[“Mom lives inside a mine?”]

[“The mines where the evernight ice stones reside are created by a perpetual blizzard that encases its depth all year long,”] Shay explained. [“It isn’t the same blizzard caused by Thalaxarus’s remains protecting the island, but rather something indigenous to Frozen Nest itself. The sheer cold is part of this place, and has always been a danger to even ice dragon whelps. Which is why I advised you to be careful.”]

… Hold on, was that blizzard story Shay and Beth told me actually that scary?

Following my desire to help Grimnir out by acquiring materials for armor to “withstand even the fiercest blizzards,” our party was currently enroute back home. Since Mom still had plenty of meetings to attend to catch up on her duties as an empress, I was currently carrying everybody on “Hestia Airlines,” since my rocket boosters were the most convenient option to cover the massive distance between Iceskale and Nordor Valley.

During this trip, Vifi also went into detail about her concerns, mentioning how I was not ready to brave the mines to get some of the ice stone. In a way, I couldn’t disagree, but then again, why should I take that lying down without challenging it first?

[“Your mother was planning on putting you through this test one way or the other,”] Vifi said. [“Either when you asked her for an item, wanted to train for your glacier expedition, or were curious about how our cryomancers are training.”]

Tasianna, Shay, and Beth were all Mom’s disciples and when they trained, they would go down to where Mom usually slept. The mansion where I stayed—my cavern, in other words—was placed on the highest floor so I could avoid the chill, which was why I didn’t know what exactly the cryomancers’ training involved.

Also, weirdly, I suddenly thought that Mom staying behind, instead of returning to her roosting location, was her subtle way of telling me that she wasn’t confident in my ability to make it through this blizzard. That was my frank conclusion about this, although I hoped it was just some useless thoughts.

Sure, approaching the entrance got real cold, but it can’t be that bad, right? [Battle Frenzy] and Symphonie should be enough heat to keep me warm.

Then again, having too much confidence was just another way of saying you were delusional after a certain point. Vifi being worried about me must have some merit to it.

These thoughts would soon be confirmed one way or the other, though, since we finally made it back to Mom’s nest. As it was already in the middle of the night, though, I decided to wait to see this blizzard once the sun was back up, just in case I needed solar energy to prevent hypothermia. My solar core didn’t break during the Prince of Envy battle, and I would love to keep it from doing so for now.

Now that we were home, I made dinner for everybody, did some molting, and then went to bed. Once it was morning, I sunbathed for a bit to warm up before letting the twins lead Vifi and me to the entrance to Mom’s roost. Located to the far right of the mountain cavern—mine was on the far left—I instinctively stopped moving when I began to feel a chill run down my spine.

That cold … it’s dangerous.

The white mist coming from my mouth and nose wafted against my face, prompting me to breathe out fire to warm up my nostrils. The temperature was dropping like crazy, getting worse and worse the deeper I went, to the point it went from decently acceptable, to shivering, even with my core. Mornings and nights on Frozen Nest were already annoying to endure, but I got used to living here, but this was starting to feel grueling.

My eyes were starting to freeze shut out from the gust of cold winds, forcing me to set my left hand on fire and put it in front of my face to help me keep them open. Breathing stung my throat and lungs, while my wings’ webbings began to turn solid. I had to use [Humanize] to get rid of them to allow me to go deeper.

The same symptoms increased every time I managed to get even a bit close to Mom’s roost.

“Already too much for you?” Vifi sneered, even though she, too, was shivering under her coat. “If you can’t handle this much, I don’t think your mother would allow you to go north for Tasianna’s quest. That glacier is supposedly even colder than the different ice mines.”

“Shut it …” I frowned and sighed. “So, do you guys have any idea how the whole mining operations here work? I haven’t seen a single miner come to our home, which means there are other mines, right?”

[“Correct, every single one is owned by a different ice dragon or drake, my lady,”] Shay answered. [“The mana focused inside these mines are quite pleasant for us ice dragonkin, so the true dragonkin monopolize them for their health and comfort. Therefore, to enter these mines, you must ask for permission from their owner, which is how the different clans receive a passive income as the mining industry grows. The dragonewt clans do any of the mining, at least, as the dragons themselves do not need it; they rather keep the crystals grown inside for themselves.”]

