My Magic Age

Moonstone Mountain is a not very high bald mountain in the western suburbs of Guludin Town. Originally there was a moonstone vein here, but it was dug out by the orcs of Guludin Town many years ago. Now there are only abandoned mines all over the barren mountain. The entire Moonstone Mountain is the highest place in this area. Moonstone, also known as moonlight stone, is a low-level magic material. Although it is not valuable among magic materials, its value is far greater than that of gold.

Nowadays, these abandoned mines are inhabited by orc refugees who have gathered from all over the western wilderness. Some of them are waiting for hunters returning from the depths of the wilderness, and some are gathering here with other orc refugees. After all, there is a place to stay here.

The closer we got to Guludin Town, the more orc hunters we met on the road. They were covered with all kinds of leather, animal horns, animal tendons, magic herbs, rare minerals and a lot of meat. I think most hunters would carry a bag of raw meat jerky. Now when I see raw meat jerky, I feel sick. Maybe I was injured. These hunters carrying bows and arrows and machetes often travel in groups of three or five. Those who can ride on horses will carry a lot more supplies. Those orcs who only rely on their shoulders to carry prey can't actually bring back much. They often prefer to roll up the leather and carry it behind their backs, walking silently all the way.

There are also caravans composed of three or five thunder rhinos. Human merchants can often be seen on these thunder rhinos, and the supplies on these thunder rhinos are like a small mountain. There is rarely too much food in these supplies. They are all very valuable things, and the most of them are rolls of magic antelope skins.

Our team was mixed among these orcs, which made us look a little abrupt, because the combination of our team looked a little strange. The ones walking in the front were Viru and Qiangbahe. They were tall and handsome horses, and people could tell without looking carefully that they were human adventurers. They were often powerful warriors or magicians. Generally speaking, few people dared to offend them. Sister Guoguo was wearing a magician's robe, and her cone hat and face scarf covered her whole body. She held a magic wand in her snow-white hand that was not pulling the reins. As long as the orcs saw the magic wand, they would subconsciously step back.

Behind the Gubolai horse followed a fat Yagui beast. This Yagui beast had almost no luggage on it, but there was an orc boy and a human child lying in the leather saddle. Both of them looked around listlessly, and the eyes of the two children always fell on the refugee orcs on the roadside.

More than 170 fat and strong argali followed behind the Yagui beast, and fifty beastwomen carrying short spears guarded them on both sides. The cargo on board was not too much, and the team did not feel tired from the long journey. The male beastmen of the wolf tribe usually rarely looked at the beastwomen too carefully to see whether their faces were delicate. As long as they were not too ugly, they would not be too picky. They cared more about whether the beastwomen's breasts were full enough, whether their buttocks were round and plump enough, and whether their thighs were slender and strong.

Obviously, none of the beastwomen among the refugees could meet these requirements. They had been starving all spring, and they had already become pale and thin. Some of them even had two shriveled chests like two pockets hanging on them, and their joints were prominent. The fifty beastwomen warriors guarding the argali were particularly conspicuous in the crowd, and there were obsessed eyes staring at them from time to time on the road.

We also follow the tradition of the beastmen. Whenever we camp at sunset, we will light three or five oil stoves, set up an iron pot, pour in a whole pot of water and boil it. At this time, I will take out the brick-like meat floss from my bag, cut off a corner with a dagger, and the meat floss will fall into the soup pot and quickly melt, turning into a pot of fragrant beef soup. Sometimes I will add some wild vegetables to the broth and eat it with dry pancakes. Sometimes I will break some black bread into pieces, put it in a wooden bowl, and pour two spoons of beef broth on it. Kuz has always liked this way of eating recently.

The beastwomen behind prefer to eat sausages made by mixing flour, cow blood, offal, minced meat, tendons, adding some spices and salt, pouring them into the small intestine to cook, and then smoking them dry. They will boil some wild vegetables with water, at most adding some salt, and then eat the weird-tasting smoked sausages and black bread with such clear soup.

