A cat is still a cat living in a luxury carriage, so its identity is open to question.
It is most likely the caster's familiar, but in general, familiars appear more mature and wise, and childish cat behavior like this is more like the group of pranksters deep in the forest who love to make fun of others.
It's the same way, it hides and hides, and when you're not paying attention, it will pop out and scare you.
They should just be sizing up the new members of the business group.
When he felt that the eyes were not malicious, but filled with curiosity, Woody didn't pay much attention to the glances from the carriage from time to time. However, when he got to the back, that gaze also accompanied Woody as he walked sideways on the right side of the road and
Enom's carriage ran parallel to each other and gradually disappeared.
Embarking on the journey to the Northland again is a brand new experience. In the past half year of the golden year of the previous life, he has not left the Northland. On the eve of the dark year when disasters are frequent, the scenery of various places has changed.
There is no such comfort and tranquility.
Since Palermo's geographical location is surrounded by hills on both sides, what greeted them after leaving the city was not a smooth road, but a zigzag road that stretched upward. On the hills, many cars could already be seen.
The horses move forward slowly on the narrow road, and most of them will walk separately on the hills, the three-way intersection that extends like tentacles to various city-states.
Half an hour later, when Woody rode his dark-skinned traveling horse to the top of the hill and looked back, he could just see the panoramic view of Palermo. This was also the first time that he observed the entire Palermo from an overlooking angle.
The full picture of Mo.
Palermo, which was originally huge and majestic, with tall city walls and tapered towers, has now become as delicate and compact as a model. In addition, the entire building is off-white, so that it seems to be inlaid in the city.
A pearl on the long coastline.
There are still people coming in and out of the city gate, but now they are only the size of ants. Perhaps for him, this day is a memorable day to leave the city, but for most Palermo residents, this is just another day.
Just an ordinary day.
But the normalcy will eventually be broken, and the devastation he saw when he stood here in his previous life appeared in his memory.
He wasn't too sad, just a little melancholy for a second. Woody immediately put these useless emotions behind him. He turned the reins, controlled the horse's head, and followed the carriage forward.
"Bye now!"
But the moment he turned around, he silently bid farewell to the person he knew in his heart.
He didn't know how long this trip would take, but coming back would definitely be after next year.
The rest of the journey was safe and stable, but it was normal. The noise caused by the convoy and the movement of the carriages, and the monsters with a slightly smaller number did not dare to approach at all. What's more, this place is less than ten miles away from Palermo, and it is hilly.
There are many cultivated farmlands and working farmers below. Generally speaking, it takes half a day to truly enter the wilderness.
However, this business group moved much faster than he expected, because they hardly took any rest. Except for a short stop at noon, they continued on the road. In the middle of the way, Enom also came here to change horses, and they were already on the road.
The tired horse untied its lasso, and only then did Woody learn from Enom's mouth that the culprit who had purchased the horses at the Palermo Mule and Horse Market turned out to be the head of the Raging Winter Merchant Group.
It is said that the reason is that the spell caster who was responsible for guarding this business group suddenly received an urgent mission and needed to return to the North as soon as possible.
If you want to increase the average speed of the entire business group, you have to use the lives of horses as consumables. According to Enom, we basically walked for 12 hours every day in the past two days, and we didn't see them until it got dark.
Will stop and look for a suitable place to camp.
Like other business groups on weekdays, in order to extend the life of the horses, they basically only move for eight hours a day, and there are at least two rest breaks in the middle.
However, this is more in line with Woody's wishes. After all, he also wants to arrive in Losente as soon as possible. In this case, he is expected to arrive in the Koval Forest before the middle of the month. By the end of the month, he will be able to completely settle down in the Northland and start looking for stars.
The World Whale's Plan.
Although he still doesn't know the location of the Astral Whale, he only knows that it likes to hang out in areas sparsely populated by mortals, but he knows that it is in a tavern in the Northland, and in a tavern in the Seven Towns in the Spring Awakening Moon (March) next year.
