Not too long after he had started his hike again, Barry found himself on a flat platform of snow cut into the side of the mountain before the next incline began. The moment he stepped foot on the flatter surface he received a new message in his mind.
Snowstorm mountain peak #1 reached. Reward provided upon exit of dungeon or automatic removal post time lapse.
Time remaining: 10 hours, 14 minutes
This message was welcomed by Barry, but it felt strange at the same time. He’d clearly reached some sort of milestone by getting to the flat area, but there was no way this was all that the dungeon had to offer. Firstly, this was called peak number one, which indicated there might be more than one peak to reach. That seemed odd to Barry given his understanding of the definition of a ‘peak’ was the pinnacle or highest point of a mountain, was it normal for a mountain to have multiple peaks? But then again he was no mountaineer, and supposedly the gods created this place so if they say there are multiple peaks, then there are multiple peaks. Realising he was once again ruminating on useless semantics, Barry steadied his thoughts. One way or another it was clear there was more to find in this dungeon. As he gazed up from where he stood right now, he still couldn’t even see the top of the mountain, it looked like an endless collection of rising snow. His best guess was that there were multiple checkpoints to reach, and the more checkpoints passed within the allocated time, the greater the reward at the end.
“That’s got to be it,” he thought as he moved towards the next incline and continued climbing.
It didn’t take him long to run into the next group of beasts. Dozens of ‘ice wolves’ littered this area of the mountain. They weren’t as individually strong as the trolls were, usually being between levels ten and twelve, but like the wolves of earth, they hunted in packs. The first pack found Barry before he found them. There was a series of eerie howls and before Barry knew it, a wolf had crept up behind him and clawed at his back. Thankfully, Barry’s innate vitality blocked most of the damage from the beast, but it did cut a line through his troll pelt which he was pissed about. Dropping the pelt Barry instantly entered battle mode and summoned two clones. Looking around he realised he was already surrounded by at least seven of the wolves who were circling him ominously whilst snarling viciously. The majority of the wolves specialised in dexterity, making them difficult to keep up with. Even the one’s that didn’t still seemed to have more speed than Barry. To make up for this, Barry formed a row of illusionary chains from the snow to cover his back and left side, forcing the wolves to attack only from one direction. In general the tactic worked well, as the wolves were hesitant to step past the swaying chains, often jumping backwards whenever a chain flicked forward at them. This meant that with the battlefield narrowed, it was easy to pick off the beasts one by one until all seven had been defeated. For Barry, the battle had been fairly straight forward, and although he’d been swiped, clawed and bitten multiple times, the damage was nearly insignificant.
As he kept climbing, he faced another two packs of wolves and used the same simple trick to increase his odds of striking true. He even dismissed his clones for the third fight as he realised that with the illusionary chains, he didn’t really need the extra distraction and would rather save his mana. Eventually, he could see what looked like another levelled off section of the mountain above him and he assumed it was the second peak. But between him and this plateau stood a much larger pack of wolves, thirteen in total. What made this group more intimidating, apart from the greater numbers, was that at the front of the pack stood a much larger ice wolf that Barry assumed was the leader. This was only confirmed with his inspection of the beast.
Inspection:
Beast: Ice wolf alpha
Level: 16
Stat: Mana
This was by far the strongest wolf he had come across so far. It had jet black fur, and each hair was standing on end with its long tail also erect. Even its snarl was deeper and more menacing than its weaker brethren. It held its body low to the ground as it stared at Barry with teeth bared, taking slow and deliberate steps towards him. Then it let out an almighty howl and all the wolves behind it charged forward down the mountain towards Barry as he prepared the battlefield with his usual illusionary chains. As he did so he was suddenly sent tumbling backwards as he was hit simultaneously by three… somethings. He looked around but saw nothing, no attack, no projectiles, nothing. However, behind him there were three lines of bare dirt where the snow had been torn up and sent flying into other areas. Turning back to the wolves who were quickly closing in on him he saw the alpha swipe its glowing paw into the air and from each of its three large claws emerged three lines of energy that flew through the air and straight towards Barry. Barry dove to the side and the three energy waves passed by him before cutting into the mountain with tremendous force. Barry was shaken by the attack, but he didn’t have time to ponder as the first of the other wolves was leaping into the air directly towards him. As it neared him Barry reflexively activated his new ability ‘barrier’ and in front of the wolf’s face appeared a small ten-centimetre wide, green square. Without any time to react the wolf’s face crashed into the barrier and it let out a squeal of pain and shock. Barry smirked at the effectiveness of the skill and got himself up off the ground. He swung his chain down at the wolf with the now crooked nose and after a couple of strikes the beast died.
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By now a number of the wolves were in striking distance and Barry decided to summon two clones to provide him with some versatility in his attacks, as well as the boost to his peripheral vision. Then, keeping at least one eye on the alpha he began to fight off the attackers one by one. Barry repeatedly had to jump to the side mid-battle to avoid the barrage of claw swipes from the alpha who seemed to have little care for the wellbeing of its pack. More than a couple of the smaller wolves had been killed not by Barry, but by the energy waves of the pack leader. Panting, bleeding and growing tired, Barry finished off the last of the standard ice wolves and began to make his way up towards the alpha who seemed content to continue firing attacks from a distance. The large wolf howled as he approached and as he closed in on the creature it began to send out a battery of the energy swipes towards Barry. Realising he was now too close to dodge the attacks, Barry activated null magic skin and backed the skills ability to tank the blows. Charging forward, his glowing green body fully exposed, Barry was struck by a total of four full powered energy attacks from the alpha. He felt the hits, but he took no damage, as the skill absorbed every single one without issue. By the end of the fourth strike Barry felt the skill being stressed slightly, but it didn’t matter. It had done its job and Barry had reached his target.
