Among the human punitive forces dispatched to the North, it was not as though there were no capable fighters at all. Paladins were sent in fairly often, and in rare cases even Sword Masters came. Masters of martial prowess who could, against ordinary monsters, quite literally pride themselves on being invincible.
But even their might did not hold sway in the North. Once the ice trolls realized there was a powerful human among the punitive force, they changed their strategy. They made full use of the advantage granted by the cold. Namely, they sacrificed a few of their own to tear their opponent’s clothing apart.
No matter how strong a paladin might be, he could not wear heavy armor in the North. At most, he could put on leather armor or thin chainmail, and over that wear thick fur in order to resist the northern cold. And there could not be even the smallest gap in that fur. The cold that seeped in would gradually numb that spot and ultimately cause the cells to die.
The ice trolls aimed precisely for that, and the result did not deviate from expectations. A knight whose clothing had been torn gradually lost his ability to fight, and in the end could not endure for long before collapsing. For that reason, many paladins lost their lives and ended up being digested in the stomachs of ice trolls. Even Sword Masters had fallen victim to it, so one could well understand how effective a method it was. Their ability to withstand the cold was stronger than that of ordinary soldiers, but it was not on the level of an ice troll’s.
Because of that, high-ranking knights were no longer dispatched to the North. The benefits to be gained from subjugating the North were certainly great, but losing a paladin was a loss no less significant.
That was precisely the method the ice trolls were now trying to use. It was a terrifying countermeasure that had brought down dozens of paladins until now, and it looked as though it would almost work again.
“Kereuk.”
With a swing of the battle axe, the heads of two ice trolls flew clean off. But one ice troll somehow managed to approach from behind and lash out with its claws.
Riiip.
The sharp claws tore straight through the thick fur. Of course, before the one that succeeded could even feel joy, its head was sent flying. But in the end, the ice trolls’ scheme had succeeded. They had achieved their intended goal. The ice trolls tried to conceal themselves in the snow once again, never doubting that the human’s life force would slowly drain away through the torn section… But they had overlooked the existence of the human who had hidden himself.
“You damned bastards, I’ve been watching long enough…”
With a single roar of fury, a cluster of dazzling light appeared in midair and shot down toward the snowfield. It struck precisely where the ice trolls were hiding, and screams of agony burst out all at once.
“Kereuk.”??
Red blood began to seep out in spots atop the snow, and ice trolls with torn pelts revealed themselves here and there. No matter how resistant they were to the cold, now that holes had been opened in their hides, they could no longer remain hidden in the snow. An ice troll that had lost the protective barrier of its fur was no longer a creature strong against the cold, and as proof, their movements were gradually slowing. And there was one pitch-black shadow pouncing toward them.
“Kyaaaa!”
As if unable to forgive them, a figure charged toward the fleeing ice trolls and swung his battle axe. The one revealed as the fur was stripped away was none other than Winslot. As though proving the fame that had once shaken the continent, Winslot carried out a merciless slaughter against the ice trolls.
Thwack.
The way he cut off their heads, as if plucking stems from fruit, resembled the touch of a seasoned craftsman, and the ice trolls fell helplessly one after another. Only after the headless body of the final ice troll collapsed limply to the ground did Winslot stop moving.
“Kraaaa!”
As if delighted by the slaughter he had enjoyed for the first time in a while, Winslot kept letting out strange cries amid the scattered corpses of the ice trolls.
“Quiet, you.”
The space beside him blurred, and someone revealed himself. Like Winslot, it was a figure wrapped head to toe in fur. His features were impossible to make out, but from the voice, it was Damon. Looking at the ice troll corpses strewn about, he spoke in a voice tinged with irritation.
“Damn it, the pelts got damaged, didn’t they? This is why I wasn’t going to interfere unless I had to…”
Most of the ice troll corpses lying around had holes in their pelts. They were wounds made by the ice bolts Damon had fired. He had poured them down to prevent the ice trolls from escaping, but since that had left flaws in the pelts, there was no way he could feel particularly pleased. Watching Winslot skin the ice trolls, Damon shook his head.
“Did I use ice bolts for nothing? If I’d used some other magic, the pelts wouldn’t have been damaged.”
As befitted the extreme cold of the North, mana of the ice attribute was most abundant in the air. Because of that, Damon tended to favor ice-type attack magic. Of course, as a master of the 9th Circle, he could deploy other magic if he set his mind to it, but that was the most convenient. Damon pulled his clothes tighter as though there was nothing to be done.
