Chapter 12 The cold dark

Crackling sounds stirred me, accompanied by a warmth that settled over my cold and hurting form. The mere thoughts of the aches in my body, amplified them all of a sudden. I groaned and rolled over on what was clearly a very hard surface. With some effort, my eyes fluttered opened.

A starry sky glittered above me. Must be the Star Pools, I sighed.

I tried to sit up, but the pain in my body made me cringe and fall back down.

“I wouldn’t move as quickly if I were you.” A quirky voice said from my side.

Within seconds, I was on my one knee in as best a fighting posture as I could manage.

From behind a fire, a cloaked woman laid on her side with her one hand propping up her head. She stared at me. Her actions pronounced an air of unworried confidence sprinkled with a pinch of laziness. My senses brought of zero intent to hurt me, so I shifted my gaze around to my location.

It was the same ruins where I went down, where I battled the Giant Frost Sabre-Tooth.

Remembering it, I frantically glanced around, then hurriedly said,

“I don’t know who you are, but we can’t stay here. There is a—”

“The Giant Sabre-Tooth? Oh! So dangerous!” She giggled

“Yeah, but I’m serious.” I said and looked at the woman and she flicked her head pointing behind me.

“Take a look.”

Her aloof nature considering all things confused me slightly. Still, I humoured her, glanced back, and almost fell on my butt.

There, not two metres from me, was the tiger. Very much dead, it had a ferocious look on its face, like it was just about to bite. Frost and snow covered it.

“Whoa! You killed it?” I exclaimed with sincere admiration.

The mysterious woman rolled onto her back and looked at me upside down in surprise, which doubly caught me off guard.

For a moment I thought she didn’t understand me and was about to ask again, when she said,

“Ya know, I thought you did. I heard this crazzzy commotion and stealthily came to see what was going on when I saw you drop and that tiger slowly walking to you before it fell over and stopped moving.”

I gulped.

Then, I looked up to my UI and saw a lot of notifications. It couldn’t be. I tapped the first one.

Warning! Get warmed up! Unconsciousness because of exposure will strike at 1 health left.

I expected that one. So I tapped the second one.

Defeated a Giant Frost Sabre-Tooth - Level 44

XP gained 24400

Level up! x10

[Master of improvisation! Kill a dangerous foe you could not possibly kill with your weapons, using only your wit and the environment around you]

+2 Willpower

+2 Luck

+1 Agility

+1 Acrobatics

+1 Endurance

+1 Survival

Skill gained!

Battle Observer I [Expert]

You know how to keep focused even in a chaotic battle that seems lost. Instead of falling prey to a negative mindset, you think fast and observe your surroundings, revealing solutions most would never notice.

+10 Perception while in battle.

+5 Insight while in battle.

+30% to reveal objects that can be used to fight.

First to unlock Battle Observer I!

Bonus Calculating. . .

. . .

Strength +3

Willpower +2

XP gained 1000

Level up!

I have never heard any player having that skill. But, I didn’t feel like celebrating the victory. It was obvious what led to the Sabre-Tooth’s death. It had fallen in that frozen pool at the bottom of the waterfall and its exposure had dropped to almost completely zero before I had thrown that rock to cover it in snow, finishing it. What was glaringly obvious, it was pure dumb luck. Yet, my blind actions did cause a set of events, even with the luck involved.

Ignoring my level up tab for now, I looked at the woman grinning at me for what reason I could not imagine. The fire caught my attention then. It was the sole reason why I didn’t kick the bucket too. My shoulders sagged and I said,

“Thank you for saving me. Can I inquire as to your name?”

She smirked under her maroon and dark green hood, and then her hands lifted it back to reveal bountiful locks of auburn hair and orange tinted hazel eyes.

“Zalia.” She said with a face I couldn’t quite place. “I saw you turning blue and couldn’t just stand by to see you go down after facing off against such a great monster. We tend to go to great lengths to avoid encounters with those.”

She pointed at the Sabre-Tooth and wiggled her nose. I could only shrug.

“It ambushed me while I was getting water. I had little chance to avoid it. My name is Wil just so you know.”

“Wil? A will to survive I’d say. I have need of such an ability.”

I chuckled as I crossed my legs and stared at the fire.

