I calmly watched as the giant snake's fangs quickly closed in on me. But I wasn't afraid. The air was buzzing with electricity as, in the next moment, I made most of my essence surge forward, and a huge fire torrent fiercely expanded outward. The snow and ice in a wide circle instantly evaporated, unearthing the bare rock beneath.

Contrary to my expectations, the snake was still able to somehow react in time. 'He must have a way to sense my attacks...' I realized this as he suddenly stopped his charge and twisted his body backward, trying his hardest to avoid the raging flames rapidly approaching him.

But the flames were still a tiny bit faster, and within a blink of an eye, he was fully enveloped by them. His scales started emanating a soft blue glow, deflecting some of the flames away, but it wasn't nearly enough.

Soon his pristine white scales turned black, charred by the fiery blaze around him. A profound silence descended upon the valley as the flames subsided, leaving only the crackling of embers and the scent of burnt flesh.

However, he was still somehow alive. I looked at him incredulously as I panted with exhaustion after the flames died out. The snake seemed to be heavily injured but managed to survive nonetheless.

'If this wasn't enough to finish him off, then how am I supposed to kill this damn thing?' I thought with frustration. The snake's scales then started glowing again, albeit weekly, and his wounds started closing right in front of my eyes. 'He is regenerating!' I thought with shock.

I knew I needed to do something, and I needed to do it fast, as I didn't have enough essence to fight him again. Luckily, he seemed to be unable to move while he was healing himself. So with the last few drops of my essence, I transformed the rock under the snake into several long spikes and drove them right through his head.

This seemed to finally finish the job, as the snake, after a few spasms, fell to the ground and stopped moving. Now it was truly dead. I dropped to my knees, utterly exhausted. And that was the moment I felt it—a slight tremor.

I quickly looked around, afraid that there was another monster hiding nearby, but there was nothing there. Then, with a bad premonition, I looked up and saw it. A huge avalanche was hurling down the side of the mountain into the valley.

'It seems the tremors from our battle with the snake must have triggered it.' I realized with horror. However, when I looked better at the path the avalanche was taking, I exhaled with relief as it was nowhere near me, so I slowly sat down on the frozen ground, trying to recuperate some energy.

After a while, I smiled as I felt my essence reserves starting to slowly replenish and my sore muscles loosening. Already feeling much better, I went on to examine the corpse of the giant snake. I figured that given its enormous size and the fact that it could use essence, its corpse must be quite valuable.

First, I carved open his elongated skull, wanting to see if I could find its monster core, and sure enough, a large, deep blue gem was nestled inside. 'Nice,' I thought as I went on to check its fangs. This snake didn't seem to have any poison, but I still knew that such things as fangs or claws were sometimes used in alchemy. Thus, I wanted to take a few of them with me to see if they had any value.

It took a lot of effort, but in the end, I managed to make two of them loose enough to extract them. I also collected a few of its scales that weren't burned and decided to call it a day as I didn't have any more room in my bags.

I then decided to start heading back to the small cave to get some more rest before I embarked on the journey back to civilization. But as I was nearing the edge of the valley, I widened my eyes as I realized something terrible.

I quickened my pace as I hurried to the steep mountainside. There, the path leading south, which I previously used to descend into the valley, was completely buried under tons of ice and stone. 'Oh no...' I thought as I looked at the harrowing sight in front of me. The narrow path was completely blocked by the avalanche, and I couldn't use it.

Well, I could theoretically slowly melt down the ice and try to burrow through it, but not only was I out of essence, but such an endeavor could trigger another avalanche... Thus, I had no other choice but to return to the cave, gloomily slumping down to the ground. 'What should I do now?' I wondered with frustration.

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My only option was to try to find another path on the opposite side of the valley. One that would surely lead me even deeper into the mountains. 'Good thing I packed up so much food...' I smiled dejectedly. But it was getting late in the day, so I decided to spend the night in the cave rather than having to make a camp somewhere in the open.

After another night of restless sleep and shivering cold, I was already feeling much better than yesterday and ready to resume my journey. I took one last longing look at the remnants of the southern path and, with a sigh, headed out in the opposite direction.

