Chapter 23: The Evening of the Dwarves' First Day of Travel

Unlike walking inside the Huitou Forest in the morning, every Dwarf on the road was very excited that afternoon.

After getting over their initial panic and timidity, the Dwarves cheered up and walked excitedly beside the caravan; because their hands were empty, many Dwarves picked up the fresh flowers nearby to sniff them.

They shouted happily and sang in unison a song about flowers.

"Place the most delicate flower, in the hair of my beloved girl."

"Let me add color to her with my own hands, even if the flower is not a fraction of her."

"Ah~~"

"I gather flowers, to offer to her."

"Ah~~"

"Do you see? I gather flowers, to offer to her—"

They sang the short song repeatedly, laughing as they randomly poked the flowers in their hands onto the backpacks of their companions, making the once neat and practical new backpacks look beautiful.

The two Dwarf women, who were the minority in the entire Dwarf group, were now covered in fresh flowers inserted into their backpacks by everyone, their heads were also full of flowers, and they happily held the fresh flowers they had gathered themselves.

Xiaoxuezi's mother called her son over, let Xiaoxuezi walk in front of her, and then inserted the fresh flowers in her hands one by one into Xiaoxuezi's backpack, giving him a blessing.

"This bunch of tender white flowers and green branches represents health; I hope you will be physically healthy and not suffer from illness."

"This bunch of full yellow flowers represents infinite vitality; I hope you will be lively, optimistic, and always full of energy."

"This bunch of purple vine morning glories represents the mysterious unknown; I hope you can avoid those dangers and grow up safely and quickly."

"This bunch of fiery, sword-like triangular flowers represents courage and passion; I hope you will be as skilled in martial arts as your father and overcome every difficulty."

Xiaoxuezi's face was awkward, knowing that he was far behind his father in terms of martial arts; he was just an ordinary Dwarf Warrior, not even qualified to be a Miner Soldier.

The Dwarves frolicked for a while as they walked, and the old Dwarf sitting on the cart did not say anything to them, because everyone had also offered him many flowers; by now, the old Dwarf was almost covered by the piled-up fresh flowers.

"Achoo, achoo, you guys, don't just pick every flower you see and throw them at me. Some flowers are too fragrant, so fragrant that they make people sneeze."

The old Dwarf rubbed his big nose, surrounded by the flowers that had submerged him; he couldn't bear to throw them away, because this was a manifestation of everyone's love and respect for him. So he had to find a cloth to cover his face, laughing happily.

Jier also saw the Dwarves' frolicking from not far away; although Dwarves were often stiff and stubborn in their appearance and personality, he had not expected them to have such a passionate and straightforward side.

It really was rare.

Looking at old Shitui's happy yet troubled appearance, it was clear that this moment, even when he was old and senile in the future, would be clearly remembered in his mind, right?

And he would proudly carry it with him until the time of his departure?

The Dwarves' behavior of picking wild flowers while walking still affected the speed of the team, but no one blamed them for it; clearly, the Dwarves' free happiness that afternoon had infected everyone in the team.

Especially Weier, who rarely showed a smile; this young Swordsman, whose face often flashed with a melancholy expression, seemed to have thought of some past events because of this. That was perhaps before his family's misfortune; a smile appeared on his face, and his gaze was lost in the memories of the past.

Bawei, walking beside Weier, bumped Weier's shoulder: "What are you thinking about? So focused, and you even smiled naturally?"

Weier came back to his senses, looked at Bawei who had interrupted his beautiful memories with dissatisfaction, and shrugged helplessly: "I remembered some beautiful memories from the past."

Bawei widened his eyes and asked curiously: "Tell me about those memories of yours; I'm very curious about what your life was like before. Tell us about it? It must have been an easy and leisurely good life, right?"

Weier gave a bitter smile: "Where was there much of an easy and leisurely life? Being born into a large family is often more tiring than you imagine; I envy you guys who grew up in the village since you were young. I was urged by my parents to learn this and that since I was a child, comparing myself with other children of the same age in the family; there was almost no easy life."

"Almost? So there was some? Tell me about it; anyway, we are idle while walking on the road, aren't we?"

"You really want to hear? After hearing it, you will definitely feel that you and I are from two different worlds, even if we are in the same team now." Weier teased.

Bawei did not change his mind, so Weier whispered a few interesting stories about his past life to him while they were walking together.

These so-called leisurely pastimes, full of the extravagant style and grand displays of the great Nobles, were truly hard for Bawei, who grew up in a remote village, to imagine.

