Throne of the North.

Chapter 773 Ravens and Wizards, the First Otherworldly Dimension Covered by the North
Herik looked down at the 'ground' made of tree roots, with the trees floating on the sea at the edge, which looked more like a magic array.

He wasn't some ignorant peasant; seeing this scene, he was even less willing to enter the dimensional gate that was so close at hand. He wanted to obtain more information, if he wouldn't die.

"you……"

Before he could finish speaking, a crow stirred up a gust of wind and pushed him directly into the dimensional gate.

"Let those in charge talk to us, not these deceitful brats."

This voice was much more robust than the previous one.

At the foot of Rhinoceros Horn Mountain, Ryan listened to the intelligence brought back by Herik and looked thoughtful.

"Crows? Indigenous people?"

Ryan looked at Brand.

Mikragad.

The sea breeze howled, the sea was calm, and a few crows, oblivious to time and filled with faint anticipation, watched the Gate of Dimensions until Brand arrived. He hovered in the sky, his longsword falling and tearing the tree roots and earth beneath his feet apart.

"legend?"

"Damn it, how could it be a legend?"

"The two realms have only overlapped for a few days, how could the other side react so quickly?"

Legend is not just a name for a transcendent realm; it represents a status that countless lives look up to.

Several crows lost their sense of direction and flew up into the sky with a thud, but soon landed again.

Brand did not make a move because he sensed that this tree root ground was not a magic circle, but merely a place for humans who could not fly to land.

So, there really was no malice?

"What are you?"

Brand asked.

The crows landed on the treetops and looked at Brand. The power of this human they had just encountered surprised them, but it did not cause them to lose their composure.

"We are the natives of this world, yet strangers."

"We are human beings, or rather, we used to be."

"This is Mikragard, the fruit of wealth and magic."

"And you, legendary sir from another world, I sense a terrifying aura emanating from you."

"We are the bodies of wisdom, bearing the light of the World Tree."

"Ancient covenants have made us live this way."

Six crows, their six-pointed star silhouettes, stood atop the treetops, their wise eyes scrutinizing Brand in their field of vision.

……

……

The dimensional gate appeared, and Ryan walked over, stepping on the tree roots beneath his feet, with a hundred servants standing on either side of him.

Having arrived in a new world, Ryan looked up. The air currents in this world were a bit faster, but the ocean beneath his feet seemed somewhat dead.

Most importantly, according to previous information, the magical elements in this world are actually quite active.

It's very active, even more active than the Norris continent, like a volcanic eruption. That's why the airflow is so fast.
Ryan looked at the intelligent crows, and besides them, there were six giant crows, which were their mounts.

Both sides were scrutinizing each other, but in the end, Ryan spoke first.

He casually closed the dimensional portal behind him and said to the crows:

"You live in this tree?"

Ryan looked at the trees; they didn't look like a permanent residence.

"Of course not, stranger. Noble? It's been a long time since I've heard such titles. Mikragard welcomes you."

Of the six crows, the one with the most weathered voice spoke, its voice calm and wise, like that of an elderly sage.

Six enormous crows took flight, and at the same time, surging magic froze a path of ice across the sea, leading in one direction.

The northern warhorses galloped across the smooth ice without being affected in the slightest. After about an hour, Ryan spotted an island.

Only when you get closer can you see that it consists of six small islands, surrounded by an inland sea.

At the top of each of the six islands stands a tall tower, and within the islands lie villages where humans can be found.

"Didn't they say there was no one left?"

In the group, Herik felt Lord Ryan's gaze turn towards him and widened his eyes. As a Golden Knight, his eyesight was naturally excellent.

"Those who deceive should be punished in the same way."

"A crow cawed and laughed in the sky."

Herik was somewhat annoyed, but he seemed unable to defeat these crows, who all possessed at least the strength of an archmage.

The magical raven was something he told Lord Ryan about after he returned.

The archipelago consists of six islands and six villages, but the total population combined is probably less than seven hundred.

The six wise crows explained this as follows.

"This island cannot support more people, and any extra people would not survive."

"Mikragard, is it that you are the only ones left in this world?"

Ryan asked curiously.

"Of course not, but the other Witch Raven Islands are very far away, and it will take you a long time to see them."

Finally, they landed in a village, where pairs of eyes stared at the unusual creature, the villagers' eyes filled with intense curiosity.

"They seem to be... the legendary... servants of the wizards—knights."

"How amazing! The Witch Crows were right. Our world has not been destroyed. Otherwise, how could they, who are so heavy, live at sea?"

"There must be a much larger landmass; we have hope."

Cheers echoed throughout the village.

"A crow, a witch raven?"

With a sense of doubt, Ryan followed the ravens to the tower, but did not go inside.

"Let's talk about it right here."

He waited for an explanation from the other party, while also looking at the tall tower in front of him with apprehension.

Mage Tower, the legendary Mage Tower.

I don't know if it's from those six crows, but Ryan still has to give the legendary mage tower enough respect for its intimidating power.

A mage with a mage tower is like a demigod with a domain, their strength increasing exponentially.

“You don’t need to be so cautious, stranger.” The old raven turned around and spoke without dwelling on whether Ryan should go inside.

“My name is Kledal, as for my age…”

“I don’t know how many years I’ve lived. Time means nothing to us. In short, when the great being was still flying in the mortal world, we followed Him as He circled the branches of the World Tree.”

"I am a human being, or at least I once was."

"As great wizards among humans with their own wizarding beliefs, when the Northern Territory came to engulf us, we borrowed the primal power of the great god and merged our souls with His incarnation. It is precisely because of this that we have been able to live for so long."

Kredal shook his body.

"These crows are the bodies of the gods, while we are the souls of humans."

