Their breath turned to mist as they exhaled, walking endlessly through the Frozen Caverns. They encountered a few spiders, but nothing else as they turned around corridor after corridor. Every other turn seemed to lead to two or three more paths, and they found countless dead ends, but neither showed signs of wanting to give up.

Darith kept an eye on his map which was quickly turning into mixed lines and swirls. When it was getting too hard to read he suddenly gained a rank in Cartography which allowed it to show multiple levels. This only revealed how vast the area was though, as his map skill considered it to have 8 different floors. The tunnels lead them up ramps and down ramps, ice stairs and frozen ladders mixed in, but no signs of any ruins.

Two hours passed and they felt they hadn’t gotten any closer to finding Belle or the ruins, though they both gained a few ranks in their attack skills, Darith reaching rank 6 in Firebolt.

“You sure we aren’t walking in circles?” Aaron asked as they trudged along, being stuck in the caverns for over 3 hours now.

“I’m positive, according to the map we’re already at least an hours walk away from Mayiera.” Darith replied.

“I’m really tired of seeing white ice walls and torches.” Aaron sighed. “If this place was programmed into the game by someone, I hate that person.”

“Heh, it’s normal in games to have areas that take awhile to travel through. But this is a bit excessive... Ah! Stop!” Darith said, holding his hand out in front of Aaron beside him to stop his movement.

“What is it? You see something on your map?” Aaron asked excitedly.

“No, not the map, look at that wall up ahead.” Darith pointed at a large chunk of the ice wall sticking out.

“What is it?”

“I just saw it blink...” Darith replied as he and Aaron both cautiously stepped back.

“Mayeria did say that Gnark’s like to blend in with the wall... Let’s see. Analyze.” Aaron said, staring at the protruding piece of wall.

“Gnark, Level 9, 200 health, has a poison bite skill. You were right.”

“Level 9? We’re only level 5...”

“When I got the dungeon key from Mayeria it said the Frozen caverns was a level 1 to 9 area, so this is the highest possible monster we can find here, right?”

“Not necessarily, but it’d be close. Doesn’t seem like it knows we’ve seen it yet. Think we can both do 200 damage to it instantly, before it can attack? I can cast 8 firebolts from full mana to deal about 100 damage.” Darith said.

“I’ll multishot the rest when your cast is finished.” Aaron said.

“Firebolt.” Darith said quietly 8 times, and the 8 red circles formed over the course of 4 seconds. Once finished, they all shot out at the Gnark.

“Multishot!” Aaron shouted, 8 arrows shooting out and mixing with Darith’s fireballs, setting some of the arrows on fire. The Gnark couldn’t even react, the attacks all hit the icy creature and it fell off the wall dead, granting 25 experience to both of them and a notification, but they were distracted for the moment by the shape of the creature.

It had an Icy blue shell on its back with a single stinger above its crab-like mouth and bird like talons that had been dug into the wall. The shape of its shell was long and oval and it was rock gray on the stomach with a tiny transparent ice tail, crystal blue eyes and cat-like back legs. As it fell over dead it dropped two pieces of Gnark Shell Fragments on the ground.

“That thing looks weird.” Aaron commented.

“Definitely not a monster I’ve seen in any other game before.”

“Oh hey, check it out! I just learned a skill called Fire Arrow! It adds 5 fire damage to all of my arrow attacks but drains 5 mana! Thanks to your firebolt, no doubt!” Aaron said excitedly as Darith watched him press the buttons in the air in front of him.

Spell Gained: Fire Enchant(?)

“Hmm, I got a skill called Enchant.”

Fire Enchant Rank 1

Imbues an object with Fire. Adds FIRE damage to weapons, FIRE resist to armor. Does not work on flammable items.

Damage: 7.2 (5+10% of Int(2.2))

Resistance: 7.2 (5+10% of Int(2.2))

Cost: 25mp

Cast Time: Instant

Duration: 30s

Command: Fire Enchant (change)(?)

