Sam had strapped Dia down, something she didn’t like and needed some persuasion. Putting a helmet on her head did work, but it required some finagling due to her ears. The communication didn’t work due to entirely wrong-placed speakers; he had to opt to shout at her instead.
She was placed between Sam and Janik. Sam thought it was a better place than near the windows. She had probably never seen anything this high unless she climbed the mountain on her island as Sam did. He still didn’t miss that place, although, with his current skills and experience, he could have handled it much easier.
The helicopter took off and though Dia didn’t panic, she didn’t -not- panic either. Grabbing onto Sam she dug her whole face between his back and his seat, forcing him to sit in a weird position as she didn’t want to see what was happening outside. It was clear as day that she didn’t like this, and they had barely lifted.
Deciding that it would just have to go as it did, he let her try to hide herself as they took off. It didn’t take long for them to be entirely airborne at a much higher altitude as they flew over chasms and mountain ranges. Dia lifted her face and looked out the window, she simply put her face back in hiding.
Though he felt somewhat sorry for her, he couldn’t properly explain things to her either, she understood a surprising amount of English but explaining why the monster they were inside was flying them and making it seem normal... was a bit harder.
He opted to pet her with a few Psyhands instead, trying to calm her down. It seemed to perhaps work after a short while but it wasn’t enough to fix the issue.
She seemed to calm down a little as they kept flying, but it didn’t change her distaste for it, they were on the way and she would just have to handle it for now. The negative side of it was that the trip lasted a few hours. Helicopters are surprisingly fast, so it should have gone faster but there was a substantial amount of wind around the parts which slowed down their flight considerably. Hopefully, this meant that their trip back would be much faster.
Finally getting there, Sam was happy to see that there was a landing platform for them to land on, he halfway expected to jump out in these winds. It was a large area without snow in what looked like a half-sheltered area. He expected this palace to be heated or somehow maintained.
The helicopter had a slightly rough landing, but since the pilot didn’t seem to mind that was probably normal.
“Dress up before leaving, it’s cold out there,” he shouted over the headset.
Sam took the hint and unfastened himself before doing the same with Dia. She immediately made for the door so he had to stop her for now. She wasn’t desperate but didn’t like it in here, but he felt it was a good idea to get her dressed before they left. The inside of the helicopter had heating, so it was a good place to get dressed since they could almost stand up inside. Or rather, Dia could, but the others couldn’t.
It took a short while before they were dressed and ready, but they got out after being dressed.
The helicopter was left running the whole time. The group left the helicopter, closed the door behind them and left the landing pad for the mountainside. The pilot took off after waving to them through the window.
The harsh winds were already biting cold, the helicopter didn’t make this less unpleasant but the good clothing at least made it decent. Sam felt extra lucky that he could use his Psyhands for everything, so he didn’t need to expose his hands to the wind or the snow.
Dia was surprisingly fine, Sam expected her to be freezing for some reason but they had gotten good clothing for just this reason, so the only thing that remained was for them to brave the Dungeon.
There was no reason to wait, and Janik had the same idea, having already started walking. Sam followed him with Dia in tow and they found themselves within the entrance area almost right away. The half-bowl of sorts, giving a slight shelter from the wind, housed the landing platform and entry portal. Just looking down what seemed like the path to get here on foot was... He was glad they paid blood price for the helicopter.
The familiar popup came into view and disappeared shortly after, having the group stand in a surprisingly mild area, mimicking the half-bowl outside it had some cover from the wind and snow. Ahead of them was a ceiling-less hallway leading around a turn, which seemed to be very common in Dungeons. Though this place was slightly sheltered from the weather, it was still biting cold. Had they just teleported here without proper winter clothing, they’d not last long.
Dia followed confused, but seemed to enjoy the snow ever so slightly, Janik and Sam pushed on until the window popped up.
[ Dungeon clear conditions:
Kill the Glacial Leviathan: 0/1
Optional: Kill all monsters
Monsters: 0/50
Rewards:
10 000 000 xp
1x Random mid-level crafting material
Chance (2%): Low C-tier weapon or armour -or- other item.
Bonus rewards for optional step:
10 000 000 xp
Random Box - X. ]
Sam had a double take, ten million XP to complete the dungeon, and another ten for taking out the 50 monsters. Either that was very generous or the System expected this to be deadly enough to make it worth it... In the other Dungeons, if one assumed that you could just teleport to the end or skip everything, then the completion XP was generous compared to the Boss XP, but this was quite large. There was also a chance for a C-tier item, which could be interesting, though 2% was not exactly good odds.
“Well, I suppose we’ll set up camp here, and stay in the starting zone, it’ll keep us relatively safe as we won’t be moving much,” Janik explained as he took his backpack off his shoulders.
Sam nodded, the original plan was for him to do this, after all. Starting up their walkie-talkies, plugging in the earplugs and doing some final tests, Sam was getting ready.
“Yeah, I can hear you fine,” Janik confirmed. “If you can’t respond for whatever reason, just click the talk button two times, it’ll make the clicking sound,” Janik did this as he explained, letting Sam hear two clicks in his ear. “At least I’ll know you heard it and get that you can’t respond.”
