Wary of too much Skill use outside battle, I just used Strength and my severely lacking Dexterity to sprint and run how I could. The way had changed slightly, even since yesterday, as it had snowed through the night. Bare stone or mountain rock which provided steady ground yesterday had been covered with inches of snow, and the cold winds had revealed others. It was only a little difference, but somehow it added more complexity to the journey.

Procedurally generated, I joked.

A few times, Alator pulled too far away from me, to the point I had to call him to slow a touch.

“Apologies, Talbot,” he’d say each time I caught up, after five or six seconds of him walking, “It’s been a long time since I travelled with a companion.”

We passed the milestone, made our way down the goat path, and crossed the frozen lake without difficulty, and stopped at the edge of the pine forest. The tree-line was as foreboding as ever, even with the sun(s) as powerful as they ever can be in this frozen wasteland.

With just a glance to each other, and a scan with Alator’s learned eyes, we made forwards. Passing between the first few scattered trees, the wind relented as it had before, and underfoot became either hard, crunching needles or soft, sticky mulch — each step a little fraught. I could tell Alator wanted to pull away, every few minutes he looked back at me and had to wait for me to catch up.

// SYS : Oh, and now the Sinews of Korgoth, will the terror never cease! Step lightly, for you’ve entered a sky-hungry labyrinth, named so for the thick and gnarled trunks, reaching for stark sustenance like the twisted sinews of some ancient giant. See how the snow lies thick and heavy upon the forest floor, muffling sound and hiding countless dangers beneath its pristine surface — like the porcelain mask of the assassin at the ball before the strike! Behold, the relentless hush — overcome only by the creak of frostbitten wood and the far-off howl of unseen predators. The sky above? Ah, naught but a thin, bitter strip of grey, near lost behind jagged branches. And beware! For within this frozen clime, shadows move where there should be none, and the snow itself seems to breathe. //

Been a while since the last SYS introduction, this one's as over-the-top and maudlin as the previous two.

Though, indeed, the forest put me on edge. Its trees were all deciduous pine, surviving, I assumed, by the warmth from deep beneath — we were on our way to Akhur'shet, which we heard described as volcanic. I saw ancient trees mostly dead, brown needles falling in sheets from their racked boughs, but I saw new shoots growing, even from beneath the permafrost where the snow had fallen through the canopy. But through the familiar life was a twisted otherworldliness — trees grew at all angles, and the canopy was much thicker in places than I’d assumed it to be in a pine forest, leaving us in a strange dark twilight, where shadows crept in and small beasts lurked.

“Not worth dealing with,” Alator muttered as I shuddered at the sight of yellow eyes peering from the black. “These aren’t fiends, just starving predators.”

Even so, I couldn’t help keeping my head on a swivel, flinching at the crack of every broken branch, or the alien call of Barbican birds, touched even here by the corrupting energies of the Shards of Korgoth, or perhaps even by Kadesh. Eventually, as Alator glanced behind him for the umpteenth time, I felt, instead of unease, irritation at my incompetence, and started intermittently exploding [Vigour] to pull ahead.

Our way took on a new energy as Alator would light up and give chase, almost keeping up with me even without the flashes of his own Skills.

After a few hours we found a sunspot and found heavy rest on flat ground where the night’s snow had melted into a wet blanket of moss and briar. Ignoring the spikes beneath my Linothorax and prickling my bare legs, I splayed out and panted on the dirt. The Skill use, only a handful of bursts of [Vigour], had already tired me out.

SYS, is it Strength or Dexterity that gives that much ease of movement and stamina?

I leant my head away but still the BUZZ made me jump as the little bronze sphere materialised beside my ear.

// SYS : Both, Talbot. Strength drives the power within your muscles, the steadiness of your bones, but Dexterity provides grace, and accuracy — it might help you to think of Dexterity as also affecting your stabiliser muscles. The average human has abilities representing about 4–6 in the four Stats; Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Mind. //

So . . . I’m on the low end of intelligence, then?

// SYS : I couldn’t possibly comment. //

Funny — you usually do. Why would someone ever really choose to level Mind?

// SYS : Perhaps you have to be clever in the first places. . . . For magic users, Mind enables stronger spells, or the ability to concentrate on them for longer, or on more than one at once. For others, it represents faster thinking, better rationalisation. With a high enough Mind, it would strain you less to utilise [Battle Tactics], for example. //

Oh, that makes a lot of sense, actually. So, take [Vigour], this will be less tiring to use as I gain Strength, right?

// SYS : That’s right, and its effect will be more pronounced. You really didn’t look up any of this, did you? //

I looked over to Alator, who paced the edges of the clearing on watch, and touched the Analysis Card.

SYS, why are most of his Stats listed as a question mark? I can only see Constitution.

// SYS : An unfortunate peculiarity of the Analysis Card. It seems that if a respective Stat is more than six times higher than your own, you will not be able to divine it. As you use it, it will improve, and these bugs should get ironed out. It seems this isn’t the case with Level or Home; those are separate issues pertaining specifically to Alator. //

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

It seems? Didn’t you make this thing?

// SYS : I . . . uncovered it. Even I’m not sure of its true capability. Look, if you haven’t cottoned on, Talbot, I’ve not done this before. It isn’t every day a World-Eater appears and threatens the very existence of all the New Worlds. //

H’m. Think I preferred the curt and sarcastic answers.