Now as Barry stood in front of it the wolf finally ceased its ranged attacks. The large beast leaped forward towards Barry with glowing paws. Barry chose to dodge the first strike, recognising that the creature was using some sort of ability. He watched as the right claw of the wolf flew past his body and he readied himself to retaliate with his own strikes. Suddenly, an unexpected stinging gripped at Barry, and he looked down in confusion to see three distinct claw marks across his chest. The wounds were shallow due to Barry’s impressive vitality, but that wasn’t the issue. The problem was that Barry had no idea how the wounds had occurred. He had clearly dodged the attack, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind about that, and yet somehow, he had still been struck. The beast snapped forward at Barry and he retreated back again, this time escaping any damage. However, when it swiped back again with its left paw Barry was once again confused as the long claws clearly missed him and yet he was left with another set of claw marks into his right arm.
“It must have some sort of ability that increases the range of its claw attacks,” Barry thought to himself, “So not only can it fire energy beams from its claws, but it can hit targets in melee normally outside of its range. Fantastic… All of its abilities are designed to hit foes out of its normal range. It must prefer to keep them at a distance to succeed. If that’s the case, then maybe I need to take the battle into my own hands.”
With an element of recklessness, Barry waited for the large wolf to prepare for another swipe with its claws. Then, he burst forward reaching it before it could complete its swipe or move out of the way. With his chain wrapped multiple times around each knuckle he delivered a mean right uppercut to the jaw of the surprised wolf causing the beast to let out a surprisingly high-pitched whine in response. Barry followed up with a left hook punch to the side of the face of the wolf before it attempted to turn around and run to put some distance between the two. But Barry wasn’t having it, and he summoned his clone right in front of the fleeing beast. This caused it to falter for just a moment, which was long enough for Barry to reach it and grab a hold of its tail. Feeling the firm squeeze on its sensitive appendage it spun to face Barry and he met it with another heavy chain punch to the nose, stunning the creature. Then with a yell he followed up with a blitz of strikes until the surprisingly fragile wolf finally died. Relishing in the energy influx he received, Barry dismissed all of his abilities and slowly made his way back down to collect his trusty troll pelt. After picking up his item, Barry walked back up to the second plateau and again a message appeared in his mind.
Snowstorm mountain peak #2 reached. Reward provided upon exit of dungeon or automatic removal post time lapse.
Time remaining: 8 hours, 39 minutes
With that Barry lay down on his back on the ground and closed his eyes. It was a relief to be on flat ground for a change. The constant upwards trudging was causing some of his muscles to stretch uncomfortably, and others to strain from the effort. He glanced at his stats screen and saw that his health was still well above eighty percent despite all the blows he had taken.
“I sure am one sturdy son of a bitch,” Barry thought to himself with a satisfied smile.
His mana was at a surprising sixty percent, despite all his ability usage.
“It seems all the regular automatic investment in the stat from my class is starting to pay off,” thought Barry.
However, when he looked at his stamina he suddenly realised where his weaknesses lay. His stamina bar was low. Very low in fact. It was sitting at somewhere between ten and twenty percent. All the hiking and fighting had been taking a toll on Barry and it was no surprise that he was starting to feel the fatigue. He was also getting hungry, but he didn’t have any food apart from his stat boosting herbs and fungi which he preferred not to use unless absolutely necessary. He decided he would suck it up and wait until he got out of this frozen hellhole before finding himself something decent to eat. Believing himself to be safe here on the second peak, Barry allowed himself to rest. He didn’t sleep, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure that this was a monster free zone, but he relaxed enough to allow his stamina to regenerate.
Unfortunately, the problem with allowing the body to rest, was that it was more likely for the mind to wander. And Barry’s mind couldn’t help but wander back to the death of Tuti. Over and over in his mind he watched her being bisected by that orc fiend. He tried his best to put the thought out of his head, but it just kept creeping back in. The senselessness of it all. The blood. The look in her eyes. The fear. Tears started to flow into his eyes and the cold froze them to his cheek when they tried to escape. Peeling the icy tears off his face Barry rolled over and tried his best to think of other things.
“Maybe Knob had reached level ten by now and made it through the milestone wall,” he thought optimistically, forcing a smile.
However, that thought just caused his mind to drift to other dark places. He pictured Peltra’s forces catching up to Knob, capturing him, torturing him, and killing him. Barry shook his head in frustration but despite his best efforts all he could see was misery in his mind. Opening his eyes and looking up Barry screamed. Despite the progress he had made, his past still haunted him. Would it be this way forever? After a mentally tormenting few hours of rest, Barry’s stats were all back to a reasonable level. His health and mana were full, and his stamina was good enough. He picked himself up and turned away from the mountain to face the bitter empty air laid out before him. All sign of the snowy land he had entered on was gone, he was too high up and the conditions too harsh. Instead, only falling snow and vacant grey sky filled his vision. The powerful winds continued to slam into his body as he stood staring into nothingness. With a deep inhale of the cold, crisp air, Barry turned around and started on towards the next peak.