The Northlands, now a world of ice and snow, was once home to a thriving human civilization.
In the spring of the new year, the ruins of human buildings were discovered in the caves where the gray-skinned Goblin had previously lived, which made the eager adventurers of Zero Crossing City excited.
The involvement of nobles was naturally indispensable in bringing this matter to its climax.
"That is the fiefdom of my Burns Family! My ancestor swore to live and die with this land, leaving behind the most precious treasure of the Burns Family."
A prominent figure with a large following stepped forward to recount the history of that land.
And the Bard began to recount the magnificent chapters of a world more than a hundred years ago, a world so different from the present.
Every little thing, every scene, was stirring the hearts of the adventurers in Zero Crossing City.
They were eager to find wealth.
" The Burns Family will offer one hundred Gold Coin to attract adventurers' help."
The Wandering Nobles spoke up, inviting adventurers and adventure groups to follow him into the Northlands to retrieve the Burns Family's wealth.
Some Bard have boldly speculated that the Burns Family may still possess a great deal of wealth, enough to grant them a chance to become nobles, or that the former Burns nobles left behind an extraordinary legacy that could make one as powerful as if bathed in dragon blood.
Privately, members of the Burns Family have also hinted that, if all goes well, the Burns Family might arrange a marriage alliance with the adventurers.
The fastest way to become a nobleman is to first become a relative of a nobleman.
In short, within just a few days, the adventurers in Zero Crossing City couldn't wait any longer, and some even set off for the Northlands ahead of schedule.
Then, after only two days, he was so cold that he ran back home.
" The Northlands is not a place you can go to whenever you want. There are no warm clothes, no sturdy armor, no sharp weapons, and not even markers to help you navigate. You won't even be able to find food if you go into the Northlands."
"Furthermore, one cannot stay in the Northlands forever; supplies are essential, and adventurers cannot travel the entire Northlands with their prey."
"The lords and nobles of the Frozen Earth Territory have established several outposts. Only by staying close to those outposts can one survive in the Northlands for an extended period of time and then seek out the treasures of the Northlands."
"This is way too difficult..."
"Difficult? But you must understand, once you find wealth, you'll have it for this life and the next."
"Which member of those adventurer groups doesn't get new clothes every Festival of Divine Grace Festival?"
Rumble!!!
The towering knights entered Zero Crossing City, and people had to look up to see their full figures. Some of them recognized the insignia on the knights' bodies.
"Those are dragons! They're Count Soron's army!"
Someone exclaimed, loudly proclaiming that they had once accompanied a distinguished figure to Dragon Mountain City and seen Count Soron's insignia.
"How did they end up in Zero Crossing City?"
Fidel Sauron stayed at Viscount Miles's mansion, and two hours later, the adventurers were in an uproar.
" The Soron Family is heading to the Northlands in search of precious dragon blood. They have a powerful Dragonblood Warrior Legion, and their esteemed heir has invited noble adventurers to join them in the search."
At this point, the previously exposed members of the Burns Family reappeared.
"My ancestors once fought Dragons on that land."
Thus, members of the Burns Family were invited by Fidel to dinner.
People see it all and feel deeply touched.
A count's heir like Fidel is a figure of immense importance that is difficult to look up to in the entire Zero Crossing City.
"Let's go, to the Northlands!"
Shouting slogans, people began rushing into the snowy world of the Northlands, where they indeed discovered the collapse of the earth in the icy wilderness.
"It is said that this is due to the power of Dragons."
"Deep within this Snow Plains slumbers a terrifying Frost Dragon, which awakens to destroy the entire world, but Baron Ryan stops it."
"It's true. I've seen that Dragons. It appeared on the battlefield a few years ago. It was terrifying. Back then, there was also Giants who controlled thunder as its enemy."
" Dragons, if I could conquer Dragons, I would be Dragon Knight too."
These adventurers are most eager to hear a mix of true and false, chaotic and confusing news.
