39: Wizard's Hut

Snow fell for three days and three nights straight, covering the entire forest in a blanket of white, a world of silver.

The cold climate here truly lived up to its name, the Northland.

Fortunately, my system space had ample food reserves; I had prepared plenty of various meats, seafood, seasonal fruits, edible plants, mushrooms, pine nuts, and more.

Though the Halfling's seasonings were running low, ever since summer began, I had instructed the Dragon King to clear salt fields on the beach to dry salt, and now there was more than enough salt to last indefinitely.

As I grew taller, the Halfling's clothes became somewhat short, and only the beast hide clothing I sewed myself fit perfectly.

I sat at the log desk by the branch window, looking out through the mist at the snow-covered forest.

I was thinking that the Wizard's Hut's defense value had increased severalfold, and ordinary fierce beasts couldn't break in.

Now with the mist crystal in hand, the safety of travel has greatly increased.

When traversing the forest in the future, I can use the mist to clear a path, and even if I encounter large fierce beasts, I can detect them in the mist in time, while they will have difficulty finding me.

But if I encounter magical beasts like the Black Panther and the Vampire Dire Wolf King, who can break through or ignore my mist, I can use the Magic Bean plant's spell traps to protect myself.

If I really can't avoid them, I can also directly teleport back to the Wizard's Hut.

The new Magic Beans harvested from the Magic Bean plants this year totaled 89, plus the 1 remaining in the Magic Bean Bag, making a total of 90.

After subtracting the portion replanted, there are still 80 Magic Beans in the Magic Bean Bag.

I have already figured out how to safely move an entire Magic Bean plant, including its roots and soil, into the system space without triggering its spell traps.

After winter passes, should I consider venturing out of the forest to Creek Valley Village to complete my teachers' entrusted tasks?

At the same time, I also want to see what human and other humanoid settlements look like in this world.

I can also buy a few suitable clothes, replenish necessary supplies, and then explore this world properly.

If my life is in danger, I can teleport back to the Wizard's Hut at any time.

I carefully studied the several maps left by the Halfling.

From my location, heading north through the forest, one can reach Lion's Way.

West of Lion's Way is Candlekeep, and to the east is the Treasure Sword Sea Wan'an Highway.

Following the Wan'an Highway north, one reaches the famous large port city of Baldur's Gate.

East of Baldur's Gate is Elturel, the capital of the religious divine kingdom of Elturgard.

Far to the southeast of Elturgard lies the Halfling homeland, Green Field.

However, that place is truly too far away.

South along the Wan'an Highway, to my northeast, is Goresberte.

To the southeast is Naskel, a small mining town on the border of the newly established southern nation of Amn.

East of Naskel is the Uldoon Trade Way, and following this road eastward also leads to the distant Green Field.

However, the Halfling did not ask me to go to Green Field, but rather, halfway along the Uldoon Trade Way, turning north, there is a Halfling village: Creek Valley Village—the westernmost Halfling settlement nearby.

To my south lies a massive Cloudpeak Mountains, and south of the mountains is Amn.

Between me and the Cloudpeak Mountains lies an abandoned Quagmire Fortress.

According to the Halfling, that place has been occupied by monsters called Gnolls and is extremely dangerous.

From the Halfling's description, this large area on the map is collectively known as the Northland.

Apart from Amn to the south and Elturgard to the east being two large nations, the rest of the area consists only of scattered independent towns, distributed across the vast wilderness.

A slight misstep could lead to being swallowed by wild beasts, just like Quagmire Fortress.

The reason I initially felt the Halfling's map looked familiar.

Now looking closely, these maps are practically a replica of the game map from the Baldur's Gate game.

It's just that the maps I have are more detailed and cover a wider area. Even the pronunciation of many place names is similar.

I traced my fingers over the unfolded parchment map on the table.

The emblem of Candlekeep glowed with a gilded luster at the western end of Lion's Way.

My fingernail slid north along the coastline, tapping at the location of Baldur's Gate harbor.

