In the lobby of the inn, the crackling of wood burning in the fireplace could be heard. it was quiet. Only Dora and Arden remained at the inn. Matt and the others had gone to town with Emily and Robert. They wanted to give the report on the bandits as soon as possible. The 'white lions' team also began to study the quests in the adventurers guild, as the last member of the team would soon join them. They had spent a long time without a mission. Arden could feel Edward and the others' hands itching.
Arden was sitting at one of the tables in the lobby, finishing the book Olivia gave him for the 3rd time. He wanted to digest every bit of information in the book. Due to the events of the past few days, he had not been able to practice much with elemental manipulation and magic.
Ava's clearing method of snow by diverting water had given him a few ideas. Until now, he had tried to learn magic for self-defense... But after thinking about it, he could do a lot with Flame and Earth manipulation.
For example, if he could harden the soil with heat, he could form bricks. From these bricks he could make something for the muddy place in front of the inn every time it rained. Then a crazier idea came to Arden's mind. A road to be built from Petra to Inn would also allow the people of the city to come to the inn comfortably in winter. And for Dora, coming to the inn did not become daily suffering. He started to think about these ideas.
Arden closed the book and placed it on the table, then took his jacket. He called out to Dora, who was working in the kitchen.
"Dora, I'm going out for a bit." He shouted towards the kitchen.
He had already left the inn before he could hear Dora's answer.
When he come out of the inn, he stared to the area he had cleared of snow.
He mastered it to a certain degree in soil manipulation. So he shaped the ground right in front of him into a Brick shape. Then he started to heat this brick-shaped soil. When the Brick glow like reddish color, he tried to absorb the heat from this stone he had shaped, even if he had not tried it to absorb heat before he realized that it will be easy. He just needs to divert the brick's heat to some other object. When the Brick lost its heat, it turned to a slightly reddish color. Arden bent down and picked up the brick he had formed on his first try.
He tapped the brick with the back of his hand to test its hardness.
*tok-tock
"Seems like tough enough," he muttered.
He wondered how he would behave under stress. Then he hit the brick hard on a stone he had caught sight of. When the brick in his hand hit the stone on the ground, it split in two. But that was a good sign. The brick wasn't crumbled, it was just split in two. In the face of such a blow, the brick had to be broken anyway.
His experiment had been successful. It felt better than any Flame and earth manipulation he had aimlessly trained. Seeing that the method worked, he tried to enlarge the Field. And he slowly turned the area in front of the inn into a paved area with these bricks. He started with a small area at first, but over time he was getting better at it. Therefore, in about one and a half hours, the front of the inn was completely paved with bricks. He took a deep breath as he looked at his work. He had to force himself a little to finish this job. His mana almost reached zero.
He was satisfied with his work. But he couldn't show it to anyone because there was no one around. Then he remembered that Dora was at the inn. He entered the lobby of the inn and called out to Dora.
“Hey, Dora, can you come over for a minute?” he shouted.
When Dora heard Arden's voice, she left the kitchen and came to the lobby. She wondered why Arden had summoned her.
"I want to show you something. Come out of the inn a little bit"
“Okay.. okay”
She could see from Arden's speech that he was quite excited. He also looked a little tired. Arden opened the door of the inn and they went out.
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The front of the inn, filled with mud and half-melted snow in the morning, was now paved with regular bricks.
“Mr. Arden How did you do that?” she answered excitedly.
Dora's reaction made Arden happy. He was sweating a lot while doing it. Who wouldn't want their work to be praised?
“Dora you know, I am a mage. I think I've found a new use for my magic," he said and smiled.
Dora remained open-mouthed, staring at the smiling Arden in front of her.
“I think my husband will lose his job if you get into this job,” Dora said.
That made Arden laugh.
“I think I'm going to build a road paved from these bricks from here to Petra. It may take a few weeks for me to finish, but you may feel more comfortable coming here.”
Dora was even more surprised when she heard of Mr. Arden's plan.
“That would be great, Mr. Arden,” she said. She had a hard time coming to the inn today. If this road was made, at least he could walk on hard and flat ground.
