Fantasy Lord: I Have a Moving Castle

After settling the accounts, more than a hundred strands of Praying Power blossomed within the Prayer House. The Praying Power that had just been depleted was instantly replenished.

Next, despite being tired, Char and Freyja still managed to tidy up the two train carriages. After tidying up, Char’s eyelids began to fight each other, and he could no longer hold on. After instructing the Thunder Night Dragon and Fierce Sword Firefly to take turns keeping watch, he immediately fell asleep.

However, before lying down, he remembered to leave the bedroom to Freyja and took the bedding to sleep in the living room, thinking to himself that once the carriage was upgraded again, many more rooms would be available, and the space in the castle would no longer be so cramped.

As soon as this thought arose, Char entered dreamland.

He was indeed very tired, not only because of excessive Magic Power consumption but also because of a major battle that left him highly tense.

The high tension wasn’t only felt by Char; within a short span of time, everyone, except the slow Wind Winged Horse pulling the carriage and Fierce Sword Firefly who was on night duty, quickly fell asleep.

...

Tens of kilometers away from the carriage, there was a range of hills.

These hills were not connected to the mountain range where Florence Forest was located; it was another mountainous region known as "Pine Tree Hills," named after the dominant species of various pine trees and the abundance of Pine Needle Men.

Pine Tree Hills belonged to Florence Kingdom, whereas Florence Forest didn’t entirely belong to it, even though the kingdom was named after "Florence."

Under the moonlight, Pine Tree Hills appeared as if coated in quicksilver.

Barn Firecast, holding a battle axe, dragged a large wild boar, following the pace of his companions towards the direction of the tribe.

He had a sharp nose and a lush red beard; despite this, his face was still youthful, showing a hint of naivete.

He was indeed very young, though he was already thirty years old; compared to the average lifespan of three hundred fifty years of a Dwarf, a thirty-year-old Dwarf had just reached adulthood and was still considered youthful before this age.

Although it wasn’t his first time joining the adults from the tribe on a hunt, Barn was still somewhat nervous, and upon recalling the dangers they encountered during the hunt, he subconsciously tightened his grip on his battle axe and the other hand holding the wild boar’s hoof.

At that moment, only the companions by his side and the Full Body Armor he wore could provide Barn some sense of security. This armor, forged entirely from refined steel, was valuabled and not easily obtained by other races, but it was not a difficult task for Dwarves, skilled in mining and smithing.

Just as humans excel in farming and Elves in archery, to Dwarves, smithing is as instinctive as breathing.

Though he didn’t want to appear cowardly, Barn had to admit that his heart was filled with dread and fear, and he somewhat didn’t want to continue staying in the Hunting Team.

He remembered when he was younger, the world wasn’t as dangerous as it is now. Back then, the tribe was peaceful and serene; people spent their leisure time smithing and traded with humans to exchange for ample food and drinks.

Most of the remaining time was spent drinking and boasting, with tribe members frequently getting drunk.

However, it became increasingly dangerous; tribe members were dying daily, and they could only huddle in the mountains, struggling to survive while praying for the protection of the great lord—Andar.

He was the Dwarf god of fire and forging.

But the great Andar couldn’t hear their prayers, or perhaps he did, but was powerless to help; they could only rely on themselves to survive.

Just then, a voice came from the front of the group.

"Careful, there are Undead ahead!"

A Half-orc agilely landed and signaled a warning to everyone.

He was a Half-orc Wanderer, a skilled scout and assassin, and also a member of their tribe.

Indeed, besides the Hill Dwarves, other races were also part of the tribe.

It wasn’t just half-orcs, but also humans, elves, and even half-elves.

Among them, humans were the most numerous. Currently, there were several humans in the group, and in their Pine Tree Tribe, the number of humans even exceeded that of dwarves.

Originally, this was not the case, although the Hill Dwarves maintained friendly relations with the nearby human villages and towns and even established stable commercial trade.

But having them live together with humans, elves, half-orcs, and other races was something they were unwilling to do, and it was the same for the other races too.

Unless under special circumstances, why would the major races leave their homes to mix with other races?

However, the increasingly dangerous situation forced them to unite—now, they had completely lost contact with the outside world.

The roads leading to other towns were all cut off, with undead roaming everywhere on the roads. Unless there was a squad composed of powerful Transcendents, it would be very difficult to get through.

In this region, let alone a squad formed by powerful Transcendents, there were no powerful Transcendents at all.

Therefore, the intelligent species in this area were essentially cut off from the outside world, becoming an isolated community, completely unaware of the external situations.

In such circumstances, everyone could only band together for warmth. Moreover, since the Pine Tree Tribe was nestled in the mountains, and the houses were carved out from the mountain itself, making it easy to defend but hard to attack, gradually, the nearby surviving intelligent races gathered at the Pine Tree Tribe.

Once the population increased, food became a problem, so much so that even though they knew the undead roamed everywhere outside, the Pine Tree Tribe still had to organize hunting teams to venture out again and again.

"Damn rotting bones! Watch me smash them to pieces!" Several short-tempered dwarves, wielding battle axes and hammers, rushed forward to smash the undead into pieces.

It was a human warrior who spoke out to stop them.

"Don’t be rash! And keep your voice down, be careful not to attract more undead. Milo, can you confirm their numbers?"

The human who spoke, Anderson, was well-known, a strong and reliable warrior, and also the vice leader of this team. Though called the vice leader, he was practically as influential as the leader, because the leader, Bruno Firecast, trusted him a lot and generally followed his commands.

By the way, Bruno Firecast was the uncle of Barn.

"Roughly less than twenty, but I can’t be completely sure," the half-orc Milo replied.

"Alright, let’s deal with them, we cannot let the undead roam around our vicinity, otherwise, our food supply will only diminish. The farmlands developed by the tribe are still too few to sustain so many people," Anderson quickly calculated the strengths of both sides in his mind and soon made a decision.

’Merciful Lord, send someone to save us!’ Barn put down his prey and bravely charged with his companions, yet still prayed silently in his heart.

A battle erupted in the forest during the night.

...

When Char woke up, it was already the next morning, and the guard duty had been taken over by the Clover Mantis, and Freyja had woken up even earlier than Char. When Char opened his eyes, she was already tiptoeing around in the kitchen making breakfast.

A pot of vegetable and mushroom soup was cooking, partridges were roasting over the fire, and the feathers of the Peacock Mountain Quail were neatly arranged beside the sink.

Peacock Mountain Quail was quite rare, and normally Char and Freyja seldom ate it, but after a big battle last night, everyone had overexerted themselves, so Freyja decided to slaughter two Peacock Mountain Quails to replenish their nutrients.

At that moment, Freyja was kneading flour in an apron, planning to make bread—the flour was created through Char’s Prayer, and although he was still urgently in need of Praying Power, at least it wasn’t like at the beginning when he almost wished to split a strand in half. Spending a few strands of Prayer to create several bags of flour to change their diet was feasible.

Seeing that Freyja still needed some time, Char washed up first, then used his Prayer to conjure up the Mushroom House, so a brand-new Mushroom House appeared in the second coach, and at the same time, ten Iron Feather Archers and thirty Iron Armor Knights were added on the carriage.

More importantly, with the completion of the Mushroom House, the last Magic Pet slot was finally released.

For Char, he just needed to save up some more Praying Power, and he could recruit his sixth Magic Pet!