Arcane splendor begins with the throne

Chapter 20 Gnoll

"Your Excellency Brian, Master Swift said that you two can go over." Not long after, the scout knight reappeared on the hillside and said with a blank expression.

After speaking, he quickly disappeared into the shadow behind the rock.

"Let's go." Brian got off his horse, took the rein and walked towards the valley not far away.

The satyr Mario followed closely behind.

"What are you looking at?" Mario asked curiously, noticing Brian was looking around non-stop.

"I'm wondering." Brian led the horse to slow down, and said with a frown, "We obviously set off from the town the next morning, earlier than they left, and there was no delay in the middle, why did the other party faster than ours."

This was just his first doubt. The second question was that he also didn't find any traces left by Artes and his party during the journey.

However, this question is easy to guess, most likely because the two sides are taking different routes.

This is why Brian was really confused. Before they left, he clearly saw Artus recruiting tavern adventurers to Thorn Castle.

It stands to reason that the other party has a large number of people and set off later than them, so they should have been left behind long ago.

However, the fact is just the opposite, the speed of the opponent is faster.

As a Brian who has traveled this distance before, he knows that the path they took is definitely the fastest shortcut to Thorn Castle.

Brian couldn't think of a faster path than this shortcut.

"You don't know about that." The half-goat Mario said with a smile: "I guess the reason Artes and his party walked so fast must be because of the water they walked on."

"That's impossible." Brian retorted, "The middle and upper reaches of the Grimry River are full of canyons, and they're still going upstream, making it impossible for boats to pass."

"So, you haven't been to the Kingdom of West for at least two years." Mario glanced at him, and continued:
"In the past, the dangerous Grimre River was indeed unnavigable as you said, but now it is different. Under the spell bombardment of the court wizard Morelle, the disobedient stones in the middle river have long been It was cleaned up. Otherwise, it would be impossible to build Thorn Fort, and it would be a problem to transport supplies. It is a pity that the upstream terrain is too complicated, otherwise, we can go straight to Thorn Fort by boat."

"Since there is such a quick shortcut, why didn't you tell me before we set off?" Brian looked at Mario unhappily upon hearing this.

However, as soon as he asked this sentence, he regretted it.

Because he has already guessed the reason.

If Mario really told himself this shortcut to Thorn Castle, it meant that it was impossible for the two parties to meet here.

Without the protection of Artes and his group, how could Mario rest assured to follow him through the dangerous Griffon Mountains with him alone, unless he was dying.

It can be seen from this that this guy seems to have a harmless face, but in fact he has ghosts and ghosts in his heart.

"Uh..." Mario obviously found that Brian had misinterpreted his meaning, so he quickly denied:
"It's not what you imagined. In fact, the main reason why I didn't tell you about the waterway is because there are no boats leading in this direction on the Gramery River. It's impossible for the two of us to swim up together in wooden barrels."

"That's true." Brian echoed casually.

No matter where you are, there is always one interest.

For businessmen, except for adventurers, there are almost no people who want to go to the depths of the Griffon Mountains by water, and naturally there is no profit.

And the reason why Artes and his party were able to reach this valley ahead of them by boat, they knew without thinking that they were on military ships.

Thinking of this, Brian couldn't help feeling a little depressed.

He had tried his best to avoid the other party and arrived at Thorn Castle ahead of time, but he did not expect to meet them here.

"This valley is really a good place to rest. There are even caves to shelter from the wind and rain. No wonder they chose to give up their journey in such a bright sunshine." Mario took off the hood of the lynx fur cloak, and put Messy long brown hair smoothed out, revealing a pair of pure black goat horns.

"It's also a good place to be attacked." Brian instinctively began to look around the valley, and then directly poured cold water on Mario.

Because he has already seen that there are only two narrow passages in and out of this valley. If these two passages are blocked by people, it is almost impossible for them to rush out of it.

"Please, can we tell something happy?" Mario gave Brian a depressed look.

"Now you should figure out how to deal with Artes' anger after seeing Artes as soon as possible. Now that you've figured it out, let's talk about some happy things." Brian added fire.

These words directly frightened Mario so much that his neck shrank, and a pair of emerald eyes sneakily began to search for Artes in the valley.

Brian scanned the faces of all the people in the valley one by one.

Most of the people gathered by a small stream not far from the cave, and the horses were eating the dark green weeds growing from the crevices of the rocks after drinking the mountain spring.

He saw four noble children wearing blue steel chain armor sitting around a bonfire to keep warm, they were eating hard dry food in their mouths to satisfy their hunger.

Back in the tavern, the two burly adventurers who first attacked Mario also followed. The two were leaning against a big rock, basking in the sun, and chatting about some inn's little guy. girl.

The three mercenaries who offered Artes their seats were maintaining their weapons. Brian also discovered that one of the mercenaries used a flail that even he feared.

As for the remaining dozen or so people, he didn't know any of them, and Brian guessed that they were probably recruited from other places.

It can be seen from the messy clothes of these people that they are all adventurers.

Obviously, rather than selecting soldiers from the army and then training them to be rangers, it would be easier to directly recruit those experienced adventurers.

After all, ranger itself is a unique profession, and it is most appropriate to train these adventurers who have traveled all over the world to be excellent hunters, trackers and guides.

I just don't know how many people can become a real ranger in this cruel training, Brian thought to himself.

Soon, Brian spotted Artes. He was sitting on a rock, holding a knight's spear in his hand, and was carefully cleaning it. On his head was a silver helmet that looked like a bird of prey.

"Gnoll!"

Just when Brian was considering moving on and resting here for a while, an unexpected scream came from the top of a rock above the valley.

For a moment, everyone was taken aback.

Artes, who was cleaning the spear, was the first to react and take action. He mounted the horse, held the spear tightly and shouted at everyone: "Go to two people and lead all the horses to the cave, and the rest are ready to fight!"

(End of this chapter)