Even though it hadn’t been that long since we last slept, Astrid and I were exhausted after the fight. Not just physically, but also mentally. Whether we liked it or not, fighting for our lives took a toll. That’s why we decided to rest for a few hours, maybe even sleep a bit, before doing anything else.

However, before doing anything, the Frosted Lumberjack had a goal. Dragging the massive leg she had brought all the way here, Astrid began carving out the fur from the Ice Devil. The end result was a large rug—untreated, with the underside still clearly covered in blood—but it was enough to cover herself.

Before I had a chance to ask her to make another for me, the woman began to strip, staying only in her underwear.

"What are you doing?" I asked. Even if we had defeated the Ice Devil, it was still freezing cold. I really doubted she had gotten a skill to completely offset the low temperatures.

"Warm up. Body heat. Come," she said, placing a smaller piece of the fur in front of the bonfire and sitting down. She opened the makeshift blanket for me to join her.

I remembered how Pops always said that the two best ways to recover from hypothermia were eating something warm or skin contact with someone who was warm. Since both Astrid and I were affected by frostbite, maybe it wouldn’t be as effective, but we didn’t have any other options.

I took off my clothes, staying in my underwear, and joined her under the Ice Devil blanket.

"It’s a bit weird to think I’ve known you for less than a week, and this is the second time I’m sitting beside you in my underwear," I said.

Astrid tilted her head. "It’s strange?"

"I wouldn’t call it strange. It’s just not something I’m used to," I replied, turning a bit to the side so our backs were touching. Since we were both in the same situation, it was better to make sure we stayed in a position where we both benefited, rather than letting one person get warmer while the other struggled to maintain heat.

Astrid nodded and stared at the fire. The strange blue light that covered the dungeon created an odd purple aura around the flames, where the two sources of light fought in a tug-of-war. Close to the fire were a couple of bear meat skewers slowly cooking. With any luck, we’d be able to get one of the Ice Devil’s skills.

If I could pick one, maybe I’d want the frozen armor it used. Then again, it only lasted for a few moments. Once it unleashed the snow tsunami, the armor was gone. It was hard to figure out why. Maybe the armor was temporary, or maybe creating the snow was a secondary effect of the skill. It could even be that the Ice Devil had sacrificed the armor’s power to strengthen its other attack.

"What now?" Astrid asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"About?"

"The dungeon," she said, without turning to look at me.

"I mean, the dungeon’s still here. I assume that if the Ice Devil was the thing controlling the dungeon, we would have gotten a notification or something. But since we didn’t, everything is probably the same. Even so, let me check."

I paused and spoke in my mind. 'Sys, is the dungeon still here?'

[User is still inside the dungeon. Killing the Ice Devil did not destroy the dungeon. As user stated, if the dungeon were destroyed, there would have been a notification.]

"Yeah, it’s still here."

"What now? It’s bad," Astrid said.

I turned to the Frosted Lumberjack. "You think having the dungeon here is bad?"

"Yes. You don’t?"

"I’m not sure," I admitted. "On one hand, yeah, having an area like this causing extreme weather effects outside could be a problem. But at the same time, the people in the village don’t have to worry about Eaters, do they?"

Astrid shook her head. "They don’t."

"And I’m pretty sure the dungeon plays a big part in that. I mean, Eaters look for sources of Energy. Fire is a good source of Energy for them. If you’re not in weather like this, lighting a fire is like sending up a flare for those monsters to follow. I’m worried that if we destroy the dungeon, the people in the village will have to face the Eaters," I explained.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

That wasn’t a new thought. Ever since we arrived in the dungeon, my mind had been trying to understand the ramifications of our actions.

Astrid stared at me for a while, but she eventually turned back to the flames, watching the flickering light.

"Then what?" she finally asked.

"I don’t know. I don’t think it’s right for me to be the one to make that decision. And it’s not like we’re even sure that removing the dungeon would cause problems. Maybe everything will be fine, and they won’t have to worry about the Eaters. Or maybe destroying the dungeon will cause them to flood back into this area."

"I see," the Frosted Lumberjack murmured, her gaze fixed on the flames. It made sense. I’d had days to think about all this, while she was only now learning about my concerns. This wasn’t the kind of decision that could be made in a rush.

We spent about half an hour sitting there, warming up by the fire. It wasn’t nearly enough to completely offset the frostbite, but it was a good starting point.

