It was much easier to follow the scream than I expected. It also helped a lot that they were continuously yelling. And not long after, I was able to notice another voice. But the second one was just screaming non stop. Emily took the lead for a while. Even if she was lost, it might not be the first time she was in a place like this. There was almost no hesitation in her every time she had to be a tunnel to follow. Then again, there was a good chance she was just going off instinct.

Less than a minute after we started running, we reached the point where the voices sounded like they were coming from just down the corridor. The last thing I needed right now was for this teenage girl to end up hurting herself so I picked up the pace, leaving her behind. To be honest, her surprise expression as I passed by her effortlessly was very amusing. As soon as I came out of that tunnel, I saw two teenagers running towards me. One of them was able to stop any time but the other almost tackled me as he was running. Yet, the difference in strength was too big, especially with my new skill, making him fall backwards.

"Are you okay?" I reach out to help the boy up from the ground.

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

"That doesn't matter. We need to run!" the other boy said.

"Johnny! Scott!" Emily gasped.

"Emily!" the two boys said.

"Okay, okay, everybody knows each other's names," I rolled my eyes. "What's going on? Why are you running?"

"There are bears and the ice devil!" Who I assume to be Scott replied.

"Astrid told us to run. She said she was going to keep them back," Johnny added.

"And you left her?!" I yelled.

"What else were we supposed to do?" Scott protested.

In all honesty, I really didn't have an answer for that. "Fine. Do you know where she is?"

"You need to follow this support beam," Johnny pointed up. Unlike the other tunnels, this one had a central wooden beam following the path in the ceiling. It was a bit hard to see it, especially when they were above the blue spotlight, but not impossible.

"Okay. Do you know how to get out of here?"

"Yeah, follow this in the opposite direction," he pointed to the support beam again.

"Then go I'll go after her," I started moving towards where Astrid should be, but one of the boys stepped in front of me.

"No wait. You're Cass, right? Astrid told us to find you. You need to help us get out!" Scott gasped.

"Don't lie to me. Why would she say that? You're just scared and you don't want to get out of here on your own," I frowned.

"But you're Cass, right? How would we know your name if she didn't tell us?" Scott pressed.

I let out a loud groan. From the little I knew about her, it was very likely that Astrid did tell them to find me and she did stay behind to save them. You could tell that woman had a savior complex.

"Fine, but I'm only taking you out of the mine. You lot got here by yourselves. You should be able to get back to the village," I replied.

"What? Why?" Johnny asked.

"Because I'm not going to abandon someone who's trying to save other people!" Seeing the boys' reaction made me feel a little bad. There was a lot of shame on their faces, but I could tell they wouldn't change their mind. And I couldn't really blame them. Unlike me, they didn't have a way of fighting monsters. "Let's go. We just follow this one, right?" I turned to Johnny.

"Y-yeah," he nodded.

Without saying another word, I turned and started running. It sucked that I couldn't go into a full sprint, otherwise the kids would be left behind. Even if we knew a way to get back outside, it took way longer than expected to leave the mine. The entire time, I kept trying to see if I could hear Astrid or any monster that might be attacking her, but I got nothing. Either she was able to fight very quietly, or she was already dead, which only increased my worry.

Finally, we reached the main corridor. The light from the outside shining through the entrance. "Now you can handle yourself. I'm going back for Astrid."

"No! You can't leave us like this. We need someone else to take us back to the village," Johnny protested.

"Are you kidding me? I told you I was going back for her. I'm not changing that."

"But she's dead," Johnny pressed once more.

"Is she? Did you see her dying, or are you just telling me that she's dead because you look like she was about to die?" I stepped forward, already staring daggers at the man.

"She was fighting a bear on her own. A polar bear!" Scott chimed in.

"They're brown bears who are white, and I'm sure she's not just dropping dead because you left," I glanced back towards the depths of the mine. Astrid wasn't stupid, and the amount of scars she had proof that she was a good hunter. Even if she was trying to save someone else, I doubt she would being a situation where she couldn't handle herself at least for a while.

"So? It's still a bear. You should go and you're going to die," Johnny tried to grab my wrist, but I swatted his hand away.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"I don't give two shits about what you say. I'm going back to her and I'm not wasting my time anymore." Before either of the three could say anything else, I just turned around and started running. This time, without having to worry about leaving someone behind that could go in a full sprint.

The wind passing through my ears drowned the voices of the teenagers. It was clear they were saying something, but I didn't care. I had to reach Astrid in time. Last time someone I cared about was attacked by a monster, I could do nothing but run. This time, things would be different. The support beam followed a path with a few turns in quick sequence and eventually reached a long corridor. One that allowed me to truly unleash my new speed. It felt amazing. The only few times when I moved that fast was when I was riding a horse. Okay, maybe not. A horse going on a full sprint was still faster than me, but I was going at a good canter pace.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a moment to enjoy the feeling. Instead, my focus was on my ears. I needed a noise, a growl, something to tell me where Astrid was.

But I couldn't hear anything aside from my own footsteps. To make matters worse, the echo was going around the tunnels, reaching me again from the front. The layout of this place was an absolute mess. Every corridor would split off in so many others at so many points that they all ended up connecting back together in front and behind me. That made it almost impossible to create a mental map of the place. The light was also of no help. Sure, it was the only thing allowing me to see what was around me, but seeing everything in shades of blue was very confusing.