“Haha, for mines, they seem more like hazards to me,” I said, shivering to the point the twins wrapped one of their arm wings over my shoulders, fending off the winds a bit.

Shay continued, [“According to the empress, these mines have been part of Frozen Nest since forever, and the value of the ice stones have only increased since Thalaxarus’s remains were embedded into the land. The blizzards protecting the mine entrances haven’t intensified, but you can feel the mana from Thalaxarus, making the mines more exclusive … the empress said.”]

[“These mines are great roosting places for those aligned to the ice element,”] Beth added, enthusiastically. [“The ‘rejection,’ the cold, is the mine’s way to fend off any other type of dragonkin. It is, however, incredible if you can absorb it into your body! It is the perfect training place for the empress to teach Tasianna and us how to use her true ice.”]

“I see … You guys didn’t show it during the dragon fight, but how are you dealing with it? Compared to Tasianna, at least,” I asked.

[“Her Majesty’s [Fimbulvetr Ice] was made for a true ice dragonkin; while we do face some issues, since we are neither true nor rank SS, our bodies have no inherent problem turning our naturally aligned mana into ice,”] Shay explained. [“It is difficult for Tasianna since she was born as a normal fairy. She may have an affinity for using ice magic, but her mana body is only elementally aligned due to her skill [Frost Body], which is the main issue, and why she wants to ‘evolve.’”]

“Makes you really think how these places haven’t turned into dungeons, yet,” Vifi added. “The mana within a dungeon is more controlled—that’s their entire reason for their existence—so they don’t turn into hazards for the local populace. This is nothing special to ice dragons, even though it will reject the two of us.”

I nodded, checking my Profile after expending mana to increase my internal temperature. “Yeah, I can feel it … My natural mana regeneration is higher than usual here. Speaking of which, why hasn’t this place turned into a dungeon yet? Actually, you did mention that lake place where you got your voltaic lightning. Was that an open area like this mine?”

“The Twin-Elemental Lake, you mean? Yeah, that’s right,” Vifi confirmed. “However, in the lake’s case, our scholars presume Plesia herself is preventing a dungeon from forming to remind everybody of the taboo we and the humans broke. This place? The amount of mana might just be normal. You don’t see monsters spawning inside your home, but they do in the valley.”

In a sense, I guess you could call this a “scaling mechanic” if I were to compare it to a game? While in less dangerous areas like inside the Kingdom of Artorias, a dungeon must form if there was enough mana to spawn rank C or B monsters, while in Frozen Nest, that was just a daily occurrence. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen a single dungeon in the Belzac forest.

The Divine System, once again, showed how adaptable it was. Mom did say older dragons could absorb mana from the air to satiate themselves, allowing them to stay healthy even during their year-long hibernations. In a sense, the dragons regulated the mana levels in their lands.

Not to mention, even if the mana concentration here was far higher than in Artorias, to the point rank B and A monsters spawning from the ground was a normal occurrence, why would that matter for the dragons? There were multiple still living rank S true dragonkin around who could handle them, so a dungeon wouldn’t be needed to isolate this mana away.

Mom and her family probably took this mountain for roosting for that reason, and now it was also a place for her to train my party members. Which made me think — if this place was perfect for ice dragons, was there maybe a perfect area for me to train in Inferno Nest? Then again, to learn about this theoretical training ground, I would have to visit the fire dragons and that was a whole big can of worms.

Sadly, I had to put a stop to those thoughts when the temperature got to the point I couldn’t break focus. It got to the point where, if I didn’t have [Core Regulation], [Freezing] would have most likely appeared in my Profile. I was in a state of hyperfocus purely to hold off my constant shivering.

Oh, come on! This isn’t even the entrance yet. Get it together, Hestia!

I pulled out my catalyst to use its [Flame Furnace Aura] skill to warm the area around me as I released my mana for thermokinesis, mildly increasing the temperature. I then sent out my scales, setting them all on fire to create another layer of heat around me, to the point I could safely tell the twins to let me go.

