“...Get down!” Erika screams, grabbing everyone’s attention.

Adreanell turns around just in time to see a large, icy talon enclose her body. She lets out one piercing scream before the sudden force of ascent takes the air from her lungs.

By the time the flight stabilizes and Adreanell feels several hexes from Cassandra hit her and the dragon, they’re too far for her cries to be heard.

Adreanell summons her mana to fire a volley of coin shots directly at the eyes of the dragon, only to have the claw tighten on her and a pervading cold seeps into her.

The cold makes even aiming too difficult to focus on. They pass through a fog bank and Adreanell feels an indescribable pushing force on her body, but the dragon slips through with ease, taking her with it.

After another moment of flight, they duck down into a tunnel in the mountain. Claw marks and frost mar the entirety of the entrance, indicating that the dragon is likely the creator of this area.

It walks in a stilted stance with its other three legs as Adreanell is clutched in one of its front talons.

A few minutes of walking, and attempts at screaming through the insidious cold on Adreanell’s part, they arrive in a vast cavern.

Despite herself, Adreanell’s eyes light up upon spotting the mounds of gold and gemstones in the room. She also spots various magical items strewn about the piles.

‘What I wouldn’t give for Lucas’ sauna coat right about now…’

The dragon lays her down on a pile of gold, still frozen, and moves to another area in the pile to lay down. For what feels like hours, the dragon simply stares at her with some sort of admiration, appearing to focus on her eyes.

‘Oh my god. Midas Sight. That Perk turned my eyes gold so this fucking dragon grabbed me.’

Once its careful inspection is complete, the dragon lays down to sleep, not the least bit fearful of any retaliation on Adreanell’s part in her still-frozen disposition, apparently.

‘Now how did Lucas say he overcame the freezing from that ice hawk…?’ Beginning to cycle pyromantic mana through herself, Adreanell feels the deep-seated cold within her begin to thaw ever so slightly.

She keeps her eyes on the dragon during this process, ceasing to thaw herself out at even the slightest movement from it.

It takes hours, but eventually Adreanell burns away most of the cold, enough to move at a somewhat staggering pace at the very least.

Finally able to move more, Adreanell glances around the cavern she’s in, trying to find an exit. There’s a set of double doors made of stone on one end of the room and a large crevice on the other end.

‘I must be in the boss room of this dungeon.’ Moving to stand carefully, Adreanell cringes as the mound of coins shifts under her. Glancing at the dragon, it sniffs slightly but doesn’t wake up.

Scanning its body, Adreanell can’t help but admire the form of the beast before her. Smooth, glassy, pale blue scales. Wings with snowflake formations adorning their webbing. Its tail ends in a sharp, icicle point that glows with frosty power.

Shaking her head, she refocuses on the task before her.

‘Well… it can’t shift if I just…’ Storing the coins in her personal vault, she takes them in one at a time, decreasing part of the pile bit by bit. Slowly but surely, Adreanell makes it to the bottom of the pile and tiptoes across the cavern floor.

Peering over at her shoulder, the dragon is still sleeping so Adreanell touches a few magical items at random in the piles, storing them away in her vault. ‘Serves you right for kidnapping me you stupid lizard.’

Plink

Adreanell stiffens as she hears a coin fall from the remaining part of the now-lopsided pile she was on top of. The rest of the mound shudders for a moment before all of the coins fall down the mound, creating a cacophony of noise.

The dragon’s eyes snap open and Adreanell begins to sprint towards the door. A deafening roar fills the cavern, stunning Adreanell in place momentarily. The dragon slams down on the floor in front of the door, eyes filled with rage.

‘Aw fuck, it knows I took its coins.’

The dragon opens its mouth and Adreanell feels a surge of mana from the dragon. Pulling a thick shield of coins in front of her from a mound next to her, they explode backward, covered in frost from the dragon’s breath attack.

The concussive explosion of mana sends Adreanell skidding back across the floor, dangerously close to the crevice behind her. She peers down it quickly as she almost falls into it, seeing nothing but darkness and jagged rocks jutting out.

