"Quack!"
The sound of flapping wings was heard in the treetops at dusk. Raven circled a few times and landed steadily on Arwen's shoulders.
Zoltan Seeing this iconic animal, and then thinking of the demon hunter in front of him, he became even more excited.
"Oh, let me tell you why he was able to kill that male cat with three swords," Yason slapped his thigh suddenly, not trembling with excitement, "He is the legendary demon hunter, the demon hunter with Raven!"
Zoltan pursed her lips and said, "My dear mother, what are you still doing in a daze? Quickly light a fire. We have to use the best honey wine to entertain such a legendary figure!"
Munro and others nodded, no race knows how to create a party better than dwarves.
Caleb and Figgis pulled out a carriage from the corner of the woods. The carriage was piled with wooden barrels, and the sweet smell could be smelled through the wooden boards.
Dwarf mead.
For dwarves, a day without alcohol would be worse than death.
Munro took an ax and, with the consent of Arwen, processed the manticore's leg meat.
Yason started a bonfire neatly, and Zoltan said, "Demon hunter, although the conditions here are simple, please allow us to entertain you."
"This couldn't be better."
Arwen handed Sihil to Zoltan.
Zoltan laughed heartily and put away the silver sword.
Soon, a forest party was set up.
Everyone brought stones and sat around the fire. The manticore's meat was roasted until it was sizzling with oil, revealing an attractive golden color.
Zoltan poured a full glass of dwarf mead for Arwen, and the alluring smell emerged from under the dense bubbles.
The six people's wine glasses collided together, and crystal liquid splashed from them.
Zoltan started a tune.
"Respect the great swordsmanship! Respect the demon hunter! Cheers to our health!"
"Cheers to your health!"
Everyone drank the mead in the cup in one gulp.
The refreshing taste made Arwen squint his eyes.
I have to admit that dwarves do have extraordinary talents in the brewing industry.
Yason flipped the barbecue and handed a grilled skewer to Arwen's hand.
"Witcher, tell us a story, the story of Hydra Canyon!"
"Yes, that's what we wanted to hear. Every time the businessman stopped talking in the middle of the story, it always whetted our appetite! Later I found out that if you want to hear the rest of the story, you have to pay him three crowns of gold coins. I can't wait to chop off this profiteer's head with an axe!"
"Hmm----"
Arwen glanced at everyone's expectant eyes and did not disappoint. He coughed a few times and told the story of Hydra Canyon.
When the dwarves heard that the children had been rescued, they clapped their hands one after another.
When I heard that Kikimore was being controlled and had a faceless face, my eyes were full of shock and fear.
The arrival of the evil god in the end made them wave their weapons in anger.
"It's so enjoyable. This experience is many times more exciting than what the profiteer said!"
"No, hundreds of times!"
The dwarves devoured the meat with gleaming eyes.
Arwen took a sip of mead to relieve his dry throat.
Zoltan took out a wooden box from his arms at the right time, pushed it open, and revealed the items inside.
It's a box of Gwent.
"I drank some wine and ate some meat. It's going to be a long night. Let's have some intense and exciting Gwent!"
Zoltan shook his bushy eyebrows and sent out an invitation.
"Gwent! Gwent! Gwent!"
Arwen squinted his eyes and remembered that when he was hunting Royal Wyvern that day, he seized two pairs of Gwent from Scoia'tael".
After a period of wonderful silence!
"Come!"
Arwen turns his palm over and takes out the Northern Realms deck.
"Ha!"
Yason shouted, "Raven the Witcher accepted Zoltan·Ziwa's challenge, and the night Gwent competition officially begins!"
Munro brought a wine barrel and used it as a card table.
The deck used by Zoltan is an elf deck.
Under the illumination of the bonfire, the reflections of everyone were twisting excitedly in the forest.
Best of three games.
As a veteran of The Witcher 3 game, Arwen is already familiar with Gwent.
But Zoltan is also a veteran, and his poker skills are not bad at all.
Soon there was one win and one loss, and the battle was tense.
The last round.
Arwen relied on the chain of northern commandos and a horn to push the front row's combat power to sixty-eight points.
Zoltan has only 32 points of field attack on the field, and they are all long-range units.
Both sides have only the last card left in their hands.