“It can’t be helped. We can make gloves or hats and the like with the damaged hides… Still, catching ten of them is something, isn’t it?”
It was no empty boast that ice trolls were difficult monsters to hunt. Even Damon, capable as he was, had at first gone through countless trials and errors… Damon had originally intended to use Winslot to hunt ice trolls. As an undead who was almost unaffected by the surrounding environment, Winslot was the finest hunter in such a situation. Damon and the mercenaries had not the slightest doubt that Winslot would hunt many ice trolls.
However, contrary to expectations, the hunts failed time and time again. The ice trolls, with their keen sense of smell, instantly saw through the fact that Winslot was not human. Sensing danger by instinct, the ice trolls did not come anywhere near him, so Winslot had to come back empty-handed every time.
“This won’t do. At this rate, we can’t even set foot outside the cave.”
In the end, the group had to devise a solution. At present, the mercenaries were unable to take even a single step outside the cave, and although Damon occasionally cast magic on them so they could go out, there were limits to that as well. In order to obtain drinking water and firewood, and to bring back game to eat, clothing made from ice troll fur was absolutely necessary. Thus, the group racked their brains again and again, and at last they came up with one solution. It was an idea proposed by the captain, Kasim.
“Ice trolls are monsters with an extremely developed sense of smell. I heard before that they can smell blood from five kilometers away. Therefore, as things stand, the most important thing is to eliminate the distinctive undead odor Winslot gives off.”
“That’s a simple problem.”
Damon immediately tried to use magic to remove Winslot’s scent. But Kasim quickly stopped him.
“That would not be bad, but there is a better solution.”
The solution Kasim proposed was to use the body odor of the mercenaries. Because they immersed themselves in harsh training every day, the mercenaries’ underclothes were soaked with sweat and body odor, and Kasim’s theory was that if Winslot wore them, they would certainly be able to erase the distinctive smell of the undead.
“We could send Winslot alone, but for a certain hunt, it would be best if one person accompanied him. Of course, it would have to be someone who can easily get himself out in a crisis.”
Hearing that, Damon’s face twisted.
“So in the end, you’re telling me to go. Making an old man work—what ill-mannered brats…”
But there was nothing he could do. The only one with such ability was Damon. And so he ended up becoming bait to lure the ice trolls. In any case, the hunt ended successfully, and Damon was able to obtain ten ice troll hides. Looking at Winslot as he skinned them, Damon murmured softly.
“I wonder how far along the bone dragons are by now.”
Immediately after settling near Katroi’s lair, Damon had asked Katroi where the coldest place in the North was and gone there. The reason was to complete the bone dragons. The place Katroi told him of was a vast gorge located about ten kilometers from the lair. Since enormous mountain peaks blocked the sunlight and icy, knife-like winds blew without ceasing, it was also a place where the perceived temperature was extremely low.
“This should do splendidly.”
After confirming that the cold energy was abundant, Damon took the bone dragons out of Incresia. He did not know how much cold energy they would have to absorb, but it did not seem as though it would take very long for them to be completed. And there was no being here capable of threatening the bone dragons. Unless it was at least a dragon, nothing could be a match for a bone dragon. Therefore, Damon was able to release the two bone dragons without worry.
“This is Katroi’s territory, so there shouldn’t be any concern about other dragons living here, right? The only thing to worry about is an avalanche.”
Seeing the thick snow covering the mountain peaks made him somewhat worried. If an avalanche occurred and buried the bone dragons, it would be a serious problem. Damon firmly imprinted into the bone dragons how they were to respond in the event of an avalanche.
“If an avalanche occurs, you are to take flight immediately. Then, after confirming that the danger has passed, return here and continue absorbing the cold energy. Do you understand?”
Gwarurururu.
The bone dragons Zicrate and Russellant, who had already become Damon’s loyal servants, answered with low roars. They were beings without intelligence, but bone dragons possessed at least that much ability to carry out orders. Once everything was finished, Damon descended the mountain feeling almost lighthearted. He had no doubt that once they were completed, they would be of great help in his battle against dragons…
“Kraaaa!”
When Winslot, having finished stripping all the ice troll hides, let out a strange cry, Damon snapped back to his senses.
“Damn, I felt it. I really do have to keep moving nonstop.”