It took me almost half a day to cross the valley to the northern side, where I spotted another path leading up further into the mountains. The climb itself was uneventful, but I still needed to proceed carefully so that I didn't slip on the ice-covered rocks, which meant It was already late in the afternoon before I climbed out of the valley.

I looked around, trying to find a path that would lead me back south, but there was none. My best option seemed to be to travel west, circumventing the valley, and then try to find a path leading south.

With no other option, I begrudgingly started walking, determined to make it back to civilization even if I had to walk a whole night. It was getting dark, and the winds seemed to pick up again. Now that I was out of the valley, I wasn't protected by the mountains, so the raging winds assaulted me from every direction.

My essence was running low, as I still hadn't managed to fully replenish it after the recent battle. However, fueled by desperation, I kept walking on the narrow mountain path, half buried in snow. I didn't know where I was heading or how long it would take, only that I kept traveling west, illuminating my path with an improvised torch.

I paused every now and then to do a quick scan of the environment with my magic sense so that no monster ambushed me, as it was very hard to see anything past the small circle of light around me. I was just in the middle of one such scan when I suddenly blinked a few times as I discovered something incredible right in front of me. 'What is that?' I widened my eyes in utter bewilderment.

What I detected was a huge amount of essence shining brightly, like a miniature sun. I stopped in my tracks, carefully observing it through my magic sense for a while, trying to figure out what I was looking at, but I couldn't figure it out at such a distance. However, if it was a monster, it hadn't detected me yet.

I wondered what to do. I couldn't circumvent it as there was only a single narrow path with an abyss on one side and a steep mountainside on the other, and I didn't want to go all the way back to the valley...

So after a while, I decided to cautiously move forward while also keeping my magic sense active. Without my protective bubble, the freezing wind was relentless, threatening to blow me away into the abyss below, but I somehow held on. After a few dozen meters, I stopped as there seemed to be a rock blocking my way. But when I got right to it, I realized it was not a rock at all.

'What is a wall doing out here?' I thought with a puzzled expression on my face. I tried to move around, but it was a quite long wall arching into a circle. After a while, I finally realized what I was looking at—a tower.

For some strange reason, there was a tower built here, deep within the mountains. I carefully walked around, trying to find an entrance, and soon I was standing in front of an ominous-looking door. I held my breath as I looked at them. 'I don't like this. I don't like this at all...'

This setting raised too many flags for me: an old tower in the middle of nowhere, me standing here in the middle of the night, and most of all, the huge amount of essence that seemed to emanate from the tower itself. All of it was giving me the creeps.

But on the other hand, I really needed some rest after the long journey. I was barely able to walk at this point, not to mention that my curiosity was gnawing at me, and I really wanted to know what the source of all that essence was. So with a heavy heart, I push open the ancient doors, revealing nothing but darkness behind. I raised my torch, revealing a big empty room and a staircase leading further up.

I walked in and closed the doors behind me, blocking the raging wind from getting in. I then slumped to the ground. 'Alright, maybe I can just wait here and then continue in the morning.' I thought happily.

But after a while of resting, I got restless and was not able to calm down at all. My curiosity was killing me. I wanted to know what was further up. Not to mention, I wouldn't be able to sleep at all, not knowing what kind of danger might lurk in this place.

So with a sigh, I gathered my courage and slowly started ascending the winding staircase. What followed was an unnerving silence, as I almost didn't dare to breathe as I arrived on the next floor, revealing more empty rooms and even more stairs leading further up.

Finding nothing of interest, I kept going. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I was standing at the top of the staircase at the final level of the tower. In front of me were closed doors. The only closed door in this whole place. I also felt the source of all this essence was right beneath them. My heart was pounding as I slowly opened them with a held breath.

Behind them was only a small, dark room without any windows. I raised my hand, illuminating it with my torch. But when I saw what was in front of me, I stumbled backward.

There was an intricately carved magic circle in the middle of the room, and inside of it sat an old woman with her eyes closed, seemingly asleep...