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This ogre's cannon is 50 meters long and weighs 300 kilograms. The barrel is extremely thick and heavy, with a caliber of about 200 mm. A bag of shotgun shells mixed with iron sheets, iron sand, lead bullets, etc. weighs grams. It takes more than grams of black gunpowder to fire each shot.

This is much larger than his 19mm Ottoman matchlock gun. One of his lead bullets weighs only 30 grams and requires 20 grams of gunpowder to propel it. One shot can consume a Grosso silver coin, a meal for five people. One shot from this lead-spraying cannon will consume at least ten silver coins, enough to stay in a hotel for ten days. It's really expensive.

Aenarion lamented the expense of firearms. Such a small cannon cost so much to fire one shot. Theoretically, if this cannon can fire shotgun shells, it can also fire ordinary shells. However, the hit rate of firearms is terrible. The agility of this ogre is still negative, and there is no [Triumph] to improve the hit rate. It may not be able to hit people with ordinary shells, so he gave up and decided to fire shotgun shells. The closer the distance, the better. At least he can hit people.

After solving the artillery problem of the ogre zombies, Aenarion unfolded the warlock scroll. There was nothing special about the spellcasting skills, as he was a psychic spellcaster and did not need a matching set. He also did not need to choose a pet, as he had a stronger pet that he could contract.

But the super magic item must be learned.

The so-called super magic is to amplify and overload a spell to make it more powerful. There are a total of nine super magic techniques recorded here, and Aenarion began to learn three of them.

[Spell Delay]: Consumes an additional 2 mana points when casting, doubling the spell's duration.

[Spell Power]: Casting time

It also consumes 2 mana points to increase spell damage by 50%.

[Instant Spell]: Consumes an additional 4 mana points when casting a spell, allowing the spell to be cast instantly without chanting or reading a spell.

Aenarion was eagerly learning knowledge. The pressure of survival forced him to become stronger and stronger. He didn't even pay attention to the appearance of the food sent by the Eastern Roman Empire. These super magic skills were powerful, but the consumption was also terrifying.

I only have 15 mana points as a level 3 warlock. A second-ring magic consumes points, and additional mana is consumed to cast super magic skills. I can only cast two or three spells a day. Even after learning them, I have to use them sparingly.

Chapter 45: Horrible Beast

The next day, when Aenarion awoke, his depleted mana had been restored to full, and the four men's horses were well fed with hay and soybeans, full of energy. They bid farewell to the young and naive Thomas and his mature and beautiful wife, and headed towards Athens along the eastern road.

Before leaving, Thomas gave Inarion another dimensional bag, which looked exactly like the one on his waist, but had a larger memory space than the one Mariana gave him. It could be used to carry ogre zombies. This thing was too big and too heavy. Only the zombie beasts raised by the ogres could carry these fat and strong men who were more than three meters tall and weighed more than three hundred kilograms. Even the best horses would be crushed by them.

The space inside the dimensional bag is cold, solidified, and has no air. If you put a living creature in it, it will suffocate to death, but it doesn't matter if you put zombies in it because they don't need to breathe anyway.

According to Thomas, monsters used the road connecting Mystras and Athens as their hunting territory, attacking passing caravans and passers-by. He sent out twenty soldiers to patrol the area, looking for and eliminating monsters invading the road. As long as they found them and showed the letters they wrote, the soldiers would send them to Athens and then come back to carry out their mission.

Aenarion opened the warlock scroll and learned how to use metamagic even while riding on horseback. This thing was indeed difficult to learn and could not be mastered overnight, but his riding skills became more and more sophisticated. With the cooperation of the high-bridge saddle and stirrups, he could even take his hands off the reins and the steering wheel.

Several people walked on the road for half a day, and when the sun was shining brightly at noon, a faint smell of blood came from the air. The five people suddenly became alert, tightened the reins, slowed down the horses, and walked forward carefully. After turning around the foot of a mountain, a bloody and cruel picture was suddenly exposed in front of everyone.

