Chapter 57 - Montenegro Fortress
Standing quietly at the exit of Forgotten Valley was a fortress. The fortress was made of black stone, with walls reaching an appalling height of forty meters, and a length that completely blocked the valley.
The whole fortress was like an iron wall. If you want to get past the valley, you will have to go through Montenegro.
But when you actually get closer to Montenegro Fortress, you realize that it’s not actually as mighty as you imagined. In fact, with its damaged walls, the entire fortress looked shabby, as if it had not been repaired in a long time.
This was true. The Purcell clan had built this fortress to prevent any carrion swamp spirit beasts from going through the Forgotten Valley and into the Purcell Duchy. But although the fortress has been established for hundreds of years, there have just been no activities of spirit beasts charging in from the Black Waste, which made this fortress become neglected. Although there were some troops here, they were more for protecting the peace and order of this place.
But even if Montenegro Fortress had no garrison, no one dared to underestimate the fighting strength here, because there were numerous adventurers and mercenaries.
However, with the existence of these people, the security of Montenegro Fortress became confusing. The city defense officials had to deal with adventurers, mercenaries, and even some rebellious guys that would even try to injure a child with knives. In the face of such a group of barbarians, the official defense forces were too weak.
Because of this, the defense forces of Montenegro finally evolved into several large mercenary groups and local merchants having their own site, and deciding not to infringe on each other, which resulted in a peaceful coexistence.
Of course, in this case, the Purcell Duchy can't even think of receiving any taxes, and because of this non-collection of taxes, the Duchy doesn't give them any money to repair the walls, so slowly Montenegro became a paradise for mercenaries, adventurers, and even fugitives.
This was also a side effect from the situation in the Black Waste. Since that wasteland was a place of death, Montenegro Fortress became one of the safest towns from outside forces, because it was surrounded by mountains and no enemies. Such a place should have been an important border town, but because there was no trade and the Purcell Duchy couldn't collect taxes, this place was forgotten.
For Green, Montenegro was an undefended fortress.
Of course, he wouldn't just go swaggering into the main entrance, but he could easily sneak over the walls.
Montenegro had a very abnormal commercial development. Weapon stores, drug stores, and equipment consultations were everywhere, but pubs, hotels, restaurants, and a place to buy consumer goods were difficult to find. The whole fortress was full of adventurers and mercenaries, so the number of ordinary people was very small.
This wasn't a concern for Green. He found a remote equipment store and bought five black magic robes, along with a hat and a wooden staff. He also bought for himself a very beautiful suit of armor. Although it wasn't as good as most decent armors, it still had the most important part he needed: a helmet that could hide Green's entire face.
Naturally, the magic robes were for Zhao. With these robes and staff, Zhao could dress up as a black mage. After all, it wasn't odd for black mages to wear something that wrapped up their whole body.
You should know that magic robes have been improved over many generations in this Continent. They were particularly more comfortable to wear, but also more beautiful, especially the ones worn by female mages, to the point that the gorgeous robes looked like a dress. Compared to the ones generally worn by mages, Green bought a black mage robe that was very thick, along with a large hat that could entirely block someone's face.
As for Green's set of armor that would cover his face, he wanted to dress as a follower of a mage. Mages were high status people, and under normal circumstances they wouldn't be short on money. Although mages weren't afraid of melee combat, they would still have followers with them, and make those followers fight and help them in battle.
Therefore, on the Continent, if you see a mage around, it wasn't strange to see them with a bunch of followers.
This time, Green was going to dress up as a warrior that was following a mage, which was the only way to stand by Zhao's side without being suspected.
After buying these things, Green then bought some mercenary items, including a backpack.
Backpacks were the standard equipment for mercenaries and adventurers. Because they would often go out into the field, they would prepare a lot of stuff that corresponded to their different tasks, such as food, gathering loot, finding a place to make camp, and a lot of other things. This was how a mercenary backpack came into being.
Green mainly bought these things to not let people discover the secret of Zhao's space. He wasn't worried about passing through Montenegro, since this was a place where people simply didn't care about anything other than themselves, and the Purcell clan didn't flaunt their power here. However, getting into other places might not be as smooth. With the exception of Montenegro, the Purcell clan had very good control of their territory.
Green would like to buy more things, but he didn't have the money on hand. Although he got the orders for the radishes, do not forget that he hasn't actually sold them yet. So he could only buy some essentials.
Without wearing the shiny silver armor that blatantly hid his face, Green looked like an ordinary adventurer, which made him blend in perfectly. There were hundreds of those risk takers here, so no one paid attention to him. Still, he had to be careful to not be observed when walking into the mountains. He walked in a roundabout way until he was sure that no one was following him, then he went to the place where he made the mark. Suddenly, the space hole appeared. After Green stepped into the space, the hole disappeared. Everything was quiet.
Zhao had been paying attention to what was happening outside the space. Do not forget that he could see in a range up to one hundred meters, so he was able to find Green when he returned.
Seeing Green holding a big backpack, Zhao froze for a moment, because this backpack looked a lot like those mountaineering bags back on Earth. Even though it wasn't made of the same materials, the quality wasn't as fine, and there were no zippers, it still looked like a mountaineering bag.
Zhao was puzzled as he pointed at the backpack. "Grandpa Green, why did you buy this thing?"
Green smiled. "Well, we don't actually need it, but this thing could mask the presence of the space as we're traveling around."
Zhao immediately understood what Green meant, and nodded his head. "Yes, I didn't think of that."
Green then took out a magic staff and handed it to Zhao. "This is something for a mage. I chose this one because of how light it is, so Master doesn't need a lot of strength to wield it. And in this backpack are the robes that Master should put on."
Zhao held the staff and the backpack. He didn't know what kind of wood this staff was made of, but it was as light as bamboo. However, he didn't continue to study the magic staff as he took the backpack into the hut.
In the beginning, Zhao had been wearing aristocratic clothes that had been prepared for him, but although they were beautiful, they were still very inconvenient. For example, the lower half was like the Western medieval tights back on Earth, which really affected his range of movements. Meirin knew this, so she hadn't objected when Zhao started wearing the clothes of a warrior, much like Green's. Naturally, they were very loose and convenient, and easy to move around in.
Now it was time to put on the black robe.
Translator Notes: Sorry for the late chapter. I was binging on Daredevil. Yeah, I know, it's bad for my health, but I'm addicted.
Translator Notes #2: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by Kinokey. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.