After four days of trekking, David and Laura finally reached the edge of the Iron Tree Forest.

Looking at the much narrower river next to him, as well as the wreckage of the ruined houses around him, David helplessly spread his hands: "Obviously, this pioneer team has failed. ”

The number of cabins here, and the fact that they are all individual residences, not the kind of temporary big cabins, seems to mean that the initial development of the team is going well?

But that doesn't change the fact that the place is in ruins, and judging by the remains of these houses, the village has been abandoned for a long time.

Just giving up will not make the house what it is now: not a single intact wooden house, and it is clearly burned by fire.

"Will the pioneer team set fire to the house before they give up and leave?" Laura doesn't understand this, is there any point in doing this?

"No, just pack up the valuable things and leave directly." David walked around the abandoned village and finally found some clues under a wooden hut next to the forest.

"What is this?" Laura kept looking around, and when she saw David squatting down and picking up something, she immediately leaned over to take a look, and found that David was holding a broken arrow shaft in his hand: "Arrows? ”

"Hmm!" The shaft of the arrow in his hand is not complete, only half of it, but the real clue remains on it: "It's an elven arrow." ”

"How can you tell?"

"The elves of the Iron Tree Forest use this special leaf to make arrow feathers."

To briefly explain to Laura Science, this kind of leaf can only be found in the depths of the Iron Tree Forest, those places are the main activity area of the elves, and it is difficult for humans to go to those places, let alone collect a large number of such leaves.

Difficult to obtain, and not an irreplaceable material, humans naturally do not choose this leaf to make arrow feathers, only elves who are more easily able to obtain this type of material to use.

"I see."

Moreover, since the Kingdom of Tiran expanded its power to the Iron Tree Forest, the relationship between humans, mainly the humans of the Kingdom of Tiran, has plummeted with the elves in the Iron Tree Forest, and the humans have wantonly cut down the wood of the Iron Tree Forest, which is equivalent to aggression in the eyes of the elves.

Coupled with the outstanding appearance of the elves, it often attracts slave traders to watch and capture, for various reasons, the relationship between humans and elves cannot be said to be divided into life and death when they meet, but they always have to fall down.

In this environment, it is normal for the elves in the Iron Tree Forest to discover that a human village has appeared in the north of their hometown, and it is normal to attack.

"So, the village was destroyed by the elves?"

"It's more likely." Thinking of this, David couldn't help but be glad that he had made the right choice.

When I first joined the pioneer team, it was decided that there would be three villages, that is, there would be three teams, but when I set off, the three teams set off together.

The large army set out from Irontree Fort and headed north along a flat routine between the Irontree Forest and the Tiran Mountains, and when they had stepped out of this 'narrow' passage, they came to the northern outpost of the Kingdom of Tiran.

It was an abandoned outpost that was originally built as the northernmost guard post of the Kingdom of Tiran, to prevent forces from attacking Irontree on the vast plains to the north.

As a result, after the establishment of the outpost, it was found that there was no strong force in the entire northern plain, and the northern outpost seemed to have lost its meaning of existence, and slowly reduced the garrison and financial investment until it was completely abolished.

So the pioneer army did not stop after reaching the outpost, and directly divided into two groups here, a third of them marching northeast along the Tiran Mountains, and the rest of them going west along the north side of the Iron Tree Forest.

After coming to the place where David now stands, half of them were left behind, and the village was established here, and the last remaining people continued north along the river.

The rest of Laura's story is clear: although Winter Village has been established, only David is left.

"Judging from the results of this village, it may be difficult for the group of people who go northeast to successfully establish the village."

It's not that David curses those people, it's that the climate in this huge plain area is about the same, and David didn't find any farmland after turning around, which means that the land is in a similar condition.

So without the assistance of goldfingers, plug-ins and other means, the situation faced by these two development teams is no different from that of the previous two years: the climate is cold, crops cannot survive, there is no stable access to food, and winter is especially difficult.

In addition, the village he was in was also facing the threat of the elves in the Iron Tree Forest, and he was worried that this place was too close to the elves, so in order to avoid his sudden death under the sneak attack of the elves one day, he chose to follow the last team to continue north, and now it seems that his choice is very correct.

