Chapter 262

The barn where the fast bird is kept is still some distance from the mountain fortress. When Victor arrived at the corral, it was completely dark.

The dim night couldn't stop Victor's sharp eyes. With the ability of dim vision, he clearly saw hundreds of fast birds, large and small, divided into four groups, lying on the ground and sleeping safely.

Several particularly strong fast bird leaders were alert to the movement outside the corral and looked up one after another. When they saw that they were familiar humans, they buried their heads under their wings.

Fast bird is a large omnivorous land bird unique to the man horse hills. They mainly feed on the purple sugarcane leaves of the man horse hills and also prey on small animals of ground lizards. The average standing height of adult fast birds is 2.4m, the back height is 1.8m, the body length is 1.6m, the weight is generally no more than 350kg, and they have an axe like beak, huge wings and strong claws.

Fast birds are large, muscular, flexible and agile. They have strong obstacle climbing and slope climbing ability. They are very suitable for hilly terrain. Their maximum speed reaches an amazing 90 kilometers per hour. Even when crossing mountains, they can maintain a speed of 40 kilometers per hour. The explosive power and speed of the fast bird are even better than that of the war horse. The super balance and sharp turning ability are the advantages that the war horse does not have.

In the early days when the human Lord pioneered the horse hills, he also wanted to tame this large bird, but soon gave up.

The disposition of the fast bird is not fierce, but it is not easy to provoke. They are grumpy and surprisingly powerful. Their strong bird claws can easily break soldiers' ribs. Their flexible neck allows them to quickly turn their heads and attack riders on their backs. Their axe like beak is enough to tear up hard cowhide armor and cause fatal damage.

Fast birds are tall, strong and eat a lot. They like purple sugarcane leaves. They despise the dry grass provided by humans. However, when human beings exploit the hills, they first have to cut down the purple sugarcane forest on the flat land. Farmers can't plant crops on hills, can they? Due to the destruction of the purple sugarcane forest, the fast bird's food source was obviously insufficient. They began to peck the young seedlings in the farmland. In order to drive away these big birds that destroy crops, farmers sometimes die and are injured. The priest of the church decisively defined the fast bird as a beast and asked the Lord to send soldiers to kill the fast bird.

Another important factor for the Lord to give up domesticating the fast bird is its poor load-bearing ability. Although the fast bird is large and can run well, it is a two legged bird after all. Its load-bearing ability is far less than that of strong bones and four legged cattle and horses. Aristocratic scholars have found that a weight of more than 230 pounds will affect the action ability of fast birds, while a weight of 320 pounds can directly press them down.

Grumpy, dangerous, difficult to tame, picky eater, high feeding cost, poor load-bearing ability, endurance is not as good as a war horse, so it is not suitable to be a horse.

The white tower scholar's conclusion made the Lord lose interest in the fast bird, and their meat aroused the farmer's interest. Finally, thousands of fast birds were brought to the table, and only a small number of fast bird populations survived in the remote southern territory.

However, the scholars of the White Pagoda and the priests of the church ignore the question: since the fast birds feed on purple sugarcane leaves, why do the forest people tolerate these giant birds to eat their crops?

Victor learned from Renault that the swift birds in the man horse hills are not wild animals, but war birds raised by halflings. Halflings and forest horses are symbiotic races. Of course, forest horses will not drive away fast birds.

In fact, fast birds are omnivorous birds and are not picky about eating. Vegetables, berries, young leaves of seabuckthorn and meat are all on their diet. It's just that the swift birds in the human horse hills are used to eating purple sugarcane leaves rich in sugar, which creates the illusion that the swift birds are picky about food. Moreover, the intelligence of fast birds is much higher than that of horses. They have a strong collective consciousness, are good at cooperation, will protect their companions, and have good combat effectiveness. Even if they can't become mounts, they are also excellent combat partners.

If fast birds cannot be domesticated, halflings will never dare to raise them as war birds. Human soldiers are still in danger of life in the face of the attack of fast birds, not to mention the short and weak halflings.

In fact, the way to tame the fast bird is very simple. When a fast bird comes out of its shell and sees the first moving object, it will be regarded as a companion by them, and then feed them. This companion relationship is even fixed. On the basis of mutual trust, animal trainers can teach fast birds various instructions and make them qualified mounts and combat partners.

Randall's first generation of fast birds only took halflings as companions. It took a lot of time for the alchemists to let them accept human instructions, but they still attack humans. So ordinary people can't ride the first generation of fast birds.

