The adventurer at the bottom is fantasizing again.

The winds of the North always carry a sense of desolation, making people shiver while simultaneously making them feel their own insignificance.

Lorraine and Piper, carrying large and small bags, set off from the north gate of Shallow Beach Town and headed north towards the mine.

"What is that?"

Lorraine gazed at the gray-blue shadow rising on the northern horizon, glanced down at the map, and found only a mountain range marked on it.

The halfling was at a lower altitude, and the wind and sand were making it hard for him to open his eyes. He squinted and looked for a long time before he could see what Lorraine was asking.

"The Spine of the World." He pondered for a moment, then replied, "It is said to have been placed there by a deity to protect the people of the continent."

"What kind of deity could create such a mountain range?" Lorraine exclaimed in amazement.

The halfling shook his head and replied:

"Pip doesn't know either, but beyond it lies the permafrost, and that's where Pip's mother came from."

Lorraine raised an eyebrow. He knew that Piper had dwarf blood, and humans shouldn't be able to survive in such a cold place. So Piper's mother was a dwarf?

"Won't she worry about you going out on such a risk?" he asked.

The halfling paused for a moment, then said dejectedly, "She went back after giving birth to Piper."

Before Lorraine could comfort him, he quickly cheered up and said excitedly, "When Piper becomes a real savage, I want to go and see that place too."

Lorraine looked up at the mountain range that stretched across the sky, nodded, and chuckled softly, "Alright, I'll go with you then."

"Hey, that sounds great. I heard there's a huge fortress built by dwarves there, it's really, really, really big, that'll be so interesting! There'll definitely be lots of delicious wine!"

Piper gestured excitedly to indicate the name.

The city of dwarves... If I go to visit his mother, will I be able to get in the door? Lorraine's mind wandered.

"Wait a minute, we haven't figured out how to distribute the loot yet..." he suddenly realized.

He didn't want the two of them to part ways over a piece of equipment, so he preferred to confirm it in advance.

Piper looked puzzled and asked, "Distribute? Aren't we companions? Shouldn't it be whoever needs it uses it?"

"Uh." Lorraine hadn't expected him to be a pragmatist. "But..."

"Don't you consider me a companion?!" the short man said angrily.

"No, no, I just said I'd go with you to the Frozen Wastes," Lorraine explained. "It's just... what if there's something we both want?"

"Give it to whoever finds it more suitable!"

"Hesitatingly speaking..."

Lorraine did not refute this further.

As the sun climbed higher in the sky, they walked along a path for more than an hour. The trees along the way grew denser, and finally a shallow gully appeared in front of them.

Lorraine carefully walked to the edge of the ditch, where large and small stones were piled up at the bottom, mostly washed down by summer rains.

"Are we there yet?" Piper asked.

Lorraine carefully examined the map; Haif's hand-drawn map was really ugly, with crooked and distorted characters that were very difficult to read.

"It should be soon... The map shows the mine is right next to a gully," he said uncertainly.

The two walked along for a while longer, and the gully became deeper and deeper, and the stones at the bottom of the gully became much larger.

"Watch out, it looks like we've arrived."

Lorraine stopped in her tracks. On the hillside opposite the gully, there was a patch of trees that were noticeably shorter than the surrounding trees, as if they had sunk into the ground.

"There," he gestured softly.

Piper squinted at the scene, then used two fingers to mimic the motion of bending over and walking, indicating that he should sneak up.

Lorraine nodded, slowly drew the rusty throat from its sheath, and slid down the ditch little by little before catching Piper.

It's so heavy...

He was nearly trampled into the ground by Piper. Just how dense was this little guy? He was so heavy for such a small amount of weight.

The two climbed back up from the ditch. Lorraine, stepping on Piper's shoulder, peeked out and began to observe carefully.

There was a hole in a depression on the hillside, about the height of a person and the width of two people, with some random stones piled on both sides.

"There's a hole," he said silently to Piper.

Using the cover of the trees and bushes, Lorraine approached the cave entrance silently, then quickly grabbed Piper, who was looking furtively behind her.

"There are guards at the gate!"

He pointed to a large rock to the left of the cave entrance, behind which the tip of a short spear was sticking out. Beside another rock to the right, a dusty, gray shadow was crouching.

"two."

Lorraine pointed to the one on the left, then to herself, gesturing as if to ask, "Is this okay?"

Piper nodded, gave him a thumbs up, and then pointed to the right, mimicking him.

The two parted ways, and Lorraine crouched down and followed the shadows of the trees to the left, finally seeing the full picture of the thing.

The creature was smaller than he had imagined, its body covered in dark brown scales clinging to its bony frame, and its forehead resembled that of a flattened lizard with two sharp horns sticking out.

It held a short spear in its hand, using it as a cane, and its eyelids were half open, as if it might fall asleep at any moment.

These are more like smaller lizardmen, about the same size as the goblins we encountered before. No wonder Hef thought they could defeat them.

Lorraine glanced back at Piper and saw that he had arrived at his spot. The two nodded to each other.

He raised his sword, slowly approached the kobold, then took a step forward and thrust out the rusty throat like lightning.

The sharp sword tip pierced the scales, easily piercing them, and the brute force severed its cervical vertebrae. It didn't even realize what was happening until it died.

[First enemy kill - Kobold]

[Reward: 25 Exploration Experience Points]

Current balance: 102 exploration experience points

Lorraine let out a soft breath. Compared to his disheveled appearance when dealing with goblins before, he could now say that he was very familiar with the task.

He was about to engage in battle with the enemy, and without the slightest hesitation, he rolled the fate dice.

[Using 100 exploration experience points, you rolled 1 die]

Current balance: 2 exploration experience points

The dice stopped rolling quickly, revealing the numbers on them.

[Points: five]

[Reward: Agility +1]

Agility: 11 → 12

Lorraine felt as if she had always been wearing a soaking wet cotton-padded coat, and now someone had suddenly pulled it off, and a sense of lightness immediately came from her body.

He stretched his limbs, and cracking sounds came from his joints. He gently turned his wrists, feeling as if he could control the longsword as if it were his own arm.

"Click—"

A sharp crack came from ahead. Lorraine looked up and saw that another kobold's entire head had been smashed into its chest by Piper.

He pointed to the bushes nearby, signaling Piper to hide the body, and the little man immediately understood.

The two then covered up the crime scene to prevent the kobolds from patrolling outside and causing them to be ambushed and trapped in the mine.

After wiping away the footprints on the ground, Lorraine pulled a torch from the side of his backpack.

chapped.

As the fire ignited, the darkness in the mine retreated as if it were alive, revealing the gray-black rock walls covered with dense chisel marks.

Piper also took out a torch, lit it, patted his chest to indicate that he would go first, and then walked straight in.

Without hesitation, Lorraine followed him into the mine.