Local Resource identified during transport North. Requesting additional funds to procure.

Over the following days, there was a drastic shift in The Forest of the Final Sleep’s monster population. Fewer and fewer ghouls stood in their way, while more and more of the strange bone abominations emerged to confront them. The snow, once dangerous merely for the supernatural cold that permeated it, now became an ideal hiding place for the Skeletal Chimeras (as the system had identified them in Elijah’s kill notifications).

Perhaps as concerning as the increase in danger, their route became more and more tangled. What once were fairly straight paths through the deadly snow, with only the occasional intersection, slowly became a twist, knotted maze of paths. At first, this could be ignored. Niels was a powerful advantage, being one of the few types of mages capable of flight at such a comparatively low stage of advancement and was more than capable of guiding them down the right paths.

As they worked their way deeper however, the dungeon presented new defenses that stymied even their leaders capable eyes.

A steady wind began to make itself known, constantly blowing the heat sapping powder in mesmerizing patterns. In the air, the snow exhibited less of the terrible, deadly siphoning than they experienced in the drifts and fields. Despite that, it was still enough to have been a constant threat without Theo’s potions. More importantly, even Niels’ sight couldn’t pierce through the flying snow, forcing them to rely on scouting from the ground.

A turn of events that Niels had been far from pleased with.

From that point on, Seba had been run ragged. The man barely got a chance to sleep, constantly on the move as he explored path after path. Without his assistance, Hidden Opportunities would have wasted hours or days backtracking and looping through the seemingly endless maze. Unfortunately, even the Fidivir’s impressive skills couldn’t guide the party properly at every turn.

Eventually, Niels called them together to discuss the situation. Clearly unhappy, he began to speak.

“We need more scouts. Seba has been doing what he can, but there are simply too many routes and he can’t be everywhere at once. We simply don’t have the supplies on hand to spend months making our way through this maze. Points are becoming more valuable every day with the rate of growth some of you are showing. Having to use them to buy food and basic necessities would be a near criminal waste. On top of that, even if we were willing to eat that loss, our client expects us back within a certain time frame. If we keep advancing at the current pace, I don’t think we’re going to meet that expectation.”

Seba and Theo gave a look of surprise at that, before rapidly speaking back and forth. It was hard for Elijah to make out the details, but the two seemed to be rapidly calculating how much time they had left and how fast they were moving. As they continued to speak, Theo made repeated, harsh statements that left the scout frowning. Clearly, Theo was of the same opinion and was convincing enough to worry Seba.

“I thought we had plenty of time?” He spoke up, trying to get a better idea of the situation.

“I thought we did to. The problem isn’t so much the speed we are currently moving, as the amount we’ve slowed down. The outer parts of the forest were fairly fast, as you know, and we felt comfortable drastically slowing our speed to help prepare you for the rest of the dungeon.”

Elijah frowned at that. He didn’t want to admit it, but it was true. He had slowed them down. Wasting time while he worked to quickly rise to a point where he could actually help the team. He could only hope that in the long run he’d save them more time than he cost as one more capable set of hands. Elijah saw the flash of recognition in Niel’s eyes at his slight look of guilt, but the other man continued speaking without pause.

“We expected to be slowed down in winter, but we did not expect it to be this much. More importantly, there are still two major obstacles in the way between ourselves and the boss. The Heart of Winter and its Guardian. What information we could find said that accessing the Heart of Winter requires us to make it past the Guardian, something described as ‘time consuming’. As in the work of weeks or months rather than hours.”

“Ah, so the fear is that if winter has slowed us down this much, this guardian might slow us down enough to fail the job?”

“Yes. Every hour we save now is another hour we have to deal with the guardian.”

“Alright, I see your point Niels,” Theo spoke up. The other man was clearly unnerved as he continued, “Do you have something in mind?”

Their leader grimaced at the question. He seemed to hesitate briefly before Elijah saw a slight hardening in the eyes and a distinct setting of the jaw. Briefly, he remembered the other man’s rather mercenary attitude when Seba had gone missing. Clearly, once more, the man had decided to do something that set the good of the group above the good of one of their individuals.

