“Damn, I pushed it too far.” Inside a hollow pillar, Jayce cursed as he looked at the cracks on his wrist bands.

It was a stroke of luck that he had encountered Froker while running at full speed, but that meant he had to risk his artifact’s integrity to escape. Currently, the Bands of Freedom were still functional, and Jayce even sensed that they could be repaired. However, if he pushed them like that again, they would definitely shatter.

Jayce also felt an ache that didn’t come from his physical body. Whenever the Bands of Freedom drained his mana, he felt like his veins were being squeezed in a vice. Jayce could only assume this was backlash from using a grade 1 artifact when he hadn’t opened the first gate. His mana capacity was enough to support it, but his body wasn’t able to transfer enough energy at once.

There were also his injuries from Froker’s shockwave, but Jayce merely drank more blood and waited for his body to recover. Despite having never broken a bone on Earth, Jayce was getting used to injuries like these.

Feeling hungry, Jayce brought out Elva’s backpack and opened up a side pocket. Inside was a bag with several bite-sized white balls. After Theresa convinced Weiss to let Jayce have medicine, they weren’t going to let him starve as long as they had extra food. They didn’t even have to hand him anything since the food was already in Elva’s backpack. These food pills seemed to be a popular item for dungeon delving, and Jayce remembered Mize eating them as well. They had no taste, but they were mysteriously filling.

As for water, the backpack had another pocket containing a couple metallic water bottles. Jayce opened one and drank from it, but the overall amount inside had barely dropped. When he set it down, his arm trembled slightly as he made sure to not let it clang against the icy ground. Just like his clothes, the water bottle was far heavier than it should be. It seemed that this compression method was only usable on objects that could be folded and crushed without breaking—such as water or fabrics. For less flexible items, one had to either use a storage artifact or carry them the old-fashioned way.

Finally, he closed his eyes and focused on his purple-tinged soul. His awareness gradually spread outward and he was able to confirm that there were no living beings within 15 meters.

Having enjoyed his brief rest, Jayce removed a small tarp that was blocking the ice mist, carefully exited his hidey-hole, and set out towards Snowdrift.

---

Tiny ice crystals hiding in the ever-present mist reflected the bright blue light that flowed through the Frozen Expanse’s pillars. One of these floating crystals melted on a kobold’s black nose, causing the monster’s canid face to twitch. It ignored the uncomfortable sensation of ice-cold water dripping down its nose and focused on its ears. There were sounds of movement ahead, causing the kobold’s party of three to raise their guard.

A figure cloaked in green wind and a white barrier darted through the mist. The kobolds weren’t about to ignore an intruder in their territory, so they moved to give chase. To their surprise, the figure glanced at them and quickly turned, barreling into their leftmost member like a humanoid bullet. The kobold bit and clawed at the figure, but it only succeeded in cracking the enemy’s shield before two fat pistols were thrust into its chest. A pair of thunderclaps assaulted the kobolds’ sensitive ears, and they watched in shock as their tackled packmate flew back with severe wounds. It fell to the ground and writhed in agony while its blood spluttered out like a poorly made fountain.

The other two kobolds lunged at the figure and he leapt back. One of his pistols vanished and was replaced by a crescent-shaped gun with a dim blue circle stuck onto its barrel. There was a clear ‘X’ mark inside that circle. The crescent-shaped gun fired a nail into one of the kobolds, causing it to suddenly freeze and topple to the ground as an unseen energy shackled its body.

The final kobold reached its target and threw out a heavy punch. The figure’s glowing eyes followed its movements, but their body could only barely stumble out of the way. Not one to be discouraged, the kobold thrust out its other hand and let out an excited snarl as it gripped its enemy’s arm. The figure tried to pull away, but the kobold’s claws had shattered their damaged barrier and hooked into their skin.

Jayce grimaced. Naturally, he was the one tangling with this kobold. He wouldn’t have stopped to fight these monsters if his bands weren’t close to reaching their limit. These wolf-faced kobolds didn’t have any flashy abilities, but their senses were keen, their intelligence was relatively high, and their short bodies held a surprising amount of power. The strongest among them weren’t any weaker than other territory holders like those steel wing sparrows. Jayce was only able to fight these kinds of monsters by leveraging his powerful artifacts and numerous abilities, but it was never easy.

The kobold’s second punch caught Jayce in the stomach, and he heard a sickening crunch as at least one of his ribs cracked. Despite the injury, Jayce’s hands didn’t falter as he pressed Tiny Hammer against the kobold’s face. Its head exploded like a zombie in an arcade game, but Jayce was annoyed to find that its claws were still stuck in his arm. After a brief pause, the flesh surrounding the claws shuddered and flowed away.

Freeing himself from the kobold’s grasp, Jayce stored his pistols and brought out Seeker. The kobold that was shot with Spirit Nail had just picked itself up off the ground when Jayce shot it in the head. He quickly finished off the one he’d tackled after that.

Bloodrager has reached level 19.

Soul Forger has reached level 6.

An anticipatory smile crept across Jayce’s lips as he drank some blood before hastily storing the monster corpses. He was only one level away from opening the first gate. Jayce considered staying in the Frozen Expanse to get that last level, but he was reaching his limit and needed to rest. As for his Soul Forger class, it was leveling fairly slowly considering the monsters he was fighting. Jayce figured he needed to fight using artifacts he created to stimulate it, and right now his only usable product was the Bands of Freedom.