Often at this time, other beastmen on the roadside will drool. There were still many orcs who would gather around and use our stove to boil some hot water to drink. Kuz saw that they were not far from Guludin Town, so he would share the remaining black bread and coarse grain biscuits with the orc refugees who looked like they had been eating wild vegetables for a long time and were already skinny. Often at this time, Kuz would symbolically pick out a few fresh wild vegetables from their hands and hand over the dry biscuits in his bag, which meant: Look, I really want to eat some wild vegetables, can I exchange a piece of bread for some wild vegetables!

Often, our oil stove would burn until the middle of the night. In the wilderness near Guludin Town, let alone dead branches, dry cow dung and other fuels, even edible wild vegetables were dug up and eaten by the hungry orcs. Therefore, it was extremely rare for those orcs to be able to drink a bowl of hot water at this time.

Sister Guoguo and Jonbach are fooling around somewhere again. These two people are becoming less and less ashamed. I think I should prepare another tent, which will be more convenient. Vilu lay down in his sleeping bag early, sleeping next to his ancient Bolai horse. I think this is good. My sleeping bag is obviously no worse than Vilu's. The sleeping bag itself is made of guinea pig skin. It's waterproof and breathable. With this kind of sleeping bag, you don't need to sleep in a tent at all. I think I should give Sister Guoguo a hint when I find a chance. Of course, I can't bring it up directly, otherwise she will tear me apart.

This night was destined not to be silent. The camp was crowded with orcs who could drink a bowl of hot water. Even though Kuz had asked the beast girls to move three oil stoves outside the camp, the whole camp was like a vegetable. It was as noisy as the market, and Kuz and I no longer felt sleepy. It has been like this every day for the past few days, probably! We could only hide on the back of the Aguimon to catch up on our sleep during the day, but couldn't sleep at night. This created a vicious cycle over and over again, so Kuz and I decided to climb Moon Rock Mountain at night.

When the bald mountain here was even bigger, the orcs from the Blood Wolf Tribe moved it back to Gurudin Town to build houses. Not to mention big trees, there wasn't even a decent shrub. Standing on the top of the mountain, feeling the cold night wind blowing across my face, I looked towards the distant town of Gurudin, where there were bright lights.

One month ago, there was no such bustling scene. At that time, I lived in the castle of the Kurtz family. Every night, I would take advantage of my free time to stand on the balcony of the room and watch the night view of the town. At that time, only the night watchman lit the street lights on the main street, and there were not many people on the street when it got dark.

But now, although we are too far away to see clearly what is going on on the street, just looking at the brilliant lights, we know that Gurudin's night is not peaceful. Kurtz exclaimed: "In the past, after every spring hunting, it was like this every night in Gurudin. There were always some outside hunters who, after making money, would find a tavern and drink all night. At that time, there were not so many human merchants, and the streets were filled with things like magic antelope skins and horns.”

Kurtz's eyes rarely showed a weak side. He rarely talked to me about past events. He looked at the lights of Gurudin Town in the distance and said to me excitedly: "I remember one time when grandma took me out. I bought two pieces of magic antelope skin for my dad to use as inner armor. The hunter who sold the leather also gave me a mask made of the skull of the devil antelope! Because of this, I was very happy. Many warriors use the skulls of the devil antelope to make helmets. This kind of bone helmet is much lighter than the helmet made of steel. , and it’s very sturdy.”

I have always thought that Kurtz is a strong-minded, cheerful and optimistic Orc boy. He is usually a very independent Orc boy. No matter what problems he encounters, he likes to find ways to solve them by himself. He never asks for anything he can do. other people. I think this is probably a habit formed after surviving alone in the wild. Although this habit gave him a survival ability that ordinary people cannot match, it diluted his communication skills and made him not very good at communicating with others.

I found a place with a wide view, moved two rocks and sat down. I smiled and said to him: "Why didn't you mention those magic antelopes we hunted in the northern wilderness? It’s pretty good to make a sheep bone helmet by one person!”

