I might as well have taken my new cloak off with how much I've spent metaphorically frozen. The voice beside me came out too casual, too close, and too unthreatened to be anything but a threat for my psyche to register.

"Who are you, stranger?"

I managed to keep my voice steady, acutely aware of my lack of weapon, armor, or buff. "Just someone passing through. Maybe a little lost." I said truthfully.

There was a pause that, given the immediate context, scared me. There was a real nonzero chance that whatever was speaking wasn't even human. The body that lay not five meters from me attested to that cold truth.

I willed my [Powers] to fruition but nothing happened. Gritting my teeth, trying my best not to make any outwardly threatening moves, I realized while only [Cheat] and [Lottery] mention a cooldown the rest of them probably have them as well.

More than anything, the silence was indicative of contemplation.

"There are more like you. Go north, you will find them." The voice was weathered, giving the impression of a harder life. But its sound stood tall.

"Where? People like me?" I turned, hope blossoming.

There was no one there. Two footprints, that was all. And they weren't the footprints of someone in motion, only where he stood. In moments, falling snowflakes filled the imprints. In moments, it was as if nothing was there in the first place.

"What the hell?" I said into the snow.

Standing up, I was alone. That was nothing new in the past hour, but as the adrenaline ran out the realization hit me harder than ever. With the fading adrenaline, my pain faded in. I flinched hard at my shoulder.

I had a burning desire to figure out what happened and where I was. Why had time frozen and why had I been offered things from the [System Shop]? What did that mean?

Luckily, my shoulder was numbed by the cold. Although my cloak was now bloody and ripped at the spot it was also exposed to the temperature around me. I frowned at that. It was a new cloak!

I looked around quietly for moments. Of course, there was no one to find. Whoever that was had disappeared. My eyes slid back to the blue body, now perhaps bluer than before, laying dead in the snow. 

At that moment, a pile of slow landed on the body from above. I spotted the squirrel, as I assumed it was, darting in the boughs above. The trees were so thick with white snow that they formed easy bridges across each other. In other words, the squirrel, if not already capable in a normal environment, had an easy way to traverse the treetops. 

I gave it a minute and the body was buried in snow. The little creature worked fast, I'll give it that. I relaxed at that, knowing how stupid it was that now, just since the sight was gone, I could relax. Further, it didn't look like the squirrel wished me harm, which was a relief. I said my thanks to the little creature, not even sure if it could understand since I'd gathered it purposefully covered me in the snow earlier to hide me from the giant.

I sighed at the lack of response. "Fat chance, huh?"

Without any real direction, I began to walk north. At least, north by my reckoning of checking the sun. I could've been completely wrong, but there was nothing for it at this point. Either I was right and find some people, or wrong and end up alone at which point I'd have to figure something out long term.

I kept a vigil, eyeing the distant forest for those same figures I had been seeing. Judging from the body of the giant, I could tell they weren't the same. The people I saw earlier, though I doubt they were human at this point, moved in groups.

That thought gave me slight pause. My step jerked for only a moment while I reconciled the fact. Had the world been fundamentally altered? I had just run into a giant for god's sake! My mind ran with the implications. It was as if I finally had a moment to process.

"The [Classes]." I mumbled to myself. "Now that I think back, a lot of them had helpful contexts. There were a lot of them that described the destruction or effectiveness in a particular combat situation." I said looking around. "And my [Powers], they're literally for weapons and armor." 

The realization set upon me like bone-piercing chill. I wasn't as safe as I thought I was. I needed to find people. This wasn't some kind of joke. There wasn't anything I could think of that could feasibly transport me from my local casino to frozen isolation. I'd have to travel far to find ice where I'm from.

"They weren't all hinting at dangerous situations though." I calmed myself, only partly working. "Some were fascinating in a sense other than power. The ability to breathe underwater indefinitely, [Water Lung], I think. Or [Treasure Seeker]."

My mind fought back. The sea itself might be a dangerous place where an ability to breathe underwater might help. Wait, I guess that was just normal in general. But also what about mysterious treasures didn't scream danger? I'd have to believe that wherever I had been whisked off to wasn't as dangerous as I was thinking.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

At this point though, anything worse than my accustomed suburbian life would be terrible for me, which wasn't saying much. I couldn't fight giants all the time, hell, I doubt I even knew how to use any of the weapons I'd generate. Or know how to leverage the buffs I get.

"Ugh, this is shit," I complained, still not for a paranoid second letting up my vigil. I had checked my back multiple times already. Around me were just quiet snow and trees, as they had been since I arrived. "Where the hell am I?"

It was that question, though repeated, that brought on my next idea.

My foot caught on the bark of the tree trunk. "Rougher than I thought. Good." I hefted myself upward and grabbed the lowest hanging branch. It took me a while just to find a suitable tree with enough handholds. "Upsy daisy," I grunted, hauling myself onto the first thick branch.

The branches themselves were heavy with snow, but it was easy enough to displace for the first few stretches. Nearly halfway up the tree, the snow became solid and more akin to ice than powder. It was at this point that I had to inch across my branch to take a look at any other avenues of attack.

