The northern Sleepless Mountains are more snow-covered than the southern Sleepless Mountains, and Talia Peak appears to be slightly higher than Sharon Peak, so it is often thought of as the older of the sister peaks.
The three men walking on the ice field are always far from each other.
The rope around their waists is their common bond.
This way, if one of them accidentally falls into the ice crevice, the other two can work together to rescue him.
Deerskin packed clothes were dragged behind them.
These are the burdens, but also their survival guarantees.
As a newborn vampire, Leddy is more sensitive to sunlight.
She finally learns that the hood on her leather armor is not only for protection from the cold, but also for protection from the sun.
Before embarking on the glacier, the group needed to pass through a narrow maze of ice hangings.
Even though she knew she wouldn't get lost, Sela called the group to a halt."I should go in the front.
I'm the lightest.
If I accidentally fall into the ice crevice, the rescue afterwards will be less effort."
But if I can get through those fragile layers of ice, you should be able to too.
That way, no one will fall." Keane said.
"I prefer Sela's idea." Leddy said.
But I think it's better for me to go ahead.
In my current weakened state, if you fall down the ice crevice, Sela and I may not be able to rescue you.
But if I fall through an ice crevasse, both of you will have the strength to rescue me."
The shortest ice ridges, the shortest distances.
These pre-selected optimal paths pale in comparison when one is in the presence of them.
The seemingly solid ice hangings will fall off in the shock of the cold wind.
The sharp rocks and ice prisms will coldly cut the ropes that bind them.
Sela was relieved when her two companions climbed up the icy waterfall.
I like to do needlework, even though it occasionally pricks my hand.
But when I use a rope to thread a needle in a place like this—she removed her gloves and moved her numb fingers—"it's a good thing we had a long enough rope."
As he retrieved the rope, Leddy looked down at the waterfall and shivered, "It's like ice spike hell down there." I don't want to be blown down by a sudden gust of wind.
Let's just go ahead and rest."
Given that the capsule was already frozen, Keane had to break off a section of the ice pendant and bring it to his mouth, only to find something strange in it."It's frozen with air bubbles in it." No wonder some of the ice hangings are so fragile.
Leddy also broke a piece of ice hanging, "I've seen a similar phenomenon." It was a cold winter night.
I took a torch to the ice lake to catch fish.
When I chiseled the ice, the torch aside lit up with colored flames, just like the Temple of the Spirits.
It was eye-catching.
From then on, I went to the ice lake every day to catch fish.
She exhaled a cold breath, "I don't always have a full catch, I just love seeing the flames."
On the open glacier, the three were resting against their luggage.
They did not care about the faint "creaking" sound coming from the ice below, until the noise approached beneath them.
Seeing that the situation was critical, Keane swung his sword and severed the bond between the three."Run!" He pulled Leddy up and fled to the nearest rock shelf.
Even though she knew that was the intention of her companion, Sela did not escape alone.
She waved out a cold mist to freeze the ice that was about to crack, buying extra time for her companion.
The movement behind, as if chasing the wildfire thunder, the next moment will reach the body.
Three people just stepped onto the rock shelf.
Behind them, the ground was already shaking.
Like lightning tearing the sky, the ice surface shattered.
Immediately after, the glacier broke apart in front of their eyes.
The rushing air pushed the huge ice chunk into the abyss.
Faced with the glacial valley created by Talia Peak in one breath, the three were in shock.
Leddy sat there frozen on his knees for a long time before his mind took over again."We lost the supplies that we relied on to survive." Is there anything worse than that? "
"The most important thing is that we're not hurt." Sela forced herself to play it cool, hoping to encourage her companions.
Leddy buried his face in his arms and said, "We won't make it through the night without those supplies."
Keane clenched his chattering teeth for a moment before speaking, "We can." He pointed ahead to a gentle slope covered with snow and said, "Let's set up camp there."
Leddy shook his head, "There's no suitable material there." Are we going to sleep in the snow?"
"No, we're going to sleep under the snow cover."
----------
The snow on the gentle slopes had long been compacted by the cold winds.
Although the lines left on the surface of the snow are very scattered, the deeper lines show that the north wind prevails here as well as in most of Noah's.
"Since there's no shortage of snow here, we'll build a snow shack." Keane thrust his short sword into the snow to measure the thickness.