Sam nodded, this was a simple way of doing things. He didn’t exactly have much experience with them besides the toy variants when he was younger, so any info was good info.
“I guess I’ll be off,” Sam smiled, realizing he must have looked a bit unsure as Dia didn’t seem entirely comfortable instead, stepping over to him and giving him a very clothing-padded hug.
She looked up at him with a smile, “Sora griv.”
Sam had learned a lot of her words, but these weren’t ones he was familiar with, and his confused expression might have told her that on its own.
Dia looked upwards in a thinking expression for a few seconds. “Win hunt... Something like... Good hunting.” Her smile grew slightly as she translated it.
The good wishes weren’t lost on him, given what he knew about her people this felt like an appropriate happy hunting-like sentence.
Sam smiled back as he gave her a head pat, she lowered her ears and smiled wide as the hand connected, even with the thick gloves in between.
“Hopefully you’ll see the completion message soon,” Sam stated to Janik as he turned to leave through the hallway.
“Take your time, don’t rush it, be careful,” Janik commented back as he was working on shovelling some snow away for their tent.
Allocating 10 Energy for his Invisibility ability, he became completely invisible as he continued. Though his footsteps still made marks in the snow and he made plenty of noise like the crunching of the same snow, or just rustling of clothing, at least he couldn’t be seen from afar. The seemingly constant wind would also help cover the noise he made, so now he just needed to get through all this.
Having had plenty of time on the helicopter, he looked through the guide material and detailed maps of the Dungeon. Though it wasn’t just a corridor from start to end, the first place was a large glacier, for example, the path you had to take was mostly ‘that way’ to get to the end. There weren’t any shortcuts or ways around things, not that this was a problem, he wanted to get the whole dungeon done this once so he didn’t have to return, he was fine with cold but this was quite uncomfortable.
Walking forward into the glacier, he saw the first major problem. It wasn’t a monster or trap, but rather it was indeed a glacier, it was huge, spreading left, right and ahead. The maps were sketchily drawn and had notes, though the area was mapped it wasn’t exact, the area was indeed large and if he was to find everything living here it could take... a while... He contemplated if he should care about completing the place as a whole or not... But he’d have to take it as it came.
Walking forward the winds picked up as he left the mountain chasm he came in from and came into the open area properly. The wind was more biting than before and the sub-zero temperatures mixed with the sharp winds had dug down into the glacier so oddly enough, there was a surprising lack of snow on the ‘ground’ itself. It was all blown away.
This let him see the first hurdle easily enough, what looked like a natural ice bridge, no more than a slab of ice stretching across a rift in the ice a bit too wide to go around without wasting time. He also saw the first monster, it looked like a stocky wolf-like creature, having jagged, icy spines running from head to tail, even in the wind there seemed to be some frost vapour coming from its body.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
As it walked around, the clawed feet dug more into the ice than he expected, cracking it up ever so slightly, they also looked heavy so meeting one of these on the ‘bridges’ could mean death...
[ Shatterback
Level: 35
STR: 20
DEX: 13
VIT: 14
SPT: 0
HP: 400 / 400
Damage: Bite 100, Shard 150, Charge 50
Defence: 50
Abilities: HP boon, STR damage boon, Icy Spines, Shatter Charge, Shard. ]
[ Shatter Charge: Stepping hard with claws and talons during a charge, doing increased damage to icy or fragile ground. ]
[ Shard: Launched an ice shard at a target. ]
[ Icy Spines: Shards explode out on death, damaging everything in a local area. ]
Sam considered this for a brief moment, this wasn’t an issue for him.
Though 10 energy was dedicated to his Invisibility, he still had 26 left. Using his named weapons and filling out with 20-damage daggers, he still had a damage potential of over 600, that was before the rest like his elemental damage, Void Fang bonus damage and other things like Silent Killer were counted. So he felt confident, at least in one-on-one fights.
Trying to walk at least somewhat silently, if only to trigger his stealth bonus items, he walked onto the ice bridge, his weight having it sink ever so slightly, cracking some of the ice. The Shatterback noticed something was happening but it wasn’t able to find out where Sam was exactly. Sam stopped in his tracks as the monster came a few steps closer, seeming interested in investigating the cracking ice, this had the bonus of bringing it within his Area of Influence.
Convenient.
As it came into range, Sam used all his remaining energy to manifest his Psyhands, in which he called out his weapons and sent the swarm towards the unsuspecting creature.
Two critical hits, activation of the Emberslash Blade which resulted in a puff of fire, the passive Electric damage and triggering Static Charge, on top of this Silent Killer increased the whole thing by 50%. The total wave calculated up to 1 278 damage, after the Shatterback’s 50 Defence... Sam felt decent about his damage output even with a third of his Psyhands not used.
The monster fell instantly, and a split second after life left its eyes the ice on its back shattered and exploded out like a fragmentation grenade. It didn’t properly reach Sam, but it at least showed him the destructive damage to Melee combatants with them...
As soon as the damage was dealt he triggered to put the weapons back in his Item Box.