Feeling a chill run through him, Damon murmured in a low voice. Though he had wrapped himself in the thick fur of a bear, it was not enough against the brutal cold. If he did not move his body even a little, his blood circulation would become difficult. In his urgency, he used magic to warm himself.
“I’ll have to be careful until we make clothes from ice troll fur.”
As sensation slowly returned to his frozen feet, Damon began to hop lightly in place. During that time, Winslot finished his work. He rose, carrying the fur hides stripped from the ice trolls piled like a mountain on his back.
“Shall we go, then?”
With Winslot in the lead, Damon moved forward in silence. Although he was carrying heavy pelts, Winslot pushed through the snow with little effort. Damon followed behind him relatively easily. Their destination was the gorge where he had released the bone dragons.
After walking for quite some time, Damon was finally able to arrive at the place he had intended. A vast gorge spread out before him. From the deep valley covered in snow, the sound of wind could be heard without pause. It was enough to call to mind the wailing of demons.
Whooooosh.
Feeling the biting wind pierce in, Damon pulled his collar tight and murmured softly.
“To think I feel the cold… Have I grown old, too?”
Standing side by side with an undead that could not be called human, looking down into a cliff whose end could not even be seen, a sudden sorrowful thought surged over him. It was due to his doubts about a life stained entirely with the single-minded desire for revenge. The turbulent life he had led until now. After continuing a life that had never been ordinary, Damon had finally come to stand here.
This was a feeling he would never have felt when he was with his companions. When swept up in the cheerful atmosphere of the mercenaries, he had no time for idle thoughts, and the time he spent bickering with Yuliana in particular had the surest effect in making him forget the past. Thinking of that, Damon’s lips filled with a smile.
“If I hadn’t become their companion, I think I would have been terribly lonely. Thanks to them, I can find comfort in my heart.”
Shaking his head, Damon called the bone dragons without delay. There was no need to shout. He had already reached a state where he could perfectly control the bone dragons with mental resonance alone.
Gwarurururu.
From far below, in a valley whose bottom could not even be seen, came the answering cries of the bone dragons. Their hushed roars drew closer and closer. A moment later, two enormous skeletal beasts appeared before Damon. The bone dragons that had flown up from the valley thrashed wings riddled here and there with holes, displaying their terrifying majesty to all the world. At a gesture from him, the bone dragons landed lightly at Damon’s side. A smile once again rose to Damon’s lips.
“It has been a while. Have you been well?”
Kwa-rururu.
As if to show their submission, the bone dragons repeatedly bowed their massive heads. Once, they had been dragons—beings Damon had not dared approach. But now their positions had changed utterly. After dying by Damon’s hand, their bodies had been transformed wholesale into bone dragons, offering endless loyalty to the being who had killed them. Now, by Damon’s command, they would deal merciless killing blows to the dragons who had once been their kin.
Damon turned his head and looked at the newly made bone dragon, Russellant. Perhaps because it had been a black dragon, a faint black sheen lingered over its bones, and its size utterly overwhelmed Zikrate, who sat right beside it. The once-enormous Zikrate looked like a child in comparison.
Set into the clearly visible chest was a large red sphere, shining with light. It was Russellant’s dragon heart, taken from the bones of its neck. It was also indispensable as the medium that would supply mana to the grand anti-magic defensive array engraved over the bone dragon’s entire body, strengthening its magic resistance. Damon, who had been carefully studying Russellant’s condition, murmured softly.
“As expected, an Ancient-class dragon is different.”
Zikrate, who had not reached Wyrm-class, and Russellant, who had already entered Ancient-class, differed not only in size but in the very scale and capacity of their dragon hearts. Zikrate’s dragon heart barely possessed enough mana to activate the magic array, while Russellant’s dragon heart contained easily more than ten times that amount. Even after splitting the dragon heart in half and installing it, the amount of mana it supplied far exceeded what was needed to keep the magic array operating.
“With this much, it should be able to defend against ninth-circle attack magic once or twice.”
After making Russellant into a bone dragon, Damon removed the dragon heart attached to Zikrate and installed the remaining half of Russellant’s dragon heart in its place. What he needed most desperately now was to strengthen the bone dragons’ resistance to grand magic, so there was no reason to spare the dragon heart. Zikrate’s dragon heart was stored inside Incresia in case of emergency. With that, the work of strengthening the bone dragons’ magic resistance was complete.