The class that had made the greatest gains since his escape was Marksman. It was currently level 17 and its last milestone had granted him a very useful ability.

Paralysis Tag

Cost: Mana

Condense your mana into a tag that can be applied to objects. When detonated, the tag will equally distribute a paralyzing effect to lifeforms touching the object. The tag’s potency will increase based on the mana you pay and your class level. You can only maintain one tag at a time, plus one extra per twenty class levels.

It was another ‘enchanting’ ability that could be applied to Jayce’s bullets or anything he threw. Possibly because it was more powerful than Acceleration Tag, Jayce needed 20 Marksman levels instead of 10 to create extra tags. Because this ability had great synergy with Spirit Nail, Jayce would always place the tag on the gun’s barrel to empower his first shot.

Jayce had spent three full days traveling with Weiss’s party and approximately five days on his own. Even though he covered ground faster than Weiss had, he had gotten lost several times. Jayce had run out of food very recently and his hair and face were a mess. He could repair his clothes by drawing out extra fabric, but that didn’t stop them from being marred by dirt, ice water and blood. Currently, he just wanted to find the door to Snowdrift and collapse. He had spent almost an hour searching through the kobold’s territory, so he knew he was close.

Just as Jayce was about to set off again, a serpentine mass of white feathers drilled out of his chest. Jayce watched as the 30-centimeter-long spirit of freedom snaked through the air and landed on his wristband. It opened up its mouth and bit down on the greenish-black metal band like a teething puppy. Raising his arm, Jayce moved his eyes level with the spirit’s pair of ghostly green orbs. It looked at him expectantly before being mercilessly backhanded.

This physical action affected the spirit because of a new Soul Forger ability that Jayce had gotten at level 5.

Soul Strike (Lesser)

Cost: Mental Energy

Synchronize your next action with the pulse of your soul. Your next strike against a target will gain ethereal qualities, disrupting the target’s aspects and/or soul. In exchange, the physical impact of your strike will be nullified.

An aggrieved bird-like cry sounded from the spirit as it was thrown backwards. Though, once it righted itself, it didn’t look particularly upset. While Jayce seemed to be hesitating about whether he wanted to run off or not, the spirit quickly dove into his chest and became silent. Sighing, Jayce continued on his way.

He had initially trapped this spirit inside his body with his soulfire, but that arrangement couldn’t last. During his first night after escaping, Jayce had proactively let the spirit out to avoid being attacked while he slept. When he woke up the next morning, he found it happily chewing on his Bands of Freedom. Jayce didn’t want to risk his already-damaged lifeline any further, but he was reluctant to chase such a rare and valuable creature away.

Desperate, he had mimicked Weiss’s lines and prayed to the spirit. He’d asked it to help him leave the dungeon, but it responded by trying to possess him again. Jayce still had no idea if the spirit could truly understand him.

During the past five days, it mostly spent its time resting beside Jayce’s soul. From what Jayce could tell, it was slowly making progress in resisting Weiss’s poison.

When Jayce prepared to set off for the second time, he heard sounds from the mist ahead that froze his heart. It was claws. The sound of many sets of claws clacking against the stone floor. The mist in front of him bulged and then burst, revealing at least a dozen kobolds running on four legs. Before he even had time to swear, Jayce was surrounded by the grey-furred menaces. Feral growls rose up one after the other and Jayce didn’t need the system to translate.

Jayce felt like a fool for being too calm and not moving with enough haste. Thinking about it, this area had the most time to recover from Weiss’s culling. If he was ever going to encounter a large number of monsters, it would be now.

The only odd thing was that the kobolds didn’t immediately follow up on their ambush. Jayce had even noticed flickers of surprise in the kobolds’ expressions when they came out of the mist. Unfortunately for him, the kobolds only hesitated for a moment before they started tightening their encirclement. These monsters were smart enough to choose their opponents, and they wouldn’t allow a weakling like Jayce to escape.

As Jayce watched them close in, his breathing quickened while his heart rate skyrocketed. He had survived a couple other dangerous encounters while escaping through the Frozen Expanse, but he’d managed to run from them using the Bands of Freedom. Now, that artifact was close to breaking point, and Jayce had a little less than half his maximum mana. Jayce hadn’t been this scared since his fight with the masked human in the Fragmented Ruins. Back then, there had been a similar moment when Jayce realized he was likely going to die. Being surrounded by these higher-level monsters was no less damning than when the masked slave kicked Jayce’s gun away and fired both of his shotgun pistols.

When he felt his limbs turn numb from fear, Jayce’s pupils suddenly turned red. Bloodrage was activated subconsciously to drive away his hesitation. This ability was always affecting him subtly while it was active, but Jayce fully surrendered himself to it this time. Lips parting in a feral snarl, Jayce glared at the approaching kobolds and took on a low stance.

‘After everything…I survived being bait and even escaped from Weiss’s party. I refuse to die because of some random monsters, especially when I’m so close to the exit!’

Jayce stepped forward and despite his boiling aggression, an eerie calm washed over his mind.