“Hopefully it works on my staff... Let’s see." Darith said, double checking the items he had equipped to see if any indicated it was flammable. "Looks like it works with the staff, but it’ll burn any of my armor pieces. That’s perfect! I can make my staff deal extra fire damage.” Darith said excitedly.

“You want one of these Gnark Fangs? He dropped two.” Aaron said as he reached to pick one up from the vanishing Gnark’s corpse.

“Sure.” Darith replied as he grabbed one as well.

“So we should be getting near the end of the Labryinth, right? I mean if we’re seeing level 9’s.” Aaron asked.

“That’s usually what it means in any normal game, but I really don’t have a clue.” Darith replied.

“Well we should keep going then!” He said excitedly as he quickly drank three energy potions from his bags to refill his bar somewhat.

“Alright.” Darith said, drinking three mana potions. He didn’t feel good about using potions outside of a battle, but he saw how badly Aaron wanted to keep moving and didn’t feel like getting left behind.

As they traveled on for the next hour they encountered more and more Gnark’s, treading carefully and making sure to kill them before they could attack. They also grabbed what frost berries they could find growing along the cave walls along the way just to be safe.

“Something... Something feels off.” Darith said as they continued on, Aaron having just hit level 6 from the Gnark slaying but Darith still a good 100 experience away.

“What do you mean?” Aaron asked as he glanced around.

“We’ve been walking these caves for hours now and it's been the same walls and turns over and over, but for some reason it's starting to look different, feel different.” Darith said, looking at the walls carefully.

“I get what you mean, it’s definitely starting to feel a lot colder, but...”

“We haven’t found any turns or alternate paths in at least 5 minutes according to the map. We’re walking straight, on a downward slope.” Darith said, glancing at his map.

“Ah, look!” Aaron pointed at the torches on the wall, and Darith could see now why the walls felt like they looked different. The torches were not still, they were blowing, a wind was coming from the direction they were walking.

“Wind? Does that mean we’re near the exit?” Aaron asked.

“Mayiera said the exit was behind her, and we’re travelling downward, deeper into the mountain. We’ve got to be miles from the surface...” Darith replied.

“Then, the ruins?” Aaron said excitedly.

“Only one way to find out.” Darith smiled and Aaron grinned back. The two picked up their pace through the tunnel as it began to narrow, but the wind started to get stronger and colder. They stopped seeing Gnarks, but the light got dim and frost began to form on their eyelids and hair from snow blowing at them.

“Let me try something...” Darith said as the wind began to whistle in their ears, howling from deeper down the tunnel. “Fire Enchant!” Darith said, holding out his staff. Sure enough the tip of the staff was suddenly surrounded by flames, as well as the bottom end. He held it out in front of himself so that the wind in front of them blew the heat of the flames back at him and kept him somewhat warm.

“My bow as well!” Aaron said as he held his bow out in front of his face.

“Fire Enchant!” Darith said while waving his hand at Aaron’s bow causing it to also gain fire around it. Using the same tactic as Darith to keep himself warm the two marched on against the frigid wind. The howling got louder and more fierce to the point that the two had to shout to hear each other, snow blinding their vision of the tunnel in front of them as the wind got so heavy it started to push against them. Darith glanced at the map to see they were walking downward on a very steep ramp now, but the wind pushed against them so hard that it prevented them from sliding down the icy floor and was rather pushing them back up.

“How much further!” Aaron shouted over the freezing winds.

“No idea!” Darith called back, but a few steps further they saw a bright light glowing in front of them behind the torrents of snow blowing in their faces. There was an opening in the cave a head, a large one at that. They pushed forward until they passed through an icy Archway into a gigantic open cavern, both moving to the side of the archway once through it so that they could lean against the wall of the cavern without having to fight against the wind to keep their footing.

“What in the heck is that.” Aaron said as they both moved their hands around their eyes to see better through the thick snow.

