Chapter 15: Heresy! The Inquisition

On the large map.

The markers of the witch and the Druid appear.

Deng Ken brings three warhorses called over by the call and meets them. The witch seems to know his approximate location and actually stops in front to wait for him. The Raven Queen, Te Lisi, seems to possess many incredible means, and Deng Ken is not surprised that she can know his location.

In the battle just now, he tried his best to avoid melee combat.

As long as you are a player who has played games like Mount & Blade, one-life mode, and faced life, you know that before your account is practiced, you should try not to engage in melee combat if you can ride and shoot.

"With my current strength, it is roughly equal to a high-level barbarian warrior."

"Melee combat can at most fight three alone."

"It is estimated that only a three-star unit like the monster hunter, Qiao Zhi, can fight ten alone in melee combat."

"But even such a powerful supernatural existence would definitely die if surrounded by a cavalry unit."

According to Deng Ken's understanding of this world, the peak of mortal martial prowess at present should be the level of Beowulf.

But he wants to reach that level of martial prowess, and it is estimated that he still has to kill all the way. After all, Beowulf's combat power is almost at the level of a mythic figure.

——"Throwing Mastery: You are proficient in the use of throwing weapons such as throwing axes, javelins, throwing knives, etc., significantly improving the accuracy of throwing weapons."

——"Blocking and Parry Mastery: You are good at using shields and weapons to block and parry, and are familiar with the use of various shields. Additional combat skill 【Shield Bash】."

——"Military Weapon Mastery: You are proficient in using various one-handed, two-handed, long-handled weapons, etc., and improve lethality when using non-exotic weapons."

——"Combat Style - Sweep: The combat technique of high-level barbarian warriors, you are good at using two-handed weapons to cause fatal damage to enemies within range, and can cut people in half with one blow."

The harvest of this battle is still okay.

But there is no qualitative improvement. It is estimated that it is because the combat skills mastered by the enemy did not exceed the limit he obtained earlier. It is estimated that quantitative changes will lead to qualitative changes later. Deng Ken only looted master-level archery when killing the Eagle Shooter, and most of the other combat skills stopped at the level of proficiency.

This is also relatively normal. Warriors of the level of the Eagle Shooter are also rare in the army.

Real combat masters are estimated to have quite a few in the Roman gladiatorial arena period, that is, more than a hundred years ago, but after Catholicism became the state religion, gladiatorial combat was basically banned. It is possible that the champion gladiators of the ancient Roman period could possess master-level melee combat skills.

Of course, real combat must consider many factors, the most critical of which is armor and weapons. Unless it is the level of Xiang Yu or Lu Bu, experts will also be surrounded and killed.

Here I must mention Lu Bu. Many things about Lu Bu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms are fake, but the shooting of the halberd at the gate is true.

Deng Ken asks himself that he can't do it now, and he can only try his luck even with a cheat.

"I don't know how many heads I have to harvest to raise the next combat skill to the master level."

Master-level skills are clearly the beginning of qualitative change.

Deng Ken meets the witch and others, and gallops towards the direction of Germania. Their destination is Belgica Gao Lu. The empire set up the Belgica province here, but now more than half of it has become the territory of the Franks.

Later, the Frankish foreign legion rebelled and established the original Frankish Kingdom on this land.

Britain is currently a relatively remote area.

There, it is mainly facing the invasion of the Saxons, and will not be involved in such large-scale wars. Whether Deng Ken intends to take the lord route or the ranger route in the future, he can take a breather and develop in the British Isles.

The geographical location of the British Isles is too good.

In the future, the entire European continent will be in chaos, but Britain has not been greatly affected. Even if he really wants to be a king, after unifying the British Isles, he can counterattack the European continent at any time.

"Still follow the original plan and go to Britain to see."

"Next step."

"The most important thing is the troll, the monster in Norse mythology. After getting the 【Regeneration】 ability, my safety factor will rise in a straight line."