The 30 adult fast birds provided by busso are all second-generation fast birds. They see alchemists when they come out of their shells. They have been trained by alchemists since childhood. They have regarded humans as companions. These fast birds are comparable to well-trained hounds. Unless they receive orders from their masters or to protect their masters, they generally do not take the initiative to attack others.

Of course, as a large creature, the fast bird is not without any threat. However, there are times when war horses drop their hooves. You can't give up cavalry just because war horses will get angry?

The terrain of the man horse hill is not suitable for the mobile operation of the traditional cavalry, but the swift bird riding is not troubled by the hilly terrain. The climbing ability of the fast bird allows the light cavalry to climb over the hills and intersperse the enemy array. The excellent sense of balance can make the light cavalry's bow and crossbow more accurate and deadly. The excellent speed allows the light cavalry to make a rapid raid and then evacuate quickly.

Just imagine, the fast bird light cavalry composed of the monkey militia, condescending on the hills, accurately shoot the enemy's elite soldiers, and then easily get rid of the enemy knight in heavy armor with the help of the terrain. Once pursued by the enemy knight, the fast bird light cavalry immediately disperse and evacuate. If the enemy's big Knight chases a fast bird cavalry, the rest of the light cavalry will continue to destroy the opponent's ordinary combat power, and the big Knight alone will face the encirclement and suppression of the silver crossbow.

A situation in which one can only be beaten and cannot fight back will cause a devastating blow to the morale of the enemy. The kite tactics of the fast bird light cavalry are enough to make up for the gap in high-end combat power.

If the alchemy dragon lizard combat team is a strategic force, then the fast bird light riding is a tactical force, and the fast bird light riding is an elite that can be placed in the light without covering up.

In the non war state, the fast bird light cavalry performs patrol and rapid support tasks. Taking Pinghu Town as the origin, they can reach any corner of Randall's collar within 4 hours. This elite cavalry will greatly enhance Victor's control over the territory and effectively alleviate the pressure of understaffed patrols.

The most important thing is that fast bird Qingqi is very handsome and windy.

There is no problem with the domestication and supply of the fast bird. Now the most difficult thing is its load-bearing ability.

Victor asked, "Bousso, do you have any equipment plan for the swift bird light ride?"

"Sir, according to your requirements for lethality and defense, the fast bird cavalry is equipped with silver fur armor, iron oak silver spear, iron oak round shield, refined steel silver short sword, silver composite bow, silver crossbow, 40 refined iron arrows, 20 refined iron crossbows, one tactical satchel, the equipment weighs 52 pounds, and the average weight of the monkey militia is 173 pounds. The total load is 225 pounds, which will not cause damage to the fast bird Impact. "

The equipment scheme put forward by busso made Victor frown again and again. He asked, "how much kind of silver does these silver equipment need to consume?"

"2.4 pounds," Bousso replied simply and in horror

"It seems that silver is enough. However, it is not the time for silver to come out. This can only be used as an alternative."

Victor sighed, shook his head and said, "remove the silver equipment and come up with another plan."

Busso immediately gave another solution, "steel ring lock armor with rattan skin armor, crossbow, composite hard bow, 20 fine iron crossbow arrows, 40 ordinary arrows and one tactical satchel. The equipment weighs 70 pounds. Select the soul monkey militia weighing less than 160 pounds, with a total load of no more than 230 pounds."

"In order to reduce the load, sacrifice the attack power and melee ability of light cavalry? No!" Victor flatly rejected the plan.

The conventional cavalry is the elite of the elite. Its tactics are flexible and changeable. It must be able to ride and shoot and dismount. They are well equipped, both offensive and defensive.

Because of the horses, the cavalry were equipped with heavier scales and round shields with better defense. In terms of attack means, in addition to crossbows and composite bows, close combat weapons are also essential, including cavalry spears, one handed halberds, one handed swords and spikes, and they are all refined iron weapons.

The swift bird's terrible load-bearing ability simply can't bear the weight of elite cavalry. Excellent equipment is the greatest advantage of human soldiers. Losing the equipment advantage makes the fast bird cavalry meaningless and can only be used as scouts and heralds.

The appearance of ceryin made it possible for Victor to imagine the swift bird light riding. However, this is not the time to take out the ceryin equipment.

According to Victor's plan, we should first reserve millions of gold coins so that the alchemy tower can continuously produce alchemy creatures. Secondly, we should build the hill camp into a giant fortress to ensure that the alchemy tower is safe. Then, taking advantage of the Lord's lack of understanding of Se silver, he purchased se silver ore in other territories at a low price and reserved a huge amount of Se silver resources.

After completing these three steps, victor will show his silver equipment.

