That night, everyone was squeezed inside the wagon as they slept—or at least tried to sleep. Many couldn’t do so after yesterday’s incident, and as a result, most of them were extremely tired with dark bags under their eyes.

The place where they slept made it even worse, as the wagon was uncomfortable, and there was a lack of space. However, sleeping outside in the snow without a tent was a stupid thing to do.

They only had a few coins on themselves and maybe some necessities—some not even that. Items like tents were probably owned only by some hunter households in villages.

Illyan could withstand it just fine, but not the normal people.

Of course, he didn’t do so because he didn’t want to be in front of the eyes of the second group of Ujir. So, he quickly retreated in the evening to the wagon, fearing that the group would want him to treat their injuries, which could possibly result in them finding something about him.

But even without them, he would stay inside as if he were a normal person; knowledgeable but still normal.

Fortunately, he didn’t have the same problem as others, as he just meditated the entire time in a sitting position. What he found intriguing was that the result was quite diminishing.

‘Is it because I am in the wagon and not directly in nature?’ He already had a guess, as his [Nature Breath Method] had the trait of becoming stronger in nature while getting weaker when he got far from it.

He never understood it properly, as in his mind, the entire world was basically nature. But ever since he started to meet the villages after he got outside of the Blood Crow Forest, he noticed the depth of his immersion in meditation was getting shallower.

‘Civilization is the problem, huh? Makes sense. Unfortunately, I need civilization much more, so I won’t get good results for some time…’

While meditation was useful, it wasn’t to the point of him staying in the woods.

The method was said to have big potential, but that would take a long time before it could live up to it. Now, after years of training, he just had a small achievement in it as he finally got to the Beginner stage called [Exhalation], allowing him to merge his presence into surroundings. So waiting a little more wouldn’t hurt him. Instead, he would use that time to learn new things that he could use immediately.

The next morning, he stood up and stretched his cramped limbs. Then he went outside of the wagon for fresh air. With one glance, he saw that Ujir’s group had already left. Not even one body was left behind.

Based on how shady they acted, it seemed that they didn’t even try hiding their motives.

‘What would they need the bodies for? Well, as long as it won’t disturb me, I will not meddle needlessly. But… If it had something to do with those wendigos experiments or something else that will or already did harm me, then I will end you. Even if it takes decades or centuries.’

Thinking so, he started basic work out. Normal training wasn’t as helpful as in the past after getting stronger to a certain stage, but it still helped him maintain his blood circulation, flexibility, etc. Not to mention, he needed to rehabilitate his arm.

He started one hour before dawn and didn’t stop until finally someone else came out of the wagon.

When Illyan looked and saw that it was Harn, he nodded slightly and then continued with his rehabilitation. He looked on the ground for a bit and took one bigger rock in his left hand. Then, he just moved it around in certain ways.

This made Harn look strangely at him, as he didn’t understand what Illyan was doing.

In the end, the curiosity in him won over as he asked.

“What are you doing?”

At this question, Illyan turned back at the guard and, in a light tone, asked back.

“Have you ever been bedridden for several days?”

Harn frowned. However, as weird as the question was, he still answered.

“Yes. Once I got very sick when I was a kid and once I got heavily injured when I was still working as a soldier.”

“I suppose you were not able to jump around right after, I guess?”

“Hmm?” When Harn heard this, he realized what he meant by this.

“I see… Just because your hand healed doesn’t mean there aren’t other side-effects. Good to know, doc. Just don’t do it for too long as we will set off at dawn.”

With that, he ventured to the forest, probably to relieve himself.

Soon after, others also woke up and went out to stretch their muscles a little, since they would need to stay still for another entire day.

Bor didn’t even waste his time for breakfast and immediately set off with a worried expression.

Not only did he have fear of another bandit group being in the vicinity, but he was also extremely worried about Ujir’s intentions. While he still had some good acquaintances with his business rivals, Ujir definitely wasn’t one of them.

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Seeing him being so unscrupulous was not something he wanted to see.

And so, the long and arduous journey started. The travelers from different villages also got acquainted with the constant barrage of questions from Terren and started to talk about themselves in order to relieve the boredom. In the end, Illyan also added a little about himself but was usually quiet if no one initiated the conversation with him.

Several days passed, and they were still on the road. But the difference in landscape was obvious to Illyan. Forests were turned into grasslands, and some trees showed even a bit of greenery.

The winter was still harsh, but it was obvious that further south the less cold it became.

Illyan realized that the signs of spring finally started to show up after over 10 or even more years.

‘So it was the dragon’s fault, huh.’

He connected the dots after thinking a bit about it. The winter was getting stronger, and it didn’t seem it would end just like that. Later on, he found out that the entire sea and even the center of the Frozen Valas Tundra were invaded by the Cold Energy, which was connected to that dragon.

He reminisced about the entire incident and remembered the fact that the beast was translucent and the only explanation he had for that was that it died together with the Big Eye it hated, and this was just its spirit or something in that sense…

‘But why did it get weaker so suddenly? The coldness in the north was worsening for millennia at this point, which means that this Ice Dragon probably survived for so long…’

He thought for some time as he sat in his meditative position. Then his eyes brightened.

