The Rise Of Rim
Chapter 9 - Western forest expedition
"You're going to follow that expedition?!" Shouted borgeus.
Borgeus was so confused at the moment, it was only one day that Louis was working, now, he was going to go wolf hunting? How surprised he was when he heard that.
"Right, I was interested in wolf hunting" Louis said.
Borgeus did not know what to say, he was silent for a moment trying to think about the reason why Louis wanted to follow the dangerous expedition.
Not being elected by the king of Thorin was a fortune in his life, for if he were elected, he would have to fight in the east.
He was puzzled as to why Louis, who could live in peace at this time, would put his life in danger. Is it because of money? People can't get away from that.
"It wasn't easy lo, the wolf was fast and strong," however, Borgeus persuaded Louis a little to think about his actions.
Indeed, they were strong and fast, but Louis was quite confident with his physique and weapons, so he could not retreat just because of that.
"I know, but I'm not weak either" Louis said.
Before, when Louis had already finished his task of guarding the shop, Borgeus came to replace him.
Before that, Louis asked for iron materials to make weapons and armor that he would use to hunt wolves.
"Well, I have no right to stop you, if you want to come, make sure you have good equipment" said Borgeus.
Borgeus did not want to think about it anymore, he did not care anymore about Louis' choice, if it was his decision, he could only support.
'I just found a talented worker, ' thought Borgeus.
"Thank you" said louis.
"Please use that iron all you want,"
"I will" said Louis.
Louis walked towards the storage crate that was in the corner of the store, when he reached it, he opened the crate to pick up a hunk of iron.
Louis smiled faintly at what he should make using that lump of iron, an armor? Swords and spears?
"System, activate the craft." Louis said.
***
The day for the expedition finally began, Louis stood in front of the blacksmith's shop where Borgeus stood beside him.
"Don't die yeah" said Borgeus.
"Wells can also be a prayer, don't say that, I will definitely come back alive" Louis said.
"Yes, hopefully,"
"Then I will leave" said louis.
Louis walked away from the blacksmith's shop of Borgeus to go to the place where his expedition began, the west gate of the oirat city.
He was equipped with chest, arms and legs, although he could make a complete armor, the amount of material would greatly increase, Louis was unwilling to spend the iron on himself.
For a weapon, he had a sword sheathed at his waist, it was a longsword with a length and a bit of width.
As time went on, Louis finally arrived at his destination, the west oirat city gate.
"It's a lot here,"
Louis saw the crowd at the gate, but the crowd was mostly filled by old men who were about 30 years old and above.
They had armor on their bodies, covering their slightly thin bodies. For weapons, they carried swords, spears and bows.
Louis was quite confused as to how they could carry so many weapons and armor, as he was sure, the people who followed this expedition were poor people who wanted to earn money.
They were experts at killing, because the skill was related to death, the risk was so great for themselves.
"Everyone, listen to ME!"
The noisy crowd was stopped by a single voice standing on the wooden wall, he was a huge rim and had armor complete with a spear weapon in his right hand.
"I am the pargia, the leader of the west gate,"
The leader of the west bank, as his name suggests, he is responsible for guarding the west gate of the oirat from foreign attacks.
"I will guide you to the expedition today,"
He spoke casually, but the sound that came out was so loud that Louis who was standing in the corner could hear his voice.
"In the North and the west, our allies pompey and roden will start an attack and we can't stand idle either, we will attack from the east." said Pargia.
The western forest is said to be western because it is located west of the oirat city, for pompey, it can be southern forest, and for roden, it can be eastern forest.
Because the location of the western forest is actually in the middle of these three cities.
Military tactics were useless in the forest where their opponents were wolves that could move freely at high speed.
"... For that, we'll move separately, you can move alone or in groups, aim for just one, kill the wolf,"
Louis thought they were going to make a massive attack by thousands of people, why didn't they do it?
Wouldn't that way, they could quickly defeat all the wolves?
Perhaps it wasn't that simple, Louis who was a newcomer didn't want to comment on it, because he didn't know the situation.
Maybe because they were fighting in the forest.
Or the problem is among the rims.
"One wolf head is valued at 30 bronze coins, alpha wolf 20 silver coins, and for the wolf king, they will be rewarded with 100 silver coins!"
Hearing those words, the rims were instantly excited.
"Well, I don't want to linger, we'll do the registration, this will work if any of you die" said Pargia.
A crowded crowd began to move towards the gate to conduct the registration.
Seeing so many rims marching towards the gate, Louis also immediately entered into a row.
However, their ranks were not neat and orderly, the gatekeeper even had to keep it straight without any fuss.
Immediately, one by one the rims that had already done the registration started moving through the gate and went towards the western forest to begin their expedition.
It's like a game, where players hunt in the forest to raise experience and earn rewards.
"What's your name?" Ask guards.
Louis' turn finally arrived, he stood before the guard sitting on the chair with the table in front of him.
"Louis," he replied.
"Louis? Stranger name," the guard did say it, but he didn't really care about it.
Soon, after Louis mentioned his name, the guard immediately wrote on the paper piled on the table in black ink.
In the paper, the guard writes a "Louis," name and a number that reads "253,"
'So I'm in order, 253?' thought Louis.
This registration serves to count the dead rim on this expedition. Rim survivors would return and collect back the papers the guards had already written.
Guards will count the amount of paper collected, that's where they'll know the death toll in the western forest.
By the way, the rims were illiterate and numeric, who could read only limitedly among the nobles, and not all of them.
So, how can this guard write letters and numbers? Even write his name with the right letters.
'Ah! I don't have time to think about it,'
In the end, he ignored it.
When the guard finished writing, he gave the paper to Louis.
"The wolf is strong, I suggest you join the group" said the guard.
"Thank you" said louis.
When Louis took the paper, he walked through the wooden gate, it was wide and tall, louis even needed 5 steps to reach the outside.
5 steps he stomped on the snow, when he passed through the gate, now he could see the outside of the rim civilization.
A vast forest stretched out from a mesmerizing distance with many large trees piled with snow on it.
The sun that illuminates the day makes everything clear, he sees birds, animals and rocks.
"It's very natural, no human being is harming this environment,"
He felt a difference when he visited the forest on earth, the feeling he felt right now was a natural feeling formed due to nature.
"It seems, there is no group that I can go to" Louis said.
He saw many rims starting to form groups, only a few of them were alone.
Seeing the rim away from Louis, they were not interested in the young rim who could not fight and only became a burden, at least that was what they thought of him.
Whynot? Only armed with incomplete swords and armor, besides that his body was not sturdy.
"Alone may not be bad, I certainly can." Louis said.
To be continued...