Chapter Twenty

Will hadn’t expected to get the group to “stumble” across the trigger for the Snow Sentinel in the first day of trying. He’d given them every hint he could justify saying other Climbers told him, and was leading them towards the area where the Boss could spawn, but his main goal at this point was to get the group used to each other and to working together. The first fight hadn’t been the only time they’d made mistakes over the seven or eight hours they’d been in the Zone, and there were a few points of tension that had begun to emerge in the group.

Unk was prioritising Daphne over everyone else when tanking, which was understandable and usually not that bad of a decision given she was a squishy Caster without any melee ability. Will had made sure she had a dagger and basic understanding of its’ use, but until he could get her a better weapon or a Skill to deal with up-close fighting she was largely reliant on her summons and her uncle. Okembe had been injured twice now because Unk had left him to save Daphne, and the last time he did it caused a brief argument between the men. Will managed to soothe it, but Metrodora had voiced support of Okembe and that lead to angry looks from Daphne.

Will was doing his best to cover the defensive role as well, not letting his desire to fight overcome the need to keep the monsters from reaching his backline allies, but they were still getting used to each others’ rhythm. Okembe nearly knocked Metrodora unconscious with his shield at one point because she dashed in front of him without realising, and that was the sort of glitch which meant that as the group fumbled their way into a small cave and set up a campfire they were in less high spirits.

Despite the issues, they had actually been fairly successful. They’d covered a good amount of ground, picked up a fair few Coins, and even though there were kinks in their teamwork he was sure they could work them out.

“Right, we’ll rest here till everybody’s ready to head back out. Anyone got any ideas other than heading in the same direction? None of the others I talked to could confirm anything, but those Yeti sightings were just a day’s walk north of here if I’ve kept my sense of direction.”

The group lounged in the small stone space as best they could, loosening or removing layers and eating or drinking to restore their energies. Metrodora had pulled out the overpriced, poorly detailed monster manual she found earlier in the Tower and Okembe had immediately sat in a meditative pose, not even pausing to stitch the holes in his robes from the day’s battles.

“Me and Daph didn’t spend much time here before we met you, cause of the cold, so I’m not sure. You said that the other group found a Hidden Boss? Do we know how they found it?”

Daphne spoke up in reply to her uncle.

“No, Will said earlier. They said they were exploring Zone 3 and it attacked them, but other than some vague stuff about sandstorms and having to tie a rope to each other or something they didn’t give details.”

Will nodded gratefully, deciding to share a bit more of his information in hopes it would recapture a bit of their lost enthusiasm.

“Okay this is where we get into my theories, so call out if you see any issues. I’ve found a few ‘Hidden’ things, and I’m sure some of you have as well. I found a Hidden Event on Floor 2 by standing in the middle of a sand circle and closing my eyes, I found a Hidden Encounter on the First Floor just by being near enough to it to get caught, things like that. Before I fought with Mira, I’d been exploring Zone 2 and got attacked by a Hidden Boss called the River Wolf.”

Metrodora had closed her book, and Okembe had opened his eyes and begun casually stitching his robes as he looked at Will. He had their attention, so he kept going with a slightly stronger tone.

“The Wolf attacked me when I stepped into the river. But I’d stepped into the river before, several times, in different parts of the Zone.”

“So you believe that it was the combination of stepping into the river and being in a specific location?”

Okembe was quickest on the draw, but the others all looked as though they’d made the same connection.

“Something like that, yeah. My idea is that there’s some sort of trigger that makes the Hidden stuff reveal itself. Whatever that group did in Zone 3 must have activated the trigger for the Hidden Boss.”

Now Daphne spoke, and Metrodora completed the thought, all previous irritation between the pair momentarily forgotten.

“So you think there’s something like that in each Zone-”

“-And we need to figure out what it is for this one.”

Will clapped his hands together as a teacher he faintly remembered once had and gave the group a big smile.

“Exactly, and most of you are smarter than me, so while we rest let’s brainstorm.”