There are too few monsters.

Deng Ken has crossed over for so long, and he hasn't heard of many rumors about supernatural monsters.

Perhaps there will be more in the undeveloped Nordic regions.

Humanoid enemies provide combat skills, and supernatural monsters provide special abilities. Both hands must be grasped, and both hands must be hard.

A real man must be hard.

Deng Ken and others are going to the area roughly in the Calais and Dunkirk areas of France in later generations, from where they can go to the British Isles. The geographical location is in Belgica Gao Lu. But the Lower Germania in that area is already in jeopardy and may fall to the barbarian invasion at any time.

Greater Germania does not yet have a unified leader. Many barbarian tribes are collectively referred to as Germanic people, and the internal struggles are also today you cut me and tomorrow I cut you.

But the Saxons have begun to rise.

Decades ago, because the British province was constantly under attack by the Saxons, the empire was forced to withdraw the last Roman legion.

In fact, it was already unable to defend at that time.

After that, the British Isles belonged to the Celts. The small indigenous kingdom in the legend of King Arthur should be one of them, roughly in the Wales region.

In the legend, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table finally successfully repelled the Saxon invasion through twelve battles and guarded the peace of the British Isles for a period of time. But in the end, the Anglo-Saxons still occupied the British Isles and developed into England later.

After crossing the war zone, the group entered the territory of the Franks. They are a branch of the Germanic barbarians, currently divided into three tribes: Salian, Ripuarian, and Chatti (Hessians).

Among them, the Ripuarians have now been conquered by the Hunnic Empire.

"This should be Parisii," Severus turned and said.

Parisii?

It should be the ancient name of Paris. Now it is only a small place, built around the Île de la Cité, with a population of only a few hundred, and the old island city is less than half a square kilometer.

Later, the Roman Empire began to urbanize the occupied areas, and the population around Parisii slowly developed to tens of thousands.

The British Isles also began to develop urbanization at that time, and the concept of provincial capital first appeared, but these cities were later destroyed by the Saxon invasion.

Many barbarians wanted to retain and inherit the civilization of the Roman Empire, but in the end, civilization still regressed on a large scale under the chaos of war.

"It seems that the productivity of this era is indeed very low."

The scenes Deng Ken saw along the way were quite desolate. The Romans had researched perfect urban water supply systems as early as BC, but now the towns along the way don't even have decent drainage ditches. Among the many barbarians, the Franks are the ones who learned Roman civilization relatively early, but the way of farming is still relatively backward.

However, early feudal manors have begun to appear.

The empire basically lost control of this land, and the residents of the towns along the way were mostly barbarians. But it was not peaceful along the way. They encountered other barbarians who went deep into the hinterland to loot several times. It seems that due to the pressure of the Hunnic Empire and population growth, more barbarian tribes poured into the empire.

Parisii is a very standard medieval small town.

It can be seen that the Franks are quite martial at this moment. They are real Gallic roosters. The attire of some wealthy free citizens among them is very close to the characters in the American drama Vikings. But there are also many serfs and slaves who are not covered in clothes along the way. The warrior class of the barbarians has transformed into early feudal nobles. They have made contributions through war and annexed land by legal means.

"Is that a vineyard?"

Deng Ken's group rode into the town. The guards stopped them and questioned them. Because of Severus, they didn't encounter any trouble.

The Franks learned irrigation, grape planting, gardening techniques, etc., from Roman civilization. Compared with other barbarian tribes, their transformation speed is quite fast, and they are in a zone between civilization and barbarism, which also laid the foundation for the rise of the Frankish Kingdom later.

They are not so addicted to alcohol among the barbarians. After the whole country became Christianized in the future, they quickly received the support of the church.

Parisii dug drainage ditches one by one. The whole town looked neat and clean, much cleaner than the Paris of the Middle Ages, at least not stinking.

