Seeing the wound finally bandaged, Lorien sighed, slightly tired. He wanted a bed to sleep in, but with the possible dangers around, he knew he would have to stay awake for a few days.
"Have something to eat, friend from afar." The merchant said, handing over a wooden bowl containing steaming soup. There was no meat in the soup, but it was enough to warm the body on this cold continent at night and hot during the day.
"Thank you." Lorien spoke and accepted the soup, he really was hungry. Raising the bowl to his lips, he drank slowly because of the heat, but narrowed his eyes with pleasure at the greasy but surprisingly tasty taste.
"I see you've been wounded, could it be the Dothraki?" The merchant asked, looking at the armor consisting of just a torso, apparently made of bronze. It was a style of armor he had never seen before in his life. The whole armor looked like the torso of a thoroughly trained man.
"No. Something worse, much worse." Lorien replied with a calm tone, showing a slightly murderous look. However, that look was enough to make the surrounding temperature drop even lower. Even the flames became weaker.
The merchant narrowed his eyes at this and smiled even more brightly. Although he had the suspicion, he hadn't expected to see such a young and experienced bronze-level warrior.
The boy was of noble birth, not because of his extraordinary appearance, but because of his speech, gestures and posture. Only someone of noble birth could behave in such a courteous and polite manner.
"Olsen of Myr." The merchant introduced himself with an inviting and polite look. Warriors were respected everywhere in the world, after all, they were humans who managed to transcend human limits through warrior breathing techniques.
"Lorien, just Lorien." Looking at the merchant's suddenly excited appearance, Lorien didn't show much surprise. Although he didn't know what the merchant was thinking, he could see that it was something good for him.
"Are you from Westeros, sir?" Olsen asked with a smile. Making friends with a warrior could help him in many ways. No one would offend a warrior's friend for the sake of a little profit.
Lorien noticed that when Olsen mentioned Westeros, a three woman not far from him glanced discreetly at them. Lorien glimpsed a hint of purple in her eyes, but only for a few moments, before the woman turned her face away.
"No, a much more distant place." Lorien replied, wiping his mouth with his arm and putting the armor back on his body. He looked at the merchant and understood that Olsen was trying to find out his origins, but he didn't care.
"It's incredible that you've traveled so far. Even if you're a Bronze Warrior, a journey like that is extremely dangerous." Olsen said in a calm tone, looking at Lorien with a genuine look of admiration.
Lorien couldn't help but notice the term "Bronze Level Warrior", from Olsen's words it sounded like more than a title. Based on the information the merchant revealed, there were possibly Silver and Gold Level Warriors.
'It seems that this is not a normal, different world from the one I know. Lorien thought with a calm and inexpressive expression, as if agreeing with Olsen's words. Perhaps because he was the son of Greece's greatest bastard, he was someone very intelligent.
"Which are the strongest warriors in the vicinity?" Lorien asked, looking at Olsen. As Olsen was a merchant, Lorien was sure that this man knew the hierarchy of forces on this continent.
"The strongest is the First Sword of Braavos, Qarro Volentin, an extremely experienced Golden Warrior who protects the Sea Lord of Braavos. A man capable of fighting ten thousand fully armed men."
Olsen replied with familiarity. As Lorien had thought, if a merchant didn't know the forces around him, he wouldn't last a month alive. Offending people often led to premature deaths.
"The Khal of the Khalasar are all Silver Warriors, capable of fighting a thousand fully armed men. In the Free Cities, only a few people are Silver Warriors, most are Bronze Warriors and powerless against the Dothraki."
Lorien's nerves relaxed, hearing his words. Although the Golden Warriors were strong, capable of fighting ten thousand fully armed men, but to him, they posed no danger.
Lorien listened carefully to the forces of the Nine Free Cities, other organizations and the Slave Cities of Slave Bay. With this information, a whole new world appeared in his mind.
'Bronze Warriors, Silver Warriors, Golden Warriors, Warrior Breathing Techniques and Lineage. Lorien absorbed Olsen's knowledge very easily. First of all, the merchant wanted to make friends, so it wasn't difficult to get this information.
