Dritan Gray had served as the elder of the ice temple at Ayr city for nearly 30 years. Nothing brought him more joy than to help people in need. This was true until one of the temple's relief expeditions during his tenure as a priest at the temple.
The expedition was set to rescue the survivors from an avalanche. Almost half the village was swept underneath. Among the few, they were able to find a baby girl. Unfortunately, her parents had passed away while trying to save her. Not wanting to leave her all alone in an orphanage, Dritan decided to take the baby as his own.
From that point on, even after he had become an elder of the temple, the greatest joy for him was to hear her stories after he came back. The once baby girl had grown up to be a fine young woman who helped as a priestess in the temple. Seeing her spending time with kids and helping them, only made him proud.
Although she became a bit rebellious after finding out that she was adopted, she still stuck with him. But whenever she came to him addressing differently, he knew that she needed to be pacified even if he had to do everything he could.
When his adopted daughter stormed towards the carriage to welcome him, he knew something was amiss.
"Old man, we need to talk."
Dritan could only awkwardly laugh before sighing.
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As time passed, it became almost routine to hunt, clean and then set up camp for Noah.
Over the course of the journey, Noah was able to successfully hunt wild boars, deers and rabbits which gave him a lot of time to practice his bow and spear skills.
After using the sword repeatedly for killing and cleaning, the blade became blunt and almost unusable.
With Skadi's help, Noah learnt how to use ice touch to create a coating of ice on top to create a sharp edge. Although this required him to constantly supply mana to maintain the shape, the weapon itself became much stronger than before.
Following a similar idea, Noah created his arrows from twigs and branches after shaping them up evenly. Although the body of the arrow couldn't compare to the ones he got from the temple, it wasn't all that bad as his skills weren't still up to mark for him to use it at a very long range.
The arrowhead itself was made while he shot. Using a small piece of stone to add enough weight, he created the arrow by coating the stone with a thin but sharp layer of ice that stuck the head to the body of the arrow.
After five days of constant hunting and camping, Noah finally made it to Aruk village.
Although the snow stopped falling between the forest path he had taken, Noah could only rest easy after reaching the village as he was very short on medical supplies.
Creating a makeshift sledge with dry wood pieces, Noah took out some of the hide and meat from his inventory.
From Skadi's reaction, Noah knew that space related abilities were uncommon. Wanting to keep a low profile, Noah decided to prepare the goods to sell beforehand.
Entering the village, Noah was able to spot the town's mercenary guild. Walking forward, Noah's appearance easily caught the eyes of the villagers. Wearing thick clothes covering his full body including his face by a scarf, Noah dragged the sledge packed with goods across the dirt with only a single hand while keeping his other hand on the hilt of the sword.
Noah did this to make sure others didn't try to steal from him thinking that he was an easy target. Although this somehow brought him even more attention to his dismay.
On reaching the guild, Noah found the receptionist and started discussing price for the goods.
"18 pieces of meat and 20 hides. We can give you 40 silver for that? Is that fine?"
"Umm, can I know the conversion rate?"
"Boy, there are no conversion rates here. If you don't like it, don't take it. So what will it be?"
Before Noah could respond, a large bulky, bald and bearded man came in between.
"Oh here you are, I was wondering what was taking you so long? The kid's with me."
"Edgar? Another stray?" Sigh.
Before Noah could interfere, the receptionist finally gave in and handed out 60 silvers to the large man after which he gave it to Noah.
Silently accepting the goodwill, Noah kept quiet and followed the large man outside.
After walking for a while, Noah was led to a small house. The house looked a little old but quite beautiful as well with pots of flowers surrounding the veranda.
After settling in at a small dining table in the house, the old man finally spoke.
"I am Edgar, an old-timer and a mercenary at the guild. I don't mean to interrogate you but when you see a kid carrying that many wolf hides I have to ask what intentions you have…"
Noah started explaining his situation albeit a slightly altered one. He told him how he left the orphanage to a temple and escaped from there to avoid being sent somewhere else. When asked about how he got the wolf hides, Noah told him that he had learnt to hunt while he was in the orphanage. Although it wasn't common there were places in the north where this happened before which convinced the old-timer. Finally, when he was asked why he had covered his face, Noah explained it as a precautionary step and removed the scarves.
As Edgar was about to answer, a woman carrying flower pots entered.
"Edgar? Oh my, who is this child?"