[Chapter 30 There must be something fishy about this village]

David’s original archery skills were only passable, which was certainly enough for hunting. Even if he had mastered rapid shooting, he could only be considered a good young hunter.

Not to mention the elite archers of Iron Tree Castle, even compared with experienced old hunters like Addis, they were not on the same level, not to mention Laura, who could wipe out the Sun Brotherhood with a hunting bow.

But since he got the talent for archery, David’s strength in archery has been constantly improving – he personally felt what it meant to be crushed by talent. The results of his hard training for several years were not as good as the progress he made by practicing casually after getting the talent.

Now, when David picks up the bow and arrow, his body seems to have an instinctive feeling, telling him how to better hit the target. In addition, when he concentrates, the target will become like a slow motion state. Even if the opponent is moving at high speed, there is no way to escape his aiming lock.

Moreover, his trump card is far more than excellent archery. Even if the orc did not die under David’s arrow and successfully rushed to Maroni, David could stop and kill that guy. After all, his biggest killer is the Holy Light spell, especially the Holy Fire, which is very lethal and is David’s current killer.

This time he did not have the opportunity to show the Holy Fire. After shooting the orc, Hackett, who saw this scene from a distance, was relieved. At the same time, he realized that if he wanted to make up for his previous mistakes, he had to eliminate these hateful enemies as soon as possible.

He adjusted the direction again and rushed towards the few people in the melee. Several elite warriors had skillful cooperation and had the upper hand. Hackett’s joining was the last straw that broke the enemy’s back.

But unfortunately, they failed to eliminate all these guys. One of the “orcs” climbed onto a giant wolf under the cover of his companions and the giant wolf and ran away to the east.

At the end of the battle, three of the four enemies riding giant wolves died and one escaped, and their mounts also died and one escaped. There were no casualties on the human side, and only two warriors were injured – this amazed David.

When the cavalry of both sides charged, the four warriors except Hackett were knocked off their horses by the other side with weapons. They were not seriously injured under the impact, and they could even defeat orcs who were stronger than themselves on flat ground… The physical fitness of these warriors was much stronger than David thought.

Watching several warriors helping each other check their physical injuries and making sure that no one was fatally injured, and then simply treating the injuries and putting on armor again, David was amazed at the physical fitness of several warriors again.

He looked at several warriors here, and Knight Hackett was apologizing to Maloney over there, because his wrong judgment almost put Lord Maloney-Mansfield in danger. As the captain of the guard for this operation, his performance was completely unqualified.

“Forget it, after all, it’s an enemy I don’t know much about.”

Maloney-Mansfield may be very dissatisfied in his heart, and he blasted Hackett, the captain of the guard, for being incompetent. But on the surface, he would not say anything, especially not at this time – even if Hackett did not perform well this time, he would only let Hackett be responsible for the guard in the future.

In this case, it would not benefit him at all to criticize Hackett, so even if he was dissatisfied, he would not show it, and even comforted him a few words, hoping that Hackett would forget this mistake and show his true strength in the future.

“I will never let you down in the days to come.” Knight Hackett almost swore, and he was really ready to work hard to erase the bad impression he had just created in the next period of time.

Maloney comforted Hackett, and several warriors began to clean up the battlefield – checking the bodies of several enemies and the giant wolves that served as mounts.

“This is a northern giant wolf.” Addis, who pretended to be an invisible man the whole time and tried not to attract attention, still couldn’t control the professional habits he had developed over the years. After observing for a few times, he saw the types of these mounts: “This kind of giant wolf is usually the leader of the wolf pack. It has a larger body than ordinary gray wolves, strong strength and endurance, and a good running speed, but I have never seen anyone use this kind of giant wolf as a mount.”

David looked at this northern giant wolf for a few more times. He remembered the pure white giant wolf he had seen in the troll village before, which seemed to be this breed.

“Are these northern giant wolves common around Iron Tree Castle?”

“When I was young, I could see them around Iron Tree Castle from time to time. I haven’t seen them in recent years. They should be more northerly…that is, active in this area!” Addis realized that he was on the plains north of Iron Tree Castle at this time, and temporarily changed his words: “This kind of giant wolf is not afraid of the severe cold. In this cold area, it may be more suitable as a mount than an ordinary horse.”

