Covenant of the Snow Forest
With the group’s reunion and preparations done, they set off to hunt snow wolves. Snow wolves are highly resistant to ice magic and always travel in packs with at least a size of 6. Previous tactics won’t work anymore, so they must strategize a new plan to handle these monsters.
Everyone had bought new weapons and was able to actually afford armor this time. Their new magic will also prove useful even with their low mental stats. Although, they were only able to learn a couple spells. Our new stats were pretty nice so we should be more than capable of fighting multiple monsters on par with a king slime.
Name: CelsiusLevel10Exp to Next Lvl187RaceSnow ElfGenderFemaleFame1200Money16s 21cTitlesEstelle’s LoverHp550/550Mp1100/1100Hp-Recovery5.5 hp/minMp-Recovery110.0 mp/minSatiety100/100Stat Points45/45Prmary StatsStrength10Intelligence (5)55Vitality10Wisdom (10)100Endurance10Mind (2)28Agility (3)37Dexterity10Secondary StatsAttack16-18Defense12M-Attack65-70M-Defense33Speed3.7 m/sAtt-Speed137%Cast Speed100 mp/sKnowledge34Fighting Spirit2Ice Resist5%Magic AffinitiesWater14Ice15Extra EffectsBlessing of the Stars – stats increased by 50% under the starlit skyInstant Cast T1 – Allows you to cast T1 spells with no cast timeMagician - Passively increases max mp by 10%Photographic Memory – Passively allows you to remember everything you read or see
After discussing a few tactics, we headed off towards the depths of the forests. We casually glanced at the groups that have become better at killing slimes and snow bunnies. Even that mage group is still kicking and has become even scarier to fight against. I might just put in every point into mind if I have to deal with such a ridiculous bombardment of magical annihilation.
Once we had reached the territory for wolves, we had immediately confronted a group of 10 wolves. The wolves preempted us with an icy breath while I threw up an ice barrier that surrounded us to block it. We waited for one of them to pierce my barrier so we could fight one at a time. It worked to an extent, but we were fighting 3 at once which is still better than 10.
With Snow, Frost, and I fighting different wolves while Shadow went for backstabs, the fights ended pretty quickly. Snow minimized the damage she took by paralyzing the wolves while using piercing to penetrate their thick furs. Frost, coincidentally, dealt double damage for using the fire enchant. I simply had to rely on my water enchant and T1 water spells for all of my damage since these wolves attack to fast to cast powerful magic.
It seems that my barrier is effective when dealing with large amounts of enemies, so I was tasked with creating one every fight. This eased the amount of strain on Lily’s mana since she burns through it even faster than I can. Although, there were close calls when 5 or 6 had managed to get in but quick thinking from Snow had left them all paralyzed while we focused down a couple at a time. Paralysis is almost as overpowered as just leaving enemies in a block of ice.
Snow: *sigh* “It would be nice if we could get a quest for this.”
Shadow: “Unfortunately, the only quests are for elites and boss monsters. The guards are more than capable at defeating any normal monster that gets too close to town.”
Lily: “I’m not confident in handling another elite monster…”
Frost: “You and me both.”
Celsius: “At least it would be interesting. Fighting like this is just boring.”
Saying this, I walked deeper into the forest to look for more wolves while everyone else followed behind me curiously. Upon finding a group of 15 wolves, I threw out a whirlpool and captured 4 wolves in it. Before they could grasp their circumstances, I had already trapped another 4 wolves in another whirlpool. Try as they might, they can do nothing but struggle in vain as they try to gasp for breath. T3 magic is no joke even if it does no damage you know!
Afterwards, the remaining wolves strategically chose to split up and fire an ice breath at me from multiple directions. I simply took it head on as I knew they couldn’t hurt me with their low intelligence, but I forgot 1 very important fact. Magic defense won’t protect me from being frozen! It’s actually kind of sad that an ice mage has been made into an ice sculpture. At least I was able to throw in a water slicer which quickly became an ice slicer and slowly sliced one of the wolves in half! If it wasn’t frozen then I am pretty sure that my spell would have dissipated before that happened, but freezing a water slicer that is rotating at that speed makes for a powerful combo! I should make a mental note of this.