Listening to what David said, Laura learned more about the situation in Irontree and the entire northern plains: "If the team going northeast has not been able to establish a village, can this large plain area be counted as your territory?" ”

"Huh?" David hadn't really thought about it before, and when he thought back to the various laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Tiran regarding the Pioneers, he found that it was really not impossible.

The village chiefs, town chiefs, and even noble lords within the kingdom have fixed territories, because their territories are next to the territories of other 'colleagues', and unless the ruling power of the Tilan Kingdom collapses and falls into a civil war, the lords are never allowed to invade and plunder the territories of other lords within the kingdom.

But the pioneer team is different, they are originally going to occupy the land outside the kingdom, you can occupy as much as you can, as long as you can control it, the kingdom will recognize it as your territory, and even increase the level of the lord according to the situation.

The village chief becomes the town mayor, the town mayor becomes the city lord, the city lord becomes the big lord, and at the same time, the title is rewarded according to the contribution, which is all written in the decree, and it can be said that the rise and strength of the Tilan Kingdom is related to this decree. This is how most of the territory of the Kingdom of Tiran, including Irontree Fort, came from.

"However, this plain is too vast, and it will not be easy to turn the whole area into my territory." At the very least, we have to make Winter Village into Winterfell.

"Oh~"

"How?"

Laura's strange reaction made David very confused, could he have said something wrong?

"Looks like you really want to be the lord of this place!" David's words prove that he has thought about this matter, otherwise would it be easy to think about it?

"If you can become a big lord, will you be satisfied with being a small village head?" Unwilling to stay at Irontree and be an honest hunter, David chose to join the development team, and he already showed his true intentions.

Although he has lived in this world for many years, the various influences from his previous life have already penetrated into the depths of his soul, even if he succumbs to the pressure of reality for a while, but as long as he has the slightest opportunity, he will choose to live a more comfortable way of life.

At present, it is much easier to live the life you want than you originally thought.

After a brief night's rest in the ruins, David and Laura did not wait for the sun to rise before setting off, and the two of them were already heading east along the Iron Tree Forest as soon as it was getting dark.

The two of them were to follow the northern edge of the Irontree Forest to the junction of the Tiran Mountains and the Irontree Forest, then turn south and follow the 'pass' until they reached the Irontree Castle.

The two of them should walk as fast as possible along the way, because this part of the road can be dangerous at any time compared to the previous journey.

"Actually, I'm very curious about the elves, if only I could see them with my own eyes...... Maybe we can communicate with each other well? ”

"When you get to Irontree, you can meet the elves, too. As for this part of the road, it's best not to touch half an elf, it's definitely not a fun thing. ”

“……”

Although Davy didn't make it clear, Laura understood a lot of the information contained in the passage: the elves in Irontree probably didn't live in that city of their own volition; The relationship between humans and elves in Irontree Castle couldn't be worse, so it's better not to run into elves in the forest.

I don't know if it's because David and Laura kept enough distance from the Iron Tree Forest and didn't attract the attention of the elves in the forest, or because they found out but didn't have the right time to start, in short, the road was calm and there were no accidents.

What really surprised David was that after arriving at the northern outpost, a small group of soldiers actually appeared in this long-abandoned outpost.

"What's going on?" Because both David and Laura were pure human appearances, after the initial tension, the soldiers at the sentry did not embarrass the two.

After confirming that David was actually a member of the pioneer team that had set off from Irontree Fort, the soldier looked surprised: "Is there still a pioneer team member who has not returned to Irontree Fort?" ”

"Because I've already successfully established Winter Village, I'm going back to Irontree Fort to report this time."

David's answer surprised the soldier even more, but David showed his pioneering order, and it didn't look like a fake......

The soldier didn't know how to greet these two, so he could only call his captain.

"Well, I'm Gregory, the captain in charge of the northern outpost." A middle-aged man wearing full armor and a robe of the Tiran Kingdom appeared in front of David and Laura: "You are members of the pioneer team in the northwest?" ”

"Yes, although our pioneer team has encountered a lot of trouble, many people have quit halfway, and many people have been buried on this plain, we have finally succeeded in establishing a new village, Winter Village, and I want to go to Irontree Fort to report the situation this time, so that Winter Village will officially become the territory of the kingdom."