"I didn't expect it at the time! They were all cooked and eaten by those greedy women, ugh!" I sighed with regret.

Kurtz has seemed a little silent in recent days and always seems preoccupied. We sat side by side on the stone. I hugged my knees with my hands and looked up at the stars, but he buried his head deeply in his legs and played with the grass on the ground. , was silent for a moment before saying: "Jia, you said that all these orcs are starving, what are you going to do? Speaking of which, they are all members of our orc tribe, so I just watched them starving indifferently, this I can’t do it! But what should I do?”

For a moment, his question made me think deeply. I didn't know how to answer it. I want to say, aren't these things your eldest brother Kurt should think about? But I felt that he would be annoyed by saying this, so I thought for a long time before saying, "Actually...actually...you can actually help them!"

When Kuz heard what I said, his eyes became bright, like two sparks in the dark night. He stared at me and asked: "Jia, what do you think we should do!"

It suddenly dawned on me that this guy was pretending to be pitiful and troubled just to get me to give him some advice. It seems that he has really seen a lot of things and thought a lot in the past few days since he entered the western wilderness, otherwise he would never be so upset and troubled. So I asked him: "Do you want to sell those magic crystals in exchange for some food to save these orcs?"

"Well! I thought so at first, but then I felt that this might not be able to help them. The tribesmen of the drowned tribe were still waiting for me to bring food back... Ah! I thought about it, Jia, maybe I can hire them, I want to build a city, a very, very large mountain city. Even if it is just a wall, it will be dozens of kilometers long, and the stones needed can almost pile up a mountain! I want to take them back to the Drowning Pond..." Kurtz kept talking to me. , the gloomy face finally became cheerful.

I thought about it and then said to him seriously: "Actually, it doesn't take so many people to build a city wall. Besides, those magic crystals in your wallet can't support tens of thousands of poor orcs in the wilderness. Of course, you can recruit some." People should be brought back to drown, but the quantity and scale must be controlled well. "

What I said is very realistic. Two loaves of bread cannot save a group of hungry people. Our abilities are very limited. When Kurtz heard what I said, he sighed again.

"Actually, there is still a way!" I said slowly. "In fact, in front of us, in addition to the magic antelopes living in the depths of the wilderness, there is also a natural treasure house, which is the death swamp! The death swamp is our unique resource area. There is countless wealth there, enough to feed the wilderness. These orcs in there.”

"Death Swamp?" Kurtz was confused by what I said, and asked suspiciously: "You mean to let me lead the beast warriors into the swamp to hunt down those swamp zombies? Selling corpses, fire oil, and demons Jing feeds these poor orcs?"

This guy is so stubborn that he will run all the way to the darkest place and refuse to look back. I said to him: "Even if you are willing, you have to think about your tribe. After all, it is still very dangerous to go to the Death Swamp! I don't want you to take risks. What I mean is that we can actually take a broader view." A little further, come and see..."

I took out a piece of moonstone as big as a small fingernail from my arms. I remember that this was some of the remaining materials when I prepared the moonlight ink. At that time, Qige smiled and threw it to me. I still remember that she was very happy at that time. She said to me proudly: "Take it and play with it, sister will reward you!" Her charming smile is still deeply engraved in my mind. I pinched the moonstone with two fingers, as if You can see her charming smile. After being distracted for a moment, I concentrated my thoughts in front of my eyes. The moonstone emitted a faint blue light, illuminating my skin with a faint blue light.

Squatting on the grass, he drew a rough outline of the western wilderness, and in the lower left corner he drew the entire fault zone of hundreds of kilometers, the windmill hills, the North Valley quarry, and finally, of course, the drowning moor, and the drowning. Place a small stone in the center of the dead moor , while he was drawing, he explained to him: "This is the Western Wilderness... This is Gurudin... This is Bangor Manor... This is the North Valley Excavation Site, just think of it as a drowning place, oh!" This is the village of Laitu tribe. What can you see?"

