Chapter 17 What the ice took

It was a quiet night. Almost too quiet. Even Zalia, who knew the place, remarked that something felt off. There were no chirps in the trees, no critters moving about. It was disconcerting to say the least, though, as much as we pondered the matter, no solution presented itself. I had my suspicions that the Ice Embraced Gremlins were part of the problem. But, what was that about them serving a master and coming topside for a mysterious reason? Obviously it screamed that there was something to find if one went looking around. Yet, instead of the normal excitement that followed a mystery in the game, this one gave me the creeps.

For that reason alone, I chose to just flatly ignore it for the time being, I wanted to stay alive long enough to escape this icy zone. Nevertheless, I was still committed to helping Zalia.

The dawn came without any trouble. As we ate some meat, I remembered the piece of paper the one Gremlin had. I plucked it out of my bag and unfurled it. On it, there was a rough drawn spike-like object and then a lot of gibberish written around it.

I hadn’t yet unlocked a skill to decipher strange languages. A sigh escaped me, but then Zalia’s voice startled me from right to the side of my head,

“Hmm, this seems to be instructions to find the object drawn on the parchment. Sadly, I can only make out some of it. I’m rusty in the language.”

A smile popped on my face, my curiosity would have drove me nuts wondering what was written on the letter.

“I wonder why they need it so bad. Maybe it is for their master.”

“If these are loyal to a master, then it does not bode well. They do not normally submit themselves to the rule of another.”

The info I had gained from ‘Identify’ had given me some hidden insight. There was no reason to hide it from Zalia, so I said,

“They are called Ice Embraced Gremlins. It seems to me an entity had corrupted them and now they are scouting to find something for their new master.”

Zalia looked taken aback, staring at me with a frown creasing her delicate features.

“Ice Embraced? I have not heard of such Gremlins before...no...maybe. It would explain the effect from the bite. I only thought the constant winter had changed their appearance some. This is indeed troubling. We need to go to my town and report this.”

A town!!! I was just nodding enthusiastically. Ah! To get out of the frozen wilderness. I had believed her to only take us to a small outpost or something, a town was far better.

“Then lead the way.”

Without saying anything, Zalia was up and tightening the straps of her boots. She didn’t wait for me as she started into the trees, only glancing back with a ‘Hurry’ look. I chuckled and followed her.

Luckily, as she moved through the snowy forest, she still taught me about how to notice and spot tracks, and which types of creatures came past there. I drank in each word. If it meant I could avoid predators, I was all for it. It was an added bonus that Zalia truly enjoyed teaching me about it. Her smile gave me such peace after the chaotic previous days. The fact that her people frowned on her skills in the wild was definitely sad. It was such a useful thing to have. About three hours in the tracks started to have the slightest of glow to them, I was surprised at first, but then a notification went off.

Ping!

I tapped it in the go and smiled. Yeah, definitely worth asking for someone’s insight.

Wilderness Skill III [Novice]

Through careful study, your awareness of the natural compounds around you has increased. Sounds in the wild carry more meaning for you as you are able to better discern between a peaceful area and one that carries tension.

With a bit of focus you can spot and use naturally occurring materials to survive, also to reinforce items.

+4 Perception

+2% Trap-making

+1 Crafting

25% Chance to reinforce a crudely made item.

Tracking II [Novice]

Through keen observance of an expert at work, you have picked up the basics of tracking the various critters and animals through the snow. The tracks of predators are still indistinguishable from each other, though you know they carry risk.

Focusing will start to make tracks stand out of the snow.

Snow Tracking Unlocked

On Focusing:

55% chance to notice tracks of critters or animals

30% chance to notice tracks of predators

I was already thinking about how to use such a skill. Maybe if I studied up on how the predator tracks looked and asked Zalia to tell me which one it is likely to be from then—

“I see your face gain a faraway look sometimes. Is there someone special that so often grabs hold of your attention?”

I stopped dead in my tracks and my face flushed full of heat, far more than would normally happen in real life, I was probably tomato red against this white setting. A moment of vexation bubbled up over it. If I ever get out, my fellow developers are going to get an earful.

“Ah-ha!” Zalia exclaimed. “So, I am right. Who is this woman that you carry such fancy for?”

My head perked up and Zalia had this playful smile while staring at me.

“What?”

A slight frown furrowed her brow.

“Your face spoke volumes just now. I wish to hear your story.”

My mind raced. A woman I held fancy for? The last year was more a blur than anything else. I chuckled ruefully.

“Nah, there is no one yet.”

