Chapter 486 [0481] Crossing the Snowstorm
With the addition of the Walrus Tusk, Inno had a stable rear base. After leaving seven Archons to maintain the ice cave at the Walrus Tusk, the intelligence team, which had replenished supplies, finally left the Port of Puriel and began to continue northward.
When they set off, time finally came to the coldest time of the year in Freljord.
How cold is the coldest time of the year in Freljord?
It is no exaggeration to say that water turns into ice.
Even the high-fat pickled fish tastes as hard as iron boots.
In the team, several women's iron hairpins were directly broken into irregular iron blocks in the cold.
In addition, because they were not familiar with the climate characteristics of Freljord, Inno did not avoid the sandstorm attack as he did in Shurima. On the third day after departure, a blizzard without warning swept the place where the intelligence team was located and lasted for a full three hours.
After the heavy snow, the coastline completely disappeared.
At this time, the disappearance of the coastline is fatal.
The only sure route from Fosbyro to Frost Harbor is to walk along the coastline - along the way, there are a series of port villages such as Perel Harbor, Icebreaker Harbor, and Frozen Tide Harbor, where supplies can be obtained along the way.
Walking along the coast, there are no mountains around for positioning. Once the coastline is not found, it means complete loss. Even the most experienced icefield travelers will get lost in the endless white snowfield!
Thanks to the fact that the intelligence team are all ice elemental mages - they can spend the shortest time and the least energy to clear some of the snow, so as to find the edge of the frozen coast, and continue along the winding coast, dragging artificial sleds, carrying supplies, and winding northward.
The cold-resistant physique of the ice elemental mages allows them to eat raw and cold pickled fish and chew pure ice cubes, but even so, the morale of the intelligence team began to decline rapidly.
The lofty ambitions at the time of departure have disappeared, and many people began to miss the warmth of Perel Harbor and hope to turn back.
Going to find Frost Harbor at this time is simply a test for warriors!
Under such circumstances, a gentle Ino rarely showed his majestic side.
"We accepted the mission, this is the mission of the Guardians!" She rejected the proposal to return to Port Peril and asked to continue moving forward, "Next we need to move forward at full speed until we reach the next stop, Icebreaker Harbor!"
Ino's words made the Guardians look at each other, and many people's expressions became hesitant. It was already difficult to move forward under such conditions, let alone day and night!
"The sleds are already empty, and everyone can move forward in two shifts." Ino frowned and continued, "I will work day and night to clear the way ahead-if all goes well, we should be able to return to Fosbyro before the completion of the artificial lake. At that time, our 11th group will be the first among all the Guardians to complete the mission!"
Although morale is still not high, because of Ino's leadership and encouragement, the intelligence team was reluctantly divided into two shifts and began to move alternately.
The weather was good, and there was no snow in the next few days. Although the weather was terribly dry and cold, under the bright moonlight, the intelligence team could continue to move forward without lighting too many torches.
And Ino also followed his promise and took out the energy in Shurima, working tirelessly at the front of the team, looking for the edge of the coast.
Three days later, they finally saw the next stronghold.
Icebreaker Port!
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Icebreaker Port has no broken ice at this time of year. The reason for this name is that this port is the estuary of a river. At the mouth of the river not far from the port, there will be large pieces of ice on the water surface in spring, so the port got its name.
Unlike the Port of Puriel, which is controlled by the Walrus Tusk and only has an alliance with Avarosa, Icebreaker Port is already the real sphere of influence of the Avarosa tribe. Although there are many members of other tribes and foreign ice travelers here, at least the manager of the port is already an Avarosa.
Unlike the Port of Puriel, there is no lively tavern in Icebreaker Port.
Although Avarosa planted a lot of cold-resistant cassava, Ashe banned winemaking - although she did not set up an organization to arrest illegal alcohol, she set an example and never drank alcohol.
After all, Avarosa's food is very precious, and it is a bit of a waste to use it to make wine.
