Neutral Races

When the ice on my right hand melted, I extracted some more blood from the little Lizard's hand, and examined it. 'This time, the blood contains a bit less blue colour. This is good, with couple of treatments, she should return to normal' I thought. I again placed the right hand on her forehead, and said "Do your thing". After a while, the blue gas appeared again, while my hand absorbed it.

'I think, I know the reason why, I can't absorb it. The Water Stone was a sort of herb, a naturally formed stone. My hand could absorb it, because it wasn't alive. This little Lizard is alive, so I can't absorb it. Frosty on the other hand, seems to be able to absorb anything, that contains water or ice element. What a weird creature' I thought.

When ice formed on my hand again, I took it away, and the absorption stopped. I repeated the process one more time, and the little Lizard seemed to be much better. When I checked the blood again, about ⅔ of it was red now. 'This is going rather well. Couple of those absorptions more, and she should be alright' I thought.

As I waited for the ice on my hand to melt, Lazar returned together with the military leader guy. Lazar quickly asked "Is my daughter alright?". I said "Yes, she's asleep. Her condition is now a lot better. You can take care of her now, I need to chat for a bit". I then turned towards the military leader and said "Good that you are here. I have few things, that I need to ask".

He nodded his head and said "I will answer anything you want. The favour you did for my friend, I'm really grateful. I own you a lot". I nodded my head, and asked "What is the situation regarding Avians, and Yagaroths?". He said "So far, we don't have any new information, but we made contact with races not hostile with humans, and they will not chase you. Especially now, since I know what you said must be true. A human who is scheming and full of lies, would not try to save someone else's life".

I asked "What races are those?". He said "The race called Voltars, who live further north from here. The race called Golems, who live further to the east from here, and the race called Shades who live to the north west of here. These races will not chase after you, but be warned. Some of the inhabitants, may still rat you out, for a possibility of being rewarded".

I nodded my head, and asked another question "Do you have a better map of the North?". He searched his clothes for a while, and took out a map. He then passed it to me, and said "Take it, I will not charge you anything for that. This is a very good and detailed map, so it should be useful to you". I took the map, and simply hid it in my bag. I still had some stuff to ask about, I could take a look at that map later. "Do you know of the material called Iron Spider Thread?".

He replied "Yes, It's very expensive, and only available in Arangard. Are you interested in that material?". I said "Very. Can you tell me how much does it cost?". He said "It's very expensive, one metre of it, will cost you about 45 Black Hals. I can buy it for you, but you will have to provide the money". I nodded my head, and said "I need quite a lot of it, so the price will not be small. How much do they have?". He shook his head, and said "I don't know. Maybe two or three spools? Probably not more than that". I asked again "How long is one spool?". He said "I don't really know, my guess would be around 15 metres? maybe more, maybe less. If you are that interested, I can find out". I nodded my head and said "I would be grateful, if you did".

He then asked "Do you have anything else to ask about?". I thought about it for a while, and said "No, I have the new map. I also got the info about the races, which will not hunt me, and you told me some more stuff about the thread, that I require. That should be all". He nodded his head, then said "I will tell Lazar about the thread, when I find out more. My name is Harlin by the way, and if you have more questions, just direct them to Lazar, he will bring them to me. I can't leave my office that often". I nodded and said "That is fine". He said goodbye to Lazar, and left.

I turned towards Lazar, and said "She will need a few more treatments. Hopefully, this doesn't re-emerge, when I leave this place". He nodded his head, and asked "Do you want to proceed now?". I shook my head and said "No. Let her rest, I will return tomorrow. I still have stuff to take care of". He nodded his head, thanked me couple of time, then I left.

I was already tired, after making those Azurite Ingots. Besides, she was no longer in any pain. 'If we wait a day or two, nothing should happen to her' I thought, as I entered the tavern and ordered some food. This time, I ate to my heart content. Although I needed money, spending couple Red Hals inside the tavern, would not make me broke. When I was full, I rented a room and went straight to sleep.

The next day, I checked the map that Harlin gave to me. 'This map is really good. Although it's only focused on the Northern locations, it still shows me a lot' I thought. I could see couple of cities, some of which I already knew about. I also saw the terrain conditions, and even which Volcano housed the Lizard Capital Arangrad.

The most surprising fact, was the layout of the terrain in different parts of the North. The map described the difficulty of moving through each terrain, especially between crucial cities, and locations. 'No wonder this map is so detailed. He is a military leader after all. Moving a large amount of soldiers or people, is not an easy task. If the terrain is bad, all sort of stuff can happen. This will be very useful to me' I thought, and hid the map in my Storage Feather.

I used the Feather, to store my most precious possessions. It was easier to hide, and looked just like a feather. The bag on the other hand, was mostly used to store some of my less precious possessions… besides the Yellow Dust, which I still carried with me in a bag. The Yellow Dust, was a sort of last resort. The ultimate move, where everything, including me, would suffer.

I headed straight to the workshop, and began creating my daggers. I didn't want to make any more moulds, only use the ones, I already created. It took me a while to cast 20 daggers, but I was pleased with the final result. I then sharpened and polished them. My new daggers were ready. 'Those daggers are heavier, compared to the previous ones made from Purified Steel. The design is a bit different as well. I will need some time, in order to adjust to them' I thought.

I swung the dagger a few times, and didn't feel any problems with it. I tested all daggers like that, and made sure that all daggers suited me. I was also checking for any deficiencies. 'Now I have my daggers, as for the remaining Black Steel Ingots, I will leave them for the time, when I can create those dagger by hand, without moulds' I thought, and went to work on the Azurite Ingots.