Dark Wizard: Rise! My undead army!

Lynn flew over the permafrost for four hourglasses on his bone eagle.

Below is an endless expanse of white, making it easy to lose one's way.

The snowfields stretched endlessly, with a few black rocky hills occasionally peeking out from the snow, like the frozen backs of giant beasts.

The wind was strong, and the swirling snowflakes hit the skeleton of the bone eagle, making a soft, rustling sound.

The location marked for the mission is an area spanning hundreds of miles, without specific coordinates.

Lynn could only fly deeper by instinct, while scanning the area below with his mental energy, hoping to find signs of human habitation.

After flying for another half hourglass, a cluster of low igloos finally appeared in the distance, indicating that they had found habitation.

Lynn instructed the bone eagle to descend and slowly approach.

This is a tribe built on a snow slope, with about sixty or seventy igloos scattered around.

On the outskirts of the tribe, a group of people were busy working around something.

In the center of the crowd was a huge seal, three or four times larger than an ordinary seal, with gray-black fur all over its body. It was being dragged by a dozen people with ropes, moving towards the tribe.

Those people were all tall, half a head taller than ordinary humans, with broad shoulders and thick limbs.

They were dressed in thick animal skins, their hat brims covered in frost, but they moved nimbly, clearly accustomed to the cold.

Before they even reached the tribe, the people who stayed behind saw the hunters returning from their hunt and cheered.

The seal was dragged to the entrance of the tribe, where several people took out bone knives and skillfully cut open its abdomen.

Hot air was coming out of the incision, indicating that the person had only been dead for a short time.

Some people reached in directly, pulled out a piece of still-steaming meat, stuffed it into their mouths, and showed a satisfied expression.

Not to be outdone, some cut off pieces of flesh, some sucked out the fat, some drank the flowing blood, and some even took out the internal organs and gnawed on them.

Lynn watched this scene from the back of the bone eagle, his brows furrowed slightly.

"Could these be the people who issued the missions?"

He retrieved the mission information from the communication slab, then looked down at the group of primitive tribesmen dressed in animal skins and gnawing on raw meat, but he couldn't make sense of them at all.

The Bone Spire's quest system isn't available to just anyone.

Posting a task requires identity verification, depositing magic stones, and approval.

This group of people doesn't even have a decent set of clothes, where are they going to get magic stones?

Moreover... this is considered the territory of the Eternal Ice Tomb, so even if a mission is issued, it should be done within the Eternal Ice Tomb.

"And that quest reward, 15,000 magic stones, can they afford that?"

Lynn felt something was off the more she thought about it, so she decided to just ask directly.

He made the bone eagle descend slowly.

The skeletal eagle's outstretched wings cast a huge shadow on the ground.

The group of people who were sharing the seal looked up and saw the enormous creature with its skeleton covered in white bones and its eye sockets burning with eerie blue flames. Their expressions froze instantly.

With a "thump," someone knelt down directly in the snow.

Then came the second, the third... Dozens of people knelt in a row, their foreheads pressed against the snow, their bodies trembling.

"My lord wizard! My lord wizard, spare my life!"

Someone was shouting and yelling, and although Lynn couldn't understand what they were saying, he could sense the meaning behind it.

Clearly, this group of people had some knowledge and were not the kind of savages who lived in isolation from the world.

Lynn jumped off the bone eagle's back and put the eagle away.

He walked up to the group of people and looked down at the person kneeling at the very front.

"Who is the leader?"

The moment this spiritual message was transmitted, the leader's body trembled violently.

The man looked up; he was an elderly man in his fifties, his face covered with frostbite scars, and his eyes were full of awe.

He pointed to the largest igloo in the center of the tribe, then to himself, and then spoke in his broken Common Tongue.

"I am... your guide, sir..."

Lynn nodded; he was still extremely curious about this relatively primitive tribe.

The old man got up, bent over, and led the way.

The other kneeling people only dared to secretly raise their heads and watch him leave with terrified eyes after Lynn had gone far away.

The igloo is much bigger than it looks from the outside.

It is more than ten meters in diameter and is made of neatly stacked ice blocks in a dome shape, with the gaps filled with snow.

The door was low, and Lynn had to bend over to get in.

It's warm inside.

The ground was covered with thick animal hides, which felt soft underfoot.

Several seal and whale skins hung on the ice wall, and some bone tools were piled up in the corner.

A seal oil lamp was placed in the center, its flame flickering and emitting a faint light and heat.

It just doesn't smell very good.

The fishy smell, the grease, the muttony smell of animal hides, and some indescribable sour stench mixed together, making Lynn frown slightly.

In a corner of the igloo, several children wrapped in tattered animal skins huddled around an oil lamp for warmth.

When they saw Lynn come in, their eyes widened, their faces filled with curiosity and fear.

A little girl shrank to the side, hiding behind a slightly older boy, peeking out with only half her head sticking out.

The chief invited Lynn to sit down on the "seat" covered with sealskin, and squatted down next to him, rubbing his hands together as he spoke.

He spoke in a mix of Common Tongue and local dialect, rattling off a long string of words. Lynn only understood a few words—"wolf," "big," and "north."

Lynn took a piece of parchment and a charcoal pencil from his ring and handed them to him.

"Draw the location."

The chief paused for a moment, took the parchment, examined it from all angles for a long time, and then awkwardly picked up the charcoal pencil and began to draw on it.

He first drew a winding line, then added a few dots next to it, and then drew a few mountains.

Then he pointed to those dots, saying "wolf," and pointed north.

Lynn understood.

"Do Frost Giant Wolves often roam the northern ice plains?"

The leader nodded repeatedly.

"They don't have fixed nests?"

The leader nodded again, drew a circle on the ground with his finger, and then drew a curve that stretched into the distance, meaning that they were running around everywhere.

When was the last time it appeared?

The leader paused for a moment, then started counting on his fingers.

After counting for a while, he pointed to the mountains on the parchment, then to the sun in the sky, and made a "two" gesture.

Then he made two "ee-ee-ya-ya" sounds.

Two months ago.

Lynn frowned.

Seeing that he didn't speak, the leader assumed he hadn't understood and began gesturing anxiously.

He lay on the ground, on all fours, and crawled a few steps like a wolf. Then he suddenly lunged forward, making a howling sound.

Then he stood up, clasped his hands together beside his face, closed his eyes, tilted his head to the side, and made a dead face.

"The caravan...the wolves...all dead..." he said in broken Continental Common, "Two months ago...north..."

Lynn nodded, indicating that he understood.

Two months is enough time for the direwolves to travel a great distance, but this is all the information we have for now. We should search the area thoroughly when we get there.

He stood up, ready to leave.