I looked to Alator. This meant he had at least 37 Dexterity, a full 30 points over mine. He also had more than 24 Mind.

My lagging behind and forgetfulness must be so infuriating to him.

// SYS : Imagine how I must feel. //

There she is. That’s enough now, shoo.

Bzz.

As I was daydreaming about how it must feel to have that much power, Alator hissed from the tree-edge. I groaned to my feet and moved to him.

“Eighty yards over — a wounded warg. Can’t tell what wounded it, though, so it might be better to —”

I didn’t wait to hear the rest.

I need to level up.

I felt a profound need to get stronger.

Stamping hard through the scant ferns and ducking under low-hanging branches, I rocketed in the direction Alator pointed. Briar scratched my shins and pine needles grazed my shoulders. I spied the Warg, flat on its belly, its human-like head turned away from me.

The last few paces were made with great effort and discomfort; the Skill use felt like a cold pressure on my skin. Still, I reached deeply into that slow-flowing river and found the point of light wherein my potential lay, and pumped [Weapon Mastery] into my mind and blood for good measure. With a roar, I leapt the last distance and thrust my spear. The fiend started and struggled to stand, but the bronze point passed between the Warg’s ribs, stopping its heart.

// SYS : As this enemy was wounded, this is considered an assist. You have gained 9 XP, putting you at 69. //

Nice. Every little helps. Give me another ten!

Breathing heavily, vision white-spotted, I swayed a moment on the spot then turned and started slouching back to Alator.

“Watch out!” came a sharp call.

Suddenly, with a violent eruption, the ground exploded in a flurry of white — icy shards and powder cascading out, pelting my body. A massive snake-like thing burst from hiding in a blur of pale scales like an uncoiling spring. A long, jagged, snow-covered head snapped forwards, leaving a trail of frost.

Only the last gasp of [Weapon Mastery] and a perfectly-timed swipe of my spear kept the teeth from locking around my neck, but it sunk its teeth deep into my shoulder, piercing easily through the Linothorax.

My eyes shut against the pain — an entirely new phenomenon.

Never felt pain like this!

The snake’s fangs were sharp and long, the cuts were deep into my skin and the ball of my shoulder, I lost the grip on my spear and panicked. [Vigour] and [Weapon Mastery] flowed out as I thrashed around internally.

BURSTS of power vibrated by bones, and I grabbed the snake’s freezing body with both hands and wrenched it free from me, its jaw snapped and its body twisted towards my neck again, but I managed to keep it aloft in a death-grip, yelling madness.

The echoes of [Vigour] pumped a last bit of energy through me and I launched the snake as far as I could. Instinctively I thrust a hand in my pouch and found the Analysis Card, but it took me a moment and even as the text box popped up, it had righted itself and was slithering towards me again.

Fiend :

Snowdrift Serpent, Level 12

Stats :

Str 10, Dex 14, Con 4, Mnd 2

Attacks :

Ambush Bite, Freezing Crush, Invisible Stillness, Wrap

Loot :

Snowdrift Fang, Snowdrift Snakeskin, Frost Venom Gland

Weakness :

Initially slow to react

XP :

68

It compressed its long body into a spiral again in a matter of moments, and lunged forwards, spearing itself into the air towards me. Another [Battle Tactics] whirred my brain into a frenzy as I considered options. The command to RUN! flashed across my whole psyche, but was quickly replaced by DROP!

Throwing myself to the ground like a heavy sack, the serpent glided over, trying but failing to twist its body at me while it flew. The staccato noise of its jaw snapping and teeth closing on airy nothing rapped inside my mind.

It fell lightly and twisted to me again, its glacial eyes locked on. Utter exhaustion pounded as my Skills bled from me again, my arms leaden, my knees buckled and I almost dropped. Through bleary eyes I could see Alator approaching, but he was too far away.

My shoulder felt frozen solid, but pain throbbed through the numbness. At massive push I tried to convince my body that savage overuse was preferable to death! I reached deeply again, the stream in my mind was near still, now, the water that usually flowed had coagulated into a murky near-opaque gel and I pushed through it to reach the ever-so-faint lights beneath.

The serpent launched itself again.

[Vigour], [Battle Tactics], EFFORT. Instead of ducking, a rush of insight passed through me and as the Snowdrift Serpent threw itself forwards, I leapt at it. My spear forgotten at my side, I caught the serpent’s jaw with my hands — one of the sharp fangs pierced my palm and I grunted, teeth gritted, but kept focused, gripped, and pulled.

Writhing and spitting, hissing in mortal effort, the serpent thrashed its body around, throwing snow and needles into the air. At least four yards away the tail of its body slapped against the dying trunk of a tree, splintering it and throwing out a burst of loose bark.

My arms burnt, my fingers seared, my palm was growing numb through the serpent’s poisoned fang, but I urged every fibre to give me everything it had.

“VIGOUR!” I shouted, calling wildly, madly.

I RIPPED the snake’s jaws apart and with a pop then a sickening tear, they split and tore and folded backwards and over its neck, and fell still.

I fell down with it, floppy and flat on the ground. Venom moved through my shoulder, pulsed through my palm — cold, freezing, my blood thickening and stopping.

What an incredible last effort.

It had not been even two days, but my journey through Barbican had produced a stark exclamation mark that seemed to make every day of my life preceding it worthwhile.

My vision greyed, darkened, then faded to black.