Part One Getting Involved Chapter Five Reminiscing about Things Past
The moonlight spread its silvery tenderness to the ground meticulously, and the strange rocky ground no longer looked so angular under this care. Asa leaned on the stone next to the campfire, looking at the moon and reluctant to close his eyes.
The moonlight is so beautiful and soft that even the exposed skin can feel the caress coming from it. Such moonlight is never seen in Kalundo. The clouds and soot that cover the basin all year round make all dreams come true.
The sight reaching the sky is despairing.
It has been more than a month since I left Karen. But as soon as I recall it, the smell of iron juice and coal immediately revives in my nose, and the sound of the hammer tapping on the iron seems to have disappeared for less than a minute.
The image of his father swinging the hammer that night before he ran away was so profound that it almost replaced all the feelings he had experienced during the twenty years he had lived in Kalundo.
The rock-hard and dull face looked like a shrine in the light of the fire. The muscles were like tree roots entwined on the arms. The hammer struck one after another, and every vibration was truly transmitted to Asa's hand through the knife.
This was a shock from his father. This touch made him feel for the first time that he had a different connection with his father than others.
The shape of the knife gradually became clear. His father took the knife from his hand and turned it over. Asa lost the pulse that resonated with his father, and he understood that the connection with his father would also disappear with the creation of this knife. Then
What arose spontaneously was a feeling of excitement. This knife also symbolized the beginning of his new life, the beginning of his real life. This expectation also entered the knife with the clanging sounds of the collisions.
inside.
This would be a good knife that even his father's shop didn't have, forged with the refined iron ore Asa secretly accumulated over the past five years.
He is the most rebellious among the tens of thousands of children in the Kalondo Basin. He was not naughty when he was a child, nor was he as frivolous and dissolute as others when he was a teenager, so he will not become tired of rebellion like others.
Return to life. He is not rebelling in life, but rebelling in the whole life from the beginning.
The Kalundo Basin has a history of hundreds of years of metallurgical casting. The mountains surrounding the basin are rich in mineral deposits that seem inexhaustible. The dwarves living in the caves are also used to interacting with humans and even coming out to live among them. This makes the metallurgical level here at the highest level.
The largest in the mainland. People are also used to this tradition and have been engaged in metallurgy and casting for generations. People here rarely go out. The basin restricts their footsteps and seems to solidify their hearts inside. I have lived in mining and smelting since I was a child.
, in a forging environment, when you grow up, you can only inherit and become a part of this environment.
Years of habits have created an unwritten rule in the basin. Once a man reaches the age of twenty, he must inherit the craftsmanship of his father's generation, either as a farmer, or as a businessman, or more often as a miner or blacksmith. Although it is not known when this rule originated.
It was handed down from someone's hands, but it has been strictly observed, becoming one of the few spiritual symbols in this culturally barren basin.
Before the age of five, Asa was no different from other children. He also grew up surrounded by fires and banging sounds. At the age of five, he became obsessed with the world outside the basin told by the old adventurer at the back of the village. But
A huge flying dragon that easily catches a cow in the sky and eats it, a beautiful mermaid that confuses sailors with her song, a corpse that can move on its own, clay figures, various subhumans, a country that believes in natural elements, weird customs,
There are also the infinite blue sky with floating white clouds, the mysterious and boundless sea, and the prairie that even if you gallop for three days and three nights, you can't reach the end.
Unlike other children who were just happy to listen and fantasize about these stories, Asa felt that that was the real life and the world that truly belonged to him, so he began to learn all the knowledge about the outside world from the old adventurer. How to survive in the swamp and
Surviving in the desert, how to identify various plants, the various habits of various sub-humans, how to fight, and how to set traps. His footprints are all over the most desolate and uninhabited places in the basin. He stayed there for a month,
The fantasy is that it is the magical world outside, where he can practice his survival ability. In order to make himself strong and strong enough to fight against the orcs, he exercises his body every day and fights with people much bigger than him.
, when he was fourteen years old, all the gangsters and robbers in the basin no longer dared to go to his village. When he was fifteen years old, he went to the iron mines, and once he found good ore, he would find a way to secretly take it out.
His father is taciturn and is the owner of a small weapons shop. His mother has long since died of illness. In Asa's impression, home is just a place to rest, and his father is just an elder who lives with him. He has always lived in the distance looking at his dreams.
, I exercise every day, secretly accumulate minerals, and indulge in getting closer to my dream step by step.
One week before his twentieth birthday, he gave all the ores he had secretly hidden to his father, asked his father to make him a knife, and told his father that he was leaving here.
His father did not stop him, nor did he ask where he was going. After a long silence, he helped him take the ore to the smelting plant and make the refined iron into a knife. Then Asa followed him with the knife.
He left Kalendo with a caravan of foreigners coming to purchase.
His fingers gently slid over the blade. This knife was everything he had lived for twenty years. With a flick of his finger, he let out a low hum, like a lament in a poem or a song of praise.