“Why would that be? To be in this zone alone means you have to be more capable than me.”

She tilted her head further than one would expect in a conversation.

“Ah no! We are sneaky and so we survive alongside these terrible beasties. I wouldn’t stand a chance against one ya know.”

Again, the way she talked surprised me. I couldn’t quite place the accent. But, it hardly mattered. I was just glad I met someone else after all that scrambling to survive. Still, it did make me curious to what quest she would be on. She kept talking about ‘we’, it just made it more likely she was with a party trying to tackle an area with quite a few levels advantage above them.

“Okay, colour me intrigued by your request of needing my help. What would it be?”

She grinned and nodded like she was chuffed. A smile tugged at my lips. She was clearly my age, but her mannerism was fun and to be honest cute.

“There is an old story in this place.” She said with a sudden seriousness, and the way her face looked out into the night with a deep yearning made me stay silent as I waited for her to continue.

“This story speaks over and over of a time when blizzards did not rule this land. When the snows were tamed to winter only. It speaks of the mountain passes not being impassable due to the raging storms. It says we were once travellers of the world! Bringing back relics and mysteries from far and wide. I look at the ruins of these lost cities now and only see an echo of the past. Yet, though I know what cataclysm brought this on us, we do not have the strength to go to the mourning king, to go free our people of this ever frost.”

As she said the last, she sighed with a heaviness that tugged at my heart. It was then that her words started to pull up numerous oddities. I did not know of a player that talked that way. Yet...

“I had hope adventurers would make it here, like in the books that spoke of the lands out there. Where adventurers took on the dangers of the world when the people did not have the strength, or solved the mysteries of the world for no other reason than excitement of what could be found. For that reason, when the blue sapphire streaked across the sky and landed somewhere in the frozen wilderness, my heart soared with a spark that adventurers would find their way through the Stormlands, to find us. Yet, I watched from the cloudless mountain, with my father’s far seeing eye as adventurer after adventurer succumbed to the ferocity of the storms before turning back. So, Wil, you getting through when so many others had failed or given up, that is why I couldn’t just watch you die so close to being able to help us.”

My heart started hammering in my chest.

No way, was she an NPC? Everything about her words right now was one that likened her to an NPC. But, she was asking me of help and there was no yellow exclamation mark above her head. Without thinking, I blurted,

“Are you asking me to accept this quest?”

She nodded and my eyes stared intently above her head. Yet, no sign showed of anything that normally happens when a quest is given by an NPC. Still... everything pointed to it. I wanted to cry out and ask her the question you do not ask other players, but the words didn’t want to come out. Are you an adventurer Zalia?

My eyes dropped to hers and they became soft as a gentle smile spread her lips.

“I will share our hope our quest with you, and if you accept I can’t begin to describe my gratitude.”

I could barely move my mouth as I stared at her. Then, she held her hand to her heart and a glow filled her palm.

What was that?!

The breath caught in my throat as she held this orb of gentle dancing energy out towards me.

It enchanted me. The only word that came to my mind was beautiful. There was something completely different than anything I had ever seen in it. But even through its beauty, confusion raged in me. I didn’t understand what was going on. As if compelled, I lifted my hand and touched the orb.

Sparks flashed and the orb entered my hand. The strangest of sensations filled me. Understanding.

A flood of emotions embraced me. I looked up at the soft, yet sad smile of Zalia. The desperation to be set free of their isolated life in the ringed off mountains, swept through me like a tsunami. I felt her heartbreaking sadness of those who had tried to leave through the raging storms, some of them her friends. How she had watched how the snow consumed each and every one of them. They only continued in memory as their bodies disappeared in the chaotic blizzards, to be forgotten. I felt her anger at her own lack of strength as she tried to enter the place where the secret to their plight lies. How she failed again and again.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as I looked behind her aloof playfulness and saw her sadness and hope. That hope, that nothing could take away from her.

“Now you know.” She said softly.

I nodded, unable to stem the flow of my tears even though trying to.

“I accept this quest.” I said hoarsely. But I have never felt as motivated to take on any quest like I did with this one. It almost felt personal.

“Good. Now rest. You need it.” She said suddenly with her playful smile again.

I chuckled, but said,

“You are right. Though, I do want to do some things first.”

