Age of Empires From Scratch

  Chapter 21 Northern Sentinel

  After four consecutive days of trekking, David and Laura finally came to the edge of the iron tree forest.

  Looking at the much narrower river and the wreckage of the surrounding houses, David spread his hands helplessly: "Obviously, this pioneering team has failed."

   There are a lot of wooden houses here, and they are all separate residences, not the kind of temporary big wooden houses. It seems to mean that the initial development of this team is smooth?

   But that doesn't change the fact that the place is in ruins, and judging by the condition of the wrecked houses, the village has been abandoned for a long time.

  If you just give up, it will not make the house what it is now: there is no intact wooden house, and it has obviously been burned.

   "The development team will set fire to the house before they give up and leave?" Laura doesn't understand this very much. Is there any point in doing so?

   "No, I will just pack up the valuable things and leave directly." David walked around the abandoned village a few times, and finally found some clues under a wooden house next to the forest.

"What is this?" Laura kept looking around, saw David pick up something after squatting down, and immediately leaned over to have a look, and found that David was holding a damaged arrow shaft: " arrow?"

   "Hmmm!" The arrow shaft in his hand is not complete, only half of it, but the real clue is left on it: "It's the arrow of the elves."

   "How can you tell?"

   "The elves in the iron tree forest will use this special leaf to make arrow feathers."

   Briefly explained to Laura that this kind of leaves can only be found in the depths of the iron tree forest. Those places are the main activity areas of the elves, and it is difficult for humans to go to those places, let alone collect such leaves in large quantities.

  It is difficult to obtain, and it is not an irreplaceable material. Naturally, humans will not choose this kind of leaves to make arrow feathers. Only elves who can more easily obtain such materials use them.

   "So it is."

  And since the Kingdom of Tilan expanded its influence to the Iron Tree Forest, the relationship between humans—mainly the humans of the Kingdom of Tilan—and the elves in the Iron Tree Forest has plummeted.

  In addition to the outstanding appearance of the elves, they often attract the attention and capture of slave traders. Due to various reasons, the relationship between humans and elves cannot be said to be divided into life and death when they meet, but one must fall.

  In such a big 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 to launch an attack.

   "So, this village was destroyed by elves?"

   "The possibility is relatively high." Thinking of this, David couldn't help but rejoice that his original choice was really incomparably correct.

  When I first 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 we set off, the three teams set off together.

  The large army set out from Iron Tree Fort and headed north along a flat path between the Iron Tree Forest and the Tilan Mountains. After walking out of this 'narrow' passage, they arrived at the northern guard post of the Tilan Kingdom.

   This is an abandoned sentry post. It was originally established as the northernmost guard post of the Kingdom of Tilan to prevent the forces on the huge northern plain from attacking Iron Tree Fort.

  As a result, after the sentry post was established, it was found that there were no powerful forces in the entire northern plain. The northern sentry post seemed to have lost its meaning of existence, and the garrison and funding input were gradually reduced until it was completely abolished.

  So the pioneering troops did not stop after arriving at the sentry post, and 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 coming to the place where David is standing now, another half of the people stayed and established a village here, and the last remaining people continued north along the river.

  Laura is very clear about the following things: Although Cold Winter Village has been established, there is only David left.

   "Judging from the results of this village, it may be difficult for the group of people heading northeast to successfully establish the village."

   It's not that David cursed those people, but that the climate in this huge plain is similar. David turned around and couldn't find any reclaimed farmland, which means that the land conditions are similar.

  Then, without the help of cheats, plug-ins, etc., the situation faced by the two pioneering teams is no different from that of the previous two years: the climate is cold, the crops cannot survive, food cannot be obtained stably, and winter is especially difficult.

In addition, the village he lives in is also facing the threat of the elves in the iron tree forest. At first, he was worried that it was too close to the elves. A team continued to go north, and now it seems that his choice is correct.