Arwen holds the card in his hand, it is Clear Weather, which can prevent the opponent from using weather cards and turn the advantages he has accumulated into naught.
Yason and others also stared with wide eyes.
"Zoltan, you are going to lose!"
"This is terrible, Zoltan is going to lose his precious manticore heart and soul!"
Figgis gloated and laughed beside him.
"Tsk tsk, I have to say that the demon hunter's poker skills are pretty good, but he's a little worse than me." Caleb said with his arms crossed.
Arwen raised his forehead to indicate that this card is indeed a sure win.
There is no card in the Elf deck that can reverse this situation.
Zoltan scowled, "Shut your stinky mouth, Figgis, I still have the last card, but I won't necessarily lose!"
"Ha," Munro said, "Sixty-eight versus thirty-two! You always call me stupid, but my arithmetic is still better than yours!"
"Wait a minute," Caleb's face suddenly became weird, "Zoltan, no, brother, you didn't get that card, did you?"
As soon as these words came out, Munro and the three of them froze, looking at Zoltan in surprise.
Arwen also became interested when he saw the expressions of the dwarves.
Zoltan took a sip of mead and a warlike look burst out in his eyes.
"Hey! Who says it's not the case! Demon Hunter, this is my ultimate move. If the cards in your hand are more powerful than his, I will give up!"
As he spoke, he placed the last card in his hand on the barrel.
Arwen's appetite was whetted, and he looked at it with cat eyes, his pupils constricted.
Zoltan dropped the last card in his hand. On the card was a black-haired man wearing a black leather jacket. The man lowered his head and couldn't see his face clearly. He could only see a pair of glowing amber cat eyes, violent and ferocious. He held a silver sword with red-gold runes in his hand and was fighting with nine green-headed poisonous snakes under him.
The card belongs to the neutral deck, has legendary attributes, is not affected by the environment and card effects, and has twelve attack points.
Effect: When he comes on the field, he destroys all cards on the field and removes all environmental effects.
The scene fell into silence.
Arwen reached out and picked up the card, with strange emotions in his eyes.
A very familiar name was clearly written on the card.
Raven the Witcher.
"Hey!"
Zoltan jumped up from the stone, his eyes full of pride.
"Brother, what's up, if the cards in your hand are not greater than twelve, I will win!"
Arwen came back to his senses and chuckled.
Isn't this the famous table-turning Deathwing? Unexpectedly, it turned out to be myself.
Spread the last card in your hand, Clear Weather.
"I lost, Zoltan, that piece of my heart is yours.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!"
Zoltan screamed excitedly and ran around the fire three times.
The other dwarves were also slow to react, and they all stepped forward to touch the card, showing envy.
"My plague, Zoltan, you really got this card!"
"Damn it, you actually lied to us for so long. When did you get it?"
Zoltan returned to his seat, "Hey, why is Brouver so rigid? He secretly creates cards and doesn't allow us to create them. Look at his virtues. He is just a puppet. I took it down when I went down the mountain. I think his expression now must be wonderful!"
"Haha!"
After hearing this, the other dwarves clapped their hands and applauded.
Seeing Brouver deflated is one of the things they most want to see.
The whole campfire was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
"However, I defeated Raven with the Raven card. This will be a good thing, but it is also unfair."
"I invite you to share the delicious manticore meat."
Zoltan said to Arwen.
"It's my pleasure."
Being able to see my own cards makes me feel happy even if I lose.
With Gwent's influence in this world, it is obvious that no one will forget his legendary story in the future.
After they were full of wine and food, everyone lay down on the grass stroking their bellies. The dwarves all held a piece of weed or dead wood in their mouths, their postures were casual, and they burped from time to time.
Zoltan spit out the weed in his mouth, replaced it with a new one, and sucked the juice from the grass root.
"By the way, the famous Raven, we haven't asked you yet, why did you come to this Mahakam?"
"Could it be that the monsters here have affected the lives of the surrounding residents?"
Arwen looked at the stars in the sky and said truthfully.
"I want to go to your dwarf town and reforge a silver sword. There is no place in this world that knows how to forge a weapon better than here."
Zoltan Hearing this, he puffed up his chest proudly.
Arwen looked at the sword placed beside the campfire, Sihil.
"This sword is very interesting."
"Hey," Zoltan said, "Your vision is really vicious. That is a top-quality iron weapon that is only one in a million."