The dark red coagulated blood turned into winding streams, flowing slowly on the ground, becoming more and more condensed. Fragments of armor and clothing, mixed with tiny pieces of meat, were scattered everywhere. Dozens of bloodstained bows and spears lay in disarray on the ground. It was obvious that there had been a bloody battle here, but there was not a single corpse at the scene.

"I guess some powerful monster took this road as its hunting ground. It killed everyone and brought all the bodies back to its lair, storing them as food, but weapons and other things were scattered all over the ground."

Artemisia said with a cold expression.

"This road is unsafe. Where are the guards Thomas promised?"

Indrognir jumped off his horse with a solemn expression. Among the pieces of clothing, he found the double-headed eagle emblem of the Eastern Roman Empire. These people were soldiers of the empire! She counted the number of spears and bows and arrows, eighteen, nineteen, twenty... Exactly twenty, which matched the number of guards her brother had mentioned.

Was it Thomas' hunting team that was wiped out here?

"What kind of monster can defeat a team of twenty people? If I remember correctly, the Eastern Roman soldier must be at least a level one warrior. Twenty level one warriors were slaughtered here, and not even one person who reported the news could escape???"

Indrognir was shocked, then picked up some torn clothes and armor, trying to identify what attacked him from clues.

"The clothes were torn apart by something sharp, and the monster that attacked them had claws as sharp as razors.

These armor plates and clothes have traces of burning, which means the enemy will use fire.

Hey, you see, this piece of armor has been completely deformed, with the center concave inward. This is a mark formed by a violent stabbing with something like a spear or a sword tip. The claws of a wild beast cannot produce this kind of effect. It should be something like a horn.

Look at the teeth marks on this piece of leather clothing. There are almost no bite marks of molars. They are all penetration marks of saber teeth. They are the bite marks of a cat monster, a cat monster with horns and can breathe fire. "

Indragnir made a simple summary.

"You know a lot, little girl."

Artemisia observed the footprints on the ground. Most of them were traces of Greek sandals, with some hoof prints and huge cat paw prints mixed in. However, they were very messy and fragmentary, and it was impossible to piece together a complete trajectory of movement. The hoof prints were probably from livestock such as cattle and horses, and the cat paw prints were probably the traces left by monsters.

"We should be the first group to arrive at the scene. No one destroyed the traces at the scene, but the claw marks of the big cat are not continuous. There is not even a continuous claw mark that spreads to the mountains on both sides of the road. The cat should be able to fly. The one who marked this place as a hunting territory is a flying big cat with horns and the ability to breathe fire."

Several people pieced together the clues, but were confused. What kind of cat is this? It can fly, has horns, breathes fire, and is a big cat?

What monster?

Moreover, all the guards Thomas provided were wiped out. The danger on this road is much greater than he imagined. Should he continue to move forward?

"The distance from Sparta to Athens is about 240 kilometers, but most of the roads are mountainous and very rugged. We spent half a day and only walked 30 kilometers. We should be able to walk another 30 kilometers before the sun sets. We should be able to leave the monster's hunting grounds. What's more, this monster has obtained the meat reserves of more than 20 adult elves during this hunt, which is enough for him to eat for a long time. He should not come out hunting again in the short term.

Even if he shows up, we are not some level one noobs, and it is still uncertain who will be the winner! Keep moving forward, and if you meet passers-by, ask them to tell the tyrant that all his people died here. "

Artemisia made a quick judgment, and Indrognir gritted his teeth and chose to agree. The few of them packed up the undamaged bows and spears and took them away. They rode on horseback and ate a cold lunch consisting of bread, dried meat, raisins, cheese and other portable food. After walking for another half a day on the rugged mountain road, they saw faint smoke from cooking.

Under the protection of a two-meter-high wooden wall and four simple watchtowers, a heavily guarded hotel stands on the side of the avenue. This road connecting Sparta and Athens has been built for a thousand years. The elves had long calculated where they would probably travel to at night after starting from Mystras during the day, and built hotels for rest in the corresponding places to earn silver coins from passing travelers.

