winter era

Chapter 8 The Mage's Little Dilemma

Although the mountains have never welcomed visitors, this kind of xenophobic thinking is particularly serious in the Northland.After all, for those who come into contact with ice and snow for the first time, no one can guarantee that they can survive in this hostile world.Even if the frosty god was knocked down by the mage group, the demigods still maintained the ice and snow in the north, stubbornly fighting against the mages.Although this is not a big deal for the Northlanders—it would be more frightening to say that the mage succeeded, because they have never seen any landforms other than ice and snow—but this is for people who travel or trade What a great misfortune.

"Damn ice demigods, they refuse to sign a walking contract. I have to dissociate all these broken ice little by little before I can move forward. Even if I keep casting such high-strength spells, I will be tired. Ah..." The person who was clutching his forehead and leaning on a cane, who moved out of the glacier of the mountain was naturally the chief mage of the Northland, the great wizard Kaos.

It's like the mountains and waters will make way for the mages, because of the ancient covenant, this world will not have any products in the covenant to stop the mages.From the mountains to the forests to the vast and boundless oceans, they are all the signers of the walking contracts of the mages.The spirits of these regions will do everything in their power to help mages get where they want to go.But in this world controlled by the demigods of the Northland, even if there is any ice crystal that wants to reach a contract, then you have to ask the group of demigods whether they agree or not.So where they want to go, mages can only use their own power to slowly reach their destination.

There was a 'crash', as if something had broken from the inside.A piece of white glacier disintegrates into countless crystal dust in this fine sound.A hole the size of a person extends from the glacier.A dry palm gently broke the last layer of thin ice outside.The gusty wind that poured in lifted the black hood of the person walking inside, revealing the lifeless and empty face of the young wizard under the hood.Because the light refracted by the glacier outside was too strong, the wizard stretched out his hand to block the light, squinted his eyes and walked out of the dark passage.

The world outside the tunnel is beautiful.A clear blue sky without any white clouds.Iridescent brilliance shone across the glacier land that refracted the light.And the mage on the mountainside can even hear the weird whistling sounds made by the wind blowing on the protrusions in the canyon.This shrill sound was previously treated as the cry of the unjustly dead.When people really know how the souls of the dead cry, this whistling sound will simply become an adjustment during travel.

"It's really troublesome to determine the position without landmarks..." Kaos frowned as he looked at the annotations on the map.Although various situations along the way were marked with eye-catching red pens, Kaos, who was too lazy to walk around the mountain, directly used the dissociation technique inside the glacier and walked in a straight line.After all, in layman's terms, the straight line distance between two points is the shortest, which is a matter of course in order to save time.

But to the embarrassment of the mage, he forgot that in the mountains there is no way to be sure whether he is walking in a straight line.The end result is that no location can be found at all.Looking at the icy white canyon in front of him, he knew very well that he was already in that frosty canyon.But he didn't know exactly where in the Frost Canyon he was, let alone where the elf was in the Frost Canyon.In more common terms, the great wizard Kaosta got lost.Well, and it is very suitable for his mage status, very noble, using the disintegration technique to walk in a straight line and then get lost.

He couldn't imagine how those old guys would laugh when they waited for the meeting of the mages in the imperial capital.

'what?Who do you say you are?Chief mage of the Northland?Nameless?Lord of Winter?Whoops, that sounds scary.But how did I hear that you got lost in the iceberg?my dear king ''Eh?Kaos, you were so good at first, how did you become such a waste in the Northland?Or is it that you, Kaos, the chief mage of the Northland, have earned your name in vain? '

"How can I be ridiculed by you idiots? I am the youngest mage ever, a real time traveler. It's just a matter of getting lost..." Kaos hummed a note from his nasal cavity, and Kaos casually filled it with I put the labeled map into my arms, and stood on the glacier and used the commanding heights to observe the surrounding scenery and signs.

But the scenery seen by the wizard who was inspecting in the harsh but not cold wind reminded him of a short sentence he had learned before crossing.He has long forgotten how to say it specifically, but the specific description is that there is nothing in front of him except a piece of white.This is what Kaos saw.The entire Northland Ice Valley is like a polished mercury mirror, with countless lights refracting around the mountain wall.The ice wall that has been frozen for thousands of years seems to be mocking the overwhelmed Kaos.Except for the ice wall canyon in front of Kaos, there is not even a little bit of landmarks in his sight and sensing range.

