Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 36: Perfect Excuses

When Verricolo heard the gunshots coming from the site, he was picking up two killed antelopes by a creek off a cliff, one of the most common wild antelopes in the three south-western provinces, and enjoyed climbing walls to collect moss and leaves from the rock walls, while effectively avoiding the capture of natural enemies. Because many meat-eating beasts do not have rock climbing skills, they can only drool and watch those delicious foods sway around the rocky walls in the middle of the sky...

It's just that these antelopes didn't expect the beasts to climb the rock walls, but someone could shoot them off the rock walls. For Velikro, these antelopes are the best targets, and even if the three of them were close to the cliff, the antelopes would not panic. Perhaps there are many beasts who once tried to kill them, but who fell from the walls of the rocks and learned a lesson that convinced them that their enemies could not climb the cliffs and posed little threat to them.

Vericulo raised his gun, aimed, fired, and a mountain antelope rolled down the cliff. But the rest of the antelope are not aware of the danger. The sound of gunfire is more like thunder in the ears of these antelopes, and the fall of partners is likely to be perceived as a failure by other antelopes. So the rest of the antelope just stopped eating, and the anxious “what” screamed, looking up and looking, and paying more attention to where they were going.

The three of them saw the other antelope not run, overjoyed, worked harder to clear the barrel, pour the medicine, plug the gun, circle the fire rope, ignite, continue to point the gun...

Another roar, another antelope rolled down from the air. Only then did the surviving antelope discover that the real threat came from the three two-legged beasts below, holding a strange stick, and every time a thunderbolt of white smoke erupted, one of their partners fell off the cliff... Soon the remaining antelope jumped on the cliff as flat, and soon all disappeared on the other side of the cliff...

The three Velikro men regained their shot at the rope before searching for their prey, because no one dared to guarantee that other predators would be ambushed next to them in preparation for the hunt for the antelope, so that they would most likely encounter the beast sometime while picking up their prey. Bock Al's crossbow and Alexon's hunting bow alone would not guarantee everyone's safety.

Luckily, no beast was encountered, and Vericulo said that the most dangerous beast in White Heron was the leopard, the king of the mountain forest. Every leopard has a calf size, unusually alert and agile, and no experienced hunter would confront a leopard without preparation, which is a suicidal path.

The two antelopes that fell off the cliff were well searched for and fell on the slope below the cliff, not far from the three of them. It's just that Bok Al can't help complaining when he sees these two trophies.

Actually, both antelopes are fat, but Bok Al unfortunately has their fur. Rolling down the cliff and touching the hard rock, the fur of the two antelopes cut through many mouths and appeared to be a little broken.

Last time Verricolo went to that old Monk grocery store, he sold two old furs, which belonged to the antelope. But those two furs, though old, were intact, unlike the two newly captured antelopes, whose furs had been broken into pieces.

“This one can only sell up to two riasos, which is better, three riasos or so. All I'm saying is go to the old Monk grocery store and Wakuri might give us a price. If you get a Gilp fur shop, you might even refuse to buy it because it's damaged.” Bok Al was very knowledgeable and authenticated.

“Give me a hand, don't stand there talking nonsense," Erickson said unhappily. "The two of us lifted our heads, Vero took one, and went to the creek to peel first. Whatever the cost, the skin has to be peeled off. As for whether it was worth it or not, I doubt your eyes could see it at all. So close to the chicken, you couldn't even shoot it, and wasted that crossbow arrow...”

“You also said me, you are not the same yourself, two rabbits you can't even get a rabbit fur...” Bok Al said with disgust, but still picked up the antelope's front leg and walked with Alexon to a creek not far ahead.

“I'm not used to it, you know, it's a hunting bow, not a school practice bow, and I just got my hands on it and I haven't mastered the force yet. I would have hit those two rabbits if I had the short one at home.” Ericsson is making excuses for not being able to beat up two rabbits.

“Humph...” Bok Alu chuckled. “Your short one? That's it? You're going to climb over there and shove the short shots in the rabbit's ass, so don't talk about you, I can hit you too...”

The two men came to the creek with their mouths mixed, then watched Velikro peel down the antelope and continue the quarrel as they cautioned.

When Verricolo was unloading the antelope, he heard a gunshot coming from the site.

Vericulo stood up and said, "Did you hear the gunshots, too? ”

Bok Al nodded: "Yes, I heard gunshots. ”

Alexon was a little worried: "Is something wrong with Claude? ”

Vericulo swept through the wolves: "Bring the two antelope skins and the back legs of the four antelopes. We don't want anything else. Go back now. ”

It was not until more than 40 minutes after the shooting that the sweaty three drove back to the ruins of the Magic Tower and saw Claude lying in the open space in front of the ruins with mud on his eyes.

The three of them were a little scared. They couldn't take care of what was in their hands. As soon as they threw it, they ran to Claude and shouted: "Claude, Claude...”

But Claude, lying on the ground, raised his head and smiled reluctantly: "You're here... I'm fine... I'm just a little tired and tired...”

Vericulo rushed to the front of Claude, kneeling down, examined Claude's body carefully, didn't notice any trauma or anything, so he relieved himself, lifted Claude up and sat down, and asked seriously, “What's going on? Why are you so dirty and stinky..."

