Because they had been pursuing Adam Bennett all the way, these royal guards hadn’t had time to prepare thick clothing. Facing the biting cold wind of Mount Berlusconi, everyone showed fear. With the new emperor’s ascension, who didn’t want to make some achievements? To earn some credit for their own promotion. Even if they couldn’t get promoted, at the very least, they didn’t want to be caught making a mistake and get demoted. The status difference between the royal guards and the local legions was enormous.

Although Luke Thompson was cursing Owen Foster furiously, he himself felt uncertain. How could he not know that, because of this unlucky pursuit, he, the squad leader, had already lost all authority among his team members. The first time they caught up with Adam Bennett, after barely a single encounter, he was lured by Adam Bennett’s trickery into acting impulsively, and in his misstep, Adam Bennett cut off two fingers from his left hand with a single sword strike. In the subsequent pursuit, Luke Thompson’s recklessness and impulsiveness once again cost them dearly.

Adam Carter was only seventeen. At the Imperial Military Academy, aside from being known as a bit of a bookworm due to his love of history, everything in the information Luke Thompson had obtained about him seemed utterly ordinary. But after several encounters, every member of this royal guard squad had developed a sense of fear toward this boy.

The Lundak family was not known for martial prowess, but this young man’s family swordsmanship rivaled that of formal knights.

No one knew that, because of a serious disagreement with his father over his future after graduation, Adam Bennett had been cut off financially for a time. To pay for food and tuition, this young man had secretly joined a band of thieves, experiencing countless life-and-death adventures. In terms of real combat experience, he far surpassed his peers.

The royal guard squad, now down to nine men, was low in morale, but as they moved, they still appeared exceptionally agile. Although the biting cold wind of Mount Berlusconi tormented this pursuing force, their marching speed was still more than twice that of ordinary people.

Adam Bennett was unaware of the pursuers’ troubles. The reason he had escaped to this land of death was not because he was fleeing blindly, but because, during his time with the thieves, he had accidentally obtained a mysterious map. This map, from the previous Great Stone Dynasty, depicted a vast and unparalleled labyrinth.

Chapter Two: Da Luobiso Zima Ga Sweeps the Snail

The Great Stone Dynasty had been gone for a thousand years. It was said that at the height of this ancient dynasty, its territory was four or five times larger than that of the Golden Moon Dynasty. Not only was it the peak era of sword and magic, with knight kings and great magicians emerging in droves, but magitech was also extremely advanced. In the writings of countless poets and scholars, hundreds of famous poems and essays flowed from their pens.

Magic, martial arts, culture, economy, and all sorts of strange magitech fields all reached the highest peak in the history of the Ice Continent.

In later history books, the most common epithet for the Great Stone Dynasty was “the First Empire of the Continent,” its national strength unmatched. It had dominated the continent for seven hundred years. Not only in that era, but for a thousand years before and after, no other empire on the continent could rival the Great Stone Dynasty.

According to some surviving historical records, the Great Stone Dynasty could already manufacture magical lightsabers that condensed magic power into beams, exquisite magic guns that fired sealed magic missiles, floating magic airships, and magical wooden horses that could be ridden for rapid flight. After a thousand years, many of these wondrous technologies were nearly lost. If a magical artifact from that era was unearthed, it could easily fetch a sky-high price.

Adam Bennett knew well that, in the imperial bureaucracy, once a family lost power, there was no chance of making a comeback. Especially when it came to the absolutely critical issue of imperial succession—standing on the wrong side could destroy even a century-old noble family like the Lundaks overnight. At this moment, the thought in this fugitive boy’s heart was: “If what this map records is real, and by a one-in-a-million chance I can find some magical artifacts from the previous era, I’ll immediately find a way to sell them, then escape to the Magic Alliance of the Southern Continent, leave the Golden Moon Dynasty’s sphere of influence, and start my life anew.”

Braving the piercing cold wind, Adam Bennett forced his frozen fingers to open the map, drawn on a strangely textured paper. After comparing it to his current position, the boy was sure the entrance to the labyrinth was not far away. He muttered to himself, “If I still can’t find the entrance to the labyrinth today, I’m afraid I won’t have the strength to make it down the mountain.”

Although Adam Bennett had prepared some thick clothing, he couldn’t feel any warmth from them at all. Some fragile organs, like his nose and ears—he was convinced those things had already frozen into ice crystals, and that a light touch would mean losing them forever. Although Adam Bennett’s body was fairly strong, he could no longer withstand such cold and low temperatures.