" The Burns Family's territory lies within this crevice, and it looks so high up. Has the Northlands buried all its former lands?"
People were puzzled and surprised, after all, snow was still drifting in the dark crack before them, cold and lonely, carrying an unknown terror.
"There's no mistake. Lord Count Soron's family is an ancient noble family that existed Northern Lands. The Burns Family nobles visited Lord Count Soron before, and the young heir even said that he was related to the Burns Family patriarch."
If Count Soron admits it, then it must be true.
Some adventurers began to enter the cracks in the earth, only to find that there were already quite a few adventure groups there.
"They are much faster than us."
"Isn't that obvious? Look over there, that's Lord Sauron's knight."
"And the young master of the Burns Family."
There were probably two or three hundred adventurers. Only a few of them could make it this far. At the very front were the knights of the Soron Count Family and one of the noble families who had submitted to Ryan in the Bilki World.
The name Burns is real, but it has nothing to do with this land.
However, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not. Sometimes the truth doesn't matter. This land covered by wind and snow no longer has a master. If we have to talk about a master, then the Orcs have a lot to say.
Those gray-skinned Goblin can also speak.
"These are truly the ruins of a town. These ruins could probably have housed a thousand or two thousand people, right?"
Members of the Burns Family stepped forward and announced loudly:
"I am here for the wealth inherited by my family. The Burns Family only wants to take back what belongs to their family."
" The Soron Family only wants to find dragon blood."
A fully armed knight said the same thing.
The two noble representatives spoke, and then directed the adventurers to begin their exploration.
Humans still feel nervous and apprehensive about the unknown, about the caves beneath the earth. The adventurers proceeded cautiously, exploring little by little.
"Ah!!!! There's a monster!!!"
The grey Goblin pursued the adventurer. It was powerful; as the people of Hobii, these grey Goblin were fearless and could not be deterred by weapons striking their bodies.
In addition, Hobii is probably not in a good mood lately, which has led to his people showing great malice towards living things.
"Kill it quickly! Don't let it summon other monsters!"
The knight roared, and the members of the adventurer's party were of higher quality than the adventurers in the wild. One by one, they drew their weapons and Goblin at the gray-skinned goblin. Their numbers brought them courage and confidence, and more importantly, this gray-skinned Goblin was not as powerful as they had imagined.
Seeing the Goblin, the adventurers were still shaken; this place didn't seem as safe as they had imagined.
That's for sure. What makes a hero a hero is not whether he has courage, but that he survives the many terrible monsters and disasters he encounters on his path to becoming a hero.
"Found it! We found it!"
Deep within the ruins, someone shouted with delight. He had unearthed a human skeleton, broken off its hand bones, and raised its arm. On that skeletal arm, he grasped a jeweled scepter and a ring.
The adventurer noticed that everyone around him was looking at him. He stared blankly at the skeletal arm in his hand, then looked down at the skeleton he had kicked and shattered. His gaze shifted somewhat unnaturally towards the members of the Burns Family.
The bones beneath his feet could very well be the other person's ancestor.
"It's a viscount's scepter and a badge ring!"
The Burns Family members quickly came over, kicking the skeletons at their feet several more times along the way.
"My father said that our ancestors did not leave the land because it was invaded. The nobles who fled from the the North to the south shamelessly wanted to plunder the Burns Family's wealth and inherit the Burns Family's honor and land."
The Burns Family members kicked the bone under their feet a few more times.
"He is not my ancestor, but a shameless scoundrel who plundered the Burns Family's wealth."
The story he told was not false. In a certain Otherworld, the Burns Family really did experience such turmoil and lost all the inherited wealth that represented the Burns Family. The Burns Family later wandered to the Bilki World as wanderers with the Mage Sisu.
It's good that the dead man under my feet wasn't my noble ancestor.
The adventurer thought to himself, breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at the Burns Family members with expectant eyes.
"You're from the Savage Bear Adventurer Group? Don't worry, I'll give you a good reward for helping me find the family scepter and ring."
