“Didn’t he say something to Pitoy?” Flick asked, his gaze also turned at Nubram.

The undead wizard shrugged. “Beats me, he was rather secretive. After we told him to apologise and a certain someone didn’t bother and even threatened him, it’s natural for him to have some time alone.”

“Oh my, these lands are dangerous if you go alone, especially when a blizzard strikes, not to mention he is seasick,” Manna chuckled in a rather concerned tone. Very suspicious indeed.

Nubram needed to keep an eye on her. Therefore he split the group into three. Renma with Flick, Rushvatte with Macepaw, and Nubram would go with Manna.

The paladin didn’t seem to be bothered with it and just followed the group division. The two quickly rode northwards through the wide path made by the NPCs. There were thick snows on the side of the path which seemed to function as some sort of guard rail. A lot of NPCs were seen shovelling the snow, while others are using some sort of steam powered tractors to remove snow, ice, and rocks from the road.

The location of their target for the quest was a bit further north until they met a three-way junction then turned left to chase some bandits that disrupted the safety of this main path towards Hammerthorn - the capital city of the dwarven civilization.

So far, Nubram didn’t see any malicious intent nor action from Manna. There were no signs of her still being angry. She fought normally and rather quite better than usual. She’s also very relaxed as if nothing had happened at all. Really suspicious.

“Pitoy, I suggest we continue our quest up the mountain,” Manna suggested after they finished storing their first batch of quests to a messenger. She pointed at some bandits and ice golems spread on the north side of the path to Hammerthorn. “It would be easier to get bandanas and we can explore more areas on the other side of this mountain.”

“Sure.”

No matter how much he had his suspicions on Manna, he had to admit that the paladin would know the area better than him. And thus, he would just follow her lead. Of course, Nubram was still keeping an eye on her.

The journey towards the peak was rather tiresome, thus Nubram often spammed his [Warp] just to save some time walking. As Manna had said, these lands were rather treacherous. Nubram almost tumbled down several times when he was recklessly moving in a fight. Meanwhile Manna was rather unaffected despite wearing full plate armour.

The fights against monsters itself were not that hard. The problem was that today Manna tended to act like Flick who would just rush straight towards the next target after defeating one. Luckily, Nubram’s fire spells were rather effective against the ice golems and walking mini pine trees.

It was not just the quest messenger that greeted the two at the peak, but also a breathtaking view of mountain ranges that encircled a valley down below. Several rainbows were visible due to the sunlight being diffracted by crystal-like ices on the peaks. Down below, there was a massive caldera which the map named as Nefelein Valley.

Even from this height, Nubram could see the massive rock formations at the base of the caldera. It seemed random at first, but Nubram could’ve sworn there could be some sort of pattern there. Especially because there was just a plain circular snowfield at the centre of it.

Nubram had to admit that this location might be the best that he had ever visited in Zurefgar.

After claiming their rewards and continuation of the quest, Manna suggested again, “Now, how about we just continue for the quest by treading along the peaks? There should be other messengers if we keep following this trail.”

Nubram looked at Manna suspiciously, “What about down there?”

“Plausible,” Manna nodded. “There should be slightly stronger enemies down there and quests a little bit above our levels. There are dungeon entries as well around that area.”

“What dungeons?”

“Oh my, those are the Azure Drake’s Lair and Frostyeti Cave.”

Nubram pondered on the options for a while. There was still some adrenaline left in his blood due to the duels he performed earlier in Grandar’s port, thus he was more keen to follow the more dangerous option. It would also be good for him to survey the dungeon first before inevitably going there to get the items he needed.

Further, letting Manna do as she pleases would not be in any way beneficial.

“We’re going down to Nefelein Valley,” Nubram said, “Higher levelled opponents would be beneficial with the EXP boost.”

“Oh well.” Manna nodded. There was a slight disappointment in her visage. Thus, Nubram thought that he had made a better choice.

As she had warned, the opponents on the downward slope towards Nefelein Valley are stronger. They started fighting yetis and more living pines whose size got stronger the further they went downwards. There were also some blue colored medium-sized drakes wandering the area. They fought those drakes once in a while, but not too many because they were far too difficult to handle and were not involved in any quest.

Finally Nubram also saw quite a number of snow leopards around the area. However, they left those leopards since there was no quest associated with it and killing too many of them would make them start gaining a negative reputation among the dwarven factions.

They took their fourth break right when they reached the caldera after Manna was attacked by a blue drake since she was being reckless in approaching one big yeti.

“If you do not mind, I want to check around for a bit,” Manna said as she had just recovered faster due to her racial passive.

“Yeah,” Nubram mumbled, “ No problem, I need to rest a bit after that. For the sake of my sanity.”

“Take your time.”

Manna quickly left Nubram while the wizard was taking his time to recuperate. Not gonna lie, the most recent fight was almost fatal if Nubram’s [Blaze Bolt] failed to perform a critical strike twice in a row.

“This feels good.”

Nubram finally lay down on the thick snow. Looking upward at the soft falling snows. At this point, he started to consider wrapping up the gaming session today since he got two levels already and Manna got one level. It ain’t bad.

Maybe he could offer Manna a portal to go back to Silveraxe. If she refuses, then Nubram would let her roam alone. It was not his responsibility to take care of her anyway.

“That should be Eggi’s or Pras’ responsibility, you know?” Nubram mumbled to himself again.

At that time, Nubram started to wonder about where did Tier actually go in this continent that they just newly explored. Then, a realisation struck him.

Nubram sat down and looked at the creatures in this place.

“Snow leopards? Leopards… jaguars…. Snow jaguar? Damnit, Manna!”

Nubram sprang up and summoned his skeletal horse. The undead wizard quickly dashed towards the middle of the valley. His heart raced faster than his mount. His hunch since the start of this gaming session was right. Something bad is about to happen.