Hidden dungeon ‘snowstorm peak’ commenced. Time remaining before automatic removal from dungeon: 12 hours.

Barry waved away the strange message and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the shining white light of the dungeon. As his vision cleared, he looked out at plains of thick, fluffy snow as far as the eye could see. He had thought the snowy, cactus covered climate above was impressive, but this dungeon was on a whole other level. The sheer brightness was overwhelming, and the sunny sky above caused the blinding white of the snow to reflect sharply into his eyes. Apart from his glary vision, the other thing that struck him was the bitter cold. The strong, swirling wind around him carried the freezing air and slammed it relentlessly into Barrys body. In response his skin was immediately covered in goose bumps, and an uncomfortable tingling sensation spread down his spine and into his limbs. Barry instinctively crossed his hands over his chest and rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm himself. He looked down to look at his pink, pimpled chest, and he significantly regretted not having anything warm to cover his top half. Barry glanced back at the space behind him and realised that unlike the previous dungeon, the entrance hadn’t disappeared. The wooden door was still there, oddly positioned into the side of a great wall of ice that stretched up to the sky above. He placed a numb hand onto the surface of the door to be sure, and a message appeared in his mind.

Warning – if you choose to exit the hidden dungeon ‘snowstorm peak’ you may not return. All items and experience earned will be maintained upon exit.

Barry only briefly entertained the idea of leaving this frozen land behind before he steadied his resolve and shook his head in disgust. How could he let such weak and shameful thoughts enter his mind? What was a little cold after everything he’d already been through? To think that he had even briefly considered throwing in the towel made him feel ill. With his renewed vigour Barry removed his hand from the door and turned to face the snowy plains in front of him. With a determined fire in his belly to keep his warm, Barry stepped forward and into the mysterious white expanse.

Barry trudged carefully through the thick snow, ever wary of the threat of hidden pitfalls and beasts. He was thankful that once again upon entering the dungeon all his stats and ability cool downs had automatically refreshed. This meant that for the first time in a long time, Barry was in peak fighting condition, and he would at least be able to react if he was to fall into another pit. The further forward he pushed, the stronger the blaring winds became, and the poorer his vision got. Additionally, as the winds picked up, the temperature inversely dropped further. His teeth chattered uncontrollably and his hands and feet were so cold despite his gloves and boots that he thought his fingers and toes might drop off. He didn’t dare to think about what might be happening to his other important appendage. After plodding along uneventfully for at least half an hour, Barry finally saw something change in the landscape. Around two hundred metres in front of him, the current extent of his vision, he could see the howling winds whipping even more vigorously along the base of what looked like a large, snow covered mountain. Barry found it hard to believe that he hadn’t spotted the massive natural structure earlier from its sheer size, but he put it down to the snow and haze masking his vision. He inspected the mountain on a whim, and received some useful information in return.

Inspection:

Snowstorm mountain

Around the base of the mountain he was able to see the outlines of various humanoid creatures patrolling in groups of two or three. As he got closer he saw that the beings were much larger than the average human, easily two to two and a half metres tall, and each of them held a large club in one hand. A quick inspection found that they were called ‘ice trolls’, all of them strength specialists that ranged from levels thirteen to fifteen.

“The dungeon is called snowstorm peak,” thought Barry, “Mountains have peaks. This is snowstorm mountain. And it’s the only place with beasts around. Surely the aim of this dungeon is to climb to the peak of snowstorm mountain.”

It seemed logical enough, and with nothing else in sight and no better ideas, Barry planned how he could get past the trolls.

Barry tried his best to think of a clever way of distracting or defeating the trolls, but the cold made it impossible to conjure intelligent thoughts. It was as if the icy wind was blowing straight into his soul and freezing not just his body, but also his mind. Not able to stand it any longer, Barry decided to just charge forward and take on the closest pair of trolls head on. The quick movement, adrenaline and risk of danger helped to warm his icy bones at least a little. When he got within twenty metres of the beasts they finally spotted him. As they did they let out a rumbling roar and started their own charge towards him. From this distance Barry was able to take a better look at the beasts as they ran through the snow. Their hair and features were more gorilla like than human, and every few steps they would bend down to place their free fist on the ground to push of, whilst the other hand kept hold of the one-metre-long stone club. The trolls had thick grey fur covering their entire bodies with the exception of their chests, which were covered in shorter, finer white fur. They had long, rectangular faces with a bottom jaw that far exceeded the size of their top jaw. Their arms and legs were ridiculously muscular, approximately the girth of Barry’s waist. Barry second guessed his size estimation from before as at this distance he looked to only be just taller than their belly buttons. With a scream of his own, Barry prepared his aura chain and summoned a clone, ready to attack.

