When Jayce thought about a dungeon that spanned thousands of kilometers, he expected a naturally generated version of the Fragmented Ruins’ mazes. However, the Frozen Expanse wasn’t maze-like at all. Granted, the immediate entrance was a wide and twisting tunnel that spiraled downwards, but in less than a hundred meters it opened up into a vast forest. There were no trees in this forest. Instead, there were towering pillars of ice that connected to the cave’s ceiling like stalagmite-stalactite columns. Some of them were filled with holes and appeared hollow. Others were covered in various kinds of ice-encrusted flora. There were also pillars that bent and grew into each other, forming a strange canopy of ice in mid-air. Blue light flowed through these pillars like glowing veins, so the dungeon was almost annoyingly bright.

Jayce was very curious what kind of aspects existed in the air here, but he didn’t have time to stop and check.

The dungeon was also brutally cold. Mist filled the forest, preventing Jayce from seeing too far ahead. This mist carried tiny ice crystals that stuck to his body and sapped his warmth. Jayce felt pain just from breathing in such a place. Fortunately, Jayce had a solution to this problem. His expensive clothes were decent protection, but the soulfire in his chest was a true cheat item. By controlling the flame and bringing out regular pulses of heat, Jayce was able to stave off the cold. Not only was this necessary, it was also a way to practice controlling the flame. He had joked about weight training earlier, but this supernatural exercise was very good for him.

What wasn’t good was his current position within the group. After giving him the backpack and string-drawn sack, Weiss didn’t pay much attention to him. Normally the weakest member of a party would be protected in the middle of everyone, but Jayce was standing at the edge of their formation. Or rather, the jotun were in their own formation while Jayce was outside it. Aside from controlling the soulfire, all of Jayce’s attention was focused on detecting threats. If he saw a monster, Jayce resolved to shamelessly run behind the nearest jotun for protection. Just because he didn’t trust them didn’t mean he was suicidal enough to fight level 20+ monsters on his own.

So far, they had passed by a few pillars without seeing a single monster. This part of the dungeon was supposedly full to the point of becoming a hazard, so he wasn’t sure why it was so quiet and empty. Jayce didn’t learn the reason until the party found a monster five minutes into their hunt.

“Icewind snake. 10 meters ahead, 15 degrees.”

By the time Weiss’s frosty voice reached his ears, her team was already moving. A ‘vine’ curled around one of the ice pillars twitched as it sensed aggression, and a localized breeze suddenly picked up as the vine climbed higher to escape. One of the female jotun thrust out her palm and a rune flashed on the surface of her skin. Following that, the air around the crystalline snake solidified into a viscous substance. The snake’s movements were slowed drastically, giving the male jotun beside Froker a chance to throw one of his small hatchets. The hatchet chopped through the two-meter python without much resistance. Afterwards, the weapon lurched and flew back to its owner like a fish on a reel.

‘A Marksman and…I think that woman is a Flow Controller.’

Back in the Fragmented Ruins, Mize had given Jayce a primer on the five basic classes that anyone could obtain. She didn’t want him to be caught off guard by an enemy slave’s abilities, but her teaching wasn’t very thorough. Mize mostly talked about whatever she thought was interesting and had promised to give him a proper lesson before the death matches began. With his fragmented knowledge, Jayce could only infer so much.

“Scuttler. 10 meters ahead, 60 degrees.”

“Ice water construct. 15 meters ahead, 270 degrees.”

Two sets of observations came simultaneously. One was casually thrown out by Weiss while the other was from the woman in the center of their formation. This woman held a rubix-cube like object with glowing purple veins in two of her four hands and her focus frequently swapped between the cube and an artifact that was floating directly above the team. This meter-long artifact had two pointed ends and a wide band around its middle. It looked a lot like a spinning top. Jayce had no idea what it was for, but he was very interested in it.

After Weiss and the woman in the center spoke, the rest of the jotun split and attacked both targets. The scuttler, a half-meter long crustacean that answered the question ‘what would happen if you gave a starfish armor?’, had its seemingly tough carapace pierced by a hatchet whose blade glowed with mana. It had been camouflaged at the bottom of an ice pillar, but it could only make a brief attempt to escape before being pinned by the hatchet and crushed under Froker’s war hammer.

Meanwhile, a slime made out of icy blue water was trapped when the surrounding air turned solid. The fourth woman, who had given her backpack to Jayce, flashed toward the slime at incredible speed. Wielding a spear with an axe blade bolted onto it, she pierced the slime’s translucent core in a single blow.

‘The woman with the halberd is either a Warrior or a Trickster. Froker is a Warrior. The woman with the cube is a Tool Specialist. They have a very balanced team.’