Shaking my arms and legs, warming myself up, I told Vifi to come closer so I didn’t have to spread the warmth aura out too much. As we continued through these pathways, large enough to accommodate Mom’s humongous dragon physique, we finally stopped at a colossal hole in the wall, one with so much fog it was impossible to see through it.

[“The fog is the beginning of the blizzard; if you perk your ears, you can hear the quiet growling of the winds deeper within,”] Shay said.

Doing what he said, I managed to make out some scratching. Something was cutting the stone walls, causing the sound to echo back to us, but considering how quiet it was, it wasn’t anywhere close. Focusing my hearing, the furious whistling of winds finally became audible—it made me feel like a turbulent storm was happening.

Shay and Beth then entered the fog, seeming entirely fine. They told me the fog wasn’t as thick once you entered it, but you still required some area awareness to not bump into a wall. Luckily, it was one long tunnel, so it was impossible to get lost in it.

“Put your hand in, first. To test the waters, as they say,” Vifi suggested after taking a step back.

Raising an eyebrow, I shrugged and went forward. However, the moment I placed my hand into the fog, I immediately jerked back as if I were a regular human that had placed my fingers on a burning metal pan. I groaned, snapping my eyes at my finger, only to see white mist surrounding my freezing fingers.

The tips of my fingers had lost all sensation. The numbness wasn’t immediate at first, as it only followed after that burning feeling. I grimaced as I inspected my scales turning pink with a layer of ice covering them, unable to move my fingers. It only disappeared once my white flames warmed and healed them up.

“Same thing happened to Tasianna,” Vifi said, telling me she knew not to enter the cave after what happened to Tasianna. “Her hand broke right off, as if it was made from fragile glass. You got the better end of it, probably due to your high wisdom, but you lack the proper levels of [Ice Resistance] to survive in the mist for longer than a single moment.”

I nodded, agreeing. “But, Tasianna eventually made it. How?”

[“Ice resistance potions!”] Beth answered, almost like a cheer, as she recalled. [“That was her first trial before Empress Melloxtressa was willing to properly train her, so the four of us went out and helped her hunt down the ingredients for multiple [Ice Resistance Potion]s, [Antifreeze Elixir]s, and [Wind Resistance Potion]s. The land is extremely rich in all sorts of alchemical materials, and that isn’t even mentioning the local potion shops in Iceskale.”]

[“Gathering everything wasn’t hard with Vifi’s help,”] Shay added. [“The issue was Tasianna needing to train her up [Ice Resistance]. Empress Melloxtressa suggested using her SP to train her skills after she made it to the depths. To catch up with us, since we had no issues entering the blizzard. It required multiple months until she triumphantly finished her trial, and her reward was the opportunity to become a true ice cryomancer.”]

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“You have a core that saves you from [Freezing], so you won’t just turn into an icicle, but you still have to train up your resistance. That is your major obstacle. You got any SP to expedite it?” Vifi asked.

I shook my head. Even if I went out and leveled to get some, [Ice Resistance] was still overpriced due to my lack of affinity for anything water and ice. It just wasn’t worth it.

Suffice to say, Vifi might be correct by telling me to rely on the twins to mine the ice stone for Grimnir. It felt so unfulfilling to admit it, though. If this wasn’t even the real deal, then what the hell was I supposed to do if I met a blizzard up in the glacier?

“… And the blizzard you guys faced was similar to this?”

The twins looked at each other and nodded, followed by Vifi sighing, as if she was admitting how unpleasant it must have been. Which begged the question, how did they survive it, including the subsequent attack from some ice dragons?

[“Tasianna was already pretty used to the chill, while we learned from the empress to protect others from the storm,”] Beth explained, reminding me how the twins did it just now with their wings. [“We absorbed the turbulent mana while wrapping Vifi in our wings, protecting her from being frozen. We then used [Cryomancy] to increase the temperature around us, while making sure Vifi’s body warmth didn’t escape.”]