The group asked the gate to be opened, told the hotel staff about the tragedy on the road, and asked them to send someone to inform the tyrant Thomas, and then they prepared to spend the night there.

Aenarion took out high-calorie, high-protein oats, soybeans, and sugar cubes from his dimensional bag and fed them to the horses that had been running all day. In order to keep the horses energetic, they had to eat better food than ordinary people. The few of them spent a silver coin and ordered a plate of local specialty citrus fruits, and then ordered a roasted chicken, two mackerels, a large plate of smoked sausages, olive beans, chickpeas and other vegetarian dishes. They had cold snacks at noon and some hot meals at night to comfort their stomachs.

The meal was served about half an hour later. While they were eating, another group of people entered the hotel. It looked like a caravan. More than a dozen carriages covered with canvas, loaded with goods, drove into the courtyard. Most of the members were humans. On the white robes of some elite warriors, a scarlet iris was embroidered, which was the symbol of the Florentine Commercial Republic.

The Ottomans occupied the former lands of the Eastern Roman Empire, while Venice, Genoa, and Florence, the three giants of northern Italy, divided up the former oceans of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The two gangs had no interaction at first, but when Aenarion and his companions finished their meal and were about to return to their rooms to rest, suddenly from the sky came the roar of a dragon, the roar of a lion, and the neighing of a goat. The triple roar, mixed with the terrified neighing of war horses outside and the panicked screams of people, intertwined into a chaotic song.

Aenarion frowned, worried about the loss of his horse, so he grabbed his musket and rushed out. He looked up and saw the creature that made the three strange noises: it was a huge monster about four or five meters long, with the front half of a golden lion and the back half of a black giant sheep strangely sewn together, and the golden and black hair were clearly layered.

This monster has three heads. The middle one is a golden lion's head with fluffy and flowing mane that is particularly eye-catching. On the left is a black goat's head with huge horns covered with dark brown blood of prey. On the right is a red dragon's skull covered with scarlet scales, and its fangs are wrapped with burning dragon fire.

A pair of huge red dragon wings stretch out from its sturdy and strong shoulders, allowing it to fly freely in the sky. The tail on the hind half of the goat's body is also a red dragon's tail covered with dragon scales, as if someone combined the most terrifying parts of a real dragon, a lion, and a goat to create a twisted nightmare.

A flying, horned, fire-breathing big cat, it turns out the creature that attacked the business route was a Chimera!

Chapter 46: Lion Pride Inheritance

"Oh my God! Something must have happened in the mountain! We just dealt with a wyvern a few days ago, and now there's a chimera. Are these monsters escaping from the mountain in groups? Fight off this monster!"

Several guards standing on the makeshift arrow towers cried out in surprise. They bent their bows and drew their arrows. White feather arrows whizzed into the sky. The three chimeras let out three inhuman roars, and their wings covered with dragon scales shrank and spread out, like two huge shields, covering their bodies and easily deflecting and blocking all the arrows.

After stopping flapping his wings, his huge body, under the influence of inertia and gravity, swooped down from the sky like a gorgeous meteor with gold, red and black colors interwoven, and hit a wooden arrow tower with precision. With a loud bang, the simple tower was smashed into pieces, and pieces of broken wood spun, flew, and splashed in all directions. The horn of the goat's head on the left side, like a slender lance, used the force of the charge to directly penetrate the body of the arrow tower guard and assassinate him on the spot!

The Chimera let out a bloodthirsty roar and flapped its wings to raise its flying altitude. The red dragon's head on the right spewed out a crimson dragon flame, which ignited the second high tower next to it, forcing the guard to jump off the building to escape, but he ended up breaking a leg and sat on the ground wailing miserably.

At this moment, the Florentines could no longer sit still. The hotel was destroyed and the goods they were transporting would also be in danger. The caravan guards joined the battlefield one after another.