The Ice Devil’s meat was tastier than I expected, but it was also three times tougher than any of the other bears. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to grant us any skills. I had known it was a long shot. From what the System told me, I would only gain skills after eating a considerable amount of a creature that had them.

And the Ice Devil was massive. Even between the two of us, we had barely made a dent in the meat we carved from its leg.

Despite trying to focus on pretty much everything else, it was hard not to be cautious about the fact that I was basically naked beside Astrid. Not because I was attracted to her in that way. She was a beautiful woman—long arms and legs, large chiseled muscles covering her entire body, and beautiful blonde hair in a long braid that rested against her back—but she wasn’t for me. Maybe if she was older, things could have been different.

"The bears?" Astrid said.

"Which bears?"

"Here. Alive."

"What about… oh," I said, realizing what she meant. "You’re asking what they’re going to do now? Without the Ice Devil."

Astrid nodded.

I glanced at the fire for a moment, thinking about what she had asked. "Honestly, I don’t know. We’re not even sure if they’re stuck here. If there’s another way out without passing through the Ice Devil’s lair, then nothing will change. But if that was the only way for them to leave, it’s possible they’ll start hunting outside and eventually find a village. Do you think the villagers would be able to handle some bears appearing every now and then?"

There was a pause before she shook her head. "Not like this."

"Yeah, without the System, they’d be in trouble. And it’s not fair to put all of that on you," I sighed.

"Can I share?"

"Are you asking if you can share the System?" I turned to Astrid again and received a nod as a response. Her question made me chuckle. "Of course, you can. It’s yours now. You can do whatever you want with it. I’m not going to sit here and tell you what you can or can’t do. Just make sure to confirm with your System what the actual requirements are. There are a few things you’ll need to have in order to share it. Like progression to the next level, for example. Still, it’s something to keep in mind."

"Would you share?" she asked, looking deep into my eyes. The strange fight between the blue light of the dungeon and the fire turned her face a shade of purple.

"Honestly? No. I don’t know them, and I don’t know what they’d do with a power like this. But you’re free to give them the System if you want. Like I said, it’s your System. I’m not going to fight you just because your opinion is different from mine. Honestly, it would be a lot easier if we could just get rid of all the bears. But even though we’re a bit stronger now, I’m not confident we’d be able to kill them all without dying first. I wish I knew a way to wipe them out quickly, but the only thing that comes to mind would require some explosives."

Astrid stared at me for a moment with a strange expression before her eyes went wide. "Don’t need."

"What do you mean?"

"Ice Devil’s liver!" she gasped.

"The liver? What does that have to do with anything?"

"It’s a polar bear. Vitamin A."

"Right, I think I remember something about that. The liver of a polar bear can give you a Vitamin A overdose if you take a bite out of it, right?"

"Yes."

The gears in my head finally started moving, and I understood what she was trying to say. "And the Ice Devil’s liver should be much worse than that of a polar bear—at least in theory. So if we can find a way to make the other bears eat it, we might be able to kill them all."

Astrid nodded with a smile. "Exactly. One problem. Animals avoid liver. Polar bear liver."

I smiled back. "Yeah, I thought about that too, but I have a solution. A certain skill that can make large pieces of liver become very tiny."

Astrid smiled. "Start now?"

"Let’s warm up properly first. We’ll probably need to keep going back and forth to the lair, and I don’t think the ground will be any less cold just because you killed that monster."

We spent another hour or so in front of the bonfire, warming up before heading back to the Ice Devil’s lair. Then, we started the long process of cutting the monster open and removing its liver. The organ was absolutely massive. Not only was it thick, but it was also long. If we propped it up, it would reach my waist.

We took the entire thing back to our campsite, along with more pieces of meat. Preparing the poison bags took a lot of time, mostly because of {Compression}. Since I could only process five pieces of meat at once before needing to recover Energy, we had to take breaks every now and then.

Still, we didn’t just sit around doing nothing during those breaks. While my Energy reserves recovered, we started skinning the giant beast. Astrid had the idea of making some clothes using its fur. The leather was strong enough to function as some sort of armor.

In a cold climate, that would be great, but if I ended up somewhere warmer, I’d probably be sweating buckets just wearing it.

We kept working throughout the entire afternoon, making a few dozen "poisoned" pieces of meat. During breaks, Astrid continued working on the Ice Devil’s skin. We hoped the smell of the monster might be enough to scare away the other bears while we traveled through the mines.

If everything worked, not only would we be out of here by tomorrow, but we might also get another nice boost to our levels.

I had just leveled up, but more was always better.