Cold.

It’s very cold here.

Lefu assaulted by immensed coldness slowly began to awaken. He looked around the empty cell with a heavily plated door. Lefu began to lift his sore body off a cold rock serving as his bed, he slowly went towards the door.

Bang!

Lefu knocked on the door, but the empty room amplified the sound. He waited few seconds hoping someone on the other side. Not receiving a reply, Lefu pounded on the door harder causing more damage to his ears than the door. “Is there no one on the other side?” Lefu grumbled.

“Give it up,” a bored voice said through the pipes between walls. “The door is reinforced, so the door not budging with pure physical strength.”

“What?” Lefu asked since his strength should be able to crush it easily.

“It’s reinforced with everything from seals to latest breakthrough on metal alloys,” the voice replied in monotone. “Now stop banging, I’m trying to sleep.”

Not wanting to anger the man, Lefu sat down and shivered. It’s so cold, Lefu complained as white mist formed. While trying to move around to warm up, Lefu felt something in his pocket. He quickly pulled out a letter.

Lefu,

Welcome to the Arctic Prison where the criminals that can’t be judged by current society are stored. Here the laws mean nothing and lives are expendable as everyone’s goal is to escape. There are few ways to escape which is conquering all eighteen levels or taking control of the prison.

Few tips: The quantity or quality of Aether doesn’t matter here, but the way it controlled or applied. Even if you’re immortal, there are fates worse than death. So beware.

From, Old Mino

P.s. Reinforce your body with Aether and it possible to ignore the coldness. As a side note, Do not trust anyone.

Shredding the letter, Lefu punched the cell wall shattering his hand. He quietly watched his hand regenerate and stared at the ceiling. “I should be feeling something like ‘Why is this happening to me’ or something. Yet, I feel calm and unworried as everything going to be ok.” Well I should attempted to reinforce myself so I don’t feel so cold.

Lefu closed his eyes and attempted to move his Aether to reinforce himself. He quickly located his blue with hint of black Aether. Guiding his energy, Lefu felt immense pain as he bones shattered and organ ruptured.

“What did I do wrong?” Lefu said when his body repaired itself.

“Idiot, what happen when a glass is filled and you tried to add more,” The voice rang through the pipes. “It spills over, but what happens if seal it off? It will exploded and which just happened to your body. If you weren’t immortal, you’ll be dead.”

So I put to much pressure on my body, Lefu figured out after having it said to him. A few second later, his body shattered again. Let’s try this again, Lefu repeletly tried with him shattering his body multiple times.

“You’re truly an idiot and a masochist,” the pipe rang after few hours. “If you can’t master this simple technique, you’re going to have a painful life here.”

Why can’t I do it? Lefu angrily punched the cell wall, while he subconsciously coated his fist in Aether. Instead of his hand shattering again, Lefu rage subsided as his fist was unscathed. He rapidly changed between his fist and the wall. Did I just do it?

[Aether Reinforcement: Level Basic 2%.]

“I did it,” Lefu shouted.

“Congratulation, you have barely entered the basic level,” The voice sarcastically replied. “Maybe in few days you will be able to reinforced your arm.”

I think I found out the trick, Lefu smirked as he slowly reinforced his arm. After reinforcing his entire arm, Lefu realized a problem as his arm doesn’t bend. Reducing the amount of Aether, Lefu could gradually bend and move his arm again, but with great difficulty.

“Is it possible to reduce the Aether on the joints,” Lefu mumbled. “or strengthen myself without losing flexibility.”

Lefu mind went into overdrive thinking, but was unable to think of a solution. What would happen if I coil my Aether? He thought as he began testing. After few minutes, Lefu entire body was sweating as he became focused on coiling his Aether. I almost got it, but the coiling thread to big. Let try to shrink it, smaller, smaller than a hair. Perfect!

“I think I got it as,” Lefu smiled as moved his arm. “Now let test this,” he said as he struck the wall. The wall remained unscathed while his hand nearly broke. “The single thread of Aether is not enough.”

Lefu began to slowly wrapping his arm in thread of Aether. After creating his tenth thread, it instantly broke apart along with the others. “Why did it break when I tried to create the tenth thread?” Lefu wondered. “Maybe, I need to change my approach.”

Lefu rapidly created nine more threads before attempting to merge them together. Success! He cheered as the thread combined into one. Let test the strength, Lefu punched the wall. The wall remained unscatched and his hand felt numbed. I’m getting closer, but still need more threads it seems.

