Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 38 Refugees in the Northern Wasteland

The wasteland north of the Divine Ridge Mountains.

The most difficult days are when the snow is about to melt.

Without any harvest and relying solely on pre-winter reserves, getting through the entire long and cold winter is an extremely difficult time for most races living in the northern wilderness.

Early spring brings not only continuous cold rain, but also cold, hunger and death.

But "Shorty" Vaughan felt that this winter was different from any previous winter. He believed that he had something more precious - freedom.

Vaughn is a half-orc, a lowly race born from the crossbreeding of humans who were abducted to the wilderness by demons and evil orcs and other alien races.

Most of the time, inferior creatures like him were called "short-lived people", meaning that from birth to adulthood, they could only survive past the age of sixteen, and could not even wait to give birth to offspring.

Either they die in the war call of the demons and are driven to the front line to fight against humans to fill the gap.

Or they would be tied up with ropes and thrown into the mines of the evil orc tribe to work themselves to death.

Vaughn felt that all his luck in this life was used up on this trip he made as he followed the evil orc tribe south to plunder.

They were whipped and driven all the way from the freezing ice field to the warmer temperature near the Shenji Mountains. They were arranged by the tribe to cut wood, burn mud, build kilns and cook in the camp.

Vaughn was extremely sure that he could survive this winter because he didn't have to cross the Divine Ridge Mountains to enter the human kingdom and fight head-on with those human wizards who threw terrible fireballs and ice blades from their hands at any time.

This luck lasted until a month ago, when the evil orcs captured a group of human slaves and brought them back to the camp.

They were handed over to the orc laborers led by Vaughn for their care. These humans were not only slaves that could be used to exchange supplies with the demons, but also fresh rations for the journey back to the ice field.

Vaughn did not treat these slaves as badly as the others. Unlike other orcs, he had seen his mother and knew clearly that half of the blood flowing in his body was the same as these humans.

The news of the demons' sudden invasion of the royal court of the evil orc tribe came from the ice field. The small tribe that Vaughn belonged to had not yet gained a foothold and hurried back.

In order to avoid being a burden on the return journey, they arbitrarily killed some slaves locked in wooden cages, and then quickly evacuated the camp with a large group of people.

The orc laborers followed suit, except for Vaughn.

He was holding a child who had just lost his mother, hiding in the corner of the cage, with several corpses on his body, and avoiding the javelins and wooden spikes that the evil orcs randomly stabbed into the cage.

The child was so frightened that it took him a while to recover. He tore a piece of cloth from the dead body and used it to bandage the puncture wound on Vaughan's calf.

"Shh! Sam, be gentle. There may be some evil orcs around here who haven't left yet." Vaughn frowned with an ugly and terrifying beast face, bared his fangs, and tried to comfort the trembling child.

The child named Sam stopped sobbing instantly. He had been captured for nearly half a month and was already very familiar with the scary-looking brother Vaughn.

He liked to secretly put a few slices of burnt cassava into the wooden cages of every child during his night patrols.

Brother Vaughn is an ugly...good guy.

A low groan came from the cage next to him, and Vaughn was cheered up. There were still survivors.

He stuffed Sam back into the pile of corpses to hide him, then dragged his bloody injured leg out of the open cage and groped his way towards the groaning sound.

There were two injured people. One of them had a javelin piercing his shoulder. Blood was flowing from his chest to his waist, and half of his body was covered in blood.

The other person was not so lucky. His stomach was punctured, and his white intestines could be vaguely seen through the huge open wound. He was probably not going to survive.

The entire camp was silent in the night, with only a few campfires still burning. The evil orcs left in such a hurry that they did not have time to kill all the captured human slaves.

Vaughn dragged the two wounded out of the pile of dead bodies, tied the wound of the one with serious abdominal injuries tightly with a piece of cloth, and continued to check the remaining cages.

"Vaughn? You weren't taken away? Oh my God!" Another hideous-looking orc emerged from the bushes, almost scaring Vaughn to death.

"Dav, why were you left behind too?" He recognized that this was another coolie working in the same team as him, a member of the same tribe and of similar age.

"They thought I was slow, so they kicked me into the river. I can swim, haha."

He hunched over and approached, helping Vaughn drag the surviving human casualties out of the pile of corpses and perform simple bandage treatment on them.

"Leave these slaves behind and let's run away, Vaughn."

The orc hesitated, scratched his sparse hair, and muttered, "But they are all injured. I'm afraid they won't be able to make it back home."

Dave frowned and couldn't help but sneered. "Do you still want to send them back? I'm afraid those human guards will shoot us to death as soon as we reach the border."

He pointed at his own face, then at Vaughn's protruding fangs, "Don't forget who we are. We are not human, nor are we of the same race as them."

"I... I'm in so much pain... I'm so cold..." The injured person who had just been dragged out was groaning in confusion. There was a long wound on the side of his waist, and blood was slowly oozing out from under the bandage.

Vaughn tied the strips tighter, looked around at the dozen or so wounded lying on the ground, and gritted his teeth and said, "At least save them first. We can't leave them here to die!"