I've only ever heard of gods descending upon humans, taking the bodies of their devout faith as their form; this is the first time I've heard of humans living in the bodies of gods.

Ryan found it incredibly novel, but this also explained why they could live so long. Gods are immortal, and no matter how powerful humans are, they can't claim to have lived so long that they've forgotten the passage of time.

"You're saying you only became like this after the arrival of the North?"

Ryan wondered.

"How many years has the Northern Territory existed here?"

“I know what you want to ask, stranger. We possess all the wisdom, so you can speak freely.”

Kledar spoke, and his words immediately resonated with the level of the World Tree.

"The World Tree has countless leaves, and each leaf is a different dimension. The world you live in and the world I live in are both leaves."

"However, Mikragad was the first leaf on the World Tree to be damaged by frost."

"The winter of the World Tree, which we call the North, is when the leaves fall. Mikragard is the first world to feel the arrival of 'winter'."

“We prevented the world from being frozen by sacrificing the boiling of extraordinary factors, but I think you also understand that, just as winter can never be prevented, the World Tree’s ‘winter’ is destined.”

"The great gods can accelerate this process, but they cannot stop it from happening."

“More than a hundred years ago, the great being of Mikragard, together with other gods, accelerated the spread of ‘winter’ and launched a war, but they seem to have lost, and the great being never returned.”

"As a result, our Mikragard has begun to fall behind, and this world is destined for destruction."

The raven spoke eloquently, showing no fear of the world's destruction, and in his tone, Ryan sensed...knowledge.

Yes, the power of knowledge. In Krödl's words, every single word, sentence, or piece of information uttered conveys a sense of knowledge.

This is not the knowledge acquired through education, but the meaning that knowledge itself represents.

In their words, it's wisdom.

"What's the difference between a wizard and a magician?"

Ryan asked curiously, suddenly realizing that he seemed to have found a huge treasure.

"Magician?"

Kledal tilted his head; with his vast pheromone reserves, he quickly understood what Ryan meant.

“I understand what you mean, stranger. You can think of wizards as one of the earliest forms of people to wield supernatural powers.”

"Wizards study all supernatural powers; they attempt to master all supernatural powers. The name 'wizard' is actually just a distinction between the supernatural and the non-supernatural."

“In ancient history, some people mastered fire, manipulated water, turned stones into monsters, made trees wither and grow, and made metal rise from the depths of the earth.”

"The magicians you mentioned must be the changes that happened later within the wizarding community. Some wizards began to give up the extraordinary powers that they could not control or could not master even after spending a lot of time, and instead focused on developing magical factors."

“A long, long time ago, the knights around you, although they possessed physical strength, could not display any ‘extraordinary’ qualities. In addition, because they needed the help of wizards to surpass their physical limits, they would all choose to become servants of wizards.”

"Time flies, that was a long, long time ago."

"Since you, stranger, mentioned magician, it means that in the future, there will be other names besides magician to describe other extraordinary paths on the path of wizardry."

"Being a magician is probably just one path. The power of magic is immense, and those who can focus on it must be very powerful."

This is true.

Ryan was amazed by the wisdom of this raven; he had only uttered a name, yet the raven was able to decipher countless years of civilization's evolution from it.

According to the other party, magicians, alchemists, druids, even craftsmen who forge extraordinary artifacts, and the many extraordinary beings on the extraordinary path, were once a group called wizards.
Just like knowledge, it is divided into language, mathematics, etc.

In the beginning, everyone called them wizards. If you could breathe fire, you were a wizard; if you could turn into a beast, you were also a wizard.

Wizard = Extraordinary.

Even among wizards, the wizards of this world should be among the oldest and most diverse, because they seem to have never been divided into different branches.

In other words, these beings may possess magic, alchemy, or even have their souls contained within the divine raven body, showing druid characteristics.

"In all these years, you are the first otherworldly beings to appear in Mikragard. We had already guessed this, after all, we stirred up the magical energy of the entire world."

"This first frozen leaf on the World Tree should have been able to sway long ago, after more than a hundred years. As long as the World Tree leaf sways, the space will give otherworldly life a chance. I just didn't expect it to take so long."

These are the first batch of natives from another world to be so proactive in their approach to this other-world dimension.

"You knew about the appearance of the spatial gate in advance?"

"Of course, stranger, if you are the magician you are talking about, then only those magicians who are skilled in manipulating spatial magic factors can sense even a trace of it. But we are different, we are wizards."

"Perhaps we are not as powerful as the magicians you describe, but the power of wizards has given us wings to fly, gills to breathe in water, and the ability to move deep within the soil..."

"Moreover, our bodies are formed from the spirits, so we still hold a tiny, insignificant bit of power in this world."

He has many methods; he's a wizard.

They may not be powerful, but they will come up with corresponding solutions to any environment or problem.

That's why they say they study a wide variety of things.

"So, why are you waiting for my arrival?"

Ryan asked, now he wasn't even sure if these ravens were trying to escape this world.

"We want to know what the world looked like after the transdimensional war ended."

Mikragard was the first leaf to be covered by the North, frozen by 'winter,' and they could not leave.

Ryan thought for a moment, then spoke up, intending to tell them the truth.

"After the war of the gods across planes, the North was covered by countless other world planes. Many worlds withered and died, and the evil soil of the abyss yearned to devour the fallen worlds."

"The great beings, the gods of the abyss, are active but rarely appear; the gods of the heavens have fallen into slumber, the world no longer belongs to them, and the intelligent life of the mortal world has begun to take over."

Hearing his words, the crows all nodded, as it was much as they had predicted.

but……

"None of that matters, stranger. I want to know the information of the great beings in the [Old Days]."

Ryan was stunned.

(End of this chapter)