands together.

An iron cage cart became Siegel's current residence, with his hands and feet shackled and a stone ball tethered to the other end. The cage is small and short, and you can only sit in it bent over. The prison cart was pulled by two large dogs, and was guarded by four alert dwarven warriors at all times. He saw Elf Lea in another car, and he was treated the same way. Two people are far apart, and communication is also forbidden. Fortunately, the dwarves have no bad habit of abusing prisoners, so as long as they don't try to escape and stay in the cage honestly, the dwarves are still very easy to get along with. The dwarf with thick hair was named "Gerald Cloth Mine", and he was the leader of the dwarven detachment. Except for him, all the dwarves were not allowed to talk to the two prisoners, and only the captain had the right to deal with the prisoners. This includes distributing food and water, determining where to rest, and arranging for toileting.

The dwarves confiscated all the belongings of the two men, and they discovered Leah's elven weapons. Also skilled at forgery, the Dwarves were able to tell that the weapons came from the New Forest and were allocated to the Border Rangers, which caught Gerald's attention.

"Watch out for the elf and watch out for her escape. The dwarf instructed, "These little ones will always disappear!"

Siegel was locked up as a prisoner for the first time, which was a new experience, but after a few hours he started to get bored. After a few days, his legs were sore, his buttocks were completely paralyzed, and his wrists were red and swollen. But compared to these physical pains, the boring days of not being able to practice martial arts, not being able to shoot arrows, and not even being able to ride a horse were unbearable - the iron cage imprisoned his free heart. One day he couldn't take it anymore and called Gerard.

"What's the matter, boy!" exclaimed the dwarf, whose hair trembled every time he spoke, "You can't add meat to dinner, I've told you so many times!"

"I'm not asking for meat. Siegel said, "Can you bring me those books, I'm so bored in the prison car." ”

"What are these books for?" the dwarf asked.

"Two diaries, one seems to be an experiment manual, and the other is a code book. Siegel replied honestly, "I'm just trying to pass the time, or can you help me find some other books?"

"Then you wait a minute. ”

The prisoner's stuff was put together, and those few books were quickly found. The dwarf opened it, but found nothing hidden inside, and threw the book to him.

"Don't play tricks, even if you're a mage, you won't be able to escape from the prison car. ”

"I'm going to be a knight in the future. Siegel said

"Knights, what's so good about human knights?" the dwarf laughed, "Except for a few who are quite brave, the others were beaten in the Battle of the North River (orc invasion). They also caused the orcs to break up the elven line, which is really incompetent. If we hadn't stepped forward, I'd guess Waterdeep would all be the stench of orcs right now!"

Siegel pouted, he had never experienced the Battle of Beihe, so naturally he had nothing to say. But with the codebook in his hands, he had something to do.