Snow, More Snow and Even More Snow.
Sara woke up with the familiar feeling of snow on her bare skin. She was staring directly into the night sky. Her body ached and her head was clouded, which didn’t help her confusion as she stared at the night sky. Something about it was off. Taking a moment to study the sky she realized the stars were wrong. As if the realization jump started her brain, she noticed that it wasn’t just the stars.
Something in the very center of her being conflicted with her mind. She recognized the origin of this feeling; It was her soul, her spirit, the very definition of her, it told her something, but she didn’t know what that was. It was trying to tell her mind something, but her brain couldn’t parse what it exactly meant. All she knew was that her very essence changed, although she couldn’t tell what it was.
She sat up to check herself, that was when panic crept up. She was as naked as the day she was born and right where her heart was, there was a giant ugly scar. When she saw that scar, she knew what her soul was trying to say. She had died. Once she realized that a pit opened in her stomach. She remembered a series of events the first part was arriving in the outback of Australia. The next parts where a bit fuzzy, the only part she was certain of was being impaled by a spear being wielded but some sort of biblical angel.
She went to rub her temples then realized the lack of hair, the pit in her stomach opened even wider. She was completely hairless she let out a weary groan. She was upset, the panic in her rising, she was separated from her friends, family, and brothers and sisters in arms. Despite this she gathered her resolve and took some calming breaths to attempt to clear her head. It both helped and didn’t help.
Sara Noticed something at the edge of her peripheral vision. She turned her head in its direction, but it moved with her. She scrunched her hairless brows in confusion. At both the fact it was moving away from her and the forest clearing covered in snow. Deciding not to get distracted she followed a feeling she had, and focused her attention on the thing at edge of her vision. With a grin of satisfaction something appeared.
What appeared was something like a piece of old parchment paper with two words simply stating, ‘Notifications Available’. Sara sat there absolutely befuddled, a small chuckle slipped out of her, that small chuckle then turned into a fit of laughter. She flopped back with her arms spread out, “What the Hel,” she managed to get out as her fit came to an end. She brought one of her arms straight up and repeated herself, “What the Hel.” She let her arm drop, with back of her hand resting on her forehead, “What in the absolute Hel is going on.” She said softly to herself.
She just laid there for several more minutes just digesting it all, the fact she died, is now in the middle of a snow covered and the notification . She sat back up and screamed, “This isn’t a damned video game!” She took a deep breath and calmed herself. And just like before she focused on the object in her vision. The piece of paper flipped around and grew in size, there where now a new set of words.
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* You have died.
* All Items sent to your [Ice Chest]
* World phoenix token consumed.
* Overwhelming astral energies have interfered with your resurrection, attempting to stabilize.
* Stabilization failed attempting stabilization.
* You have entered an astral space.
* Partial success.
* You have been reborn.
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“Partial success,” she said in a flat tone and a dumbfounded expression written across her face. With another deep breath she began to wonder what an astral space was. After a moment she remembered what the odd guy Jason Asano called the Dimensional Incursion Zones. The panic that had been up finally overcame her. She started to hyperventilate, and her thoughts began to rush. ‘This place is going to collapse. How long do I have? I could set up a ritual to check. Before that though I have to survive let’s hope its only Iron-Rank, but what if it’s not, what if it’s a Silver-Rank. Even if I fight, I can’t kill the D.E. I need to buy time. I need to buy time to open this place and escape. Before any of that I need shelter. Oh shit I’m naked I almost forgot about that; I need clothes. My ice chest should have some. Wait never mind I took them out to make room for projects fuck. I should’ve listened to mom,’ She thought to herself and brought her hands up to pull at her hair, but when they reached the top of her head she froze. After a small moment she brought her hands down dejected.
Looking at her hands she spoke softly to herself, “What do I do, where do I start.” Once she said that her father’s voice rung in her head, “Whenever you are lost, whether its physically or mentally, take long deep breaths and make a list. The first things on the list should be centering yourself, take stock and observe your surroundings. Then go from there and chip away at it, like your ice sculptors, start broad then add detail.” She shook her head and sat with her legs criss crossed. She focused on clearing her mind, getting rid of the unnecessary bits that she cant change, like dying, and no hair, once clear she stood. The first thing she should do is get some cloths, while being an essence user and her aura helped fight the cold, she was still naked.
She held her hand out in front of her palm down, she then twisted her hand and gestured upwards. Nothing happened, she tilted her head then tried something else. She pointed to the ground, following something inside of her. Then she drew a line and following where her finger pointed rose a frosty mist. Then she turned her hand palm up and gestured upwards again. This time the frosty mist rose and solidified. Turning into an arch made of solid ice, with small arcs of electricity flowing inside. the inside edges of the arch started to produce the same mist; the mist coalesced inside the opening of the arch making a vail of thick mist. “Well that’s changed,” she said to herself. Right after she said that a new window appeared in her vision.
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[Ice Vault]
Evolved from Human Racial Gift [Ice Chest] to Outworlder ability [Ice Vault].
