Chapter 16 The Prairie
What does a grassland look like? People who have never seen the grassland will never be able to answer this question, and they will never understand the true meaning of the word grassland. Just like Lina, like Vivian, even though they have read the description of the grassland a thousand times and ten thousand times in various books, when they really stand on the grassland, their first reaction can only be shock.
Because it is located in the north, the spring of the Orc Grassland comes earlier than the neutral place. Even at the end of March, the grassland is already a green world. This is the edge of the grassland, and it looks green. Since the Orc Grassland is a large plain, the sight is flat and open, and there is no cover, the people in it have a feeling of everything no longer exists. There is only the emerald green in front of you in the world. Fortunately, there is a hazy black shadow at the end of the sky, which also reminds the visitors that there are other things in addition to the grass. It is an unknown mountain on the plain and the destination of the four people in the adventure group.
Looking from the roof of the carriage to three sides, in addition to grass, there are grasses, half a person-high grass covered the earth, and only the artificial stone road under your feet is not wide, stretching out to the distance, as if a sharp blade has divided the complete grassland into two parts.
The sky is blue and there is no haze. Even white clouds hide far away in the sky. Several goshawks soar and hover in the sky. Far, high, and only a small black dot in people's eyes. But they will never be ignored. In any case, a few moving black dots on a blue sky like a scroll is hard to ignore. There is a whirlwind in the sky, and a goshawk fell from the sky like a star, rushing straight to the ground with a sharp aura. When approaching the ground, it suddenly pulled up again, almost flew over the grass. It clasped between its claws tightly against a small beast returning to the sky, leaving only a fallen feather, floating in the air with the wind.
Standing under the blue sky. Standing on the grassland, it seems that only I am left in the world. The huge sense of loneliness is accompanied by the boundless heroism brought by the vast world, which fills people's hearts, making people unable to help but sing a loud expectation, and there is also a kind of urge to ride a horse on this land. Listening to the sound of wind whistling by your ears, it seems that the bloodline and soul yearn for speed have finally awakened, and they can no longer resist the temptation of galloping.
"This is the grassland, it turns out that this is the grassland." Lina opened her eyes wide and looked at everything around her greedily. She wanted to engrave all the scenery into the deepest part of her memory, and remained motionless for a long time, as if her soul had left her body. In fact, everyone vaguely guessed that she was not the only one who observed the world through her pupils. Perhaps every friend in her heart, as long as she was interested in the grassland, was observing. They were all amazed: "I didn't expect that everything here could be like this... like this... No, I don't know how to describe it."
"Welcome to the prairie, friends who are coming from afar." The driver of the car was Selass, a contact person from an Adventurer Guild branch on the prairie. At this time, he was taking off the felt hat from his head to block the sunshine in the sky, and grinning, "This charming land will definitely not disappoint you. If you stay here for a long time, you will fall in love with this place and never want to leave."
"Although I don't expect that, I must say. It really didn't disappoint me." Lina stood at the top of the carport, suddenly raised her head and let out a loud wolf howl. She said loudly in a wild tone: "Diana did not lie to me, her hometown is indeed something I can't imagine."
The sudden howling of the wolf was startled Selassi. When he realized that the howling was enough to be scattered from Lina's mouth, he couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Miss, please don't call me like that. Now on the periphery of the grassland, everything is fine. If you call me like this after you get inside the grassland, it will be easy to attract the wolf pack."
"What we are most afraid of is the pack of wolves," said Catherine. "But thank you for your kindness."
"Don't underestimate the wolves." Catherine's reaction made Celass a little uneasy and continued to persuade: "I know you are all strong people. Everyone can destroy many grassland monsters, but the wolves on the grassland are completely different from the wolves you have seen. If you encounter wolves here, there will be at least a few hundred, and the larger ones are often thousands. Some people have even seen giant wolves with more than 10,000 in number. If you really encounter such a wolf pack, it will be difficult to escape smoothly with your strength."
"Mr. Celasis, you misunderstood. We just rely on some special reliance, so..." Catherine just explained halfway, but couldn't bear to continue to smear against Celasis' kindness, so she smiled and nodded: "Okay, we try our best to control our behavior and will not cause trouble for you, thank you."
"It doesn't matter." During the three days of staying in the Capital of Knowledge, Selasis had heard many legends of Nellie's adventure group from different people at the headquarters, and also learned from the image of the Knight Commander, noble, upright, fearless, kind, self-disciplined and fair. Even the adventurer who had had friction with Nellie's adventure group for some reason, mentioned this team and mentioned the leader of Catherine, and had to praise it with a few words in an exclamation. As for the comments about the only male member of the adventure group, maybe it's better to forget it. Because of this, when Catherine solemnly thanked and promised with a smile, Selasis waved her hands nervously: "Captain, you are too polite. This is what I should do as a temporary guide, and you don't need to thank you at all."
