“Doesn’t make sense” Kyle muttered to himself as everyone moved through the forest, a cold wind whistled through as they neared the end of it.

“Why’s it a problem? We’ll move faster without encountering monsters” Karnage asked with a frown.

“Because I need a monster core to train on, how do I get one if we don’t encounter any monsters?” Kyle explained frustrated, with multiple theories floating away in his mind he couldn’t wait to see if any of them worked.

“Yo didn’t you get a skill saying that you got a monster core in you?” Sly pointed out just as the trees parted from their vision.

“Yeah but that’s not something I’m going to mess with, who knows what that could do to me revival or not” Kyle sighed as he took in the view, open plains of snow ending in hills of trees off in the distance. Looking to the left he could make out a group of mountains behind the snowy hills, some engulfed in snow while others lay barren.

“Hey you sound like you didn’t hear me! If you can’t make a sword or a bow then try a gun. Also why not go with a hammer for melee?” Karnage exclaimed.

Kyle shook his head “I heard you last time, gun? No clue where to start…Guns have been obsolete for centuries, I have a general idea on how they work but…”

“Try it out, it’s just mana you’ll be wasting” Sly suggested “We’ll be moving through dangerous territory the whole time sure but you’re not exactly useful in a fight yet. Leave the guarding to us, you focus on figuring out what you can do bro.”

“Fine fine, guess we’ll see if I can make a gun out of slime…just the idea is ridiculous!” Kyle groaned in surrender.

“Let’s move, try not to blow us up” Sly chuckled as he started moving again, the wrong way.

“Should we tell him?...” Reyna whispered as they stood there staring at him.

“No” Kurt replied sitting down behind them.

Sly glanced back “What you waiting for?”

The direwolf rolled it’s eyes and began walking the opposite direction also keeping by the trees, the rest followed.

“Guys?” Sly watched as they wordlessly walked away, he looked forward then glanced back at them “Oh…”. He jogged over to catch up as they snickered, not wanting to make eye contact they all glanced away.

Kyle raised his right arm forward “Well first I’m going to need a barrel” blue slime poured out from his skin as he concentrated on giving it shape, a hollow cylinder with a hole on the front grew on his wrist. Freezing the slime, he then focused inside it “Now for the bullet, making it out of packed ice makes it heavier so I wonder how far it will go…”.

He formed slime on the inside of the barrel in the shape of a common bullet then froze it and condensed more slime into it, “Fracture is all I got for propelling it, but that might damage the bullet…” he continued muttering to himself while walking. He stared down at the two pencil thick barrel on his wrist that grew out twice the length, “If I had more choices-” his eyes suddenly went wide as a glint of light shone through them.

Dissipating the barrel and bullet he opened his skill book.

Karnage stepped closer while looking at him “Why’d you stop?”

“You’ll see in a bit” He replied with a grin, picking monstrous for his [Ooze(Demonic)] and limbs for [Core Overload]. “Now let’s see if I fucked up or not” he raised his right arm in front of himself again and held it with his left as blood red slime grew on his wrist and into a barrel similar to the previous one, “Crap” he cussed as grey thick scale like shells grew over the slime covering it completely.

He dissipated the barrel after watching it bend downwards from the weight “Too heavy and not solid enough…what if…” he formed the barrel out of frozen packed slime again but more than twice the original’s size then formed demonic slime around it “I think I got it but the barrel is going to have to be larger…” the scales grew out of the red slime covering both the outside and inside of the barrel.

Grinning even wider he continued “Now the ammunition” creating the bullet again he formed some red slime on it’s back and grew the scales, “Lastly the propeller” utilizing the remainder of his mana and [Core Overload] he filled the barrel with as much condensed frozen slime as he could. By the time he was done the barrel was half full, turning his arm to where he could hold the barrel with the other’s hand he took aim.

“Here goes nothing” he stated as the others turned to watch, thinking it over momentarily he quickly came up with a chant “With true flight penetrate through my enemies, with explosive speed pierce their hides, scales or shells! Slime Pistol!” the packed ice slime behind the bullet fractured and a miniature explosion took place immediately after.

Kyle’s left hand lost its grip as his right arm lunged back, the bullet whistled out of the barrel at blinding speed and landed on a tree’s trunk shattering the bark and itself on contact.

Through sheer ingenuity the skill [Slime Pistol] was created!

"It worked!?” Karnage stared at the slime barrel in amazement.

“Fuck!” Kyle cursed while holding onto his right arm “I’ll skip questioning the fact that you made me try this without thinking it would work and say that I think my arm’s broken…” he grimaced as it fell limply to his side.