Now leading the Salian Franks is Childeric I, the father of Clovis I, the founder of the Frankish Kingdom. Further back is the usurpation of Pepin the Short. In the Carolingian dynasty, Charlemagne rose, which entered the history of the Middle Ages.

Charlemagne is the King of Hearts in playing cards.

The guard's gaze lingered on the witch's figure that could not be covered, swallowed his saliva involuntarily, and then let them in.

He couldn't afford to offend Severus. One look at his attire and he knew he was not an ordinary person.

Inn.

The Germanic inn is a very eye-catching building, covering a large area, with two floors, wooden structure, walls painted with oil mud. The Franks also retained part of the traditions of the Germanic barbarians, that is, drinking, horse racing, and gambling.

The Germanic people are very addicted to alcohol. The main alcoholic beverages are honey wine and beer. Give them enough wine, and these barbarians can drink themselves to death.

The inn lobby is messy, and there are drunks bragging that they once headshot a Hunnic knight with a Frankish throwing axe.

Severus walked in front, talked to the innkeeper for a few words, and the group found a corner to sit down. The witch deliberately sat in the innermost position to avoid attracting the eyes of men.

She has actually wrapped her chest slightly, but she can't cover it completely.

For those barbarians, the woman with a protruding front and a perky back has great attraction, and she will be stared at even if she wears a mask.

Soon.

The inn lobby had food and wine sent by slaves, a dark-skinned female slave, a bit like an Egyptian, I don't know if it was a descendant of mixed-race slaves brought by the empire from Egypt.

The empire has always had many slaves. Burgundy also broke out in a slave and serf uprising a few years ago, but it was soon ruthlessly suppressed.

The architectural style of this era is very backward. Most of Europe is simple wooden houses after entering Gao Lu. The inn is similar to the Nord inn in the North of the Elder Scrolls that Deng Ken played before, and even worse.

The stools in the hotel are stinging to the buttocks when sitting on them.

Deng Ken looked at the witch beside him, swept his gaze over the others in the inn, and said in a low voice: "Has the person you are looking for come?"

The Raven Queen, Te Lisi, shook her head slightly: "No."

"But my messenger has notified Anya, and she should be arriving near here soon."

One of the founders of the Wei Wuji, Anya of Cologne, the Thorn Rose, she is different from the Raven Queen, Te Lisi. She is not a priestess of the polytheistic era. She married a general of the empire early on. That general was also a believer in polytheism, and his family can be traced back to the period of the imperial emperor Julian the Apostate.

Later, her husband died suddenly. Anya was worried about being persecuted by the church, so she united with other witches to protect herself, and the Wei Wuji was founded.

Severus's origin is similar. His ancestors were generals of Julian the Apostate.

To some extent, the imperial emperor Julian the Apostate was the last counterattack launched by the remaining forces of polytheism united together. This emperor was actually a wise man, which can be seen from the last words he left to future generations.

(Big guys who have time can help me copy the last words in the chapter, so it doesn't take up words. He counts as the last wise emperor under the influence of polytheism.)

This emperor loved only one person in his life, treated the people kindly, promoted civilians, lived simply, was humble and kind, and was very remarkable. When he went on a long expedition to Persia, he fought with his back to the river, burned the transport ships, and after the army was in trouble, he rode his horse without armor to assist his own rearguard troops. Unfortunately, he was finally suspected of being stabbed to death by a javelin by Christians.

In the entire European continent, the Roman legions are the best at using javelins.

But he still severely damaged the Persian army in the end, beheading two generals and more than fifty nobles, making the Sassanid Persia lose its vitality and temporarily unable to fight against the Roman army.

This emperor died suddenly under the protection of many polytheistic priests, and his death meant that polytheism had completely failed.

Deng Ken nodded slightly, concentrated his spirit, and entered the God's Eye view.

——Frankish elite axeman (one star).

——Saxon forest hunter.

——Gothic caravan guard.

——Visigothic mercenary sergeant (one star).

