Chapter 7: To The Dead Tree
He wore two thick layers of sweaters under a thick coat and some sort of clothing to keep him comfortable in case of a fight. Well, he was going to fight at the place he was going but it was the thought that was important.
At his waist, just under the coat, he wore the knife his sister had given him, and then he was on the move. He had to get out of the city soon.
Ilanos was indeed a small city, with almost fifteen thousand inhabitants, yet the incredible skill of the lord of Ilanos ensured that it was incredibly well protected even in such cold and difficult conditions.
Still, this was only true for the city, outside the city, it was dangerous indeed.
Glacier wolves, spiny rats, predatory insects, winter birds and many other monsters that could tear Atlas to pieces right now were terrorising the outside of the city.
Even if Atlas knew the safe areas, or at least the areas where the danger was less, it didn't change the reality of the danger.
Atlas would board one of the carriages in the city centre and leave the city with it. His first destination was Frozen Meadows, almost 70 kilometres from the city. It was the first place he had marked on the map, and it was there that he would get something that would play a major role in his development.
Unlike aura warriors, the vast majority of heroes trained as mages had to have a great deal of financial means, or sponsors who could help them.
Unless someone was born incredibly perfect at birth, they could not become an incredibly destructively powerful sorcerer of the eighth or ninth grade. After all, some wizards were officially favoured by the elemental gods or born under the judgement of dragons.
These were the ones who could become heroes even among heroes.
Many of the children of nobles were therefore exposed to an incredible amount of potions, it was indeed important to maximise one's potential, and nobles were the best at it. After all, unlike children of special birth, they did not develop so easily.
Of course, increasing one's potential could not be done only with potions, after all, someone who refused to work on their potential could actually lose it.
Atlas, on the other hand, was on his way to get an item that, if it wouldn't increase his potential for sure, would at least help him physically and perhaps help him absorb all the effects of the fourth potion he had drunk and the third potion.
More precisely, it was a technique, an aura-user technique, and no mage was capable of harnessing the opposite power, another power accumulated in the body.
Atlas was no different in this regard.
Still, he could use this technique, or rather, he could transform the technique into a spell. In his previous life, he had managed to learn from insanely powerful sorcerers, which made it easier for him to understand everything.
It was just a possibility that even if he couldn't use this technique, he was already planning to gift it to his sister.
This technique was capable of strengthening every single thing inside the user's body many times over and even turning it into a 'diamond' hardness.
In the midst of all these thoughts, Atlas had already arrived at the city centre. He quickly got into a carriage and then, without waiting, gave the driver exactly 20 gold pieces.
20 gold coins were directly six or even seven months of living money for a low-grade family if they had a good system. This immediately made the carriage driver accept the offer.
The driver started to drive the carriage without waiting, there was no one in the carriage except Atlas.
After a short time, Atlas finally managed to reach Frozen Meadows.
When Atlas got off the carriage and looked around, he realised how much he missed this place. The whole world was engulfed in flames because of the war, even finding water was difficult for all races, which was enough to make water mages high-level mages.
This place was known as the place where Frozen Lilies and Frozen Wheat, which the spirits loved, were grown. Indeed, an endless layer of wheat was spread around.
Atlas slowly started to move towards the village. Not many people came to this village unless they were nobles. This was enough to keep the villagers' gaze locked on him.
He knew exactly what to look for. That's why he came in front of a market and then politely looked through the door and asked, "Excuse me, do you know where the dead tree is?"
The dead tree was the name given to the entrance of the dungeon in the area where this technique was hidden. This tree, which had dried up for some reason in the eyes of the people, of course,e attracted many eyes, but no one could figure out what was going on.
This land was too fertile, but it was incredible that a tree could die here. Of course, trees could die of cold, but the north of the Epsilon Empire was different, the trees here were tall, incredible trees that grew to almost five metres wide and rose to almost fifty metres tall.
So majestic were they that they became the symbol of the great city of Herria, the largest dwarven duchy in the north, the city in which the Hero Academy Globe was located.
The road to Herria was a bad one, but that wasn't something Atlas needed to worry about right now.
After all, they would face a disaster on the way to Globa. This time he could stop the monster raid that had almost killed him in his previous life, in which exactly 34 students had been brutally killed. This once again showed him that he had to travel all over the northern region and collect all the treasures.
One might expect the symbol of a dwarf duke's city, and especially the flag of a duke who had literally built the empire itself with the first king before it was an empire, to be different, but these trees became a symbol because they were indestructible, hard to burn and as strong as armour.
That's why the death of such a tree made everyone search for a mystery.
Unfortunately, no one could find the answer.
This, of course, gave Atlas a chance. There were many ways to enter a dungeon, but there was no known way to find a secret dungeon at the moment, while in the future, of course, many ways were found.
This, of course, was enough to make everything better. Atlas had access to each of the secret dungeons for almost 6 years, known only to him.