“Reyna” Sly motioned for her “Heal him”, he stepped closer and studied the barrel “Try putting a grip on it or something so you can hold onto it with your left”.

“The skill is already created, I got a prompt. Looks like the system doesn’t give a flying fuck if we injure ourselves” Kyle chuckled.

“Heal!” Reyna activated her spell after aiming her mace at Kyle’s arm, the green lightening flew into his arm giving him instant relief.

Kyle quickly remodelled the barrel with a grip of frozen slime to the top where he could hold onto with his left hand “Here we go again. With true flight penetrate through my enemies, with explosive speed pierce their hides, scales or shells! Slime Pistol!” he flinched as the shot fired and the barrel shot backwards causing him pain.

“Better?” Skill asked as he watched from behind.

“Yeah much better, still a bit of a pain but I think I know how to fix it” Kyle replied before opening his character page and dumping his 20 attribute points after inspecting the now visible INT and WIS stats and STR.

INT: Increases maximum mana, spell damage, mental acuity and memory WIS: Increases mana regen, cast speed and decreases spell mana cost STR: Increases physical damage, physical defence and carry weight

Kyle put 5 points into both INT and WIS then the remaining 10 into STR “If I got this right INT will increase not only my maximum mana so my ammo but also damage even though I cannot tell by how much, WIS on the other hand increases my mana regeneration so ammo sustain, cast speed meaning attack speed and spell cost which also counts for ammo count.”

He took aim again “While strength will increase my physical defence and carry weight, overall those two should reduce the recoil!”. His grin widened as he chanted “With true flight penetrate through my enemies, with explosive speed pierce their hides, scales or shells! Slime Pistol!”, again the bullet flew out at great speed but Kyle’s arm didn’t seem to move at all.

“Well? Did it work?” Sly asked, curiosity obvious from his gaze and tone.

“Yeah…I felt nothing at all this time, I only put 10 points into strength…” Kyle’s expression twisted into a frown as he stared down at the makeshift gun barrel the length of a rifle and twice as thick (“Just how much does each stat point affect…”) “Hey Sly, what did you put your attribute stat points into?”

“Hm? 3 Strength, 2 Agility on and 3 Strength, 1 Agility, 1 Dexterity off. Why?” Sly replied after continuing to move, the rest of the party having to stopped to watch also followed.

“Doesn’t it feel like each stat is affecting a bit too much? I mean we can get stats by passive training them…” Kyle explained.

Sly shook his head “After getting my strength over 50 with attribute points, training and buffs the amount it affects dropped drastically. I tested carry weight with and without buffs, I’m guessing the other stats are the same.”

“Huh…” Kyle glanced away as he thought this over momentarily before biting his lip, his expression darkened severely and he suddenly stopped moving.

“Kyllix?” Karnage saw him stop but continued to move herself, after seeing his expression she stopped as well. Staring at him with worry she then spoke again “What’s wrong?”.

The others turned to look also but he had already fixed his expression with a façade “Nothing” he told them (“How the hell am I supposed to break this to them?!”) he thought to himself as he chuckled “Just annoyed with that revelation that’s all” he lied. He walked ahead while focusing on his thoughts (“That bitch…Did she really put a limit?...I’m not stupid enough to think it’s not possible…”).

The others accepted his response and continued to move, all of them except for one. Karnage continued to gaze at him with worry, having seen through his façade she wanted to know what was wrong.

Kyle stared off into the distance, snow and trees for as far as he could see as the distance was cut short by blur of white. “Storm” Kyle thought out loud as he noticed the scene “Snow storm!” he repeated louder as the blizzard rapidly flowed towards them.

“Into the trees!” Sly commanded as he also turned to run into the forest, the others quickly followed suit.

The storm caught them first, crashing into them like a wave it denied them vision and greatly decreased their ability to move. Covering their eyes, they took slow steps forward as they fought the barrage of wind and snow.

“Dammit!” Kyle cursed, barely able to even hear himself. He fought forward through the raging blizzard as suddenly something bumped into him, having felt fur he glanced through his arms “Kurt?” he looked up.

“GRRAAAHHHH” the beast roared as it lowered its ape like face down towards him.

“NOT KURT” Kyle exclaimed as he surged to the right and out of the way, inspecting the beast before doing so.

Blizzard Yeti [Level 67]

He bumped into something the moment he came out of surge and toppled back, opening his eyes he saw Karnage’s face “RUN!” he shouted before quickly standing up.

Karnage blinked multiple times “Huh?” she stared up at him with flushed cheeks as he pulled her up.