Meanwhile, Count Soron's knights led adventurers deeper into the ruins, where even more battles broke out.
The Goblin had already cleared out the gray-skinned Stag Legion here, but surprisingly, quite a few lucky ones still managed to hide.
"For Sauron!"
The knights shouted the glory of Sauron as they charged toward the grey Goblin.
Even with heavily armored warriors in front of them, the gray Goblin still found it difficult to deal with them. The difficulty in opening these metal cans made the battle begin to turn in favor of the humans.
Fortunately, the reputation of Count Soron inspired the adventurers to help, and after two or three days of intense fighting, they finally killed all the gray Goblin.
Among the adventurers, there emerged an incredibly lucky fellow.
The adventurer was relentlessly pursued by the grey Goblin, Goblin showed no sign of retreat once they spotted an enemy. Their relentless chase caused the adventurer to lose his bearings, slip and fall into a deeper crevice, ultimately plunging headfirst into the Dragon Blood Pool.
The steaming dragon blood pool was like a hot spring, diluted many times by Ryan with Dragon Bone Marrow and water, so the dragon blood did not contain such violent energy.
The adventurer didn't explode and die, but he was still in bad shape.
The fact that he survived is the best outcome. Moreover, his strength is no less than that of Apprentice Knight has been training for several years, and his physical strength even surpasses that of many Formal Knight.
He found the dragon's blood and soared into the extraordinary realm. This scene was witnessed by many people, and for a time, jealousy permeated the entire adventurer community.
They couldn't be jealous of the nobles, but they were jealous of the adventurers who had originally started on the same footing as them.
"Warrior bathed in dragon's blood, are you willing to become Count Soron's warrior?"
The burly knight inquired, and the adventurer, though tempted to agree, dared not lie.
"I am the servant of Lord Baron Kendra."
There's nothing that can be done about the nobles' subjects, and the knight already knew the answer when he asked the question.
The other person was wearing the insignia of the Baron Kendra family.
Most of the adventure groups embarked on their return journey, having been invited and recruited by the Wandering Nobles of Burns and the heirs of the Soron Count Family, while the rest remained in the Northlands in search of more treasures.
The main reason is that the adventurer who found the scepter ring and the dragon's blood became the benchmark of the industry, making all the other adventurers look at him with burning eyes.
"Do you think he can marry Baron Kendra's daughter when he goes back?"
"Impossible, how could the Baron's daughter marry that brat Kaide?"
The adventurers who remained in the Northlands gritted their teeth, wishing they weren't the ones who fell into the dragon's blood.
"But at least I can marry a Baron's niece. He's a knight now. I've heard that dragon blood is very powerful and can make your sons stronger than other people's sons."
This was truly devastating; one by one, the adventurers, their eyes bloodshot, began searching this ruin from over a hundred years ago.
Surprisingly, while they didn't find anything particularly valuable, they did find a considerable amount of wealth.
When the Northlands arrived, many people could not go south like the far-sighted nobles. Along with the two adventure groups, they discovered a chest of Gold Coin amidst their conflicts, and the meaning of the adventure reached its peak.
The adventurers' story continues, and in the Northwind Province, the story reaches another climax.
Nobles rarely pay attention to peasants who venture into the Northlands, but this time is different.
" Count Soron invites the nobles to Dragon Mountain City to witness the Dragonblood Warriors ' renewed glory!?"
The nobles were utterly shocked, for it was said that Count Soron had found a large quantity of dragon blood in the Northlands.
Dragon blood—the nobles all knew what dragon blood was, and all of them understood what dragon blood meant to Count Soron and that Extraordinary Legion.
After years of continuous warfare, the Dragonblood Warrior Legion was decimated in countless bloody battles, and the nobles thought that the Soron Count Family would be out of the spotlight for a long time. But the current outcome has given them a rude awakening.
Dragonblood will not only restore the Dragonblood Warrior Legion to its former glory, but more importantly, the Dragonblood Warriors bloodline can be inherited.