There were a few more hours before the sun went down. The oblique sun made it a breathtaking sight that was hard to describe. Especially the tops of the mountains to the north of Petra were covered with orange and red.
After Arden had exhausted his mana, he rested in the lobby of the inn and went out again.
The first snow was special. At least it was for Arden. Besides, there was a tradition to follow. A snowman made from the first snow.
He was wearing the leather gloves he had bought from Petra. Shovels were not used to make snowmen. First, you would make a small snowball, and then you would roll it over the snow. Over time, this snowball would get bigger. There were some tricks to this job. For example, since the first snowball, you roll will be very heavy, you should calculate the point where the snowman will be made.
Just as Arden starts rolling the snowball. He heard a voice.
He couldn't quite understand what the voice was saying. So he lifted his head and looked around.
He saw the crowd walking towards the inn on the road to Petra. Everyone was there. Matt and his team, Emily, Robert, and Edward and his team. They probably met on the way, he thought.
Hearing that Arden didn't answer, Matt shouted once more. This time, his voice could be heard as they got closer to the inn.
"What are you doing man?"
Seeing that everyone was within earshot, Arden spoke up.
"Snowman. Would you like to join?"
"Snowman? The last time I did it with my dad when I was a kid. But...Why not?"
Matt turned to his teammates.
“Hey guys, how about doing it together?”
His teammates did n't know exactly what a snowman was. There was no such concept in this world.
When Matt realized this situation, he began to speak.
“Don't worry, I'll guide you. Let's make the best snowman together,” said Matt.
“Is this a challenge? Matt,” Arden said. With a defiant smile on his face.
“Take it how you understand it, man,” said Matt, not stepping back.
“Emily, Robert Come here, I think we need to teach 'mission impossible' a lesson. We need to call Dora too. As members of the inn, we need to put this Matt in his place. ”
“Oh, a contest? Ladies, I guess we can't stay out of this competition as White lions, can we?" said Edward, turning to Sasha and Olivia.
Emily went into the inn to call for Dora. After 2-3 minutes everyone was ready to start.
Arden was telling Emily, Robert, and Dora what to do. Matt was doing the same to his team. Edward and the others had listened intently to what these two to say. Before long, everyone took action. Dora had gone to the kitchen to find carrots.
When Arden saw Ava start using magic.
“Hey Ava, magic is forbidden. “
"Why is that?"
“You have an unfair advantage, try to act like everyone else.”
Ava didn't like this explanation very much. And they started bickering with Arden. When Zeke saw this situation, he called out to Ava.
“Ava, we can beat them in No Magic. Let's not waste time"
Ava reluctantly returned to her team.
All teams continued to work on their own snowmen. After 20 minutes, three snowmen appeared side by side.
Everyone was standing in front of these snowmen and looking at the works they had created with their own hands. The past few days have had a little bit of an impact on everyone. They had forgotten these things while making snowmen, especially Emily and Robert. Everyone had a smile on their face.
As for the snowmen. Arden's team went for classic snowman made of three large snowballs with a parrot nose. But the other teams got a little off-topic as they didn't know the concept exactly. Matt's team had decided to make a snow elf. But when their artistic feelings were not enough to achieve this, it looked like a disfigured elf.
Edward's team made a complete sculpture. Sasha's talent for drawing plants showed itself here as well. Because before them stood an ox-headed minotaur. Even the details of the armors worn by the Minotaur were evident in the snow.
“Wow Sasha, that's great. I didn't know you were this talented,” Arden said.
Matt put his hand on Arden's shoulder and spoke.
“I think the winner has been determined,” he said, pointing to the masterpiece Sasha and her team had made.
"I think you're right, but we're definitely going to win on the first snow next year," Arden said.
“Haha, it's a tradition huh!” Matt said.
“I wish we had a camera. I could hang this on the wall of the inn,” said Arden.
“What is cam..era?” Olivia said curiously.
“I wanted to take a picture of it to remember this moment.” he repeated.
Hearing this, Olivia began to think. Then he took something out of his Magic pouch. This object was a cube-shaped metal box. But it had some runes on it.
“I don't know what the camera is but we can use this for that,” she said.
Arden eyed the device in Olivia's hand with interest. He recognized some of the runes on it.