From what Jayce knew, there were five basic classes—Warrior, Marksman, Trickster, Tool Specialist and Flow Controller. Low-level classes were very broad and these five covered all the most basic means of combat in the Upper Bound. Warriors had powerful bodies and focused on close combat. Marksmen enhanced their bodies and weapons with mana and focused on ranged combat. Tricksters guided the enemy’s attention and preempted their movements; it was a class that focused on their opponent rather than their own methods. Tool Specialists didn’t focus on their opponent or their methods. Instead, they strove to draw out the potential of the tools they wielded. These tools were usually artifacts, but they could also be poisons or other things. As for Flow Controllers, Jayce’s understanding was very limited.

In the Upper Bound, ‘flow’ was a general term for the phenomenon of mana affecting reality. Jayce knew that Marin’s runes guiding mana to make a fork light up was an example of flow. Him using his class ability to condense mana into acceleration tags was another example. Flow Controllers used mana externally to control the world around them, but it was all wizardry to Jayce.

“Porter, stop gawking and get to work.” Froker, who had just returned from smashing the scuttler, admonished Jayce.

When Jayce walked past Froker to collect the corpse, a brawny hand swatted down on his head and sent him tumbling to the ground.

“That wake you up? Get to it.”

Gritting his teeth, Jayce didn’t say anything or glare at Froker. He picked himself up and quickly went to grab the monsters before the group moved on without him. Approaching the scuttler, Jayce wasn’t sure what to do. If he collected the entire body, it wouldn’t take long before he exhausted himself under a mountain of corpses.

“Hurry up and cut out the talisman.” Weiss barked. She didn’t turn to look at Jayce and was instead focused on finding other threats.

‘The what?’

“Leader, I don’t think he’s been inside a dungeon before.” The cube-holding Tool Specialist spoke up. “Kid, when a monster dies, the aspects inside them will congregate in a random part of their body. This is called a talisman and it’s the most valuable part of a monster. Even if you can’t see the aspects, you’ll be able to find the talisman by sweeping the corpse with your mental energy.”

Hearing this, Jayce once again felt a strong desire to visit Snowdrift’s library. Mize had only taught him things that she felt he needed to know and so his knowledge of the Upper Bound was far too shallow.

Touching the scuttler, Jayce sent his mental energy inside it and noticed that one of its many legs felt ‘heavier’ than the others. It was a queer feeling, but Jayce was certain that this leg was special. Activating Bloodrage, Jayce placed one foot on the monster and pulled its leg with both hands. Just like a crab leg, it was torn off fairly easily after some twisting. Jayce placed it in his backpack and rushed to do the same with the crystal snake and ice slime.

On the way, Jayce thought about how strange this situation was. This region of the Frozen Expanse could produce monsters up to level 40, but the first ones they had found were likely below level 20. They were all ambush predators, too. It made sense that the weakest monsters in this dungeon were stealthy, but where were the stronger monsters?

He retrieved the icewind snake without any trouble, but when he reached the slime, Weiss suddenly spoke.

“Kobolds. 15 meters, 270 degrees. They took the bait.”

“A party of 12.” The Tool Specialist amended.

Jayce froze. Wasn’t that his position?

He looked up and saw that the mist ahead of him was much thicker than usual. A grey-furred hand shot out of the swirling white wall and four gnarled fingers gripped Jayce’s arm. That grip was so powerful that it immediately cracked his barrier. A doglike snout followed the arm, revealing a furry face filled with hunger and malice. With a vicious tug, Jayce was pulled deeper into the mist.

Quickly activating Bloodrage and Keen Eyes, Jayce tried in vain to escape. The kobold was much stronger than him and it didn’t even stop to attack, only trying to drag him further away from help. Within the mist, Jayce saw several other kobolds. They were short, stocky creatures less than 1.5 meters tall and their naked bodies were covered in rough grey fur. Jayce had seen some intelligence in his captor’s eyes, but he doubted they were sentient. To him, it looked more like they were wolves following an instinctual hunting strategy.

Jayce heard growls and pitiful yelps behind him as Weiss’s team burst onto the scene. Unfortunately, it seemed their priority was preventing these kobolds from escaping, not helping Jayce. These monsters were intelligent enough to hide from the more powerful jotun and they would certainly scatter once things went sour.

The kobold carrying Jayce ran quite quickly on its stubby legs. Even though Jayce wanted to escape Weiss’s party, he couldn’t let himself get dragged any further. Spirit Nail appeared in his free hand and he fired at his aggressor as quickly as the weapon could handle. Slowing down, the kobold realized Jayce was attacking it and snarled. Jayce heard a cracking sound as the kobold’s vice grip on his arm tightened. A wave of pain assaulted his mind before it was swiftly stifled by his Bloodrage ability. By the time the kobold used his arm to fling him to the ground, Jayce had shot five nails into it.

Despite being slowed, the kobold’s strength hadn’t dropped at all. It raised its two arms above its head, causing the hairs on Jayce’s neck to stand up. He hurriedly dodged as it pulverized the icy ground he’d been lying on, creating noticeable cracks in the earth.