Several mercenaries took out the best pulley crossbows on the market, and two of them even took out two muskets, and fired at the Chimera.

The powerful steel-arm pulley crossbow could penetrate even cheaper iron armor at a short distance, not to mention the fur of wild beasts. Most of the crossbow arrows hit empty space, but those that hit the target were all pierced into the dragon scales and wing membranes. Some red scale fragments fell to the ground along with the miserable blood.

"Stop it! You have successfully hurt this monster, and you have proved that you are not someone to be trifled with. Look! He is circling in the sky without diving, which means that he is very hesitant. He is turning around and leaving, and fighting to the death. If you don't want to cause more casualties, throw a horse to him. He will fly away directly if he has food!"

Indrognir also heard the noise and ran out, standing beside Aenarion and speaking to the caravan guards.

"How do you know with your long ears? What if you give him the horse and he continues to attack from the east, west, and the group of lands? "

The mercenaries nervously loaded gunpowder, pulled the crossbow strings, and roared at the elves in dissatisfaction.

“First, the behavioral logic of monsters and other predatory beasts is the same. What they pursue is not simply killing prey, but efficient and injury-free hunting success.

Because once a predator is injured in the wild, even if the wound does not become infected, it will be weak for a period of time and unable to catch other prey. As a result, it will become even weaker due to hunger, and this vicious cycle will continue until death. It may even be discovered, attacked, and killed directly by other predators because of the bloody smell of the wound. "

Indrognir looked at these mercenaries in confusion, as if he was looking at a group of fools. These basic knowledge were taught by their parents in their childhood. Didn’t your parents teach you these?

"Do you understand? Even if a group of Chimeras are injured, their companions will take care of them, but this Chimera acts alone! It is easier to die if no one takes care of it after being injured. After being injured by you, he circled in the sky for so many times, which means he has already retreated. The fact that he didn't leave only means that he is very hungry now. Giving him some food can avoid a bloody battle!"

"How do you know? Maybe he has other chimeras at home who can take care of him!"

An Italian mercenary still didn't believe it.

Seeing that the Italians were still skeptical, Indrognir sighed and continued to explain using his knowledge of the Eastern Roman Empire's royal family.

"The habits of Chimaira are somewhat similar to those of lions. A group consists of a male leader, a group of female harems, and the cubs they give birth to. When the females grow up, they will stay in the Chimaira group and become one of their father's harems, giving birth to more cubs. But when the males grow up, they will be immediately driven away. A group can only have one adult male Chimaira, who will reproduce with all the females in the group. In this way, he can believe that the newly born cubs are all his own.

These male Chimeras that were driven out would go back to other tribes to challenge the leaders, or even their own fathers. If they failed, they would be beaten and run away. If they succeeded, they would become the new leader, inherit all the harem of the old leader, possess their own mother, aunts, sisters, and younger sisters, bite all the old leader's cubs to death, start a new round of reproduction with all the females, and become the new king of the tribe.

Generally speaking, female lions hunt in groups. Even if the male leader participates in the hunt, he will not do it alone.

Look at his lush golden mane. He is a male lion, and he is alone. He was either driven out by his father when he just reached adulthood, or driven out of the tribe by other males. All his harem was taken away by others, and he is wandering alone. That's why he is so hungry, really! Just give him something to eat, there is no need to fight him to death!"

The mercenaries looked at each other in bewilderment. They half believed what Pointed Ear said, but they were still reluctant to part with it. The worst horse was worth one hundred Grosso silver coins.

But the next second, the monster swooped down again, and its wings protected its three heads and body like a shield. It withstood the second round of crossbow arrows and musket fire from the caravan guards and came within the range of the dragon's breath. The raging dragon flames fell from the sky like scarlet raindrops, and the six or seven guards burned by the rolling dragon fire screamed in pain. Some crossbow strings were burned by the flames and could no longer be used.