Summon a portal made of ice and mist. Enter the vault to retrieve items stored within, alternatively you can use it to Absorb essences, awakening stones or, summon familiars.
You can access items within using outworlder ability [Hunter Gather’s Guide]
“Great no longer a chest but a vault. So what’s [Hunter Gather’s Guide]?” she said, and just like before another window showed.
[Hunter Gather’s Guide]
Evolved from Human Racial Gift [Flurry Notes] to Outworlder Ability [Hunter Gather’s Guide].
Access an interface to help Guide you through a recognizable medium.
Allows you to gather items from monsters and other loot able items that get transferred into ‘Ice Vault.’
Open an Inventory page to access items from ‘Ice Vault.’
Display a HUD of personal information such as Health, Mana, Stamina, Position, Heading and other Pages.
Summon a Guide into your hands to show others information from the HUD and other pages.
With this new information she let instinct guide her and thought about viewing the inventory. To her satisfaction a new window showed. It showed her a small window saying inventory and under it was sub sections, All, Weapons, Clothing, Armor, Jewelry, Potions, Food, Ingredients, and Misc. Following the subsections she navigated to clothing, just like when she got the notifications the paper flipped and enlarged. This screen had five boxes and a silhouette on one side. On the side the silhouette was another eight slots. she absently thought about them, and a new window shown saying “Help” mentally clicking it new text popped up.
Quick Equip slots: When selecting items with the tag “Clothing” and the sub-tag Headpiece, Upper Undergarments, Shirt, Coat, Lower Undergarments, Pants, socks, and shoes; it will “Auto-Equip” to its respected slot.
Sara gave a slight smile, “That was very Helpful,” she let out a slight chuckle, she then focused back to the clothing screen. She selected the only cloths in there, a bra, shirt, underwear, pants, and socks. Her shirt and pants where standard G.D.N issued clothing, a grey camo shirt with the G.D.N logo on the back and name and rank on the sleeve. Once she selected these, she was given a prompt that said “Equip [Yes/No]” she of course selected yes.
A thick mist shrouded her , once it dissipated, she was left in her clothes and wet socks. She frowned “Why weren’t my boots on that screen,” she sighed then returned her attention to the screens. At the top of the clothing screen there was two drop downs one said, “Sort By,” the other said “Filter.” She didn’t think much about them because of the lack of clothing she had “I Should’ve listened to mom but no I wanted more gadgets. At least I have clothes.” She said mocking herself.
She then navigated to the armor screen which looked a lot like the clothing screen except there were less boxes by the silhouette. So she mentally clicked on the help button again and was blessed with a help screen.
Quick Equip slots: When selecting items with the tag “Armor” and the sub-tag Helmet, Neckpiece, Outer Wear, Breast Plate, Gloves, Pants, and Boots; it will “Auto-Equip” to its respected slot.
She selected her standard G.D.N combat gear. This gear resembled U.S army combat gear. With a grey camo shirt, a black bulletproof vest, black gloves, some black knee pads, and black boots. Per standard G.D.N combatant regulations all the gear was made from Iron-Rank material and labeled with G.D.N logos.
She felt more comfortable now, more protected. This wouldn’t be the first time, she ran through a snow-covered forest butt naked. The first time was on a dare but after she did it for fun, it felt freeing to her especially because she hardly got cold. Still, she knew monsters had to be around and she didn’t want to see how much protection bare skin provided.
Now that she was protected it was time to look at her surroundings. She was in a forest clearing surrounded by tall pine trees. Seeing as her current vantage point didn’t reveal much, she approached one of the trees and an ability she was well acquainted with.
[Create Ice]
* Attribute: Ice (Spirit)
* (Bronze 0 00%)
* Creation (Ice, Cold, Dense, Magical)
* Cost: Varies
* Cooldown: Varies
* [Iron] Make objects of ice. Increase Mana cost and Cooldown to make denser objects. (Create up to ice3.)
* [Bronze] Cooldowns and Mana cost for objects less than or equal to ice3 Can now make up to ice6. Additionally inject mana of specific types to add Temporary Enhancements. (Enhancements are equal to one rank below current.)
Using this ability she made a chain to wrap around her and the tree. When creating the chain frost formed into the vague shape of the chain then solidified. She wrapped it around the tree and herself then began to climb till she reached the first branch. Once to the branch she started climbing that way. Once she got close to the top she observed once again then sighed “Snow, more snow, and even more snow. Oh and look at that.” Off in the distance she noticed a manor. She was happy to at least see some sort of civilization out here and began to descend again. As she was descending, she thought about how someone was able to build in a D.E.Z. That’s when she paused and remembered the Lyon branch and the D.E.Z they had, that place didn’t break down and they were able to build in it. She let out a sigh of relief now knowing this place wouldn’t collapse. Once she got to last branches of the tree she jumped, landing and kicking up a cloud of snow. She turned towards the direction of the manner but, before she could start walking an arrow wised by her face; with enough force that she felt and saw the wake of air from the arrow passing through the cloud of snow.