With his spoils retrieved and his exploration now complete. Marcus floated up and out of the glacier.
‘Hm judging by the moons I think that I still have a few hours before the sun rises. Now I need to find a place where I can leave my new treasures.’
Floating down and into the ground, he delved about four hundred feet beneath the surface, before creating a blast of mana that opened up a space underground.
He then unloaded everything he had just placed into his item box, filling this space with the items he had obtained within the glacier.
‘I should probably not need it.’ Marcus thought as he left his scythe behind.
This way he would be able to easily find his new cache and protect it from afar should anything find it.
Of course, should he run into trouble, he could always call his soul bound weapon back to him, even if it meant finding this place would be more difficult later.
Once that was done, he made his way back to the surface and headed towards his camp.
‘Looks like everything is still peaceful.’.
Seeing that the tents were undisturbed and that Trisra was still sitting out and keeping watch, Marcus descended into his tent and simply waited for the sun to rise.
The next day soon came and their small group of four continued their journey through the Verkoudhied Mountains and to the ice elf city.
‘Can they even call this a road!?’ Marcus thought as they ascended the mountains.
The higher they got, the less maintained the area they were traveling through became.
At a certain point he was sure this could not be considered a road or even a path anymore, and it was simply the least steep area of the mountain.
It was horribly rocky, and now Marcus understood why the carriage had such good shock absorption. Because otherwise they would all be flying around wildly.
Still, neither Bianca nor her attendants seemed perturbed by this, and the echor goats were happily bounding along while pulling the carriage behind them.
Eventually, they made it deep into the mountains where there was perpetually snow, and storms were common.
This was the natural barrier that had kept the ice elves safe and relatively hidden for centuries.
“We are almost there now. We simply need to make it to the pass between those two peaks ahead of us and we will be able to see the city. Though first we will need to stop at the checkpoint their to make sure that you are cleared to enter.” Bianca said, pointing up towards their destination while they had stopped for lunch.
Staring intently at this area, he tried to find any sign of an outpost, but all he saw was snow.
He figured that it was either well camouflaged or that it was simply built on the other side so as to not be visible from here.
When they had finished eating lunch, the journey upwards began again, as they soon passed the twenty-five-thousand-foot elevation range and aimed even higher.
Continuing on, when the sun had fallen behind the mountains they finally made to the top of the pass and the ice elf outpost came into view.
Though it was less of an outpost and more of a huge fort that blocked the entire pass and the view of the city behind it.
As soon as they came up onto the pass, an ice elf who was keeping watch sounded a horn, alerting everyone to Bianca’s carriage.
Naturally though, it was clear that this carriage was of ice elvish make, and the coachman was one of their own.
Pocking his head out of the carriage, Marcus watched as an ice elf mounted on the back of a large pure white moth began flying towards them.
And when they got closer and saw Marcus’ face, their expression hardened and it was obvious that they were not pleased to see someone who was not an ice elf.
“Ambassador Valorre, I see that you have brought a human with you.” This ice elf said with a tinge of hostility in his voice.
“Yes Commander Lyklor. This here is Lady Irene Geist from Borealia, and she is going to be their representative here in Glenna Reota. I believe that I made sure that everything was preapproved before our arrival.” Bianca said with a smile on her face.
In contract, Commander Lyklor grunted and frown, certainly not pleased to see Marcus and even less so to let him into their city.
“You are correct, but first we need to thoroughly search her. We cannot be too careful with humans.” Lyklor said while glaring at Marcus.
The commander then led them into the fort and brought them to an isolated area.
Getting out of the carriage, Marcus opened up his arms and said, “Search away. I have nothing to hide.”
After that Lyklor performed a very thorough search of Marcus, having him remove most of his clothing other than his underwear, and patting him down.
Of course, Lyklor did this more as a means to make Marcus uncomfortable and angry, hoping that he might object and give him grounds to bar his entry.
However, Marcus simply stood there and let Lyklor finish his search, even using a magic item to detect that his item box was empty.
“Fine it looks like you are clear.” Lyklor said with disdain.
He had been hoping and ordered to do what he could to try and keep Marcus out.
There were still plenty of ice elves that wished to be completely isolated and hated having any relationship with outsiders, especially humans.
Though it was not like Marcus was human, but he really did not care to clear up this confusion to Lyklor who already very much disliked him.
“Well, if my guest and Borealia’s knew representative is now permitted to enter, we shall be taking our leave to the main city.” Bianca said with a smirk.
“Yes, she is free to go into the city now, but make sure that she is never left on her own to roam. She must always be accompanied by an ice elf when not in your residence Ambassador Valorre, or she will be thrown out of the city immediately.”
Nodding her head, Bianca said, “Yes of course. At least until the council has approved of her and she has been given her own residence and is considered an honorary member of our community.”
Bianca then beckoned Marcus back into their carriage and exited the fort while leaving Commander Lyklor fuming.
Once they had left the fort and appeared on the other side. For the first Time Marcus laid his eyes on the ice elf city of Glenna Reota.
Surrounded on all sides was a bowl like indent in the mountains where the city was located.
Yet it was far from what Marcus had imagined looking almost like a futuristic city.
Large spires made of blue and white stone jutted up high into the air, and attached to them was an intricate and far reaching rail system.
Along with that there were what looked like cable cars that were all over the city, giving it a transportation system unlike anything that Marcus had ever seen.
Seeing this surprised and stunned look on Marcus’ face, Bianca lightly chuckled and said, “Yes that is the same expression everyone makes when they first see our city.”
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