From what Lorien understood, people had ancestral lineages, and based on these lineages the Breathing Techniques emerged, which used lineage as a tool to strengthen the human body.
The level of lineage determined the level of power a warrior would reach, but there was always a small possibility that the lineage would mutate and advance to a higher level.
"Lorien, can you protect my caravan until we reach Myr? I'll pay twice the market price for your services." Olsen proposed with a tone full of expectation.
Lorien didn't respond immediately. Olsen was a merchant and merchants want profits, the more generous the man was, the more it showed that the danger he was facing was serious.
"Don't you have warriors to protect you?" Lorien asked confusedly, looking at the guards holding swords and wearing leather armor.
"They're only apprentice warriors, they're still far from being Bronze Warriors." Olsen said with a helpless tone. If it were that easy to become a Bronze Warrior, the world would be full of them, but unfortunately, it was very difficult to become a Bronze Warrior.
Even the talented ones took five to ten years. The less talented would train for decades and never be able to become a Bronze Warrior. Although it had to do with lineage, but untalented people were difficult to strengthen.
Silver Warriors were even more difficult, all the silver warriors he knew from rumors were around thirty to forty years old, that's the talented ones, he even met a silver warrior who was eighty years old, showing how difficult it was for a warrior to break through to another realm.
Lorien nodded, apparently guessing that becoming a warrior through breathing techniques was difficult and required talent (Lineage). After a while in silence, he looked at Olsen and nodded, making the merchant smile.
Only the merchant knew how nervous he was at that moment, because he had offended a famous leader of a group of sand thieves who operated near Myr, Tyrosh and Lys.
The leader of the thieves was a bronze warrior accompanied by a dozen apprentice warriors and hundreds of ordinary humans, nothing to the Free Cities, but a huge force for a small merchant like Olsen.
Lorien didn't care about a small bronze warrior, even if he was seriously injured, it wasn't something a human could take on. It may sound arrogant, but it was a fact he had learned from fighting titans and even Kronos, the Cannibal Titan.
"Tell me a story about your homeland, Lorien." Olsen threw some dry twigs on the fire and asked with a smile. As a merchant, he liked to learn about new places.
Lorien didn't refuse the request and thought for a moment before talking about the relationship between Gaia and Uranus.
"At the beginning of time there was a goddess called Gaia, the Primordial Goddess of the Earth. Feeling alone and lonely, she put her hands together and picked up a piece of land in the dark vastness of space." Lorien spoke calmly, but his voice drew the attention of everyone present. He didn't care if these people knew what space was or any unfamiliar terms.
"The goddess gathered more and more pieces of earth together until she had created a huge spherical mass of earth. It was a planet, orbiting around a bright, warm star."
"But the planet had no life, forest, rivers or even water. So, feeling even lonelier, she gave birth to a son by herself. This one was called Uranos, the Personification of Heaven."
"Naturally, she took her son as her husband and mated with him, giving birth to the Primordial Gods, such as Oceanus, the sea that surrounds the world. More and more children were born from the union of heaven and earth, the mountains, forests and rivers. The world finally had life."
"Uranus became the first generation King of the Gods and enthroned himself as king of the cosmos, reigning supreme over all the gods and goddesses."
Lorien finished speaking and drank some water given to him by Olsen. "What did you think?" he asked, looking at the shopkeeper with a smile.
"Exotic." Olsen said with a smile. "A goddess who didn't need a man to have children and marry her own son is certainly something you don't hear every day."
"Gods don't need to respect human logic, they are irrational beings and at the same time, full of desires and selfishness, just like us humans." Lorien replied with a laugh, remembering his father and his bad reputation.
"Certainly, gods don't respect the laws of men." Olsen showed a pious expression full of reverence for his god.
Lorien nodded; gods really didn't care about the laws of men. After all, would you respect the laws of ants who have always worshipped you?
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Read my other books:
Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos (500,000 words written).
Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.
Game Of Thrones: Son of Zeus