My Magic Age

The easternmost end of the New Siachis Mountains is connected to a fertile grassland of hundreds of square kilometers. After walking 70 kilometers southeast along the edge of the grassland, you will reach the foot of the mountains on the northern foot of the Pai Plateau.

The southeast trade wind blows in the early spring night of September, making this prairie particularly cold. Several bonfires were lit in the camp, and most people in the caravan sat around the bonfires. This was a rare moment of relaxation.

If you are lucky, you will see young dancers in the dance troupe running out to perform their newly choreographed dances, and cheers will be heard everywhere. Even if you just dance a few steps or sing a few words, it doesn’t matter. No one here will mock or ridicule, because such people will be driven out of the camp by Master Leipas, and they will never be allowed to come back until the bonfire is burned out.

Many drivers are still wearing thick sheepskin coats for winter, but the long winter and long journey make the men in the caravan look like a group of stinky beggars. These stinky men will sit in two groups.

Master Pailes would also join in the chat at this time. He always had a faint smile on his face. He had never laughed out loud even at the funniest things. He was such a person with great sense of propriety.

He would not despise you, even if you had never taken a bath in more than a year, and the collar and cuffs of your fur coat were worn black and shiny, he would not frown at all, and would still talk to you cordially.

The women in the dance troupe would also gather together alone at this time, talking and laughing while eating dinner.

They rarely sat together with the men. Even if a dancer found a lover during this lonely journey, they would never dare to sit together openly at this time. The aunt of the dance troupe was always very strict about such things, and she always had her way in this dance troupe.

Rules were always a simple bondage. Only at dusk and night like this would the dancers with great status and fame in the dance troupe come out of the caravan. It is said that in such a dance troupe of more than 300 people, there were more than 30 young ladies called dancers.

Uncle Fred has seen a dancer named Qi Ge. It is said that she is beautiful from head to toe. Her skin is as smooth as white jade, her eyes are like clear lake water, and her eyebrows are like the mountains on the northern foot of the Pai Plateau that fade into a line in the distance. These beautiful women only come out to breathe at night.

I have always wanted to find an opportunity to sneak into the dance troupe to see the beauties in this world, but I have never had the opportunity, and I don’t dare to do it for fear of being caught.

The consequences of making mistakes in the business group are sometimes unbearable. I cherish everything I have now.

The women’s dinner is mutton soup and cold wild vegetables, and each person has a burnt wheat cake. The aroma and smell of the broth spread far away, as well as those tempting wheat cakes.

In normal times, there will be people in the business group who can’t stand the temptation of food and use the copper coins on their bodies to exchange for some of the remaining food in the dance troupe. In this regard, the highest leader of the dance troupe doesn’t care much. It’s not excessive for the women to exchange the saved food for some imperial copper coins.

Tonight was definitely an exception. The dance group originally got some fresh antelope meat, which was harvested by the hunters in the mercenary group during the day, and was given to the dance group by someone.

Perhaps it was just to win a smile from a certain dancer.

During such a journey, fresh meat is not available every day, even for those with high status like Master Pailes or those high-ranking dancers.

Every time at such a dinner, there would be men in the merchant group who would exchange pitiful copper coins for bowls of hot and delicious broth or fragrant wheat cakes.

But tonight was different. The men in the entire merchant group were eating the rough black bread in their hands with relish. The copper basin in front of each person was filled with stewed meat. The stewed meat was mixed with transparent and shiny vermicelli. The sweet and salty fragrance mixed with spices almost conquered everyone.

Eating half a basin of black bread with a small pot of braised pork and vermicelli can almost make an adult man unable to move. He can only lie half-way beside the campfire and slowly savor the soft and smooth taste.

When the main course and bread fill the stomach, each person has a bowl of wild vegetable soup with a faint fragrance. The men of the merchant group drink the hot soup in big gulps, and sweat beads appear on their foreheads. This beautiful night does not seem so cold anymore.

The topic in the men's camp tonight is very unified: delicious dinner.

The old orc Kuru will sit quietly outside his tent, where a small coal stove will be lit, and the old man will move a stone block and sit next to it. There will always be a pot of herbal soup on the stone stove.

At this time, a pot of braised pork and vermicelli is warming on the stove. I have already been so full that I can't even put a grain of rice in my stomach. Kuz is lying on the hard cowhide mattress and humming. Old Kuru is like a weathered stone, sitting in front of the coal stove, always silent.