"Good knife." It was like the unpleasant sound of two dull knives rubbing against each other and cutting. The veteran beside the campfire woke up and looked at Asa with one eye open. The firelight reflected his face that didn't look like a face.
.
Half of the face's cheeks were sunken in, and the muscles and broken bones were mixed together, forming a pit of uneven flesh, which was the mark left by hammer weapons. The other half of the face was covered with a line from the forehead to the mouth.
Deep and long scars are strung together, and there are a few small and shallow scars crisscrossing the left and right sides, and the facial features are somewhat pulled out of place by the scars. This is Zhang's strange appearance due to the scars.
face, but what’s even more strange is that this man is still alive after suffering so many injuries.
Asa gave the veteran a friendly smile. This was a veteran who had fought on the battlefield for decades but never died. It was said that he had hundreds of wounds all over his body. Because he could not die, there were many in the army.
Few people call him the old immortal...
"Where have you done this before?" Seeing that the knife was not the standard equipment of the regular army, the veteran thought Asa was a single mercenary.
Asa shook his head. He joined the army after seeing an army recruiting mercenaries in Brakada. When he came out of Kalundo, he discovered that living freely outside was not an easy task. Eating.
, adventure items all require money. When I was almost considering joining bandits or helping gangsters fight, I saw a reconnaissance force recruiting temporary soldiers, so I signed up immediately.
Half of this hundred-man army was temporarily recruited near Bracada. There were farmers, wanderers, and a few fugitives mixed in. It was irregular but lively. And this one looked the weirdest.
The veteran is actually a regular soldier.
The veteran probably couldn't sleep, so he struck up a conversation with Asa: "Young man seems to have good skills, why do you want to become a soldier?"
"Because I have nothing else to do, I actually wanted to be a robber." Asa said honestly.
The veteran laughed like he was breaking a pot. Asa noticed that there was a scar on his throat, and he probably injured his vocal cords. "Young man is interesting. In fact, sometimes being a robber is better than being a soldier."
, at least there is no danger of being a soldier. Bandits will rob those who can be beaten, and flee if they cannot be beaten. If you become a soldier, your superiors may tell you to rush when you should run away."
"Then just don't rush. If you need to run away, just run away."
"If you disobey military orders, the commander will chop off your head."
"Then the only way is to chop off the commander's head first, and then escape." Asa answered naturally.
Veteran Carakara laughed again: "How can there be such a soldier?"
"How can there be such a person who clearly knows how to commit suicide and is ordered by others?" Asa felt confused. "Of course he has to find a way to survive. If he asked me to commit suicide, why didn't he go up and die first to show me?
"
The veteran shook his head, his remaining single eye showing a blank look, his distorted facial features twitching, turning into a distorted expression that no one else could understand, and murmured: "Being a soldier, that's it."
There was a rattling sound, and Asa knew that Captain Sanders was here. Only he would still be patrolling in steel armor.
"Why are you still not sleeping? There is still a mission tomorrow." Captain Sanders is still fully equipped. He is wearing steel armor, a helmet on his head, and a sword on his left waist and a shield on his right waist. These things seem to have grown on him and have never been seen before.
He had taken it off. There was an indentation of the Holy Cross on the armor and shield. Asa heard that it was the symbol of the Holy Knights, and the Holy Knights were well known even in the dull and boring place in his hometown.
That is the strongest army in the empire.
"We are exchanging our experiences as soldiers." Asa still told the truth.
"Captain, why aren't you sleeping yet? We will go to bed soon." The veteran was afraid that Asa would talk nonsense, so he quickly took over the topic.
Sanders nodded and said kindly: "I'm going to make an inspection." His tone and expression were very easy-going, and even his appearance made people feel a little inexplicably kind. This young captain has a high prestige among regular soldiers, and he and Ah
Others who were hired along with Sa were a little disapproving.
The common people of the lower class usually have no good impression of the nobles. The lack of dislike has proved that this young man is very approachable. However, Asa is somewhat in awe of him. Although he has never seen him make a move, he can tell that the captain
Much more powerful than myself.
Sanders looked at Asa and asked: "Are you the recruit who defeated four infantrymen when you were recruiting?" When recruiting soldiers, you have to compete with several infantrymen to see if they have enough physical strength and combat effectiveness.
Sa easily knocked down several soldiers who were much bigger than him.
"Yes." Asa replied. Sanders nodded and said in an approving tone: "You have very good skills. If you work hard, you will definitely be able to do well."
Although Asa had great doubts about the profession of being a soldier after talking to the veterans, he couldn't help but nodded seriously.
It seems that not all nobles are so arrogant and annoying. Hearing compliments always makes people feel happy, and Asa has forgotten the last time he was praised.
The warning whistle outside the camp suddenly sounded, and the sharp tone tore the silence of the wilderness night in half.