Adam was right.
As soon as the last parts of the convoy arrived at the gigantic campsite, those who arrived first were ordered to prepare for departure.
Among them, was also Adam's carriage.
While they didn't arrive early, as they travelled in about the middle of the column, they were asked to move to the front.
You see, after Ada, Max and Sylvia went to ask about what they could help with, the officer in charge of the shift redirected them to his superior, A person in charge of the caravan.
The person happened to be Marquess Fongan, one of the King's advisors. Max knew him, just like Sylvia actually, which left only Adam behind.
They talked to him for a bit, and together they figured out how would their magic be most useful.
Sylvia got a simple job, of lighting up the fireplaces instead of the soldiers. While it wasn't a very hard thing to do for someone without fire magic, it was vastly more frustrating. Flint and steel couldn't compare to the instantaneous ignition of the air.
Max also got things to do immediately, not even one, but two separate tasks he could choose from. The first was to help in digging trenches for the palisade, in which the cut logs would be placed and then buried. The second one involved the trees themselves. He was to clean the branches off from the logs with his metal magic. Just like with the tasks mentioned before, they weren't impossible, or even difficult to do by hand, but using magic made them way more comfortable as the user didn't have to push through the branches to reach the log.
Adam was the only one in the pickle. He could help by using wind magic to clean up the plain from fallen leaves and smaller branches, but he had no control over where they would fly off. He could also help with preserving the food they have taken from the capital or one that was just hunted/gathered. But that wasn't necessary, it was winter after all, and the temperature was always below zero.
That left him without a viable option.
No options meant he had to make for himself.
So, Adam became the poop freezer.
However ridiculous that sounds, freezing animal crap was a glorious job, meant only for the elite few.
Those lucky enough to be chosen, get the honour to go around and save people from two things:
1. The foul smell radiated from the hot stuff.
2. The traps, while someone can still step on them, the frozen poop will not kill their motivation to live. Which is more important than the healthy ankle.
All those jobs required the mages to arrive early, especially those of Sylvia and Max, Adam would be able to perform his own even at the very end of the caravan, albeit with a much greater probability that people may be affected in ways they would not, if he arrived earlier.
That is how They were moved forward in the line of carriages, which surprised Cynthia at first, as she didn't go with them to the Marquess, but was still stationed with them in a vehicle.
The spearhead of the caravan was composed of a few carriages filled with warriors, who dealt with things that may possibly stop the continuity of movement, of the column.
Those fighters were ones Adam had seen only from afar, all were in the Advanced realm, and few were Masters.
The mage's carriage moved just near enough to the front, that Adam managed to see the Masters at work.
Well, at least try.
The thing is, that even while being as far as about 70 metres, the warriors moved too fast for Adam's eyes.
It was just a blur, the carriage's door opened, and then it rapidly closed. But a tree that had fallen over the road in the distance shattered and was scattered in the wind, flying in the air out of nowhere in two pieces, or just disappearing from Adams's sight after which he saw the piece on the side of the road, as their carriage passed by it.
There were also the performances of the Advanced Warriors. Who also were breathtaking in entirety. The main difference between those and those of the Masters was that Advanced warriors weren't fast enough to escape Adam's eyes.
They were fast, strong, and skillful in the use of their weapons, whenever they used them. They used Aura masterfully, sometimes lighting the sky like Aurora Borealis, lights from the night sky, visible from the shores of the North Sea.
The variety and number of objects the warriors had to deal with were honestly insane. Insane enough to prompt Adam to ask about it his travel companions.
"Are we targeted by something? There are way too many things blocking our way, and all of them are inanimate. Some of them are even rocks the size of a carriage, there is no way They appeared out of thin air." He stopped for a bit, to watch as an Advanced warrior shattered a boulder, smaller than Adam described, and pushed the remains deep into the forest using an aura wave created by a swipe of his spear. "And when we travelled the other way, from Ferston to the capital, there were no such obstacles."
"Yeah, that's weird. " Max agreed with his friend, he too found it weird.