Not to mention that this kind of giant wolf also has good combat power. They just saw how these giant wolves cooperated with their masters to fight.

Originally, Addis just chatted with David casually, but he didn’t expect that a few words would attract several people including Maloney.

Especially when it comes to “Northern giant wolves are particularly suitable as mounts in the cold environment of the north”, the two men of Maloney began to record again. Maloney even asked David: “Are there such giant wolves near Winter Village?”

“There should be… I saw the corpse of this giant wolf when I was destroying the trolls with my companions in the village before.” At the same time, he began to think, can he also catch a few northern giant wolves and train them as mounts? The thought of riding a giant wolf back and forth on the northern snowfield seems to be quite cool.

David was soon pulled back to reality from his fantasy. After cleaning up the battlefield and simply burying the corpses of several orcs and giant wolves, the team set out again.

Maloney, who was on the road again, decided not to camp and rest tonight, and traveled overnight to reach Winter Village as soon as possible.

“David, you should be very worried about your village, right?” Maloney estimated in his mind that the distance to Winter Village should not be very far, so it is better to speed up and try to reach Winter Village today, even if it is at night.

Maloney made this decision mainly because he thought that the group of “orcs” appeared from the north, and suspected that these guys discovered and even attacked Winter Village.

Although nothing was found from these people, this possibility cannot be ruled out. Of course, it is also possible that another orc team has occupied Winter Village, and this team of cavalry went back to report the news.

Maloney was thinking, if Winter Village was really captured or completely destroyed, what should be done?

“Should I ‘sponsor’ David to rebuild Winter Village?”

From Maloney’s point of view, David might be the illegitimate son of a noble family, and the elders in the family are very caring for this illegitimate child, so they arranged David to join the pioneering team and let him use legal and reasonable means to obtain a piece of territory that belongs to him.

At the same time, there should be more than one family behind David, and that is why Laura Croft appeared here. Otherwise, he really couldn’t figure out why a lady of noble birth would appear in such a remote place.

Of course, these are just his guesses, maybe he guessed wrong? Although Maloney felt that his judgment was 90% correct, even if there was a deviation, it would not deviate too much.

So without considering these factors, is David worth “investing”?

Carefully calculate the various resources available in Winter Village: potatoes, a new crop with a short maturity period and high yield. It can be eaten as a side dish or as a staple food.

This is the main specialty product of Winter Village. Before the value of potatoes is widely recognized, no farmer will easily choose an unfamiliar crop to replace the original crop. In other words, at present, apart from Winter Village, there will be no other place that mainly grows potatoes.

Northern giant wolf? A mount with good combat effectiveness and more adapted to the northern climate? He didn’t think it was impossible to train the northern giant wolf as a mount. Since those ugly giants can do it, why can’t they do it?

But the question is how valuable is this thing? Can it be cultivated in large quantities? If the number is small, it can only be regarded as a novelty, without much practical value.

What else? Maybe it’s only David himself?

Here comes the point, what benefits can you or your family get? Maloney fell into deeper thinking.

As a result, they arrived at Winter Village unknowingly.

“Sir, the Winter Village is ahead.”

After rushing at full speed, they arrived at the Winter Village earlier than expected. The sun had not yet completely set. In the afterglow of the setting sun, the Winter Village seemed unusually quiet.

“This…” Maloney looked at the quiet village. Were all the people in the village killed? Otherwise, why was it so quiet? And there was not even a single person to be seen?

Turning his head to look at David, David immediately explained: “There are not many people in the Winter Village now. There are only two people left in the village.”

While David was speaking, a strong man walked out of the wooden house. He seemed to notice them in the distance and stood at the edge of the village looking over here.

Although it was far away, everyone present could see clearly that this man had a very strong physique, even stronger than Hackett and his elite warriors.

“This is…”

“This is Tirion Fordring.” David thought for a moment and added, “He’s the village’s woodcutter.”

He wasn’t talking nonsense. Since Tirion Fordring chose to settle in Winter Village, the most work he did was to cut trees. The wood used in the wooden houses in Winter Village was all cut down one by one by Tirion Fordring in the forest in the north and carried back to Winter Village.

“Tirion… Fordring?” Maroney couldn’t control his expression when listening to David’s introduction. His face was full of weirdness: “What about the other one?”

“Mark Watney… the only farmer in the village.”

“…”

(End of this chapter)