Is it possible to go back and walk around the caravan's journey again?Kaos leaned against the ice cave and thought about the feasibility of this problem seriously.Then he quickly remembered the riddled tunnel he had already dug, and directly dismissed this unreliable thought.

If he really went back the same way, Kaos would not be sure where he could go.Just by reaching this ice wall, he punched himself three times.If he went back the same way, he might spend his whole life in this deep mountain.Heck, how else could the greatest human invention be the map?There is a standard map, so no matter how you go, you can go where you want.Of course, the compass must be marked on the map first... Kaos looked at the map in his hand, and then tore the map without any direction indicators into pieces with a blank expression.

Turning around and squinting at the glacier wall that seemed to have no reference, the wizard felt for the first time that there was something in this world that could threaten him.Because of the demigods, he couldn't call the natural souls hidden in the glacier. Those dead souls were suppressed by the power of the glacier and the demigods to the depths of the mountains. They didn't even know anything about the outside world.As the saying goes, being besieged on all sides probably describes such a desperate situation, right?It seemed like death was going either way.

"It's really a big trouble...but it's okay." Kaos scratched his scalp in distress, and walked to the side of the frosty cliff.Looking at the unfathomable abyss with the cold wind blowing upwards from time to time, the wizard in black robe suddenly thought of something and smiled.Spreading his dead tree-like arms, his body leaned forward slightly, and he jumped into the terrifying abyss.

Bathed in the cold wind blowing towards his face, Kaos gently closed his eyes.The energy in the mind gradually spread and overlapped, like countless tentacles, silently weaving into a network of virtual and real in the process of falling—it does not exist in reality but can still affect reality— —spread into the shadows of all rocks.The tough and illusory lines constructed with that spirit gradually resisted the gravity of nature, and gradually fixed his body in the void under the blowing of the ice wind.

Afterwards, the wizard moved his spirit to the bottom of all the nodes, which seemed to be the deepest part of a sea of ​​nodes.In reality, it may be an endless abyss that everyone is afraid of, but in the eyes of a mage, it is a common way.Let his body, which has become a mass of heterogeneous spirits, quickly climb to the bottom of the abyss on the cableway between illusion and reality.

He could even feel the weird reflection of himself on the glacier.The dry body began to gradually expand and spread in mid-air with the expansion of the spiritual network.The human form gradually distorted into an indescribable black mist.The cloud of black mist began to descend against the strong wind, and after confirming its position, it rushed straight over.In the shadow where the sun can't shine and no one sees it at all, like an octopus rushing out of the water, the terrifying black mist twists and entangles again, and finally becomes a single creature amidst the howls of countless shadows. A skeleton-like human form in a black robe.

Shadow magic, soul walking.One of the necessary spells for mages on their way.Kaos shook his robe with a few wisps of black smoke, opened his mouth to the glacier, and silently made a few ferocious smiles as he watched the reflected dry bones.

As a mage, he would naturally not be hindered by such boring things as distance.And even if Kaos jumped directly from the cliff into the abyss, he probably wouldn't die.He has fully practiced magic so that his body is half-energized, and he is very aware of his state.Half of his body is still a normal human being, and he is still afraid of cold and pain, hoping to eat a piece of juicy steak.But the other part is nothingness, it is a space constructed by magic and shadows.He needs nothing but magic and lust.

"But the smell here is indeed a bit abnormal..." The mage came out from the shadows, and stepped on the inside of the frosty canyon.He frowned slightly, facing the cold compress in the canyon and smelling the weird air here.The somewhat pungent olfactory signal transmitted from the human part made him feel that the depths of the canyon he was in didn't seem so peaceful.

I can't see the dead souls that often appear in the shadows, and I can't feel the existence of negative energy, just like the territory of some powerful creature, there is only a simple taste.Generally speaking, there should be nothing here except the clear smell of ice and snow.But now this deserted canyon is filled with the smell of ice and snow in Kaos' nostrils.Compared with the naturally rancid smell, that smell is more like the very pungent smell that can only be emitted when some kind of reptile occupies the territory.

Of course, this method of tracking will not trouble our Archmage.Kaos snorted coldly, and tapped the ice surface of the canyon with his magical cane, shattering a large piece of ice.After looking at the contents inside and confirming the true identity of the lumpy dark brown object inside, the wizard in black robe shook his cane with some joy, turned his head and walked towards the place with the strongest smell.

"It seems to be able to ask for directions. It's really lucky."

(End of this chapter)