“I don’t know.” Darith said with his jaw dropped. “I’ve only seen things like this in video games.” They were standing on a ledge high up in the huge cavern, it was filled with snow being blown about by the wind coming from a giant set of ice doors at least 10 meters high that were opened wide on the far side of the cavern in front of them. The light that lit up the cave came from two large statues on either side of the door. The statues looked human in form, but they had distinguishable features that were different, the major one being fur manes around their necks and their hind legs resembling that of a cat, not too unlike the Gnarks back legs. In their hands were giant torches made of metal, their flames blazing furiously through the wind and melting any snow that dare come near. The snow was blowing out from the doors with the wind and it seemed there was an endless supply.

There was a steep icy staircase that lead from the ledge Darith and Aaron were standing on down to the floor of the cavern, but it was a long way down and parts of the staircase were broken, chipped away by the wind no doubt.

Quest Completed! Return to Mayeria

A pop up appeared for both of them.

“So this is then, huh? We found it.” Aaron said.

“Yeah, that’s the entrance to the Coldrinn ruins.” Darith said excitedly.

“Then this is the end of the Labryinth?” Aaron asked looking disheartened.

“Appears so...”

“And no sign of Belle, so maybe she isn’t in the cave anymore.” Aaron said as he looked down, a lost expression on his face.

“We didn’t check all the paths yet, there’s still quite a few left... Don’t give up yet!” Darith said to encourage him.

“Yeah, you’re right, I doubt she’d walk through this wind if she found it, she probably took a different path.” Aaron shrugged as he looked forward at the statues once more. “I mean... Wait, there! Do you see those?” Aaron said as he leaned his head forward with wide eyes, looking down to the base of the open doors.

“See what?” Darith asked, following his eyes to see large chunks of ice frozen just in front of the open doors. He squinted his eyes to try and see through the snow more clearly, and saw tiny red dots above the blocks of ice. “What are those? Are those...”

“Health bars. Are those NPC’s in those blocks of ice? Monsters? I can’t see from here! Analyze!” Aaron shouted, Darith turning to Aaron now to wait for his spell to finish casting.

“Robert, level 4, he has a status effect that says Frozen. His health is full though! Another, Lee, level 5. Jessica, Martin, Jose, Sun-yeong, Belle, level 8. Seriously? She’s there, Darith! She’s down there!” Aaron shouted as his face lit up with excitement. “We’ve got to get down there and help her!” He said, and without waiting he turned to the ice staircase and began running down it.

“Wait, Aaron!” Darith said, but Aaron didn’t listen. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this! I feel like I’m forgetting something important... Something about the Coldrinn ruins.” Darith shouted, but the wind was too loud, Aaron couldn’t hear him anymore. He let out a sigh, but not wanting to let Aaron go alone he followed after him down the icy stairs, running his mind over everything he had heard so far.

“Mayiera said the Coldrinn Ruins had something called a Core... The Frozen core, she was looking for it... Ancient civilization that went extinct. There were the Gnarks... What else!” Darith thought as he carefully stepped down the rigid and demented staircase, making his way down to the cave floor behind Aaron.

“Was it something she said or was it something else?” He said louder, this time so that Aaron could hear as he caught up to him slowly.

“I don’t know, that sounds about all she said. Do you think your Firebolts will be enough to break that Frozen effect on all those people there?” Aaron asked.

Warning: you are entering a hazard area. Without proper equipment you will take periodic frost damage.

A pop up appeared for both of them.

“Enchant! Enchant!” Darith shouted, causing both their weapons to glow. “Hopefully that’ll help a bit... Still, this is reckless. We don’t even know what froze them yet!” He shouted.

“I have to get to her, she’s right there!” Aaron pointed, they were now nearing the base of the Cavern and it felt even colder. Darith and Aaron desperately held their flaming weapons nearby to keep themselves warm, but he could tell it wouldn’t be enough as their health bars both dropped by 1 and they got a status effect.

Freezing Winds of the Core

The closer you get to the Frozen Core, the harsher the winds.

