I wake up for what feels like the twentieth time. Something's new though, the day is rising, a pale slice of sky visible beyond the dark shape of mountains I can see outside our little cave.

I certainly don’t feel like moving quite yet, with how sore and stiff my body is. Instead I take some time to examine my status as I slowly try to get my blood flowing.

General Characteristics

Traits System skills and abilities Titles & Achievements

STR : 118 Level 3, with 60% exp progress to the next level. DEX : 112 HEALTH 116/120 END : 120 MANA 325/325 INT : 139 M. HEALTH 84/101 SAN : 101 Trait-Bound stat points : 42/209 General Characteristics

Traits System skills and abilities Titles

Mental Traits Prudent : "What's the worst that can happen?" - Famous last words you do not live by. Split personality [B] (2) : You're never quite alone. At least he's friendly! - Evolving 18% (-10 San)

Cynical : People are selfish, and will always be so. Never trust too much. Altruistic (-) : You're a really good friend to have, shame you rarely get along with people Mana Sense (-) : Congratulations! You're no longer blind. Growing : 11% (+2 Int, +111 Mana)

Arcanic Self-Enhancer (-) : Forming : 4% (+1 Int, +4 Mana)

Mana Manipulation (-) : Forming : 70% (+5 Int, +70 Mana) Poison Detection [B] (-) :

Forming : 12% (+1 San)

Star-longer [R] (-) : Forming : 14%

Vindicator (-) : Forming : 39% (+4 San)

Physical Traits Adaptable [R] (+) : Humans have countless defects, yet they always adapt and overcome Adaptable [B] : System-granted superior adaptability. Survive and thrive. Athlete (-) : Forming : 5% (+1 Str, +1 Dex, +1 End)

Bodybuilder (-) : Forming : 12% (+4 Str, +1 Dex, +1 End)

Flexible Body (-) : Forming : 9% (+2 Dex)

Forest Dweller (-) : Forming : 16% (+1 Dex, +1 End)

Hiker [R] (-) : Forming : 47% (+1 Str, +1 Dex, +3 End)

Mountain Dweller (-) : Forming : 23% (+1 Str, +2 End)

Sword Proficiency (-) : Forming : 24% (+1 Str, +2 Dex)

Wildland Dweller (-) : Forming : 23% (+3 End) Whip Proficiency (-) :

Forming : 3% (+2 Dex)

I’ve progressed quite a lot recently. The big steps come from Bob’s relentless work on magic, in particular when I take the time to participate, but everything else is slowly coming along too. Even poison detection. It moved up when I inspected the last monsters Alix last killed. Well, just the smell was enough to make me want to throw up, it’s no surprise those things weren’t edible.

Poison Detection (minor) [Boon]

Granted at a time where you were too shaken to mind that omnivore does not, in fact, mean you can eat anything. This boon will help you where blind luck worked once. This Trait gives you some instinctive insight on whether eating something will poison you or not. It works best to detect poisons you have already encountered.

My only regrets are that I’m not advancing anymore on the athlete, body-builder and flexible trio and I haven’t been able to progress with my whip. Too noisy for guard duty, and it takes too much focus to practice while walking.

After a coupleminutesof yawns and stretches, I gather my courage to crawl out of the warm cover, and I start punching and kicking at the air to get my blood pumping and chase both the cold and the tiredness away.

Alix groans, half turns in my direction, and asks.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Warming up. Speaking of which, it’s just getting colder and colder. These mountains are too high. We won’t be able to keep pushing south like this.”

He sighs and grabs his bag without getting out of the covers, looking somewhat like a human-sized grub. I decide not to make fun of him because I'm a good friend and a good man, definitely not because he wields deadly magic.

“Yeah, it’s a pain. I say we still try to reach the next valley and see if there’s a way to go down form there.”

“Then we backtrack, and find other places that are too cold? I think we should go all the way back to Wathamber and get warmer clothes. It’s what, 8 or 10 °C here? With the nights going lower. The system Endurance is helping but not enough. We should get clothes warm enough to deal with snow, then we’d be fine.”

