A vast mountain range stretches before us, the snow-covered mountains reaching for the sky and piercing the clouds. Surrounded by the mountains lies a small lake in the midst of a forest. Small wildlife like foxes running through the vegatation in the search of food, bigger animals like deers are seen drinking from the clear water. Trees and bushes are filled with small flowers and fruits and the chirping of birds can be heard. Tranquility and peace are the words used to describe this place hidden from the grasp of civilization by the mountains surroundings it. Commonly referred to as the titan’s crown this mountain range is known for the danger it poses to everyone brave or stupid enough to climb it. Be it greed caused by the thought of all the rare minerals, ores or magical herbs found in the area or adventurous spirit driven by the flames of ambition, every visitor who attempts to climb these mountains regardless of their reason has only one end to their journey. Pure misfortune. What? You thought I would say death? In some cases or more accurate in most cases that is in fact the end for many of them. Disappearing in the stomach of a monster or beast, getting lost in the caves and valleys trying to avoid the inhabitansts of the mountains or running away heavily wounded and succumbing to them after they returned to a civilization, just to name a few examples. But there are also those that enter the titan’s crown and return empty-handed, that came prepared and travelled in a group only to leave this place as the sole survivor. There are only a handful of people to have entered the mountains and not only survived but also brought back magical herbs stronger than the stuff outside, minerals never heard of anywhere else and monster parts as well as ores later used to make the stuff of legends. The temptation offered by the titan's crown is even more increased because of the anomaly this place seems to be. Large amounts of energy offen called mana or just natural energy are seemingly drawn to the center of this place causing the environment surrounding the mountains to be enriched and even though it's not as much a danger as the mountains itself the surroundings still pose a threat.

An example for this is the forest to the south-west of the mountains. The higher than average mana concentration causes the vegetation to mutate slightly. That means the trees grow bigger and sturdier creating a canopy which throws the forest in perpetual darkness. The plants trying to survive adapted to the absence of light and started to create their own. Small holes in the foliage overhead letting the sunlight through coupled with the luminescent glow of the plants on the ground create enough light for something to see their surroundings but there still exist a certain difficulty to travel the area. Mostly monster but the holes that let the light shine upon you are rather rare and the luminescent plants do not cover the entire forest. Being able to see in the dark through either artificial or natural means is a must have or rather a prerequisite to enter this place. That and enough strength to guarantee your own survival. A forest where you can’t see where you place your foot is bad enough but add monster to this and you get yourself a place where the survival of your belongings is higher than your own. So, just like the titan’s crown a little further north, this forest is a place visited only by people who do not fear death, have nothing to lose or whose ambition rival their own stupidity:

Adventurer.

Yes, the adventurer. People seeking treasure, driven by greed and ambition. Young ones trying to fulfill their dreams of becoming a hero, older ones trying to enjoy their life as much as they can and the veterans fighting the one enemy nobody ever won against, time. Regardless of who you were before you became an adventurer your goal was to seek something. That can be strength, fame, money or something less tangible like a purpose for you life or even a little bit of romance. There is a question every aspiring adventurer should ask themselves: ‚what are you searching and what do you do once you have it?‘ That’s two question? No, it’s only one. How do you answer what you do once you achieved something without knowing what it is that you achieved? And that is why that counts as only one question.

A question the adventurer in this forest has an answer to. Probably. Hopefully.

In the outskirts of the forest a lone figure could be seen finding its way through the trees. Thanks to the fact that the trees in the outskirts are smaller more sunlight reaches through the canopy to the ground making navigating this area easier. Metallic boots covering her legs and protecting her shins against attacks from small monsters. The front arms are covered in metall protectors reaching from her elbow to the wrist, leaving more freedom for movement but still capable of stopping attacks from blades. A breastplate obviously also made from metal covering her front and her back for as much protection as possible. A piece of cloth reaches out from the backside of her breastplate looking from afar like a skirt covering only the backside of her legs. The cloth is split in the middle to prevent it from taking away her movement freedom. The parts of her body not protected by armor is covered in clothing with parts reinforced with leather for a small boost in protection. Her hands are covered with calusses and faint scars showing her experience with hard work or usage of a sword. Talking about swords, she has one small knife hanging on a belt and a sword hanging from her hip. The scabbard of the sword is black without any ornaments. The guard of the sword, made of metal, the hilt, covered in leather and the gem acting as the pommel are all a mix of shades of black. Just like the armor and clothing. Everything on her body is in variyng shades of black. All except her skin which rivals the white of snow, her silver hair which reflects light better than her metallic armor and her eyes which appear to be a mix of red and blue. Literally. The red and blue of her eyes doesn’t mix but swirl around as if bound in an eternal dance. Quite strange but also mesmerizing. But the eyes aren’t the only thing drawing the gaze of others to her. Her silver hair bound in a ponytail reaching down to her shoulder blades and a scar covering her face from her left eye down to her jaw are rather rare sights to see. The only thing out of place on her seems to be a necklace with a strange looking pendant. Made out of metal its color mimics her eyes creating a dance of silver and black with a violet gemstone in its center which color separates into red and blue and then mix again turning back into violet.