Kurtz followed the light of the moonstone, looked around me again and again, and said uncertainly: "Jia, I see that what you drew is a simple map..."

I must admit that I felt a little regretful after I raised the question. I didn’t expect Kurtz to follow my train of thought, so I continued: “The key problem is the wall we built!”

I signaled Kuz to be quiet, and then said: "If we build a strong wall here in Laitu Village, there will be the safest habitat in the entire Drowning Bay. Az, you see, all hunters If you want to enter the Death Swamp, you must pass through us. This is the closest camp to the Death Swamp."

"Why were the hunters on the Pai Plateau reluctant to come to the Death Swamp to hunt swamp zombies before? The answer is simple. The swamp is full of dangers. Lone hunters can easily be ambushed and injured by the death scythe. The hunting mortality rate here is very high. That’s why it’s called the Death Swamp, and the living conditions in the swamp are extremely difficult, with heavy fog all day long. Diffuse, no sunlight, if there is no fire inside, over time, if soaked in the swamp for a long time, the legs and feet will slowly begin to develop sores and slowly rot, the body It will also be invaded by the toxins in the swamp, resulting in the occurrence of swollen worms.

"If we build this place into a small trading transit station, or at the beginning, it can also be a camping ground for hunters to rest. We can sell some easy-to-carry food, like those grilled sausages that do not spoil easily. , salty wheat cakes, meat floss, and dried meat are all available. Of course, there is also the most important detoxification potion. You still have the recipe from Sister Guoguo, so just press it. According to the configuration of the herbs, the poisonous mist of the Swamp Corpse King can still poison people, as well as other medicines suitable for use in the swamp. As well as the hunting tools, they can also be rented or bought and sold. Anyway, those must be used. Hunters understand that ordinary weapons cannot cause damage to those zombies, and they need to use sharper wind wolf fangs or weapons made of magic antelope horns.”

"But the prerequisite is to have a strong wall! This will slowly form a virtuous cycle. Hunters will continue to come and successfully hunt swamp zombies, making a lot of money. Bring the news to other orcs. Hunters, as long as they want to enter the death swamp, they will definitely choose a safe place The Laitu village is being renovated. When these hunters come to the village, they will supply supplies, buy food, medicine, weapons and other things. After being fully prepared, they will go into the death swamp to hunt together, and finally come out of the death swamp with the trophies, which are inconvenient to carry. Maybe they can be disposed of cheaply in the village!”

"In this way, perhaps there will be merchants who will see this business opportunity and open a business in our village! Oh, Az, you must not be polite to these merchants in the future. You must collect taxes from them, and of course, you must provide them with protection! As long as it is within their tolerance, the only thing to remember is that our village must have our own rules. Anyone who comes to our territory must abide by our rules!"

Kuz was a little confused and asked me: "Jia, what you said is very good, but what does it have to do with our current need to help tens of thousands of poor orcs in the western wilderness?"

I continued: "In this way, your camp will have a large amount of income, and this income will become larger and larger as it becomes more and more prosperous, and in the end it may be so large that you can't even imagine it. In addition, you sell fine salt and corpse fire oil, sell vermicelli and meat floss to human merchants, and usually carry Female warriors hunt swamp zombies and demon antelopes, and you will have enough money to do whatever you want!"

I stood up and pointed at the orc refugees under the Moonstone Mountain, and said to Kuz: "You can hire more people and let them build the walls higher and wider! This requires a lot of manpower! You can also consider building a large mountain castle-like castle, which also requires a lot of manpower! Maybe you can open more workshops, oh! In short, you can't support them for nothing, let them do some labor and maintain the minimum standard of life!"

I put my arm around Kuz's shoulders and comforted him, "This way, more people can be saved and more people can eat! Of course, you won't sell all your property in order to let them have a few full meals! But it will take some time to do this, and the effect may not be obvious at the beginning, but the effect will definitely get better and better..."