By evening, on the wasteland leading to Shichui Cunzi, the entire team gradually converged. The vehicles were connected head to tail, loosely forming an open space that could accommodate everyone for the night.

The Warriors under Jier did not do it themselves, but untied the ropes of the surrendered Soldiers, letting these tired and exhausted guys help them clear the grass and trees on the ground for the Humans.

And the Dwarves also learned from the Humans' actions, clearing away the weeds and shrubs in the open space allocated to them.

"Don't throw away these things you've cleared; they are all grass and wood that can be used as fuel. You can throw them in to help the fire burn after we light the campfire later." Jier stayed in the Dwarf team, loudly reminding the Dwarves of these details during their long journey.

"Of course, you need to briefly identify them before burning them as fuel. Some seemingly harmless weeds and shrubs are actually poisonous in their stems, branches, leaves, and flowers, and will emit poisonous smoke when burned. Although rare, they still need to be screened."

Jier helped the Dwarves pick out some flowers and plants that looked strange, dug a small pit on the spot with a shovel, and buried these poisonous flowers and plants in the soil.

At the same time, Jier also directed the Dwarves to dig a place for people to relieve themselves tonight at the edge of the camp surrounded by vehicles.

"Everyone must remember, although we are in the wild, you cannot just leave the protection of the camp and relieve yourselves in the empty places outside; this is a very dangerous behavior. There are rules for traveling far; for the sake of safety and to avoid being tracked by some wild beasts and Monsters, you can only relieve yourselves in these temporarily dug Earth Pits."

The Dwarves all nodded to show they understood; these were behaviors that made sense at a glance, and even if Jier didn't explain, the Dwarves could understand the logic behind them the moment they saw them.

Afterward, Jier asked for some ashes from his own team and let the Dwarves sprinkle them on the cleared open space.

These ashes could repel some mosquitoes and insects, especially some poisonous small snakes and insects.

"If you see small holes in the ground, remember to step on them to collapse and fill them, to avoid things crawling out of those holes in the middle of the night. It will be troublesome if you get bitten then. After all, I estimate that the Priest of the God of Strength won't be of much use."

Jier muttered, but his voice was not small at all.

The Wild Priest of the God of Strength naturally heard it; his face changed, but he did not flare up, because although Jier only seemed to be speaking casually, he was actually right.

Although he could seek Divine Power from the God of Strength to enhance the combat effectiveness of his subordinates, he had not systematically studied what a Church Priest should know; he had not mastered the simplest prayer of healing power.

It was not that he could not pray to the gods for healing in his mouth, but even if he learned the words of the Priests he had seen before and recited them, he could not use Divine Power to heal others.

On the contrary, the prayer that made people's strength increase greatly was always effective.

"Hmph, I'm not that useless; I can make people's strength increase greatly, and then stepping on poisonous snakes and insects to death is also possible, right?" This Wild Priest stiffened his neck and insisted.

Jier shrugged: "Sounds like something a Priest of the God of Strength would say. Haha."

Other Dwarf Miners who did not believe in the Dwarf Strength God Believer also laughed along; everyone then took the tents off the ox carts, and as they had practiced repeatedly before, dug holes, set up the main support poles of the tents, then the secondary poles, then unfolded the waterproof tent cloth, propped it up on the poles, and finally straightened the unfolded tents with ropes, fixing these ropes with long Iron Nails driven into the ground.

In this way, a large tent that could shelter from wind and rain and squeeze twenty people at once was completed.

The Dwarves poured into the already built tents one after another, placing their backpacks that had been scattered outside into the tents to occupy a good spot.

Then, it was the second tent, the third tent.

There were only three tents in total; the Dwarves even cherished the Plowing Oxen pulling the carts, and they invited the Plowing Oxen into the third tent that was not full of people.

Jier directed the Dwarves to operate smoothly; a few people went to take care of the Plowing Oxen pulling the carts, cleaning the ox hooves, brushing their hair, feeding them water and food, and finally tying the oxen tightly so they wouldn't run away in the middle of the night.

A few people were asked to prepare the campfire, stacking the wood that was durable but not easy to ignite, then stuffing flammable grass and wood into the gaps between these wood blocks, lighting them first, and using their burning to ignite the firewood.

The cooking utensils needed to be taken out by the Chef and set over the campfire to let them do their work; Jier was not responsible for the Dwarves' meals.

The Dwarf soldiers, who had sat on the ox cart all day, needed to guard the outside on the Dwarves' side while others were busy, keeping watch for wild beasts or Monsters that might appear or be eyeing them.

Although, Jier was not afraid of the group being eyed by wild beasts or Monsters.

