Chapter 3: First Encounter [I.]
It has been two days since he left the Elven Forest, and Cohen is standing halfway up the Levore Mountains at this time, looking at the endless Ballow Forest behind him, he can no longer feel the breath of the Elven Forest, and the dry air flow is coming, as long as he crosses the Leavor Mountains, the Dwarven Thursilver Fortress is still two days away.
Another half a day's journey is to the digger's pass, where the Dwarven border army is stationed, and once there, you can rest for a while. Cohen strained his shoes and straps and quickened his pace forward.
According to the agreement between the two tribes, the dwarves enjoy the right to exploit the mineral resources of the entire mountain range, but they must be provided to the elves free of charge according to two-fifths of the production capacity. Although it is a small number of melee troops, with the increasingly tense situation in the Noah continent, the scarcity and importance of mineral resources are becoming more and more obvious, and both sides know that once the digger passage is broken by the sub-human race, the rear of the elven race and the dwarf race will be completely finished, and the sub-human race will get the mineral resources for weapon research and development. In order to resist the harassment of the Levles by the Sub-Humans, the Dwarves have somehow turned the Digger's Pass into an impregnable fortress.
As two iron gates weighing more than 10,000 catties appeared in front of Cohen's eyes, on either side were four giant arrow towers, two lava catapult towers, and a pungent smell of sulfur occupied Cohen's sense of smell. It seems that this group of dwarves has really not stopped, since the digger passage was opened and the dwarves began to garrison, the sulfur breath of the Levre Mountains has become a highlight of the Noah continent about the hard-working dwarves: after all, in terms of the miracle of being able to channel lava from the ground as a digger channel to smelt energy, there is no race in the entire Noah continent that can beat it.
"Cohen, why did you kid run the digger passage?" a rough voice suddenly came from a tower of arrows.
Pulling down the brim of his hat a little, Cohen looked up at the tower and saw a stout dwarf with a bearded face, long brown-red hair draped over his shoulders, and an iron metal hat waving enthusiastically at him.
Cohen grinned and said, "Joyce, you drunkard, you're on duty today? β
"How many times have I told you, to call me my esteemed Lord Joyce, you delicate-skinned and tender! Look at how I, Lord Joyce, will clean you up in a moment, wait, I'll come down and open the door for you!" After saying that, Joyce scolded and walked down the arrow tower, opened a small door on the side of the gate, and walked towards Cohen with a jug of wine.
Cohen looked at the dwarf in front of him and said with a smile: "Why do you still drink rye wine, this cheap thing, the guard will change in a while, I invite you to go to the tavern in the passage to have a glass of dragon fire, that's a good thing!"
When Joyce heard the Dragon Flame, his eyes widened, and he woke up half a minute: "You mean, the Dragon Flame, the King of Dwarven Spirits with two gold coins and a glass in the Battle Hammer Tavern? The milky Dragon Flame concocted by the ** beauty Liz? Are you sure you're not lying to me?"
Cohen nodded: "Yes, it's the dragon flame tuned by Leeds, there is a fake exchange!"
"Ouch, Cohen, you are my most honored guest of Joyce, please come in, friend of the elves!" Joyce said, rubbing his mud-stained hands vigorously, and bowed to Cohen very gentlemanly, inviting Cohen into the digger's passage.
At this time, Cohen smiled kindly at Joyce, and thought to himself: the loyalty and friendship of the dwarves are directly proportional to the rarity of the wine!
Follow Joyce into the digger's passage, looking at the low stone houses in front of him, every time Cohen feels that the dwarves are too difficult to get off their feet, but these guys are only interested in ore and casting, and everything else, to hell.
More than half of the fine iron equipment in the entire Noah continent is provided by the dwarves, and food, spirits, and all kinds of magical rare ores are treasures in the eyes of the dwarves, and they are all bargaining chips that can be exchanged. And the other aspects, which the entire Noah continent dare not compliment: vulgarity, violence, filth, etc., you can see all of the above things anywhere the dwarves live, and if you can't stand it, well, you're done.
"Cohen, I'm going to take you here, I'm still on duty, I'll go straight to the Battle Hammer Tavern to find you when I change the guard!" Joyce said as he took Cohen to the digger's passage, raised his fist and touched Cohen.
Cohen knew that this was a ritual that could only be done between brothers in the dwarf clan, and said, "Go and get busy, Joyce, I'll go over by myself, and we'll have a few drinks later." I'm going to cross the digger's passage early tomorrow morning and rush to the Thorsilver Fortress!"
"Okay, you're familiar with it here, so I won't take you there. See you later!" Joyce waved his hand, said goodbye to Cohen, and walked in the direction of the Arrow Tower.
