Chapter 237 - Ice and Fire

Two days later.

Michael finally arrived at his destination after an arduous journey through the cold and evading monsters that could easily snuff the life out of him.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The cold wind softly blew against his body as Michael stood there just staring at the scene before him with amazement.

"Huh! Would you look at that? So there were really people living here" Michael said with a laugh.

Michael is, in fact, raising his hands in the air right now because there are three men with their arrows pointed towards him as they stood on top of their wooden wall that surrounds their little village.

The village is really small, probably around one hundred meters in diameter, the surroundings of the village wall are fortified with an abatis or spiked barricades, but the weird thing is that Michael could feel a soft and warm breeze coming from the village.

"State your name! Who are you!? How did you get here!?" a man wearing an animal fur coat warily said with his arrow ready to let loose and strike at Michael if he ever made any weird movements that they would perceive as a threat.

"Hey, hey, hey! Chill!" Michael smiled stiffly, he wasn't really afraid of them attacking him. After all, their levels are only around Level 20 and Level 23, so they wouldn't even pose any threat to him, but at the same time, he was also wondering how this group of people are still alive in this godforsaken place with how low their levels are.

"I'm Shadow!" Michael said as he quickly took off his hood covering his head, revealing his slick hairstyle and handsome face with two identical earrings on both of his ears.

"I'm from Sharval Kingdom!"

"Wait...you came from outside of Everwinter? How did you manage to get all the way here? The place around here are packed full of Ice Trolls wandering around, no one can come here or get out of here, even an army wouldn't stand a chance against the tribes of Ice Trolls living in this land!"

"So don't even bother lying! Tell us who you are or else we'll shoot!" the man on the wall once again angrily yelled at him.

"I'm Shadow and I came from Sharval Kingdom, and walked...all the way here?"

"And I only met three Ice Trolls so far and never bumped into a tribe of them whatsoever"

Michael just shrugged his shoulders, and then suddenly, his eyes became sharp when he saw someone coming up the rampart wall.

"Hello, I am the Village Chief of Snow Village, Buckley. Just call me Old Buck if you want" said an old man wearing a fur coat and has a walking stick.

[Buckley] [Village Chief of Snow Village]

[Level: 15]

'He is probably around mid-sixties or late sixties' Michael thought as he examined the old man.

"It's cold out there, please come inside. Open the gates, and let the young man in" Old Buck quickly ordered.

"Village Chief, we can't! This person is too suspicious! We don't even know if he's a malicious person!" one of the men said while pointing at Michael with a wary look, even the others are also nodding in agreement.

"No, let him in. I want to have a talk with him, would that be okay for you young man?" Old Buck looked at Michael while stroking his long grey beard.

"Of course, Old Chief," Michael smiled along with a shrug of his shoulders

Then the gate of the walled village opened slightly, and a man peeked out and waved for him to come inside.

"You better behave, or else, I will immediately kill you if I see doing any weird things while you are here"

A guy called Carter came before him and warned him to not do anything funny. He was that person who's been wary of him since the beginning and didn't want Michael inside their small village.

"I won't" Michael smiled and quickly followed behind the elderly Old Buck, while one of their Hunters followed behind him.

Along the pathway leading to Old Buck's home, Michael curiously looked around his surroundings.

On one of the cabin houses, a child probably around seven years old peeked out from their window with eyes filled with curiosity.

Michael smiled and waved at the child, and then the mother appeared behind her child and pulled her away from the window while looking at Michael with wariness, which made Michael smile stiffly as he didn't expect the level of their cautiousness would be this high.

'Damn, the expressions of these NPCs are so human that it would make you think that they are real people and not made of a bunch of codes. I wonder how those people they did this?' 

Michael was amazed at the level of technology that Mine Tech. Industries have attained.

"How many of you guys are living here old man?" Michael said as Old Buck led him inside his small log cabin, which looks really run-down, showing just how many years has it been since it was built.

"There's only around thirty of us remaining here," Old Buck said with a helpless sigh.

"Huh?"

Michael was just about to step foot inside when he suddenly stopped in his tracks when he spotted something from the corner of his eye, so he leaned his body backward and looked towards the direction from where he noticed something interesting.

"Is that a sculpture?" Michael said, as he quickly stepped back and started walking towards the small sculpture standing just beside the village chief's cabin.

"Ohhh, that is a relic left behind by our ancestors, and its called Ice and Fire" Old Buck slowly came out of his home when he noticed that Michael didn't follow him and instead saw him standing beside the small sculpture placed beside his home.

"Was this the cause of the warm breeze around your village?" Michael said as he pointed at small sculpture before him.

"Yes, it is" Old Buck smiled as he walked over and stood beside Michael with pride in his eyes while looking at the small sculpture with eyes similar to someone looking at a precious treasure.

Michael rubbed his chin and examined the sculpture before him.

It was just a simple sculpture of two small dragons with their wings spread wide open like they were flying in the skies.

[Ice and Fire]

A creation inspired by two of the most powerful creatures in the continent. Due to the special circ.u.mstances behind the creation of the sculpture, it has the ability to ward off evil.

An artwork created by a skilled sculptor, a relic of the past. One of the few things left behind by the once glorious Kingdom of Artem.

Special Effects:

+50% Cold resistance.

Dragon Aura(Fake) - it imitates the aura of a genuine dragon, warding off any creatures weaker than a dragon from the surrounding one kilometer.

'So it wasn't causing a warm breeze, but it was lowering the temperature of the surrounding area'

'And this also explains why these group of people are able to survive until now in this land full of terrifying and ugly monsters'