Eventually, after who knows how long, something changed. My body passed through what almost felt like an invisible sheet of System particles. But they didn't stay with me instead were left behind as I crossed the threshold. More than that, the biggest difference was the noise. I could hear large creatures moving around, low growls and snores echoing through the tunnels. And more importantly, a voice. Someone shouting at semi regular intervals.

Without thinking twice, I started running towards that voice, leaving the path of the support beam entirely. The sound became louder and louder. Each shout followed by a growl or a yelp. But before I could reach it, with one final visceral growl, they became silent. But it didn't mean there was nothing else going on. Other growls and sounds of heavy footsteps were approaching.

I continued running towards what I assume the sound came from. But as I passed, a soft moan coming from inside caught my attention. My feet skidded on the ground as I tried to stop before going back to that place. It was a large-ish room with a few broken pieces of wood on the sides. There were a few lights on the ceiling, but in the center of it were two bodies. A large white bear bleeding from various wounds, and Astrid on her knees struggling to get up using her fireman's axe as a cane. She was covered in claw wounds, and there was a nasty gash on the side of her stomach.

"Astrid!" I gasped, rushing to her side.

The woman struggled to speak up, but eventually two words came through, "The kids?"

"I took them to the entrance. They got here, they can figure out a way to get back to the village. I wasn't going to leave you alone," I looked around, trying to see if there was anything I could use to make some bandages. My clothes wouldn't work properly because of her size. At most, I would be able to cover the wounds in her arms, but there was nothing I could do about the one in her stomach.

'Sys, do I have enough SP to give her the System?'

[User currently has 13% of progression to the next level. It is possible to give System to Astrid.]

"Stupid. You run."

"I said I'm not going to leave you," I heard some roars coming from outside. Staying here, with all this blood, might not be the best idea. "I know it hurts, but we need to get out of here. We'll find a safer place and tend to your wounds. Okay?"

"No. Go," Astrid tried to push me away, but between my level of body and {Ice-Veined strength}, not to mention her weakened state, there was nothing she could do.

"Shut up. You can either stay awake and let me help you or I'll knock you out and figure it out on my own."

She grumbled something, but I couldn't understand it. Ignoring that, I went to the opposite side of the wound in her stomach and helped her up, keeping her arm around my shoulder. We managed to get her to her feet, but it was hard to start moving. Astrid was holding on to the fireman's axe, refusing to let go of her weapon.

"Give me that," I reached out to grab the axe.

"No. Too heavy?" By the end of her sentence, I had already picked up the weapon with one hand as if it weighed nothing. Which wasn't true. The axe was heavy, and it was a surprise that someone without the System was able to use it as a weapon. But I still could handle it, especially now that I was worried and wanted to get out of here.

We took a few steps towards the entrance of this room before I froze. Standing on the tunnel beyond were three bears with pure white fur, short necks, and deep blue claws.

[Polar Brown Bear - Tier 1]

[Polar Brown Bear - Tier 1]

[Polar Brown Bear - Tier 1]

We took a step back as the three bears tried to push their way inside the room. They all moved at once and quickly started to fight amongst themselves. In any other situation, that would be great. It would give us a chance to run, if we had somewhere to run.

The three bears started to get more and more angry at each other until they began attacking. I was still trying to think of a way out, and {Mind of Possibility} was unavailable since I used Proxy a few minutes earlier. One of the monsters slammed both its front legs on the ground and roared, causing the entire area to shake as if they were trying to silence the others. But even after it stopped making any noise, the shaking continued. Cracks appeared all over the floor, including underneath us, and the ground gave in. Thankfully, we only fell a few meters, but that was already more than Astrid could take. Somehow, only the floor fell. The walls remained standing, reducing the amount of rubble that hit us.

She groaned, but I forced us to continue moving. We may have come out of the fall mostly unscathed, but so did the bears. Even if they were now more worried about hitting each other than paying attention to us. But the only thing I noticed about this new place we landed on was an open passage to our right. And more importantly, that path was in the opposite direction of the monsters.

I quickly rushed out, not even bothering to look behind us. If one of the monsters was coming, I hoped that {Predatory Sense} would give me a warning. Just as we left through the corridor, another problem came into view. More specifically, another monster. On one side of this hallway was a massive open area. Large chunks of ice covered the walls, and it even seemed to be snowing in there. Sitting in the middle of that room was a massive bear with white fur, a long neck and various blades of ice covering its body. From the snout came out long fangs that were cutting through inside its mouth. That was all I could see from this angle. Everything else was hiding behind more ice or behind its massive frame.

[Ice Devil - Tier 1 - Saturated]

The creature was sleeping, and I had no intention of waking it up. Pulling Astrid to the opposite end of the tunnel, we continued moving for about a minute until we reached another isolated room. There was enough space inside for us to rest and a side door leading to a small storage, but it was too big for any of the bears to move around properly. More importantly, there was a large boulder a few steps from the entrance.

I quickly put Astrid down inside and pushed the boulder to the door, making it fall to the side so the longer piece was pouting up before triggering {Compression}. The stone grew enough to block the entire entrance to this place. It wasn't a perfect seal. We still could see the gaps between the stone and the frame, but my hope was that any bear that tried to come here would see a closed off path and give up the chase. Especially since the boulder had wedged itself in a way that even I wasn't able to push it out.

I moved back towards Astrid and told her to be quiet as I gave the System a command 'Ingrain.'