Walking on the solid stone road, Cohen looked at the huge and deep digger's passage not far away, every time he came here, he would feel that the passage was like a monster's open mouth of blood, and the bursts of hot air inside made Cohen feel a little uncomfortable. "I don't know why these dwarves are so used to living in the air!" Cohen sighed, following the heavy smell of alcohol in the air towards a low house at the edge of the digger's passage.
The Battle Hammer Tavern, a dwarven paradise in the digger's passage, is filled with an endless supply of spirits. As a race that reveres strength, in addition to constantly improving their own strength, the dwarves' only pleasure is spirits, burning their body's exuberant energy in strong alcohol. In a way, the administrator of the digger's passage acquiesced in the dwarves' brawls in the Battle Hammer Tavern, provided that no one was killed!
And the owner of the tavern, Liz, is the apprentice of the dwarven patriarch Clement, and is rumored to have a silver battle axe-level combat power. But what impressed the group of fierce men of the dwarf clan even more was that the dragon flame of the spirits concocted by Liz was one of the most spicy spirits in the history of the dwarf race, and even the dwarven patriarch Clement was so drunk that he woke up without saying a word and accepted Liz as his closed disciple. At the last point, Leeds has a pair of proud **, which makes countless dwarven macho men salivate. As for the digger passage, every year, a large number of dwarven officers sharpen their heads and want to come here to be an ordinary soldier. For no other reason, it's just because it's hereβthe Battle Hammer Tavern, Liz, a woman who can bring fame and fortune.
Cohen stood outside the tavern door, listening to the lively and vulgar laughter and shouting inside, he hadn't been here for a while. After a moment's pause, he gently pushed open the wooden door of the tavern, and suddenly a pungent smell of rye wine came to his face.
I saw two shirtless dwarves wrestling their wrists on a table near the bar, and piles of copper coins, silver coins, and even a few gold coins were piled up on both sides of the table. As one of the dwarves began to struggle, the two dwarves kept yelling and scolding behind them!
"Toulus, you haven't fucking eaten, so fuck you! I've gambled all my day's earnings on you, and so far we've lost a chance to drink a glass of rye wine and tease Liz. If you lose, go back to your mother's warm home at the Fortress of Thoryin, drink the goat's milk from the Bourdomus goats, and find another girl to marry. Don't come back to the Hammer Tavern to be embarrassed. Ha Lu Ha ......"
"Turus, Liz said just now, you won, please drink a glass of dragon fire she concocted!
Cohen saw that he was an acquaintance again, Turus, a well-known drunkard in the digger's passage, who drank every day except mining, and nothing could disturb him from drinking. Cohen smiled, walked over to Turus, ignored the surprised eyes of the other dwarves, approached Turus's ear, whispered a few words, and sat quietly aside.
After listening to Cohen's whisper, Turus's originally slightly declining aura exploded instantly, and his forehead was even more overexerted, countless green tendons loomed, and his eyes were red looking at the dwarves opposite, a monstrous hatred overflowed in Turus's body, and several dwarves present suddenly felt a trace of coldness.
As Turus's right hand exploded, his opponent's wrist was being pressed over little by little.
"Pour it for me!"
Turus roared in a fierce voice, and a violent earth elemental power came from the soles of his feet, and the thick pine table could not withstand the violent force, and at the same time that Turus pressed his opponent's wrist against the table, it cracked and shattered. Countless coins fell in all corners of the tavern, and they rattled non-stop.
"Lao Tzu's money, don't move it, that gold coin belongs to Lao Tzu!"
"Fuck off, that's what Lao Tzu won, you fucking remove your filthy paws!" Turus glared at him, completely ignoring the presence of the other clansmen, and swept his hand vigorously, putting the largest pile of coins on the ground into his pocket, and then took a glass of rye wine and gulped it down, laughing happily.
Cohen sat quietly on the side, watching the dwarves around him play, and suddenly a faint fragrance came from behind him, and when he turned around slightly, he saw a white jade hand gently resting on his shoulder, and a gentle voice sounded behind him: "Cohen, can you tell my sister, what did you just say to Turus?
Glancing at the majestic plateau of Leeds, Cohen cleared his slightly dry throat and said with a smile: "I'm sixty-two years older than you, and if you count it according to human age, you can be your grandfather." Sister Leeds!"
Looking at Cohen's slightly aggressive eyes, Liz tightened his chest indifferently, and with a burst of irregular shaking, Cohen's face slowly turned red. Liz smiled: "I'm not that grandpa, don't say it, forget it, little slippery!If you want to drink something, you can order it yourself, sister, I don't have that much time to spend with you!" After speaking, he winked at Cohen and left.
