We quickly walked down the mine, heading towards the tunnel with the flag. Astrid spoke with such certainty that the kids would be there, that there was no room for me to doubt it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t just run since the entire place was covered in ice, but it also gave me a moment to talk to the System and try to understand a bit more about this place.

'Sys, do you have any extra information for me? We’re in the dungeon now.'

[System is able to recognize user is inside the dungeon. However, only one attribute of the dungeon was revealed to System. The Frosted Gold dungeon has a passive effect that lowers the resistance against cold-based attacks of those inside it. User does not possess any sort of cold resistance. For that reason, this particular attribute will have no effect on user.]

'So it’s not like some games where you can have negative resistances?'

[Correct. System and system particles do not recognize negative resistances. Those are weaknesses. Skills that can trigger a weakness or make a target temporarily weaker to a specific type of attack or effect do exist. However, in the skill description, they will be referred to as 'weakness' or 'weaken'. If a skill refers to resistance, it is explicitly talking about an ability to reduce the damage or effect.]

'I see. But in that case, what would be better? A skill that makes my target weak against something or one that removes the resistances?'

[Considering that the target possesses resistances, removing them is more effective than making them weaker against a specific attack. The resistance will still be applied even if the target is weak to an attack, which means it is possible for a specific attack to do less damage, even if the target is weak against it but possesses a high resistance. Lowering the resistance would allow more damage overall.]

'Your explanations are getting a bit worse, but I get it. Remove the resistance first, then try to make them weaker.'

Before the System could answer me, Astrid stopped and gestured for me to do the same. She slowly pointed down to the center of the mine. Emerging from another one of the tunnels was a bear—a bear with a pure white coat, and instead of black, its claws were a dark shade of blue, not dissimilar to the protrusions of ice in the surrounding path. By all accounts, it looked like a mutated polar bear, but there were some significant differences that reinforced my doubts. Its neck was too short, and its ears were on the top of its head. It also looked much smaller than what it should be. Everything Pops told me about them, and the pictures he showed me on the computer, told me that this was a white black bear.

The main issue here was that this was a mutated creature, meaning that any physical description I had of those types of bears was not exactly reliable. To make matters worse, it was too far away for the System to be able to give me some information about the monster.

We stood there for around two minutes watching the bear leave the tunnel, walk around a few times, and then go back inside. Only after enough time had passed so our voices wouldn’t cause any problems did Astrid turn to me, "Bear territory. Keep quiet," her voice barely a whisper.

I nodded as we started walking closer to the entrance of the mines. I was doing my best to focus on my surroundings, but a part of me was screaming a question: why the fuck would those teenagers come here? Were they really that stupid that they wanted to find a bear? Even if those are not polar bears, chasing after one is a very easy way to get brutally killed. If we managed to find them, I would ask, but right now, we needed to save those dumbasses.

Pulling my staff from the pouch, I triggered {Compression}, making the metal pole large enough for me to wield it in a tight space. This wasn’t the time to worry about hiding the System. We carefully walked into the mine, taking the entrance in front of the flag. The place was bigger than I was expecting, but not by much. The corridor was just wide enough for Astrid to stretch her arms, and it was about two and a half meters [8 ft] tall. Which was one more reason why the bears here shouldn’t be polar bears.

The walls were covered in a layer of frost with some crystal-like structures made out of ice, but it still looked somewhat natural. The ground had a dark brown color with some patches of black material, and underneath all the frozen rock, you could still see the original sediment that made up the cave. It seemed like the biggest change was made to the artificial aspects of the area. The pillars and support beams built by the humans who once worked here. Those were the parts of the structure most affected by the system particles. I didn’t even need confirmation from the System to understand that. The wooden beams were now a dark shade of blue, and the lamps and light bulbs emanated an ethereal pale blue light that gave off no heat.

But that wide space quickly gave way to more narrow tunnels. There was one central passage that maintained the size of the entrance to some degree, but everything else was considerably smaller. Said paths were still not small enough for Astrid to have problems moving about, but they were getting close. Instead of taking one of those side tunnels, we continued down the main hallway until we reached a frozen box that was attached to the side of the passage.

"Watch out. It’s noisy," Astrid whispered as she grabbed the front panel of that metal box and forced it open. Ice shattered and fell to the ground as the metal creaked under the strain.

"What the hell are you doing?" I whispered, my staff pointing out, ready to attack any incoming monster.

"Forgot a weapon. Getting one," Astrid pulled a large fire axe from the container. Its handle was wooden but made of the same strange blue wood that formed the support pillars. The head of the axe was a dull, rusted orange, with the blade white as snow. But stranger than its appearance was the feeling coming off it. Somehow, that axe had SP imbued into it.

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"What is that?" I asked, trying not to freak out.

"My weapon," Astrid said with a smile, staring at the axe longingly before she continued walking down the path, "Come."

"If it’s your weapon, why did you leave it here?" I asked.

"Mine now. Forgot to bring one."

"Fine, but why leave it here? Why don’t you take it home?"

Astrid looked at the axe, "Gets weak if I take it."

She turned to a tunnel on our right, following a few footprints she noticed on the ground. Unlike outside, here there was nothing that could easily remove tracks, which might be the only thing that save those teenagers. But still, my mind was focused on something else.

'Sys, what the hell is that axe?'