"Since you have entered the grassland, is it still far from our destination?" Catherine did not continue to get involved in this issue, and took the opportunity to change the topic: "How long will it take to arrive?"
"Did you see the mountains ahead?" Selasis pointed to the hazy black shadow in the distance: "The mountains mentioned by those tribes are there. At the current speed, walk along this path for two more days to the northeast, and you will reach the end of the path. It is a stronghold for trade inside and outside the grassland. Several tiger men Palchi, whom I had seen before, will bring a few tribe members to greet them. After arriving there, there will be no roads. It is difficult for horse carriages to walk in such grassland for a long time, so it must be replaced with horses there. Turn from the trade site to the northwest, and run fast horses for another two days. It will be almost possible to arrive."
"It's so far." Lina, who came to her senses, could only comment like this: "Wouldn't that mean that their tribe will go deep into the grassland for hundreds of kilometers?"
"Two hundred kilometers." Selasis calculated and said, "After all, if you run for a long distance, you can't use your horse's strength. Every time you run, you have to let the horse rest for a while. In addition, you need to avoid some dangerous areas and dangerous monsters in the grassland and take a detour. You can just arrive in two days."
"Dangerous areas and dangerous monsters?" Catherine was stunned and asked, "What are they? I have been to the grassland once before, why haven't I heard of it?"
"You came to the grassland before, probably just on the outermost side." Serasis asked, "You probably haven't even arrived at the surrounding commercial base."
"Yeah, that's true." Catherine admitted honestly: "Only move around the grassland near Neville territory, 20 to 30 kilometers."
"Then you really don't know these." Serasis nodded and said, "In the area outside the commercial stronghold, it is not even the periphery of the grassland, it can only be regarded as a buffer zone around it. Only by passing through the stronghold can you truly enter the orc grassland. There are many dangerous areas in the grassland, but everyone lives here all year round. They are very familiar with the terrain. It is no problem to avoid those areas when traveling or grazing. I am afraid that the wolves wandering on the grassland have no fixed territory, and they often lose most of their lives when they encounter them. I am afraid that the wolves wandering on the grasslands have no fixed territory.
If you don’t get it right, you can even throw your life away together. It can be regarded as the most terrifying creature on the grassland, so I was so nervous just now. But fortunately, wolves often move deep in the grassland. The tribes we are going to belong to peripheral tribes, and generally don’t encounter wolves. In fact, you don’t have to worry too much when you encounter them. You should have horses at that time. Just ride horses. This season, wolves are not hungry, so they won’t stare at the running prey that keeps chasing. You should be able to get rid of them after running for a few hours.”
"Thank you for your experience." Catherine nodded and thanked her and continued to ask: "Where are other dangerous areas and monsters? Can you give a few examples?"
"Uh... the most dangerous place is some empty shell areas." Serasis thought for a while and said, "There are many gophers on the grassland, and some areas have too many gophers. The ground has been hollowed out by them, forming a special empty shell ground. There is no abnormality, and maybe the people in front of them will not encounter any problems when they are riding on horseback, but no one knows when they will cause the ground to collapse. This collapse often has a depth of dozens of meters. Ordinary people or even low-level professions may fall to death directly if they fall down. Even high-level professions will be injured. No matter how people are, the horse will definitely fall to death. If there is no horse on the grassland, it is basically not far from death. In many places, there are no people who cannot see anyone for help. They can't do it if they want to ask for help. They can only wait for death."
"Is there a preventive solution?" Catherine asked.
"Go around." Selasis smiled bitterly, "The only way is to bet on luck, to see if you will be so unlucky."
"Then let it go." Catherine shook her head and said, "Where are the rest of the dangers?"
"In terms of terrain, for you high-level professions, there are not many fatal dangers, the key is to horses." Selasis said: "For example, things like swamps are the most dangerous to horses. There are also monsters. There are tens of thousands of gold-level monsters or groups of monsters with strong strength on the grassland, and there are also many legendary ones, and most of them are good at high-speed movement and long-distance raids. Although the Adventurers Guild and Mercenary Union regularly encircle and suppress, some big chambers of commerce will also send people to capture them regularly.
Hunting, but the grassland is too big. These tens of thousands of high-speed monsters or beast groups are really inconspicuous on the grasslands of millions of square kilometers. Hunting is difficult to see results. Even if you successfully hunt some, with the reproduction speed of monsters, new high-level monsters will soon fill the gap. Therefore, those dangerous places often require groups of people to dare to enter. When dozens of people pass through, dangerous monsters will generally take the initiative to avoid them. This is the only way to safety."
"Thank you for your hard work." Catherine looked up at the sky: "Thank you for your explanation, but let's go quickly, hurry up and drive more today and try to get to the commercial base early tomorrow."
Chapter completed!