Journey to Valshade

The world of Audenia is divided into three major continents, the Western Continent made for the Mages and Magic-wielders, the Central-Southern-Northern Continent for the Lords and their insatiable greed for power and prestige. And lastly is the serene Eastern Continent for the Cultivators seeking immortality.

Divided by the two Great Oceans, the Jade Ocean and the Blood Ocean, and the Seven Seas, it is impossible to traverse the oceans across for it is haunted by the two Great Leviathans, Jade and Blood." –Commoner's Guide to Audenia.

…

"So, is this 'weapon' really effective? I really can't bring myself to think that a hand-made machete like this, coated with ice, can cleave a man to half." I say, as I rotated the wooden sword in my hand. The machete looked very much like khopesh from my previous Earth, an Egyptian historical sword but for some reason, it really didn't sit right with me.

The wooden machete was frostbitten, heavy at the tip and was really clumsy to swing. The only praise-worthy aspect of the machete was the edge of the blade, which was coated with a deep, blue ice of nearly a few millimeters thick.

"Dude, respect my craft a little. I made it especially for you!!! With these tiny hands of mine! Look! Its all cold and damp now!! All because of you!" Moose cries showing his two tiny hands to me, while resting his whole body on my shoulder. I didn't mind him sitting on my shoulder because his fur felt good but blocking my vision with two dirty, little black hands. Not good.

Pef, on the other hand, was walking alongside me, his little feets hoping from one branch to another continuously to keep up with my fast pace.

Rolling my eyes over, I kept on practicing the same set of strikes, slash, slash, slash. I mean, I don't know anything else other than that. I was no Martial artist in my previous life.

"So, how far are we from Valshade City?" I ask Pef.

"We covered half the distance in 5 days, another half to go. Tell those pimps to pump up their speed, Jed. They are the ones who are slowing us down." he replies.

I scrounge my face and object, "C'mon, they are just kids. Give them some slack, will ya!"

Pef rolls his head defiantly but then I turn my head back and yell at the boys, "Speed those beefy legs or else I will make stew of them!"

Turning my head, I saw Pef looking at me with wide eyes.

"What! I'm a hypocrite!" I say. I really am, though.

Anyway, coming back at the boys. After releasing them from their shackles, the boys finally started to show their human self by wailing, sobbing and crying for hours. They even started to 'feel' the cold and thus, scrambled everything to get some thick clothes on them to protect themselves.

You might think that after getting those boys on their feets, I took care of them unconditionally and calmed their raging and traumatized heart, becoming the messiah most books describe their protagonists as, but I did not. I'm no protagonist.

So, I got these kids enslaved. Ahem! Correction, branded. I branded their Souls before letting them out and made a verbal contract with them which states that they would do anything I would say if I release them from the shackles and take care of them. I agreed.

Though, they also asked me to help them with their families' economic situation and whatnot but … I gave them a 'meh' face and let it slip. Why would I wanna take on the responsibilities of a dozen families for twelve wet-behind-the-ear brats. Nah! Not me! So, now, they are my slaves. Sweet and clean.

I look behind me and saw the boys pulling themselves and the big leather bags on their backs. Thesebags contain all the useless and normal stuffs like utensils, clothes and leather that we found in that base of Cult of Ice as their own profit. As for all the good stuffs like magical weapons, armors, books and tomes, all of it went into my Inventory Ring, as I call my interdimensional storage ring as, as my personal profit. Anything that caught my eyes was taken.

"Fast!" I order them and turn back to swing my dumbass-looking machete.

"Y-Young Master, please slow down… w-we can't keep up!" cried one of the boys behind me. I turned back and saw that it was Jia who said it. Jia is currently the leader of the group of boys. He had a moderate build; his skin is a little tanned and his face show a great deal of bruises and wrinkles. Seems like he didn't have quite a nice and comfortable childhood. None of the boys had it, I guess.

Anyhoo, Jia was the leader type guy with a square face, muscled limbs and he is a nice orator which instantly got him into the leader position. And since he is the leader, he is also the medium of communication between me and the traumatized kids. But his status of a leader never quite made me think of him as special, he is the usual tramp like others.

I smile broadly at him and reply, "Faster, buddy. Don't you guys wanna live in a house rather than in tents?!"

"B-bu-but Master, we can't walk anymore…" he replies, huffing.

"Aww! C'mon! You've walked … something like 2 km only today. You can't call it a day just yet! We have 8 more to go before calling it a day. Remember, 100 km!!" I say and turn back. I felt Jia sigh or perhaps even curse at me but who cares.

We walked another 5 kms before finally taking a break. At that point, they were practically dragging themselves on the ground which was really … pitiful, I guess.