Under the God's Eye view, the units around the inn are all neutral factions. No hostile markers with red dots were found. Those with extra marks are people with combat power, and most of the others are identifiers for farmers, slaves, militia, etc.

These people don't have much threat, and a well-trained soldier can deal with quite a few.

The Hunnic Empire claims to have an army of 500,000, of which there are only 100,000 real combat soldiers, mostly slaves and auxiliary troops conquered, slightly issued weapons, and driven to the battlefield without armor.

Anyway, there is nothing to do now, Deng Ken simply expanded his perspective and observed the entire Parisii.

Blacksmith shops, quarries, hotels, residential areas, commercial areas, governor's mansions, vineyards, etc., all kinds of buildings were marked, clear at a glance, making Deng Ken understand the architectural layout of the entire Parisii like a detailed map.

"There are only about a hundred garrison troops. It seems they have all been transferred away."

In name, this land still belongs to the empire, but it has been unable to govern. The princes and generals within the empire have long been like warlords. The Franks are now the foreign mercenary legions of the empire. They are joining forces with the Visigothic cavalry to meet the Hunnic troops that have invaded in large numbers.

Deng Ken doesn't like the food of this era, feeling it a bit hard to swallow, that is, the Italian cuisine of the Romans makes him feel more right. So he simply controlled the character to gobble it up under the God's Eye view, activating the passive ability of "Power of Gluttony."

It doesn't matter if you eat a little to fill your stomach, but it is a bit torturous for him to want to "gluttony."

At this moment, others in the hotel have quietly noticed him, because he ate the food of ordinary people for two whole days in one breath.

The witch's expression was quite subtle, surprised by Deng Ken's appetite, but she cut meat and poured water for him without changing her expression, as if she were a considerate and moving maid. The Raven Queen, Te Lisi, has always hidden her beauty. She understands very well that beauty will attract many unnecessary troubles in troubled times.

I don't know how long it has been.

A marker unit suddenly appeared in Deng Ken's God's Eye view.

——Witch Anya 【Two Star】 【Neutral】.

After such a long time, Deng Ken saw a supernatural unit marked as "Witch" again.

Hmm?

Two-star white board?

It seems that not all witches are skull markers.

Deng Ken moved his God's Eye view and saw a woman wearing a hood riding over in the direction of the gate of Parisii, with three guard riders behind her.

——Sarmatian foreign rider.

——Private army rider.

——Imperial retired Praetorian knight 【One Star】.

This should be the person the Raven Queen, Te Lisi, was waiting for.

This witch is wealthy and is of old imperial noble origin. Her ancestors once conquered Cologne. This time she wants to cross the sea to the British Isles, which cannot be separated from the help of this witch.

However, after the death of the imperial emperor Julian the Apostate, the forces of these nobles who believed in polytheism all declined. Anya was lucky that her ancestors once had someone who was the commander of the imperial field legion. Later, the title of "Count" for French nobles came from this.

According to the medieval nobility system, she is a descendant of the Count among the Roman nobles.

Now witches have not been splashed with various dirty water like in the Middle Ages. Most witches are the inheritance of priests in the polytheistic era. At that time, only nobles were qualified to become priests serving gods.

Many Roman emperors were high priests, and Julius Caesar served as high priest for life.

Deng Ken suddenly put down his wine glass.

Just as Anya and others entered Parisii, a small team of red-marked units soon appeared and entered here.

——Witch Hunter 【1 Star】.

——Heretic Inquisitor 【2 Star】.

——God-hiding assault assassin 【1-star silver-gray】.

——Hidden monk 【1-star silver-gray】.

——Hidden Temple Guard 【Blood of the Holy Grail】 【2-star silver-gray】.

Damn!

Under the God's Eye view, Deng Ken couldn't help but burst out a swear word, but on the surface, he remained calm, just picked up his weapon, and signaled to the two beside him to go out first.

If they were blocked in the inn, they would probably be hacked to death by the Inquisition.

……………… ===== CHAPTER 16 =====