At present, the swift bird light cavalry can not openly use silver equipment, while ordinary equipment can not be both offensive and defensive. If the second scheme of cloth rope is adopted, the fast bird light cavalry is equipped with steel ring lock armor and no melee weapons, then they have basic defense, but lack melee means and become a simple riding archer. However, the long-range attack of bow and crossbow is difficult to kill in one hit unless it directly hits the key. At this time, it is particularly important to supplement the knife.

The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. The tactics of this configuration scheme are too single and the lethality is limited, which seriously reduces the use value of fast bird Qingqi. Victor resolutely rejected it.

Victor said reluctantly, "the steel ring lock armor weighs 15 kg, equivalent to 33 pounds, accounting for half of the equipment load! It seems that we can only replace the steel ring lock armor with iron oak round shield and refined iron machete."

"My Lord, you don't need to choose a lighter monkey militia."

"Well, the fast bird can also participate in the battle. Don't worry about the combat effectiveness of Qingqi. Only the defense of the monkey militia..."|

The monkey militia is not weak in melee combat, but their physique is only 12 points. Even ordinary jackals can tear up rattan armor and kill the monkey militia. With the Randall family's current financial resources, Victor would love to die an alchemy militia.

Of course, the most important thing is that the swift bird Qingqi is equipped with the same rattan armor as the militia. Does it have the momentum of elite cavalry? It was a great disappointment to Lord Randall.

"Is there no leather armor that is both decent and strong except silver armor?" Victor couldn't help complaining.

"Yes," Bousso said

"Huh?!"

Victor was stunned and asked, "tell me, what Leather Armor?"

"Dragon lizard leather armor!" Bousso replied solemnly.

"Er... That doesn't mean you didn't say it?"

Bousso's answer made Victor cry and laugh. Dragon lizard leather armor is the top leather armor. It is made of the leather of swamp lizard or mountain lizard. It is flexible and light, and its defense is still above the refined steel armor. Let's not talk about whether we can hunt the ferocious dragon lizard with dangerous intuition. Each dragon lizard skin armor is worth no less than 25000 gold sol. If Victor has dragon lizard skin armor, it's better to replace it with jinsol and make an alchemical dragon lizard

Although the swift bird light ride equipped with dragon lizard leather armor is absurd, it still provides Victor with an idea.

"I can buy some giant rhinoceros skin and let you make rhinoceros skin rattan armor. It must be much better than cowhide rattan armor!"

Bousso said lightly, "Sir, rhinoceros skin is the heaviest kind of leather. Its defense effect is not as good as that of Hexapod crocodile and giant turtle."

"Six legged crocodile? Giant turtle?"

"Both the Hexapod crocodile and the giant beetle are swamp creatures. Their stamina attributes are 14 and 13 points respectively, which is higher than the 12 points of the giant rhinoceros. Their horny scales are particularly tough. They use the Hexapod crocodile skin as the outer armor, the giant beetle skin as the inner armor, and the rattan soft armor is added in the middle. This kind of leather armor is slightly heavier than the ordinary rattan armor, and its defense effect is even better than the refined steel scale armor."

Victor's eyes lit up and asked repeatedly, "are there many hexapod crocodiles and giant beetles? Are they violent animals? Is it easy to catch?"

"Sir, hexapod crocodiles and giant catfish are ordinary beasts with low intelligence and are not difficult to catch. According to Jack's survey, there are a large number of Hexapod crocodiles and giant catfish in the Everglades."

Since Victor's return, he has been involved in affairs and has not had time to listen to Jack's investigation report on the Everglades. At this time, he had a strong interest in the natural resources of the Everglades.

"Call Jack to see me."

————————————

"My Lord, hexapod crocodiles, also known as hexapod lizards, are omnivorous social animals. They are 7 meters long and weigh an average of 6000 pounds. Their meat is delicious. They belong to three categories of food materials. Their horny leather is brownish red, indicating smooth, plate structure and very tough. They belong to three categories of natural resources. Hexapod crocodiles have strong strength and strong bite force. Their rolling and biting power is huge and can kill swamp dragons Lizard. "

"The giant beetle, a carnivorous snake, is 12-15 meters long and weighs an average of 3500 pounds. It belongs to three kinds of food materials. Its horny leather is black and scaly. It has a strong defense effect against cutting and puncture damage. It belongs to three kinds of natural resources. The giant beetle can strangle most creatures, including adult ogres. They can also spit corrosive gastric juice at the enemy, with a range of 30 meters, Very dangerous... "

In the dead of night, candles were burning in the study of the mountain fortress. Jack, the first monkey militia, was reporting to his master about the situation in the Everglades.