Attempting to scramble away from the edge, Adreanell finds her body slow to respond from the cold once more. Less so than before, but she begins to cycle heating mana through herself again.

Shockingly fast, the dragon crosses the cavern, talons bared, looking even angrier than before now that she’s close to the crevice in the floor.

The dragon swipes viciously at her, a being of unfiltered fury at this point. Adreanell tries to dodge but her body is still too slow to respond. Three deep, frozen gashes appear across the front of her body as the massive beast bellows in rage.

Staggering backward, Adreanell loses her balance as one foot no longer finds purchase. She falls, smashing off of sharp spires of rock on her way down, in too much pain to respond to any of it.

She lands on a final something that cracks under her, plunging her into a viscous substance. A roar louder than any before accompanies surging mana. Adreanell pulls on whatever will her conscious mind has left and conjures the coins she took from the hoard out of her vault to seal up whatever she’s fallen into.

A sudden drop in temperature indicates the breath attack of the dragon hitting her shield and the surrounding walls. Strangely, the substance inside doesn’t freeze or get any colder, so Adreanell, mind hazy from low core temperature, slowly dips her freezing body fully inside of it.

Reaching into her vault, Adreanell takes out a healing potion. Just as she brings it to her lips, pain lances through her as the thawing cuts on her body mix with the gooey substance around her and it begins to enter her body.

Passing out from the pain, Adreanell fully sinks into the substance.

------------

“Fuck!” Anger roils through me and I slam my fist on the ground. The last vestiges of cold leave my body as I try to control my breathing enough for Pranic Breathing to activate and restore my scarily low health. Using Spellbound Physique, I begin converting MP into HP as my MP regen is higher overall.

Everyone is feeling guilty about not helping as fast as they could have. Cassandra is crying and Colt is consoling her alongside Kayla and Erika.

Standing up from the ground, I shake off the pins and needles feeling in my limbs and turn to everyone. “I know we planned on camping out tonight and tackling the dungeon in the morning tomorrow, but obviously our schedule has been bumped up. We’re heading to that dungeon now.”

With no nods of disagreement, I turn to go but feel a tug on my pant leg.

“Lucas, I want to try something.” Charlie stares up at me hopefully.

“What did you want to try?”

He grins at me. “This.” Pulling a portable hole out of his Hammerspace, he places it on the air in front of him and grasps on to the sides. His eyes bulge and his face turns red as he struggles to expand the portal from a size meant for an eight-year-old to something larger.

For a moment, nothing happens, but then I feel a surge of mana from Charlie and there’s an ominous ripping noise. With one final push, the two-dimensional disc of blackness in the air expands to a size we could fit through. Charlie pants from the exertion before slumping over.

“Alright, everyone. Through the portal hole thing.” Gesturing, everyone begins to cross through it while Charlie maintains it. The door to the dungeon is already in sight, and looking across the area in front of us, I can see the other end of the network Charlie opened.

It won’t get us all of the way there, but it’s stealthy and fast. Once everyone else aside from Charlie is through, he gestures for me to go.

“I’ll follow after. This is hard.” Sweat drips down his face.

Not wasting any more time, I dive through. An odd pulling force brings me toward the other end as I see a multitude of blurry lights flash around me in otherwise pitch darkness. Coming out of the other end, I fall to the ground and catch myself on my hands and knees.

“Wow, that was weird.”

Charlie pops out moments later but falls to the ground, looking somewhat pale and his face contorts in pain.

“...You okay, Charlie?”

“Mana… burnt…” He struggles out the two words while cringing in pain.

Immediately searching my hold, I find the potion I made to recover from my mana burnt status so long ago. Bringing it to his lips, he downs it quickly after some instruction from me.

“It just boosts recovery speed, but it does help with the pain.”

Some color returns to his skin and he sighs in relief from the pain. “Thank you.” He tries to stand up but staggers a little. Caleb picks him up and puts him on his shoulders.

“I’ll carry him for now, I’ve felt pretty useless so far so this is the least I can do. Oh, and before we go in, everyone, eat this. It’s from the frostbite wolves. I seared it on my cleaver while we walked.”