After choosing a location, he unloaded his shield and used it as a shovel to start digging."Mud, wood, stone; they will also become as cold as snow when they get here." Instead of looking for other building materials, we should use the snow as a building material.
Sela collected the snow and compacted it with her shield."I'm reinforcing the roof of the rough shed.
Want to come help?"
The companions were struggling to survive, and they were risking their lives for themselves.
Thinking about this, Leddy saw no reason to sulk.
She had understood the job at hand and took up the shield to help."I'm becoming more and more convinced of that saying that shields were born in the North, and no one knows shields better than we do." In addition to being used in combat, it can also be used as a pillow, a plate, or a shovel.
That's why we don't leave our shields behind."
After digging a strip, Keane proceeded to expand the interior space of the snow shelter until it could accommodate three people moving around in it.
He then drilled several air holes with his short sword.
Seeing Sela take out the fire pot, Leddy wondered, "The heat will make the snow melt." Then the snow shack will collapse.
"That's what I thought before.
Let's see." Sela baked over the inner wall with the fire cup, and the melted snow quickly re-condensed to form a layer of ice walls.
I was once told to hide in the snow if the wind and snow were around, not to be in the wind."The 'wind breath' of Kiel (the god of atmosphere and storms of the Wissane world) is more deadly than the 'frost language'." Keane crafted an egg-sized snowball, and something from the past flashed before his eyes.
Leddy quickly understood the purpose of the snowballs: "Before going to bed, we use these to seal the hole." Leave it to me."
Keane set up a trip wire under the snow around the shack.
The end of the trip wire is tied to a short sword standing inside the shack."If anything comes near, it will step on the trip wire and pull the sword down to wake us up."
"We used a ringer before, didn't we?" Leddy asked.
"Right.
But there are only three of us now.
We're hiding under the snow and we don't know anything about the outside world." Sela tapped on the ice wall, "Again, it's hard for the guys out there to spot us." But if they hear the bell, they'll know they've been spotted."
As Leddy regained her confidence, her mind came to life again."The best case scenario is that we find them and they don't even know we exist."
"That's right." Sela responded.
Sela's light smile was warmer than the fire goblet in her clothes.
But the thought that they had nothing but the weapons they carried with them made Leddy's clouds of sorrow unrelenting.
Later, I'll try to find our line of clothing.
Hopefully, by then Talia's anger will have died down." Sela joked.
After sealing the air holes on the windward side, the snow shack is completely isolated from the cold wind.
The presence of three firepots made the place as warm as spring.
The rising heat melted a little of the ice wall.
But on the way down, the water droplets quickly condensed into ice.
----------
Firewood, honey, wine, food, thick buckskin...
The lost and found travel clothes filled up the small shack.
In front of the torch, Leddy simply heats up the food."Back from the dead." I don't know when I started to dread that feeling.
I think it was that narrow encounter with the dingo.
To save the cow, I threw a torch at the hawk.
Instead of being scared off, it flapped its wings and attacked me."
"Noah, where the land is sparsely populated, is never short of large beasts, and even the raptors are such bullies." Sela raised her wine capsule, "Here's to you surviving, or we wouldn't have met each other."
Keane also raised his wine capsule, "Yes, in its eyes, we are rabbits and rats."
Leddy spoke with such gusto that she might have stood up if the space hadn't been so tight."I wasn't thinking about it that much.
That was my only livestock, and if I lost it, I would have to starve."
"And then what happened?" Sela asked.
Later, the guy knocked me down with his wings.
It had many ways to kill me, each of which prompted me to fight back desperately.
If the villagers hadn't poured out, I would have had trouble surviving.
I picked up the feathers it shed as trophies." Leddy pulled out his longsword and said, "A bard named Hahn Chunshan passed through the village, calling himself' The Good'." He told me the feathers were worthless.
So I traded those feathers to him for this perfectly ordinary sword.
Afterwards, I learned that a lord was planning to get married, and he was willing to exchange sheep for dire eagle feathers to decorate his house.
The villagers soon found out that Hane Chunsan was a shameless liar, so they poked him in one eye with a pitchfork and drove him out of the village."
"That counts for a lot." Sela nodded her head.