Snow was the only one who wasn’t twiddling her thumbs as she used her basic shock spell on the whirlpools to paralyze every wolf inside which inevitably caused them to drown to death. The others could only look on with their mouths wide open as both Snow and I quickly dispatched so many wolves without their help. The wolves, too, were a little frightened as they didn’t know how to respond to this, but they quickly got into gear and they quickly charged out to assault me from all angles.
Everyone snapped out of their dazed state once they realized I was about to die. Frost got in front of me to be my meat-shield for a couple wolves while Shadow and his shadow clone held down another 2 wolves. This left me with 2 wolves, but Snow is quickly coming to my side to help me. I took my time to conjure up another whirlpool and trapped these 2 wolves inside for Snow to follow up with an electrocution. Frost picked up on the power of our combo and started shield bashing wolves into my whirlpools.
Overall, this skirmish ended much quicker than our usual fights and was definitely less boring than that barrier strategy. Cost me 80% of my mana capacity, but it was worth every drop. Although, I feel uncomfortable from the weird looks I am getting from the others.
Frost: “There are many things I want to say, but I will cut it short. Are you crazy? You could have killed yourself or the rest of us!” ‘He’s angry, but I can tell he was worried about my safety. Sorry for being a suicidal mage!’
Celsius: “But we lived didn’t we? And now we know faster methods of hunting monsters! More importantly, it was fun!”
Snow: “I agree with our crazy mage here. I was dying of boredom from that senseless repetition earlier. If we can’t get quests then we might as well fight like Spartans.” ‘See? I have an ally here.’
Shadow: “It was efficient at the very least. We barely burned our mana and Celsius will be ready for another round in 10 minutes rather than the 100 minutes we would normally have to wait.”
Frost: “Am I the only sane one here?”
Celsius: “Yes, yes you are!” ‘After saying that, he simply looks up to the sky with a dejected expression. Snow just busted out laughing while Shadow could only shake his head. Lily looked at the wolves with a sad expression, but I think that’s only because she likes animals and games like to stomp all over the ideals of animal lovers early on.’
After I fully restored my mana, we continued on with our Spartan hunting and managed to gain a few levels in a couple hours. It was then that something weird occurred. A lone wolf appeared in front of us without any sense of hostility or fear. We were perplexed about this so I just walked up to the wolf to engage in a staring contest. It was tough, but I was able to win and I made a victory pose to commemorate this occasion in a picture. Ironically, I didn’t get my victory pose in a picture but an image of me being tossed onto the wolf’s back and carried off even deeper into the forest.
Within an hour, my canine mount finally let me get off. My comrades were close behind but were out of breath from all the running even when the wolf wasn’t moving slower so they could keep up. All around us were a bunch of snow wolves and some wolf demi-humans with white ears, hair, and tail. In the center of this congregation sat a giant snow wolf whose lvl hovered over his head as [???]. Not only are we incapable of seeing his lvl, but he is also in the 3 digits. Everyone shuddered upon the realization that we are in front of a monster that can kill us whenever it wants.
The giant snow wolf merely opened its eyes and breathed out a loud yawn. He then stood up and briefly glanced at each of us. Once he was satisfied, he then begun speaking telepathically towards us.
???: “Children of the snow, it is time to protect your end of the covenant. Cleanse the forest of corruption and drive off the evil that has made its nest here.” ‘Suddenly a quest window has appeared in front of us detailing the quest we were given.’
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Covenant of the Snow Forest – Elder Snow Wolf, Fenrir, requests of you to uphold the promise of the snow elves to protect the forest from all spiritual invaders. Find the source of corruption and drive off the evil spirits that have caused it.
Rewards – Forest’s blessing
Consequences for Failing – Increased hostility from snow wolves and significant destruction to the forest.
This quest is mandatory.
Celsius: “To think that we would meet the legendary Fenrir so soon…” ‘Everyone is also ecstatic about meeting him as well. I can even see the stars sparkle in Lily’s eyes.’
Frost: “How do we even find an evil spirit or the source of corruption? This forest is a little too large to search in.”