He hands us pieces of seared meat. Eating it, the flavor is surprisingly savory for him cooking it on the go.

A chilly wind billows around me as I take on the effects of the magical cooking. Everyone else has small flurries of snow from the ground swirling around their feet. The speed boost helps us move more silently as well, so we make it to the dungeon at a quick pace.

The dragon’s roar earlier seems to have scared off the local monsters as we don’t even see any to avoid.

Figuring it’s worth the effort, I try to climb the mountain and cross the fog with Colt’s help. Just like the entrance to the dungeon, this fog pushes us back no matter how hard we try to push through.

Not wanting to waste more time, we head back to the door.

“Everyone ready? We can’t leave once we enter here. It’s all or nothing.”

Receiving nothing but nods, we head inside with Caleb and me at the front in our normal formation to defend the kids.

You have now entered the Mount Katahdin Dungeon Proper! You may not leave until the boss is defeated.

A magical barrier erects behind us at the doorway, sealing us in. Activating all my sensory abilities, I look around the entrance to this dungeon. The walls are plain stone with pale blue crystal lights set into holes in it.

We proceed up a staircase and trek down a long hallway. This dungeon is considerably less ornate than the Grand Harbor’s dungeon proper and chilling winds blow through the halls.

Moving at a comfortable jog, we arrive in a cavernous room, a rough 500 feet in diameter, and I nearly slip on the floor which transitions from stone to a thick sheet of ice.

The ice around me suddenly shifts, becoming several jagged spikes. Dodging them, I hit a few with Argo. Shockingly, he bounces off the spires of ice rather than breaking them.

An icy spike behind me nearly catches me, but Caleb is next to me in a flash, his searing cleaver slicing through the attack before it reaches me. Nodding to him in thanks, I spread out my Primordial Perception and identify the threat. It’s a little hazy, but I can make out something.

“Guys, there’s a large something inside the ice. It’s swimming in it!”

Ice condenses into icicle lances above our heads and fires down, several shots for every person.

“Major Arcana: The Hermit!” A shelter appears around Vincent and the children, protecting them from the attack.

Colt summons a wall of wind to block above him, Becky, and Erika.

“Batten down!” The visage of a ship appears around Caleb and me.

“Incalmo!” An orb of molten glass fuses together from two halves to surround Kayla, Cassandra, and Pierce.

The icicles strike my shield with shocking force, pressing down hard on my will to keep it up. Reaching out to the ice with my Cryomancy, I find it impossible to even touch magically-speaking.

Dropping my shield after the ice volley is over, I call out to Kayla and Cassandra. “I need you two melting this ice! We can’t get at it like this!”

“On it!” Kayla fires out tendrils of glass which superheat to a deep orange immediately.

Cassandra simply looks determined and fire spins around her for a moment before jetting out onto the ice.

The ice around us continues to spike up and I hear the kids scream.

“Vincent! Take them out of here!”

“I can’t! We tried. The entrance is sealed shut by ice!” He gestures behind him where the once open hallway is now a thick sheet of ice.

Cursing, I maneuver through several more icy spears from the ground, gritting my teeth as one catches me in the side. Caleb chops it in half before it can pierce too deeply.

“Daniel, Maria, Charlie, you have my permission to join the fight. There’s no escape so you’re better off focusing on defense.”

They look scared but they all nod to me and pull out their weapons. Lines of yarn begin to attach across the walls, creating a webbing a few feet above our heads.

“I’ll catch icicles, Lucas!” Maria smiles at me before her eyes widen as an ice spike almost strikes her from the floor. It splits in half as Daniel cuts through it with a rapid lash of his cutting wire.

‘Why can it be cut through so easily but not smashed?’

“Lucas, we have the ice weakened!” Kayla gestures to where cracks are forming and water is bubbling up.

“Got it!” Using my boots, I create a patch of crystals behind my feet to push off of, avoiding slipping on the ice, and leap into the air. Flipping midair, I push off of Maria’s yarn web, which I can feel her assist me with from the extra force contributed.