She shrugged and settled against a pillar, dropping her hood over her eyes.

“Suit yourself.” She said with a yawn.

Turning away from her, I looked to the Sabre-Tooth, still not believing how I had survived that encounter. Approaching it, I gripped the hilt of my embedded skinning knife and pulled it out. I sighed in relief at getting it back. It was a crazy idea to lose your knife in a zone like this. Next, I grabbed what was left of my spear. It only had about thirty centimetres left of wood behind the sharp point. Though, it could still prove useful.

I took a deep breath at what I needed to do next. I levelled the skinning knife at the Sabre-Tooth and sunk it into the thing. The last thing I wanted to do was skin it when it was rock solid by the time it became morning. Better I do it while it still had some warmth left after it kicked the bucket.

I soldiered through the first phase of doing it without the system assisting like normal. Reason being, it was the quickest way to gain the skill Skin without finding a trainer. Not as if I was anywhere close to a trainer out here, it mattered little.

Holding the knife as steady as I could and making sure not to damage the pelt at all I was hoping that having observed the game’s way of skinning for such a long period of time, I wanted to gain a higher grade of the skill. Well that was my hope anyway.

Three quarters up the leg my hand started shaking with the effort, sweat starting dripping down my face, yet still I went on.

At the end of shoulder, a ping almost made me cut through a section I was hoping to preserve.

Skill gained!

Skin Monster V [Journeyman]

Having practised the art of skinning a monster’s pelt, you have gained an ingrained understanding into how to preserve the more sought after sections of it and the ease of separating the pelt from the monster’s body has also become almost second nature.

100% to preserve basic parts of the pelt

100% to preserve average parts of the pelt

80% to preserve great parts of the pelt

20% to preserve exquisite parts of the pelt

1% to preserve rare parts of the pelt

I whooped! It was a level above the one I had before. It was good news. With it gained, I said, “Skin Monster.”

The second I did, my skinning knife took on a life of its own as it guided my hand through skinning the Sabre-Tooth tiger. It wasn’t going to look pretty afterwards with the body, but I needed the pelt. I was done with being near freezing the entire time.

It took the better part of five minutes before I pulled free the entire thing from the very large creature. As I tugged, I realized my exposure bar was taking a nose dive. It was night and I was outside the warmth of the fire. What was more I didn’t have the raw strength to move such an enormous pelt closer to the heat source, it was more than three times my length!

I stood there pondering what to do, when I remembered me levelling up. I tapped my status icon.

Wil Stormchild

Race: Norskai

Level: 6+

________ [Primary Class][Search for a main class tree in game.]

________ [Secondary Class][Explore and find your first sub class tree in the world]

Health: 37/85

Energy Bar: 80 [Tier 0 accessible]

Armor Class: 12 (+1>Boots)

Tapping the plus, it went up. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Whoa. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. That was crazy! That Giant Frost Sabre-Tooth had some serious XP to be gained from it. Taking that even at level 20 it would kill my butt without blinking, I could understand why the game awarded that much XP for a level 6 player. I shook my head, I would take any help I could get.

Wil Stormchild

Race: Norskai

Level: 17

________ [Primary Class][Search for a main class tree in game.]

________ [Secondary Class][Explore and find your first sub class tree in the world]

Health: 85 +110

Energy Bar: 80 +110 [Tier 1 accessible]

Armor Class: 34 (+1>Boots)

While I was in my status menu, I considered my attributes as well. I didn’t want to end up being at that kind mercy to the environment again.

[Attributes]

Choose the Attributes you wish to increase. This will affect your character.

[Points to allocate= 33]

Strength 18

Vitality 15

Agility 12

Willpower 17

Intelligence 10

Acrobatics 12

Luck 15

[Race Attributes]

...

Endurance 2

Survival 5

If I go in strength, I could deal extra damage with my weapons, making an actual difference. But, the previous fight made it certain I wasn’t mobile enough to stay out of the worst of the melee attacks that were levelled my way. A hard choice, no matter how I looked at it. I did need the strength to be able to pull the pelt closer to the fire. That was a given. The rest made me scratch my head. In all my time with Realm of Ancients, I never levelled more than five levels at a time. Even having gone up by 5 with the Dire Ermines were far outside the norm. Going up by 11 gave a lot of attribute points, but unlike my usual thinking, that it would be awesome, it was still complicated. Shrugging, I started the process.