‘Unless its legendary Dragon Ice Breath took a big toll on it! After all, while the aura it emitted was so heavy, the strength of the breath itself wasn’t as despairing; else, I would be dead already. If I am not wrong, it also missed its mark a bit as the breath first hit the Frozen Worm I was on, which took the biggest brunt of the attack and died in the process…’

But why would the dragon risk its spirit dissipation for someone like him? It was just a small fraction of that Big Eye’s power yet…

Then he remembered his own thoughts back in the Blood Crow Forest.

Re

venge was never about the feelings of the one who makes the retribution. It wasn’t about avenging people who would never come back. It was about the recipient of the revenge.

This made Illyan realize that sometimes there were things more worth in your eyes than your own life.

But realizing and understanding were different things altogether. While Illyan suffered in his life, he would never sacrifice his well-being for revenge. Let alone as petty one as the dragon’s one was! After all, he was also a victim of the Big Eye ‘god’ yet he got pummeled by that dragon for no reason.

‘I guess even legendary dragons are still beasts unable to think clearly.’ Because of that seed of contempt emerged deep inside of his heart for dragons.

However, he quickly suppressed the thought as he knew it would bite him in the ass in the future if he really thought like that.

In the end, he stopped thinking about that as he closed his eyes and listened to the other passengers’ conversations. It was not because he was curious about them or was just bored but he tried to pry as much information from them as possible.

While the people like Terren were young and naive, he still had much more knowledge about the general things than him that Illyan would be seen as a caveman.

‘Not too far away, now that I think about it.’ After all, the Bakur Tribe wasn’t exactly civilized except for its medicine that was stolen from different continents…

“I heard that Winterfrost Town is one of the oldest cities in the kingdom. Do you think it is true?”

“Well, obviously it would be one of the oldest cities in the kingdom since the city was here even before the kingdom's foundation,” said Harn bragging about his knowledge. At first, he wasn’t interested in talking, but after several days of boredom, he joined the chat.

“How do you know?”

“I heard it from one of the academics in the town…”

When Illyan heard this, his ears perked. As someone who learned for years, he could be said to be a novice academic himself. And so, it was no wonder that he was interested in this topic.

“Ah, I see. Academics, huh. That’s not very interesting! I would rather be stupid and rich than smart and poor. Being a merchant like Sir Bor is much more interesting.” One of the kids named Garan said with a bored expression.

“Talk for yourself. You wouldn’t be able to become academic even if you spent your entire life on it. So you would be both stupid and poor.” Nord, who had interest in being an academic, frowned as he said this.

Others started to laugh as Garran rolled his eyes.

From this conversation, Illyan got a lot of information that was useful to him.

He found out that Nord, Cara, and two others planned to become academics in the Academic Institute, which was a place for people to learn and study. It was said to have a big library that was probably the largest in the entire kingdom.

This surprised Illyan a lot. How could such a faraway town have such a library? Was it normal in this kingdom for each city to have one?

Of course not. The kids in front of him mentioned that they were lucky to be close to this town, which was unique across the entire kingdom. It was said to be like this because of its long history.

This sparked Illyan’s interest in this little town. After all, there should be some reason behind this, right?

“By the way, Sir Kaoran, you are also visiting this town because of the institute, am I right? After all, capable physicians have no reason to visit such a poor place. You don’t need to say it if you don’t want to.” Harn mentioned this as he smiled at Illyan. Then he realized he was probably asking a bad question and so he added the last sentence.

He was pretty sure that Illyan was quite capable in this profession. He didn’t know about his ability to treat diseases and such, but at least the physical wounds were something he was sure that Illyan had expertise in. He saw him treating Erte's leg with such precision and speed that people like him who just learned out of necessity would be able to do this.

Illyan, who heard this, smiled in his heart. Now, he had a good excuse for his visit. No, it may not even be an excuse as he was actually interested in that place.

“Yes, I want to further my studies in this place and get the academic title in the same way as Sir Nord and Miss Cara.”

“Oh, that’s great! That means we will be colleagues!” Cara smiled.

Nord also wanted to say something but at that moment Bor’s voice boomed from the outside of the wagon.

“We are here! Please get out of the wagon! Guards will be angry if you remain inside!”

When he said this, everyone looked confused except Harn or Illyan, who was almost always impassive and got out of the wagon.

Then, the biggest man-made structure they ever saw appeared in front of their eyes. Walls of white stone were as tall as trees and looked majestic.

It could be seen from a distance that the place was old. Even ancient. And because of that, it was inevitable that the place was worn down. But that didn’t make the young people who didn’t see the world disappointed as they gawked at the town.

Harn smiled at this with a smug grin and waved his hand.

“Welcome to Winterfrost Town, the northernmost city on the continent and the oldest city in the entire kingdom.”

Illyan clenched his fists. With this, a new era of his life would finally begin.