Chapter 16 Ice Snap

Blowing out a slow breath, I tightened my hand around the hilt of my sword. And with my other hand, I quickly swiped an opaque sword icon in the corner of my vision. What flowed into my vision were the stats of my sword and knife, but more importantly my tier one combo chart. I had seconds to decide how best to chain my combos.

Xianmou [Rare]

This sword originates from the Cloud Sanctuary. The slightly curved blade has from its beginning, been passed on from master down to student. Considered a great honour to wield this sword, all students who took it up has sought to master its secrets.

Upon pausing with complete composure to take a strike mid battle, the sword gains the attribute Master’s Edge for 2 seconds.

+25% Attack damage

+30% Critical strike chance.

[Master’s Edge: + 25% Sharpness and a chance to ignore 20% Physical Armour]

Sharpness 280/300 of a minimum of 150 (Use sharpening tools to restore fully.)

[1 active slot, 2 passive slots]

(Current Slotted Runes) [Deep Harrow Tree- Epic Rune][Attack Speed III-Rune][-]

Skinning Knife [Common]

This is a knife often found with hunters. It is excellent for skinning.

+1% Attack Damage

+70% Skinning effectiveness

Tier One Combo Chain Attacks

Watcher’s Strike (Unlocks at a 3 hit chain)

Surge of the North (Unlocks at a 7 hit chain)

Owl’s Sigel (Unlocks at an 8 hit chain)

Okay, I had limited options. I definitely missed my high-level combo unlocks. Ah, the log chopper would have been perfect for multiple enemies. Nevertheless, I had to use what I had.

Lastly, before I jumped down, I checked my health.

Health: 195

Energy Bar: 190 [Tier 1 accessible]

Armor Class: 34

Even though I have never before faced Ice Embraced Gremlins, at roughly level 41 their weapon attacks should not outright kill me, but they might do more than half my life as damage anyway. The part that worried me was firstly their freezing bite, the damage for it was unknown and the freezing effect might spread faster than my guess. Their leap attack wasn’t as much of a worry. But, my perception had only unlocked two out three of the extra info slots, what that last bit of info was could spell trouble.

That said... I was already committed to the fight.

Just then, I heard a crack and glanced down to see my trap trigger. One Gremlin flung up into the air with a squeal.

My queue.

I jumped down sword leading. Hitting the snow with a roll, I immediately came up with a swing at one of the Gremlins looking up in shock at its high-strung partner. The surprise gave me just the moment to pause with my strike long enough and compose myself to activate the two seconds of Master’s Edge.

Then I struck with all my strength, slicing true into the Gremlin. It howled, but I knew the damage was still minimal.

One.

It lashed out at me with a claw, though I dodged it easily enough, already having moved back for such a case.

I stepped forward and balanced my body for a forward strike. The combo ring refreshed.

With a step back I prepared for a horizontal swing. Then from the side a sudden shadow entered my peripheral vision. I dived to the right, but a numbing shock struck my left arm as I tumbled away. On looking that way, I just caught a glimpse of a club.

-75 HP

Ack! That was a lot!

It had been too soon to get hit in the fight. Suddenly, I remembered my combo ring and I glanced up with hope that it was still on countdown. It had barely more than a second left. I leaped forward hoping to catch at least a scrape on an enemy. It was a stumbling mess as I did get my scrape, though barrelling into the limping Gremlin was not my plan. The thing growled and tried to bite me, but I shoved with all my strength to haphazardly roll away.

This was dangerous game. I was eyeing my combo meter. The first one was unlocked, but if I got a few more, the second attack would deal more damage.

I was vastly underpowered against these Ice Embraced Gremlins. Every bit of damage dealt was necessary to win...

Gritting my teeth, I shifted my weight to continue attacking. In front, one the Gremlins looked like it was crouching. A frown spilled onto my forehead. Then, it jumped a full ten metres towards me, its club leading the way.

Shocked, I fell back onto my rump. The soft snow cold underneath. Just the basest of reactions got me to roll to the side to hear a big thud and subsequently a spray of snow hit me.

Close! Too close!