Barry’s clone flew forward and feigned a swing at the first troll who raised its own weapon to meet the attack. The confused beast grumped in displeasure as it’s swing went unchallenged and it almost lost its balance as it’s body spun one hundred and eighty degrees from the momentum, accidentally smacking the other troll behind it directly in the face with the butt of the club. The second troll howled in pain and wiped blood away from it’s probably broken nose. In retaliation the bleeding troll raised its own club up overhead and slammed down heavily onto the head of the first troll. Still confused, and now dazed the stunned troll roared again and began launching its club forward at its former ally. For the next few minutes Barry watched in disbelief as the two massive creatures attacked each other with reckless abandon. He had long since dispelled his clone, content with watching the show unfold before him. Eventually, the troll that had its nose broken stood above the mangled body of its kin, roaring in victory. It hadn’t gone unscathed in the battle though, and a broken nose was the least of its concerns as it had an unusual indentation into its side that caused its breathing to look heavy and laboured. Additionally, it’s left leg was trembling and was positioned at an awkward angle, clearly broken. Its victory was short lived however as Barry rushed forward, seeing his opportunity, and slammed his chain into the still celebrating trolls face relentlessly until he felt the energy enter his system.

You have contributed to the slaying of ice troll, level 13. Percentage contribution 11%

You have contributed to the slaying of ice troll, level 14. Percentage contribution 20%

Barry found it funny that he’d been granted eleven percent contribution experience from doing literally no damage to the first troll. The second one he’d at least hit with his chain which explained why the experience gain was a bit better. But overall, considering how easy the battle had been, and how little he’d had to do, he was stoked with the results.

“If only all my battles could have been this easy,” thought Barry with a smile as he reflected on his countless near death experiences.

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Glancing around Barry couldn’t see any other groups of the trolls patrolling nearby so he let out a breath of relief. He had feared that all the roars would have attracted some unwanted attention, but it appeared those fears were unfounded. Presumably, the strong winds not only impacted the vision, but also the hearing of all those on the mountain. Now that the imminent danger had passed, the chill started to seep back into Barry’s bones and he began to shiver. As he looked up at the daunting, steep and seemingly endless mountain before him he began to feel anxious. Just how exactly was he meant to survive such cold, harsh conditions? In his frustration he looked down at the lifeless trolls before him, and suddenly he got an idea. In his couch potato life of misery before the training grounds he had watched his fair share of survival and nature programs, and he instantly knew what he had to do. He reached into his spatial sack and pulled out the small, sharp knife that he’d been using as a fire started. Then kneeling down in front of the troll he drove the blade into its thick skin and went to work separating the beasts fur from the rest of the body.

After much struggling and a bit of a hack job, Barry managed to obtain the ice troll pelt. His gloved hands and forearms were stained blood red and his stamina had dipped a bit from the constant effort. Thankfully his willpower aided him in his task to stay focused, despite his rapidly numbing limbs. With a gulp, Barry removed the pelt from the now skinless corpse of the troll and swung it over himself. To keep it in place Barry was forced to tie the troll arms around his neck like a scarf, whilst the rest of the pelt draped loosely over his back. He then used his hands to bring the sides around to his front and held them in place so that he was mostly covered in the gory garment. He nearly vomited as he felt the fresh blood pool down his back, moistening his trousers. It was a horrible sensation and he found it difficult to walk with the heavy fur. Additionally, he had to shorten his steps to avoid tripping on the oversized attire. It would also make fighting completely impossible, and if he was to get into a battle, he would need to take the coat off which would soon become annoying. But despite its many downfalls the pelt did provide one key thing that made it all worth it... Warmth.

Barry hiked his way further up the mountain slowly but surely inside his cosy new kit. He encountered two more groups of trolls in quick succession. The first was another group of two where he once again was able to make them fight against each other using his clone trick. The third group however consisted of three trolls and were far more troublesome. As he approached Barry removed his pelt and prepared his chains and clones as he had done so previously. Unfortunately, these trolls were not as easily duped despite them accidentally hitting each other on more than one occasion. It seemed that there was a ringleader of the group who was slightly more intelligent than the others. This slightly larger, and higher levelled being at level fifteen, would grunt loudly at his ally’s whenever they would start to become agitated towards each other. Seeing this, Barry realised who his first target needed to be.

Barry sent a clone forward for each of the weaker trolls as a distraction whilst he focussed on the leader. He summoned a third clone to join him in his attack and used his reliable tactic of sending the clone in first. Unsurprisingly, the troll swung ineffectually at the clone and Barry used this opportunity to follow up with his real attack from his aura chain, smacking the troll in the jaw and forcing it to take a step back. The troll bellowed in anger at the blow but looked mostly unharmed. In response the beast began another vertical swing, this time at Barry’s real body. Seeing the strike coming, Barry decided to simply dodge out of the way by tumbling to his right, rather than waste a use of his clone transfer. The trolls may be strong, but they weren’t overly fast so it was easy enough to manage. The club crashed down heavily into the mountain side, shaking the snow and sending a cloud of white powder flying up in all directions. Barry used the cover of the snow to manually swap positions with his clone. The troll lifted its large club back up with a seething groan and eyed off Barry and his clone. Then it did something unexpected. The trolls body began to glow, and it thumped its chest with its fists. As it did so a series of pulses of energy shot out in a ring from its body and Barry was unable to dodge the magical ability. As the waves of energy rushed over him, he began to sense a foreign force seeping into his mind and tracking towards his eyes. It was clearly using some sort of manipulation ability to try and affect his vision. Unfortunately for the troll, Barry was mentally robust, and his willpower easily overpowered the attack. However, the experience was a timely reminder to Barry that even seemingly stupid monsters had abilities, and that no battle should be taken lightly.