The two musketeers who were loading black powder were even more unlucky. The black powder in their hands was directly ignited by the dragon flame and exploded in front of them! Five or six fingers were blown off, dragging long lines of blood, and fell to the ground helplessly.

After the Chimera spewed out a round of dragon flames, it spread its wings again and swept over their heads like a hurricane. Its three heads and a pair of lion claws hit the bodies of the five mercenaries at the same time, sending them flying like pieces of paper!

The average weight of a monster like the Chimera is close to two tons. The consequence of being hit by a dive from this behemoth is almost like being hit head-on by a car traveling at sixty miles per hour.

"Listen to that girl and give this chimera a horse! Just treat it as a passing tax!"

An Italian dressed in silk and satin had a gloomy face. The guards put out fires and rescued people. Several people quickly picked a horse, put it on the open space outside the hotel, broke its legs, and let its shrill wails attract the attention of the Chimera. Others stepped back, holding their weapons vigilantly, looking at the monster hovering in the air.

The three heads of Chimera looked puzzled and retreated. They only weighed 70 or 80 kilograms, but they were still very powerful.

Looking at the skinny humans who were not easy to mess with, armed with crossbows and muskets, and then at the sturdy horses that weighed about five or six hundred kilograms, had no means of protection, had broken legs and could not run, six eyeballs of different colors and sizes rolled around and immediately made a choice.

He retracted his wings again, swooped down from the sky, and bit the horse's neck. The four slender and sharp swords like daggers easily pierced the skin and punctured the arteries, taking the opponent's life. He grabbed the horse's body tightly with a pair of lion claws, flapped his wings and rose into the air again, and flew into the distance with the horse in his arms in the flying dust.

Seeing that the monster ran away, the innkeepers and merchants breathed a sigh of relief and began to clean up the mess caused by the Chimaera. Aenarion and Indragnir returned to the dining table to eat, and the human man dressed in silk and satin also came over.

"Thank you for your reminder just now. Otherwise, my caravan and I would have to fight this powerful Chimera and both of us would suffer heavy losses."

The man spoke politely, with a pair of emerald green eyes full of kindness under his golden hair and fair face. Not everyone can know the knowledge of powerful monsters like Chimera. Ordinary people don't even have the qualifications to record the information of these three-headed beasts. They will be crushed into meat paste like ants when they meet them. However, she easily told the ecological habits of this monster in great detail. He had never heard of this in all his years of traveling in Europe.

This is not something that ordinary people, or even low-level professionals, can know.

Although I don’t know who she is, this girl must be from a prominent family.

"Let me introduce myself. I am Rosari Medici from Florence. This avenue connects the two great cities of Mystras and Athens. Where are you going?"

"We're going to Athens."

After what she had gone through along the way, the little princess had become more alert. She did not introduce herself, but still answered the group's whereabouts. Except for the maid Irene, the other five people present had hidden the information for various reasons, so they could not see it.

"Great, we are going to Athens too. We still have more than a hundred kilometers to go before we can get out of the mountains of Peloponnese and leave the hunting range of the beasts in these mountains. You have also seen how powerful those monsters are. Some people in my caravan were injured just now, and the escort force is a bit insufficient."

Rosari extended her hand to everyone in a friendly manner.

"I want to temporarily hire you to fight for me. Although you have concealed your information, the exquisite weapons and magic equipment on your body cannot be concealed. I guess you should all be second or third level professionals? I am willing to hire you at the price of 6 silver coins a day. Anyway, you are on the way, so I can make a little extra money. How do you think?"

PS: 10,000 words updated! Please give me a monthly ticket~

Chapter 47: Caledor and Safri

The five of them exchanged glances, thought about the 20-man patrol that was wiped out, and decided to go together for safety reasons. They rested in the hotel for one night and set out on their journey again early the next morning.

This Florentine caravan was quite large, with a total of twenty carriages, each pulled by two pack horses or donkeys or mules. In front of the carriages sat a coachman and a crossbowman, both of whom were equipped with various pieces of Italian plate armor. Some had only a breastplate, some also wore arm armor and shoulder armor, and some even had plate armor covering their entire bodies. Their weapons included pulley crossbows, long swords, and shields.

