Mission (4)

Eventually, Drake and John arrived at the Frozen City, one of the three biggest cities in the territory. Everlasting City was known for its military strength and its prosperity since the Ivory Tower was built in its inner center. It was thus the territory's capital.

The Red Stone City was a city full of criminals. In fact, the Moonfall family would send thieves and criminals in the Red Stone City so that they would mine Red Stone. Red Stone can be used for construction and is a good isolation material. Hence, it was highly popular in the whole North of the Dalian Kingdom.

Half of the Moonfall revenue came from the selling of Red Stone. In total, there were more than 2000 criminals and desperate commoners in the dangerous mines. Of course, such a large mining force required several acolytes to administrate and hundreds of soldiers. They were usually the older acolytes from the Moonfall family, with enough experience and strength to repress any kind of revolution.

As for the Frozen City, which Drake and John found after several days of traveling, it was actually a city built out of nothing. Because it was located in the very North of the territory, on top of the mountain, the cold was extremely harsh. This extreme coldness brought some benefits, however, as it was possible to build houses out of frost. The inhabitants would carve their dwellings out of huge blocks of ice. No beast would dare adventure themselves so high, besides magical ones that is.

As they arrived, they were received quite well, the city's mayor greeting them in his own manor. Though it was quite atypical, Drake found it quite luxurious and beautiful. The carvings were especially elegant.

« Esteemed guests, would you like some tea? », he said after a few minutes of silence. During this time, he was mot likely trying to judge his guests' strength.

Drake knew that it was quite the rude thing to do, but he paid the man no heed, for he was doing the exact same thing

[Name - Mayor Borel | Age - 24 Years Old

Race - Human

Attributes:

Strength - 2.2 | Agility - 1.5 | Vitality - 3.5

Skills: Dalian Military Swordsmanship (28), Administrative Skills (16), Etiquette (5), Literacy (5) ...]

Unlike what he expected, the Frozen City was not supervised by any acolyte from the Moonfall Household. It was an independent city.

Having scanned the two guards in the entry, the both of them being knights as well with more than three points of vitality, it did not take a genius to figure out that knights were the fighting force protecting the city from the occasional magical beast attacks.

However, there was one suspicious piece that escaped Drake

'How the hell did they manage to raise their vitality so high?'

There could only be two reasons: Either an alchemist was brewing them magical elixirs and toxins to forcefully raise their vitality, or they found some sort of treasure capable of significantly increase their vitality.

Either way, it was something Drake was hell bent of finding out, even more so than the location of the necromancer they were supposed to find.

John was completely oblivious to the strength of the mayor, who had hidden his knight physique under large and luxurious clothing.

As he began to drink the tea, Drake smiled:

[Beverage detected…Similarity with Frost Elven Tea…99%]

Drake's biochip was pretty powerful. Just from experiences and scanning the huge ancestral library in the Ivory Tower, Drake had accumulated a database that was bigger than what any living man could boast having remembered. Any liquid, meal or species recorded in the Moonfall Library, even extinct ones, was easily recognized by the database.

With these skills, even if he didn't have any magical talent, he would have become an appraiser an made a fortune.

« Frost elven tea, huh…This is indeed a fitting welcome gift for us acolytes », Drake said

Frost elven tea leaves were a semi-magical ingredient. It was pretty rare to find them in extremely cold mountains, but sometimes, travelers would gift them to the Moonfall Family to thank them for protecting the Everlasting City.

Still, they were so rare that Drake only happened to taste it twice in his life.

[Expected benefits: Magical power will increase by 0.05 point]

John was pleasantly surprised as well. However, he didn't gulp it as fast as Drake did. The latter was afraid the mayor might not know about the herb's true value.

« I am actually the one who has been sending the reports about the necromancer…This man has broken the cemetery and stole the corpses. He used to be the undertaker of the Frost City. Little did I know, the man was actually an acolyte engaging in forbidden rituals to rise the dead. Two weeks ago, I killed my own wife and children who died 15 years ago during the frost eagle invasion », the mayor expressed with sadness

John nodded

The mayor continued: « If you can take care of him…I can promise you one pound of Frost Elven Tea »

It was a shocking reward. One pound of Frost Elven Leaves…it would be enough to make over 20 servings and thus significantly increase their magical power.

Drake promised : « Don't worry about it, we will bring you his head »

John squinted. There were no free meal in this world after all.