With the discovery of new dragon blood, the Soron Count Family will no longer need to worry about the reproduction of the Dragonblood Warrior Legion for the next hundred years.
Of all these people, the one who was most furious was undoubtedly Count Winter, the former governor of the Northwind and a former rival of Count Soron and Count Weiss.
"That damned old man, how come he's so lucky to find dragon blood in the Northlands?"
Count Winter was so angry that he didn't want to eat all day. The Dragonblood Warrior Legion was revitalized, but his Unicorn Flying Wolf Cavalry Legion was still on its last legs.
"Perhaps it wasn't him who discovered it."
Countess Winter said this calmly.
" Count Soron sent his successor with several dozen knights to Zero Crossing City, and then went to the Northlands and found the Dragon Blood in a few days."
"It shouldn't be this fast. Dragon blood is usually sealed in a very secret place, so there won't be any leakage of Magic Power."
Countess Winter said this, as a powerful Saint Realm Mage, she knew very well how to store dragon blood.
"Unless, he already knew where the dragon blood was."
"That's impossible. That old man, Miao Ya, has never sent anyone to the Northlands. He has personally witnessed the snowstorms of the Northlands that have killed countless people. He has a great fear of the Northlands. Now, I am the only one who knows about this."
Count Winter said this. As an old rival, he knew Count Soron's past very well. When Count Soron was young, the Northlands was like a sharp Knight's Greatsword, cutting down countless people from the the North of the world, and finally stopping right in front of him.
He harbors a deep psychological trauma from this.
"Therefore, he did not discover the dragon blood, and the dragon blood does not even belong to him."
"But he brought back dragon blood from the Northlands."
"Someone gave it to him."
Countess Winter echoed what Count Winter had said, and Count Winter finally realized what was going on.
" Ryan, there's only one possibility left. That kid Ryan found dragon blood and gave it to Sauron, who needed it the most!"
Count Winter slammed his fist on the table. The desk was old, but new in the room. It was an ancient artifact from Otherworld that Count Winter had purchased from Ryan.
" Ryan actually found dragon blood in one winter."
Count Winter was somewhat envious; his luck was simply too good.
The countess standing beside her frowned.
"Previously, Arryris, the Frost Dragon, awoke for a long time and unleashed inexplicable fury in the Northlands. Moreover, some uncertain news came from Meyers that Dragons skeletons had appeared in the frozen world of the Northlands."
"Perhaps it is this matter."
Count Winter remembered it too.
" Chrysus of Meyers also told me about this, seemingly trying to use the news to win me over, but you want me to refuse."
Count Winter was puzzled as to why the lady herself would refuse.
It now appears that there may be a great deal of wealth inside.
"You are not a true Imperial Noble."
"That's what the Countess Winter said," she said, glancing at the emblem on the Earl's clothes. "It wasn't any flower, but a howling Unicorn Flying Wolf."
This represents the origins of the Count Winter, while the emblems of the ancient nobles of the Florian Empire were all marked with flowers or mountains.
The few differences are that, like the Count Clayton Family, they use Dragons as their emblem, but even so, they still seem out of place among the other noble families in the empire.
"If it were wealth that wasn't dangerous, the Mayers Family wouldn't have told us so easily."
"And since you rejected him, he didn't send troops to the Northlands. He couldn't possibly have sold the information to Baron Ryan."
"Since Lord Lais's blasphemy, our understanding of the Great Being has deepened considerably, and there is likely Deities intervention behind that incident."
"Without Legendary, we are not qualified to even touch them."
Count Winter had one great virtue: he listened to advice. After listening, he stopped dwelling on the matter and instead asked:
"Does the Northlands truly possess many precious resources?"
The Countess paused for a moment, then nodded.
"That's two-thirds of Norris, a world untouched by humans for over a hundred years. That boundless land can nurture endless extraordinary resources."
"The snowstorms of the Northlands can bury the land and prevent food from growing, but they cannot destroy extraordinary crops."
(End of this chapter)