[ Dungeon clear conditions:
Kill the Glacial Leviathan: 0/1
Optional: Kill all monsters
Monsters: 1/50 ]
He chose to not pay attention to the XP, it’d happen when it happened and it wasn’t like he expected to get enough to level up before the boss anyway.
As the ice on its back shattered and exploded, it made enough sound that something else came in to investigate. Two... creatures came floating in. Looking like semi-translucent shapes, vaguely humanoid in form covered in icy mist with glowing blue eyes. Their clawed fingers looked like small icicles as they hovered around the corpse of the Shatterback.
[ Frost Wraith
Level: 35
STR: 8
DEX: 5
VIT: 15
SPT: 19
HP: 142 / 142
Damage: Chill Touch 145
Defence: 0
Abilities: Chill Touch, Frost Veil. ]
[ Chill Touch: A touch attack that deals frost damage and slows the movement of the target. ]
[ Frost Veil: Cloaks user in a frosty mist, dramatically increasing stealth in icy and snowy areas. ]
Checking their stats it was clear they were going to be a problem, even now that he could see them, due to the snow in the air and without activating Frost Veil, they were blending in well. The good thing is that they seemed to need to touch you to do damage, and besides stealth, they had nothing else going on.
Still a problematic enemy, but their low health made it very easy for Sam.
Remanifesting his Psyhands in the area, he split up the weapons between them, between the Void Edge’s cone, the one critical hit, the overlapping Static charges, triggering of Silent Killer and all other stuff, none of them had a chance and both died instantly. As they fell to the ground, Sam waited patiently to see if more arrived or not.
Deciding not to wait too long, as the ice bridge he was on didn’t feel entirely safe, he got over to the other side and felt better on more solid ground. Or at least as solid as being on a Glacier could feel.
Taking some time, he dug around and found the Cores of the three targets. Interestingly enough, since he had to use his hands for this as his Psyhands didn’t have the physical strength to pull and push, it seemed to count as enough activity to break his Invisibility. According to the current market they were valued at around $7 000 each, so he was going to get as many as he could.
Reactivating his Invisibility, he continued onwards, using the only landmark he had in a visible radius; the bridge and chasm. He went in the direction he thought was the other side.
The guide explained that if you got lost, you could just follow the edge of the Glacier and you’d get there eventually anyway. But it would mean more time in the icy weather and a higher chance of meeting something, so the straight way was the best.
As he continued onwards, the scenery repeated itself. It was just more of the icy ground, chasms here and there, sideways snowy wind. He used his Psyhands to scrape along the ground ahead of him and randomly touch around to make sure he didn’t step into something open without seeing it. If nothing else it felt safer.
More Shatterbacks and Frost Wraiths were along the trek, but they weren’t a problem. In the wind they weren’t able to hear him, and even though the snow landed on him and made a rough and simple outline of him, a little shake got that loose and due to the amount of other snow it didn’t seem like they noticed. All of this meant that he wasn’t discovered once and it was just an extermination on the walk through this horrid weather.
Five more Shatterbacks and eight more Frost Wraiths came into his path on the way to the end. Sam found it amusing to use the Shatterbacks as local grenades for the nearby Frost Wraiths, but they were rarely in range. However, that only postponed the end of the fight by a few seconds, and all combat in the glacier area followed the same pattern. Had it not been for the weather it could have been somewhat amusing.
Sam found himself meeting a frozen mountain, there was no cave entrance, opening or anything in sight, just sheer cliffs upwards. According to the guide, there should be a cave to enter that would take him to the next area. But there weren’t any landmarks or anything of the sort so he’d just have to pick left or right...
Picking to go the left path, he walked for quite some time, finding a roaming Frost Wraith on the way which was easily handled, until he came to a gigantic chasm that looked like the end of the path, from what the guide had explained he took the wrong way...
Turning around he doubled back, his footsteps having disappeared long ago, though the mountain didn’t just disappear, so he had no problems following it until he eventually found a cave entrance.
Going in he muttered some curses to himself, he hoped the wind would die down but instead of managed to hit the opening just right to make a bottleneck of air which just made it worse.
Continuing through the cave hallway, he came out on a ledge that ended abruptly. The guide had explained this place as well and there was a chasm in front of him filled with sharp ice spikes at the bottom. Falling into it was nothing short of death unless you were extremely lucky.
He now had to climb along walls and find ledges for rest, or just use pitons or whatever those things were called, he hadn’t climbed much. He had ice picks and everything in his Item Box but... any of this would bring him attention. In the area, there should be a mix of Ice Drakes and Blizard Wisps, both going for him directly but also just knocking him down and having him fall...
The area was a rough oval going straight ahead, it was roughly 200m across, they tested it with some wire or rope according to the guide. And considering the distance, he could see why this was such a dangerous area, you’re somewhat exposed on the wall when climbing, after all.
Normally, the recommendation is that you do it one by one. One person climbs to the next shelf while the other protects him. Then another goes to the same shelf, and so on. After everyone is there the process is repeated. It takes a while but it works.
Sam had another idea!