Wreathing Argo in fire, I combine Decimating Impact with a Searing Wake. Circuit Dash enhances my forward speed and I crash into the weakened part of the ice, causing a massive spider web crack to break outward from it.

A massive form pops out of the water, smashing into me and sending me sliding into a wall of the cavern with a loud, painful crash. World spinning as I push myself out of a crater in the wall, I spot everyone attacking a giant trout. Its body is as clear as the ice it swims through, giving it a ghastly visage.

Taking a moment to Inspect it, hopeful for weaknesses, I don’t get much.

Gelvelinus

Traits: Cryomancy, Floeglide, Frozen Force

Description: A trout that has adapted to living in the ice of the Mount Katahdin dungeon. Its Floeglide trait allows it to swim in ice just as easily as water. It accompanies this great defensive ability with cryomancy to allow it to attack with its own environment. The ice this trout controls is granted the ability to greatly disperse direct force, making it incredibly hard to shatter.

‘Explains why it’s so damn hard to smash.’

Dashing in to help everyone, I fire a bolt of lightning into the trout. It rears angrily and the entire expanse of ice in front of me turns into a deadly wall of spearing icicles.

“Lucas!” A hand pops out of a hole in the air and grabs me, pulling me through it. Appearing out the other side, Charlie smiles at me. “Gotcha.”

“You recovered! Thanks, Charlie.” Boosting off with a Crashing Wake, I dash toward the fish but it finally manages to refreeze the water around it and dives back under.

“Damn. Direct impact attacks don’t work, everyone. Slicing attacks seem to be fine and I don’t know about piercing attacks, but my own hits just bounce off the ice.”

“Can anyone identify where the fish is?” Pierce jumps around, dodging several blades of ice that swing at him.

“I’m trying but most of my tracking is based on nature.” Erika frowns.

Feeling with my own Primordial Perception, it feels fuzzier than before and I find it hard to look deep into the ice. “I’m gonna try something. Scan Pulse!” Placing my hand on the ice, I project the scanning mana into the ice. It still can’t penetrate deeply and I’m forced to dodge a slicing barrage of attacks.

As one is about to catch me, I Plot a Course to move out of the way. A strange resonance occurs between my Plot Course beacon and my still-active Scan Pulse. Curious, I send a beacon deep into the ice but instead of sending myself to it, I project the scanning mana toward it.

My senses expand under the ice as the scan pulse fires out from it, using the beacon like an amplifier for the range. Creating several more beacons, I feel a shift in mind.

‘Did Plot Course and Scan Pulse just combine…? No time to check.’

With a system of beacons set, I feel a map of the movements under the ice appear in my head. “Pierce, over there!”

“On it!” He jumps into the air and pulls his bowstring back. “Discordant Volley!”

A storm of sound arrows hit the ice, traveling through it. In retaliation, mana surges through the ice as the fish swims up to avoid further attacks. It surfaces and lightning-fast spears of ice stab through both Pierce and me.

Frost begins to build up around the spot I was hit and I feel the cold begin to fill my body.

“Dual Draw: Ace of Wands and The Star!”

Mystic force settles over me and I feel empowered. The trout begins to dive back down as it seems to sense my sudden boost of power.

Lightning fires from my open palms, striking the fish in the side and causing it to convulse. My own hands begin to burn despite it being my own conjured lightning but I keep the channel up. The ice inside me begins to branch out into barbed spikes, cutting deeper into my vital organs.

Coughing up blood, Colt calls out to me in fear but is forced to protect Erika and Becky from an icy assault.

After the attack, Becky dashes out from Colt’s wind shield, unperturbed by the ice and scores a deep gash across the fish’s body.

It regains some of its senses after that and shakes off my lightning attack, diving into the ice once more. Trying to strike it again, my lightning simply bounces off of the ice harmlessly.

‘It’s bleeding now though…’ Using Hemomancy, I attempt to control the blood outside of the fish’s body to some degree of success. My new combination of Plot Course and Scan Pulse helps me locate the fish to do this. Wrapping it in tendrils of its own blood, I tug hard.