I swung back with my sword, barely clipping the Gremlin’s elbow. It bared it’s fangs at me, which made me gulp. They looked frikken scary, with this crazy ice mist swirling around them.

Scrambling backwards, the Gremlin advanced on me lifting its club again.

”Agh!” I grunted, frantically trying to think of something!

I lifted my leg and kicked at its hands, just before it was able to swing down. The effort paid off as it lost its grip and had to fumble with the menacing weapon, not wasting the moment, I swung again with my sword in a downward arc and immediately with a horizontal, scoring a bigger hit and smaller to follow it.

That was six hits and the combo was still going.

This was not one of the two Gremlins I had struck with a spear; its opaque health bar showed it, only having gone down about a third.

I rolled back onto my feet and saw something I was afraid of seeing. The crippled Gremlin I had speared in the leg, was swirling its hands in a ball, snow crystals flying into the centre.

That was the third left out part of the extra info. It wasn’t a relief to know. I was at least fifteen metres away from it. On flat ground, I might be able to make run for it, but the snow threw that completely out of the window.

I looked towards the closest tree, it might block whatever that attack was. Yet, it was a full five metres away...

No way of knowing how much damage that ability would do, I could only try to fall flat in the snow and hope it missed. A very flawed idea in the least, and that was not to even mention the second Gremlin only two metres away. The crippled Gremlin was already busy finishing its scary ball of ice crystals.

The snow it was. I prepared to dive, and then I spotted my combo ring still counting down. A new hope dawned.

I changed my plans and jumped towards the Gremlin next to me. It had already started wading into the snow towards me. Luckily it didn’t expect me to come jumping at it.

My sword sliced into its shoulder. It growled as it dropped down to a knee. It was going to take a swing at me. But, I had other worries. I looked up and inside the combo ring, a second ring was flashing.

I grinned broadly and as quick as I could, lifted my sword behind my back in the stance for Surge of the North, aiming towards the crippled Gremlin.

A second passed, and my eye caught the Gremlin levelling its club at me. I gulped.

Any time now...?

Then just as it was swinging, my sword started feeling warm in my grip. The light it suddenly generated cast the Gremlin in an ice blue light. Then my body flung forward as extreme G-force took hold of me. The distance vanished in seconds between the crippled Gremlin and I. With all my power, I swung down at the creature.

A gushing noise accompanied the sword propelling down in an arc. It struck true on its shoulder. The Gremlin just crumpled into the snow. A full two thirds of its health disappeared in a flash.

I was just about to reverse my swing to strike again at the prone Gremlin, when I heard a keening sound from somewhere below...

Confused, I looked and saw rapid airflow with snow rushing towards the Gremlin.

My eyes popped open wide and I screamed as I dived as far as I could away from the thing.

Boooooom!!!

A loud explosion sent snow flying everywhere. Even with my dodge, the shockwave caught me and sent me tumbling to the side.

-15 HP

That was just the outside rim of the explosion! I held a hand to my chest. That was scary. Could I have dodged that if I hadn’t gone for the Surge of North? I didn’t know at all...

I looked up and it was clear, the Gremlin that caught the full brunt of it perished. I got up shaking a bit. I looked at the other Gremlin, and it looked at me. Then it did that crouching thing and I knew what was coming. The attack was tough to handle, especially with more than one of them moving on your position.

I crouched immediately, and waited. In a second, it lunged at me from fifteen metres away, flying through the air. I swiftly brought my sword up and pointed it straight at where the Gremlin will be. I flicked my Deep Harrow Tree rune to activate its active ability. Extra critical hit damage for three seconds.

Then as the Gremlin had nowhere to go but towards me, it howled as it realized its mistake.

With a deep crunch, the sword skewered it.

The force sent me skidding a couple of metres, but I received no damage. I removed my blade and wiped it in the snow. The Gremlin was dead. I looked up, breathing out at the intensity of the battle. Then I spotted the other Gremlin trying to chew threw the cord around its leg.

I chuckled. Not such a smart idea.