"Hoho," Munro said in a loud voice, "Zoltan, it is not just a top-quality iron tool. This treasure is in your hands and in the hands of the master demon hunter next to you. These are two different things!"
"Although the witcher clearly knows where to insert the sword into the monster, it will cause fatal damage."
"But you yourself will never be able to create such a work of art from nature.
1
"Such a sword can only be the work of our dwarves, and it must be Mount Carbon on the Mahakam Mountains, hammered out by us!"
"The most classic ones are those elven swords. You humans always compare them with our swords!"
"Let me tell you, the swords of the elves are all old-fashioned things left over from centuries ago, typical of primitive steel alloys."
"Do you know how much pure graphite and borax you need to pour into the alchemical metal solution to create such a Sihil?"
Munro said proudly, "This is craftsmanship that transcends the times! The structure of the blade, the carbon composition, and all other parts have been forged hundreds of times to create this blade as thin as a cicada's wings!"
"Stop, stop, stop!" Zoltan interrupted Munro's spray, "Brother, don't expect us to teach a demon hunter into a superb weapon expert in just one meal."
"To put it simply, it is very difficult to make a good sword because raw steel is hard and brittle and will break when it hits heavy armor."
"For past craftsmanship, in order to enhance toughness, a soft but more malleable steel blade had to be created based on a hard core."
"What we have now is actually the complete opposite, with a soft core and a hard edge. This process will be very time-consuming, but as I said, this is a more advanced process."
"A sword made in this way can easily cut through even a fine linen kerchief thrown in the air."
Arwen was amazed after hearing this.
"Then, can you show me the way for this guest from afar? I know that you dwarves don't welcome foreigners very much."
Zoltan looked at each other with the other four people when they heard this.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to take you up the mountain."
He sighed, and the atmosphere became a little gloomy.
"Hey, about this, I really want to pat my thigh and take you to our furnace in person to choose a good weapon."
"But the five of us can no longer return to Mount Carbon."
Arwen had doubts in his eyes.
"To be precise, we have been regarded as traitors by the great elder." Yason said with a smile and disdain.
"Why, did you make a mistake?"
"Ha," Zoltan raised his arms and clenched his fists, "Made a mistake? No! We are here for fucking freedom!"
"I've heard that your human city has various taxes and rules, but it's not like I need other people's permission to drink a glass of wine!"
"Even in this wilderness, I can still live well."
"But what about Mahakam Mount Carbon? You can't imagine how ridiculous I am in the eyes of those stubborn old fools!"
"Brouver Hogg, this old bastard, the current Great Elder, you have no idea how he ruined this holy mountain!"
Yason beat his chest angrily and added, "This bastard must have had a brain cramp recently. It doesn't matter if he doesn't satisfy his desire for control, he actually started "Mahakam Community Guidelines"!"
"Bah!" Figgis spat, "Good-hearted demon hunter, let me use an analogy, and you are the one to judge!"
"He doesn't allow us to wear silver braces when we go to the mining area, and he doesn't even let us drink the freshly cooked fish soup right away. We have to cool down before we can drink it. Does he think we are fools? He even argued about whether playing the ocarina is a fine tradition that has been around for thousands of years, or a cultural invasion brought by humans! Listen, are you talking about dwarves?"
"There are even more fucking perverts!" Caleb answered, "In Mount Carbon, you want to marry a wife? Then you must first submit an application for marrying a wife! This application must be exchanged for thirty years of working hours!"
"Also, if you go to the toilet in a hurry, he stipulates that you must wipe your butt with your left hand, in line with the sacred sacrificial etiquette of the mountain!
"If you dare to whistle near the mine, I'm sorry, you will be whipped and your ore bonuses will be withheld for three years!"
The dwarves took out the bitter water in their stomachs one after another.
Arwen listened quietly, it was a wonderful story telling.
Brouver Hogg, the great elder of the dwarves, he knows this name.
Although he called the dwarfs who came down from the mountain traitors, he seemed heartless and unrighteous.
But when these dwarves were in danger and sneaked back to Mount Mahakam to seek shelter, he always turned a blind eye.
In today's world where humans are rampant, if the dwarves are not restricted and stay together for warmth, I am afraid they will decline and be exterminated like other races----