Fenrir: “My children shall lead you to the general area, but no further. The rest is up to you.” ‘Before we could even respond, 4 wolves had already thrown us onto their backs and stormed off. Why am I being wolf-napped so much lately?’
After we were dropped off, we were met with a horrid view. The trees, snow, grass, flowers, and everything else was colored pitch black and rotting away. Further away, were zombies walking about with their putrid stench filling the atmosphere. Frost and Lily couldn’t help but puke from the smell while the rest of us grimaced about the arduous trial we will have to complete. Fenrir, I am so going to squeeze out more rewards for this!
There was one good thing out of all of this. These zombies are the 1st monster we have faced that isn’t several times faster than we are. They compensate with their strength and vitality, but it’s not much of a threat without speed. We are even fighting 20+ zombie hordes while barely using crowd control magic and just focusing on obliterating all of them.
After reaching lvl 15 in a few hours, we encountered corrupted snow wolves and dark wolf spirits that were in the lvl 15-20 range. Everything became really difficult at this point as not only were the wolves quick on their feet, but their magic was much stronger than the usual snow wolf. I can drown the corrupted snow wolves, but the dark wolf spirits are completely immune to our crowd control since they don’t even have a physical body. Luckily, Lily was able to help out with the few light magic spells she learned but those spirits barely took any damage from those spells due to their high mind. Ugh, it’s like slimes all over again except this time only light magic doesn’t get the middle finger!
It was a unanimous agreement for us to keep fighting these wolves before going further and getting caught up in a boss fight that we can’t handle. If we are going to survive, our tank needs to get all 4 of his milestone skills. I, too, have invested all of my points into mind in order to significantly lessen the magical damage I am taking. It was worth it for the skills I could unlock.
[Your mind has reached the 100 mile-stone. Please select a skill from the list as a reward]
[Magic Defense Boost T1 – Increases magic defense by 10%.]
[Magic Resistance T1 – Increases resistance to all magic damage by 10%.]
[Control Resistance T1 – Increases resistance to control effects by 10%.]
[Mana Protection T1 – Reduces all incoming damage by 10% of your mana capacity, but drains mana equal to the damage taken.]
Magic defense boost seems weak, but it can actually be better than magic resistance if you have more magic defense than your enemy’s magic attack. Of course, magic pierce will be your bane if you don’t get magic resist. Personally, I think mana protection is the best skill in that list if your mana recovery is high enough to sustain it. Although, I wonder if I could heal myself if I had 100% magic and ice resist. I went with magic resist for now as mana protection would make it impossible to train my resistances and might leave me with no mana if I get hit too often.
With my increased resistance to magic attacks, I became the primary tanker against all magical damage. Not that I could handle everything as these wolf spirits could just shift into the shadows and appear elsewhere to continue bombarding us with magic. It’s like a game of whack-a-mole when trying to kill those little rascals. Combine their stealth tactics with snow wolves on steroids and things get a little messy.
Over time, we were finally able to achieve lvl 19 as night started to creep in. I took my magic pierce so as to deal with monsters with annoyingly high mind. Frost’s new passives made all the difference in how we would take on the wolf packs. The vitality passives were hp boost, hp recovery boost, poison/bleed resist, and weaken resist. The endurance passives were defense boost, physical resist, stun resist, and knockback resist. He had taken physical pierce, hp boost, physical resist, and magic resist. Like me, he really wanted mana protection but we don’t have the mana to sustain something like that yet.
As always, we were going to continue searching the forest in the dark. Monsters do get stronger, but it won’t be that problematic unless we run into a boss monster.
All around us, the trees become more twisted and make thumping sounds as if they have a heartbeat. In the crimson red sky above us are crows circling above us and annoying us with those annoying squawking sounds. Within bushes are glowing red eyes watching our every movement. Shadows constantly flit between the trees. Very eerie voices come from next to us, but there is never anyone there. Occasionally, you feel as if someone’s hand is placed on you but all hands are accounted for.