Now all that remained was to wait for the bone dragons to be finished. After examining their condition, Damon shook his head.
“They still have a long way to go. Perhaps because they’re so large, the amount of cold energy they require is beyond imagination.”
It had already been six months since he had planted the bone dragons here. Yet the bone dragons were still not complete. However, judging from the amount of cold energy present, it seemed they would be finished before long, so Damon quietly gestured.
“Return to your original positions and continue absorbing the cold energy.”
Kwareureuk.
As if to say they understood, the bone dragons bowed their heads and spread their wings wide, taking flight. Watching the bone dragons plunge down below the gorge as if falling headfirst, Damon murmured softly.
“At the very least, the preparations will be complete before the dragons awaken. Preparations to face them……”
Once the dragons awakened, the mercenaries led by Damon would have to fight a grueling war. It would likely be so difficult as to be incomparable to anything thus far. The dragons of Truvenia were unimaginably powerful. Having spent five hundred years in Verkis’s lair, Damon knew that fact well.
“Verkis is so strong that Russellant cannot even be compared to him. Even setting aside the fact that he became Ancient-class long ago, he is a seasoned dragon who knows well how to fight humans. Perhaps even if I, the Death Knights, and the bone dragons attacked him together, we might not be able to handle him.”
In truth, the close battle with Katroi could not even be called a fight. Because he lacked real combat experience, Katroi had not been able to display even a quarter of the strength he possessed and had been defeated in vain. Russellant, too, had fought while knowing nothing about this side, so it could not be said that he had brought all of his abilities to bear.
But the dragons remaining in Truvenia were different. They had fought humans countless times, and would surely be deeply versed in how to deal with them. At the very least, they would not be careless like Katroi, and so Damon’s heart grew heavy.
“Will I really be able to achieve my revenge and rescue Daphne?”
Though he prided himself on having gained power, the odds remained slim. He had hunted two dragons, but there were still six dragons left, and judging by their individual strength, not one of them was weaker than Russellant. In particular, when it came to the strongest, Verkis and Kranus, he lacked even the confidence that he could win, so the possibility could only be low.
And that was not all. The dragons had a mighty guardian legion and countless orc soldiers. To confront them head-on with the forces he possessed would literally be no different from throwing an egg against a boulder. But Damon forcibly steadied his mind.
“It was something I began when there was no chance to begin with. I can only go as far as I possibly can……”
There was still some time left before the dragons’ sleeping period ended, so Damon decided to put his mind at ease. With Winslet ahead of him, Damon turned away without regret.
“Then shall we return to where my companions are?”
Surprisingly, Damon truly acknowledged Kasim and the other mercenaries as his companions. Of course, they did not add much to his combat strength, but for Damon, the mere fact that they put his heart at ease made them desperately necessary existences. In the moments he spent with them, he did not have to recall the dreadful past stained with vengeance.
The five hundred years he had spent in Verkis’s lair. They had been days so busy he had had no time to breathe, and years Damon did not even wish to think about.
“Perhaps if I had not had the single purpose of revenge, I might have gone mad. No human could spend five hundred years among liches and remain sane……”
Back then, he had endured those five hundred years with the single-minded resolve to improve his skills. And now that he had gained power, the mercenaries were taking over that role. They were nothing more than nameless mercenaries, but at least to Damon, they were beings more precious than anything. As he carefully descended the road covered in snow and ice, Damon suddenly gave a bitter smile.
“And that damned girl Juliana is a great help to me too. Bickering with her has become part of my everyday life now……”
From Damon’s point of view, Juliana possessed a truly peculiar personality. She had already tasted bitterness several times, but her nature had not changed at all. Recalling that fact, Damon shuddered.
“Perhaps even if I hung that girl upside down for a month instead of a week, she still wouldn’t come to her senses.”
In truth, the person with the least to do here was Juliana. She did not devote herself to sword training like the mercenaries, nor did she spar with the Death Knights every day like Mitchell, so it was only natural that she would be bored.
Of course, Damon himself had also spent his days so busy he had no time to breathe. During the six months he had spent here, Damon had become deeply absorbed in summoning arts. Since there was no further progress to be made in magic, he was instead continuing his research into summoning. His thought was that if he could summon powerful magical beasts from the Demon Realm, they might be of some help in the fight against the dragons.