Claude stretched his finger to the ruins: “I went to the basement, where I killed a python. You guys go check it out and pull up the python's body...”

“Python?” Vericulo stood up: “Ike, Boa, let's go see...”

“Closest to the underground entrance on the edge of the cliff...” cried Claude.

In fact, he doesn't have to say that the trail of sludge on the ground alone shows which underground entrance Claude came from. Soon after, Bok Al ran back and said, "Oh, my God, Claude, you killed that big python all by yourself! You know, I just went down and saw the big python, and all three of us jumped so scared that it was still alive, Ike had to shoot Vero again to see if it was really dead...”

“Shooting?” Claude asked, "I didn't hear much gunfire just now, although it was on the basement floor, but I should have heard gunfire so close.

“No," Bok Al shook his head: “Vero said the python must be dead, otherwise there would be a little movement down there, and he went down the rope ladder all by himself. By the way, I came up to fetch some more firewood. Those piles of fire in there are about to go out...”

Bok Al rushed to get firewood again.

Another half hour or so later, Claude stood up, and the act could be here, even if it took so long to relax.

Walked down to the underground entrance and saw Vero's three men dragging the dead python up. Claude didn't feel much when he fought in the mud underground, but now he finds the python really big on the ground, his body almost four meters long looks very scary, and Claude couldn't help but be afraid.

If the python didn't bite the body of the gun and bit his face when it came, Claude's cold sweat would come out again. It's a moment of life and death...

“This python skin can sell at least three silver towers to the town.” Bok Al Tsk expressed his professional vision.

“It's not just the python skin. Don't forget that the python muscle of the python is more valuable.” Erickson added.

“Enough! Don't worry about the money!” Verricolo's face is dark: “I don't understand, Claude. Why are you going down to the basement? I told you, there's nothing else down there but sludge. You're lucky today. In case you have a bad idea, how do you let the three of us get back to your parents? ”

Bok Al and Eriksson reacted, and remembered what Verikero had said, and they were afraid. If Claude hadn't killed this python, they would have been afraid to imagine it.

“Sorry...” Claude said: "I just wanted to stand on the stone steps and threw a few torches down, and I found something in the sludge next to the stone staircase flashing gold under the light, so I made up a rope ladder and threw down those bunches of shrub branches again, I just wanted to see what the gold flashed, and I didn't think I would suddenly get attacked by this big python...”

“Did you find out what that golden glitter was?” Véricolo looked at Claude with suspicion, and in his view it was perhaps just Claude's wording, just to find a reason for his own adventure.

“I found this...” Claude reached into his pocket, took it out, opened it again, and a few glittering gold coins landed on the floor, making a crisp bang.

“Here, this is Sullivan!” Bok Al picked up a piece and shouted in surprise: “I'm not mistaken, it's a gold coin from 600 years ago. I've seen the image of it all over the house, a magician in a cloak. This gold coin was subsequently completely abolished after the establishment of the Amslan dynasty. Too bad it's not a Sullivan magic gold coin. ”

“I searched for half a day and only found these five.” Claude said, "It's all next to that stone staircase, and I wanted to expand it, and I ran into the python. ”

Verricolo's suspicions were over, because Claude couldn't have turned out to be several hundred years old gold coins, and it seemed like the situation, like he said, should have thrown the torch down and found something flashing in the sludge, so he threw those piles of shrub branches down, knitted the rope ladder, and the preparation was perfected, but I didn't think there was such a big python hidden on the basement floor, which was truly an unexpected situation.

Ericsson picked up four other Sullivan coins on the floor, and he didn't think as much: “Was it worth it? ”

“Worth nothing, I don't know.” This is actually supposed to be an antique gold coin, after all, at least 600 years old, "Bok Al said. But it is not an antique, because the image of this gold coin is an evil magician and is therefore forbidden to use in the countries of the Farea continent. However, banks are allowed to convert to generic coins based on their content. In our kingdom, I remember as if I could redeem two gold crowns, or ten silver tallers. ”

“Oh, Claude, you're rich.” Ericsson said with envy, "I didn't think you'd get the most out of this trip to White Eel. Not only did you kill such a big python, but you also found five gold coins. Here you go, this is yours. ”

Claude waved and didn't pick up the gold coin that Alexon handed over: “Leave it to Boa, let him keep it. Didn't we already have an agreement when we came here that all the gains would be shared equally? The five gold coins I found are no exception. ”

“But you killed this python by yourself, and you found the gold coin by yourself, and we didn't help at all...” said Burke Albin with a smile.

Claude smiled: "We were together, so we were together before we got home, just like the three of you went hunting and I was here alone, and you would give me a copy of the prey. And by the same token, if I don't kill this python, if there is one, you must carry that responsibility and go back to punishment. So, whether it's the python or the five gold coins, everybody's in it. Vero, you said it wasn't true. ”

“Kind of.” Vericulo's buzzing answer: “But there is a rule for hunting together, who gives more strength, who takes a large portion, who doesn't have the strength to take a small portion...”

“Okay, I'll take two of those five gold coins, one for each of you, and that's it. Vero, you take them to peel the python skin first, and we'll eat the roast python at night.” Claude made an unquestionable decision.