Chapter 1255: Repaying the Favor
The village is not an actual settlement, it is a temporary establishment and it is more of a large camp.
It is called Hunter's Village and every year, at this time the Ice Bears of different levels wreak havoc in this area as they kill every single beast that is not of their kind.
They eat everything that they deem edible and destroy the whole ecosystem. There are three towns in different directions, just a few miles away from Hunter's village and they are all within the area of these Bears' influence and every cultivator is deemed edible by them.
So, every year the three towns send a few hunters and a decade or so ago, a merchant group took advantage of that and created this hunter's village.
Every structure in the city is owned by that merchant group. The restaurant, the weapon shop, herb shop, and the street stalls are all owned by merchant group and they rent out of these street stalls to others who wants to earn some money on the way.
Sam got a simple understanding of the village and then got the route to the nearest town. He decided to go to that town before deciding on what to do. But before that, he needs to change his attire a bit.
He went searching for a small weapon shop with an artisan. He didn't want to buy any weapons. The strongest in the whole village is a consummate cultivator. These weapons wouldn't even last for a single swing in his hands. Even before the attack reached the enemies, the weapon would be destroyed.
He didn't go to the weapon shop of the merchant group. He doesn't want to encounter the arrogant guys that are everywhere. A cripple is severely looked down upon and even in the restaurant, he had to pay before he could get something to eat. He is sure that he would get a similar or even worse experience than the restaurant.
He found a weapon shop down the street and there is a young man who seemed to be a Demi-Giant at the counter.
"Do you take custom orders?" Sam asked as soon as he entered.
"Yes." The shopkeeper replied.
"I need two things. Can I have something to draw?"
The Demi-Giant looked at Sam for a second, but still gave a brush, ink, and a scroll.
Sam took them and drew two things and he gave them to the shopkeeper.
"If you don't mind, can you show me what metals you have? I would like to select the material you use for this."
The Demi-Giant didn't mind and just nodded. He took out some metal samples. Sam looked through the metals and selected what he needed.
"You can come back in four hours."
Sam thought for a moment and said.
"Can I watch the process?"
Demi-Giant frowned. It is not a good thing to ask this to an artisan. Sam also realized the mistake and apologized before leaving.
He just wanted to make sure that these things are done perfectly.
He roamed around the village and took some rest in the inn. He came back after four hours, paid the other party up and collected his things.
One of them is a mask. A Black metal mask that covers his face completely. Even though Sam got a new body, he doesn't want to use this face. He would rather cover it like this, than show himself.
The second one is a peg leg.
His leg was amputated below the knee, so a peg leg might help him a lot while moving. He doesn't have to face too much doubt and questions while moving, even if it is there just for show.
Before wearing them, Sam went to a cloth shop and bought a black cloak and then to an inscription shop to buy some ink and other tools. Finally, he went back to the inn as he drew the inscription formations on the mask to conceal his face.
He wore everything and finally walked out of the inn and then the village.
He looked a lot better now. That luxurious robe and the crippled limbs are not exactly a great match for his demeanor.
He slowly walked towards the town.
On his way, he saw so many sled marks, some bear tracks, and wolf tracks. It seems like these bears are everywhere. If not for the fact he doesn't have his fire elemental energy, he would have caught one and definitely cooked it.
As he was thinking of these trivial things, he suddenly heard something from the woods.
*ROAR*
*GRRRR*
He looked around and noticed that there are four bears surrounding someone. He just wanted to leave.
"HELP."
The familiar voice came and Sam walked towards them. The four bears are surrounding the young lady that showed him the way. Three of her wolves are severely injured and one of them is dead. The bears had blood stains all over as they neared into her.
The lady looked at Sam who is in his new outfit and yelled once again.
"HELP. PLEASE SAVE ME."
Sam aimed his hand and a small energy ball in the size of a pebble was condensed at the fingertips and he shot it at the bear.
The energy ball moved like a bullet and landed right on the head of the bear.
The bear's head exploded like a watermelon with a large splash of blood and the rest of the bears turned to Sam.
He once again aimed at them and shot another one down. The other two bears were afraid and immediately left.
"Thank you so much."
The lady thanked him hurriedly and walked towards the wolves to check upon them. The first one is dead and she couldn't help but feel a bit sorrowful, she went for the others and started feeding medicine.
But they lost too much blood and they might die soon. Sam looked at them for a moment and took out a healing potion.
"Take this. It is of extremely high power. Only give them a sip each. And I returned the favor."
With that, he slowly limped away once again.
"Favor?" The lady was puzzled, but she didn't have any intention of pursuing this instantly. She gave the medicine to the wolves and to her surprise, the bleeding stopped in no time and even the flesh regenerated in some places at a rapid pace.
She rested there for a while and finally took the time to think about who Sam is. When she linked the word favor and the limp to someone, she finally figured out, who that person is.
"But isn't he just a cripple with no cultivation?" She murmured as she collected the bear corpses and they slowly made their way out of there.
Sam is in the town by the next day.
This town is a lot normal compared to Hunter's Village.
Sam went to an inn to get some more information about the people that rule this place. Unless this place is a stray planet like desolate, he wouldn't have any way out, at least not until he figured out someplace just like the core of the Central continent in the desolate with a large space gate.
But with the spiritual energy in the atmosphere, he guessed it is connected.
So, he learned about the ruler of this place and they turned out to be the Four-leaf Sect.
The continent which is the largest on the planet turned out to have a variety in its layout. The northernmost part has a lot of snow and ice. The Winter State is what they wall it and Sam is currently in one of the northernmost parts of the Winter State.
The eastern one is called the Forest State as it has large amounts of forest patches.
The Western One is called the Desert State because of its large desert and finally, the southern state is the Marsh State with a large amount of marshland.
In the middle of it all is the central state which has a relatively normal climate compared to all four. In the capital city of the central state is the headquarters of the Four-Leaf Sect.
After getting the gist, Sam first decided to make his way to the capital of the Winter State and the branch of the Four Leaf Sect in this area. The Frost Leaf.
From there he can find a way to get to the central state.
He once again started to walk, but as he was halfway through, he suddenly heard a yell from behind.
"Hey, you wait for me."
Sam turned around to see the lady from before.
She is riding the sled and instead of four, there are only three wolves. She stopped in front of him and spoke.
"You are the cripple from before?" She immediately regretted it as soon as she spoke.
"Yes, I am that cripple from before."
Sam was not offended and just replied casually.
"Thanks for saving me."
"I am just repaying the favor."
"Where are you going? I can give you a ride. It would be hard for you to walk."
"Don't worry about me, I don't want to be a bother."
This went back and forth for a while and Sam finally yielded after a lot of insistence. At least, he doesn't have a limp for a while.