Encrypted Void

Snowflakes

In front of the village gate where Carlon live is...

Naku walked towards the village gate to meet Carlon. But right at the village gate, he passed a man with gray hair and a black right eye and a white left eye who then saw Naku without stopping his footsteps and left.

"...?" Naku saw the man and walked back into the village.

Naku was shocked by what he saw, the village that was once small had now become big and would soon become the new city of the Zealuterra kingdom. He ran excitedly and looked around to look for Carlon.

"UNCLE CARLON! WHERE ARE YOU!" Naku shouted for Carlon hoping he could find him quickly.

"Hm? Naku is that you?" A man walked up to Naku.

"Oh Uncle Carlon, I didn't expect it to succeed in calling you... this village is too big." Naku looked at Carlon in surprise after being approached suddenly.

"You've grown up, huh... it's been 5 years since you left, right?" Carlon smiled when he saw Naku who was still the same as before before patting him gently on the shoulder.

"Hey uncle, what's going on here, why is the village suddenly this big even though I've only been gone for 5 years." Naku asked while looking around where the village roads that used to be just dirt had now become neat roads.

"Oh 1 year after you left, there was an organization that entered into a cooperation contract with the king of Zealuterra. They donated a lot of gold coins and construction materials to build small villages into new cities, if I'm not mistaken... the name of the organization... Project Ark? " Carlon answered Naku while walking together around the village.

"Project Ark? OH RIGHT! I wanted to ask uncle about that. On my way, I heard that the new organization that uncle said was Project Ark had some bad rumors." Naku stopped his footsteps and grabbed Carlon's shirt to stop him.

"Bad rumors? What if it's just some drunkards who are jealous of that organization? Because in the past 4 years I saw Project Ark building a Tower in the city of Zealuterra where they used the Tower not only as a branch of their organization to research advanced tools that could help Zealuterra city, they also use it as a place for people who need healing magic for free." Carlon answered Naku while giving him the snacks he usually made.

"Then I'll go see the village head first." Carlon said as he walked towards the village chief's house.

"Wait uncle-" Naku wanted to continue his words but Carlon had already walked far ahead.

"Doesn't that... sound too perfect?" Naku said to himself before running to follow Carlon.

Naku ran and entered the village head's house and saw Carlon who was standing at the door quickly blocking him from disturbing the village head's meeting with a woman with whitish blonde hair looking at Naku.

"Naku! Come out quickly, the village chief is having a meeting with one of the important people in Project Ark..." Carlon said to Naku in a very low voice so as not to disturb them and then took Naku out.

"Important people?" Naku answered in a small tone following Carlon.

"Yes... that woman is Flair, she is one of the Apostles of Project Ark. She is one of the important people in Project Ark who leads the development of the Project Ark branch here." Carlon walked away from the village chief's house with Naku.

"Hmm, never mind, I'm only here for a moment, I just wanted to ask where the place with cold temperature is?" Naku answered Carlon.

"You mean the one full of snow?" Carlon answered Naku confused because of his words.

"Snow? what is that?" Naku answered Carlon with a confused expression.

"Ah yes... I forgot to tell you what Snow is, never mind, you'll find out later. Take this." Carlon gave him a tool he had never seen before.

"What's this?" Naku looked at the tool carefully but didn't know anything.

"This is one of the tools created by Project Ark, this is a map that has started to be bought and sold in the city of Zealuterra." Carlon taught Naku how to use the tool and press one of the buttons on the tool.

Naku saw the line holes in the device start to glow and absorb a little mana from it, the device opened like a burst balloon and released the mana transforming into a screen with a map-like appearance floating in the air.

"Uncle is this expensive?" Naku saw Carlon who looked a little happy to see Naku's reaction.

"Just take it, go here and you'll get to the Freeze Land area. That area is very cold so you should probably go buy some coats and warmers before going there, you'll also be able to see the thing I call snow there." Carlon gave Naku a pouch full of gold coins before returning to the village chief's house.

"Hmm... then hopefully I can find Blazing Flower there, thanks uncle Carlon!" Naku stop the mana he insert and the device is attracted to one point forming a box with line holes as before.

"...Are we really allowed to make things like this?" Naku looked at the tool before putting it in his pocket and walking out of town to buy equipment in the capital city of Zealuterra.

Outside the gate of the capital city of Zealuterra, Naku walked out after buying a thick coat and equipment suggested by Carlon before going to the area.

"That's all... then it's time to look for Blazing Flower." Naku channeled magic into the device and created a hologram map in the palm of his hand.

"It's far... how long will it take me to get there...?" Naku muttered in a slightly annoyed tone before releasing his mana and making the hologram form a box again.

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After following the map, Naku arrived at the area mentioned by Carlon.

Naku's eyes widened when he saw a sight he had never seen, a white object fell from the sky and touched his hand making him feel cold. Even though he had been traveling for 5 years, he only traveled not too far from the village and only looked for information about the Blazing Flower.

"..." Naku looked at the scene in front of him in awe.

Naku smiled after finding out that the snow that Carlon said was very beautiful in his eyes, he started walking and continued his journey on the cold plains with no signs of life around him.