Slowly but surely, I’m able to begin pulling the fish up to the surface once more. It takes all of my concentration to do this, however, and smaller, less controlled icicles stab through my body.

Pumping MP into HP with Spellbound Physique, I stave off the worst of the damage as my mana pool plummets.

Finally, with one great tug and most of the remainder of my mana, I bring the fish up from the ice. Colt is ready this time and a sheet of wind covers it from below so it can’t dive back down.

Caleb and Becky dash in together with Kayla and Cassandra working to keep ice attacks off of them from behind, they slice at the fish. It takes several cuts, but they finally cut off its head, ending its life.

The ice inside me weakens, losing its empowerment, but I’m still speared up in the air by it, unable to move from the number of spikes piercing my body and limbs.

A wire lashes out, cutting all the spikes from under me. As I fall to the ground, a soft gust of wind catches me and slowly lowers me down. I hear some people going to tend to Pierce as well, from the sound of it he’s badly wounded as well, he has less Endurance than me after all.

Glass meets my lips and I try my best to drink whatever is offered to me despite all of the internal damage inside me.

It takes a while and a lot of fussing from everyone around me, but I stabilize and am able to sit up once more.

Assuring everyone I’m fine, I check my notifications and begin Pranic Breathing to restore my near-zero resources combined with Promethean to stop my internal bleeding.

Level up! For using your Anchorist Skills in a supportive fashion and gaining a new Fusion Skill as well as upgrading your Plot Course skill at level 100, your Talent: Adept Anchorist has reached (23/50)!

Level up! For creatively using your magical control, your Talent: Adept Mage has reached (9/50)!

Level up! Cold resistance has reached (3/100)!

Level up! Conductivity resistance has reached (2/100)!

Level up! Piercing resistance has reached (4/100)!

Congratulations, Lucas Creo! By reaching level 100 with your Skill: Plot Course and finding its innate synergy with your Skill: Scan Pulse, your Skill: Plot Course has fused with the Skill: Scan Pulse to become the Skill: Chart Course!

Gelvelinus defeated! 3514 XP awarded!

Gelvelinus dropped: 57 Sparks, 57 Glints, and Frozenforce Ice.

Level up! You have achieved level 26, you are awarded 5 unallocated stat points, +80 HP, +130 MP, +2.8 HP regen, +4.8 MP regen, +34 Strength, +51 Endurance, +26 Dexterity, +60 Intelligence, +55 Attunement, +48 Willpower, +16 Charisma, and +38 Insight. 3064/11902 remaining until level 27.

For reaching your third stat milestone in Intelligence, you have gained 10% Magic Penetration!

‘Huh. I guess I didn’t count for much of the kill credit. Or it’s just split between so many people the XP is just really low. I forgot about the Intelligence milestone. Colt got that a week ago. Well, I certainly won’t complain about piercing 10% of magic resistances. Doesn’t work for mental spells though, maybe that’s the Willpower bonus… mental resistances came from it, after all.’ Fact-checking myself, I find my memory to be correct.

‘Not a bad bonus to have, it’s free damage after all. Anyway, I wonder what this ice does.’ Taking it out of my hold, I Inspect the slab of perfectly clear ice.

Frozenforce Ice

Quality: Excellent

Traits: Frozen Force

Description: This chunk of ice is frozen by magic, making it nearly impossible to melt. Its innate properties cancel out forces that impact it, making it incredibly hard to shatter as well.

‘I wonder if I could smith this… It cancels out force but maybe I could chisel it into a weapon. Something to ask Ilmarinen about.’

Standing up once I’m feeling better, I go over to check on everyone else. Pierce is feeling better as well, though a bit less used to heavy bodily injury than me.

Becky and Caleb are inspecting the giant trout corpse. They have some fish meat in preservation paper. ‘Becky must be arguing with Caleb to cook it right now. Perhaps I won’t get involved…’

A sudden gasp from Becky grabs my attention, however, and I turn around. Inside the fish’s stomach, now that whatever magic was making its body appear to be made of ice is gone, is a set of human clothing.

“Oh god, the dungeon scout.”