He looked up at me for a long time, with a slight fluctuation in his cloudy dark yellow eyes, and then asked me in orc language: "Did you come up with this?"

I shook my head honestly, looked at the delicious food steaming on the coal stove and said: "I don't know why. This is like the taste in my memory. There is an invisible hand guiding me all the time. I don't even need to think hard, I know how to make it. It's delicious, isn't it?" I had to attribute it to God's guidance. I really couldn't explain it and was a little embarrassed.

"When I picked you up, you were only that big." Old Kuru spread his hand to about half a meter, and then said with some memories: "At that time, you couldn't even speak, whether it was Imperial or Orc Dwarf language. I know you can't understand it. Your bone age told me that you were almost 5 years old at that time. I thought you were not very smart and didn't learn any language. I even suspected that this was one of the reasons why you were abandoned. one."

I didn't know what to say, so I opened my mouth and the words got stuck in my throat, but no sound came out.

"Later I discovered that both your bloodline talent and your ability to understand and learn are the best I have ever seen, bar none." The unabashed admiration in Old Kuru's eyes made me feel a little ashamed. I cheated. ah!

"Jijia, you brought this thing to us, do you know what it means to me and the orcs?" Old Kuru looked at the oily braised pork and stewed vermicelli on the clay stove, looking a little excited.

Is he talking about braised pork or vermicelli, or this dish? I was completely confused, where was this? No matter how good a dish is, what does it have to do with the orcs? But recently, Old Kuru has been mentioning my talent, which makes me a little excited. Bloodline is brought from my mother's womb, which means that I am born with a higher starting point than others. This is like cheating to defeat monsters. Others I can’t do it, but I can do it. I have a lot of experience and a lot of equipment, and the upgrades are still going up. It’s so competitive~

"Teacher! I actually didn't do anything." I told the truth, obviously I didn't think there was anything outstanding about me, and continued: "Actually, Kuz also helped me a lot. We are very happy that everyone recognizes us."

Although Kuz couldn't even move, he still nodded fiercely to the side, trying to get the approval of Old Kulu, and said hurriedly: "Master, I also put in a lot of effort. But having said that, this vermicelli is really delicious. Ji Jia, you said this sweet potato..."

"Hey!" This kid can't control his mouth after all!

The air suddenly solidified, and I felt a strong dizziness that time was about to stop. My chest was so tight that I couldn't breathe, and my heartbeat stopped at this moment. Kurtz's mouth was wide open, but he couldn't make any sound. He and I were strangely like a photo, completely frozen at this second.

Old Kuru sat quietly in front of the clay stove, his hands quickly forming various wonderful mudras, and the light blue dark light drew out from his fingers, forming a strange and complicated picture in front of him, and he couldn't stop talking. He kept mumbling the ancient orc language. I could clearly distinguish his pronunciation, but I had no idea what he was saying, as if he was praying.

Oh, is that a magic circle? I suddenly felt that the pattern formed by the blue light in front of Old Kuru was like some complex graphic array, and the blue light was slowly flowing inside.

It was a round cover like an upside-down bowl, protecting our small camp inside. The faint blue light array only appeared for a moment when it was formed, and then disappeared. Kurtz and I recovered after the light array disappeared. Kurtz opened his mouth and continued what he had left unfinished: "How can it be made so delicious?"

Kurtz wanted to continue speaking, but was interrupted by Old Kuru's stern look and said: "Kuz, you can't say these words anymore, even if we communicate in Orcish, we are not the only ones in the business group who can speak Orcish. .

Of course I know that those delicious vermicelli are made by Jijia from sweet potatoes, and the production method is related to some applications of herbal medicine.

Using a very simple method to extract the essence of sweet potato and turn it into another kind of food is not something we witch medicine scholars who master pharmacy cannot do, but we have never thought of doing this.

For a long time, mainstream societies such as the human kingdom, the dwarf kingdom or the elven dynasty have not accepted lower plants as food. Plants such as sweet potato grow in large quantities on every inch of barren land on the Pai Plateau and Roland Continent, using their unique characteristics The tenacious vitality invades any place that can be invaded.

The proud Silver Moon elves despise all underground creatures. The human and dwarf worlds also follow the elves' footsteps and list potato and ghost mushrooms as foods that only slaves can eat.