“I believe I do.” He looked Elijah in eye, and something in his gaze gave Elijah pause, “We can send Elijah out as a secondary scout…”

“Absolutely not!” Seba’s interjection was loud and immediate, “He has no training as a scout, on top of being the least trained and lowest level of any of us. In what possible world is that a good idea!”

Theo put a hand on the scout’s shoulder, interrupting his opposition. “Calm down Seba. Niels wouldn’t propose this without reason. Let’s at least hear him out before we say no.”

Clearly unhappy, Seba none the less accepted the alchemist’s advice. He sighed, rubbed his temples, and motioned for Niels to continue. Their leader had been silent throughout the exchange, though he had been sporting a slight frown since the interruption. Seeing Seba was ready to listen, however, he continued.

“As you said, Elijah is not currently trained as a scout. That is hardly a major issue though. We have yet to see a single artificial trap in this dungeon, instead it seems populated with monster ambushes and widespread environmental dangers. Things to be wary of for sure, but not something that specific scout training would be particularly helpful with. There are no switches to disarm, magical sigils to break, or locks to pick. We are not tracking some creature, and all the routes are clearly visible.

“While you are correct that Elijah’s level is lower than any of the rest of ours, his skill set is well suited to enduring danger. He is, after all, a tank. And one that proved himself quite effective before we ever met him. I would place his chances of survival alone in this dungeon third in our group, following only myself and you Seba.

“The only other reasonable option we have for a scout is myself, and while I do plan to do some amount of the scouting in the end it is most important for me to be able to remain mobile and centrally located between all our members. My job, first and foremost, is to act as backup when any of us are in danger. That will conflict with any attempt to follow a single path from beginning to end. I will, by necessity, be forced to a more limited range than is truly useful for a scout.”

Elijah agreed with every point Niels made. They needed to move faster, and he was most suited to the job. It was only sensible. Seba, apparently, didn’t see it that way. While Elijah and Niels, the two this decision was most relevant to, remained silent, the scout and alchemist argued about it for long minutes. Rory, unwilling to be left out, occasionally threw in a comment or two, but for the most part added nothing of particular value to the conversation.

Eventually, their argument began to become repetitive. Seba continued to argue that Elijah simply lacked the necessary training and or movement skills to make it an effective strategy while Theo would respond that neither of those were relevant. Another person, regardless of how fast they were, following trails to avoid dead ends would still mean less ground for Seba himself to cover and increase their speed. While Elijah couldn’t be expected to report back regularly, Niels could fly out to him using various magical tracking methods Theo could devise. Once there, he could get Elijah’s report or pick him up as needed.

Eventually, Elijah decided to end the argument.

“Enough Seba. Thank you for trying to protect me, but I’m doing it. It’s something that needs to be done, and I’m the best man we have for the job. Besides, as long as Theo is able to put together a distress flare and one of those tracking beacons, how much danger will I really be in. With how fast I can move, I doubt I’ll ever be more than ten or so minutes from Niels at his maximum flying speed. If that.”

Turning to Niels, Elijah inclined his head slightly, “And thank you for agreeing to provide those defensive measures. I know that they won’t be cheap.”

Niels nodded back, “Theo has the materials stocked away, and we were not planning to use them for anything else. All they will cost is gold to replace, rather than points. I would be a pretty poor leader if I did not agree to even that much.”

“It is still appreciated,” Elijah replied. “Now, rather than continuing to argue I believe our time would be far better spent deciding how we can best prepare me for the work ahead.”

After Elijah put his foot down, Seba grudgingly accepted that Niel’s plan was happening. Over the next few hours, he packed as much knowledge as he could into Elijah’s head hoping to give him whatever edge he could manage. Tenets of dungeon scouting he had learned over the years, specific give aways he had noticed that a trail would dead end in this dungeon, even a rough map he had been creating of their surroundings.

#

The following morning, Elijah found himself once more preparing to venture out alone in the magical forest that was all he had seen of this supposed new world. Rubbing at his chest, he felt the cold pull drawing him toward the center of the dungeon. It had been such a constant companion that most of the time he forgot about it entirely. Hopefully soon I’ll be seeing more than just this cursed place.