"I know about that," Cynthia claimed. It was the first time she spoke by herself from their departure from the capital, second if you count responses from others.
"It's a pack of Brolfs, who escaped in the forests around here after escaping the estates of Duke Malmond." She explained.
"Oh! I know their kind, Cesar talked about them." Boasted Adam.
"Yeah, it was him who led the hunt on those beasts, and he performed excellently. I even heard he got promoted to Captain, as he was without a rank beforehand, only with his father's approval." Gossiped Cynthia.
"Good for him. Now, tell me about those Brolfs, I know only that they are something like a mixture of a wolf and a bear, just like the name suggests. But I can't wrap my head around the idea, that they place obstacles on the road." Questioned Adam relentlessly.
"Oh, okay. That's their tactic and the main reason why they were hunted, to begin with. They stop travelling humans, and eat them." She concluded.
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"So, why haven't we seen a single one yet?" Adam responded.
"They are smart, not like you just now. Who the fuck would attack a caravan spanning a few kilometres, led by Master mages and warriors, whose presence beasts probably smell from The north sea???" Unterjected Max, making fun of Adam, and his stupor.
"Oh." Adam acknowledged Max's speech.
Now, having gained knowledge about the mysterious obstacles, Adam returned to his window, leaving behind the conversation in which Max, Sylvia and Cynthia argued with each other about something he couldn't care less to understand. he immersed himself into the landscape of the Derdanian plains and forests, left behind by the caravan.
The snowy hills, at which golden weed painted a beautiful sight in the summer.
The lush forests rise on the plains, varying from oak forests, lush and filled with fruits and leaves. To taiga, in which the trees created a canopy filled with various birds and flying monsters.
The caravan moved forward, unstoppable and determined to reach its destination. Whatever it may be.
---------------------------------
The next stop the caravan was depressing.
It was about two days after the departure from the capital and the Second Sun had already disappeared.
Today, The caravan arrived in Ferston, much faster than when Adam And Max were travelling to the capital, but that wasn't surprising. This convoy was led by the King himself, and where he went, a multitude of Masters followed. Also, the weather was nice unlike when the young mages travelled to the capital, when they rode in a blizzard for two days.
Now, they returned to their hometown.
But it wasn't a happy return.
Ferston was a ghost town, empty streets and scattered animals were a grim sight for people who hold the place in their hearts. Where their dearest memories formed, and where direst tragedies unfolded.
Few men and women were left behind, who strolled through the streets and walked into empty homes.
They were unlucky, not in that they were left behind, or chose to stay but in the fact that they chose to go around, robbing the places left behind by those who took on the journey to take refuge in the South.
When the convoy arrived, the officials, masters and esteemed mages watched as they left the homes of their neighbours, with hands full of goods.
Stolen goods.
King was also present, he rode on a horse for a bit before they arrived. He was similar to Edgar and Max. He had long, jet-black hair tied in a ponytail, broad shoulders and a considerable height. He was quite muscular but evidently didn't practice daily.
A violet-embroidered grey robe rested on his shoulders, and he held a semi-big staff in his hands. Filled with some kind of runes and decorated with golden plates.
The King looked at the robbers and said his verdict.
"Burglary in times of emergency is a crime against the crown. Fenfallal, execute the criminals." He ordered one of the people riding beside him on a horse.
The man was smaller than the king, he had short, golden hair and was dressed in armour that resembled a robe. In places like shins or forearms, it was closely fitting metal armour, silver in colour with golden decorations, in others, it was long and baggy, hiding the muscles that must have hidden underneath.
He had a sabre strapped to his waist and a shield attached to his horse.
Hearing his lord, Fenfallal reached for his sword.
At that moment, the heads of the criminals dropped to the ground, and some golden light cut into the ground behind them in the same moment.
Adam managed to see as the warrior sheathed his sabre, after killing three people over sixty metres away in one swift motion of his wrist.
"Who is that?" Asked Adam while pointing at the warrior.