“Certainly not! You went bright red!”

Tsk! That mechanic.

“I am afraid it was for being startled out of my thoughts. I do not have girl I fancy yet, it was a bit chaotic the last while.”

Zalia pouted at that. Clearly she was all for hearing stories of romance. In a sense, I wished I could have told her something in that regard.

“I still don’t think I believe you. Your face was redder than a freshly plucked tomato.”

But, instead of grilling me further, she spun around and started in another direction again, albeit with slightly more slumped shoulders.

With a shrug and a smile, I followed.

Every now and then, when she was involved in peering into the trees I would practice my new skill. It was such a good skill to have in this zone!

The truth of the matter was I tried to keep my mind preoccupied, I had never even thought about the feelings of the women around me when I made the decision to come into the game.

It was moot though, I had the most experience with the triplet AIs. Still... was there someone who had tried to find my heart?

Ha! Who was I kidding? I discriminate the ‘peaceful’ bears of Hem Iree and tick off game engineers.

I shook my head and focused on the tracks leading off somewhere into the woods. I realised pretty quickly it was that of an ermine. I cringed at my desperate standoff against those supposedly harmless critters.

At least I now understood the text from the skill. I know from the tracks what critters or animals walked there, but I wouldn’t know yet what kind of predator left the tracks. The need to level up to that certain skill wasn’t lost on me.

Every now and then Zalia would glance back at me and I would hold my breath, afraid my face would again reveal my inner turmoil.

Luckily, I was given a breathing chance when we crested another hill, one without trees. It was a bit jarring when a big expanse with no trees laid out before me. A cold icy wind hit me, and I shivered. I could see my exposure meter taking somewhat of a hit, nothing bad, but a reminder of the weather’s new effects in the game. Besides, the sun was setting and that still brought exposure dangers. I was about to suggest to Zalia, we would be better off finding shelter back in the trees. But, she was staring out over the snowy expanse.

I blew out a breath as I saw the dazzling lights of an Aurora glitter into view.

Nice!

Then I stopped as another source of light caught my attention. Under the overhang of a cliff -an ice cliff?- was a town. Its location made it clear construction came from the necessity of facing away from the onslaught of severe blizzards.

The icicles, that remained untouched by the people of the town, pointed sideways. This further explained the exact desperation that I had only briefly seen on Zalia’s face, that deep hope to escape from this continuous ice.

From my side, Zalia took a breath and said,

“Welcome to Frosgard. It doesn’t look like much... but” Her eyes dropped a bit before picking back up, “It has been home the last few years.”

I had to keep my overwhelming excitement of finding a town at bay. Yet, upon seeing the complex emotions running across her face, I nodded sombrely.

The move down the hill onto a snowy plane was a bit difficult, gusts of icy wind would come out of nowhere and make our balance falter. It came as bit of shock when Zalia turned in the wind and loudly said,

“I’m glad you could see Frosgard on a nice day! It is normally worse weather than this.”

“Yeah. me too...” I gulped somewhat. What was this zone? My fellow developers really had outdone themselves in encapsulation the struggle of this frost-ridden place. It made me think, I can’t remember there being talked about this zone, ever. Well, it was probably from a different arm of the studio, but still... developers talk to each other right?

Even with my general lack of details of the game in whole, this proved to be a problem... I didn’t know what kind of events were waiting in this zone, ones clearly meant for parties instead of a solo and wildly under-levelled player like me. I certainly hoped I could find a way to unlock the bigger mission here so I could leave this icy prison.

The shadow of the cliff enveloped us, and with a closer look, I was certain there was a lot of ice, but intermixed with rock. It gave an eerie scene an even stranger feel with the colours of the Aurora filtering through certain places of the permafrost.

Zalia was clearly steering us towards a certain set of buildings on the left. Her pace strangely increased above a comfortable yet brisk one. Even her shoulders looked more tensed up. All of this made me frown, why was she suddenly so anxious?

“Zalia... Are you—“

“Ice-puddle! Where have you been?!” An angry voice shouted from the side.

Zalia froze for a moment before moving even faster in the direction she had been going.

“HEY!! I’m talking to you!”

From the side a muscled man came trudging towards Zalia. But, she ignored him and said,

“Leave me alone.”

“Now listen here, Uncle said I need to find you. We have so much work to do!”

Zalia’s neck twitched and she spun around, red in the face.

“Work? Your work is doing nothing to help us reclaim our lost city! It carries no meaning to me.”

The strange man gritted his teeth, and I could see veins popping up on his neck.