“I also drank Tasianna’s potions, but that wasn’t as important as what those two did for me. My lightning doesn’t produce as much heat as your flames, sooo … Hate to admit it, but I was out of my element here. I might be at a high level, but I didn’t have the right skills, or the armor, to survive. Could have died,” Vifi said with a nonchalant face. “Good thing my lightning can scare away those reptiles. At least I wasn’t useless.”

From the sound of it, the twins might have accidentally created an igloo effect. Warm air normally went up while cold molecules went down as the air molecules were “heavier,” but it sounded like the twins captured the heat and prevented its escape while holding off the cold. If you included some thermokinesis and body warmth, it was no wonder Vifi could survive in the “wyvern shelter.”

This should, however, only be used for emergencies. I had to be strong enough to survive through this before going to the glacier. It wasn’t just for Grimnir now, it was also for myself.

I nodded and began casting [Symphonie des Feuergottes]. “Okay, Vifi, time to get ready to train.”

“Huh?” Vifi jerked back.

“What? Do you think you can act all surprised after telling me you too can’t survive through this blizzard? Or, are you telling me you used your precious, precious SP on [Ice Resistance] of all skills? In a place where leveling it up was easy-peasy? I bet you’ve got a level here or there from just going outside, hunting those mammoths you like so much.”

“O-oh, well, you know—”

[“She did,”] Shay interrupted. [“She even said those exact words, my lady. I believe she gloated how she used her SP on her growth skills? She complained how her stats weren’t as high as the other Warbringers since she reached level 150 without leveling up all her stat growing skills to level ten for their advance versions.”]

“Shut yer trap, ya lizard!” Vifi snapped. “Oi, Donut, I’m fine, okay? Let’s just go back to Iceskale and get things settled, while the twins deal with things here, huh? Sounds good, right?”

“Or we can train!” I snapped, looking up to see my fire spell ready to cast. “Don’t worry, I’m not forcing you to do anything you don’t want to. This is my training, but, you know, it would be rather lonely to see my bodyguard, a former Warbringer, leave me all alone. I mean, who knows, maybe I mess up and can’t get out of the blizzard in time. I might die by turning into ice! Who would save me then?”

[“I would, my lady!”] Beth raised her arm like a student. Her brother did the same, just without the fanfare.

I pointed at them, overdramatizing stuff. “Ah! Mom’s retainers are truly responsible! A perfect representation! However … what about my retainers? Three of them are busy on a mission, while I sent one to do something for me. I still have one more, though …”

“You’re trying to goad me through my pride! That’s essentially forcing me to do something!”

“I would never! You’re my friend, so how—”

“Oh, shut up! Fine, fine … let’s do it! You’re quacking me up like that old dwarf! Urgh, I wanted to do this passively but fuck it. Got a plan?”

“The plan is to endure it like everything else we do. Slowly, going forward one-step-at-a-time. There is no trick when it comes to leveling skills, aside from SP. Wouldn’t you agree?” I smiled.

Vifi sighed, begrudgingly scratching her hair. “I’ll get the potions. You get your flames ready.”

With a single blink, only a trail of red lightning was left where Vifi just stood. The twins told me they would go in a bit deeper, but would appear if I faced too much trouble. With the situation cleared up, I snapped my fingers and had the waterfall of fire consume me while I activated [Battle Frenzy].

[Symphonie des Feuergottes Movement (Allegro)] [Battle Frenzy (Minor)] [Music Resonation (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Naturally, some music should never be left out.

“In my purgatory, I make the devil cry ♫

In Hellfire ♫

All you hear are his screams, begging to be released ♫

It’s Music ♫”

[Dragon Fire] was just the perfect spell song here. Sadly, since the blizzard couldn’t “hear” the song, the ice winds wouldn’t be nerfed by 50%, but the constant dragon meteor shower would keep my warmth up and hopefully do something about the wind.

As the flames from [Symphonie des Feuergottes] began to cover my body, I had then wrapped myself around my body in a dress as I transformed back into a dragon. With my catalyst, scale-dust, spells, and iron will, I was ready to enter the cold.

