Mike got impatient. He told himself he would wait to reach level 70 in his class and his profession, but he just couldn't wait any longer. He had added so many materials to the dagger and club but yet only the club had successfully managed to make the upgrade, and even then he was pretty sure it was more due to the many enchantments he had placed on it than the large amount of bone fed into it.
The dagger was tougher and maybe even a little sharper, but it was so small that Mike barely had room to enchant it. Eventually he had given up trying to upgrade the dagger, leaving it to stay at its heroic rarity. Instead he started crafting all the materials he had come across into sets of armor. He had decided on armor as opposed to weapons due to the synergy bonus they got from coming in a full set, and while he wasn't 100% sure he got more experience for making a full set, he was pretty confident in it.
So now he stood at the entrance to the yeti’s cave, his class at level 71 and his profession two levels behind it at level 69. The extra level to his class had come from grinding for materials to level his profession. Mike reasoned to himself that it was basically the same as having 70 levels in both class and profession, but inside he was still a bit upset with himself that he hadn't put in the extra two or three days needed to get to the next level. He had put all of his free stat points into agility, as he remembered just how important speed was when it came to dealing with higher leveled monsters.
Entering the cave, he walked slowly as he made it to the large opening in which the yeti resided. It didn't immediately attack like it had the last time, probably because he wasn't flying in at hundreds of miles an hour like he had last time. Mike steeled himself, ready to start the battle. He knew the fight with the yeti would likely be his hardest fight to date. It certainly had the largest difference in levels, being 29 levels higher than Mike himself.
He had also fought the tarantula matriarch in the last lair he cleared, and while the overall gap in levels wasn't as large, it had been bigger if you took into account the fact that it was nearly double Mikes own level. He just hoped that now he would have a good matchup against this yeti. It was just ice after all, how hard to break could it be?
He charged towards the yeti, taking in its size as he rapidly got closer. It wasn't as tall as the goliaths had been, but it was taller than Mike by a good margin. It stood at ten feet tall, and was almost as wide.
Swinging his hammer down, he smashed through a wall of ice the yeti summoned in his path. Mike smashed through it quite easily, but it did kill a bit of momentum. Several more walls were erected between the two of them, and Mike's speed dropped more and more as he smashed through each one in turn.
As he made it through the last one, he realized the yeti was no longer standing in its previous position. It had leapt into the air and was now firing a large icicle directly down onto Mike. A simple sidestep was all it took for him to avoid the oncoming attack, and he leapt up after the yeti, letting his wings spread out so he wouldn't need to waste the mana on Blast Step to keep himself in the air.
Mike's hammer met the side of the falling yeti, and it was sent flying towards the cave wall. A jet of ice erupted from the feet of the monster, slowing it to a halt before rocketing it towards Mike. Mike barrel rolled to the side to avoid the incoming fist, and he managed to grip the ankle of the monster as it passed by. His grip was weak, to say the least. He wasn't even close to getting his hand around the ankle of the large creature, and the ice that coated its fur covered body made his hand slip off.
He had accomplished slowing down his enemy a bit, and that let him catch up and get another hit on the back of the yeti. Despite the two times he had now landed a hit, there was no visible damage to the monster. The ice that coated it was acting as a shield and lessened the effect of most of his attacks.
The yeti landed on the ground with a loud thud, and Mike used Blast step to accelerate downwards at high speed. Frustratingly, the yeti once more used its magic to create a wall of ice which was quickly approaching Mike from below. He needed to reorient to take the hit feet first, landing on the ice. After that, he scrambled to get over the edge of it as it was on a direct collision course with the ceiling.
Shards of ice exploded out in all directions, showering onto Mike as he got his bearings in the air. When he looked back down at the yeti, he saw it standing still with ice rapidly freezing the floor around it. A frost crawled across the ground, coating it and making the ground appear a light blue. It wasn't long before the entire ground of the large cavern was covered in the ice, and Mike figured it was definitely not a good idea to go down onto the ground.
He grunted as he saw the frosty start climbing up the walls as well, and he realized with annoyance that he really didn't have much of a choice. He let himself start falling, trying to get onto the ground. Pillars of ice shot up from the ground, trying to slam into Mike with great force.
He knew that the yeti couldn't keep that up forever, as the mana cost of summoning forth so much ice had to be ridiculously expensive. The yeti realized this too, and the pillars became much less numerous. Mike landed on the ice, slipping a little and almost falling on his ass. He had gone ice skating once or twice before the system and he had been god awful at it. He couldn't run due to how frictionless the surface was.
It was far more slippery than he would have expected, even for ice. He tried using his mana to form little spikes on his boots, but the ice was tough enough that instead of digging into the ice and giving him purchase, he instead was now slightly taller while slipping around. Mike dismissed the spikes, using his wings to propel himself across the ice.
