Capítulo 23: Chapter 23 - Adventures in the North 20.
"Chapter Size: 2245 Words."
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Jon Snow
North Kingdom, Wolfwoods, Glover Territory, 289 A.C., 3 moons later.
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"Come on, Jon! You can do better than that!" Ducken said, lifting and pointing his sword at Jon.
"I'm trying here..." Jon lamented, attempting to catch his breath, which was uneven at the moment, while trying to keep his sword raised.
"Let's keep going!" Jon said after regaining some breath. He stood a few meters from Ducken, who waited for the child in front of him to take the lead in attacking. It happened as expected.
Jon launched his attack with style and firmness in his cut, even though it was made by a child at the end of his 8 namedays. The sword collided with Ducken's other sword, easily stopping the child's attack.
Jon didn't wait another second to withdraw his weapon and launch a side attack, which was equally stopped by Ducken. But Jon persisted, vertical and horizontal cuts with good footwork, were made in the next few minutes. However, the boy never managed to break through the defenses of the adult man in front of him, who seemed to be playing with the boy.
"I think that's enough for today, Jon," he said to the boy, who sighed. He could barely catch his breath while being quite sweaty from the two-hour training.
"I know you want to get stronger, Jon. And damn, your movements and footwork already humble me if you compare them to my skills. But you're still a child; your potential is limitless, but you have to grow first. So, don't rush..." Ducken said as he looked at the boy. He had been training him for many moons, but no matter how much the boy improved and displayed a blade skill he had never seen before, he still needed to grow, absorb real combat experience, and create his own muscle memories, which could only develop over the years.
"I guess I can understand..." Jon sighed as he sheathed his custom-made sword with William's help.
"I'll deal with the giants then," Ducken said, leaving the area with a slight nod to Jon. The training location was a bit away from the old structures; with the help of the giants, they managed to create a space after removing some stones and cutting down some trees.
While Jon watched Ducken attend to the spectators who had just arrived, he prepared to return to the main area. While Ducken would be using that same space to train the giants, Jon convinced them to train as human warriors.
Giants usually didn't reach their full potential, as they lacked interest in and the development of an art for fighting, much like most of the Free Folk. They were more inclined to showcase their strength and ability as they fought in their lives, without any training since a very young age.
Seeing this hidden potential, because better than a giant who could swing a log, was a heavily armed giant who could fight with a giant sword and a colossal shield more effectively. While 15 men could deal with a traditional giant, I doubt a group of 30 armed men could effectively handle the same using this set of weapons.
After teaching Ducken keywords in the ancient language for giant training, he began training them with 4-meter wooden swords, which would be exchanged for steel once Jon and William finished their projects. Since the training began two moons ago, Ducken has been educating them rigorously every day. As the giants learn to follow the training, the man Jon asked to be their weapons master has lost some of the fear of angering a giant with this training.
Just as Ducken learned a bit of the ancient language, Jon is teaching the giants in the common tongue, but the most dedicated are the small twins and Seryna, who always accompany him after the boy Snow's physical training.
Arriving at the center of the location, he saw some wolves roaming freely. The she-wolf, Blackarrow, was next to her mate, Shadow, as she lay with her huge pregnant belly exposed, with a tongue sticking out between her massive fangs. She seemed to be enjoying the forest breeze alongside her mate as a cool wind blew over them.
"I can't wait to see these pups, Blackarrow! Shadow!" Jon said as he approached her, gently stroking the giant she-wolf and her partner. Meanwhile, both wolves, who were several times larger than their masters, let out a joyful whine at his touch. He only saw this couple here, as the other wolves had gone hunting in the forest at this time.
Leaving the wolves aside, Jon walked over to three giants seated on a massive bench, waiting for him. Seryna could be training with the other giants right now, but she preferred to take her time learning Jon's language. And the girl was difficult to convince otherwise when she decided on something, so the boy sighed.
"Let's go over some words again, as we reviewed yesterday." Jon announced to his younger students.
"JON...I...AM...LEARNING!" The young giant spoke with a bit of difficulty.
"I can see, Seryna, congratulations..." He said with a small smile.
"I...WILL...MARRY...JON!" She exclaimed after that.
"HEHEHEHEHEHE"
"HEHEHEHEHEHE"
While Jon shook his head at Seryna's antics, the giant children, Carruuyi and Tuuuxy, laughed along. The lesson continued until Luffy was quite satisfied with them and concluded the session after teaching some ways to communicate and words.
The young Stark-blooded boy went to a large forge, compared to the old place; it was a much better location now. Jon, in addition to fixing the place in the broken parts with William's help, redesigned many things to build larger equipment for the giants.
"JON! You're finally here." William said as he saw Jon entering the forge.
"William, how are things?" The child asked.
"I'm doing well. Why don't you help me level this 3-meter sword?" William couldn't help but complain; it was quite laborious for him, at a size of 1.6 meters, to deal with a weapon that came out of the forge almost twice his size.
Jon approached William, grabbing a hammer. Coming beside William, they looked at the powerful sword without its edge, with the metal glowing red from the high heat.
"Are we going to make it this time?" Jon asked casually.