Max leaned out of the window to take a good look and answered his friend.
"Its Fenfallal Abedy, the Royal Swordmaster.
While Grand Commander Estron is thought to be the most talented warrior in the history of Derdania, Fenfallal is considered to be currently the most powerful." Introduced Max.
"Oh, makes sense. What about the high commander? Where is he?" Followed up, Adam. Satiating one curiosity brought up another.
"Probably in The Fortress." Answered Max.
"Doesn't it have a name?" Asked Adam.
"Can't you read? I thought you read the book about the political geography of Derdania in the Tower." Max replied with a question of his own.
"Barely started." Stated Adam.
"Eghh, long story short, it's the only fortress in the kingdom. So it is called 'The Fortress', and it defends a mountain passage leading to the empire in the south, the only way to leave, or enter Derdania, not including the north sea." Explained Max, frustrated that his friend kept making him a walking encyclopedia, instead of reading about topics he was curious about in the tower's library.
Cpgs turned in Adam's brain, as pieced the information together.
"Is that where we are heading to?" He finally asked.
"Maybe, I'm not sure, but that would be my bet."
"What are we even escaping from? The second sun disappeared some time ago, yet we are just as hurried as before." Questioned Adam.
"I will ask the same question when we meet my father, but until then, we have no way of knowing." Said Max, to which the girls nodded in sad approval.
They arrived at their destination, the main square in the centre of Ferston. The place where Adam decided to leave ferston was the first he visited after returning.
The carriages parked in the square, and the horses got handed some hay by the soldiers, so they could eat and regenerate strength. Their harnesses were removed, and some space was left for them to lay down if they wanted.
The journey was tough on the animals, and no one wanted them to die out of exhaustion.
At the same time, The mages took off to do their voluntary tasks, that is, apart from Cynthia. She didn't have anything to do, thou she might find something as she expressed her willingness to do something instead of sitting on her butt, while they talked in the carriage.
Adam's job was simple, he walked around and froze every shit he saw.
His first course of action was to figure out how to do the job effectively.
So, Adam sat down on a bench and started creating his fourth spell. It was supposed to be fast, as he wanted to base it on [Icicle] and change it to where it freezes what it hits, instead of piercing it.
It was supposed to.
But it wasn't.
What he tried to do ended up being much harder, and more restricted than what he thought at the start.
The change he made to [Icycle] was that instead of shooting ice, he wanted to shoot ice mana. So it basically missed a step in which ice mana changes to solid ice.
If someone with no experience in magic thought about that, it would seem easier, but any mage knew that skipping that step made the spell way more difficult to cast.
Now the mage had to suffer the atmospheric pressure during the whole cast. When the ice mana changed into solid ice, it nullified the atmospheric pressure, that is how most of the spells worked. But Adam wanted a spell that created ice in the place it landed, instead of creating ice and putting it there afterwards.
He tried to do this, by summoning ice mana from within him and releasing it after conentrating it into something akin to a ball, but the mana became ice immediately after Adam released his hold over it.
Then, he tried again, this time aiming at a spot near enough so he could still control it there, and directed the mana there. All the while, fighting off the atmospheric pressure, which wrestled with him over control of the mana relentlessly.
This time, he succeded.
It seemed that he was limited in the range of his new spell, he may further improve it later, like a few months or years later, but fortunately, that limitation didn't make it unusable.
It was a success, even if less than he expected.
He named the spell as [Freeze].
The name was self-explanatory, but was actually one that Adam didn't like. It was too general, and it would mean he would have to name some better-fitting spell in another way. But it was inevitable, as he wanted to keep his spells as one-word incantations, at least until they were complex enough to deserve a longer name.
Now, he didn't intend to wait until he could cast it silently before going around and freezing horse poop, he would train alongside working. Two birds with one stone.
Adam stood up and headed towards the place where the most horses stayed, he wanted to deal with the work as it came, so he needed to hurry up with those who already arrived, and move on to new arrivals.
And he hoped, dearly, that he wouldn't lose appetite before dinner.