After Vifi made it back, we drank the potions and took our first step into the fog.

[Various Potion Buffs] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

“Dammit!” Vifi cursed. “My toes are already freezing under my boots! My arm is already complaining as well!”

Red lightning surged from her prosthetics like an open wire, shooting the electricity into the air to keep the gears warm. With the first few meteors crashing on the ground, the two of us went deeper into the fog.

With Tasianna’s [Antifreeze Elixir], Vifi remained rather safe despite her initial complaining, but I could see how my floating scales were all shattering one-by-one. [True Draconic Barrier] and all the flames I had at my disposal kept them active for a moment, but a single scale was still too vulnerable to the cold.

Still, thankfully, this wasn’t as hard as I had initially thought. It almost felt like we were overprepared at first, only for reality to punch me right in the face. The moment I heard the sound of scratching stone pierce through the flickering noise of my flames, I knew the real test had finally begun.

Sheesh!

The storm was merciless, strong enough that it slammed both Vifi and me right into the wall. I dug one of my wings into the ground, using it to protect her from it, allowing her to push me out of the wall, getting us just enough space so I could cast [Air Shield].

The storm was now pushing at the barrier, but by fortifying my left side, we regained some semblance of movements. I also realized from this experience that the scratching stone noise was due to the wind entering the tunnel through small holes on the left wall, escaping through the holes on the right.

Looking into them, I couldn’t really see anything, as everything was pitch-black, and even with my flames pushing the darkness back, it still looked like a frozen abyss. Mom’s cavern was already naturally dark outside of my roost, but the blizzard was so intense it was literally impossible to even look any further than just in front of my snout.

[“Your highness, you cannot train if you are blocking the wind from reaching your body.”] I heard Shay speak. [“You must let the cold sting you. If you cannot passed through this area without such a superficial protection, then you cannot survive when the sun is blocked by the blizzard.”]

I couldn’t see the ceiling, I could barely see the walls or the floor at this point. It felt like I was trapped inside, unable to move anywhere. Training couldn’t be effective if I wimp out of stuff, so after speaking with Vifi about it, I took the spell down.

Dammit!

Immediately afterward, I was pushed right back into the wall. The wind was so strong it made it difficult to even breath, as I strained my lungs to take in more than just a lump of snow or hail. It was like gasping for air while trapped underwater. I was coughing more of the melted ice at this point.

[“Back, back!”] Vifi yelled into my head, prompting me to grab her and charge into the fog.

Vifi was throwing up water, beating her chest to get it all out.

“Got too much snow in my lungs!” Vifi forced out. “Shit! Kraahk! The prosthetic froze up! Donut, put it in your storage for me.”

[“We have to get Grimnir to upgrade it,”] I said, earning me a nod from her as I did what she asked. [“My body is fine, but not my scales, though.”]

My scale barrier had lost about 75% of the scales I initially used to form it. All shattered to protect me.

[“My lady, you need your scales to do the heavy lifting!”] Beth advised. [“Tasianna managed to venture through by using her [Fae Frost] skill by coating it around her wardress. Even with the true ice in the dress, she still needed her own resistance to reach a certain level to venture through. You scales need to be tempered by the storm!”]

[“Beth is correct. If you are struggling even with all your preparations, then it would be for the best to accept your current progression and take in the snow,”] Shay added. [“There is no shame. We shall acquire the necessary ice stones for Grimnir.”]

[“No! Wait!”] I stopped them. [“A few more attempts. I think I can do this when I understand what is going on.”]

[“There is no point in trying to outthink the storm, my lady!”] Shay scolded me. [“This is no competition or even a need for you to go into the depths! This is for your own good as well as for our future expedition, which I urge you to take it seriously as a pure resistance test. Our time in the glacier will take up to a month, at the very least, I hazard. We are, after all, lacking information on Tasianna’s exact destination.”]

Urgh … dammit.

Still, I was stubborn and did try to force myself through with my rocket boosters, but each time I tried, the blizzard taught me that nature was just as scary as monsters. The deeper I managed to go, the more ferocious and terrible the winds would become, which said a lot about the challenge, as I barely got further than three Hestias from the fog portion.