Breathing out slowly, watching his breathe cloud in front of his face, he pulled the cords on his jacket and tightened the hood around his head. Among the various emergency supplies he had been provided with, Theo had sewn a few runes into the inner lining of his jacket. While they wouldn’t produce any heat, and therefore cost far less mana, time, and resources to maintain, they would better trap his body heat within his clothes. Somehow the mage had even managed to rig some sort of simple barrier across his face, using the edge of the hood to anchor a ward of some kind.

Similar runes were present in his gloves, pants, and shoes. Where before the cold hadn’t bothered him enough to really complain, now he was downright comfortable. He had even caught himself unzipping the coat on occasion to let a little of the heat out.

The team really had held nothing back to make this job as safe and comfortable as possible. He couldn’t, he wouldn’t, let them down. Exhaling once again, he activated his armor’s enchantment and was soon coated head to food in full plate mail of blood and bone. With the coat underneath providing unnatural bulk, he felt he didn’t look too out of place with the various skeletal monsters that filled this part of the dungeon.

Shaking his head to clear away the thought, Elijah began to jog out along one of the paths leading away from their camp.

#

Over the following days, Elijah learned several surprising, and not so surprising, things. The first was that scouting like this was awful, unrewarding work that left him feeling like a massive amount of his time was going to waste. That wasn’t strictly true, but you could only spend so long wandering paths and hitting dead ends or learning that your route was less direct than some other path that had been found only to be flown back to some other intersection to begin again before negative thoughts began to seep in.

On top of that, it left him no time to do anything else. He only moved a little faster than Theo and Rory did, even with his greater focus on physical skills. He was simply too far behind them in overall levels. Even with an eight-hour head start, he needed to be constantly on the move if he hoped to collect any kind of meaningful information. Where before, much of his time was spent training and learning now he found he could spare maybe half an hour at most on self-improvement and maybe another half an hour on meditation. It hurt to feel his improvement curb itself so quickly, but it was necessary.

Thankfully what time he did have for training Seba was more than happy to assist with. It couldn’t compare to days on end of personalized teaching from a D rank mage, but his progress was still far greater than he could have achieved on his own. Even when they were both out scouting, Seba would leave him with exercises or training methods to practice until they had a chance to meet up at the camp again.

Theo was also available on occasion, though much of his time was spent preparing potions to deal with this mysterious Guardian of The Heart of Winter. Mostly warmth potions, sensory enhancement potions, and firebombs as far Elijah could tell, though there were various other types mixed in. With his other commitments, most of Theo’s help came in the form of various books and research papers on blood magic, along with a few treatises on magical principles and how they could mesh with various fighting styles. For a man who claimed to have no formal education, Theo had a truly astounding number of research materials.

As for Niels…The man was never in camp at the same time as Theo. The two only really interacted when Elijah was being transported back to the rest of the team or was giving a report. The man was constantly on the move, flying out to meet up with Seba, doing close range scouting to ensure the safety of Rory and Theo, even taking over long-range scouting when both Elijah and Seba were back in camp.

In short, once again the vast majority of Elijah’s interactions with other living, or at least mobile, creatures were the monsters of the dungeon. And even those interactions had been surprisingly few and far between.

Elijah had actually come up with a theory on that. He had noticed that while he was moving with his coat open due to overheating, he had been running into more of the Skeletal Chimeras. Or at least that is what it felt like. Eventually, he had decided to experiment a little.

The first test was simple. He’d run with his coat fully closed for three three hour shifts and average the number of encounters he had with monsters. Another set of three three hour shifts had been spent running with the coat open. Neither was very comfortable, but he needed plenty of time to collect good results. Results that were very clear, as he averaged almost four times as many encounters with monsters while running with his coat open.

At this point, it was pretty clear these monsters primarily relied on some kind of heat sense to identify prey. That clearly wasn’t the only way they did so, as he was still dealing with the abominations jumping out at him even when fully insulated, and they had no problem finding him once they had left snow. Based on some of the configurations he had run into, including a number that had not had conventional skull, they clearly weren’t using sight.

In the end, he had decided that was plenty of information for the time being. Seba’s training had been clear, his job was to gather information not wipe out every potential danger on the path. Now he had one more way to accomplish that as quickly and safely as possible. On top of that, Elijah decided he would take hours of being hot over potential deadly combat about every half hour.