[System is unable to provide that information without user coming into contact with the weapon. Current theory is that, much like the environment, the SP generated by the dungeon affected the weapon and changed its attributes.]

'Are you telling me the weapon can have a skill?'

[That is within the realm of possibility.]

'And why would it get weaker when it leaves here?'

[Since the weapon is in an environment with abundant SP, once it is taken away from said environment, the particles present on the weapon will likely scatter, looking for a new host. That would not be an issue if a System user was in possession of the weapon. System is able to send instructions to particles present in the weapon to avoid the dispersion of SP.]

'So magic weapons are real? Fuck me.' A low growl echoed through the tunnel, halting my thoughts.

It was hard to tell where it came from, since there were so many passages around us, but it was clear that whatever made that sound wasn’t happy.

'We’re talking more about this later. For now, just try to make a map so we don’t get lost here.'

[Acknowledged.]

As much as I wanted to continue that conversation, it wasn’t the right time. Another growl echoed, followed by someone screaming. It was hard to say if that was a man whose voice cracked or a woman yelling. Without saying anything, Astrid just started running. I did my best to follow and not be left behind, but it didn’t take long for me to lose track of my companion. The problem wasn’t really speed, but it was clear that she knew the path she was taking. In contrast, every time we made a turn, I needed a moment to understand my surroundings, especially on the corners where the light was more spread out.

I did my best to follow the tracks left by Astrid, but my practice lay in chasing animals and monsters through the woods, not through a cave—and definitely not through a tunnel covered in ice. Eventually, it became clear that the noise I was following was but an echo bouncing from somewhere else. I stopped and asked the System to pull up the map it was creating so I could make my way back to the entrance. The deeper I went, the harder it would be to find my way back. A holographic line appeared on the ground, pointing back to the path I came from. But after just three turns down the winding tunnels, the line given by the System was suddenly pointing directly into a wall.

'Sys… I’m pretty sure this is wrong,' I said.

The line vanished and tried to reform, but this time it pointed in a completely different direction. Then it vanished and appeared again, pointing to a third path. Only then did the System speak up.

[System was able to identify one more attribute of the dungeon. Attempts to map the environment are hindered by the particles present. System is unable to create a map of the tunnels. User will require a skill capable of blocking the interference in order for a map to be created.]

'Well, fuck,' I grumbled, starting to look around, trying to see if there was anything that could help me identify where I was supposed to go. This was my fault. I put too much faith in the System when I should have been paying attention to the path myself.

Before I could make a decision on my next course of action, the sound of muffled sobbing reached my ear. It was hard to tell how far away it was, but I felt pretty confident it was coming from one specific tunnel. If those teenagers were there, maybe they could help me get out of here. I started running, following that sound, which became louder and louder while still being muffled. Eventually, it was drowned out by a second thumping, almost like something was hitting a wall over and over again.

I got closer to the sounds, feeling as if they were just beyond the next curve. There was a weird, putrid smell coming from that area. It was the kind you’d smell from an animal that had fallen from a cliff and died in the summer. With my staff in hand, I slowly peeked around the tunnel. It was a large, oval-shaped space with one source of light in the ceiling, swinging from side to side. That spotlight illuminated some strange formations on the walls and reflected off cracks in the ice covering the floor. On the center of the room was a shape. A grotesque figure with a large, bulbous protrusion coming from the middle of its body, dangling down until it almost scraped the ground. A pair of thick, furry, spider-like legs jutted out from its sides, touching the ice below as it skittered left and right, trying to maintain its balance.

The spotlight swung enough for me to see the upper half of this creature. It had a small abdomen with another four legs wrapping around it like a hug. Spider webs covered those four limbs, going around the torso. You could say it looked like a restraining jacket, but at the same time, it was as if the creature was struggling to keep itself together.

Near the top of its head, two more spider legs extended. Those were moving quickly from the wall back to its face, grabbing large clumps of something that were being aggressively shoved into its mouth. I was looking at a prop attempt of a spider that walked on two legs.

I heard another noise, a desperate cry coming from my right. There was a girl there, stuck in a half-made cocoon of spider webs with just her eyes and nose still exposed to the air. She looked at me, panic in her eyes, trying to beg for help. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who heard her.

The creature turned around, revealing its head lower on its body, almost as if it was coming from the middle of its thorax. Eight different eyes stared at me, each of them looking as if they came from a different type of animal—from birds and wolves to reptiles and toads.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cleggy – Aranean – Tier 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The spider-like monster pushed air out of its mouth, the noise almost sounding like a word. I was still trying to figure out what would be the best way to attack it. I knew what to expect from an Eater, but not from whatever this creature was.

"...h…t" the Aranean made another sound. This time, it gave me pause. It almost sounded like it was trying to say…

"...Hurt…"

My eyes went wide, and I glanced at the girl wrapped in the cocoon. Her expression was similar to mine.

"...Pain…" the Aranean… spoke. There was no other way to describe that. The spider creature was trying to speak… speak English. And Every sound, every word that came out of its mouth seemed to be filled with suffering.

"...Cold…" Cleggy took a step towards me, its two arms—or the legs closer to its head—reaching out. The eyes, which had each been looking in a different direction, all snapped towards me. The fangs in its mouth started to clatter, venom dripping from their tips.

"WARM!" it shouted as the monster lunged at me.