Sensing the fading scent behind him, Cohen smiled helplessly, after all, his whisper with Turus was a secret between the two men.
"Cohen... Lao Tzu won!" With a hearty laugh, Turus sat down in the chair opposite Cohen with a large glass of rye wine. The smell of sweat quickly muffled the scent left by Liz, and Cohen, who had been slightly distracted just now, instantly came back to his senses.
"Do you dare not win?" Cohen asked, looking at Turus playfully.
"Ha Luha, this... Let's not talk about that!Yes, let's drink, let's not talk about this!Sister Leeds, have two glasses of dragon fire!" Turus blushed and looked at Cohen nervously, afraid that he would open his mouth and tell one of his secrets.
As the spicy liquor flowed down his throat, Cohen's brow furrowed helplessly. Looking at Turus's immortal appearance, he really didn't understand that Dragon Burn was really that good? Slowly put the glass on the wine table, let out a long breath of wine, and leaned lazily on the chair, the hard work of the past few days could be temporarily thrown away.
Turus slowed down his drinking, glanced at Cohen, and asked, "Why did you kid come here, I heard that the war between the elves and the subhumans is tight, shouldn't you have come out to drink with my brother?"
Cohen squinted his eyes and muttered, "There are some things to do to make a trip to the Thorium Fortress, and it is not convenient to tell you that I plan to rest here for the night tonight." β
"It seems that you are also an errand runner, but if you run errands well, at least you can live a little longer than others, only by living, everything is possible. Anyway, the war between the elves and the subhumans has taken almost five years, and according to the current situation in the Noah Continent, the elves can spend a few more years?
"The subhuman race wants to fight, and our elven race can only accompany it, and there is basically no possibility of reconciliation with the hatred in it. Under the torrent of history, we are only a negligible amount of power, and we cannot influence the direction of the torrent. Instead of spending time on doing useless work in this area, it is better to do the things in front of you peacefully, at least, not to become a burden. Cohen sat up, and the instructions of the Carter patriarch slowly came to his mind, yes! Doing what is in front of him is the greatest contribution to the elves.
"I haven't seen you for a while, why has your tone become as sentimental as a bard?" Turus asked, patting Cohen on the shoulder.
Cohen looked at Turus seriously, paused for most of the time, and replied cautiously: "Because of a sense of responsibility, I have to mature. After speaking, he beckoned to Liz: "Liz, two more cups of dragon fire!"
Turus looked at Cohen with a little surprise, and Cohen, who he remembered as only giggling and laughing, had become a little strange because of a sense of responsibility. However, this is a good thing, Turus smiled happily, "We dwarves have a proverb: a child in an infant grows up because of the weight of ore. I think you're going to impress me in the future. This glass of wine is worth it!"
The two of them drank the liquor in their glasses and leaned back in their chairs very comfortably, Cohen looked at Turus and said, "The digger's passage should be quite stable during this time, right?"
"Uh......" Turus let out a long snort, rubbed his stomach with his right hand contentedly, and said, "It's still the same, as long as you elves are still worried about the subhuman race, the digger's passage will be safe." The bitches who turned their backs on the gods haven't touched the digger's passage and offended the dwarves. β
Cohen shook his head and muttered, "Not necessarily, since you refused to sell equipment and weapons to the sub-human race, I have heard that the caravans of the dwarven race transporting equipment are often ambushed by unknown thieves in the Holy See area, and even the silver battle axe-level powerhouses have suffered casualties. Even if you think about it with the hemorrhoids on the bitch's buttocks, you know who did the good deeds!"
"I've heard other clansmen mention this matter in the Seyin Fortress, and the patriarch and the Holy See have joined forces to encircle and suppress that group of thieves, but the most recent information shows that the group of thieves is just a mercenary belonging to a certain fallen prince of the human race, and they plan to do a few jobs to help the family that has no rice to cook. In the end, the Holy See came forward and directly escorted the bastards to the Warrior Lion Crusader fortress. The rest of the matter is over, but the caravan hasn't been attacked since!What does this have to do with the subhumans?" Turus recalled thoughtfully.
"No wonder the bitch's hemorrhoids spread so fast!" Cohen sighed, if a declining royal family still had the existence of a strong man who could defeat the dwarven silver battle axe-level powerhouse, how could it decline? Talking about the conspiracy with a dwarf like Turus who was full of ore and wine, a sense of helplessness arose in Cohen's heart.
Just as Cohen stood up and was about to say goodbye to Turus, planning to find a place in the tavern to go to bed early and recuperate enough to cope with the rest of the rush, Turus suddenly patted his head hard and said, "By the way, Cohen, the digger's passage is a little rough at night, don't come out and hang around, lest you get into trouble!"
