014

The next day, without wasting any more time, we moved straight ahead towards the town.

“Even though East Green is small, you’ll love it, there are many things to do there, there’s even a Union building.” Said Aagon.

I was sitting in the front with him and just because I was starting to get bored I started asking him about this place. I didn’t know what a Union building was so I asked.

He gave me a surprised look but still answered.

“The volunteers union, it is a pretty big organization. Almost every reasonably sized town and major cities have their branches. You can go and register there as a volunteer and they will give you work based on your skills and strengths. Basically anyone can go and register there as a volunteer. It’s a pretty good way to make decent income if you don’t mind doing a lot of odd jobs.”

That’s pretty neat, looks like I’ll have to give this union building a visit when I reach town.

I also asked a lot about the surrounding geography as well.

Apparently this place is the Ice Garden Plateau in the Eternal Season Continent. The reason it is called as an ice garden is because with the exception of summer where the temperature goes up a tiny bit, just enough to melt down the snow a little, this place is almost entirely covered in snow all year round.

It must be due to the elevation, I wonder just how high we are above sea level. I asked Aagon this and he said.

“Pretty high, this whole plateau is too high, to get out and maybe see the sea, you’ll have to cross the Ice Wall mountain range that surrounds this place on all sides. But I wouldn’t recommend doing that with your skill level. No offence.”

“None taken, but why would you say that?”

“You see, this place is a pretty isolated area, not just for the humans, but for monsters and beasts as well. So, many beasts living here aren’t that strong or dangerous, but the mountain range is different story. The path that leads outside, there many monsters have made their dwellings, if you don’t at least have a decent party with you to support, I’ll recommend you hire one if you ever decide to leave.”

“Looks like the place really is dangerous.”

“You have no idea. You know, the outposts are there for a reason.”

Surrounding the plateau that serves as its own kingdom, there are also many different kingdoms. With the high elevation and the protection from the mountains, this place stays pretty peaceful, from what I’ve heard.

The Ice Garden Plateau has four different gates that lead to the outside world, but each gateway is heavily guarded by an outpost. Each outpost essentially has an army guarding it.

East Green is the closest town to the East gate.

After talking to Aagon about all of this, I can say that I’ve been pretty lucky ever since I came here. I haven’t really fought anything that could’ve totally overwhelmed me in terms of power. If the monsters he told about are really there then I really need to get myself a party if I ever hope to get out of this place.

But that’s easier said than done. I don’t even have the proper strength to protect myself right now.

‘I need to level up most of my skills and also get a few combat ones. I’ll also need a source of income. I’ll ask about it when I we reach East Green.’

With my mind set on my next course of action, I stopped pushing the conversation further and we travelled in relative silence.

While admiring the scenery outside, I also noticed how close we had gotten to the town, the trees become sparser, the road we were travelling on also became much wider and I could also see multiple different paths combining into the main path we were travelling on.

Soon, I could see tall stone walls in the distance.

As we got closer, I also saw many people patrolling on the walls. The walls themselves were very high as well, around twenty five to thirty metres, from my guess.

As our carriage got closer to the gates, I could see the gate around 10 metres wide and with double the height, being guarded by two buff looking guards. Buff was the right word for them, their metal armours looked like they would tear open if they so much as flex.

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The security on the walls was also pretty high. I don’t think there should be that many just to patrol on a daily basis.

Did something happen for there to be so many guards?

There were also a few inside the gate but these two were the only ones on the outside, as they saw us get closer, one of them put their hands on their sword, and the other one came in front of our path to stop us, the person who stopped us was holding a writing pad.

Aagon got down and showed them his merchant licence and we all got to enter, but the other guard with the sword kept looking at me as we were entering.

“Wait!”

The carriage stopped again.

“Young Aagon, who is this with you? He wasn’t with you when you left last week. I will need to see his ID if he is someone you picked up on the road.”

Aagon didn’t seem surprised with this question, but rather his expression said that he was expecting it, so he explained all that happened with me and how they found me, but the suspicion in the guard’s eye still didn’t lessen.

