Snowfield Encounter

Fran rode her Black Horse for the first time in a long time, walking on the snow-covered road. She looked at the map in her hand and carefully identified the direction.

Now she truly experienced the pain of poor road conditions in impoverished areas; she could only proceed in this general direction.

After leaving the Northern Lands Society's furnace, Fran realized that she was in the Northern Territory, where the environment was extremely harsh.

She could barely see the roads marked on the map and could only roughly follow the predetermined direction.

It was only at this point that she understood why there were so many markers on the map—they were there to guide her through these kinds of road conditions.

"We've arrived. That's the big tree marked on the map."

Fran looked ahead, relieved that she hadn't gone the wrong way.

Before her stood a large tree that would take four people to encircle, very similar to the pine trees she had seen in her previous life, except that the color of its leaves was different; these leaves were fiery red.

Like a ball of fire appearing in the snow, this tree stood alone in the snow, surrounded by many traces left by humans.

There were many dagger marks on the tree trunk, seemingly markings, and a wooden Nameplate hung on it slightly below the trunk.

It reads ' Snow Bear Territory Ahead'.

Beside the tree, there was a slightly cleared area that exposed frozen soil as hard as stone, and on it, several charred, rod-shaped objects were stacked together.

Fran went forward to check and found many traces left by humans on the surrounding snow.

"Judging from these marks alone, there must have been five or six people involved."

Fran frowned. She could tell that these marks must have been made not long ago, perhaps this morning or yesterday.

Are there other people here? Fran was very puzzled.

Logically speaking, not many people should travel to the Northern Territory, because the environment Northern Territory is too harsh.

Putting aside the difficult-to-identify roads and the cold weather, there's also the fact that due to the sparse population, there are many Magic Creature that could attack passersby at any time.

Most importantly, water and food are extremely difficult to find in the Northern Territory.

Most settlements in the Northern Territory were established in places where water and food were readily available.

The area surrounding the Northern Lands Society was a vast expanse of wasteland. Perhaps people had settled there before, but after the Northern Lands Society established its hearth, almost no one settled there anymore.

The Northern Territory already had a low population density, and the establishment of the Northern Lands Society further exacerbated this by destroying settlements, causing many people to move with their families to settle outside the Northern Lands Society's city.

Under such circumstances, it's rather suspicious that anyone would still pass by here.

Experienced people will take a different route that has more settlements, so they can have many settlements to refer to, so they won't get lost easily, and they can also get supplies from those settlements.

Now, the traces of multiple people passing by around the Northern Lands Society are somewhat suspicious.

What puzzled Fran the most was that there was a spot on the cleared ground that was triggering her Mental Power.

It was a kind of fluctuation that Fran had never seen before. It was very subtle, and if the open space hadn't been cleared, she really wouldn't have been able to detect it.

The scent of the sea immediately reminded Fran of the ocean.

"What is that?" Fran frowned.

However, there was too little information left behind, and Fran couldn't even track the fluctuations. She couldn't detect them at all in the vicinity of this place.

It seems that something has been here for too long, causing this place to be imbued with the aura of that thing.

Unable to come up with a solution, Fran gave up thinking about it and instead began preparing a place to rest for the day.

It was getting late, Fran could almost see the stars in the distant sky with the naked eye, which was considered quite late in the Northern Territory daylight hours were short.

Fran had originally planned to rest here after arriving.

"Since someone has just cleaned this place, I'll rest here tonight."

Fran, too lazy to find another spot, went directly to the area that had already been cleared by others, checked it briefly, and found no traps.

She led the Black Horse to the charred, rod-shaped objects and discovered that they were not ordinary charcoal.

"Is it something like coal?" Fran guessed, picking up a piece with her Telekinetic Hand and examining it closely.

"It really is! Where did those people come from?"

This was the first time Fran had ever seen coal since arriving at the Northern Lands Society; she hadn't seen anything like it in Northern Lands Society or Snowfang Town.

The furnace in Snowfang Town burns so brightly, thanks in part to special wood from the surrounding area and in part to teeth dropped by a special Magic Creature. These teeth feel extremely cold to the touch, but when placed in the fire, they amplify the flames.

However, Fran can no longer find the people who camped here before; the heavy snow has long since covered all traces.

"Burn it." Fran only knocked off a small amount as a sample, and seeing that the coal was not completely burned, she lit it directly.

After the fire was lit, she did not sit down to rest, but began to set up Magic Trap around herself.

After she finished setting up the Magic Trap, before she could even sit down, she saw the Black Horse stomp its feet heavily on the flat ground.

Fran immediately looked around, using her powerful Mental Power to scan the surrounding area. To her east, she spotted a procession moving forward.

The group consisted of more than a dozen people, each riding a special mount from the Northern Territory — Dire Wolf.

Its size was much larger than any of the wild wolves Fran had encountered in this world, and its broad back made it much more comfortable for anyone sitting on it.

The sound of the Black Horse's hooves alerted Fran and also alerted the rest of the group to the unusual noise.

Fran glanced at the Black Horse and said:

"Next time, you don't need to remind me. I'll sense them as soon as they get close."

After saying that, she didn't know if the Black Horse's brain could remember it, and turned to face these uninvited guests.

Upon hearing the commotion, the group suddenly sped up, with several leaders riding Dire Wolf through the snow and spotting Fran standing by the tree.

They led the Dire Wolf beneath them to a stop, keeping a distance of 20 meters from Fran Fran, waiting for their companions to arrive.

When Fran was able to see all the members of the team with her naked eye, she was so surprised that she couldn't close her jaw.

This group was very strange; some of them were not the humans Fran often encountered in this world, but rather other races from the Magic World.

They all have some animal features, such as brown fur and cat ears...