#

“What actually is the Guardian of the Heart of Winter?”

It was one of the few times when Seba and Elijah found themselves back in camp at the same time, and Elijah decided to take advantage of the situation. When Seba, Theo, and Rory had gathered for lunch, he took the opportunity to begin asking questions.

“I was originally guessing it was some kind of miniboss like the cat or bears.” He continued, “But the way Niels said ‘get past’ rather than beat and the fact he said it would take so long…A bigger, stronger monster doesn’t make sense. Not unless there is something really strange about it.”

“I can think of a few examples of creature Guardians that can take that long to kill,” Theo said. “Usually highly defensive creatures like slimes, turtles, or crustaceans. Tunnel to Hell has an entrance protected by a massive Spider. It’s a Magma Mage trapdoor spider as tall as an ogre that will initially pop open a comparatively thin earth and webbing covering over the dungeon entrance in an ambush. If you actually manage to beat it, it will retreat back into the dungeon and block the entrance with the flattened butt end of its abdomen. My understanding is that the enchanted obsidian making up the creature’s carapace is resistant to most forms of magic and most teams must spend days or weeks slowly digging their way through the body of the beast to enter the dungeon proper. You’re right, however, it is uncommon.”

Elijah shuddered at the thought of something like that. Bad enough it was a giant spider, but he could hardly imagine how dangerous magic over something like Magma could be. Add to that the disgusting idea of having to vivisect the thing after you finally beat it…it just wasn’t worth it.

“Alright, but I’m betting this Guardian isn’t one of those.”

Theo put down his food slowly, taking his time before responding. “You would be correct.”

Seba barely gave himself time to finish chewing before jumping in himself, “It is a massive elemental, sort of. Just not that kind.”

“Let me explain this,” Theo sighed. “You’re liable to only confuse him more.”

Carefully wiping his hand, the alchemist composed himself before beginning to speak again.

“Simply put, the Guardian of The Heart of Winter is something like an elemental and a hivemind in one. Both types of creatures that are difficult and time consuming to kill. Additionally, the magical construct resides within, and is empowered by, a massive storm of ice wild magic. As for its actual form, the central mind of the monster is an intangible spectre of wind and ice shaped like a flower. That central mind is harmless however, and destroying it will simply result in a new construct constituting itself at a safe distance.

“The greater danger is the horde of lesser beasts it has hijacked control of. Frost wraiths, small fish with large jaws that swim through the snow. Hordes of them tear through Guardian’s territory, like salmon runs constantly breaching from the surface of the snow and attempting to consume anything they come across. Skeletal abominations that wander close enough for it to snag control of. The occasional ice golem formed around frozen bodies of those who died within the storm.

“And all of that is without taking into account perhaps the most dangerous aspect, the storm itself. The wind is biting and drains warmth every bit as bad as the snow around here, but the flying ice and snow also limits your vision. The report we found noted that it can be difficult to see your hand in front of your face in the worst spots, and vision is limited to maybe a foot in the best areas. Occasionally sickles and spears of ice will be found carried on the wind as well, threatening to cut you down. Naturally occurring enchantments are carved into the frozen ground by the wind, causing those within to lose track of time and direction making it easy to become hopelessly lost.

“It is not a creature meant to be killed, especially not by people of our level. The last report estimates that it would take a low B rank adventuring team with suitable powers as long as a month to manage to kill it.”

Theo gave Elijah time to let what they were facing sink in, and Elijah appreciated it. It was daunting, to say the least. Knowing they were facing something like that. Soon though, he was voicing the only question that mattered.

“So how are we supposed to get through it?”

Seba grinned, “That is where I come in. Well, me and Theo’s potions.”

Theo nodded along, “I have a recipe for a potion called Environmental Shell. It is supposed to negate weather conditions in an area, up to a degree. That should expand our vision out to ten feet or so, and combined with the warmth enchantments keep us alive in the storm. We’ll still need to be on guard, and we’re going to be going through my potions incredibly quickly, but it will put us in a much better position. I’ll also being stuffing Seba full of sensory enhancement potions.”

