Chapter 60: Big Circle Lake
Duwei had been staying with the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group for five days.
During this time, Duwei realized he had begun to like these rough mercenaries. He enjoyed the uninhibited rudeness of these wild men and had started to find himself fond of the alcohol. He even loved talking in a foul manner about who was the best hooker while eating monster meat.
In the time he spent with them, he even met a mercenary such as Old Eyed Jacks; a man who was blind in one eye but was responsible for the cooking. He was an old mercenary, but people said that when he was young he was a man of great fortitude. However, he lost one of his eyes as well as his left hand in one of the adventures he undertook. He saved Bein’s life in doing so, but rejected the money offered to him for retirement. In his words, he had missed this exciting life. He would rather stay with the mercenary group and do something for them instead of wither away somewhere.
Although he only had one eye and one hand, he was not a detriment to the group in any way. Even with this, he was still able to cook any type of good food for them…Old Eyed Jacks had great skill. He could find food anywhere, and recognize if a mushroom was poisonous with just a glance! He could even forecast the weather by just looking at the sky. He would be able to know if it was snowing miles ahead by listening to the sound of the wind.
These skills of his came from a lifetime of experience.
Among the group, besides the commander, Old Eyed Jacks was the most favourable person among the them.
There was an archer named Chester, who only had eight fingers. His left little finger and ring finger were bitten off by a monster in an adventure. But no one dared to tease him, because his archery skill was so great that even with only eight fingers, he was still the no.1 archer among the group.
Within these five days, Duwei and Dardanelle were also recognized by the group.
In the last two days, the further they walked towards the forest, the more risk they faced. There was one time in particular when they were catching the Disillusion Magic Leopard. (This leopard moved very fast, and it could use magic to make illusions to annoy the enemy such as making illusory copies of itself. While the enemy would still be trying to determine the real one, the leopard would probably be next to him about to bite off his neck!)
When they were catching that leopard, Duwei really did the job of the magician. He used the Slow magic to slow down the speed of the leopard. The leopard immediately moved slower than a tortoise. Dardanelle then attacked it with a knife.
In the past, when the group met this kind of leopard, they usually lost some people. But this time, with the help of the magician, the hunt went so smoothly that there were no casualties.
The strong spiritual and sensitivity power of Duwei were useful for many situations. When they were walking, Duwei would suddenly stop the others. Then the group would be able to know the monster’s track far away according to the judge of the magician.
Within these five days, because of the joining of the magician, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group gained double their normal harvest.
Even Commander Heinrich could not stop to think that, if they could recruit a magician to join their group…wouldn’t it be perfect?
Surely, after this idea flashed, Bein Heinrich teased himself immediately.
Recruiting a magician? That’s not even something to joke about. Even the nobles or some famous families in the Empire couldn’t recruit a magician. Most of the magicians loved freedom and didn’t want to work for others…
His mercenary group was so small, the group didn’t have even close to the money needed for recruiting a magician!
Duwei also felt happy.
He was bored in the Rollins Family Castle for a long time. But now, he could use magic freely.
This was the most important thing. Although mentally, Duwei was not a kid, he had been studying magic all these past few years. In these few months, after learning magic, his ability improved a lot.
But in the castle, in order to keep a low profile, he never told others about the fact that he knew magic. Only Solskjaer knew the actual ability of Master Duwei.
Apart from Solskjaer, all people including Matt were not allowed to enter the Magic Laboratory. This Magic laboratory was given to Solskjaer nominally.
For most of the people in the Rollins Family, Duwei was just a noble teenage who was curious about magic…perhaps he knew some magic pharmaceutics. But people didn’t think that Magic pharmaceutics was the same as real magic.
It’s just like the kid who had a new toy and always wanted to show it off. Duwei was not so naïve, and so he could not show what he knew……now he could use magic. With the admiration from the surroundings, he felt rather awesome.
His skill which, until now, could not be exposed, was being used just like a ninja.
After five days, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group finally arrived at their destination: Big Circle Lake.
After passing through the forest, the scenery became rather pleasant.
By standing next to the tree on the boundary of the forest, looking at the open area towards the front, Duwei could not stop to sigh.
So gorgeous!
It was a flat land of soft snow, where you couldn’t help but to stop and roll on the snow. About three hundred steps forward, it was the Big Circle Lake!
Just like what Bein Heinrich said, it was a very large lake. Duwei looked at the two sides, the boundary of the lake was so long, you could not see the end of the line. Further away, there was thick ice on the lake!
In such freezing weather, you could not see the lake water. But the ice on the lake was just like a big mirror reflecting the light. It was so glamorous…
“If it was summer, the lake water would be blue in color. That scenery would be pretty.” Commandar Bein Heinrich walked near Duwei, and looked at the lake while whispering, “This is my fifth time to come here, but did you know…it is the first time for most of my brothers in the group to come to this place. In the adventuring life of a mercenary, the death rate is high. There are only a few brothers that have followed me for more than a few years, but still it’s the first time to come to this place.” Bein seemed a little bit down, “Unfortunately, there were quite a number of my brothers who were buried here by me last time.”
Duwei was going to say some words of comfort, but Bein had cheered up already. He shouldered Duwei and laughed, “OK! No need to comfort me, Mr. Magician. It is because that’s us! That’s a mercenary! That’s the adventuring life! There are newcomers, and also death! Someone died, and someone stayed alive!”
After saying that, Bein had a big step and started shouting and commanding the mercenaries to start working.
“Encamp! Chester! You bring some people to walk around, be careful of the surroundings! We will stay here overnight! You! All of you, don’t walk next to the lake! Shit! Do you know what’s inside the lake! Get away from the lake!” Bein was yelling.
“Commander!” There were two men walking along the lakeside that laughed, “Commander! We haven’t seen water for many days……and, I was planning to break the ice and see if we could catch some fish! We’ve eaten the wolf meat everyday, I am sick of it! Ha haha…”
“Fish? You will probably be eaten by the fish!” Bein yelled at them and asked them to come back. But when he was counting the number of people, he frowned, “One is missing…Shit! Where’s Bayer?!”
Bein looked around and he saw someone far away. That boy was already in the lakeside area and going to break the ice on the lake.
“Shit! Bayer! What are you doing! Bastard!” Commander was so afraid, he rushed towards that guy and kept yelling, “Stay away from the lake! God Damn it!”
Because of the wind, that guy couldn’t hear the voice of the commander. He looked back but couldn’t hear what the commander yelled, and it seemed that he yelled or said something too.
Duwei found that that guy was smiling.
Finally, he dug a hole in the ice, and he shouted happily, “Yeah! There is fish! There is a fish!”
Duwei finally could hear his voice! But…it was too late!
That guy was a fishing expert. After he dug a hole on the lake, many fish went up and breathed under this freezing winter. He was so speedy that he caught a big fish from the hole and lifted it up.
“Commander! Look at what I caught! The Old Cyclops could make a fish soup tonight, ha ha ha!”
It was windy again and his voice came off. Bein was trying to rush towards that guy. He was yelling at him while running, and also waiving his hands…
Suddenly, the fish on that mercenary’s hand struggled and opened its mouth. A silver flash emitted out of the mouth and it hit the eyebrow of the mercenary!
Far away, Duwei saw the mercenary fall down and the fish was dropped on the ground. It jumped a bit and made it into the hole to escape.
Duwei then immediately ran towards that side!