After a mostly productive evening, which had eventually pivoted from serious discussion of their next moves in the Zone to general banter and conversation, the group all huddled together, scheduled out watch shifts, and got some sleep. Will woke after two hours to Okembe’s whispered words, and stretched as best he could in the small cave.

[No sign of any monsters, though I heard some wolves howling. Okembe]

You could tell that Okembe was both a former police officer and a telepath, as he’d taken to the Party messaging function like a natural. Will nodded and sent back a grateful reply, swapping places with the taller man and taking a seat near the cave’s entrance. Their fire burned low, and Daphne had purchased a Smoke Evaporator [E] from the Store to clear the smoke so they could safely sleep in the enclosed space with it. That was something Will hadn’t even had to suggest, proving that he’d chosen his group well and they weren’t dead weight.

He spent his time on watch just outside of the cave’s entrance, using Tough Conditioning [E] and going through exercises. It helped to keep him awake, and while the team was still so fresh he didn’t feel safe using the Skill while they travelled and fought, just in case. He’d need to increase the training quite a bit to get it to upgrade, and keeping his above-average Stats was pretty important too. The Weight Changing Charm, which he’d been using when he remembered to increase the power of his strikes with Shout, let him make the sword an extra burden just for another bit of difficulty as he jogged and moved. He thought through the plan for the next week or so as he did, the physical motions coming naturally even as he exerted himself to the point of sweating. In the darkness, his Reflex was getting a workout just keeping his footing, but his thoughts remained steady.

The Snow Sentinel was a Hidden Boss in the strictest sense. Roughly 11 hours of travel, if they picked up the pace a bit from the first day, from their current point, was a large pillar of blue stone that would be shrouded in icy mist and invisible until someone got within a few feet of it. Along with the identical pillar a mile to the east, if someone could decipher the hieroglyphs on the face, they could access the pillar and gain a piece of a mental map. With both pillars, the map would point you to a hidden cave under a snowdrift, where you could open the chamber and fight the Snow Sentinel. It was possible to find the cave with just one, but having both would guarantee it. Even though he was familiar with the Floor in general, Will didn’t actually know where the cave was. He never fought this Boss in the first timeline, though he’d heard stories from others. He’d miscalculated against enemies like this on the earlier Floors, and though he felt more confident after his grinding and recruitment, the unknown factor did niggle at him.

“Kat or Okembe, I reckon.”

He panted the words out to himself, letting them be whipped away by the night winds. One of the two would likely be the first to decipher the hieroglyphs, once he led them to “stumble” on the first pillar. He was confident he could manage it, since he’d done similar tasks on other Floors, but he was hoping they would to save him having to look even more prescient.

Morning came, and after a quick refresher on their plan for the day and a fatty meal crammed down for warmth, the group resumed their trek through the snow. They didn’t make it to the first pillar within the day, having accidentally crossed the path of a solo Climber who was fleeing a large floating ice elemental with the appearance of a bladed snowflake. Whatever he’d done to piss it off, it was at least Miniboss level and Daphne almost passed out from Mana overuse when she tried to have her firebird melt it before Will could warn her. It drained Mana from attacks, something all true elementals did, but he had stupidly forgotten to let the group know about. He’d assumed they’d either read it online in his posts or figured it out themselves, but the guilt made the rest of the fight even more annoying and painful. They did triumph over the creature, earning themselves a nice pile of Coins and earning Unk an E Grade replacement for his shield since he dealt the killing blow, but it ate into their time and forced them to head into another cave to recover. The other Climber hadn’t even stuck around to watch the fight, and Will tried to remember his face just in case they met again. He was trying to promote collaboration, and running a monster into someone’s path then leaving was very much against the spirit.

The Snow Sentinel wasn’t the only Hidden thing in the Zone, and Will didn’t know where all the others were, so as they got deeper and deeper he became more cautious. Triggering one they weren’t prepared for was unlikely to be a disaster, but he wanted to avoid it if possible. The fact he wasn’t aware of much beyond the Bosses on this Floor indicated to him that there hadn’t been much of importance, whereas he knew of at least two big secrets on the next Floor. He couldn’t keep pushing them directly towards the first pillar, and after they debated a change in direction and he lost a vote, they ended up going several hours off-track.