We set up tent and started a small campfire with Pef guarding and ordering them, while Moose and I went to hunt for a game. We were still in a leafless, frozen pine forest and there was a good chance of finding a deer or elk. So, we searched and searched for a whole 3 hours before a small herd of deer came into view. It was a herd of large, husky male deer, most of whom were clamping their heads in combat or eating the moss and whatnot.

"Yummy." I mutter without hiding my inner feelings at all.

"Which one do you wanna hunt?" ask Moose but I grin evilly and reply, "All!"

"Wha—"

"Icy Blizzard!"

Dashing forward, I spread my arms wide open and close them with a slapping motion.

Fwooooooooooosshh!!!!!

Two large blast of cold wind blasted from hands along with ice shards and snowflakes and dashed in a semi-circular way towards the herd of deer.

"!!" alerted, the herd stopped everything they were doing and made a dash in opposite direction but before they could even take a step the blasts of cold air converged on them and froze them on their spot.

I smile victoriously at Moose, "Let's have a feast! Again!"

Moose shook his head dejectedly and reply, "Conserve your Magic Essence, dude. It's the Eastern Continent, Magic Essence is scarce over here."

As he said that, he came over to the herd and started to slit the throats of the deer to kill them. Strangely, though, along with killing them, he also stored their blood in bottles.

"Dude, what are you doing?" I ask, puzzled.

"Collecting their blood. Blood is a key ingredient in most refining processes or spell works. You should save as much blood as you can, it will not only benefit you as an ingredient but you can also use it to quench your thirst, if the need arises."

"Revenants drink blood?" I ask him, "Am I cousin to vampires?"

"Yea… kind of… Revenants get urges sometimes. Bloodlust, some call it. Drinking human or animal blood can quench it down considerably. Especially, blood of higher grade mosters like these. Thus, more the blood, the merrier."

I shrug my shoulders and take out a glass bottle from my own Inventory Ring and start collecting blood. After finishing with blood, we collect the antlers, which was completely white in color like ivory, their beady brown eyes, tongue, teeth, even penises. We collected everything on the outside and after reaching the camp we decided to collect all the precious goodies inside, like the heart, liver, gall bladder, bone marrow, etc. And ooh! I also found out that these deer were actually Rank-1 Snow Antler Deer, a rare Rank-1 creature of the northern forests.

Our return journey took a little bit more time as we lost our way twice but we returned safely without much trouble. Ooh! I also learned how to skate on snow surface with the help of Freeze spell but it drains Magic Essence very quickly so I didn't get to enjoy it very well.

Anyhoo, after returning, I threw all the ten or so deer carcasses to the boys and say in a dominant tone, "Skin them, remove their innards and separate the meat. Take care when handling the heart and the bone marrow, they might be more expensive than your own heads." I warn them.

They nodded their heads and immediately set to work, drooling saliva. These guys were the most common and the poorest kinds of boys in their society and I bet they never had the chance to feast on Grade-1 monsters meat from Rank-1 monsters.

After doing their daily chores, the boy ate heartily. They served me, Moose and Pef the largest portion of the venison soup they made and I swear it looked delicious. Unfortunately, being a Revenant, I couldn't taste it like the others. A perk of being an undead, taste buds go numb.

After the feast, I called it a day because the boys were in no condition of walking. They set up tent in a matter of minutes and were fast snoring like apes, leaving me to guard the camp. Damn!

…

"Look boys! Look! The City is right ahead of us!!" I yell encouragingly, through my mask, while pointing at the far away grey walls of Valshade City but if my guess is correct, it is still a good 2-5 kms away. The reason I chose to wear a mask now was because we were approaching the City and I wanted to have a little precaution in case some unfortunate man stumbles onto me and gets scared shitless by my handsome yet scary face. The scar, I mean.

"P-please…"

"Help me …"

"My legs…."

"Hey!" I cry, pouting a little but it had no effect on the boys, who were now literally dragging themselves. I looked at them and found them to be completely broken in mind, their eyes swelling with redness, their tongues hanging out like a dog's and they bent down like old men.

I rolled my eyes at them and moved forward. It was already the 12th day in road and I was really bored of their constant whimpering. We were also late by 2 whole days and it made me very fidgety but thankfully, I spotted a caravan a little infront of me heading right in our desired direction, the Valshade City.

"Look! A caravan!!" I cried in joy and dashed towards it but then, Jia called me in alarm. "Master, Look out! They can be mercenaries!!"

"Bah! Of course not!!" I reply confidently.

Standing out in the open, I waved my hand towards them to catch their attention which I did. They stopped their caravans and looked silently at me as if checking me. The boys led by Jia too came out from the forest and stood in the clearing beside me. I smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, just stay here. I will do the talking."

I walked near their caravan and greeted them. The caravan contained 5 covered carriages and each one was manned by two men and half-a-dozen soldier, clad in scale armors and every single one of them looked at me with weird gazes.

"How do you do, kind Sir? I'm from Valshade City." I say, politely.

…