But the prospects were not very bright. Unless the magical beast was extraordinarily powerful, it could be forcibly returned with a single gesture from a dragon, and unless he were a Demon King, Damon had no way to prevent that. For that reason, Damon had no choice but to place his greatest hopes on the Death Knights and the bone dragons. Whether it proved useful or not, Damon’s research would continue until the bone dragons were complete and they left this place.
The others were just as busy. The mercenaries who had graduated from Mitchell’s swordsmanship lessons now spent entire days sparring against their comrades. They also practiced the Sura Death Spirit Mind Method every day, so their skills were improving by the day. In the past, even all seven of them together had been unable to handle Winslet, but now two of them could fight him without difficulty. It was a truly astonishing achievement. Mitchell, too, began and ended each day with sparring against the Death Knights.
Among them, the ones whose skills had improved the most were Kasim and Gerald. Kasim had now reached the level where he could spar against the Death Knights. The fundamentals he had learned from Mitchell, the Sura Death Spirit Mind Method, and the real combat experience he had accumulated until now had all come together, showing the most outstanding improvement in skill. Gerald, too, showed progress that could not be ignored. Burning with vengeance for his family, he immersed himself in training without regard for fire or water, and the left-handed sword art, the swordsmanship most suited to a left-hander, was giving Gerald wings. In that way, everyone was spending busy days, but Juliana alone could not help finding each day dull.
She had no interest in swordsmanship, and though she had once stubbornly insisted that she would learn magic, magic was not a discipline that someone as lacking in patience as she could learn. Of course, Damon was not one to teach her obediently either.
In the end, Juliana began to relieve her boredom with her unique bad habit. That was tormenting her companions, and the method of striking vital points that she had learned from Damon played the greatest role in it. Because of that, the mercenaries had to remain extremely alert even while engrossed in training. They never knew when Juliana would appear and strike them in a vital point.
Among the mercenaries, including Kasim, there was not a single person who had not suffered at her hands once or twice. Ironically, it proved to be no small help to the mercenaries. They naturally learned how to deal with surprise attacks. She did not discriminate against anyone. Perhaps she had lost all fear, for she even used that method on the white dragon Katroi. Unfortunately, however, because humans and dragons had different vital points, her ambush had no effect at all.
Then Juliana turned her target toward Damon. After prying a few more of the human body’s vital points out of Damon, she began using them on Damon in return. Of course, Damon was not someone who would be caught so easily, so most of her attempts came to nothing, and as the price, Juliana had already found herself hung upside down several times. Under the pretext of correcting her bad manners, Damon had hung her upside down for a full day.
But it was in vain. Damon’s secret methods, which had tamed countless tomboys until now, did not work on Juliana, at least. Even after suffering hardship for an entire day, her strange habit did not disappear, and because of her ambushes that came without warning, even Damon sometimes had to clutch his armpit and sink down, groaning in pain. If he was attacked by surprise while frantically demonstrating summoning arts, even a ninth-circle master could only be helplessly caught. In such cases, Damon never let it pass quietly.
‘This damn wench.’
Thinking that he had to thoroughly correct her habit, Damon inflicted harsh corporal punishment on Juliana. In a fit of anger, he even unleashed the muscle-separating, bone-dislocating technique on her, so as far as Damon was concerned, he had done all he could. But no method could correct Juliana’s habit. Even if he made up his mind and beat her, it was no use, and even when he made hideous food, she smacked her lips and ate it deliciously, leaving him with no further method to try. In the end, Damon had no choice but to throw up both hands and feet in surrender.
‘Unless I kill her, I won’t be able to fix that habit.’
In the end, he gave up on taming Yuliana. However, he soon realized that her pranks were a great help in forgetting a painful past. Just like when he had been with Daphne five hundred years ago. The method was different, but the effect was the same. Thus, Damon had even reached the stage of enjoying Yuliana’s surprise attacks. Of course, when the attacks succeeded, he made sure to thoroughly vent his anger. Reminded of Yuliana, Damon scrunched up his face.
“Could it be that wench feels some sort of pleasure when I hit her?”
Recalling that there were such people among perverts, Damon involuntarily shuddered.
“Anyway, she’s definitely a strange wench.”
Winslet, shouldering a mountain of Ice Troll pelts, cut through the snow without hesitation to forge a path, and Damon repeatedly shook his head as he followed behind him.
When Damon returned to the cave, his eyes grew wide. An absurd sight was unfolding before him. He looked around, bewildered.