“Yep, the paths we’ve been following should continue into the Guardian’s territory.” Seba picked up the explanation, “They’ll just be much harder to identify. If we can manage to stay on them though, we should be able to avoid the worst of the dangers. The paths don’t split and deadend like out here, they lead you around the worst of the traps, and something about them repel the majority of the monsters. With Theo’s enhancement potions, I should be able to manage without too much danger. It will just be slow going, and we won’t be able to avoid everything.”

“Well, that’s a much better prospect than you originally made it sound like.” Elijah’s tone lightened as he realized just how prepared his allies were. “How will we know when we’ve reached the Guardian’s territory?”

“Oh, that’ll be real easy,” Seba grinned. “We should be able to see it from several miles away, a giant dome three times as tall as the surrounding trees. The moment you pass inside, you’re in the Guardian’s territory.”

Seba’s words proved prophetic, as barely halfway through the next day Elijah saw the first signs of the great dome.

#

This is bad. Real Bad. At one point Elijah, had believed himself to be rather eloquent. He liked to read. He wrote on occasion. He’d thought, if he ever found himself in a bad situation, he would be able to come up with a better description than just “bad”. Years of work in emergency situations and months of desperate fighting in a cursed forest had dissuaded him from that thought.

Sometimes the best word was something simple.

People talked about terrible or awful. Maybe even desperate. But none, at least in his experience had that same immediate gut sink reaction of hearing that something was “Bad”. Bad with the big “B”. An implied capitalization that you could always just hear in a person’s voice. This was one of those moments.

Behind him he could hear the creatures crashing their way through woods. This was a bad enough situation he had actually gone off the trail, willing to brave the biting cold of the snow to escape the jaws of the creatures behind him. How had they even found crocodile skulls way out here? Elijah couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a stream or river.

And what Elijah could only describe as a werewolf body? Really? Massive, clawed hands with clear thumbs. A top heavy, hulking frame with wide, barrel chest and long legs balanced on the toe pads.

And as if that wasn’t enough, each had a snake skeleton for a tail! A fully reanimated snake that swung up over the should to track him as he ran. Occasionally the beasts would whip their tails forward, flinging some the spikes extending from the spinous process of the vertebrae.

Even as he ran for his life he reflected on how strange it was to see three different Skeletal Chimeras that looked exactly the same, and even weirder than their bodies were so homogenous. Usually, the things looked like cobbled together attempts at cryptozoology taxidermy. The things were clearly smarter than normal too, using obvious communication and pack hunting tactics rather than simply attempting to swarm him.

Is their behavior due to their construction, or is their construction a result of their behavior? He couldn’t help but wonder, and wish the Voice would provide some more detailed information. It really was annoying that he had to puzzle over a chicken or the egg question when some supposed all-knowing repository of knowledge had the answer and just refused to tell him.

It was truly amazing how the human mind could adapt to even the most horrifying circumstances. The exhaustion was probably helping, but it was weird to be so unaffected by being chased by undead monsters.

Behind him the three split up, the central creature continuing to pursue while the others two began to fan out. Obviously they were hoping to hem him in.

Nothing changed.

One foot in front of the other.

Step.

Step.

Step

Breath in through the nose.

He didn’t want to try to engage the thing. His offensive spells were far less effective against creatures with no blood, and these seemed especially sturdy. He had watched them smash through branches easily as thick as his wrist without even slowing. Strong and durable, but probably still lighter than him and they were only about as fast as him too.

Step

Step

Keep breathing…and out through the mouth

Step.

Step.

Jump to the side and roll as another row of spikes were whipped forward by the monster. Pop up and run to the right only for the second of the beasts to leap over a nearby snow drift. He reflexively tried to feel them with his magic, but there was nothing. No blood to sense as it flowed through their bodies. All he felt was his own blood pumping through his body.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

A never stopping drum in his ear.

Slosh.

Slosh.

Slosh.

A jerky, continuous flow in his senses.

Calming his mind, he began to empower himself with a new technique that Theo had suggested. If there was no blood in the opponent to manipulate, he’d simply need to redirect that effort to strengthening himself. He felt the magic of his Hemoreign Aura, drawing the range in until it barely extended past his skin. Then he focused it. Speeding his blood flow while preventing strain on his heart or vessels. Empowering the effectiveness with which it could carry oxygen. Soon it was almost indistinguishable in effect from his old Blood Rush spell, but he could feel the movement of every drop in his body.

