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.