Deals FROST DAMAGE over time.

“We’ve got health pots but I don’t know, this seems a bit extreme for characters our level...” Darith said, then a memory flashed into his mind, an image from yesterday. He squinted his eyes to recall it properly as Aaron touched the cavern floor and ran forward through the winds towards the frozen players.

“The Frozen Caverns were levels 1 to 9, but the Coldrinn Ruins, it said something ridiculous. I didn’t pay attention to it at the time, but...” Darith said as he quickly opened Gate skill to see the Frozen Key details.

Frost Key: Allows Travel to the Frost Caverns

Frost Caverns: 1-9 (Dungeon)

Coldrinn Ruins: 160-200 (Dungeon)

Reading this, Darith’s eyes opened wide in shock, looking forward to see Aaron was already halfway across the cavern floor towards the frozen players.

“No, stop! AARON!” Darith shouted, but Aaron couldn’t hear him. “Damnit!” Darith yelled in frustration, running forward into the howling icy winds. He watched ahead of him as Aaron arrived at the blocks of ice and as fast as he could without using sprint he tried to catch up.

“She’s here Darith, it’s her! Try your Firebolt to melt the ice!” Aaron shouted excitedly, not noticing the shadow that appeared beneath his feet. Darith’s jaw dropped as he looked past Aaron to see the creature hovering above him.

Aaron saw Darith’s expression and followed his eyes, but his eyes never saw the creature. Before Aaron could fully turn his body, it froze solid from the icy breath of the thing towering over him. The ice turned his elvish skin blue and grew outward from him until he was in a block, just like the other players around him.

Ice Wraith - Level ??? - Health ???/???

No information Available

It had glowing blue eyes and silver steel shoulder pads, with pure white skin and a large mouth, but no lips. Its arms were muscular and its head void of any hair, it lacked feet and instead its torso dissipated into white snow at the waist as if it were a ghost. Because of this, it levitated in the air rather than walking, and Darith had seen it came from within the ruins. Once it had finished casting its Ice breath down on Aaron, it turned its head to Darith.

“ENCHANT!” Darith shouted to light his staff once more, looking to his mana and Energy and seeing he was missing 75 mana from casting enchant. He drank a mana potion, then quickly equipped Energy potions to his belt as he turned to run. “Sprint!” He shouted, feeling his legs speed up as he made for the staircase not far behind him. He glanced back to see the Ice Wraith drop to the floor of the cave and dig its white muscular fists into the floor to pull itself towards Darith faster, sending up chunks of the cave’s icy floor into the air as it did.

Darith felt his heart racing, but his mind remained calm, he was unable to panic thanks to his Gamer’s Mind skill. He could feel the ground tremor behind him as the freezing winds pushed at his back, his health already down to 130 because of the cold. He only had one thing on his mind, and that was to escape.

As he got to the stairs he turned back to see the Ice Wraith mere meters behind him. It lunged forward with its fist aimed directly at him, its fist alone was triple the size of Darith’s tiny Nemothyne body. Darith quickly jumped with everything he had, all the energy he could muster into his calf muscles to launch himself out of the path of the fist. He felt abnormally fast as he did it, barely avoiding the fist of the Wraith as it punched into the base of the ice staircase, shattering them.

You’ve gained the skill Dash(?)

Darith had no time to read it, he watched as his escape plan fell to the ground as tiny shards of ice, there was no way he could get up the staircase now that the Ice Wrath had broken so much of it.

“Firebolt!” Darith called out desperately as the Ice Wrath recovered from its punch into the wall, its fist having gotten lodged into the ice. It used its free hand to struggle violently, but the time it took was well over three seconds. Darith watched as his Firebolt flew from the red circle and hit the Ice Wrath, but it simply turned into a puff of white smoke and the Wraith didn’t even seem to notice it had been hit.

Once the Ice Wraith broke free it turned to Darith and opened its mouth wide revealing a black darkness within, he saw it do this same thing to Aaron, he knew what was coming.