Hey, if those people in the caravan know that these vermicelli are made from sweet potato, you two boys will be sent to the gallows. Those people don't care what I think. You two have violated the laws of the human kingdom. my child! "

I didn't know there would be such a statement, so I looked at Old Kuru with wide eyes in surprise.

"The monks in the temples of the human kingdom believe that the potato plant will blaspheme the human soul, making people unclean and corrupt.

Haha, it’s ridiculous that some of the poorest orc tribes in our Pai Plateau still rely on the potato plant to survive the long cold winter.

Therefore, except for the poor orcs, only slaves eat these potatoes. Unless one is extremely hungry, cold and life-threatening, eating sweet potatoes is a sin. "What Old Kulu said made my back feel a little cold. I really don't know if anyone in the caravan knows that I made these vermicelli from sweet potatoes.

Kuz was also a little scared, and then he asked Old Kulu with some confusion: "Grandpa, don't we also eat some in winter? Although this food tastes a little different, it makes us hungry and quenches our thirst. Isn't it good? What?”

Only then did I realize that Kurtz was a child who grew up in an orc tribe, and there were many things he didn’t understand. Then I winked at Old Kuru: "Actually, we didn't eat sweet potatoes!"

At this time, Old Kuru smiled: "We really don't have it! Those vermicelli are actually the most unique thing given to us by the Beast God. They are actually a kind of food, unique to us orcs."

"Yes, then Kuz and I gave these vermicelli, which are special products of the orcs, to the people in the caravan and had the most delicious dinner. But there are not too many vermicelli..." I understood what Old Kuru meant. At that moment, he put up the magic shield as quickly as possible and told us about the ground potatoes and the significance of vermicelli to the orcs.

Old Kuru then said a lot.

The Pai Plateau of the orcs is very large, and most orcs live a nomadic life of semi-herding and semi-hunting.

This kind of life that depends on the face of God is very unstable. If you can meet a large flock of sheep or cattle, the orc tribes that follow them will obviously live well. They will not worry about food. Every orc is a natural hunter.

If some tribes lose the wild sheep flocks and only rely on eating cattle and sheep in their own tribes to survive, obviously the food is not enough, and the long winter will make the whole tribe face famine.

Therefore, this kind of wild potato that grows everywhere has become the food that the orcs use to survive famine. No orc would ever think that there is anything wrong with eating wild potatoes.

The Pai Plateau occupied by the orcs does not produce much, but it is still self-sufficient.

However, as human caravans continue to enter the Pai Plateau, they bring cotton, linen, various exquisite iron daily necessities, wine that tastes like sweet springs, fine flour, and enchanted weapons and equipment that are sought after by the orc nobles. These things have exchanged for various rare metals and gold and silver ores accumulated by the orcs on the Pai Plateau for hundreds of years, and a large amount of magic antelope skins and low-grade herbs.

I don’t know when it started, but Lao Kuru found that the nobles in the orc tribe lived more and more luxuriously, while ordinary orcs gradually became poor. The luxury goods exchanged for a large amount of resources did not help the orc tribe at all. Many orcs began to starve, and the gap between the rich and the poor became more and more serious. For the orcs, this is a disaster and a war.

When the shamans began to realize this problem, it was more than 20 years ago.

Old Kuru has been working hard to study a problem: how to exchange resources equally, rather than being plundered by humans, dwarves and elves in a peaceful way. Business is a big topic. What almost makes Old Kuru despair is that apart from rare metal gold and silver ores, leather and herbal orc slaves, the outside world has no interest in the output of the Pai Plateau. This is why Old Kuru has been following the human caravan in these years and is willing to be an orc witch doctor. He is looking for a way out for the entire orc world.

I gradually understood when I heard this.

There was also a glimmer of hope in Old Kuru's turbid eyes. Looking at the steaming braised pork and vermicelli on the clay stove, he said: "This dish is delicious!" He seemed to be asking me, and seemed to be talking to himself.

Old Kuru looked up at the happy crowd sitting around the campfire outside, then turned to look at me: "They all like this taste."

I knew what Old Kuru was thinking, and then said with a smile: "Maybe we can exchange vermicelli for their wine and other things!"

Kuz stared at me and Old Kuru with puzzled eyes, and after a while he said to me pitifully: "Jijia, I want to drink another bowl of wild vegetable soup!"