“Wh-what is all this?”
The cave was a field of corpses. Dead Ice Trolls lay sprawled everywhere to the point where there was no room to step. Winslet, who had followed him in, seemed similarly dumbfounded and made no move to set down the pelts he had carried. Roughly more than thirty Ice Trolls lay dead inside the cave. It was so completely unexpected that Damon stared blankly at the Ice Troll corpses.
“Have you returned?”
Kasim, covered from head to toe in blood, approached Damon. His whole body was riddled with wounds, and fresh blood was still dripping from his drawn sword. The mercenaries were in the same state. Their bodies were mangled with injuries large and small, and their faces were full of exhaustion. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be in mortal danger, so Damon showered Kasim with questions.
“What on earth happened here?”
“I’m not sure myself, sir. The Ice Trolls charged in swarms as if they had completely made up their minds. We fought frantically and somehow managed to repel them, but….”
Damon was startled by Kasim’s answer. He hadn’t even dreamed that Ice Trolls would launch such a large-scale assault. The Ice Trolls truly were monsters that dominated the North for a reason.
“So that Catroy bastard was right.”
Contrary to the initial warning, the Ice Trolls hadn’t shown themselves near the cave at all. Because there hadn’t been a single raid in six months, they had completely let their guard down; it seemed the trolls had taken advantage of Damon’s absence to launch a surprise attack. But perhaps unable to believe that the mercenaries had repelled the Ice Trolls, Damon threw his gaze toward Primberg standing stalwartly in a corner of the cave. The Death Knights had been rotating to spar with Mitchell or Kasim, so one of them had been waiting inside the cave each day.
“Was this your doing?”
Primberg spat gruffly.
“Can’t you tell by looking at the wounds? Do wounds from my Giant Killer look like that? I didn’t lift a single finger here.”
And indeed, it was so. The Ice Troll corpses bore wounds from being stabbed and sliced by swords. Considering Primberg’s enormous strength and the weight of his Giant Killer, such wounds could never have been his doing, so Damon had no choice but to concede.
“Well, your crude attacks don’t cut—they obliterate.”
Damon turned to look at the mercenaries with a surprised expression.
“So in the end, it was you lot who pulled this off.”
“Yes, sir. We were lucky.”
Kasim nodded as if embarrassed. But his face clearly exuded pride in his swordsmanship, which had improved by leaps and bounds. The mercenaries were the same. It was only natural, as each of them had cut down two or three Ice Trolls—monsters known to be incredibly difficult to deal with.
“Impressive. It couldn’t have been easy facing these fellows….”
“Inside the cave, they were still manageable. Their movements weren’t as fast as I thought. Moreover, Mitchell took down nearly ten or so Ice Trolls, so they were relatively easier to handle.”
“Is that so?”
Damon silently nodded. If it was Mitchell, who could cast Aura Blade, it was a perfectly plausible story. Moreover, the thought crossed his mind that Ice Trolls wouldn’t be so threatening in a place without snow and cold. When one’s body was stiff from the cold, the Ice Trolls’ movements would inevitably appear proportionally faster. And since they couldn’t hide in the snow, their specialty—surprise attacks—also lost their power. More than anything, what had been crucial to their victory was the mercenaries’ improvement in skill. Even under these unfavorable conditions, Ice Trolls were still monsters that couldn’t be underestimated, and with their former skill, the chances of victory would have been slim.
“At this level, they should be able to fend for themselves.”
An expression of relief appeared on Damon’s face. The battle with the dragon that would soon take place. In the heat of frenzied combat, there would be no time to look out for the mercenaries, so if they possessed the skill to defend themselves like this, it would greatly ease his worries.
“By the way, we won’t need to hunt Ice Trolls anymore.”
Combining what he had hunted and what lay scattered here, the pelts were sufficient. It seemed they could easily make enough clothes for the entire party to wear. The mercenaries soon began moving the Ice Troll corpses.
Kasim, who had been watching for a moment, cautiously approached Damon.
“But there is one thing I am curious about. It’s something I’ve been holding onto for quite some time….”
“Speak your mind.”
Kasim continued very carefully.
“You mentioned before that the dragons of Trubenia are currently in their hibernation period—is that true?”
During the six months they had lived together, many conversations had passed between them. Damon hadn’t told the mercenaries much, but there was one thing they knew: that he had participated in the war between the races five hundred years ago.