[Chapter 21 Northern Outpost]

After four days of continuous trekking, David and Laura finally arrived at the edge of the Ironwood Forest.

Looking at the narrower river next to them and the ruins of the houses around them, David helplessly spread his hands and said, “Obviously, this pioneering team failed.” There are

quite a few wooden houses here, and they are all separate residences, not the kind of temporary large wooden houses. It seems that this team’s initial development was very smooth?

But this did not change the fact that this place has become a ruin, and judging from the condition of these house ruins, this village has been abandoned for a long time.

If they just gave up, the houses would not become what they are now: there is no intact wooden house, and it is obviously burned by fire.

“Before giving up and leaving, the pioneering team will set fire to all the houses?” Laura didn’t understand this very much. What’s the point of doing this?

“No, they will just pack up the valuables and leave directly.” David walked around this abandoned village for a few times and finally found some clues under a wooden house next to the forest.

“What is this?” Laura kept looking around. When she saw David squatting and picking up something, she immediately went over to take a look and found that David was holding a broken arrow shaft in his hand: “Arrow?”

“Yes!” The arrow shaft in his hand was not complete, only half, but the real clue was left on it: “It’s an elf’s arrow.”

“How do you tell it apart?”

“Only the elves in the Iron Tree Forest use this special leaf to make arrow feathers.”

Laura simply explained that this kind of leaf can only be found in the depths of the Iron Tree Forest. Those places are the main activity areas of the elves. It is difficult for humans to go there, let alone collect a large number of this kind of leaves.

It is difficult to obtain and it is not an irreplaceable material. Naturally, humans will not choose this kind of leaf to make arrow feathers. Only elves who are more likely to obtain this kind of material will use it.

“So that’s it.”

Moreover, since the Kingdom of Tilan expanded its power to the Iron Tree Forest, the relationship between humans – mainly humans in the Kingdom of Tilan, and the elves in the Iron Tree Forest has plummeted. Humans cut down the wood in the Iron Tree Forest on a large scale, which is equivalent to aggression in the eyes of the elves.

In addition, the outstanding appearance of the elves often attracts the attention and capture of slave traders. For various reasons, the relationship between humans and elves cannot be said to be a fight to the death, but one of them must fall.

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

“So, this village was destroyed by the elves?”

“It is more likely.” Thinking of this, David couldn’t help but feel fortunate that his original choice was really correct.

When he joined the pioneering team, it was determined at the beginning that three villages would be established, that is, there would be three teams, but when they set out, the three teams set out together.

The large force set out from the Iron Tree Castle and moved north along a flat routine between the Iron Tree Forest and the Tilan Mountains. After walking out of this “narrow” passage, they came to the northern outpost of the Tilan Kingdom.

This is an abandoned outpost. It was originally built as the northernmost warning outpost of the Tilan Kingdom to prevent the forces on the huge plain in the north from attacking the Iron Tree Castle.

As a result, after the outpost was established, it was found that there was no powerful force in the entire northern plains. The northern outpost seemed to have lost its meaning of existence, and gradually reduced the garrison and funding until it was completely abolished.

Therefore, the pioneering army did not stop after arriving at the outpost, but directly divided into two teams here. One-third of the people went northeast along the Tilan Mountains, and the rest went west along the north side of the Iron Tree Forest.

After arriving at the place where David is standing now, half of the people stayed to build a village here, and the last people continued to go north along the river.

Laura was very clear about what happened next: Although the Winter Village was established, only David was left.

“From the results of this village, it may be difficult for the group of people going northeast to successfully establish the village.”

It was not that David cursed those people, but the climate of this huge plain area was similar. David turned around and did not find the reclaimed farmland, which means that the situation of the land was similar.

Then, without the assistance of gold fingers, plug-ins and other means, the situation faced by these two pioneering teams was no different from that of the previous two years: the climate was cold, crops could not survive, food could not be obtained stably, and winter was particularly difficult.

In addition, the village he was in was also threatened by the elves in the Ironwood Forest. He was worried that this place was too close to the elves. In order to avoid being suddenly killed by the elves, he chose to follow the last team to continue to go north. Now it seems that his choice was correct.

