"Morning," Astrid said once I woke up.

"Good morning. Actually, Sys, what time is it?" I asked.

[It is currently 4:13 p.m.]

"So, good afternoon," I smiled.

"How?" Astrid frowned as she put her axe to the side.

"The System is able to keep track of time. I saw a clock a while back, and now I’ll never have to worry about not knowing the time again. It can also do a bunch of other minor things like that. You should test things out."

"Interesting," Astrid paused, and after a moment, she reached out to me. "May I?"

"Sure." I took her hand and saw a notification appear.

[User Astrid Ek is requesting information about the current time. Does user permit that information to be shared?]

'Yes,' I told the System mentally.

There was nothing else on my end. The information had been passed along, and Astrid pulled her hand back. It took me a few moments to wake up properly, and what really did the trick was sucking on some ice. There was nothing like frozen water hitting your teeth to get rid of any lingering drowsiness.

"Can you open?" Astrid gestured to the hunk of ice blocking the entrance.

"Sure, but why? Do you want to start hunting already?"

"No. Bathroom."

"Oh," I nodded and opened the door.

As unhygienic as it sounded, we had already agreed to use nearby rooms for that kind of thing. Even if we didn’t have a proper bathroom, we were not animals who would go in a corner and then sleep near our waste. Once Astrid returned, I was ready with some water from the waterskin. It wasn’t fresh water we had brought here, but melted ice from the walls, along with a tiny piece of soap I still had in my pouch. My proper supplies were back in Astrid’s house, in my backpack, but I had kept a few smaller items with me.

Astrid washed her hands while I prepared a bit more meat for my breakfast. Even if bear meat was tough and stringy, two legs went a long way. I wouldn’t be surprised if it lasted another three or four days. But we still needed to talk about our plans.

"How are you feeling? I was too tired when you woke up earlier, but I want to know how the new class feels. And the new tier."

Astrid opened and closed her fists a couple of times. "Strong. I like. Good skills."

"Which ones did you keep? I don’t think you had enough space for all of them."

In response, Astrid touched my shoulder and revealed her status screen.

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

Astrid Ek - Level 1

Titles: Frosted Metabolism

Tier: 1 - Frosted Lumberjack

Mind 1 - Body 11

Memory 6 - Energy 6 (2 Reserved)

Skills 6/6

Energy Storage - Passive - 1 Energy

Memory Bank - Passive - 1 Energy

Cold Endurance - Passive - 0 Energy

Wood Cleaver - 1 Energy

Body Regeneration - 1 Energy/10 minutes

Chop - 1 Energy/3 uses

Mind of Possibility - Unavailable

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

"Damn, you already have more points in Body than I do. But why did you keep Frostbitten Strike in the memory bank? That one should be better than Chop."

"No charges."

"That’s fair. Having an ability you can trigger over and over again is really helpful, especially when you don’t have much Energy. Let me just finish eating this, and we can start trying to get out of here again."

"No rush."

"I mean, I am in a rush. I do enjoy hanging out with you, but the rest of our roommates kind of suck. They keep trying to kill us. I would very much like not to have to worry about that."

Astrid nodded with a smile, but didn't say anything else, letting me finish my meal in peace. In moments like this, I appreciated the fact that she wasn’t someone who spoke much. Despite trying to seem upbeat and relaxed about the situation, I was starting to get worried. We were no closer to finding a way out of the mines than we were yesterday. The oil was running out, meaning we wouldn’t have anything to keep us warm soon. I could also tell the two of us were starting to smell. Two days of constant fighting and running around was clearly not good for our hygiene.

Stolen novel; please report.

Not to mention, the lack of sunlight was starting to drive me crazy. I never expected to be someone who enjoyed the sun so much, but I guess this experience was teaching me something about myself. And those were just minor nitpicks. The real issue was how long could we survive here surrounded by monsters? We were bound to eventually make mistakes, and living on a razor's edge all the time sounded like torture.

Not long after that, we were heading out. Our temporary shelter was locked once more, leaving behind a still-lit fire and the remains of the two bear legs. We carefully retraced our steps, hoping to find a new passage that could take us outside. Instead, we found a large gathering of bears. There were six of them spread across a wide area.

Even with our new skills and Astrid’s advancement to Tier 1, we were not confident enough to fight that many monsters at once. Without saying a word, the two of us slowly stepped back, trying to get away from the creatures without being seen. It quickly became clear that wasn’t an option.

Coming from the hallway we had just left were another two bears, who roared upon noticing us, alerting the other six.

With all the monsters now facing us, we had no choice but to run into the one corridor that was still empty. The creatures hot on our heels. That was a stark difference from the previous day. Yesterday, we only saw the creatures when we had to fight them. Now, we could hear their growls, smell their musk, and feel the ground shaking with every step they took.