It is at these times that I wish I hadn’t been born with a villain’s face. I tried to smile a little but I have been told by my colleagues that it in fact makes it worse so I kept it at a minimum.

After hearing the entire thing, he looked at me, there was still wariness in his eyes but he said.

“Get down.”

His tone was a bit rough, but looking at his serious expression, I didn’t say anything but looked at Aagon. He nodded so I got down from the carriage.

He told me to stand at the front and sent the other guard to bring out something.

The other guard came out quick and with him he brought a fist sized crystal ball, the ball didn’t have anything spectacular but seeing it this close, I can say it felt a little special.

“You say he survived in the wolves area for many days alone and without any equipment, sorry but I find that very hard to believe. Look at him, I feel nothing, his magic energy and battle aura is so weak that I cannot even feel it standing right in front of him.”

Saying that, he threw a small crystal ball towards me. I quickly caught it, but I was already in a bad mood. I understand his point but the way he presents it just pisses me off.

“What do I do with it?”

The guard looked at me and with a dumbfounded expression said.

“What do you mean ‘What do I do with it??’ put your magic power in dumbass!”

I was really angry now but I couldn’t do anything so I swallowed my anger and replied in a calm and collected voice.

“I don’t have any.”

“Then feed your battle aura to it.”

“I don’t have that either.”

There was a relatively long pause after my answer, but it was interrupted by an immediate loud laughter that followed it.

“Hahahaha! You’ve got to be kidding me, stop playing around, and let’s just get this over it. I know I just said that you have really low magic energy, but you should have enough to feed the crystal, it can even work with 1 point of MP.”

“I’m not joking, I don’t have even one point of the two things you mentioned.”

I was angry by his attitude but I was also starting to worry a little. So I asked.

“Can I feed my Qi to it? I have that.”

His laughter that had just stopped started up again. I was really worried now. Is Qi not strong? Are the other two really required that much?

During his laughter he came closer to me, he put one of his hands on my shoulder.

I don’t know if the others realized what he was doing, but Kyle immediately tried to stop him, but he was too late.

As if being pushed down by several hundred kilos of weight, I dropped to the ground.

A very violent energy made its way inside my body, rampaging inside searching for something. It stayed near my abdomen for a second and then disappeared.

“Haah! Haah!”

I was having a very hard time breathing. He seemed to have sent something inside my body, that foreign energy moved around my body and as it moved it caused a lot of pain.

He removed his hand from my shoulder and the weight and pain also disappeared with it.

“Looks like you weren’t joking. You really have no Magic power or battle aura, although I will admit you have quite an impressive amount of Qi, but having too much of it isn’t really that useful. So, basically you’re no threat.”

He offered his hand to pull me up, but my anger had crossed the boiling point, so I slapped his hand away and got up on my own.

My abdomen heated up abnormally, I don’t what happened but I could feel the warmth spreading around my body. Like adrenaline pumping through my veins, my muscles tightened up on their own and I don’t know why my vision also blurred.

My body, out of my control, was about to do something, something I didn’t want it to do. I tried to control it, but somehow it was overpowering me.

The anger I was feeling disappeared almost instantly, my mind started clearing up and I felt it. Her hand. I look back and I saw Gina with a warm and concerned look on her face when she looked at me.

“Miss Gina?”

“Are you okay?”

I could only nod.

The guard didn’t know what was happening to me so he kept his blabbering on, but when I looked back, I could the entire party sighing with relief.

“Aaa aa, now I feel bad for picking on a cripple.” The guard said from the front. My mind was already numb to whatever he was saying.

He handed me a piece of paper.

“Just give the guys at the union this and they’ll hook you up with an id.”

We boarded our carriage again but this time, our travel was even quieter than before.

I was once again reminded about what I was lacking. I didn’t understand what I had, I didn’t even know how to properly control it. I was thankful for the reminder that this had given me.

I made a vow to myself that I would not make such a mistake ever again.