“Distilling Gremlin glands is important to the town!”

“Ha! You think making more alcohol for the people will bring an end to this accursed ice?! No brother, there are things that will help us far more.”

I was actually impressed that Zalia was keeping her anger under control in the situation. Not like her brother that was bursting with rage by now. The she continued,

“Now, if you would excuse me, I have found us hope and I intend to let father know.”

With that, she tipped her head slightly and turned back towards the cluster of buildings she had been heading.

I shrugged and started to follow—

A hand shot out and grabbed her arm. Her brother was standing there breathing like a train.

“You will come with me.” He said in menacing tone.

Oi!

That was too far, I stepped forward, and with a simple grabbing motion I gripped the man’s thumb twisting it slightly, this was always a weak point for people not expecting it. I didn’t finish the manoeuvre, but I kept ready.

“I would suggest you show respect to your sister. Or I will teach it to you painfully.”

He actually growled at me. I raised an eyebrow at this, what was he trying to prove in making animal sounds. It made me want to laugh in his face, but I kept it in.

“Go away, little man!” He finally barked, “And let go of my thumb before you get hurt. My business with my sister has absolutely nothing to do with you.”

“Maybe, but it doesn’t mean you can treat her like that. So I will ask one more time for you to let her go.”

“Tamry, he is serious. I would suggest you listen to him.”

Her brother, Tamry as I’ve just heard, just growled again and swung his fist at me. I dropped to my knee unexpectedly, and kept hold of his thumb with all my strength as I lurched forward under Zalia’s arm. Immediately, this caused him to lose his grip on his sister as his arm buckled under the pain I was completely familiar with in this kind of move. My own sister had more than once proved how painfully effective her kind of ‘thumb wrestling’ can be.

As Tamry grunted heavily, I swept back up onto my feet with his arm coming up behind his back in a lock that was surely hurting.

“Now, tell your sister sorry for treating her with such disrespect and I will let you go back to your oh so important work of keeping people drunk.”

He was grunting and groaning as he tried desperately to get out of my arm lock by himself.

“You little twerp...aghhh... I will get... ahhhgh... for this... agghh. Alright, alright! I’m sorry!”

“You think he meant it Zalia?” I asked while holding the struggling muscled man in the arm lock.

Zalia was clearly having a hard time holding back her own laughter as she could only manage to shake her head with her mouth clamped shut. Tamry clearly got nervous at his sister not thinking he meant it, as he redoubled his efforts.

“Look, I’m sorry! Please tell him to let me go.”

After a moment of pausing to think, Zalia relented and said,

“Apology accepted. Let him go. I hope you learned something from this Tamry.”

“I did! I did! Just please.”

I pushed up a little harder before I let go. The man stumbled forward out of breath. He was throwing me a death glare, but he controlled his features when Zalia looked at him.

“I’m going with my friend here to report to father now.”

He nodded and she left. As I turned to follow, Tamry said,

“You better watch your back, little man.”

I just smirked at his unoriginal threat and trotted to catch up with Zalia.

It was quiet the first while. She was clearly deep in thought as she walked, but after a minute she took a deep breath and said,

“Thank you Wil... I mean it. What you did for me back there... I am so grateful.”

I nodded, glad I could have been there.

“You are more than welcome. I am not one for standing idly by watching that kind of disrespect.”

Zalia smiled at me with a warmth that almost took my breath away. I started stuttering and said,

“Well... ugm, your brother is a piece of work.”

She scoffed at that and said,

“Yeah, he has this mean streak to him. He is not bad... really. He just don’t understand that we need to strive for being freed from this unnatural lasting winter. My people need it more than he understands...”

“I sure hope he can learn to respect your will to give a better future for your people, I do.”

“I know you do. That is why you have brought new hope to the town of Frosgard.”

“Whoa there! No use in putting all your hopes in me.”

“I know what you mean. But, it doesn’t take away that which you represent, what you will represent is that we must not give up in breaking free of this.”

Her eyes pointed towards all the snow and I understood then what she meant. It wasn’t that she believed I alone was the only one that could free them, but that I represented the start of what they needed to work towards.

Still... waaaaay too much pressure.

I chuckled nervously.

Then we reached a tower under the overhang, lights were casting it in a warm glow. I walked in trying not to let it become obvious I was sweating a little as Zalia ran forward and embraced an older gentleman.

“Dad! It is so good to see you! I have so much to tell you... Oh, let me introduce you to Wil.”

Ah, it never got easier to meet the parents of a girl, not even in a game...