To sum it up, this place is downright creepy. Lily won’t even let go of me or keep her eyes open so I have to guide her through this place safely. Frost, surprisingly, is actually afraid and is clinging to his girlfriend who is actually thrilled to be in this forest. Shadow is just remaining vigilant of the surrounding monsters in case they decide to attack but they just suspiciously watch us from afar. It’s like we are walking into a death trap and the entire forest knows it.
Am I afraid? Of course I am! I don’t have balls of steel or any kind of balls for that matter. I wonder how Snow can just walk through this place like it’s an amusement park.
Deeper and deeper, we walk into the forest. Transparent ghosts are laughing at us in the distance. Hordes of bats fly away as we walk near the trees that they roost on. Voices are calling out our names because they want to play with us when we are all alone. The beats of a heart get louder and louder as we walk further and further. Even the crows appear to be flying lower and lower as if signifying the approaching death that is looming over us.
Yet the world goes quiet as we reach our destination. A tree that towers over us that has a black gem protruding from its trunk. As we approached to break the gem, the earth trembled as the tree began to move. Eyes were revealed that shined in yellow light amidst the darkness of the night. An ear splitting roar was spilled forth from the mighty lvl 20 corrupted treant before us. Even if we are afraid, we don’t want to die. Our steadfast formation shall never be conquered!
Without hesitating, I threw out an ice slicer to turn this tree into firewood. It had cut off several branches, but there are still about a hundred left. Frost had charged forward with his fire enchant to attempt to burn the treant down, but it had simply sent 10 branches to knock him away and shaving off around 1k of his hp instantly. This made Snow keep her distance since a single blow will kill her even with her 1.9k hp. Shadow, fortunately, had the speed necessary to avoid a pincer attack or at least he thought he did until dozens of leaves flew at him from all directions. Utilizing his shadow clone, he was able to escape while only taking a few hits.
With a bit of thought, I decided to just aim for the gem instead of reducing the threat from the branches. My 2nd ice slicer was able to drop the boss’ hp by 25% before it shattered into ice shards. This, however, only enraged him as 2 dark wolf spirits appeared to protect him. Lily gave our melee dps a holy enchant to ward them off while I would continue destroying the gem. Unfortunately, my 3rd ice slicer was destroyed by a shadow blast from one of the wolf spirits.
Even if we kill the wolf spirits, the treant will just resummon them immediately afterwards. As such, I switched to ice arrow rain which is extremely effective against such a large monster. With just a single cast, 25 branches had been broken and greatly reduced the treant’s offensive ability. After casting it a couple more times, there were only around 30 branches left. The wolf spirits weren’t just letting me get away with this as they fired off several shadow blasts at me but my high mind allowed me to shrug off most of their dps.
Now that there were so few branches protecting the treant, even Frost became able to burn off a few by himself as he got closer to the gem. Suddenly, the treant used the leaves on its remaining branches to whip up a leaf storm that would definitely instantly kill us if it hits. As such, we all regrouped and knocked the spirits away so I could cast an ice barrier to protect us. I wasn’t naïve so I also put up another 2 layers before the leaf storm hit the 1st layer.
The 1st layer of our barrier broke in a couple seconds and was quickly followed by the 2nd layer. Multiple cracks formed all over the final barrier as it finally shattered from the onslaught. Even though we had all huddled together behind Frost, we still lost a lot of hp from the remainder of that attack. Still we couldn’t waste time on our injuries as the shadow wolf spirits were charging straight for us.
With my remaining mana, I can only fire off 2 more powerful attacks. It’s not enough to deal with the branches so I moved behind Frost so I could get a closer shot at the gem. The wolf treant realized this and tried its hardest to whip me to death but Frost was able to protect me a little and cut a few more branches off. I, too, also used my staff to snap a few of the branches off.
Once we finally approached the gem, I then threw another ice slicer and brought the treant down to 35%. I then began to follow it up with my final ice slicer, but the treant also responded by stabbing the ground with its branches. Chills ran down my spine as I know what would happen but I still continued with my spell to further weaken the treant and brought it down to the final 10% of its hp.
Before I could even start to run, Frost had grabbed me and threw me high up into the air to avoid the incoming branches as they all shot up from the ground where we were standing. I wanted to complain about how his girlfriend might have difficulties at night considering how rough he handles women, but I couldn’t say anything to the sight of him being pierced by 15 branches. Even with white lights from Lily’s healing magic, that is not going to be healed quickly.