I wondered why the ice was so solid up here until I came across a twig that sprouted the white leaves. The smooth white leaf was chilling to the touch, almost painfully cold between my fingers. "No wonder."

"[Weapon Roll]" I whispered, knowing I didn't need to. This time, it worked.

Weapon: [Sling of the Cat]

A projectile weapon used to throw small objects at high velocity. A cat's grace blesses this weapon and allows a heightened sense of the balance of loaded projectiles. Used for hunting game or combat.

"Useless, for me right now." I examined the weapon in my hand, before ultimately tucking it into my waist. It was, very simply, a small pouch between two lengths of cord. It didn't look particularly blessed by a cat either.

If I had a sword or something similar I might've been able to hack away at the snow and make my way to the top. As it was, that was a pipe dream. I tried my other options.

Buff: [Booksmart]

Ink on the pages speaks to you, bluntly explaining their true purpose and intent. You are smart enough to listen, knowing that through the pages an expert lies. For the duration of this buff, you are able to glean knowledge from books at a 200% effectiveness. 

So I sat, swinging my legs on the branch. Up here felt safer than down on the ground. The branch itself was thick, wide enough that I could spread out and throw my arms behind me to support my weight as I leaned backward. There was no real risk of falling over unless I was stupid, and even then while it might've been a long fall, the pillow of snow below allayed my fears.

"The effects I've gotten so far are interesting though," I spoke aloud, a habit forming. "Now all I need was a book to read."

I spotted the squirrel again running through the opposite tree boughs. It spotted me too and for the first time, I saw how it went about throwing such relatively large wads of snow down to its victims. It dug into the ice around it, scraping powder into a ball with its forelegs and back legs, and then its furry tail, more prehensile than a monkey's, gathered it into what might've mirrored a throwing arm.

Then it relaxed, letting go of the snow. It disappeared into a hovel, right in the leaves of the tree. I got the impression that the ice was so thick in these trees that the squirrel could've made a burrow between them all.

Time passed and I tried again, not too keen on wasting too much sunlight just sitting around, but I needed to get my bearings and that meant going up. Surely, it couldn't be forest forever.

Weapon: [Islander's Fishing Harpoon]

This spring-loaded harpoon is ideal for fishing. In a pinch, the barbed hook and spider silk line might do well enough in a combat situation. As a weapon, this is very effective against fish-types. As a spear fisherman's tool, the harpoon functions best when submerged.

Buff: [Ripper]

Your teeth and nails sharpen and harden becoming weapons in their own right. Your teeth and nails become durable enough to rip through moderate armor with enough time.

My mouth slightly shifted and my nails did indeed get sharper. I felt a slight panic at that body modification but immediately calmed down. All my buffs so far had run out eventually, so instead of focusing on my hand's nails, I focused on what was in it.

The fishing harpoon was probably the most straightforward weapon I've gotten so far. Just point the sharp end at whatever you wanted to poke or stab. I didn't even have to spring-load it if I wanted to even try to figure that out. It shouldn't have been too hard but again, that's not what I needed it for.

I began to stab at the solid ice on the next branch.

Eventually, a chunk fell away and to my surprise, I could make out a hollow. I wanted to ascend, however, so I only cleared it out more fully. I still wasn't above the tree line. From where I was, around me was just solid snow. I was that far into the treetops, that there was only ice to see. 

I managed to traverse a good section of the icy boughs without having to break through any more solid snow. With the canopy being so solid it wasn't hard to get a foothold, just a non-slippery one. Succeeding that, I could get higher. 

I wiped sweat from my brow. The uncomfortable feeling of being too warm in a cold place suffusing me. My shoulder had been bothering me on the climb, but looking at it, it was nowhere as bad as I thought. The worst it could do to me at this point was get infected, but I really had nothing for that eventuality, so there were no preemptive measures to take.

Eventually, I broke through the top of the canopy.

I burst forth through chunks of ice. The fishing harpoon leading the way. What greeted me was terrain that I wasn't quite expecting. It turned out that the solidified canopy acted partly as a whole other layer of the forest. Yes, it was riddled the crevices and divides that probably stemmed from gaps in the trees, but it was walkable.

Ducking under though, I realized a huge swath of snow had nothing under it. If I were to have stepped too far I would've fallen from a treetops height.

Also worth noting was the trail of smoke I saw rising into the sky. Signs of civilization. In movies, there's always an argument for the smoke giving away someone's position. Here, the fire was probably worth it for a number of reasons. One being that the sky was pretty much blocked from view everywhere by the trees and the snow they held. Another that it was damn cold out.

Mentally marking their direction I began to climb down. I'd try to keep myself oriented, I didn't want to climb another tree if I didn't have to. I used my harpoon for balance against a tree, another point of contact to stabilize myself.

The descent was going well albeit a bit treacherous. Again, the pillow of snow awaiting at the end of a possible drop beat out most of my concerns. I didn't really bother to look at my surroundings since it was just tree and me, but then I got an itch at my back. The sense that something was watching me.

And there was.

Not two feet away, a red ball of fur that was most definitely not a squirrel, stared at me.