In addition, there were Rosari and twenty mounted mercenaries who were engaged in mobile operations, with some spare horses mixed in. The equipment of these mounted guards was not much different from that of the duo on the carriage, except that they had an extra spear. Only Rosari was not wearing any armor.

However, this staffing arrangement was made before the Chimaera attack. In a raid yesterday, twelve people in the team of sixty were injured. Rosari Medici had no choice but to assign six people to take care of them. The combat effectiveness was suddenly reduced by eighteen people. Some carriages even had only one driver, and even crossbowmen could not be assigned.

Even the twenty people on horseback patrol were reduced to twelve, which was really stretched. Fortunately, with the addition of Aenarion and his five men, it was barely enough.

Rosari did not give them the most difficult and dangerous position, but let the five of them guard the right side of the caravan and perform support tasks at the same time.

He carefully selected the four strongest mercenaries to serve as scouts in the front, and the four most trusted mercenaries to guard the rear. He himself led the other four mercenaries to guard on the left, and the seventeen mobile cavalrymen protected the twenty heavy carriages in the middle. They set out towards Athens in a mighty manner, hoping that there would be no accidents along the way.

Aenarion continued to learn super magic skills on horseback, while being vigilant against these strange merchants. At the end of the day, the caravan arrived at the next inn on the road safely. At this moment, they had walked more than 120 kilometers. If they walked for another day tomorrow, they would be able to cross the mountains of the Peloponnese and reach Corinth. After another day of walking, they would reach Athens.

"This is your reward, take it."

Rosari took out thirty silver coins and divided them among the five men. Aenarion happily threw them into his purse and counted the 2,391 silver coins in his pocket. This amount of money was enough for an ordinary farmer to live a stable life, but for a professional selected from a hundred or a spellcaster selected from ten thousand, it was just mediocre. It was just enough for the Ogre Lead Spitter to fire the Lead Spitter Cannon more than two hundred times.

The next morning, the group continued their journey. The towering mountains on both sides of the road gradually became smaller, and a faint sound of

The breath of sea breeze is about to leave the Peloponnese Peninsula, pass through the Isthmus of Corinth, and enter the sphere of influence of Athens.

Aenarion was curious. As two of the protagonists of the ancient Greek era, he had seen Sparta. It had long been dilapidated and withered, and even its status had been replaced by the new city of Mystras.

However, Athens never declined, and until the time when I lived in it, it was still one of the top ten metropolises in Europe. What would this city look like here?

"Forget it. There's nothing to see in Athens."

Indrognir saw through Aenarion's thoughts and proudly showed off the knowledge he had learned in the palace.

“Athens and Sparta were the brightest stars in ancient Greece. Sparta was also known as Caledo, the city of dragons and warriors, and Athens’ alias was Saphorae, the city of magic and knowledge.

The most worth seeing thing there is the White Tower of Horth, which stores a large amount of magical knowledge, as well as the Magic Swordsmen of Horth and the Swordmasters of Horth. However, in the fourth century AD, on the day when Constantinople was built, the entire White Tower was moved from Athens to Constantinople by the elven wizards, and all the Magic Swordsmen of Horth and the Swordmasters of Horth were moved to the City of World Desire.

My hometown has long replaced Athens as the capital of magic and knowledge. Although they later built a second White Tower of Hosea here, it was just a poor imitation of the original. We can see better ones in Constantinople."

"Alright."

Aenarion nodded, and at that moment, the emerald green forest on the right, formed by the interweaving of Greek fir and olive trees, suddenly rolled up gusts of storms. Thousands of green leaves danced wildly in the cold wind, like huge green waves, surging in the mountains and woods!

The deafening sound of the dancing leaves echoed back and forth in the deep and dark forest, making everyone's heart beat faster and their hair stand on end!

There's something hiding in the woods to the left, and it's huge!