In addition, it is far away from Demacia and there are no Demacia merchants selling alcohol, so even the Avarosa people in Icebreaker Port will drink, but most of them are obtained from sporadic exchanges with other tribes, or simply a small amount of home-brewed alcohol.
In this case, Icebreaker Port naturally does not have such a thing as a tavern.
As for those taverns built before the Avarosa people took control of this place, after they could not be opened, they were transformed by Ashe into an activity center - not only a training ground for warriors, a storytelling hall for the elderly, but also a playground for children and a mobilization site for issuing war mother orders.
At the beginning, people were still a little unaccustomed to life without strong liquor. In the first year after Ashe announced a complete ban on large-scale brewing, many people opposed it.
But as food gradually became more plentiful and the proportion of newborns surviving their naming day increased for several consecutive years, the Avarosans finally got used to spending more time elsewhere.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Avarosa tribe's population growth over the years and the rapid spread of farming technology are inseparable from these taverns that have been transformed into activity centers. Here, knowledge and technology are respected, and Ashe is very She generously shared it with all the ice travelers, and her reputation spread to far away places along with word of mouth among these ice travelers.
Why was Avarosa able to grow rapidly from a small tribe without relying on military conquest to become the largest force in the West Freljord subcontinent?
Because Ashe has truly found a way to make the lives of the Freljord people better - as a powerful war mother, Ashe has the ability to conquer the surrounding tribes, but she did not choose to do that , but in another way, he won respect and support.
When Ino and the intelligence team arrived at the Icebreaker Port, they saw a completely different style of Freljord. This port, with its simple buildings and low walls, surprisingly gave everyone a sense of familiarity. .
It seems that it contains some kind of special equipment, which is quite similar to Fosbarrow's temporary camp.
In such bad weather, a group of forty or fifty people appeared, which naturally attracted the attention of the guards.
After discovering Ino and others, the guard blew the horn without hesitation.
Soon, a group of heavily armed soldiers climbed up the low wall. The man in the lead, who looked like a captain, shouted loudly.
"Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going?"
"We are envoys, coming from Demacia." Looking at the faded Avarosa flag on the port wall, Ino stood up and replied loudly, "We are going to Frost Harbor!"
"Demacia?" The person on the wall asked in confusion with a thick Freljord accent, "What tribe is that? Shouldn't the south be the Walrus Tusk?"
"It's Demacia!" Ino tried to correct him while taking out a long walrus tooth. "Our first stop is Port of Peril."
The tusks of walruses can also be regarded as the representative gifts of the walrus tusk tribe. They will hunt a small number of walruses before winter every year to obtain the walrus oil needed to smear their bodies during ice fishing. The tusks of walruses are They will be specially treated and given as gifts to their friends - in Ashe's hand, there is also a very long walrus tusk.
After seeing the walrus tusks, the people on the wall obviously relaxed a lot. In the Freljord, although walruses are not at the top of the food chain, there are very few tribes that can actually find traces of walruses and hunt them. , who can produce such processed walrus teeth, most of these people should be recognized by the walrus teeth.
So, while maintaining vigilance, the door to the wall of Broken Ice Port was finally opened, and Ino and others successfully entered the port.
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In the port, Ino saw the person who had shouted and communicated with her on the wall before, calling Demacia "Demacia".
The other party is a woman who looks to be about forty or fifty years old. She has a large frame and a tall body that are common among Freljordians. Her hair color is not pure white, but she wears very little. She holds a bag in her hand. A spear, the wooden shaft of the spear is black in color and the material cannot be seen, but the blade of the spear is crystal clear ice.
"My name is Sazo." She introduced herself. "I am the captain of the Icebreaker Harbor Guard. I am also responsible for maintaining the rules here. You said you are a friend of Walrus Tusk?"
"Ino." Ino nodded, "Grandma Walrus asked me to say hello to you."
"Oh? Is she feeling well?"
"You can also drink a large glass of walrus milk in one breath." Ino spread his hands, "He is also very powerful in dealing with drunkards in the pub."
"That's great, Grandma Walrus." Sazo nodded, his expression finally relaxed, "You said before that you were the messenger?"
