Chapter 1017: Ice Elves
Sam and Nali appeared in the Tundra realm that very night.
The place is not actually the best of the places to do business or any other development. If compared to the modern earth, this realm is the Antarctica of this whole world. Not in terms of location, but in terms of environment and atmosphere.
People even surviving and living here is actually a surprise.
But the main reason is that most people who live here are not humans, in fact, the human population that is present doesn't even belong to this realm and comes from the nearby realms which conduct some business here.
For Sam, this realm is a complete wasteland that has no use for him. Except for the frost essences and some rare herbs that grow in this type of cold and some rare beasts, there was nothing much here. Even if it is present with many rare minerals, it is almost next to impossible to mine them out.
Sam might be able to do it with his machines, but the investment and the long wait didn't feel like it is worth it, so he left this realm alone.
But as soon as he entered, he believed that he can use this place as the training ground for fire elemental mages.
If he creates equipment that can keep them alive from the cold the surrounding resistance to the fire elemental energy will make them struggle and force them to control the energy more efficiently. But it is only for the Astral Plane cultivators, even the consummate level cultivators of other species will die here.
The only species that live here are Ice elves which is the banished elven clan, they are also mutants of the elves just like the sirens from the mermen. They were banished. The other race is the ice elemental beings.
They are purely made of ice and frost essence and they don't have any intelligence. They are more like beasts but more dangerous than them as their senses are keen and they can merge with the environment.
The third race is a type of barbarian race called the Frost Barbarians.
They have thicker skin than most barbarian races and they are the only barbarian race that has an elemental affinity with ice. But they cannot use any mage skills and can only use ice element to fight physically.
Sam doesn't know which race is the strongest. All he has is the location of the nearest place which has some civilization from the wormhole they took from the nearest realm.
That is the headquarters of the ice elves.
He decided to find a way to get in touch with the higher-ups of the ice elves and find his match there.
But before he does that, he needs to find something to eat in the wild.
He brought his chef with him, so it would be a waste to not find anything.
His first target is the river that is near the city.
The river is still flowing at such a cold temperature.
The water is denser than normal as it is mixed with large quantities of low-grade frost essence.
Any fish or other creature that grew in here would be abundant with ice elements and would also taste nice.
Sam looked at the river and asked Nali.
"Would you be able to cook the creatures of this river? They are going to be very cold. Their blood might even freeze your fingers."
"Don't worry boss. My cultivation technique itself focuses on cooking. And I am an Astral Plane cultivator. I can handle all kinds of ingredients within Astral Plane Initiation level."
"That is great. Because there are many creatures in this river that I would like to taste and let's start with this."
Sam lunged forward and jabbed his palm into the river and when he took it out, there is a large ice blue-colored fish in there.
"This is the Frost Carp. It is not Astral Plane and only Consummate level. But this would be a good estimation of what you can do with them. Cook something of your choice with it."
"Boss, I can cook but are you sure you can digest. You are a fire element user aren't you?"
Sam spread his fingers and all kinds of elemental energies he can use gathered up at the tips.
"Did you see that? I can almost digest any elemental energy. Even if it is poisonous cook it up for me as long as it is delicious."
Nali started cooking and he used some methane cylinders that could create a constant flame to create a small area without snow and ice so that he could cook peacefully.
While Sam waited for the food to be over, he kept a lookout on the river to find something else that might interest him to eat.
But at this moment, someone arrived at the scene which made him alert.
Sam jumped back and threw a fireball at Nali.
Nali panicked, but the golden flame didn't hit him, instead, it hit the flying ice arrow that was a few feet away from him.
The place where Sam stood also has an ice arrow.
Sam frowned and looked around as golden flames enveloped his hands.
He could feel the resistance from the cold environment, but his control over elemental energy is impeccable and he can overcome that resistance with minimum effort.
He got ready to fight and even his feathered coat started turning golden and the surrounding ice and snow vaporized in an instant.
As he was about to make a move, three people came out of the hiding,
The Ice elves.
They are all Astral Plane Initiation cultivators and they all have their hands raised in the air.
"Stop. We are the guards of Elven city. We have no ill intentions."
"The arrows beg to differ," Sam replied with a smirk.
"That was supposed to be a warning. It is illegal to fish in the river without permission and the arrows are part of the warning procedure. We do not know sir is that powerful, otherwise we would have revealed ourselves."
Sam was surprised.
"Stupid local laws again."
Sam muttered to himself and continued.
"I don't know about the permission thing, what should we do now."
"Generally, you should be paying a fee for fishing here and you need to pay a fine if you don't have permission."
Sam threw a spatial ring and asked.
"Is this enough?"
The guard checked the contents and was stunned.
He became speechless.
"If there is extra, would it buy me some alone time here? I would like to fish with no one here to disturb me."
"Of course."
Sam didn't know why the guards are so flustered because he doesn't know the scarcity of spirit stones here.
The most they could get are ice elemental spirit stones and even they are scarce as they cannot mine them comfortably. There are too many obstacles and he mindlessly gave a few million normal spirit stones.
The guards stayed a few feet away and guarded the river, while Sam just fished as he liked. He caught a bunch of carp and some krill that are growing there and placed them in an ice-cold lake within the divine dimension made of the water from the same river.
The elves are once again stunned by Sam's fishing. Sam has energy vision, so he can identify the flow of the fish within the river full of frost energy and wouldn't be limited to the normal senses, so he can catch them easily.
Soon, the cooking was done.
"Boss, the fish meat is too stiff, so I ground it and made them into fish balls after some treatment. The blood has some good frost essence and it is nowhere like normal fish blood. I made it into soup. Try it."
Sam drank the soup and placed a fishball into his mouth.
At first, it just tasted warm in his mouth, but soon the ice elemental energy exploded in his mouth and as he swallowed he felt the cold sensation expanding all over his body.
It is a great dish.
"That is great. You are indeed a good chef. "
He then turned to the guards who are drooling and said.
"We are actually travelers roaming realm after realm. I would like to know if there are any restrictions for hunting in the wild here."
The guards who are so focused on the aroma of the fish soup were stunned for a second and said.
"Sir, I am sorry to say that there are a lot of restrictions. The travelers are only allowed to fish on their own. As for other types of hunting, it is not permissible to do so within the city limits.
Even the citizens cannot do that and only designated hunters for certain regions can go and hunt there.
If any traveler or foreigners want to hunt in those regions, they must seek permission from the city management and be assigned to one of the hunter teams to go there.
For your cultivation level, there is only one hunter team that you could join and there is only one place where you can hunt.
If you allow me, I will take you to the administration to complete the procedures."