Amn's merchant ships had already sailed to multiple ports at this time, passing my location, heading north to Baldur's Gate, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Luskan…

The Quagmire Fortress below my current location was marked with a dangerous symbol.

The Cloudpeak Mountains stretched from the coast all the way to Green Field.

North of Naskel, a place called Durlog's Tower was marked as extremely dangerous by the Halflings.

...

If I were to leave this forest in the future, the Halfling suggested I either head north directly to Lion's Way; or follow their original path, along the small river to the south, walking east for a few days, then north for a few days, and after exiting the forest, I would reach a section of the Wan'an Highway that turns from west to east.

Walking east along this section of the Wan'an Highway for a few days, there's a fork in the road; heading south leads to the distant Naskel, but heading northeast for a few days will lead to the town of Goresberte.

Goresberte is a mandatory stop for many merchant caravans traveling north and south, and the town is full of mercenaries.

The Halflings advised me to find a way to hire a few bodyguards to escort me south to Naskel, then turn east onto the Uldoon Trade Way, and finally reach Creek Valley Village.

Both paths out of this forest are fraught with danger, and I still have eight years until the deadline to complete the task.

For now, I should focus on improving my self-preservation abilities.

The presence of the protective force field made the room very warm, and no wind could penetrate the holes between the branches, just like invisible glass windows.

【Wizard's Hut】

...

Anchor stability increased from the original 0.6% to 1.8%.

The protective force field has been strengthened:

Where there are physical objects…unless external force instantly exceeds 36 tons (the comprehensive converted value of all…energy);

Where there are no physical objects, external destructive force instantly exceeds 3.6 tons…

Reduced system energy dissipation rate by 0.002%.

...

Black Little Leopard was scratching at the lab door; I hadn't taken him out to play these past few snowy days, and the little fellow was clearly bored stiff.

The snow finally stopped.

I put the map into the system space and got up to go to the living room.

I thought I could take the little fellow out to play in the snow now.

The magic hut, facing north-south, was several times larger than the previous medium-sized wizard's shack.

In the middle of the hut was the living room with a fireplace, to the southwest was my current magic laboratory and study, where Sphere Professor was silently contemplating his annual lesson plans at the desk by the window.

Next to the laboratory, and north of the living room, was the bedroom. The northeast corner of the bedroom was the bathroom.

On the east side of the living room was the kitchen and dining room, and the storage room to the north had a downward staircase leading to the cellar.

The cellar stored some food and supplies.

This included several boxes of Halfling adventuring supplies I had retrieved from the north.

In the autumn, I had quietly gone north a few times, observing the sea hag's territory from a distance.

Although I never dared to get too close, I found these several boxes of supplies near the white bones of a few mules and horses in the border area. I then collected them into the system space and brought them back.

In the northeast corner of the living room, next to the fireplace, there was a door. Passing through a corridor led to the back door of the Wizard's Hut.

There were several vegetable patches cultivated in the yard, which originally grew some wild vegetables, but now they were all covered by white snow.

Because of Black Little Leopard, I temporarily stored the Magic Bean plants in the system space, and various Hunter Traps were changed to simple mechanisms that only captured, not killed.

I took the hopping Black Little Leopard into the yard, expanded the clearing in the center of the mist a bit, revealing the dog kennels outside the fence, and let Black Little Leopard play with the puppies for a while.

“Woof woof woof…”

A series of barks sounded from outside the mist; it was the puppies' father calling out.

This kind of barking, it sounds like he discovered something?

The mist's range was now twice as large as before, and I saw from a distance that the male Wild Dog was barking frantically at a snowdrift on the edge of the mist.

Did some animal freeze to death at the entrance?

No animals had come near the mist for a long time, and with the heavy snow these past few days, even the Wild Dog pack hadn't shown up.

We approached the snowdrift, Black Little Leopard sniffed, and then pawed away the snow. I saw a person lying underneath.