Listening to what David said so much, Laura has a better understanding of the situation in Iron Tree Fort and the entire northern plain: "If the team heading to the northeast fails to establish a village, this large plain area, Can all be counted as your territory?"

   "Huh?" David really didn't think about it before, and recalling the various bills and regulations of the Kingdom of Tilan on pioneers, he found that this is really not impossible.

The village chiefs and town chiefs in the kingdom, even noble lords, have fixed territories, because next to their territories are the territories of other 'colleagues'. Unless the ruling power of the Kingdom of Tilan collapses and falls into civil war, otherwise The lords are never allowed to invade and plunder the territories of other lords casually.

  But the pioneering team is different. They are originally going to occupy land outside the kingdom. They can occupy as much land as they can. As long as you can control it, the kingdom will recognize it as your territory, and even raise the level of the lord according to the situation.

  The village chief becomes the mayor, the mayor becomes the city lord, and the city lord becomes a great lord. At the same time, titles are awarded based on contributions. This is all written in the decree. It can be said that the rise and prosperity of the Kingdom of Tilan are related to this decree. Including Iron Tree Fort, most of Tilan Kingdom's territory came from this way.

   "However, this plain is too vast, and it is not easy to turn the entire area into my territory." At least the foundation must be turned into Winter City.

   "Oh~"

"how?"

   Laura's strange reaction made David very confused. Did he say something wrong?

   "It seems that you really want to become the lord of this place!" David's words prove that he has considered this matter, otherwise it would be easy to think about it?

   "If you can become a great lord, wouldn't you be satisfied with being a small village head?" David didn't want to stay in Iron Tree Castle and be a hunter honestly, but chose to join the pioneering team, which has already shown his true thoughts.

  Although he has lived in this world for many years, the various influences from his previous life have already penetrated deep into his soul. Even if he succumbs to the pressure of reality for a while, he will choose a way of life that makes him more comfortable as long as he has the slightest chance.

  Looking at it now, it is much easier to live your ideal life than originally estimated.

   After a brief 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 brighter, the two of them were already heading east along the iron tree forest.

  The two of them will 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' until they arrive at Iron Tree Fort.

   The two of you should try to walk as fast as possible on this road, because compared with the previous journey, danger may occur at any time on this road.

   "Actually, I am 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?"

   "When you get to Iron Tree Fort, you can also see elves. As for this section of the road, it's best not to meet half of the elves. That's definitely not interesting."

   "..."

Although David didn't make it very clear, Laura still understood a lot of information contained in this passage: the elves in Iron Tree Castle probably didn't live in that city voluntarily; It can't be worse, in this case it's better not to meet the elves in the forest.

I don’t know if it’s because David and Laura kept a sufficient distance from the Iron Tree Forest, so that they didn’t attract the attention of the elves in the forest, or maybe they found it but didn’t have the right time to attack. In short, the road was very peaceful and there were no accidents. .

   What really surprised David was that after arriving at the northern sentry post, a small group of soldiers actually appeared in this long-abandoned sentry post.

   "What's the situation?" Because David and Laura both have pure human appearance, after the initial tension, the soldiers at the sentry didn't make things difficult for them.

  After confirming that David was actually a member of the pioneering team that set off from Iron Tree Fort, the soldier looked surprised: "Are there any members of the pioneering team who haven't returned to Iron Tree Fort?"

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

  David's answer made the soldiers even more surprised, but David showed his development order, which doesn't look like a fake...

  The soldiers didn't know how to greet these two, so they could only call for their captain.

"Hello, I'm Captain Gregory who is in charge of guarding the northern outpost." A middle-aged man in full armor and a battle robe of the Kingdom of Tilan appeared in front of David and Laura: "You are Northwest The pioneer team member?"

"Yes, although our pioneering team encountered a lot of troubles, many people quit halfway, and many people died on this plain, but we finally succeeded in establishing a new village, Lindong Village. This time I just want to We must go to Iron Tree Fort to report the situation, and let Winter Village officially become the territory of the kingdom."

  (end of this chapter)