If eyed by a wild beast, then beat the beast to death to add some extra meat to everyone's dinner and tomorrow's breakfast. If eyed by a Monster, then beat the Monster to death to add some small snacks for himself that could accumulate Life Energy.

Of course, these small snacks could only be roasted by Jier himself; Jier was not sure if ordinary people would also be poisoned if they came into contact with Monster flesh or smelled the smoke from roasting Monster meat.

To avoid this situation, Jier always handled the Monster meat himself when preparing it.

But there were no large groups of wild beasts appearing around Shichui Cunzi, nor were there any Monsters eyeing them.

This place had always been considered relatively safe.

Traveling further south from Shichui Cunzi, there would be Siege Fish lurking in the water, and traveling north was originally the safer plains around the villages of Yemei Town, but now parasitic vines that could parasitize Humans often appeared there as well.

Only here was it relatively stable, with only a few wild boars appearing in the wild.

The hungry Dwarves waited by the campfire, staring longingly at the dinner simmering in the large pot over the fire. Unlike Humans who liked thinner porridge or soup, Dwarves preferred thick, filling food.

Even the vegetable soup they made was much thicker than Human vegetable soup. Dwarves would crush the bread slices that would normally be soaked later and add them into the soup while it was simmering, or add a handful of snow-white wheat flour, just to make the broth thick.

They actually didn't like soup that was too thin.

Jier subsequently ate a bowl too, but he indicated he couldn't get used to it; although it was filling and the texture was different, he still couldn't get used to this stuff.

When the Dwarf Chef made the broth, she would also add large chunks of pre-rendered animal Grease into the soup, leaving a thick layer of oil floating on the surface of the already thick broth.

The Dwarves ate with their mouths full of oil, talking happily one by one, as if they could temporarily forget the soreness in their feet.

After the meal, Jier had the Dwarves untie their leg wraps to relax their calves, avoiding the poor blood circulation caused by long-term binding. Every time they rested while traveling before, Jier would have the Dwarves properly untie their leg wraps and retie them when they set off.

After everyone had eaten, Jier's Warriors began to conduct martial arts training by the light of the campfire, which provided the Dwarves, who occupied the other side of the Yingdi, with a new form of entertainment to pass the time after their meal.

Yes, to the Dwarves, the martial arts training of Jier's Warriors was nothing more than entertainment performances.

Although the Warriors swung their weapons hard, the Dwarves shook their heads one after another after just one glance, feeling the strength was too weak.

"With such little strength, if I were wearing armor, this would just be scratching an itch for me. Oh, no, wait, I might not even feel them attacking me." A Dwarf Miner said this.

As soon as Jier heard it, he knew this person was bragging; although a Dwarf's strength was several times that of a Human, and although each of them had thick Metal Armor, with the thickest parts of the armor even being one centimeter thick, this person was indeed bragging.

If they really fought all-out, the top-tier Warriors under Jier would have no problem taking down any Dwarf Warrior one-on-one.

But Jier knew in his heart that his subordinates, having heard what the Dwarves said intentionally in Human Common Language, stood right up.

"What did you say? You defeated subordinates of Knight Jier, you have no reason to say this to us, right?" A Warrior with a fiery temper shouted directly at the Dwarf who had just mocked them.

"Well, we indeed cannot beat your Knight Jier, but I still have to say, the gap between you people and Knight Jier's level is like the difference between rare Gems and colored stones in the river—a huge difference."

This Dwarf also said affirmatively, and the other surrounding Dwarves nodded one after another, feeling that this person hadn't said anything wrong.

This instead made Jier's Warriors unhappy; Jier was relatively strong, but was the gap between him and them really that big?

Sitting on the canopy of Jier's carriage, holding a cocked Heavy Crossbow, Xueya Steer secretly shook his head: 'These poor guys still don't realize that the gap between them and Jier is truly as huge as the Dwarf said.'

He sighed; ever since seeing Jier's true strength in the Defeated Army Soldier Camp, he had even felt a bit of fear toward Jier, especially the terrifying appearance of Jier covered in a pitch-black unknown power, which was deeply imprinted in his mind.

At that time, he understood that although everyone traveled together and ate about the same, the other party had after all undergone Knight Training and studied under that Knight Kela who was rumored to be even more terrifying; essentially, there was a huge gap between him and these ordinary Human Warriors.

"Hmph, say what you want, want to spar?" Jier's Warrior 'invited' the Dwarf opposite.

The Dwarves were not hesitant either; as long as it wasn't Jier, they didn't take these ordinary subordinates of Jier seriously at all.

?? Fifth revision.