Chapter 23

For several hours, Ivo continued to sit on the floor, watching the various landscapes that flashed before his eyes. But suddenly the carriage began to slow down, and then stopped altogether. The cabbies decided to make a short break.

The cart was also followed by a couple of soldiers on horseback. These soldiers also dismounted from their horses, allowing them to rest. The cabman's partner started lighting a fire to prepare food.

Meanwhile, Ivo felt a little hungry when he saw the southerners start preparing food.

When he thought that the soldiers would leave them without food, the cabby went to the cage and threw in some dry cakes.

This food is unlikely to be enough for 4 strong warriors to eat, but it is quite enough so that they do not die of hunger.

Seeing how some of the barbarians pounced on these pitiful cakes, the cabman said with a grin, "Even dogs have merit, but not you, Barbarians." After saying that, he spat on the ground and went in the direction of the fire.

Ivo was very surprised at that moment, this southerner spoke Latin from his own world, it ... was unexpected.

Ivo didn't hesitate and spent 5 FP to fully learn this language.

After a small pass, the driver and his partner got on the cart, and the soldiers climbed onto their horses. When everyone was ready, the cart continued on its way.

It took 6 days for the wagon to finally reach its destination at this pace.

During the entire journey, Ivo tried to eavesdrop on the conversations of the southerners. From them, he learned that all the barbarians were being taken to the small border town of Ledra. Due to the attack of the southern states on the barbarians, now this place has become popular both for the military and for merchants. Barbarians are very popular in the slave market, as they are much stronger and more enduring than ordinary people, most barbarians end up in various mines, some are more fortunate, and some are less fortunate.

Finally, Ivo saw the so-called civilization in this world.

The large fields on which people were working at that moment, to the side were several rectangular houses made of adobe bricks whitewashed with lime, a roof covered with red tiles was visible above the walls.

Apparently, these people had to build houses from clay and stone, since there were few trees near this city. And the only forest that Ivo met was the silver forest, but most likely, this forest is dangerous for them because of the barbarians.

Examining these houses, Ivo concluded that in addition to language, these southerners also have a style similar to that of antiquity. As evidenced by their technological level, most likely they are somewhere at the level of the Late Bronze Age.

When the carriage passed the fields and these small houses, Ivo saw a large stone wall, 8 meters high and 4 meters wide, made of stone blocks.

The carriage pulled up to an open wooden gate and stopped. A guard dressed in a red tunic with a short bronze spear and shield approached the cab. The driver took a small bag from his belt, looked for something, and then pulled out a rectangular 10-centimeter plaque with some symbols.

The guard examined the board, and then let the carriage pass.

Now Ivo was finally able to see the interior of this city. There were no longer such small houses as outside. There were 3-4-storey buildings, stone-covered roads, some ornamental plants.

The carriage slowly moved through the streets, allowing Ivo to contemplate these beautiful places. When the cart approached the city center, instead of high-rise buildings, there were 1-2 two-story houses with their own courtyards and walls, reminiscent of mansions. Cro this Ivo saw several magnificent buildings of marble and stone, which appear to be either temples or some kind of public place.

In contrast to the calm face of Ivo, the face of the barbarians reflected shock and disbelief, they had never seen such a beautiful and at the same time frightening place, really, all these buildings were built by these dwarfs.

They had raided in the past, but they had never seen anything like that, the only thing they were used to was those little houses with fields outside the city.

Finally, the carriage stopped. The driver took a stick with several leather strips at the end. He walked to the cage, opened the door, and then knocked on the bars and pointed to the exit, shouting loudly in his own language, "Come out, you dirty animals, don't make me lose my patience."

The barbarians did not understand him, but they still understood his gestures, so not the name of another choice, they headed for the exit, Ivo followed them.

Sensing that these slaves were moving too slowly, the cabman hit the random barbarian with his stick. * WHIP * * Arrr *

The barbarian growled in unexpected pain, angry, he turned towards the cab and wanted to hit him. But at that moment, the cabman only grinned, held out his hand, on which a rune appeared, similar to a rune in shackles. Suddenly the warrior screamed in pain and dropped to one knee. Red veins began to stand out on his hand, causing him severe pain, but this warrior was not a weakling, so with patience, he began to slowly get up from his knee.

The cabman smiled even wider "You are the strongest in our country, right?" Having said this, he began to turn his hand clockwise, increasing the pain that the barbarian was experiencing, in the end, the warrior could not stand this pain and fell on his stomach, the cabby laughed, and then the rune disappeared from his hands, pointing with a stick at the other two warriors, forcing them to carry the fallen one.

While the cabman was torturing the warrior, Ivo quickly looked at his statistics and the statistics of those around him.

As it turned out, all his statistics except for stamina were forcibly lowered to 20 points, stamina was lowered to 50 points. And his energy was completely blocked, he could not conduct energy through his body, including blood energy.

Examining his comrades in misfortune, Ivo found out that they were less fortunate, their statistics dropped to 13-15, and endurance to 40. Most likely this is due to the level of their blood purification technique.

The driver's statistics were standard for an ordinary person, he did not even have any energy and, apparently, the rune that he activated did not come from his skills, but was obtained in a different way.

Finally, the cabman took them to one of these large mansions, where a fat man in a snow-white tunic and a red belt greeted him with a joyful face, the fat man spoke up, "Ahhh, dear Zen, I'm glad to see you in my house, what brings you to me?"

The driver also smiled, pointed at Ivo and the company with a stick, and said, "I was lucky to get some more northern Barbarians, now I'm looking for a buyer, that's why I came to you"

The fat man nodded, and then went up to the barbarians and began to examine them carefully, after a while he said "Although the barbarians are now and the prices, in the near future, due to the expedition to the north, their price will drop significantly, so I can only give 150 asses for them."

The driver frowned and said, "You probably haven't received any news from the north yet, I just arrived from there, so I can share with you information that a conflict arose among the states participating in the expedition, and the advance of the troops stopped, it is quite possible that the expedition will be canceled, so my price is 200 aces "