In the end, Vifi and I were forced to accept that we weren’t ready for the rest of the trial and sat down like monks and meditated as the freezing winds ripped through our skins like razors. I kept the flames to a minimum, just enough to not freeze but not hot enough to prevent the shivering all together.

We stayed in this pose as long as we could, regularly moving out to rest and once we recomposed ourselves. Vifi, due to having [Hestia’s Retainer] and a lack of weakness to ice, was leveling her [Cold Resistance] at an astounding rate, natural for my party, yet I wasn’t nearly as fortunate.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Cold Resistance Lv. 1] evolved into [Cold Resistance Lv. 2]

A single level. I only managed to receive a single level during the time it took for the twins to acquire enough stone to fill up a minecart. To be honest, the time I needed to level [Water Resistance Lv. 1] to two was far longer, but I also wasn’t being blasted by cold wind the entire time. Man, was this ever annoying …

A level per day would be nice, but the higher the level, the longer it would take.

This was a training that required more than a day to finish. More reason to come back …

After the twins delivered the stone to the subspace for Grimnir to use, Vifi expressed her wish to eat, so we stopped training for the day, only to realize it was night outside. The meditation had left us completely ignorant of our need to eat, drink, and to go to the toilet. Being called famished or parched was an understatement.

Yet, we also couldn’t completely fulfill our needs, as somebody came flying to us—Siegragxus.

“Two of your brothers have arrived, your highness,” he said, explaining my [Battle Frenzy] training would resume tomorrow.

Wendriosa told me she would plan it out and she did, although I was surprised to hear it was today. Nevertheless, I postponed the ice training for now and flew back to Nordor mansion with everybody. There, the servants and Pradreo invited me into the mess hall, where I saw three dragonewts speaking with Mom—two males and one female, although I only recognized the two guys.

“Ah, dear, you made it back in time. Seeing the look on your face, I presume the tunnel into my cavern was a bit too much, right?” Mom greeted me, confirming she already anticipated how it would go down. “Come in! I can hear your stomach growling like a wolf; eat and greet another dragon empress. The second, this time.”

With long, luscious golden-brown hair that went down her back, the human-looking dragonewt woman looked not only tall but beautiful, even with her two eyes closed as if she was blind. She lacked horns, though, which confused me a bit at first, but I put that confusion away when I quickly realized her scent was familiar.

Second empress of the Dragon Empire, Kargryx, Gaistrus.

“Your Majesty.” I curtsied. “I welcome you to Frozen Nest.”

“Hello, dear. It is good to see you again. Do not worry too much about me. I am here to visit your mother, while your brothers here are more interested in you,” she said to quickly change the topic, confusing me with her response.

Then again, my confusion immediately disappeared when I saw how stacked she was … Almost made me feel jealous, but that was too embarrassing to think about when my two brothers were around. I straightened my back and waved at them, earning me a quick nod from the tallest.

“Sorry, it took a while, Hestia. Us elder siblings were fighting over who should go first, with Wendriosa and Kahalameet verbally fighting over the right to be the first. In the end, I won out by being the only one who didn’t say anything, haha.”

It was Phsotophus.

“No worries, Brother Phso. Although, I was surprised to hear Ryranakus was around too.” I turned around, waving at the third earth drake. Although far less muscular and imposing compared to his elder full-blooded sibling, Ryranakus was still equally as tall as his mother and brother. “Hey, big bro! How are you?”

“Dragged here against my will by Mother and Brother. You can guess.” He sighed, making me smile bitterly as I wasn’t sure how to understand his personality. Whether he was shy or lacking in energy, he didn’t vibe with me.

“Haha, don’t worry about it too much. Ryranakus likes to sleep, and what I am planning doesn’t really allow that.” He smiled ominously, prompting me to ask him about it. “For your training tomorrow, of course! I brought him with me because I needed to understand how strong you are. Tomorrow, I want you and Ryranakus to spar.”

Ha … I guess they would be interested in how the youngest sister fared against the youngest brother.