There will be quite a few people out there posting multiple similar surveys looking for tasks.
——"Winter Song."
——"Entrustment Statement: The mayor of Carlin Town, one of the "Seven Towns" of the Frozen Lake, Dhava Drumhammer, discovered that the number of reindeer raised in the town this year did not increase but decreased after the winter. It is said that he is responsible for taking care of the reindeer during the winter.
Forester Sonia, who was once a fisherman, said that in the warm winter mountains, he heard the song of whales that can only be heard in the sea. He hopes that you can go to Carlin Town to investigate..."
——"Entrustment reward: a piece of fine pickled fish meat, a pair of reindeer antlers, a piece of steelhead trout bone..."
——"The whale of the mountains."
——"Entrustment Statement: Frank Wujie, the Sheriff of Nangu Town, one of the "Seven Towns" of Frozen Lake, discovered that after the winter celebration, two famous hunters from Nangu Town disappeared without a trace along with a group of outsiders.
It is said that the last time they were seen, the two hunters were seen taking their hounds and serving as guides for a group of outsiders in the mountains and forests. They seemed to want to go somewhere in the mountains. One of the hunters, Quinn Coach
He is his close friend. He hopes that someone can help him find traces of Quinn. The last place he disappeared was in the tundra valley of the Nuanyang Mountains. It is said that someone in the Giant Bear Tavern heard that the outsider's goal was to go in.
Hunting the huge creatures in the mountains, whales.”
——"Entrustment reward: 100 gold coins, a piece of fine winter wolf skin."
…
There were many missions like this at the time, but because he was in the Northland, the one Woody remembered most clearly was the Seven Towns event, in which all missions invariably pointed to the Nuanyang Mountains where changes had occurred.
At that time, it attracted many local players to pick it up. He had just lifted the ice and traveled to the Seven Towns. Although he did not find the Astral Whale at that time, he at least found some clues and completed the commission from the aboriginal people.
It’s not like returning in vain.
At the time, he didn't know that he was looking for an astral whale.
It was only later, based on the inferences of the busy people on the forum at that time, that I realized that what appeared there was probably the famous astral whale, because only it could naturally swim in the air without water and soar in an anti-gravity posture.
Above the sky and sea of clouds.
Therefore, in this life, Woody plans to go to the Nuanyang Mountains early to wait and see if he can encounter the giant creature swimming on the top of the mountain as described in the mission.
Anyway, he promised Weilando that he would go to St. Lawrence, the capital of Bavialo, to look for her before next summer, which is still more than six months away.
More than half a year, if nothing else, is enough to reach the end of the ice field and climb the highest peak "Dragon's Back Peak" in the Fang of the World, not to mention it is just a short adventure of seven towns.
Of course, the first half of his life was not easy and he was very nervous.
Because if he wants to actually encounter the whales described in the mission, then his time is definitely not to arrive at the Nuanyang Mountains on the eve of March, but to enter the Nuanyang Mountains during the Winter Celebration (mid-January). That would be the best time.
opportunity.
In fact, there is only less than two months left for it.
And these two months, apart from the time spent on the road to reach Seven Towns.
He still has to spend half a month to get the token certificate that can make the Astral Whale agree to hitchhike with him, and for this he still has to make a trip, which is hundreds of miles away from Seven Towns and is located in the city-state at the southern end of the floating ice sea.
A Fisherman's Wharf.
The water bottom there will produce a rusty old lantern with stars engraved on it in the game. There is a chance to get it by fishing, and that is the "ship ticket".
It is the astral whale group that has guided them here, opening up new road signs, gifts and blessings from the creatures in the waterway.
It looks like an abandoned magic item on the outside, but as long as you light this abandoned lantern when you meet the astral whale, it will set the time for your next meeting in your heart.
As for why he knows so clearly, it is because after the Corruption Mother Tree came to Asenland, the space planes were all blocked, and when they were unable to leave this plane, some players compiled various exit plans, which were mentioned
Astral whale travel, and the crucial ticket information will not be missed.