However, the treant would not give us reprieve of any form. Our expressions had all paled as the treant was preparing for another leaf storm. Seeing this, Snow launched her spear clad in lightning to pierce the gem while Shadow hurriedly tried to stab it in time. A shadow blast had knocked the spear away while another blew Shadow away. Luckily, only his shadow clone was hit so he was able to reach in time and he instantly slashed with both of his daggers at the gem several times.
Cracks spread all throughout the gem and turned to dust. Having lost the source of its power, the treant withered and returned to the earth as well. The wolf spirits we had been fighting faded into nothingness.
Nothing else changed and this forest still remains in its eerie state. The trip back through that forest was probably more difficult to handle than that treant was. Every second in that place makes you feel like you might die of a heart attack. Yet we couldn’t run or we might get lost and actually die to the creeps around us.
After an hour of walking, we finally left that place and met up with our wolf-nappers again who boldly wolf-napped everyone again. Normally, I would complain but I am just relieved to finally be away from that section of our snow forest. To think that a portion of a forest can be corrupted into that is beyond terrifying.
Returning back to the resting spot for snow wolves, we were once again watched with curiosity. Fenrir, like before, was peacefully sleeping until we approached and woke him from his beauty sleep. While we had to explore the forest of death, he has time to dream about happy things!
Fenrir: “So you have returned and destroyed the root of the corruption. For upholding your end of the covenant, the forest thanks you.” ‘A green aura seeps out from the ground and enters our bodies. It feels kind of refreshing to be blessed like this.’
[You have completed the quest: Covenant of the Snow Forest]
[Fame + 200]
[You have been blessed by the forest]
[Forest’s Blessing – Hp/Mana recovery increased by 20% while inside a forest. Nature magic is 20% more effect.]
[You have received a title: Protector of the Covenant]
[Protector of the Covenant – Increases all primary stat growth rates by 1]
Fenrir: “If there is anything you need, then say the word. You are always welcome here children of the snow.” ‘Off to the side, I can see Shadow about to take advantage of that offer but I preempted him.’
Celsius: “Actually there is something we need.”
Fenrir: “Speak child.”
Celsius: “A snow wolf pup for starters.” ‘After saying so, Fenrir and the surrounding wolves started to glare at me. You think you can scare me after that ordeal we suffered through?’
Fenrir: “And why should I give you one of our children?” ‘He spouts out with a bit of irritation.’
Celsius: “As payment for allowing your fellow wolf spirits to move on to the afterlife peacefully. Not to mention the fact that we suffered so much in that creepy forest of death where who knows what lurks in there. We adventurers may be immortal but a heart attack is a permanent death for us you know!” ‘I can feel their glares trying to pierce my very being to intimidate me, but I will not back down! Fenrir is even gritting his teeth as he realizes the debt he owes to us. Covenant or not, I am not letting you escape without a proper reward.’
Fenrir: “Fine. Kiba, get over here.” ‘From the cluster of snow wolves popped out a small pup that walked over to us.’ “From now on you will be traveling the world with them. Show the world the power of us snow wolves.” ‘All the wolves suddenly howled out to cheer on their little wolf pup. They sure changed their tone quickly….’ “If that is all you require of us, then I shall return to my sleep.”
After acquiring our new companion, I handed him over to Lily who couldn’t take her eyes off of him. Kiba tried to break free, but both me and Snow would give him a glare to let him know he better let Lily use him as a hug pillow or else! Shadow looked a little upset about me not asking for a more lucrative request, but he said nothing about it. Frost simply looked at the scene and then back to Snow as if hopeful for something. If you are going to flirt in front of everyone anyways, then just come out with it! Much to his surprise, I kicked him straight into Snow and left them to enter their own world.
Overall, today was a very good day and we are finally strong enough to leave the confines of our forest. After finishing the quest, each of us reached lvl 21. The closest city is a little far, but there are plenty of monsters to kill along the way. The best part is that I will finally be able to receive the effects from Estelle’s blessing.