[My Mana is beginning to get low, I must stop Telepathy. Okembe]

[Still have some of the Pills left, take one. Met.]

The last time they’d rested, Metrodora had made use of the time to experiment with the Ice Elemental Core that she’d harvested, and without needing Will’s prompting had managed to distill it into pills that would enhance Mana regeneration. They were amateurish, worse than what the Store offered, but it was good for her to get practice, and Okembe’s thankful nod as he took the pill and winced at the taste showed the value of an Alchemist on the team.

They were coming up on three solid days of Climbing and sleeping in caves, and by this point they’d all taken at least one injury that took more than a quick sip of a potion to heal. If the tundra environment wasn’t so samey and boring, Will thought he might have been able to motivate them easier, but that was all the more reason to tackle it first. He kept pushing them onwards, getting them back in the right direction, and he was able to see improvements in their teamwork in each fight. Mostly they were minor, and Unk had managed to knock Metrodora face first into a snowdrift twice, but even as they became worn out from the constant fighting they got better at it.

[What are we even supposed to be looking for Will? Daph]

[Anything that looks out of place, I suppose. Will]

He wished he could just say “a big blue pillar covered in hieroglyphs 3 feet in front of your face” but he hadn’t built up enough trust to reveal that level of information to the group yet unless it was life-or-death. They crested another snow-capped peak, legs aching as they plodded down the slope looking for any threats. A pair of Glacial Wolves came close, but a quick reaction from Okembe sent them running after his floating sword cut one of their flanks deeply.

[I say we find another hidey-hole and camp out. Unk]

[Next one we see. Will]

He couldn’t push the group too hard if he wanted them to stick together. He’d build up to the month long camping trips and week long wave defence challenges. He was confident they’d reach the first pillar within the first half of the next day, if nothing else went wrong, and that was honestly faster than he’d expected. Metrodora was the weakest Climber, and she swigged homemade stamina enhancements like water to keep up, but she didn’t complain even when a Snow Elemental gave her two black eyes with a vicious attack that slipped past Okembe’s shield. Daphne was the MVP though, her firebird being perfectly suited for the monsters as long as she took the Mana drain into account against elementals.

He handled the next aggressive creature to give the others a break – it was a Winter Hog, one of the rarer beasts in this part of the Zone from what Will had learned, but easily dispatched with Whisper and Shout before anyone else had to raise a hand. After another hour or two, they found a patch between some trees and Will offered them a choice.

“We can camp out here if we want to spend the Tower Coins on tents, but watch will be even more important. Or, we can keep looking for another cave.”

Consensus was to camp, and so they spent some Coins on supplies and huddled together in a cramped tent with magical handwarmers. If there was one thing Will had learned about party dynamics in the first timeline, it was that the small comforts were well worth their inflated cost to keep a team motivated.

Another mostly uneventful night, except for an attack by Snow Goblins that apparently qualified as a Hidden Encounter. Daphne had been on watch, and her firebird had scorched one of the half-dozen little buggers before the rest of them even stumbled out of the tent. Although one nearly stabbed an icicle into Will’s kidneys, Metrodora had landed a perfect shot with a thrown vial of acid that he didn’t even resent getting splashed with. The pain was minor through his armour, and it sent the goblin to the floor where Whisper made short work of it. The loot was pathetic, and Will just stashed it to trade in the safe area later. Eventually, once they’d dismantled their camp and headed back into the snow, Will’s heart leapt to hear a shout from Unk.

“Hey, there’s something up ahead that wasn’t there a second ago. Big blue pillar.”

His voice was mostly lost in the wind, but Will was close enough to hear and relay it to the others.

[Step up here, you should see a pillar. Will]

The others did as instructed, Okembe leaning in to get a better look at the hieroglyphics immediately as Metrodora whipped out a notebook and pencil that she had to hide from the ever present blizzard.

“Now this looks like a trigger!”

This time Unk’s voice wasn’t lost, and it boomed through the mountainside happily as Will joined the others in inspecting the stone.