When I first set foot on this continent, I encountered a similar con man.
He was a boatman, not like the natives.
Probably to cover his tracks, he came up with a bizarre name for himself: Sheergan Dong Chun."
"That's not very smart," Keane says.
Yeah, if you really want to cover your tracks, you should use a name that's plain and unassuming." Leddy nodded, "And what happened? What exactly happened?
"The fellow ferried me from the big boat to the shore in a small boat." He told me that gold and silver were worthless here, and he suggested that I trade my plate for his furs, and that I should please him with my body." Sela sighed disdainfully, "Before the business was even settled, this Shergun Dong Chun was so impatient to drop his pants and jump on me, he really thought I was a weak woman." She wiped her finger across her lower lip and said, "I'm not going to drink his blood.
The smell of him makes me sick to my stomach." She took out the peculiar short sword and said, "I'm not good at killing, but I'm good at doing surgery." While he was confused by my cold hands, I used this sword to cut off his lifeblood.
That way, he no longer had to go around 'drying sausages'."
Leddy was a little puzzled and touched Sela's hand."You are not cold all over because you are dead." I can feel your body heat, as warm as a living person."
"I had just woken up from hibernation at the time, so my body temperature was lower than usual." Sela explained, her eyes on the throbbing fire, "Yes, we are dead.
But only when dormant are we dead."
"If not rescued, that guy will soon die of blood loss." Even if he gets rescued, he won't dare drink water for a few days." Keane looked at Sela's short sword and said, "Can I see it?"
Of course, be careful of the spikes on the hilt of the sword.
It's stained with my blood.
Don't get stabbed by it, unless you want to join us." Sela grinned at Leddy.
The short sword is as long as an adult's arm and as wide as the palm of his hand.
The sword is blood red and matte.
The irregular engraving is both decorative and blood grooves.
It is more like a saber due to the single-sided open blade.
The curvature of the grip is very elaborate, which is conducive to holding and powering.
The most puzzling thing for Keane is the two canine-like spikes mentioned by Sela.
because once the force is applied, the spikes will pierce the user's flesh.
"Does it have an origin?" Keane asked.
"It is called "Scarlet." When I became a vampire, several undead priests cast it with the blood of my life and death mixed with steel.
They said the sword would grow with me.
Sela said.
"Growth? How does a sword grow? " Leddy asked.
"I think that means for me to drink my fill of blood with it." I haven't used this sword much.
If it hadn't been a critical situation that day, it would have been lying in my walking bag." Sela pointed to the two spikes on the grip and said, "When the target is cut, the blood flowing through the sword will be injected into my body through the pair of spikes."
"That makes sense." Keane nodded his head.
Leddy took the short sword and walked out of the nest.
The blood-red blade danced in the air.
Before long, she was panting from weakness.
In past battles, Keane had noticed that Leddy's movements were not very fluid, but he could never think of the reason.
Now, seeing the female warrior swinging her short sword, he finally came up with an answer.
I don't think a long sword is for you.
A short sword similar to the length of your arm would be more appropriate.
"But that would shorten the attack distance." Leddy swung his longsword a few times.
"You're a woman, after all, not as strong as a man." An overly long sword blade will only slow you down." Keane explained.
"I think I see what you mean." Sela threw a handful of snow crumbs and clutched another handful into a snowball, saying, "The shorter the weapon of the same weight, the easier it is to handle and the more lethal it is." Just like the war hammer, it can be short and compact.
"Yes," A war hammer, on the other hand, necessitates a harsh counterweight at the grip.And its weight can be a burden in action."
Leddy swung the two weapons, relishing the difference in weight and length.
Afterwards, she nodded, "You're right." No matter how much I practice, I will never be able to surpass a man in strength, but I can choose a more suitable weapon to compensate."
It was late at night and a strong wind was blowing on the glacier.
The trio returned to the shack to seal the hole.
The cold air seeping through the crevices and air holes spawned sleepiness, and Leddy slept in the center, flanked by the warm backs of his companions.
----------
The shortsword fell on Keane.
He immediately woke up, then grabbed the short sword and shield, and removed a snowball that sealed the air hole.
He peered out.
The sky had dawned and a group of short, upright walking creatures dragged the remains of a mammoth past the nest.