Few hours passed by in quickly and Lefu formed one hundred and twenty one threads with each made from nine smaller ones. So in total he has one thousand and eight nine thread of Aether running through his arm.

“This seems to be my limit at the current point,” Lefu wonder, “It feels my arm will explodes if I add more.”

The sudden urge of wanting to test his current achievement, Lefu punched the wall once again. He watched his hand sink into the wall without any resistant. This is cool, Lefu felt as he pulled his hand out.

[Aether Reinforcement: Basic 14%.]

Is it because I only reinforced my arm? Lefu began Reinforced his other arm and watched it rise to thirty two percent. When he completed reinforcing his arms, he moved on and attempted to reinforce his legs, but realized that his legs could withstand more Aether threads. I better match the amount of Aether in my arms or it might have an unknown danger.

“The cells doors will open in five minutes,” a mechanical voice rang throughout the floor. “The prisoners will have two hours to find the exit and make it to the next floor. Only five prisoners are allowed to ascend to the next level. So best to luck to all of you.”

“Five minutes,” Lefu muttered. “I won’t be able to completely reinforce my body, but I should be fine as long it not to my torso or head.”

“Oh, the doors are opening,” the voice said. “Prepare yourself as this is going to be a bloodbath, literally. Ah, what am I saying that idiot probably thinking how to grab one of five spots.”

He has a weird personality, One moment he filled with sarcasm, but the next moment he’s attempting to explain the future scene. Lefu silently evaluated the man. Wait, I got no time to be focused on him, I need to prepare somehow?

Five minutes quickly passed with Lefu mind wonder what going to happen. The heavily reinforced door slowly creaked open revealing a dark tunnel. Lefu quickly launched out the door only hearing it slammed shut behind him. Now with no option but to move forward, Lefu wanted to leave the tunnel quickly.

Why is the tunnel heating up? The freezing cold temperature adjusted quickly changed. Lefu looked behind only to see a large flame barreling towards him. “Fire! Why is there fire in a cold, dark tunnel,” Lefu yelled as he ran faster.

Lefu managed to see the light at the end of the tunnel before the fire engulfed him. The smell of his flesh burning and the pain, caused Lefu to fall. Why can’t I ever have it easy? Lefu complained as he been fatally wounded countless times in the last few weeks. Is everyone and everything goal to torture me?

Few minutes later, Lefu crawled out of the tunnel with a burnt shirt and burn marks on his pants. Recovered from his terrible burns, he looked around and barren snowland. In nearly all the directions, he only saw snow. “Welcome to the Wasteland of Snow,” a huge sign suddenly appeared in front of him. “The exit is straight ahead, but beware of others or you be dead and snowstorms. The snow storm won’t end until the challenge is completed.”

The sign quickly vanished after finishing it message, leaving behind a dissatisfied Lefu. He looked ahead and saw an incoming snow storm. At this rate it will be a miracle to leave with my sanity. Lefu quickly thought as he pushed forward towards the storm.

Lefu quickly traveled a bit of distances before tripping. Poof! He fell face first into the snow. Looking behind him, he saw a corpse that been mutilated beyond recognition. The face was completely scrape off, along with most of the skin revealing his muscle and inner organs. Lefu instantly felt sick to his stomach as this was one of the most brutal things he seen so far.

Crawling few feet away, Lefu saw another body in a similar condition but with most of the organs missing. Lefu tried to crawl further away, but the blizzard subsided for few seconds. Looking over what ahead, Lefu felt conquering was going to be harder than he originally thought. Thousands of corpse littered the wasteland dying the snow red. Towards the middle of the field he saw a man holding a severed head.

The man had sharp claws and lizard shaped head. Covered in dark purple scales, the man began to eat the severed head like a fine meal. Lifting a skull he began to drink blood like wine before looking towards a man crawling away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” a deep voice laughed as he asked.

“Nowhere,” a voice similar to the one from the pipes.

He must been the one on the other side of the pipes maybe? Lefu thought before tossing it to the side. There are many way to mimic voices, so he could be unrelated.

“No, you are going somewhere,” the lizard man smiled. “Just not in this body.”

The lizard man quickly killed the man, but didn’t eat or leaving the man there. He began to remove the man’s bones before wearing the man skin. The lizard man disappeared into the boneless corpse.

“Ah, wearing someone else’s skin always feels better,” the deep voice slowly transformed into the dead man’s voice.

Only after the man left did Lefu stand up surveying the scene. “How did I end up here?” Lefu asked as he continued his track forward.