Chapter 144: The Voyage

A month had passed since the scales first showed signs of life. 

Wade would occasionally check on the scale whenever he had time, but it merely lay quietly at the center of the moss, occasionally flashing a few times when he approached, showing no other special reactions.

Perhaps it was still in a state of gestation. Humans needed nine months of pregnancy before giving birth – dragons would undoubtedly require much longer.

Reviving from a single scale wasn’t even in the realm of normal reproduction. Whether it could become a dragon again remained questionable.

Dragons measured their growth in centuries. It might take many years before that faint vitality within the scale could flourish.

Wade didn’t know if he’d live to see that day. In any case, the blood moon reached its full phase again, and just like last time, skeletons emerged from the Skeleton Sands to brawl.

After the full moon, storms swept across the wasteland.

Wade returned to the underground fortress. The excavation of the temple ruins was temporarily suspended, with all valuable items relocated to the warehouse –

including the stone slab engraved with the elven city, as well as the well-preserved elven remains and equipment.

Before moving those bones, he offered a brief prayer.

After all, he was taking someone else’s remains. Though these elves were long dead, Wade still treated them with respect.

He had performed similar prayers when using the bones of wandering skeletons. He had always maintained reverence for life.

Wade’s forces had expanded to one hundred fifty skeletons. He awakened six elves as specialized combat units, while the remaining skeletons continued fortress construction during the wasteland storms.

By May, the icy sea had mostly melted.

At dawn one day, Wade rode his sleigh across the frozen plains on patrol.

In the distance, he spotted the Icelanders’ warships departing land. Under the rising sun, the sparkling sea reflected light as those ships set sail toward distant horizons.

The Icelanders from those small nations were leaving.

Not returning home, but following the melting waters toward battlefields.

The thawing sea seemed like a signal for war, as conflicts reignited across various regions of Tania on the opposite shore.

Meanwhile, along the sea’s edge, these already sparsely populated lands became even more desolate after the Icelanders’ ravaging.

The sleigh passed an abandoned military camp where the frigid air carried the stench of decay. Bodies of men and women lay scattered haphazardly across the snow.

The smell had attracted winter wolves. The starving pack buried their heads in their meal, muzzles stained red with blood.

Wade took the wooden bow from his waist and fired toward the pack’s periphery.

Plucking a leaf, he launched a green magic arrow that exploded around the wolves.

The disturbance sent the winter wolves scattering. The alpha wolf lifted its head to gaze at the skeletal figure on the sleigh.

Wade fired a second arrow – this one channeling Mia’s magic as a frost arrow blossomed across the snow.

Finally sensing danger, the alpha wolf howled and led its pack away from the camp to hunt elsewhere.

Wade approached the corpses. Uncertain how long they’d been dead – their souls had long dissipated. The bodies bore numerous signs of violence; some had been beaten to death.

They were still his kind after all. Unable to bear seeing them left exposed to scavengers, he summoned skeletons to gather the remains before igniting a funeral pyre.

After this expedition, he intensified his patrols.

Over nearly three months, he rescued about three hundred people.

These three hundred humans formed a small settlement, now coexisting with catfolk and ratfolk in that cliffside harbor.

In April, with help from some fishermen, five formerly Lizardmen Faction galleys and that castle-like warship returned to the harbor cave.

Shipwrights among the settlers had been repairing and maintaining these vessels. Three galleys were leased to fishermen as communal property.

Igna strictly regulated fishing times and permitted sea zones, only allowing night departures with mandatory harbor returns before dawn.

Half of all catches were collected as communal property.

Within this small settlement, all trade operated through barter.

Though unable to grow crops, food wasn’t a concern – there were fish catches and a large herd of domesticated reindeer. Ratfolk occasionally scaled the cliffs to gather tundra berries and other items for trade with humans, exchanging for processed salted fish and handicrafts.

The location’s greatest drawback was transportation. Beyond the harbor lay open sea – leaving the cave required those Viking longships or fishing boats.

But where would they go anyway?

Outside lay only wasteland. These former slaves couldn’t return to their homelands.

They settled contentedly, the harbor becoming an isolated sanctuary.

When building this harbor, Wade hadn’t anticipated this outcome.

But in a way, he’d altered some people’s destinies.

Had he done nothing, the demi-humans and humans in the harbor would have perished.

There wouldn’t be happy families laughing together while gutting freshly caught sturgeon.

The time had come. The ships were ready.

Wade boarded a galley’s deck wearing special attire prepared by the dragonkin.

The dragonkin accompanied him aboard. Wade wore a mask and hunter’s garb, the wooden bow on his back giving him the appearance of a mysterious ranger professional.

Entering the cabin, he was joined by Silver-rank Jessia and four others bearing the dragonkin’s slave marks – thirty souls total including crew set sail from the harbor.

Salty sea breezes swept across the deck.

On the calm, expansive icy sea, this former slave transport began its slow, steady journey eastward.

Wade would spend about two months sailing east around the northern frontlines before turning south to anchor at East Tia’s northern border.

The ship carried woolen fabrics and northern salted fish as cover for their merchant disguise heading toward a new nation.

Due to Wade’s limitations, they had to sail along coastlines, docking every ten days.

The dragonkin had spent considerable time designing this relatively safe route to avoid warzones.

Upon reaching new lands, Wade would part ways with the others.

Igna would continue sailing with them toward her homeland to seek her kin, while Wade would travel overland southward to Nidran – to his former life’s little bakery in Helburg.

Two uneventful months passed under July’s blazing sun.

East Tia, Tianmu Harbor.

No one noticed as a ship quietly docked.

The merchant aboard withdrew a heavy pouch from his sleeve, slipping it to the cargo inspector.

The guard coughed twice, peeked inside the pouch, then quickly pocketed it. After a cursory deck inspection, he collected passage taxes and waved the ship through customs.