“Monsters!” Kyle shouted again snapping her out of her daze, he turned and raised his right arm forward to face the monster “Shit!” but having recently used [Core Overload] he was currently suffering from mana exhaustion.

“Get back!” Karnage pulled him back just a furry white fist crashed down in front of him, the monster coming momentarily into view. Three times their height and even more in muscle the Yeti was humanoid in shape but almost completely covered in white fur, it’s ape-like face, palms and feet naked from fur. The beast backed off and disappeared into the blizzard as they slowly backed off, looking from under their arms they searched for the monster.

Karnage unsheathed both her swords and pushed Kyle back “Run!” she shouted at him without glancing back.

“Like hell I will!” Kyle replied standing his ground.

“And what use are you going to be!? Go! We’ll hold them back! Someone needs to get to Kaledd! It doesn’t matter who or how many! Now g-” she was cut off as a furry white leg kicked her from the side and out of view before also disappearing back into the blizzard.

Kyle grimaced at the thought but knew her to be right, he turned towards where he knew the forest was and ran opposite of the wind to reach it quicker.

“OH NOW I’M REALLY PISSED!” Sly’s voice momentarily took over the blizzard as a sudden burst of aura caught Kyle’s attention making him glance back, a second burst pushed away the snow revealing the enemy.

Five Yetis stood around them, each just a big as the others. Kyle caught a last glimpse of Sly, Karnage and Skill charging one each as Reyna stared at the beasts trembling in horror. Then the blizzard flowed back in almost knocking Kyle off his feet, he grimaced and ran towards where he knew Reyna to be. Catching sight of her he continued to run until he reached her and grabbed her arm, she jolted back trying to pull her arm free before recognising him.

He shook her by the shoulders “Pull yourself tog-” suddenly a giant fist crashed into his back sending them both flying, they tumbled over the snow before coming to a stop. Kyle groaned and glanced around before locating her, Reyna lay on the snow nearby holding onto her left leg. He tried to pull himself up before noticing his missing left arm, glancing back he noticed his shoulder was also gone leaving behind blue slime covering the injury.

Kyle ran, as quickly as his legs took him he ran towards Reyna and crouched down by her. Her expression was distorted with pain as she hugged her leg close, it was bent awkwardly. He forced her over his remaining shoulder and mustered all his strength to stand. Not waiting another moment he surged away, without looking back or turning at all he ran and surged until bumping into a tree.

He moved around the tree’s trunk to hide from the blizzard, “Reyna snap out of it!” he shouted “heal us both!” he told her.

She said nothing except groaning in pain from her leg waving limply, she pulled at his cloak and armour as tears lined her pain drowned face.

Kyle grinded his teeth in annoyance as he turned to continue surging away, taking steps in between casts he noticed the blizzard greatly weakening as his stamina almost ran out forcing him to stop. Breathing heavily from stamina exhaustion he forced himself to continue forward, heavy step after step he moved into the taiga.

Party member [DemSkillShots] has died! Party member [Karnage] has died! Party leader [SlyOkami] has died!

Long after the death notifications popped up he still continued to move forward, not until the blizzard was nothing more than a breeze he kept moving. Falling to his knees he felt pain flare through his missing shoulder, the slime reconstructing it slowly. He lay Reyna down with her back to the tree, she squeaked from the pain flaring up from her twisted leg as it hit the snowy ground.

“Reyna, listen to me” he held her by the shoulder as he stared into her eyes “Heal yourself quickly. We cannot stay here, we need to keep moving” he explained calmly.

She raised her head and met his gaze “It hurts…” she managed through the pain and grimacing.

“I know, it hurts like a bitch but you have to numb it out. You can do it, you have no choice but to do it” he let go of her shoulder and grabbed her leg, it was bent forwards more than it normally should manage. “Bite into my other shoulder, this will hurt a lot more” he told her with a tone that left no room for debate.

Reyna continued to tremble from both fear and pain but managed to bend forwards, she stared down at Kyle’s shoulder as it slowly reconstructed. Biting down away from the slime she tried to mostly bite onto the remaining armour but still ended up touching skin.

“Three” Kyle began counting down “Two” she bit in with a muffled scream as Kyle suddenly bent her leg back using surge solely on his hand. “There its set, hopefully. Use heal or it will continue to hurt” he told her as she pulled back crying and breathing heavily. He sat back and glanced around looking for pursuers.

“H-Heal…” Reyna activated her spell through her hands, having lost both her mace and shield she was now unarmed. The green lightening enter her leg and spread all over her body, relief plastered on her face she opened her eyes and raised her hands towards Kyle’s shoulder “Heal!” she repeated.