The yeti summoned small walls of ice which were no taller than Mike's knees in an attempt to trip him. It worked, and his ankles slammed into a short wall sending him sprawling across the ice. Spikes of ice shot up from directly below him as he lay on his stomach trying to get up. The only thing that saved him from being skewered was the supremely tough armor he wore, which took the attack admirably.
He did still get shoved a dozen feet in the air by the impact, and he had enough time to put his feet towards the floor before he landed. The yeti roared, and a white mist rolled across the ground, enveloping the bottom 7 or 8 feet of the arena. Mike managed to leap into the air before it reached him, but he needed to leave his hammer behind to get up to speed quick enough. He couldn't see the ground anymore, but the yeti was tall enough that he could see its head and shoulders poking out of the fog.
Using his soulbound connection, he summoned his hammer back to him. To his surprise, when it showed up in his hand it was cold. He was wearing metal gauntlets, and even through those he could feel the chill. In fact, it was more than just a little cold. The chill crawled up his armor and soon his entire body was covered in a thin layer of frost.
He felt his movements slow down as he flew, with his wings thankfully left unaffected by the frost covering him. He struggled to avoid the next half dozen icicles that shot towards him, and he was quickly forced to land in the mist as the cold got unbearable. He got colder and colder as the frost spread across his entire body.
Mike tried to use freedom to remove the frost, but it proved to be far too expensive to remove the ice as the yeti was clearly pouring a great deal of resources into freezing him solid. He was able to use the skill to remove the mist in a large radius around him, but it was very quickly replaced.
Mike struggled to breath as the frost froze the very water in his body. He felt truly cold for the first time since the night he spent in a cave when the system was first introduced. His mind scrambled to think of ways to warm him up, and all he could think of was the knife in his soul. It could potentially melt the ice, but in his frozen state he had no way to wield it.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
In a flash, he remembered one of the other items he had bound to himself. With a great force of will, he summoned the parka the eccentric old man from the trinkets shop had sold him. It enveloped his body on top of his armor, and the material it had been made from almost instantly froze along with Mike. He prayed his plan would work as he dumped thousands and thousands of points of mana into the coat.
It heated up, getting hotter and hotter. The ice quickly melted off of it and the frost was slowly being beaten back by the parka. He needed to repeatedly cast Arcane Repair, as the parka was destroying itself from the high temperatures it was creating. It wasn't long before Mike thawed, and the high levels of heat given off by the parka fought back the mist.
It wasn't by much, but it was just enough for Mike to hastily erect walls of mana to keep the mist back. He stopped infusing mana into the parka, which had now drained close to 20,000 mana trying to fight back the frost. Mike was astonished by the cost, but he had to keep in mind that the item was only at epic rarity, and that he had needed to constantly keep repairing it to keep itself from getting destroyed.
Mike returned his hammer to his soul, knowing it wouldn’t be much use for what he wanted to do next. He summoned forth the dagger that he had failed to bring to legendary rarity. This was an item that was heroic rarity, with the enchantments being improved significantly by Mike. It wouldn’t require nearly the same investment of mana to create large amounts of heat. Since it was much smaller than the parka, it would also be a much more focused heat.
The yeti, which had apparently lost him after he entered the mist, finally found him. Mike knew this because he heard an ear splitting roar come from behind him. The hairs on his neck stood on end at how uncomfortably close the sound was and he flapped his wings to propel himself across the ice.
He spun around, seeing the fist of the yeti land where he had just been standing. Mike once more flapped his wings, accelerating towards the yeti. He needed to constantly focus on keeping barriers of mana in place to fight off the mist and it was beginning to affect his focus. He tried to split his mind to the two tasks of dodging lances of ice and keeping the barriers up.
Mike reached the yeti, leaping into the air and stabbing the knife into the monster's forehead. He landed directly on one of the beast's shoulders, feeling his boots start to rapidly frost over from coming into contact with the monster. He quickly ripped the knife from the forehead of the monster and stabbed it into the back of the yeti’s head.
He leapt from the shoulders of the monster, landing on the ice. He spun around, once more summoning his hammer. He was very low on mana by this point, and he was betting a lot on this working. The knife had been embedded to the hilt in the head of the monster, and the large sum of mana that had been infused into it worked to heat it up significantly. Mike could already see the skin of the monster turn black as it was scorched by the blade, and so he leapt towards the knife, intent on sealing the monster's fate.
The yeti was scratching at the back of its head, frantically trying to remove the dagger that was the source of so much pain. Unfortunately for the yeti, said dagger was driven directly into its brain as Mike smacked the hilt and the back of the yeti’s head with his hammer. The dagger now rested in the center of its brain, and it certainly had not gone in painlessly.