"That's right, Fosbairo from Demacia." Ino nodded, "We are going to Frostport."
"Demacia, I've never heard of this tribe." Sazo frowned, "Is it south of Peril Harbor?"
"It's south of the Freljord." Ino corrected with a smile, "It's Demacia."
"Wait, are you a warm-blooded person?" Sa Zhuo's eyes widened, "No, something is wrong, you are clearly of ice blood!"
"If you are talking about blood, maybe I do have thin ice blood in my body." Regarding this point, Eno was very open-minded, "But I'm sorry, I am indeed a Demacia, not Freyr. The Zodians—at least in my great-grandfather’s generation, have been living in Demacia.”
"So, are you returning to Freljord to trace the origin of your bloodline?" Sazo looked at Ino, and then at the Archon who was wearing lining and robes behind her, "You heard about it too The successor of Avarosa, returned in response to the call of the three sisters? "
Now it was Ino's turn to be confused.
Didn't you speak clearly?
He has already said that he is a Demacian, has been a Demacian for several generations, and is Demacia's Forsbarrow envoy. Why does this guy in front of him still wishfully think that he is here to trace the origin of his bloodline?
Helpless, Ino could only once again emphasize his Demacian identity, and deny that he could trace the origin of his bloodline or respond to the call of the three sisters.
"I am the messenger, the messenger representing Forsbarrow!"
"No, you are of the ice bloodline!" To Ino's surprise, Sazo still stubbornly believed that she should have come because of the fate of the ice bloodline. "It was the three sisters who guided you back, otherwise you would not have been able to cross the blizzard. Came here from Peril Harbor!”
"I can come here because I can control the ice and snow." Ino shook his head helplessly and waved his hand to clear away the ice and snow under his feet, "No one guided me, I followed the coastline."
Ino explained it very clearly, but unfortunately, Sa Zhuo still didn't want to believe it - which made her attitude seem quite contradictory. On the one hand, she respected the identity of Ino's ice blood, but on the other hand, she was dissatisfied with her unwillingness to accept her fate. attitude.
This contradiction has always been with Sazo. Even after arranging a place for Ino to stay, she still tried to persuade Ino to accept his fate...
In desperation, Ino could only use Kalya's words to express that her goal was to meet Ashe. If she was really the heir of Avarosa, I believe she would be able to convince herself, but I'm afraid you can't.
Although this statement is a bit offensive, Sa Zhuo readily accepts it. It seems that in her heart, Ai Xi is indeed a sacred existence, qualified to command all ice bloodlines...
This almost fanatical attitude made Ino feel a bit familiar, as if the Rakkor people under the Titan Peak had a similar understanding of the Titan.
The problem is, in Ino's impression, the giant god is faith!
But whether it is Grandma Ling’s description or Grandma Walrus’s statement, Ai Xi is a very enlightened and thoughtful leader. She is completely different from the giant gods who enslave the Rakkor people with their faith. Why is this called Sazo? A guy who is as fanatical as a giant?
"A person's thoughts and attitude cannot completely determine other people's opinions of him, even the War Mother." In response to Ino's doubts, Kalya explained helplessly after sighing, "Well, people, There’s always a need for some kind of name.”
"Like Nashrame under the banner of Shurima?"
"It kind of means that." Kalya agreed, "I don't know if Ashe really hopes to be the successor of Avarosa, or if he has his own ideals and goals, and just relies on this name to act, but at present It seems that quite a few members of the Avarosa tribe are united around her because of this name.”
"This doesn't seem to be a good thing." Ino said thoughtfully, "For this reputation, maybe Ai Xi will do something she doesn't want?"
"At least Setaka used to be."
Kalya’s Little Class·The Busy Frost Dragon:
Although Ivar can be regarded as a "supernumerary dragon" of the intelligence team, he does not act with the intelligence team's mages - his mission is to help the intelligence team deliver messages.
With Kalya around, Iva can always pinpoint Ino's location, thus helping Ino deliver the message accurately.
PS.68k/200k, one more chapter to come, more to come!