"I think we should have another glass of Dragon Burn from Leeds, Toulus!" Cohen said as he sat down slowly, looked at Turus.
"It's the most beautiful language I've heard today, as you wish!" Turus sat down with a big grin after listening to Cohen's proposal, and shouted in a loud voice, "Two cups of dragon fire, Leeds Beauty!"
For the sake of the gold coins, Liz was very neat in mixing two glasses of spirits, and left without saying a word after taking the gold coins. Turus originally planned to tease Leeds twice, but when the big white eyes floated in front of the two of them, Turus could only touch his head in embarrassment and laugh, and after taking the wine glass, he clinked glasses with Cohen, and then took a sip.
Wiping the wine stains from the corners of his mouth, Turus looked around slightly, leaned slightly closer to Cohen, and whispered: "Recently, in the depths of the digger's passage, there are often mysterious signs of earth element explosions, and in the past half month, it has led to the collapse of four ore veins, and the strong earth element condensation, and then the shock wave that erupted, can be felt throughout the digger's passage." I heard that in two days, the powerful Golden Battle Axe-level elemental master of the clan will be able to arrive here, and then I will know what is going on in the Dao. β
Cohen glanced at Turus and whispered, "Didn't you dig up something terrible?"
"I haven't heard of it, but I heard from the people who were digging ore in the mine at the time, there was a hissing in the depths of the mine, it was a very painful scream, and then after a while, the excess earth element fluctuations engulfed the entire mine until it collapsed. Fortunately, the guys ran fast, otherwise they would all be buried alive in the mine. Turus's face turned unnaturally pale when he said this, because he was also a dwarven miner, and it was absolutely false to say that he was not worried.
"Interesting!" Cohen pursed his lips unnaturally, and then asked, "Isn't there anyone who comes in to see what's going on?"
Turus sighed helplessly and said: "There are a few people who don't want to die, and they did risk their lives to run into the mine where the earth element exploded, but the strong earth element fluctuations made it difficult for them to move an inch, coupled with the violent vibration of the ore veins, those guys ran back crying and shouting like naked girls in winter." After saying that, Turus also looked at the two dwarves sitting not far away from the corner of his eye, with a look of disdain. It seems that the group of naked that Turus is talking about, they are one of them.
Suddenly, Turus grabbed Cohen's shoulder and muttered, "You kid aren't planning to go to the digger's passage to see what's going on?"
Feeling the tingling sensation from the countless calluses on his shoulders and hands, Cohen gently put his right hand on Turus's hand and said, "You forgot that I still have important things to deal with, what might delay time here?" After speaking, he looked at Turus with a smile and said no more. Turus shook his head, thinking that it was the same thing, his hands naturally loosened, and he grinned at Cohen: "Look at my head, I don't have any memory at all!"
The two chatted for a while, probably because they hadn't seen each other for a while, and how much their combat power had improved, and Turus even boasted that he was fortunate enough to dig up a piece of Myser Silver Mine in the Digger's Passage during this time, and the entire Digger's Passage was a sensation at that time, which really made Turus proud for a long time.
After lamenting Turus's luck of being like a bitch aunt and only coming once in half a year, Cohen casually said goodbye to Turus, after all, those glasses of liquor made his body feel tired like a tide, walked into the hostel around the corner, and fell asleep.
......
At night, Cohen, who was sleeping in a daze, was suddenly awakened by a low fluctuation of the earth element, which was originally thick and simple, and actually surged towards the digger's passage with a trace of tyrannical aura.
Cohen sat up suddenly, quickly dressed, and neatly tied the blade of light redemption to the hook around his waist, but stopped abruptly as he was about to push open the door and run out. Because in the darkness where you can't see your fingers, a creaking sound suddenly comes from overhead.
There are people on the roof!
Cohen held his breath for a moment, and after three small soft sounds from the roof, he calmed down.
After sensing the departure of the man on the roof, Cohen rushed to the window with an arrow step, gently pushed a gap, and saw that in the bright moonlight, a petite figure was rushing towards the entrance of the digger's passage with the help of a low building, and every time the figure landed, a small fluctuation of the air shook for a moment, and then disappeared.
"Interesting, it's actually the Wind Acceleration Technique, I don't know if any of the dwarves in the Tunnel Digger Passage can cast this kind of auxiliary spell. Cohen watched as the figure gradually disappeared into the darkness, blessed himself with a primary wind acceleration, and also rushed towards the digger's passage. ββββββββββββββββ gorgeous dividing lineββββββββββββββββββ a chapter is updated every morning at about 9 o'clock, and you have to go to the talent market to find a job during the day, and you only have time to code words at night, and now there are no readers who pay attention to the novel, but I still say it in advance, my code words are a little slow, forgive me.