Sela peered through another air hole, "That looks like a dwarf or gnome." They should be able to communicate.
We can go say hello."
The three men walked out of the shack.
The dragging tracks on the snow began in the snowfield to the south.
Oddly enough, there were only scattered traces of blood there.
This suggests that it is not where the mammoth was first captured and killed.
They followed the tracks north to a ridge.
The dwarf creatures were clustered in a shallow cavern below.
Their skin was a dark green or lime color, and they occasionally emitted an ear-piercing scream.
"It looks like they're more like gnomes." Sela sighed.
"And it's difficult to communicate." Keane responded.
"I didn't think there were such things on the ice fields." I thought they only lived in the North Wind Wilderness.
These darned little things appear in flocks in the fields when the grain harvest is in season.
They also steal sheep and chickens." Leddy laughed at the antics of the snowy gnomes and said, "Sometimes I don't know whether to slaughter these guys or throw them in a cage."
The gnomes dragged the mammoth remains to a central position in the cave, after which they crowded around a scarecrow and danced around it.
The scarecrow was draped in a long skirt, with a twine headband and a broomstick standing next to it.
Keane wiped his beard, which he hadn't had time to clean, and said, "Could they be worshipping Varola (the Wissane world goddess of agriculture and earth)?"
Sela looked closely at the scarecrow and thought about the descriptions of the goddess, "Well, the stolen scarecrow was dressed up as a statue." The guy who came up with this idea should be very clever."
Leddy has long been surprised by the borderline behavior of the gnomes."If I were Varola, I wouldn't teach them to grow crops." She pointed to the animal bones and shredded skins piled at the scarecrow's feet, saying, "They ate old Murdoch (Varola's sheepdog) and expected to be sheltered by the goddess." Where in the world is this good? "
"Maybe they are planning to make a statue of a shepherd out of those scraps." Sela speculated.
After a few moments, the goblins danced around to another "statue".
The body of this statue is the remains of a horse.
Its neck was replaced by a wooden stick.
Above the stick was a wooden barrel.
At the tail of the horse lies a broom.
A large number of branches were placed on either side of the body.
The statue seems to be unfinished, or the craftsman did not know how to continue.
By the way, what's that again? Varola doesn't need a sheepdog that big." Leddy teased.
"Maybe I can ask for you." It was like a joke, but there was an eerie seriousness between Sela's expressions.
Keane, still haunted by his earlier suspicions, subconsciously pulled out his weapon and said, "They'll only meet you with a spear." Uh, no, I mean short spears.
In any case, we can't handle that many goblins."
"No, I don't want to fight them." Sela fumbled around in her bag, "I just needed to tell them I was Varola."
----------
First some gobbling, then some chewing, the gnome chief finally fed himself.
He got up from the mammoth wreckage, righted the crooked ram's horn crown, and then sat down in front of the two statues with his bulging stomach.
The other gnomes made faint grunting noises, urging the chief.
Seeing the chief open his arms and let out a shout, they dropped the short spear in their hands and pounced on the wreckage to gobble it up.
The feast was in full swing.
A gnome who was tired of swallowing lifted his head to get a respite.
Suddenly, he pointed behind the chief and let out a scream, his eyes staring straight at the scarecrow there.
The gnomes looked up and were surprised to find an additional "statue" next to the original one.
flower and grass woven head ring, clean clothes, holding a burning broom.
This new "statue" is perfect.
Seeing all the gnomes' attention on himself, the "statue" pointed his finger down at the scarecrow and pointed at himself.
The gnomes exchanged words in twos and threes.
The gnome leader cocked his head and compared the two statues, rolling his eyes and thinking about something.
The goblins quieted down a bit, and the "statue" repeated her previous actions.
Then, she cast a "magic" to create a piece of dried meat and gestured to the goblin leader to come forward.
The gnome leader's eyes were full of suspicion, but his body walked over honestly.
He stretched out his filthy little hand and grabbed the jerky and smelled it.
The aroma was enticing, so he boldly bit into it.
Seeing the chief eating with gusto, the other gnomes have gulped and looked at the statue.
The "statue" again pointed to the scarecrow next to him, and then pointed to himself.
The goblin leader no longer suspected, he screamed and danced around the "statue".
Other goblins danced with the leader.