Listening to David’s words, Laura had a better understanding of the situation of Ironwood Castle and the entire northern plains: “If the team going to the northeast also failed to build a village, can this large plain area be considered your territory?”

“Hmm?” David hadn’t really thought about it before. Thinking back to the various laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Tilan regarding pioneers, he found that this was not impossible.

The village chiefs, town chiefs, and even noble lords in the kingdom all had fixed territories, because next to their territories were the territories of other “colleagues”. Unless the ruling power of the Kingdom of Tilan collapsed and fell into civil war, the kingdom would never allow lords to invade and plunder the territories of other lords at will.

But the pioneering team was different. They were originally going to occupy the land outside the kingdom. They could occupy as much as they could. As long as you could control it, the kingdom would recognize that this was your territory and even upgrade the lord’s level according to the situation.

The village chief became the town chief, the town chief became the city lord, and the city lord became the great lord. At the same time, the title was awarded according to the contribution. This was all written in the decree. It can be said that the rise and prosperity of the Kingdom of Tilan was related to this decree. Including Iron Tree Castle, most of the territory of the Kingdom of Tilan came from this.

“However, this plain is too vast. It is not easy to turn the entire area into my territory.” At least the foundation must be made for the transformation of Winter Village into Winter City.

“Oh~”

“What?”

Laura’s strange reaction confused David. Did he say something wrong?

“It seems that you really want to become the lord of this place!” David’s words proved that he had considered this matter, otherwise he would think about whether it was easy or not?

“If you can become a great lord, would you be satisfied with being a small village chief?” David was unwilling to stay in Iron Tree Castle and be a hunter honestly, but chose to join the pioneering team, which showed his true thoughts.

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 succumbed to the pressure of reality for a while, as long as there is a little chance, he will choose a more comfortable lifestyle for himself.

At present, it seems that it is much easier to live his ideal life than he expected. After a

simple rest in the ruins for one night, David and Laura did not wait for the sun to rise before setting off this time. As soon as the sky became bright, the two of them were already heading east along the Iron Tree Forest.

The two of them had to walk along the northern edge of the Iron Tree Forest to the junction of the Tilan Mountains and the Iron Tree Forest, then turn south and follow the “passage” all the way to the Iron Tree Castle.

The two of them had to walk as fast as possible on this road, because compared to the previous journey, this road could be dangerous at any time.

“Actually, I’m very curious about the elves. It would be great if I could see the elves with my own eyes… Maybe we can communicate with each other properly?”

“When we get to the Iron Tree Castle, you can also see the elves. As for this section of the road, it’s best not to encounter any elves, that’s definitely not a fun thing.”

“…”

Although David didn’t say it very clearly, Laura still understood a lot of information contained in this passage: the elves in the Iron Tree Castle were probably not living in that city voluntarily; the relationship between humans and elves in the Iron Tree Castle couldn’t be any worse, so it’s better not to encounter the elves in the forest in this case.

I don’t know if it was because David and Laura kept a sufficient distance from the Iron Tree Forest and didn’t attract the attention of the elves in the forest, or if they found them but didn’t have the right time to attack, anyway, the whole journey was very peaceful and nothing unexpected happened.

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

“What’s going on?” Because David and Laura both looked like pure humans, after the initial tension, the soldiers in the outpost did not embarrass them.

After confirming that David was a member of the pioneering team that had set out from Iron Tree Fort, the soldier was very surprised: “Are there still people in the pioneering team who haven’t returned to Iron Tree Fort?”

“Because I have successfully established Winter Village, this trip is to report back to Iron Tree Fort.”

David’s answer surprised the soldier even more, but David showed his pioneering order, which didn’t look fake…

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

“Hello, I’m Gregory, the captain in charge of the northern outpost.” A middle-aged man wearing full armor and a Tiran Kingdom robe appeared in front of David and Laura: “Are you members of the Northwest pioneering team?”

“Yes, although our pioneering team encountered a lot of troubles, many people dropped out halfway, and many people died on this plain, but we finally succeeded in building a new village, Winter Village. This time I want to go to Iron Tree Castle to report the situation and make Winter Village officially become the territory of the kingdom.”

(End of this chapter)