With my boot, I cleaned a small area of snow and threw a small rock there before walking away. A quick moment presented itself, so I searched the body of the one closest to me. It had several precious gems in a tiny bag and a pouch with some strange herbs I didn’t recognize. Still, even though I would normally have left something like that, in this situation anything could be useful to survive. So, I took the pouch.

The one that took most of the explosion was harder to search, just giving up a bracelet. I pocketed it with a hope to check it out later.

THUD!!

I had expected it, but it still startled me a bit. I looked to see a groaning Gremlin in the snow. It had a quarter of its health left after the fall. With a few steps towards it, it tried to bite me before I ended its attempt with a swift downward plunge of Xianmou.

It trying to bit me reminded me of something. I wonder what it was with their teeth and the strange swirling effect. So, I took my skinning knife and took the time to do something a bit gross. To pop out all of the Gremlin’s fangs.

Even outside of their mouths, that swirling effect didn’t go away. Just before leaving, I spotted a worn parchment in the trousers of one of them. I took it and took off sprinting towards the direction Zalia lured the last two Gremlins.

Ping!

I ignored the notifications for now.

The snow crunched under my boots as I ran. I followed a clear trail from the starting point of our attack. The sound of something hard striking something metal sounded and I sprinted towards it. Though, it was more like hopping through the thick snow.

It wasn’t long before I could see streaks of green blood on the snow. I hoped I didn’t take too long with my fight.

Then, I saw a Gremlin lying in the snow with a Sabre Tooth fang sticking out of it. That was some good news, so it left one.

I heard a woman scream and I immediately rushed forward through the trees. In a small clearing, I saw Zalia grimacing as she struck down with a dagger at the prone Gremlin, clearly finishing it off. But, then I noticed the Gremlin’s fangs buried in her leg.

Zalia was bleeding in several places. Yet, the one wound in her leg was already looking like ice was bleeding into her skin. Getting to her, I immediately removed the Gremlin’s jaws from her leg and she stumbled and fell to the ground panting from her fight.

She grimaced again and said through gritted teeth,

“Uhh...It hurts. I don’t know what is happening...”

I crouched down beside her.

“It’s going to be okay. It is something specific to them, but the fight is over, so we have time to tend to it.”

“O..oh.”

Her eyes looked uncertain, but I patted her arm before pulling out some of my cord. I wrapped it around her leg above the wound and tightened it. After that, I hurriedly ran to the closest tree, broke a few branches, got some bark and returned to Zalia. Her breathing was getting heavier, which worried me. I had no clue what kind of health she had left, if that was what governed her well being.

Shrugging the confusing question off, I started trying to make a fire. I still sucked at it. But, luckily after a few minutes of no success, Zalia, reached back into her knapsack and pulled out what was some flint rocks. I smiled broadly and quickly got a spark going and the tinder.

A nice little fire started and I quickly pulled on Zalia’s leg, to get it closer to the fire.

“Trust me, this will help.”

She nodded, though still looked concerned.

After about ten seconds, the frost on her leg seemed to ebb away, until it was completely gone. I sat back with a huff of relief. Zalia looked much better. And her other wounds only looked like small scrapes. She had handled herself well in the fight. I completely understood that she was use to choosing to fight, which meant rather sneaking around the predators of the land. But, still going toe to toe with a level fortyish Ice Embraced Gremlin made her a decent fighter.

As we sat and got warmed up, I tapped my notifications.

Defeated an Ice Embraced Gremlin. Level 42

Defeated an Ice Embraced Gremlin. Level 41

You have used a trap successfully to help defeat an enemy.

Defeated an Ice Embraced Gremlin Level 39

XP gained 60 000

Level up! x12

Upgraded

Trap Maker III [Novice] (+2)

Having made big strides in functional traps, you now have higher percentage damage when setting up an ambush and resetting your traps.

+ 6 % Surprise attack damage

+ 22 % Chance to quickly reset a sprung trap.

Gained

+1 Agility

+1 Endurance

+1 Luck

I tsk’d at the gain in luck. I felt most of my decisions in that battle fit nicely in the well thought out zone. Still, however you look at it, it was a good skill to gain. So, whatever.