Victor listened with interest and no sleep. He didn't expect that the Everglades contained such rich and diverse natural resources.

Jack led the alchemy militia for 117 days to explore 23000 square kilometers of the Everglades and found hundreds of available resources, including animals, plants and minerals.

The area of more than 20000 square kilometers is just the tip of the iceberg of the Everglades, inhabited by countless animals. Large animals include hexapod crocodile, giant pangolin, capybara, giant shadow spider, snake demon, swamp dragon lizard, barrow turtle, sawtooth tiger sturgeon, etc., and there are countless turtles, fish, shrimp and birds.

There are many valuable species among these animals. For example, the blood of the shadow spider is the main material for making color changing dye, which can make the silver skin armor change its color with the environment like a chameleon. It belongs to a class of medicine. Most importantly, alchemy militia can make color changing dye!

The plant resources in the Everglades are also very rich. There are 17 kinds of medicinal materials available, of which 7 are related to the alchemist's recovery medicine, that is, the recovery medicine based on the dark forest sunflower root.

However, Victor paid special attention to two non medicinal plants.

Qianqu reed is a kind of vegetative plant. It is widely distributed. Its roots and seeds are edible. It is the staple food of capybara. The shape and seeds of qianqu reed are similar to sorghum. It can be cooked twice a year and can be used as human food.

Blue taro, an extremely delicious food material, is very rare. It only grows in the soil of swamp islands. It is a rare food material that must be collected by Alchemy militia.

Since the alchemist respected the blue taro so much, Victor was also interested in trying this delicious food.

In addition, jack also found a special mineral. He repeatedly asked Victor to issue mining orders. That's Saron magic iron ore.

Sarong magic iron mine is very rare. It can refine sarong steel. It is a kind of material of the alchemical empire.

At first, the alchemy militia found the fragments of the giant one handed Rune sword made of sarong steel in the dark forest, which inferred that there were relics of the alchemy Empire nearby. Alchemists do not understand the characteristics and uses of sarong steel, but in their will side, sarong magic iron is a material that must be collected. If, according to the general practice of the alchemical Empire, Victor allowed the alchemists to collect resources freely. Mining sarongmo iron ore is the top priority task of the alchemist militia.

Victor was certainly interested in the materials valued by the alchemy empire. However, the Saron magic iron vein discovered by Jack is located near the ogre's nest. Only a small section is on the surface, and the rest goes deep into the pond. It is not generally difficult to mine. Victor is temporarily unable to mine sarongmo iron ore.

When Jack finished describing the process of catching the wizard, Victor couldn't help jumping up.

"The one named imosen is a wild mage? Second only to an alchemist? Under the jurisdiction of the mage agreement? What the hell is the mage association?"

Jack said respectfully, "Sir, your excellency imosen is indeed a mage and is under the jurisdiction of the mage Association. I have no information about the mage association or ghosts."

Victor shouted angrily, "you never told me that a wizard is a mage of the alchemy empire!"

"Your Excellency, you never asked. I didn't know that mages were called wizards in this era."

Victor pondered silently. The title of the alchemist militia to the wizard made him have a lot of conjectures.

Jack claims that alchemists are above mages. Suppose that the peak knight is an alchemist. In the age of the alchemy Empire, knights were higher than wizards. In the era of the chosen one, the status of both sides was reversed, and the knight became the servant and assistant of the wizard. After the rise of the glorious church, wizards became street mice that everyone shouted and beat.

What is the reason for this upheaval?

The alchemist lost his power, and the mage took advantage of it? What role did wizards play in the destruction of the alchemy Empire? Did wizards unite with demons to overthrow the rule of alchemists? Why didn't the wizard kill all the Knights' blood and protect them in the era of God chosen?

The candle burst and the erratic light in the room interrupted Victor's thoughts.

Victor turned his eyes to Jack and asked, "did you just say that imosen can communicate with lizard people?"

"Yes, my Lord."

"I see. You go down first."

Jack bowed down and left. Victor went to the window and looked up at the silver moon in the sky. A bold idea came into his mind.

Victor came to the mountain fortress this time and planned to secretly execute the wizard father and daughter.

Witchcraft is strange and unpredictable. It is impossible to prevent and frightening. God knows if the Emerson wizard has any means of counterattack, not to mention that he has discovered the secret of the mountain fortress. Victor didn't want to joke about his life, let alone get into trouble, so he killed it to save trouble.

However, imosen's ability to understand language changed Victor's mind and saved their father and daughter's lives.

If you can trade with lizards, you can take a little risk!