Another roar echoed out from the yeti as more and more mist poured out of its mouth. The arena was quickly filling more and more, and soon the mist completely concealed the yeti, reaching well above its head. Mike hovered in the air, using his wings to keep himself aloft. He was hesitant to make a platform of mana to stand on, as he had transferred as much as he could into the knife before launching it into the skull of the beast. He was basically running on fumes by this point, and he wasn't about to risk passing out directly over a cloud of death.
It only took another minute for Mike to receive a notification that made him very happy, a notification that made him confused, and a notification that made him very confused.
*Frost Yeti (level 99) slain!*
*Lair Cleared! Congratulations on clearing the Lower Everest lair! Based on your contribution (99.995%) and level, you have been awarded 3 class levels.*
*Monster Lair Defeated (Lower Everest). As you have a contribution score of over 90% for this lair, you may choose to disable, destroy, or conquer this lair. If you disable it, monsters will cease spawning, but the lair may be reactivated at a later date. If you destroy this lair, monsters will cease spawning, and will be permanently disabled. If you conquer the lair, you may control the spawn rate of this lair, level of its inhabitants (up to your level), and whether this lair can overflow with time. [Disable, Destroy, Conquer]*
*Class level up x6! Mighty Feller of Giants (level 77)*
*Profession level up! Prodigious Artisan of the Arcane (level 70)*
He had been expecting the levels, and that had made him happy. He hadn't expected the lair's clear notification, but in hindsight it kind of made sense that the upper and lower halves would be separated as lairs. The sheer difference in strength between the two halves was quite significant after all. He quickly selected conquer, as he knew Martin would be happy to have a new dungeon to play with. Also, he had apparently been on Mount Everest, though he was certain it was far, far taller than it had been before the system. Maybe somebody who had previously climbed it could see the resemblance.
The last notification, the one about his profession level, had made him the most confused. How the hell had he earned a level in his profession from fighting? He thought it might have been from the excessive use of Arcane Repair on his parka, but he quickly ruled that out. While he waited for the mist to disperse, he checked everything he could. His skills for if they had somehow been upgraded without a notification, his armor and weapons for if something changed, but time after time he came up empty handed.
That was until he checked his fragments. Mike didn't see a problem at first glance, but upon closer inspection he realized a huge problem. He didn't receive a fragment for killing the yeti. Every monster past level 10 awarded fragments, so he knew he should have gotten one. He thought of a potential explanation for the missing fragment, his blood running almost as cold as the mist below him.
“There is no fucking way.” He said, impatiently waiting for the mist to disappear. It took so long that he regenerated enough mana to construct a shield of mana to keep the mist out. He dove into the cloud, landing next to the corpse of the yeti. It wasn't a pretty sight. The head had been burned to a crisp from the inside, and the smell of burnt meat was extremely prevalent. He ignored the gore, jamming his hand and feeling around for what he was looking for.
“Got it!” He yelled as he pulled the knife free from the skull of the yeti. He quickly identified it, finding the cause for receiving the profession level, and the cause for the missing fragment
Frost Flame Dagger (Legendary)
A dagger made from the combined talons and fangs from many monsters. This dagger has been enchanted with several heating runes, allowing it to reach great temperatures when infused with mana. This dagger has been infused with the fragments of a powerful Frost yeti, allowing it to chill to bone freezing temperatures when infused with mana. When infused with the intent to activate both effects, the cold and heat will combine effects and inflict frost burn.
Mike stared dumbfounded at the dagger. It had finally reached the new rarity, and it had been because of the fragment. He knew there likely wouldn't be a case where the dagger was as useful as his hammer would be if he infused it with the yeti fragment, so he attempted to take the fragment from the dagger.
With a frustrated grunt, he tried harder to remove the fragment, finding himself unable to unbind it from the weapon. He gripped the handle of the thief that was his weapon, storing it in his soul and taking a deep calming breath. He tried to take his mind off of the issue by distributing his free points from his level ups. He split it evenly between wisdom and intelligence, as he felt like he had run out of mana quite quickly during his fight.
He looked at the burnt and charred head of the yeti, remembering his promise to bring Lucas the head of the lair boss. “I probably shouldn't, right?”
To make a long story short, Mike flew back to Thudfall with the entire yeti corpse. All except for the head. It was simply too disgusting to consider, so he cut the head off and cauterized the neck hole with his knife. It was a long flight back home, but while in the air, he spotted Lucas walking towards his home. Seeing the perfect opportunity for payback, he waited until the rogue was close to his mansion.
Mike flew down directly in front of the man, screaming in what he hoped was a very yeti like manner while holding the corpse in front of him. He peeked around the body to get a view of Lucas’ reaction. The face that met him was unimpressed.
Lucas responded to the attempted scare with the one thing Mike had hoped he wouldn't say. “Where is its head?”