Skill Gained

Fire Starter I [Novice]

Having tried your hand at making fires with primitive means you eventually gained a better understanding to attempt at getting one started. Though you still have long way to go.

+10% making a fire using what is at hand.

Hahaha, funny game. That one irked me out even more.

“I wasn’t that bad at starting fires.”

“Sorry to say, you were like a young one trying his hand at one.”

I jumped at Zalia’s voice. Then frustration bubbled up in me and I grumbled under my breath vowing to beat the fire starting mechanic. I tapped my status screen icon.

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: 195

Energy Bar: 190 [Tier 1 accessible]

Armor Class: 34

>Equipped Weapons and Runes:

Xianmou [Deep Harrow Tree- Epic Rune][Attack Speed III-Rune][-]

Skinning Knife [-]

>Equipped Armor and Runes:

[Stout Shirt]

[Frost Sabre Fur cloak]

[Sabre Fur trousers]

[Sabre Fur boots]

Etched Silver Gauntlets [Swift Strike I- Rune][Stone body II-Rune]

>Equiped Trinkets:

Shadow Veil Ring [Stealth +10%]

[...]

[Attributes]

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

[Points to allocate= 1+36]

Strength 30

Vitality 22

Agility 17

Willpower 17

Intelligence 11

Acrobatics 17

Luck 16

[Race Attributes]

The Norskai are a hardy people from the cold north. They have survived through severe weather conditions their entire lives. Where others would have quickly perished, they remained and so they have gained firsthand knowledge how to endure and stand fast in times when storms would hit at a moment’s notice.

Endurance 3

Survival 7

And, then I tapped the plus sign to level up.

Wil Stormchild

Race: Norskai

Level: 29

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

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

Health: 195+120+30

Energy Bar: 190+120+4 [Tier 2 accessible]

Armor Class: 34+12

>Equipped Weapons and Runes:

[...]

[...]

[...]

[Attributes]

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

[Points to allocate= 1]

Strength 30

Vitality 30

Agility 25

Willpower 19

Intelligence 16

Acrobatics 20

Luck 16

[Race Attributes]

[...]

Endurance 8

Survival 12

That was a nice big gain. I would have probably have just gained four levels for a single level fortyish Ice Embraced Gremlin then. It just made it clear some level 40 creatures were way more dangerous and so give way more experience, like that big scary Sabre-Tooth Tiger. I was about to sit back and relax when another ping popped up startling me some.

Ping!

I tapped and immediately realized what it was.

You reached level 20! You qualify to pick a skill to unlock.

Class skill= Not Qualified

Sub-Class skill= Not Qualified

Racial skill= Qualified > Available 5

The whole ‘not qualified’ was getting on my nerves... I just swiped it into my unread notifications and dropped back. I had to find myself a Primary Class, or at the very least a Sub Class.

“You look angry, Wil Stormchild. What is wrong?” Zalia asked from the side.

I huffed and spoke without thinking,

“I am not suppose to be here. I never was. Ending up here in this frozen wasteland was an unlucky mistake.”

Staring up into the darkening skies, it took a moment to realise Zalia had gotten quiet.

She too was staring up to the sky. But her face was full of emotion. I pressed up on my elbow and asked,

“Hey, are you okay?”

She nodded, though I could see her lip quivering and a tear rolling down her cheek. Immediately I regretted what I had said.

“You know, I didn’t really mean that. I was just frustrated with my situation. There is so much riding on my mission... it is hard to kind of take a step back.”

Zalia turned her head to me, her orange rimmed hazel eyes drew me in right then.

“I truly am glad you ended up here. You brought hope.”

It sobered me up. Her plight was as real as anything I had to do in this world. They have been trapped in this frozen season for who knows how long. I had to help her.

It helped that assisting her might give me a way out of this crazy zone. It definitely helped, but even with that in mind, I really did want to come to her aid.

I hopped up and said,

“I’m going to lay some traps around. So we can rest more easily.”

She stayed silent as I wandered off to make the area a bit safer.

Stumbling into this zone seemed almost life altering to me by now. Such a strange thing considering this was a digital realm.