Chapter 591: First Challenge in the Tundra
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Link stood on the snowy peak and asked the sword spirit, “Is this direction right?”
An icy wind blew around him while the boundless icy plain was before him. The air was abnormally clean. Looking down from the peak with his excellent vision, Link could see hundreds of miles.
All of this land was the same tundra. What was different was that in the distance, it became darker; it was nighttime at the end. There was a clear difference between night and day in different parts of the north and south. This was a sight unique to the extreme north.
The general direction is right, but too much time has passed. I don’t know if the land has changed.
The sword spirit’s voice was full of uncertainty. The Storm Lord was from the ancient times and millenniums had passed. This was enough time for seas to turn into land.
Link had no choice but to continue searching in the general direction. Whether or not he could find the piece of the so-called Book of Creation depended on his luck.
I’ll search for three months at most. If there aren’t any clues after three months, I’ll give up. Link set a deadline for himself. He still had many things to do and couldn’t waste too much time on this.
Pulling his clothes tighter, Link said to the other three, “Alright, let’s continue.”
The three nodded. Nana took the lead and jumped down from the mountaintop. Then she ran down the slope. She looked as light as a floating leaf with perfect control of her strength.
She couldn’t do this before. In the past, Nana had perfect battle experience, but her fighting style depended on extreme speed and strength. If anyone could deal with those two, she would be in trouble.
Now, she was in a whole new state. Her techniques mixed with her perfect experience, and she had indescribable agility. This was the subtle effect of the Water of Miracles.
Eliard and Milose both cast flight spells to descend from the mountaintop. Though they were flying, they had to use all their might to catch up with Nana.
Link followed slowly behind them to erase their marks. They could be a bit careless in the Black Forest, but this was the extreme north. They were very close to the piece. If they didn’t hide themselves, it would be annoying if people came to cause trouble.
The four traveled more than 150 miles like this. The sky darkened gradually. After around 50 more miles, night fell completely.
Thankfully, the sky was still covered in stars. There was also ice and snow everywhere, so their vision wasn’t affected.
This place was not inhabitable and very few people stepped into this world of ice during the millenniums. Even the courageous adventurers wouldn’t come here. In many legends, this was even known as the end of the world.
No one knew what they would run into. For safety reasons, Link and the others slowed down. To avoid surprising some unknown existences, they didn’t even use spells and just walked on foot.
Though they were Magicians, all three had strong bodies. Nana went without saying. It was a bit cold, but they could handle it.
After a while, the cold wind stopped.
Crunch, crunch. Other than the sound of stepping in snow, the world was silent.
“It’s as quiet as a cemetery here.” Eliard hugged himself, feeling a bit anxious.
Milose looked side to side, hands gripping his wand tightly in preparation. “I just feel strange, like something’s watching us.”
Nana continued forward as before. She didn’t feel anything abnormal.
Link felt something strange too. This place was too quiet. His Magician instincts told him that if he continued walking, something would happen. However, this feeling was fuzzy. Like a spider web in the breeze, it was hard to grasp. All Link could do was compose himself and walk on in full alert.
As he walked, Link’s heart suddenly jumped. The surroundings had suddenly fallen silent. He couldn’t even hear footsteps anymore. Turning around hurriedly, he saw that Eliard, Milose, and Nana had all disappeared from the boundless tundra. Other than the white snow, there was nothing else around him.
Strange. How did they disappear? Link furrowed his brows. He hadn’t felt the surroundings change during this process. There were no Mana ripples, spatial ripples, or anything else. The three just vanished.
Link wouldn’t believe it. He walked to where their footprints had disappeared to check. He cast many detection spells but to no avail.
This was a bit strange.
Link stood in place to think. A few seconds later, he decided to retreat. What had happened was outside his range. Going forward wasn’t wise.
He turned to walk back, but then it felt even more wrong.
Deep in the extreme north, white snow was everything. Paired with the fact that it was night and even the wind had stopped, it was difficult to find one’s direction. Link could still tell north from south though. The southern sky was slightly brighter than the north. He also had a compass. Relying on the magnetic field, he could precisely distinguish north and south.
But now, Link discovered that the sky before and behind him was still the same sky. He looked down at the compass. It stayed frozen; it couldn’t distinguish the direction.
Link spun around and discovered something even more shocking.
The four sides are the same. They’re all going northward. No matter how I move, I’ll get closer to the northernmost point...The space must have been distorted, but I’ve never seen this technique before.
At this time, the sword spirit said, Link, for some reason, I suddenly thought of something.
Link really wanted to drag the sword spirit out of the sword and beat it up. Why did it have to wait until something had happened to tell him? Was it playing with Link?
He sighed and asked, “What is it? Tell me.”
I think it’s about that person. The one who’d stopped the Storm Lord from carelessly throwing the piece away. I suddenly remembered what he’d said. No, I didn’t remember it. It just jumped out by itself.
Hearing this, Link’s heart twitched. He felt that things weren’t as simple as he’d thought. There seemed to be something existing in the sword spirit’s memory that planned this.
“What did he say?”
He said that this is the first step. It’s a solo challenge.
“Oh?” Link fell into deep thought and came up with two points. First, everyone who came here probably had to face this test alone. Thus, Eliard, Milose, and Nana were separated from him. Second, he wasn’t the only who could pass this test, so there must be a second and third step until there was a final winner.
Here, Link stopped thinking. He continued walking deep into the icy plain.
Soon after he entered the test, two fiery-red figures arrived. They were Hamilton and Noa, Inferno Warriors from Aragu.
They didn’t have the calmness as when they’d first arrived in Firuman. They were in a panic as if a beast was chasing after them. Their glamorous leather armor had become tattered, and they were wounded too. Hamilton especially had a still-bleeding injury under his ribs. His pallor was white, and his steps were unsteady.
Noa beside him wasn’t any better. She’d had two curved fire swords but only had one now. There was a menacing wound on her right arm. The blood had frozen already, but more blood kept seeping from the ice. Her arm trembled.
“F*ck, they’re still chasing!” Hamilton gritted out. Speaking had pulled at his injury. He immediately clutched his chest and grunted.
“I didn’t expect Magicians in this world to be so powerful.” Noa’s eyes were filled with terror. These people were too frightening. They weren’t as strong, but no matter how the two fought, they couldn’t hit the enemy. And the enemy seemed able to predict their every move, always beating them to it.
If not for their power and the fear of the enemy, they wouldn’t be able to escape here.
Hamilton still wouldn’t admit defeat. “Hmph. They had four people and attacked secretly. Of course, we weren’t their match. If it was one on one, I’d halve them with one strike!”
Noa didn’t speak. She knew that this was just Hamilton’s ego speaking. In reality, they might not be a match even in a one on one battle. The Dark and Light Magicians were especially terrifying!
The two continued running forward without caring about anything else. Without realizing, the wind stopped, and then Hamilton felt his surroundings empty. He turned around, but Noa was gone.
“Noa? Noa?” he called. There was no reply.
...
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The Red Dragon Queen’s group also arrived. Eugene sniffed the air and cackled. “Those two aren’t far from us. Go, we’ll catch them soon.”
The other three could feel this two and naturally started chasing. After a while, the four were all in the strange territory, separated by the strange force.
Suddenly, the icy tundra had nine Legendary figures and the legendary Eliard trapped. These ten were facing the test of a certain ancient figure.
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