Chương 10: A Tundra Route
"Down the road, our capital lies. There, we bring a shipment of wine to them to celebrate. It's simply a larger building than the others, a large bar of sorts with a statue inside of it, a statue of our god, it's easy to find. It always has the most smoke rising from it every time the festival comes." The man explained.
"I'll have to advise you though, the wolfskins linger around at this time of the year."
"The wolfskins?" Venator asked, intrigued at the word.
"Just a bunch of raiders, they prefer attacking lone wanderers or wagons, rarely they will attack patrols if they bore valuables." He explained.
Venator quickly gulped down, finishing the cup.
"How much?"
"No need, it's wine month where we celebrate not only our god Cerevan, but celebrate wine and it's existence."
The man raised the bottle up. "TO WINE AND CEREVAN!" He yelled. The crowd shouted back in joy, taking sips of their cups.
"Thank you." Venator stepped down, exiting the bar.
Back outside, the warm interior was quickly replaced by the unforgiving cold of the outside.
He wasted no time, starting his walk.
"I hope those wolfskins try attacking me." He commented, despite shivering he gripped onto the handle of his sheathed blade.
More snow fell down to the ground than before, the forest seemed more dense with more leafless trees on both sides.
Through the trees, figures started emerging from both sides, slowly approaching Venator.
He stopped. The figures continued walking forward the road, bearing weapons.
Venator looked at the figures, getting a clearer picture of them once they went out.
"Just like the name then." He commented.
The group stopped once they exited except for one, a person wearing skin of white around his body as a coat, carrying a large axe with both his hands.
"Far from any way out are ya?"
With little hesitation, the blade slashed through in a quick motion, cutting the larger man's neck.
Venator smiled after, looking around at the others, raising his blade up, coated in blood.
The stunned crowd quickly switched to anger, all at once, they charged at Venator.
Rapidly, he began slashing through them, hitting different parts of his body, parrying their weapons, the air slowly became filled by sparks flying around.
Blood stained the snowy ground, more bodies falling down. As he slashed around, a few managed to land strikes, stabbing and slashing at Venator, the fight quickened as his attacks became faster from the hits.
The fight shortly ended. A sigh of relief, Venator took out his book, skimming through the pages, he landed on a single page. The healing magic bestowed by Silva.
A quick read through, his hand glowed green as the wounds slowly began healing, feeling the pain from them going away.
He scanned through, seeing the corpses that were becoming buried under the snow, dead and bleeding out.
He left the area, with a cleaned and sheathed blade he went back to the trip.
"That was fun." He said, breathing deeply.
The trip was long and arduous as more snowfall began, blinding the place beyond more.
A stone wall slowly emerged out of the blinding snow in the walk, in front of the pathway, a large portcullis stood, opened as people were already entering inside with guards walking around in heavy clothing and armor.
Venator slipped inside the group, joining with them as they all stepped inside.
Inside, each building was covered in snow as large pillars of smoke rose from each one, people walked around, carrying bottles as they strolled about. Breaking away from the group, Venator started looking around. Beyond the buildings, he can see a massive building, one with multiple towers of smoke coming out of it.
The walk began once again, passing by house after house, seeing the people stroll about as they carried bottles of their drinks while they did. Drunken or simply just taking sips.
Outside of the large place, crowds of people stood around even in the snowing outside. A large closed door stood made of wood, sealing the stone building from the outside elements.
Venator pushed the doors open with both hands.
Inside, long tables accommodating massive amounts of people were lined up. A loud ambience accompanying it.
People loudly talked around with the strong scent of berries filled the air, people with carts went around carrying cups and bottles of the same purple wine. Handing it to the attendants.
On the other side of the room, at the very end, a large bearded man stood, donning a coat and holding a large cup, extending it forward with his arm.
"Perhaps i can call a portal here."
A large stage stood on the opposite side, on it were bards, playing their instruments while a small group stood below the stage, joining in song.
He went back outside, leaving the loud place. Around the place, Venator searched for a secluded area to summon a portal.
After walking around, he found a small spot with nobody around.
The portal was summoned, Venator entered once it fully formed, closing as fast as it formed.
He was inside a large place, similar in build to the one he just entered, but instead, there were only 3 long tables extending far forward. With seats to accomadate people. At the very end of the center table, a figure sat.
"Ah, so you're the famous magic user hunter or killer." The figure spoke. Gulping down a large cup of it's contents. He had a large beard, speaking with a rough voice.
"I heard from the other gods, Silva and all, you keep to your word and always fight users." He stood up from his chair, making his way to Venator.
"I like that you dealt with the wolfskins, they become a nuisance at this time of the year. SO!" He placed his hand on Venator's shoulder. "The wolfskins have been given the power of magic, well a few of them, residing far in the mountains. They destroyed a whole city, pillaging for wine and other such drinks to create their own concoctions, the survivors sought refuge in the capital. Bearing fire, ice, and one of them in particular, an odd magic he bears, one that disorients their enemy. I saw a band of mercenaries suddenly look in a daze or become drunk once they went near him, quickly became cleaved by the others. About ten of them exist there, all with fire and ice except for that one single user. He seems to be the leader of the bunch." He explained. In his hand, a cup materialized filled with purple berry wine, taking a long sip from it once done.
"What do i get in return."
"Oh of course of course, the reward. Always need to have a reward for a job." He took off his hand from Venator's shoulder, moving back to the table.
"Well i would give you something from my world, but i don't wish to risk it, and given your job, it's not of your want. Instead, i can give you a different power. One of lightning, even in the day you shall bear the power of bolts striking the enemy down."
"Very well, consider the task done. Where can they be found?" Venator accepted the deal.
The man showed an image of the place, it was up on a mountain, surrounded by a mix of stone and wooden walls, circular in shape with many small buildings and camps built inside it, a large burning patch in the middle was surrounded by people.
"You may go your way now, and thank you for taking up the task hunter, it helps make my people safer."
Venator slowly formed a portal back to the cold world that awaited him.
Leaving the large place and the man, he became frightened as suddenly began falling down as it was waist deep, quickly consuming his lower half in it.
The snowfall was stronger as the winds blew it around. The view was heavily obscured in front of him.
With the new environment, Venator struggled to move forward, with difficulty navigating along with the waist deep snow and a colder area to walk in.
Fire struggled to spawn, dissipating rapidly once it has glowed in his hands, providing a short time to warm his hands.
The flames continued dissipating before they finally began lingering, a blue flame spawned on both hands, melting the snow around him into water. The path forward became easier to walk through as the flame kept burning and melting snow around him.
His shivering slowed as the blue flame emanated heat around his entire body, not burning but instead giving a feeling of warmth in the snow.
A long straight path lay behind him, he began walking upwards on where he was. His steps slowly rising upwards to the mountain he entered.
He stayed silent on the ascent, breathing deeper as he became more fatigued by the walk, but continued to walk onwards.
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