"I hope so, Jon; this is our third attempt..." William grumbled.
"Okay, let's start. I'll handle the bottom, you level the top..." Jon said as he went to the base and began hammering the lower metal. William also struck the tip of the sword. This lasted until the next hour.
*Crack*
In the area where William was hammering, a crack was heard and seen growing.
"Not again!" William grumbled.
"Alright, it's not like we're going to learn to do this quickly." Jon said so that the young man didn't feel too bad.
"But we've been at this for a week!" He protested.
"And it'll take another 10 weeks if necessary, William, patience..." The boy said.
"Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm talking to a child..." William muttered, but Jon ignored it with a smile.
"Anyway, I'm heading to my lab; you reshape the sword again, and we'll try again tomorrow, okay?" Jon said.
"Yes, leave it to me..." Once he received his answer, Jon left the forge and went to one of the abandoned houses. The giants didn't use this side for housing, so Jon created his own lab there.
Entering the place, he saw various vials of different colors on shelves and many empty vials as well, as they would be used for new formulas.
Next to it, there was a garden with various types of plants, many of which he created with the seeds he had in his bag. There were some that he genetically modified to create specific effects in his potions.
Jon managed to create a healing potion, something that never existed in this world, thanks to his knowledge and power. He could change the entire alchemical knowledge of the world.
"I'm making progress, but it's still not enough..." He muttered as he looked at his filled vials.
Jon had been working on something for a long time that could temporarily increase his strength because he was still a weak child, dying in any fight in a frontal combat, regardless of how skillful he might appear holding a sword. In the end, he was still quite physically weak...
The rest of the day, Jon worked on his potions, trying to develop his research. It was late in the afternoon when he felt something from his winged scouts. A bird that had gone to FrostRoar returned, catching his attention. He quickly accessed his memories remotely. Jon had been getting more skilled with his powers in the last few moons as he trained.
"I see, so it has begun!" Jon murmured. He had been monitoring the city for a long time because after his reports directly to his father, he wanted to keep an eye on the moves of Lord Carlen Frotniid.
A lot had happened since then. Firstly, the lord was infuriated by the annihilation of all his soldiers when he pursued Jon and the others. This made most of his men feel hesitant to follow orders to track Jon and his camp in WolfWoods.
But not only were his revenge plans going awry, but they also triggered an investigation led by Lord Glover himself into his vassal after the Lord of Winterfell requested it. Two moons later, evidence was discovered regarding human trafficking.
With no way to escape, Carlen Frotniid and his son were sentenced to imprisonment until the public trial in the last moon. The next day, their trial would be conducted by Deepmott's lord himself, but Jon wasn't interested in that now.
Not that he wouldn't be afraid to return to the city. He had returned to the place a few times in these moons to pick up some books. Unfortunately, most common people were illiterate, so the book trade was very limited, with only a small store in the city. But the boy managed to get some interesting books to read during this time.
In addition to going to get the books, Jon had to interfere with an order from Carlen Frotniid to try to extract information from William's aunt's family, which resulted in his fury. It didn't take long for a swarm of birds to attack all the men who were going to use William's aunt to try to harm him.
It resulted in a bunch of men shouting that it was the witchcraft of little Jon, truly making them fear the boy, as his reputation among Lord Frotniid's men was extremely intimidating. There were reports of his men being devoured by Jon's giant wolves and seeing a flock of birds attack them, leaving permanent scars on their faces, didn't help much.
Even Carlen Frotniid couldn't escape his wrath. The birds attacked the man in his office as well, leaving a huge scar, proof to him that he should no longer interfere in Jon's affairs, as the boy showed him that he could die at any moment. This truly scared him, no longer meddling with William's aunt's family.
Jon could have killed him, it would have been easy, but even breaking many beliefs since leaving Winterfell, Jon still believed that it wasn't honorable to kill a man like that, and it would only paint him as a murderer without giving the lord a trial.
However, even though Jon no longer interfered with House Frotniid and focused on his goals, soon the investigation began to bear fruit, and many human trafficking schemes were being uncovered.
Jon knew that besides the execution of Lord Frotniid, his son was sentenced to the Wall. The boy looked like a scared child, but no one had pity after all he had done. Many guards were also sentenced, and some had trials to accompany their master in the beheading.
Jon also learned that his father was leading men to end not only one place where slaves were kept but several throughout the North. He was going to Bear Island to judge Lord Mormont, Jorah Mormont, who was also part of the scheme. From what he heard, his father summoned many lords to attack the slavers' bases as soon as he returned from the island. So the North was in turmoil at this moment.
But Jon didn't care much about that. Things were happening because of his intervention, but he couldn't do much, choosing to focus only on his duties, which were training with Ducken, teaching Seryna and the others, working with William in the forge, conducting alchemical experiments, and helping the giants in the iron mine.
He had planned to stay a few moons in the location, but ended up having to plan more time here. He also kept some contact with his siblings in Winterfell but had to stop once Lady Stark tried to kill the raven, which left him infuriated, almost causing him to return the favor with some scars on her face. But he refrained because he didn't find that right, even if the woman was a dog.
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