A few hours later, Maven returned to jump from tree to tree like a monkey. Below her, Reyl, Lei, Sophia and Declan were walking in a row between the snowy trees. In front of the party, Bangor led the way as a guide. The dwarf hunter was observing the trees one by one. Beside him, Tobar the bear walked on all fours as his guard.

The party has taken a short rest after the previous encounter with monsters. By now their feet were lighter and faster, making the journey felt easier. Thanks to Bangor who chose to avoid all the monsters they could avoid. They would only battle if they had no other choice. And it turned out that they ran into little obstacle this way. Everything looked pretty smooth, and it seemed that they would arrive quickly and intact at the Crystal Palace.

The party then found an open field. Maven found that it was ice instead of soil under her feet.

“Indeed. This is a frozen lake, part of Joklfrey Great Forest. Like it or not, we’ll have to cross it. Watch your steps. It's not wintertime, so there are parts of the ice that are thinner,” Bangor explained.

“Hmm, this is a very big lake. It will take a day to detour around it, and we don’t have much time,” explained Lei while pointing towards Reyl, who was turning pale.

“We have no other choice. Let’s cross this lake. Keep in formation, not too tight but not too loose,” instructed Reyl as he began to walk.

The other party members followed behind him, except Tobar which was too heavy for the ice. He took a detour around the coast.

Even the relatively small and light Maven walked slowly and very carefully. She checked over every step of the way. Her brown eyes caught few little silhouetes moving around deep under the blue below her feet.

“Guys, look. There are lots of fish here,” she explained while kept walking.

Declan looked below and affirmed, “You’re right, Mave. Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we rest for now, make a hole on the ice and start to fish? They'll make a nice addition to our food supplies.”

“Don’t!” Bangor quickly forbade. “Aren’t you in a hurry to save this Reyl lad? Besides, if you can see those fishes, it means the ice is really thin. Keep moving, watch your steps!”

“All right, all right. I get it, fussy old man…”

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Stil whining, Declan kept moving forward. He actually was straying away from the rest of the party. Then suddenly there was a cracking noise under his feet.

Which he simply ignored.

The cracking became louder.

He took another step.

It became even louder.

Declan looked down, then he got flabbergasted.

“The ice is cracking!” he yelled.

Reyl quickly reacted, “Run, everyone!” Abruptly, the entire party of five began to run.

“Don’t! We can still… Ah, too late!” Bangor followed suit.

Running people in fact made the crack even bigger and widespread. Besides, they would also occasionally stomped on thinner layer of ice that worsened the crack. The cracking was effectively chasing after them.

Maven ran sideways. Her feet stepped on ice lightly. A moment later she slipped over the slippery ice and fell face down. The ice behind her was splitting very rapidly. She tried to stand up, only to slip and fall again. The tip of her feet began to feel the freezing cold water. She reached her hand as far as she could while yelling desperately, “Heeeelp!”

The poor elf girl felt like she was being pulled into a freezing grave by the demons of hell.

Suddenly, someone pulled her out from an opposite direction. When she managed to stand up, she recognized her savior. It was Reyl. Reyl was about to move when suddenly the ice under him broke apart and imploded, he fell into the water.

“Reeyll!”

“Mave! We must keep running!” Declan quickly pulled away the elf by arm.

“But, Reyl…!”

“Not that! Look!”

Maven quickly looked at where he pointed at. There, a witch casted loudly, “An Jokul’me Fyasch!”

The power of Blizzard swept over the crack. Instead of expanding it, the spell was patching up the ice. Thus the crack on the lake got closed and the ice layer thickened.

“All right, we must save Reyl now,” said the caster, Lei. It turned out that she was gathering her magical power while running, an ability only a high level magician possessed. Hopefully it was not too late.

This time Declan moved to the fringe of the ice, looking down at the place where Reyl fell. He was tense, but a moment later, a man emerged from the water. Declan immediately gave his trident pole for the man to grab onto, then the cleric pulled him up until he reached a dry place on the ice. The man sat and shivered badly.

Sophia immediately buried herself in his embrace. “Oh, Reyl! I was so scared… that I won’t see you again! But still… the lake water should’ve frozen you…. But why…?”

“Never mind that. It was a miracle Reyl could survive and swim in that lake. Come, quick! We must reach the shore before dark!” Bangor insisted.

Declan helped Reyl to stand and then supported his body. He just realized that it was the mystic power from the Crylionel Pendant that just saved Reyl, but he chose not to disclose it to his partners, assuming that they knew that too.

The party returned to moving slowly and carefully as they initially did. Maven slowed down her movement in order to avoid slipping again. At the same time, she was observing Reyl who was the object of attention that time. His expression remained pale and gloomy, and his hand was covering his Ice Spirit Necklace which was glowing dim red.

It gave the impression that, for once Reyl was thankful he had the necklace.