"We also have half human blood in our bodies, so they are half of our kind."

...Duff was finally persuaded by Vaughn, and the two of them simply dealt with the wounded they rescued. Sam, with a face full of snot and tears but unharmed, began to collect supplies and food that could be used to rescue the wounded from the abandoned camp of the evil orcs.

The weather is too cold, and there might be a freezing rain in the second half of the night. If these people are left in the open space, they will definitely freeze to death. Even if not, their wounds will quickly worsen after being soaked in water, which is much more painful than freezing to death.

Fortunately, they found a cowhide tent that had not been taken away in time. Although it had several holes, Sam stuffed the gaps with hay, and it could barely keep out the wind and rain.

After dragging a dozen injured people into the tent and lighting a fire to keep them warm, they finally managed to settle down temporarily.

"The meat they hunted a few days ago was taken away..." Duff searched the entire camp and only found a few wilted cassavas roasting by the fire.

Vaughn said nothing as he took off his leggings that were stained with mud and found that the wound was red, swollen and white.

"I'm going to get some water from the river. You and Sam, stay here and don't leave."

He also wanted to take this opportunity to sort out his confused thoughts. Being missed by the evil orcs and not brought back to the ice field was indeed not a bad thing, but he did not really have a good place to choose. Following this group of survivors back to the human kingdom to live was something he dared not even think about.

Maybe staying in this warm area close to the south is also a good choice. He and Duff are both good hunters.

Unfortunately, the expected peace did not last more than a quarter of an hour.

When Vaughn returned to the camp carrying the chipped pottery jar, he found that there was an extra person by the campfire.

Duff, who was originally standing still, was stepped on the chest by this man and pressed to the ground, unable to move.

Sam was so frightened that he was trembling, but he didn't dare to cry out loudly. He huddled in the tent where the injured were staying, only sticking his head out.

"Who are you?" Vaughn dropped the pottery jar and took out a bone spear discarded by the evil orcs from his waist.

……

Pierce was wearing a short hunting suit and a dark windbreaker cape, with a pale, thin face visible under the hood.

He was attracted to this area by a strong smell of blood.

Staring at the guy in front of him who was holding a short spear in both hands and speaking in a trembling and stuttering voice, the hunter felt a little confused.

"Huh? An evil beastman who can speak human language?"

"No, no, Brother Vaughn is not an evil orc!" Sam poked his head out of the tent and whispered.

The man who came was obviously a human and looked very powerful, otherwise he would not have kicked down the strong and sturdy Brother Dave with one kick. Sam was afraid that he would get impulsive and kill them both on the spot as evil orcs.

"I...we are half...half-orcs...cough cough..." Dave, whose chest was stepped on, tried to argue.

Pierce frowned slightly, then he remembered that Mr. Asdalen had mentioned to him before that there were indeed some half-human, half-beast hybrid races living in the northern wilderness, and they should be the two ugly guys with animal heads and human bodies in front of him.

He loosened his foot, freeing Duff, who was almost out of breath.

"What happened here? I smell human blood. Did you kill someone?" The hunter narrowed his eyes, a cold expression on his pale face.

"It's not us, it's the evil orcs. The evil orcs returned to the ice field and couldn't take these human slaves with them, so they started killing people..." Vaughn explained hurriedly.

Pierce reached out and pulled out the long sword hidden under his cloak, and lifted the curtain of the tattered tent in front of him.

Sure enough, there were a dozen injured people dressed as poor people crammed in there. The strong smell of blood filled his nose, making his throat roll up and down slightly.

Pierce closed his eyes, suppressed the desire that made him uncomfortable, took out a small glass bottle from his arms, and threw it to Vaughn.

"It can quickly stop bleeding and relieve pain, and temporarily boost energy. One drop per person, and no more than three drops for the dying."

The orc was stunned for a few seconds before he reacted, nodded gratefully, and rushed into the tent, clutching the bottle tightly.

Pierce looked up at the sky. If they set out at dawn, they could bring these survivors back to Lord Harvey's new territory before sunset tomorrow. It would be better to let Lord Harvey decide whether to stay or go.

Better than being left out in the wilderness in the freezing rain, where they would surely die.

While waiting for the two orcs to feed the wounded, Pierce couldn't help but follow the smell to the cages filled with the dead.

Sam hid not far away and watched secretly, and found that this mysterious kind-hearted man stayed beside the pool of blood and seemed to be hesitating about something.

Finally, he seemed unable to bear it any longer. He squatted down and put his head close to the neck of a dead person, as if he was going to bite it.

Then he stood up with a conflicted look on his face, took out a clean handkerchief from his arms, dipped it in the pool of blood to soak it, then brought the handkerchief close to his mouth, tilted his head back and gently twisted the handkerchief, squeezing out a little blood and dripping it into his mouth.

Sam was so scared that he immediately covered his mouth to prevent himself from screaming.

He discovered that the mysterious man, who was sipping the blood of the dead with his head tilted back, had two extremely sharp fangs in his slightly open mouth.

(End of this chapter)