The green lightening collided with the slime quadrupling the regeneration, moments after Kyle’s hand was back just as new but his armour was still torn from his shoulder down. “We need to mo-”

Party leader [SlyOkami]’s companion [Kurt] has been killed!

Kyle’s eyes widened at the notification as he glanced off towards the way they came, clenching his fists he could barely stop himself from dashing back towards the fight “Damn it all…”.

Reyna stared at him confused, too afraid and traumatized to do or say anything else.

After a couple moments of collecting his anger Kyle glanced at her “Companions do not resurrect like us” he explained “The direwolf is dead” he managed through a choked tone.

Reyna held onto her mouth as she gasped in shock “B-But…” with her eyes wide she stared at him as more tears began to flood out.

“Get up, we need to keep moving” Kyle told her as he forced himself up, he forward his hand to her.

She stared at the hand momentarily before accepting it “O-Okay…” she said in between sobs.

Sly’s POV minutes earlier

Sly slashed madly with long blades of aura as he felt multiple attacks connect before suddenly the sound of crunching bombarded his ears from behind, pain surged from his back as the Yeti’s fist collided with it. He was thrown forward and landed with his face in the snow, unable to move he stared through the blizzard as a giant foot appeared in his vision.

You have died! Death penalty (Level 47 - 1) You are now Level 46 No bound respawn points found Respawning at closest spawn point in 2:30

He blacked out momentarily before his vision returned, floating a couple feet higher than before he noticed he could look around. He glanced down just in time to see his own body dissipate into violet sparks, understanding he had just died. (“Hah…It’s all up to you two newbies now”) he thought to himself as he looked around, surprisingly he could see much more clearly now that he was dead.

Two of the Yetis had been chopped up by his random slashing while the one that killed him lay kneeling on the ground with more arrows in it’s back than he could count on his hands and feet while it’s right arm bled severely. (“Well we took tw-”) his thoughts were cut short as he saw the remaining two Yetis, they were further away from where they died surrounding his companion direwolf.

Kurt growled and snarled as he spun around trying to keep the Yetis away, he suddenly tried to make a break for the forest but one of them grabbed him by the hind legs and pulled him up. The direwolf twisted it’s body and bent upwards towards it’s captors arm and bit into it.

The Yeti roared out in pain and smashed it’s arm down into the snow, Kurt yelped in pain as the Yeti raised it’s arm and smashed it down again…and again…and again…

When it finally stopped it held up Kurt’s limp and bloody corpse by the waist in front of itself, opening it’s jaws wide it raised the direwolf up and brought it down into it’s mouth. It’s head is all it could manage and it bit down, the sound of bones being crushed and flesh tear resounded inside Sly’s mind as he watched motionless.

He watched wordlessly as the beast tore into the wolf before it’s companion joined in for the feast, it pulled at the direwolf by its hind legs as the other Yeti pulled back growling. They tore the wolf’s body into half making one of them fall back into the snow, the Yeti still standing chuckled deeply before continuing to devour it’s meal.

Sly’s vision went momentarily went black again.

He opened his eyes to find himself back in his body, armour damaged and half his daggers missing.

Karnage and Skill stood close by, staring at him. Karnage took a step forward as tears formed in her eyes but Skill grabbed her shoulder and stopped her, she glanced back to see him shake his head.

Sly clenched his fists as his emotions boiled up within, he chuckled coldly “And I even promised myself…to never again…” he spoke with a strangled voice. He glanced up and checked his surroundings, not even surprised by the colony of tents surrounded by a short wall of wooden stakes. Turning he gazed off into the frozen tundra as the blizzard raged on in the distance, his arms trembling as he grinded his teeth against each other.

Suddenly an explosion of violet aura burst out from within him as he opened his mouth wide, he screamed in pure anger at the blizzard with eyes open wide and reddening. The burst of aura crashed into the wooden wall breaking a couple meters off it and sending the debris flying into the camp, guards came rushing out of nearby tents and ran towards Sly.

Karnage got in between them and Sly “Stop please!” she begged them with tears still falling, they stopped at this sight and stared in confusion while she also turned to look at Sly.

A thick fog like aura surrounded him, darker than the usual violet the purple aura engulfed Sly and a couple feet out. “I’ll kill them” Sly whispered “I’ll fucking massacre every last one of them” suddenly a bright violet light shone from his body as thick lines of violet began forming all over his skin, his eyes flared bright violet as he continued to stare off into the distance.