Neither of us is happy with the idea of walking back for five days. It was obviously short-sighted to assume the weather would stay pleasant when we don’t even have a map.

It sucks to be idiots.

“Alright, we'll do that if the next valley is a bust. ”

- - -

The sight at the crest is beautiful in a brutal way. Jagged cracks and rocks, cliffs and crevices, a desolation of gray, brown and white stretching like we're standing on the edge of a mad giant's bowl. A place where only dry lichens thrive, where nothing but a few tiny and spiny shrubs grow in those rare spots where the stone ground to dust by the cold isn’t scattered by the wind.

The limit to the snow isn’t that far away from here, we could easily reach it. But we’re turning back because freezing to death is certainly not on the menu.

We’ve got a couple more hours of walk the way we came from before we'll reach a large cave entrance a couple kilometers away. Shelter is direly needed for the night, and that's our target.

- - -

“Are we sure there’s no sleeping dragon in there?” I ask as we near the enormous cave entrance.

The opening is easily fifteen meters high, and just as wide. Yet, it’s a small hole compared to the sheer size of the cliff that’s looking down on us.

Alix ponders on that for a moment.

“That would be unfortunate… but could also turn out well? From an adventure point of view, dragons are top of the line.”

“End of the line too, more often than not.” I say

“Yes, that too. I honestly don’t think there will be a dragon in there.” He raises a hand in silence to tell me to wait. I raise an eyebrow in askance until he continues in a srong voice “Well that’s disappointing, but sounds like I’m right. There’s no way the universe would have let such a bait pass if there was a beast available.”

Fucking Alix and his twisted logic.

“Yeah we’re safe.” He adds. “Well, I tried three times, no fateful encounter here.”

That’s not supposed to really work, right?

Of course not. I decide to take matters in my hands before his antics driveme crazy.

“You know what? I can scout. I’ll use magic to amplify my senses, give me a second and stay away or you’ll distract me.”

“You can do that?”

Oh right, he wouldn’t know and I didn't mention it.

“Yeah. You can too, just stay still and move mana to your tongue and see what happens.” I say as I move with purpose to the edge of the entrance.

The part where he has to stay still might be asking too much, but I love the idea.

It doesn’t take long before I hear him swear and cry out in disgust and I laugh a little as I shamelessly walk away. I needed that.

Soon, I’m at the entrance, there’s a gentle current of hair coming from deep within, and it’s just a touch warmer than the outside.

Alright, lets start with hearing.

I’ve been practicing with those for my arcanic self-enhancer trait, and I can do it by myself now, but with Bob’s help it takes only a second before I hear the flow of my blood running and the regular beats of my heart pumping. I can hear Alix’s heartbeat too, from twenty meters away. The wind outside is suddenly obnoxiously loud, since there's no immediate threat, I move a little further inside before refocusing. For a moment when I breathe in, it sounds like a storm brewing.

I give my brain a chance to become familiar with the feelings, to tune out the unnecessary sounds coming from me and focus on what’s within this cave.

There’s… There’s the faintest rumble. Unidentifiable sounds coming from very far away. I have no idea whether it’s moving water, a sleeping dragon or something else entirely.

This is unusual, it seems like mana is coming from out of there, it’s not obvious at first but it definitely looks like there’s some sort of current.

Uh. Did we just stumble onto prime adventurer bait?

Pushing mana to my eyes lets me pierce the darkness within, and I see no red flags. No bones on the floor, a few stalactites and stalagmites, sure, but not enough to give the feeling of a giant’s jaw, it’s just… innocent looking rough rock in a slightly sloped tunnel, going deep below the mountain. Perhaps fifty meters in, the curve of the cave hides what comes next from my sight.

I shake my head to get rid of the effects. Suddenly the world feels colorless and silent like a grave.

“I think it’s safe to go in.” I tell Alix “But there’s definitely something curious in there. I heard a faint rumble and the mana is behaving oddly, like it's flowing out.”

“Uh. Nice catch, I wouldn’t have noticed.” A short pause as he grins. “Well, what are we waiting for, adventure calls!”

His enthusiasm is contagious, and I smile in answer.

It finally does.