This is why he said that time was very tight, otherwise he would have nothing to do when he was full, so he caught up with the Furious Winter Merchant Group. Even though he just wanted to go all the way, he chose to take the shortcut to the Northland in the Koval Forest, because it was
The road really saves time.
Time is very important to him... very important.
…
Because the business group did not proceed along the coastline, but chose the trade road that passed through the Whispering Forest and then crossed the Golden Plains.
This is not a popular trade road.
Therefore, the road became narrower and narrower along the way, and the number of other caravans encountered became less and less as the three-way intersections increased. Only the bright and fresh ruts on the rugged road represented that they had been there before.
In less than half a day, the hilly landscape on both sides gradually changed from the still visible outlines of small town buildings and farmland to taller trees.
Unknowingly, about six hours after leaving Palermo, they had left the hilly foothills and arrived at the Whispering Forest.
The Whispering Forest covers an area of about ten square kilometers and appears in the shape of a long strip on the map, like a log cutting off the trade highway link between the north and the south.
Most caravans choose to pass through the outside of the forest, and the Nudong Caravan Group is no exception.
The large trees with lush branches reduce the brightness of the road to a gloomy level. Only the broken sunlight occasionally cut by the gaps in the leaves falls to the ground, mixed with unknown birdsong and insects in the jungle, and the sound of carriage wheels rolling in the trees.
It seems particularly harsh in the high forest environment.
The originally noisy carriage guards also began to take it seriously and began their daily work during the trip.
Woody saw with his own eyes that many guards passed by him on horseback. They were scattered at nodes where the business group might be attacked. On the one hand, they were to detect the environment, and more importantly, they were to prevent sudden sneak attacks by monsters.
Of course, there is a group of guards whose duty is not to guard, but to clear roadblocks and detect roads. They take the lead and walk at the forefront of the business group, just like the sharpest part of a spear. If the road conditions change, then they will
The carriage will be notified to rest on the spot and wait until the road obstacles are cleared before setting off again.
Of course, their more important task is to clean up and drive away the monsters active in the forest.
The Whispering Forest is like many forests in Asenland. In addition to beasts such as bears and tigers, monster lairs are very common here. Their range of activities is like that of swimming fish in the water, and they are widely distributed.
As long as it rains and the road is a little muddy, you can see the potholes on the road without digging through the bushes, and there will be many fresh footprints larger than those of house cats.
These are the traces left by the kobolds and goblins when they went out to hunt. After all, only the diverse environment of such creatures as the forest can meet their daily survival and the important task of tribal reproduction.
If we really relied on robbing humans to make a living, then there wouldn't be so many monsters in the wilderness, and even the smaller places would starve to death.
And in the final analysis, the millennia that humans have been active in Asenland is still too short compared to the survival time of monsters.
The appearance of humans only adds another hunting option to monsters' recipes and choices.
Soon, something unexpected happened, about two hours after entering the Whispering Forest.
With the sound of horse hooves, a guard of the business group returned on horseback, and at his gesture, the business group that was advancing at a steady speed suddenly stopped on the road, seemingly for a simple rest, and Woody also
From Enom's mouth, he knew the reason for stopping.
"It's okay, don't worry. We found a small caravan in distress in front of us. It seems to be a group of dire wolves. The guards are driving them away."
Enom didn't care, and didn't even show much worry on his face, and said to Woody very relaxedly.
He didn't encounter many things like this all the way back from the south to the north. He encountered them almost every other day.
But there are very few hands-on actions.
Because almost all traveling business groups understand that monsters cannot be killed cleanly, so when most monsters are encountered, the choice is not to kill them, but to rely on sound and skills to drive them away.
Taking action is a last resort. From top to bottom, only caravans that can save their goods and lives are worthy of the trust of traveling merchants. Otherwise, even if your profits are high and your mortality rate remains high, there will not be much success.
Join more guards or merchants.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I recommend this author’s book, DND Longwen, but I believe most people know about it.