[Attributes]

Choose the Attributes you wish to increase. This will affect your character.

[Points to allocate= 1]

Strength 30

Vitality 22

Agility 16

Willpower 17

Intelligence 11

Acrobatics 17

Luck 15

[Race Attributes]

...

Endurance 3

Survival 7

I blew out a breath. That took some hefty consideration. I was tempted to add my last point as well. But, it would be nice if I needed something specific and didn’t have the time to get a level.

As I closed my status another message popped up, making me frown. I tapped it.

You reached level 10! You qualify to pick a skill to unlock.

Class skill= Not Qualified

Sub-Class skill= Not Qualified

Racial skill= Qualified > Available 3

[1] Gale Sense I [Novice]

Having grown accustomed to the constant noise of the gushing wind in their home country, the Norskai have gained the ability to sense other movement close by in the wind.

+10% to sense movement in the wind.

[2] Cold Endurance I [Novice]

Years of enduring the harsh cold, has given the Norskai the ability to remain outside for longer.

-10% effect of exposure

[3] Spark I [Novice]

All Norskai know the story of the boy who saved his family by making a fire when their only chance to do so was lost. You have remembered the way to create a spark with unlikely materials.

-Can create a spark capable of starting a fire using most types of rocks and metal

I raised an eyebrow. That was different. My selection for racial skills at level 10 was different last time. Not that I chose a racial ability that time, because actually had a class way before I reached the point!

Remembering it just amped up my frustration of not having a class 12 levels after 99% of all players would get their class; and that 1% was only two or three levels later. I might be the only person ever to go past level 8 without a class. A sighed escaped me, but I pushed it to the side.

The skills available this time were quite useful in my situation. In fact, all of them were very useful. With Spark, I could have made a fire after my fight with the Sabre-Tooth. If Zalia hadn’t showed up, it would without a doubt have killed me not being able to without my skinning knife. Cold Endurance could give me extra staying power in a fight when exposure was high. And Gale sense was an interesting one, with it I might have sensed the Sabre-Tooth before it even came close to striking distance, giving me valuable time. That first day I would have probably chosen differently, but the levels I gained gave me more of a chance. Regardless of that fact, those skills could be gained if certain criteria are met. That meant, I just had to choose one that helps me the most right now.

I tapped Gale Sense I. There were too many high-levelled monsters in this zone. I needed to be able to know when things approached that wanted to eat me.

Exiting my final notifications, I grabbed the huge pelt and dragged it towards the fire. It was heavy, but at least it budged under my new strength. I got to the warmth of the fire, and just in time as my exposure bar was very nearly empty.

Sitting down, I pulled out strips I had left from the forest. I still had a pocket full of the stuff. Slowly I planned my next move and checked where the basic parts and the greater parts of the pelt were. Winter clothes here I come!

“Yosh!” I huffed and started experimenting with the more basic material to level up my crafting before I handled the better stuff. I looked to a sleeping Zalia and paused.

“I wonder what I got myself into here.”

The truth was. So much handled differently and I couldn’t pinpoint why. I still didn’t know if Zalia was a player or not. Most likely she wasn’t, but if she was, what would that mean?

The most worrying thing she said was that with the Sapphire Comet had renewed her hope for adventurers to find this place. It meant that this zone had been undiscovered even before the Sapphire Comet expansion. We had thought, it was just a cool light show that came with the expansion, the real features were new classes, new dungeons and new spire sieges. Yet, now it was clear it was meant to show the way to a hidden hard to reach zone. This was behind the Stormlands and that was a problem. I needed to get past it to start my real journey to the heart of the world.

I just had to stab that bear.

But, now I had found a whole zone with its own quests that has never been discovered. The developers really know how to keep stuff secret of the game. I face palmed myself. I’m a dev too! Yet, I only paid attention to what I wanted to and now it was biting me in the bum.

Well, I was here now, and that quest might be my only way out of this zone. All I could do now was hold onto a hope that was never my own.

I really just had to stab that bear!!!

“Mark my words Mr. Scary bear, I will be coming for my sword.”