30 minutes had passed… The two were well on their way now going back to the castle. During the journey, Abel and Master Bentham were exchanging knowledge in their forging experiences with one another. But for most parts, Master Bentham was mainly teaching and mentoring Abel. Although Abel was a quick learner and had already become a blacksmith master, he was nowhere near as experienced as Master Bentham.
While they were chatting away, Abel suddenly felt that the carriage had come to a stop. So, He then lifted the curtain of the horse carriage and asked the driver, "What's wrong?"
The cart driver was in shocked as he spoke with a sense of astonishment, "Something seems odd with the village ahead. Maybe something had happened."
Abel then spoke directly to Master Bentham, "Master, you stay in the carriage while I go take a look at what's going on."
Master Bentham laughed and said. "I'm a level five fighter myself. You don't need to worry about me."
For someone who was only a level five fighter like Master Bentham, Abel was extremely skeptical about his capacity to fight. Even The Knight of Marshall himself had to keep training every single day to maintain his fighting ability. As for Master Bentham, Abel had never seen him practicing his fighting skills a single time, ever since the day they met.
But Abel did not insist on Master Bentham staying. As the two got out of the carriage, they immediately saw the distant village rising in clouds of black smoke.
"I'll go ahead and take a look." As Abel pulled out the great ice magical sword that had been forged during the blacksmith union evaluation, from the trunk of the carriage. The sword was not yet decorated, so it looked ugly, but it certainly would not affect its defensive capabilities and functions.
"Be careful," Master Bentham warned.
Abel waved his hand, signaling that he understood Bentham's goodwill, and promptly walked towards the village.
The closer he got to the village, the more Abel sensed that something was wrong. It wasn't just a small fire, it was the entire village and its' houses being burnt down.
When Abel arrived at the village, he was in shock from what he had just witnessed. The ground of the village was littered with dead bodies of the innocent villagers. Not only that, but some of the dead bodies were mutilated. It seemed as though as they have been bitten by an animal of some sort.
The most disturbing thing to Abel was the sight of the multiple corpses of children. These bodies were scattered in almost all parts of the village. It was obvious that what happened here was an unjust slaughter. Only a group that had absolute power could have planned a massacre like this. In Abel's knowledge of this world's history, it would be extremely rare to see the slaughtering of innocent civilians even if it's an invasion of another country.
As Abel walked around the village, there was not a single survivor. It seemed that the killers were highly trained and experienced. They might even possess special abilities. The places where the people hid had been completely abolished, and those who had hidden were killed without mercy.
Abel had never felt such so anxious, it was almost indescribable to him. Even though this area was not a part of his family's territory. As a human being, he couldn't help but felt a sense of sympathetic sadness and sorrowfulness for the victims of this massacre.
When Abel came to this world, he thought he saw a peaceful image. Even though he had been attacked by people before. he thought that no world could be perfect, there would always be criminals out there. However, what he had witnessed today was the first time something has shocked him to his soul. Maybe this world was not as peaceful as he had imagined. People were being slaughtered in their own home! What would've happened if that was his own family? What if it was the Bennett family?
As Abel didn't return for a long period of time, Bentham was starting to get worried. he quickly hurried to the village, when he saw the scene of the massacre and the bodies, he was also in a great deal of shock. "God, what happened?"
Master Bentham quickly went over to the bodies of the victims and examined it carefully. "Orcs," he said grimly, "It was the orcs."
Master Bentham then pointed towards the wounds of the corpses and said. "These were the bite marks of wolves. No wonder there were recent reports of Wolfriders being seen around here."
The Wolfriders were the dominant unit of the Orc empire's military, which were mostly trained by the werewolves and worgens. The Wolfrider troops were extremely strong when it came to their speed, agility, flexibility and their stance of direction. All these characteristics made the Wolf cavalry one of the strongest armies here in Mainland. Not only were they strong, but they were also extremely adaptable to even the toughest environment. During long battles, they feed off from the slain enemies allowing them for maximum efficiencies in continuing their battles.
"We better go back immediately! The Knight of Marshall needs to know about this" Suddenly, something occurred to Master Bentham. He realized that there must be still some werewolves nearby, and with the speed of these werewolves. All the villages and castles nearby around here would be in great danger.
Abel and master Bentham quickly returned to their carriage and hurried back towards Harry's Castle with the driver driving as fast as he can.
...
Simon was a Worgen. Or, rather, a wolf rider in the Wolf cavalry. His wife was a female wolf, named Black Wind
Simon's home was in a barren plain that had experienced a great deal of poverty. His home had around two hundred acres of land and he had nine brothers and sisters. As Simon was the second child of the family, their two hundred acres of land not providing enough source of food for their entire family's need. So, his parents decided to use up the majority of their resources on Simon, as he had the potential of becoming a member of the wolf riders. But by doing so, this meant that all his brothers and sisters would starve.
In order to gain more land for his family, Simon made up his mind. He would participate in the trial of death. In the past, every participant who could survive the trial of death would be rewarded with a piece of land. Besides that, most of them could often be brought back a large number of gold coins and gems, which were more than enough to buy a whole lot of land.
Simon tried his best not thinking about the consequences of the annual trial death. He tried not to remind himself of a large number of people who would not make it back alive. He only wished to be one of the survivors.
Simon felt that he was out of luck the other night when he was passing through the Budapest mountains. He allocated his wife, Black Wind, to rest a shed within the barracks. There were a lot of other male wolves in the shed. One of them had sexual interaction with his wife.
After riding the flying beast through the Budapest mountains, the small group of cavalry troops, which consisted of ten members set off and began their journey. Everything was going smoothly as they progressed forward. They avoided towns and only attacked small villages, although the rewards from raiding these small villages weren't massive, these successive raids on the small villages allowed Simon to gain a significant amount of confidence throughout his journey.
But one day, Simon found out that his wife was pregnant. Wolves were extremely loyal creatures. Their loyalty to their master was unprecedented among all animals. When a baby wolf was born, the first creature it sees would ultimately become its master.
Normally, the pregnancy of a wolve was a very happy event and deserved to be celebrated. Whether if it was to give his brother the right to claim his title as the master, or to give up the privilege of being a master in exchange for a large number of resources, it was just a beautiful thing within the wolves culture.
But since this was a world where humans lived, Simon would have to fight here with the current situation on hand. A pregnant wolf meant that it would greatly affect Simon's ability to use his power during the trial. Even though the villagers in the previous siege did not resist their attack, but the gore and excessive violence of their attacks, it gave Black Wind a lot of damage during her pregnancy.
This meant that she was unable to keep up with the squad, and the other Wolf cavalry team members weren't willing to put themselves at risk for Simon's problems. The only reason that the wolves are able to launch multiple attacks in different villages was because of their speed. The speed of the wolf cavalry determined their fate during the trial of death.
Simon stayed behind while the others left. He was the only one that stayed with his wife. He didn't dare to enter towards the open, the only thing he could've done was to hide in the forest and wait for Black Wind to give birth.
Every day Simon was hunting in the jungle, and every time he went out and hunt, there was just enough food for him and his partner to eat and survive. He often thought to himself, when would he be able to own land like these, to have more food than he could ever eat. The wealth of humans in this world often attracted countless Orcs like Simon himself. They all have one common goal – grab it and occupy it.
Every day, Simon carved a line on a tree to count off the days. All he wanted now was to spend his remaining two months safely in this jungle. Then, he could travel back to meet up zone to return home, to his Orc empire.