Chapter 5: Abandon Forest

The land is covered in ice, the cold wind is roaming all over the area. That's the main reason why this land is called Iceland since, in winter, 90 percent of this area is covered in 🧊. In Iceland, near the lectionary mount, Firnir stood the castle city of Neverwinter. She is a large city with two layers of stone wall and has enough area for 100000 people to live. 3 years ago, the city had only about 1000 citizens; however, their lord, Count William IX Fortuna brought new inventions acquired from an unknown source that brings prosperity to all over Iceland, the population of the city has grown dramatically to more than 50000. Similarly, 3 years ago the overall population of Iceland is about 40000, but now it has 120000 citizens, mostly is merchants who hear about the riches of this land and immigrants from Duke Tyrell's territory since the taxes there are very high.

The winter is very cold, we can rarely see people walking in the street but there is a group of knights wearing heavy iron amour along with blue cloths- which prove that they are soldiers of house Fortuna accompanying a chariot. On the two-horse chariot, we see a boy who is about 8 years old wearing leather amour and also blue cloth, he has a longbow on his shoulders which length is even longer than himself. They are heading toward the north gate of the city and clearly, the destination they are going to is the Abandon Forest.

( Change POV)

After getting out of the city, I feel that the cold wind is trying to blow me up. I talk to the knight riding beside me:

- Sir George, thanks for crafting this bow. I really appreciate that you can craft it just from the limited instruction that I gave.

- It's my honor to serve you, Lord Ivar. And your design is magnificent, I have never seen any bow that can shoot more than 300 meters and can go through iron amour like this one. If our men are equipped with this bow. Our power will increase significantly.

The bow I am using is the Japanese longbow. Of course, it is superior to the current now since the development of this world is similar to the 8-9th century on Earth. And according to the book Art of Craft I obtain using my blessing, this bow is invented in the 16th century and is used by samurais who worked for Shogun in Japan. I also see the blueprint of matchlock gun in the book but with the current technology, recreating it is nearly impossible.

Seeing the border of the forest, we stop and Charles comes forward:

- Lord Ivar, we cannot accompany you any further, we will encamp here and if you succeed in your hunt, please come back as soon as possible. And do not go too deep since in the far north of the forest is where the Beastmen live. After 5 days if you don't come back, we'll come to find you but it means that you have failed the trial. May gods be with you, Milord.

- Thank you, Charles. Don't worry, you know about my ability. I'll come back, safe and with a huge prey like the boar my fathered hunted when he was at my age.

Not waiting for him to answer, I tighten the rope controlling the horses, and ride to the forest. Although the land in the forest is bumpy so I have to slow down my pace, looking for any sources of water like a river or stream as most animals are there. Now is still morning, I know that most predators hunt at night so I don't try to hide my existence. After about 30 minutes of riding, I hear the sound of water. Get off the chariot, I tied the horses to a nearby tree and cover me as well as them in dirt so that no creature can trace our smell. I slowly move to the source of the sound and notice a stream.

It is a beautiful stream with many types of colorful flowers that I don't know. Climbing onto a nearby tree, it was relatively easy since although I lose my legs, I train with a bow regularly and my weight is less than normal. After finding myself a comfortable place on a branch of a tree, I take out my food, water to consume and wait for my first prey.

I've been waiting for several hours, a stag appears and drinks water gently in the stream. I take my bow out, load it with an arrow and aim at the prey. " ting" after that sound, my arrow goes straight forward to the stag's head. But at the last moment, the stag notices the arrow and tries to escape, however, it's too late for it to run and although the arrow fails to reach its' head, it pierces sits back, and digs a shallow hold on the ground. The stag collapses into the ground.

Satisfied, I climb to the ground from the tree and go approach the stag, although I can take this stag back to Neverwinter now and the trial is finished. But a stag is not a thing I want to show my father. So I use the method that ancient Egyptians used to hunt lions, I tied the stag to the tree and climb back on top of it. I believe a predator will come after smelling the blood. And I can kill it to prove my ability by killing it as my father did with a bear.

However, it brings more trouble than I've expected.