All in mere moments before the creature had time to fully close with him. The beauty of daily practice.

Throwing up his shield, he drew some of the blood from his armor to expand it into a large crimson disk. Rather than try to fight the monster head on, he jumped backward as the fist slammed into his shield and allowed himself to be flung backward. While in the air he quickly withdrew the blood from his shield and curled into a ball. Around him, the blood solidified into a large crystal and he smashed into the creature that had been chasing him like a bowling ball.

Releasing his blood crystal, he flung himself off the creature which had been compressed into the snow below.

Almost like a cartoon. He thought to himself as he fled, but not before vigorously shaking and dropping a glowing, golden vial into the pit. As it fell from his hand, he injected the barest amount of his mana into it. In his head he began counting down in his head from five, as he turned to the other creature. Out in the woods he could hear the last of the three smashing through the forest, eager to catch him.

Turning he threw himself into a ball at the second monster’s feet as it charged at him. Not expecting the move, the creature tripped over him and fell into the same pit.

Just as the bomb went off.

Unlike modern explosives, there was no loud boom. Only a whoosh of displaced air and a flash of light so bright it blinded him for a second. When it ended, the snow had been melted in a near perfect bowl and almost nothing remained of either creature.

What the hell did Theo put in that?

It was easily one of the strongest explosives Elijah had seen created by the alchemist. Theo had called it a last resort, and apparently he’d put in the gold to make it live up to the title. The feeling of awe only lasted a few moment though, as he realized he was feeling quite a bit of pain from his arm.

Looking down, he saw the jaws of one of the serpents wrapped around his bicep. Long, razor sharp fangs digging deep into his arm. Thankfully the thing lacked the prominent pair of hypodermic needles that would indicate it was a venomous species, but it still felt like a bear trap slammed shut on his arm. Even clearly dead, the thing refused to let go. Trying to move his arm, he couldn’t help crying out in pain. It was nearly unusable, leaving him without the option to use his sword if he wanted to.

Even worse, he could hear the last of the creatures barreling toward him and he didn’t have another secret weapon in reserve. Turning and running, he fled toward the snowbank the second creature had leapt from. He felt his blood streaming from the wound, only to be consumed by his armor. Every time he moved, the wound would reopen and prevent his magic from healing the injury.

Forcing his way through the heaped snow, the cold finally getting through even the extensive warding on his clothes, he sighed a breath of relief to discover there was another path hidden on the other side. Cradling his arm, he put one heavy foot in front of the other. He felt himself crashing, exhaustion flowing through him as even the adrenaline wasn’t enough to ward it off.

Hoping to keep himself going for even a moment more, he fed more magic into his Hemoreign Aura. The extra oxygen, literal flesh air for his flagging body, helped him recover a little, but it still took a supreme effort of will to get himself running again.

Above the trees ahead of him he could see the vast dome of swirling snow and ice. The closest he’d ever been. Each step was burning agony. Each breath a rattling, desperate gasp.

Behind him he heard the scrape of bone claws on wood.

The path followed what he assumed was once a small stream bed, curving around a mound of dirt with a tree on top. Desperately, he searched for someplace to hide. To hopefully escape the creature hunting him. He pulled his coat closer, praying he could trick the beast.

Only for all his hope to leave him as he finished coming around the bend.

In front of him was the dome that separated The Heart of Winter from the rest of the forest. His long-sought goal, now spelling his doom. He could only let out a single breath of air, something between a laugh and a groan. In some desperate hope he was mistaken or there was another path, he ran forward until he was only inches from the scouring wall of blowing ice. Even this close, he couldn’t hear what was clearly powerful wind and he could almost see a shimmer in the air. Like a giant snow globe, separating him from the core of the dungeon.

Then he felt something impact his back, like he had been struck by a sledgehammer. It spun him around, his head falling as he fell. In his chest, he saw a thick spear of bone poking out right where his heart would be. The last thing he saw before falling through the shimmering membrane and being swallowed by the blinding blizzard within was the final monsters stalking forward.

Snake tail extended and large crocodile jaws almost seeming to grin at him.