“Dash!” Darith shouted, using all his muscle strength again to move to the side away from the cavern walls and back into the flurry of snow, just in time too as the Ice Breath released a stream of blue down where Darith had been standing, creating solid chunks of ice on the ground. Darith looked to see he had 10 Energy left and quickly drank an Energy potion as he ran, drinking his second moments later, and the Ice Wraith began its pursuit again by digging its fists into the ground to propel it along.

Darith glanced back to see it would catch up to him again, then looked to see how fast sprint was draining his energy, he had absolutely no chance against this creature and he knew it, he was not physically fit to keep running, his normal self would already be tired, exhausted....

“Through the pain!” Darith shouted as his energy hit zero, causing his body to glow bright yellow. “Dash! Dash! Dash! Dash! Dash!” Darith shouted repeatedly, forcing strength into his legs as they began to glow yellow as well and he watched his status.

Through the Pain - Immune to Exhaustion for 58 seconds

“I’ve got 58 seconds to get away from this thing.” Darith said as he used dash in combination with sprint to start putting a distance between himself and the Ice Wrath, but it continued its pursuit as he ran across the flat cavern. As he got further away it let out a horrendous screech and stopped charging. Darith turned back curiously to see several blue circles forming in front of the Ice Wraith, not unlike his Firebolt circles.

“A monster that casts spells. Great.” Darith said. “Dash, Dash!” He said again multiple times, trying to get further and further from the creature as giant sharp icicles began to form in front of the circles. Then in an instant they all shot forward at Darith with perfect accuracy. He used his dash to jump left twice, but the Ice Wraith redirected the ice to follow him.

Darith then turned and Dashed up, jumping up over the ice using his glowing yellow empowered legs, but the bolts didn’t simply fly past him into the cavern wall, they curved around and turned to keep chasing him. Darith glanced to see the Wraith moving its large hands to direct the chunks of ice.

“Changing their directions? Is that possible with higher spell mastery?” Darith said in disbelief. He watched as the bolts went in three separate directions and came at him from the front, left, and right. He used dash carefully to avoid them as he saw his Through the Pain timer ticking down to 30 seconds.

“I need an out now, fast.” He said, then using his calm mind he got an idea and started sprinting directly towards the Ice Wraith as it stood immobile while waving its hands, directing the three icicles to chase Darith from behind.

“Dash dash dash!” He shouted, making huge sudden leaps each time, barely keeping ahead of the icicles as they sped up behind him, until he arrived at the Ice Wraith. He then jumped a second time with all his might up to the stationary wraith, landing on its silver shoulder pad, then quickly rolling behind it causing the three icicles to hit the Ice Wraith, encasing it in transparent ice. Darith glanced back to see a status on Ice Wraith that had 9 seconds, he didn’t bother to read the name, he instead quickly began dashing from the Wraith back to the base of the stairs. His health now at 110, he knew he’d have to take a huge risk.

“Return!” Darith shouted, watching white circles form all around him. He had a 10 second cast to wait through and every second felt like an hour. He watched the status beside the Ice Wraith’s ???? Health bar tick down from 9. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... It broke out of the ice, then quickly spun around to glare at Darith. He still had 3 seconds on return cast. The Ice Wraith screeched furiously and began charging forward with incredible speed.

2 Seconds, its fists slammed the icy cavern floor up, he watched as its large white muscles contracted and pulled its body forward toward him.

1 Second, his eyes looked straight into the glowing blue eyes of the creature, the black toothless mouth with no lips. It was like an ice demon, a creature he would not forget any time soon. As it got close enough it pulled back its right fist and began thrusting it forward, but the rest of the motion was blocked from Darith’s vision by the blinding flash of his return skill, and when the flash ended he was in his bedroom, shivering as the snow built up in his hair and on his ears and tail fell to the floor, quickly melting on his carpet.

He fell to his knees, then flopped over on his side and dropped his staff.