Putting away spirit nail, Jayce glanced around and saw that no one in Weiss’s party was looking at him. It was likely that they were leaving him alone on purpose. Jayce’s lips split in a predatory grin as he summoned Tiny Hammer from his storage. Before the greatly slowed kobold could right itself, Jayce pressed the short and fat pistol into its head and fired. The kobold’s fur greatly muffled the sound of bullets exploding on its body. Tiny Hammer was a weapon at the lowest grade, but its polished status meant that it could perform beyond its user’s level. On top of that, it sacrificed the most valuable feature of a gun—its range—to raise its power to incredible heights. Jayce didn’t know what this kobold’s level was, but even if it was above level 20, its unarmored head wouldn’t be able to take Tiny Hammer’s six bullets at point blank range.

As he’d expected, the kobold’s head exploded in a mess of gore.

Bloodrager has reached level 12.

Quickly storing the weapon and the corpse, Jayce looked warily at Weiss’s party. The jotun weren’t having any trouble with the kobolds, but they still didn’t have time to observe Jayce. Even the Tool Specialist was focusing carefully. She was firing a pistol with one hand while managing the cube with two others. The floating top above her was spinning rapidly, but it didn’t seem to be attacking. As for why this powerful party had their hands full with a group of kobolds, it was because they weren’t trying to kill them. Weiss’s team only killed a few of the kobolds and were now herding the others into a circle. Frenzied howls came from the bloodied monsters, drawing more kobolds out of their hiding spots. By the time they finished, there were over thirty kobold corpses on the dungeon floor.

Seeing this gory scene, Jayce once again felt helpless. These jotun were too strong for this dungeon. Unless something unexpected happened, he wouldn’t be able to get away.

As he walked over to rejoin the group, Jayce made the mistake of deactivating Bloodrage. Pain spiked through his left arm and lower back, making him stumble and fall to the ground. As expected, his arm was broken.

“Oh, you’re still alive.” Weiss observed calmly. When they saw that she wasn’t going to help Jayce, the other jotun didn’t move either.

With Bloodrage, Jayce was able to stand again. He shuffled over to the group but quickly dodged when Froker aimed a kick at his chest.

“If you’re still alive then get to work.” He grinned, licking his lips. “If you can’t, then I’m just going to keep you around as a punching bag.”

Froker expected Jayce to bow his head or shiver in fear, preferably both. Instead, he was surprised to see two blood red eyes glaring at him, each filled with venomous hatred. Under the effects of Bloodrage, Jayce wasn’t able to tolerate that kind of abuse. The red veins under Froker’s skin bulged and a mad look entered his eyes. He took a heavy step forward, only to blanch when he was stopped by Weiss’s steely grip. Compared to the kobold that had grabbed Jayce, Weiss’s hands were far more terrifying.

“You don’t decide what we do.” Her voice caused the freezing temperature to drop another few degrees.

Froker was silent for a few seconds before he nodded and stepped back. After that, it was the Tool Specialist who spoke up.

“Leader, I think we should give him some medicine.”

“Why? It’s a waste.”

“He won’t be able to follow us with that kind of injury. If we leave him to die, those villagers aren’t going to let us leave safely.”

Froker and the other male jotun snorted dismissively. “Who cares what they think? It’s a village full of spineless mutts.”

“We already forced them out of the dungeon.” The Tool Specialist didn’t back down. “How do we benefit from antagonizing them any further?”

There was a period of silence. No one else offered their opinions as they waited for Weiss to have the last word.

“Fine, treat him. If he dies while we’re fighting, then it can’t be helped. But we shouldn’t bring ourselves unnecessary problems.”

The Tool Specialist smiled and handed a pill to Jayce. With thin translucent skin covering a light brown liquid, it reminded Jayce of the healing pill that Erilin had once given him. As he swallowed it, Jayce noticed that the effect wasn’t nearly as powerful as Erilin’s. It quickly dulled the pain and helped him recover some vital energy, but the actual healing effect was very limited. Jayce still couldn’t use his left arm.

“Also, use this to cut out talismans and mana cores.” She said, handing him a serrated knife. Though, since it was made for jotun, it was more like a long dagger.

“Thanks.” Jayce replied in a weary tone. If not for his upgraded vital energy, he would have needed to take a rest after this episode.

“Thank me by helping us clear this place out so we can advance.”

Nodding, Jayce turned and started collecting talismans from the dead kobolds. As he worked, he wondered what this party’s objective was. If they just wanted to visit the dungeon, there should be hundreds of entrances all over their kingdom. From the Tool Specialist’s words, it sounded like they didn’t want any of the villagers to come in here, which was the real reason why Weiss had been so unreasonable earlier.

‘Is there some kind of treasure here?’

Jayce glanced at Weiss and narrowed his eyes. It seemed like her party was here to collect something valuable in the dungeon, but he wondered about her personal objective. The other jotun either wanted to avoid trouble or were ambivalent towards it, but Jayce felt Weiss was trying to cause an incident. Otherwise, why would she continue arguing about compensation when Soest and the others were already leaving?

Shaking his head, Jayce turned his thoughts back to the work in front of him. As long as most of the jotun didn’t want him dead, that was good news.