The troll seemed unable to sense that its ability had failed as it ceased its chest beating and walked casually towards Barry’s clone with a smirk. It had enough intelligence to walk past Barry, clearly recognising that it was unable to hurt that version of him. Unfortunately for the troll it had not seen Barry swap places with his clone earlier and instead the beast had just walked straight past him, leaving it’s back completely exposed. Maintaining the illusion, Barry made his clone rub at its eyes and turn its head around aimlessly as if its vision had been taken from it. At this point the troll even started to laugh through a series of grunts as it prepared for a killing blow. As expected, the swing of the club did nothing but slam into the mountain after passing through the image of Barry’s clone, and whilst the beast was trying to work out what exactly was happening, Barry began his assault. The next few minutes consisted of Barry sending a barrage of blows with his chain into the body of the troll. He occasionally had to dodge an attack or two whilst being careful not to slip on the steep terrain, but this task only became easier as the beast began to tire. After a while Barry even dispelled his clone as it wasn’t needed anymore and a short time later, he finally felled the beast as it fell down face first into the snow. Turning his attention to the remaining two trolls, he watched as the creatures started to attack each other after being tricked by his clones, just like the previous pairs had done. Dispelling his clones and watching on with a snigger Barry observed the large beasts violently clubbing each other. This fight was particularly entertaining as it concluded with both the trolls bringing their clubs down onto the others head at the same time, with both blows killing the other. With the battle over, Barry gathered up and donned his pelt whilst he enjoyed the rush of energy entering his body and the boost to his stats brought on by another soul magic level.

Before moving on Barry turned his attention to his soul stats and started to think about where to allocate his free points. What caught his eye was that his raw vitality stat was sitting at forty-eight, teasingly close to a nice round fifty. Ever hopeful, Barry wondered if level fifty might represent a milestone in progress that would grant him a new skill, just like he had received at level twenty. If he was really lucky, he might get the duration of the skill increased too from being the first initiate to reach level fifty vitality. Either way points into vitality never felt wasted to Barry so he gave in to his curiosity and threw his two free points into the stat, bringing him to a raw level of fifty and a total level of sixty after item and title boosts.

First stat to reach level 50, Vitality – Milestone ability granted:

Ability choices:

1. Null magic skin: Forms a layer of energy around the user which provides strong resistance against all forms of magical attacks. This effect lasts until the skin is broken or the skill is dispelled. Does not provide any resistance to physical attacks. Duration of ability is one second per vitality level. When fully depleted the skill has a cool down of 6 hours.

2. Barrier: Create physical barriers that provide strong resistance against all forms of physical attacks. These barriers are tangible and impassable until barrier is broken down or skill is dispelled. Does not provide any resistance to magical attacks. Maximum barrier size is 10cm times vitality level. Can also be broken down into up to 50 smaller barriers. Duration of the skill is influenced by total size of barriers created and duration of use, with the maximum duration equalling one second per vitality level. When fully deleted the skill has a cool down of 6 hours.

The options were both amazing and each sounded incredibly useful. Either he could form a magical layer of defence around himself, or he could create tangible barriers to block physical assaults. It was, as per usual, hard to choose. After long consideration Barry came to the conclusion that being able to keep enemies at bay with physical barriers would probably be the more versatile skill, even if additional magical defence would likely become more important as everyone levelled up. With that he selected ‘barrier’ and he felt the information of the skill enter his mind. But that wasn’t all, as he grinned widely at the next message that came through.

First initiate to achieve a vitality level of 50 achieved – bonus awarded. Second skill choice provided.

Ability choices:

1. Null magic skin: Forms a layer of energy around the user which provides strong resistance against all forms of magical attacks. Lasts until skin is broken or the skill is dispelled. Does not provide any resistance to physical attacks. Duration of ability is one second per vitality level. When fully depleted the skill has a cool down of 6 hours.

Barry grinned like a kid in a candy store as he selected the skill ‘null magic skin” and felt the information rush into him. Unable to resist the urge he immediately activated the skill and saw a subtle green glow spread across his entire body. It wasn’t a sickly looking green, but a healthy, strong, and vibrant glow. Not wanting to waste the cool down he dispelled it and could internally feel that it would be fully recharged within about six minutes, which made sense given he had only activated it for around a second. Then he moved to his barrier skill, he sensed it had a range of about twenty metres, but he chose to form a single ten-centimetre barrier a metre in front of his face. Instantly a square barrier that glowed green but was still see through floated in place in front of him. It looked like a glass tile mixed with a green glow stick. Barry reached out a hand to touch the barrier and found it was as solid as a rock. He immediately summoned his aura chain and swung it down at the barrier, but it rebounded without causing as much of a scratch to the barrier.

“Clearly I’m not strong enough to penetrate it,” smiled Barry as he retracted his chain and dispelled the barrier.

Satisfied, he turned his attention back to the mountain, and recommenced his hike.