Carefully walking between the trees and avoiding the undergrowth the adventurer took one step after another while looking around. Her eyes scanning the ground seemed to have found something as she put one knee in the ground and with her hand pushed away some leaves. „Finally! A footprint. This should help with tracing him down.“ A sigh escaped her lips. „Why did you have to venture so deep into this forest?“ Standing up she resumed walking and following the trail deeper inside. A few minutes of walking led her to a small discovery. A new set of imprints in the ground appeared. „Of course a monster needed to cross his path. Why does everything always cause me trouble.“ Continuing onwards with a little bit more speed she begins to come across more traces like a broken twig, pieces of cloth hanging from branches and splatters of blood on the ground. A roar traveling through the forest caused her speed to increase even more, turning her fast walk into a full sprint before she came upon a clearing. Inside of the clearing she spotted two things. The first was standing in the middle of the clearing. Standing on its hind legs and reaching a height of four and a half meter covered in brown fur with patches of rocks and dirt over his skin was a bear. Falling down on all fours again the bear closed in on the other thing in this clearing. A young boy clad in leather armor leaning against a tree who seems unable to run away. If this is because of fear of what will happen to him if the bear closes the distance or because he struggles to not fall unconscious because of his wounds and visible exhaustion is unclear. Seeing the seriousness of the situation left her with no choice but to draw her sword and attacking the bear. While closing the distance her drawn sword shimmering in the sunlight becomes engulfed in pale blue flames before she swings down on the bear and cutting deep into his left shoulder before stepping back. The bear roars out in pain and turns around while swinging with his right paw after her. Avoiding his attack she retaliates by going to his right side and cutting into his flank. The bear clearly not liking this slams his front paws on the ground causing a visible wave to travel through the ground causing small rock formations to burst out. A light green aura enveloped the woman’s body, increasing her speed as she swiftly increased her distance to the bear to avoid his attack. The bear still angry at her rushes into her direction but stops as a small burst of pale blue flames errupt from his wounds. Seeing her chance the woman rushes toward the bear and jumps into bis back and stabs her sword into his neck before twisting it. The bear roaring in agony tries to throw her off without much success and at the same time her first cuts start rapidly freezing the bear's insides causing him more pain. Increasing his effort to throw her off his back the bear trashes around, ramming himself into trees and the rocks in the clearing. Meanwhile the woman whose green aura disappeared held onto her sword with one hand and used the other to repeatedly stap the bear with knife. A few minutes later the bear succumbs to his wounds and falls to the ground. Taking the sword out of the bear and jumping from his back she wiped her knife on his corpse which has now parts of fur covered in ice. Sheating her knife after it was clean again she now rushes to the young man to check up on him. The boy suprisingly still awake looks up at her, coughing a little and says. „Don‘t know if I should be thanking you for saving me or be angry at you for ruining my prey.“ Raising an eyebrow the woman takes a closer look of his wounds. His right arm lies limply to his side and at the same time a piece of bone broke out of his skin. His small shield is completly broken and better used as fire wood. The leather armor on his right side ist torn apart and completly useless and unable to hide the red, blue and violet colored skin underneath. His clothes lost some pieces probably during the unsuccessful escape. The sword in his left hand has no visible traces of damage or of usage during the fight. A trail of blood runs from his mouth but his legs as well as the rest of his body seems fine and unhurt. „If you call a juvenile boulder bear that almost ate you your prey then your most troubling wound seems to be a hit to your head, John. Especially considering you broke your arm and almost all ribs on your right side.“ Reaching inside the bag on her back she pulls out a small glass bottle with a red liquid. „Drink this and then let’s go back so that I don't have to ruin another ‚prey‘ of yours.“ After accepting the bottle and drinking it John slowly pushed himself up. Meanwhile the woman cleaned her sword from any traces of blood and sheated it again. „The healing potion won’t heal you completly so the moment we enter the city you should go see a healer.“ John shivered at the mention of a healer. „Nice. First my prey gets ruined and now Martha will chew my ear off with all her nagging when I meet her.“ A small chuckle escaped the woman. „It’s your own fault and you should worry about Martha only if your sister doesn’t kill you beforehand. But let’s go back. I don’t want to camp outside the city because we took too long and they closed the gate.“

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

A few hours later the two of them left the forest and followed the path to the city they could already see a small distance away. Towering in front of them stood the ten meter high city wall and the gate they wanted to enter through into the city. „John!“ While approaching the gate they were greeted by a guard and a young woman running in their direction. „John, you Idiot, what happened to you? Just what went through your head for you to go alone in that forest?“ The young woman clearly agitated and worried about John immediatly shot several question at him and examined his wounds. „Lily, I know you are worried about him but you should go and take him to a healer before you lecture him. He isn’t really in the best shape.“ Hearing this advice seemed to calm Lily a little. „You are right. Let’s go, John. We are going to visit Martha and thank you, miss, for saving my Idiot of a brother.“ She bowed before taking John's unhurt arm and dragged him after her while he tried to unsuccessfully convice her to go to someone else. Left behind in front of the gate are now only our adventurer and the guard. The guard clad in light metal armor and holding a spear in his hand kept his eyes on Lily and John before he turned to the woman standing next to him. „Thank you for accepting this unofficial request of the girl. Please, accept this small reward for your troubles.“ Reaching with his hand into a small pouch on his hip he took out a gold coin and around 20 silver coins before stretching his hand to her. A smile graced the woman’s face before waving him off. „No need for that, Robin, and we both know that first of all I’m glad I could help and second the reward you’re offering is too little for the trouble that came with the request.“ The guard called Robin reluctantly put the coins into pouch again. „Sounds like something happened while you searched for him. Was he unlucky enough to get attacked by a boulder bear?“ Shaking her head she sighed. „Close but not quite right. He got attacked by a juvenile one.“ A sigh escaped the guard before he turned around and began walking to the gate. „Don’t know if he was unlucky or lucky to have such an encounter but then being saved.“ Shaking his head the guard turned around while stopping in the middle of the open gate. Behind him you could see the streets and houses of the city while at the horizon the setting sun was seen peferctly behind the guard. Performing a form of military greeting the guard placed his right hand in front of his chest whilst bathing in the glow of the sunset.

„With the authority of my position as northern gate guardian, I hereby formally invite you to the humble city of Elderwoods, Miss ‚Arcane Blade‘ Violet Snowflame.“