Astrid took the lead. Even though she didn’t know this place well, her proficiency in navigating these kinds of spaces was leagues beyond mine. Not having to decide which path to take freed me to search for a loose rock or a piece of ice large enough to block the tunnel with {Compression}. Yet, there was nothing. All I saw were chunks of ice still attached to the walls and open spaces that wouldn’t help us at all.

As if things weren’t bad enough, a few more creatures joined the chase. They appeared from side tunnels, quickly realizing we were intruders in their home—or maybe they were just hungry. After about five minutes of running, the ground tilted upwards, and a stronger gust of wind hit our faces.

That could have been it. That could have been our way out of these cursed mines. With renewed hope, both Astrid and I picked up the pace, our legs burning from the incline. But neither of us was willing to slow down, much less stop.

And that was our mistake.

If we had been more careful, we would have noticed how the bears stopped chasing us. We would have seen the claw marks in the area, all pointing away from the direction we were running. We would have heard the low, rhythmic rumbling, echoing through the tunnel. And we would have noticed how the surrounding ice formations had the same shape as the ones the Ice Devil used to throw a bear into its lair.

But neither of us realized what was happening. The bears had tricked us. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but it didn’t change the fact that their chase led us to the worst possible location—a tunnel leading directly to the Lair of the Ice Devil. And it wasn’t an obvious tunnel. We could clearly see a wall in the distance, directly in front of us, but there was also a curve to the side with no lights or anything that made us feel like we were heading toward the sleeping quarters of a beast.

Without warning, the ice a few meters [ft] behind us came to life. Large chunks flew in our direction at rapid speed. They slammed against our backs and didn’t stop there. The ice continued to move forward, stopping only a couple of steps before the end of the tunnel. We could still see a wall there, along with the curve leading to a dead end, but the real problem was the ground—or lack thereof.

I was the first to drop into the opening. The ice took a bit longer to send Astrid my way due to the difference in our weight. Tumbling down, my limbs scraped against impossibly cold pieces of ice. Just grazing those frozen parts of the wall was enough to give me the early stages of frostbite.

After landing in a wide area with a different kind of light, my first reaction was to jump up to avoid the ice-covered ground. Everything had happened too fast, and I made the mistake of not filling up {Mind of Possibility}. Between the ice pillars hitting my back and landing on the ground, not even ten seconds had passed. There were so many things I could have done differently. Using my staff, I could have created something to stop my fall. Or I might have been able to push Astrid and myself toward the dead end. It would have been better to stay there than end up here.

The Frosted Lumberjack fell by my side a second after I crash-landed, but it was clear the ice wasn’t hurting her like it was hurting me. The woman didn’t seem to have any problem placing her full hand against it.

But that didn’t matter. We had bigger problems than being attacked by the environment. This area was much wider than any of the rooms we had passed. Even the largest one we found might have housed ten bears at most. But this place could easily fit hundreds. The ceiling was at least 20 meters [65.6ft] high, and for a moment, I thought it had an opening to the outside. At the very top was a powerful light source, almost like the sun illuminating everything. The one difference was the color. Instead of the white-yellow rays of sunshine, everything was bathed in a shade of light blue, likely because of a piece of ice blocking the exit.

However, that thought was another mistake. A minor one in comparison to everything else, but a mistake nonetheless. The light wasn’t coming from the sun but from something else entirely—something that I could tell was completely full of SP. The System didn’t say anything, but I could feel my own particles being attracted to that light source. Which likely meant I was staring at the dungeon core.

My attention quickly shifted to something much more important. In the center of this massive cavern was a gigantic bear. It was easily 2 meters [6.6ft] tall even while lying down. Its neck was longer than the Polar Brown Bears, and its snout more pronounced. Being this close made me realize that the shards of ice protruding from its body followed the pattern of its bones: along the back of its elbows, tracing its ribs, and forming an ominous crown around its eyes.

The creature’s eyes were open, but it was still lazily resting in the middle of the room, basking in the pale glow from the dungeon core. Its eyes were strange, lacking pupils or any other features. Instead, they looked like spheres made entirely of white ice, a white so intense it outshone the fur covering its body.

To our left, there was an open tunnel. Another tunnel lay behind the Ice Devil. Without breaking eye contact with the monster, I helped Astrid to her feet while sending her a message through the System.

Cassandra: To the left. That’s our way out.

Astrid: Understood.

We barely had time to take a step to the side. The creature moved one of its massive paws, revealing long claws made of black ice. It slammed it onto the ground, as if to steady itself while getting up. At the same time, walls of ice formed in front of the two entrances to the cave, sealing them off. The Ice Devil stood up, doubling in size. Strangely enough, it seemed to be snowing under its body.

But I didn’t have time to theorize what was happening. The monstrous bear rose and took a step forward, ready to devour its next meal. And unless we found a way to kill it, we were the ones on menu.