I wake up again chilled to the core in a visibly icy cavern dimly lit by the sunlight streaming in from above. The sun is directly above the hole, which means I’ve been unconscious for a few hours at least.
My head is throbbing, my arms and legs are bruised, and my whole body is in pain.
The first thing I do is wrap my arms around myself while crawling into a ball on the ground, trying to get warm, but since I’m not dead, I assume that it’s not quite below zero degrees. Then again, this world might have magic, so it being in the negatives and me not dying isn’t off the table.
My breath is white and I giggle as I reminisce about my childhood when my older sister and I called it ‘dragon breath’.
There’s a sudden flash of bluish-white light that causes me to snap out of my thoughts, and I look towards the source.
A small opaque white crystal rests in a small crack in the wall on the other side of the cave, It keeps pulsing and eventually stops on a bright but not intrusive glow. The problem is that room has gotten significantly colder since it started glowing.
I stare at it, thinking that it might stop eventually, but after what seems to have been a long while, it’s still illuminating the room as much as before, if not more so, and the temperature hasn’t started going back up at all.
I’m not feeling particularly prone to logical thought right now, but this doesn’t seem good.
Slowly, I get up and, still wrapping my arms around myself, inch closer to the crystal, but it keeps getting colder the closer I get, and I almost turn back before I realise that if I don’t do something, the whole cave will feel like this.
Now that I’m closer, I start to notice the intricate carvings on the wall, that seem to be glowing themselves, but faint enough that I didn’t notice it before.
As I reach the wall, my mind goes numb, and I reach for the crystal, the source of the cold.
Smart, I know.
The moment I touch it, overwhelming cold fills my entire body, and I slump to the ground, shivering and frosty.
The crystal has gone dark again, but I’m too cold to notice.
A screen pops up in front of me again, and I open my eyes at the noise.
‘ding’ You have learned the general skill Ice Resistance - You have braved prodigal users of a great magic, and survived the experience, or gone outside without any clothes on. Either way, this skill will help you not die next time.
‘ding’ ‘Ice Resistance reaches lvl 2’
‘ding’ ‘Ice Resistance reaches lvl 3’
‘ding’ ‘Ice Resistance reaches lvl 4’
Immediately the cold starts to affect me less. It’s not much, but I’m able to sit up.
My head explodes in pain, and I must stop for a second.
When my head stops hurting, I look at the crystal, which I tentatively pick up and carry back to the part of the cave with the opening in the roof.
Sitting down again in the sunlight, read through my notifications and notice that the cave has gotten much warmer in the short time since I touched the crystal and the… Ice resistance levels I gained are helping to mitigate the painful cold.
‘ding’ ‘Reached limit of Vitality - Recalculating Value - Vitality +2’
‘ding’ ‘Reached limit of Wisdom - Recalculating Value - Wisdom +4’
‘ding’ ‘Reached limit of Endurance - Recalculating Value - Endurance +1’
‘ding’ ‘Your magic has been overcharged - Recalculating Value - Intelligence + 3’
‘ding’ ‘The power of the Crystalline Icicle has flowed into you and changed your magic.
Your magic gets inundated with cold power +10 Intelligence +5 Wisdom.
Your Mana is calmed down, lowering the cost of any mana-related activity by 30%.
You are overflowing with ancient Mana +150% Mana recovery rate.’
Although the bonuses look nice, my head is anything but celebrating this moment. ‘Why me… I don’t want to be here. I want to be curled up in bed asleep…’
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I look at the crystal with a strange sense that it’s important for something, and I’m about to give it a closer look, but the ground beneath me, which I thought was solid, makes a sickening sound of cracking ice.
The floor shatters beneath me, and I’m dropped into another cold room, this one small with an even smaller doorway out of it. I land on my feet and look up as soon as I can.
I brace myself for the inevitable hail of debris, but none comes. The moment it falls past about halfway, something lifts it back up into place, blocking me in.
The room now has no natural sunlight, but the ice that makes up the walls and floor is glowing a light blue colour just enough that I can see my surroundings.
The first thing I notice is, of course, how cold I am, but it’s not so unbearable as it was before I touched the… Actually, I’ve forgotten to Identify the crystal, but the system has already told me, I think. Just in case, I Identify the crystal.
[Crystalline Icicle]
That still tells me nothing about the crystal itself, but at least it’s a name.
I look at the crystal again, but this time to visually analyze it.
As I saw before, it’s a small white opaque crystal. It’s long, thin, and looks like an icicle, and has stopped glowing since I touched it. It’s not very heavy, but its point looks like it could cause some damage.
Turning my attention away from the Crystalline Icicle, I look at the small doorway. The top of it is just shorter than my average male height, and it’s a little bit wider than I am. The door looks like a thin slab of ice, but that seems about right, considering the chill of the room.
‘I can do this,’ I huff as I look at the door, considering smashing through it. ‘It’s just ice, right? And I’ve gotta have some strength from that Icicle, right?’
I quickly check my stats.
Name: Ben Creeson
Class 1: None
Class 2: None
General Skills:
- Identify - lvl 1
Personal Skills:
- Frozen Amelioration - lvl 1
- Otherworldly Understanding - lvl 5
Status:
Vitality: 7
Endurance: 6
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 14
Health: 70/70
Mana: 140/140
Stamina: 60/60
Nothing past base Strength? Seriously? I’d prefer Endurance and Strength over Intelligence and Wisdom, thanks.
It’s enough though, right? I hope so as I smash my shoulder into the door as hard as I can.
Then I’m on the ground, holding back a scream of pain.
I miscalculated how hard it would be to knock down the door with a measly 5 Strength.
I get up, rub my shoulder, and re-evaluate the door. It doesn’t look strong, but it clearly is. I need something to smash or pierce through it, maybe?
Looking down at the Crystalline Icicle in my hand, I start to grin. This feels blasphemous, but it’s the only way out, right? I can’t climb through the roof, and there are walls on every side of me.
I ready up again and ram the tip of the Icicle through the door as hard as I can using the hand on my less injured arm.
It works, but instead of the Icicle piercing or shattering the door, as soon as it comes close, the door swings open by itself.
‘Wha-’ My eyes go wide and I stumble forward from the momentum that I put into stabbing the door, and when I steady myself again, I find myself in a large, open room.
The walls, floor, and roof are all made out of ice, and there’s a dip in the ground for a few metres before it juts up in a wall of ice, which forms a pedestal of sorts at its peak.
The pedestal is covered with intricate carvings, with two spikes jutting out of the top, with what looks like space in between them for another, larger spike.
I sit down, resting my head on my hand. I swear I have brain damage after falling that much. Seriously. I have a headache and I can’t think straight. I wonder if there’s healing magic in this world.
I look up at the pedestal and ponder what it might do if anything. Something that artwork-y can’t do nothing, right? Especially in a cave like this, why would anyone put it here if it had no purpose?
Walking towards the sheer wall of ice below the pedestal, I notice how the Iclcle is glowing again, brighter and brighter the closer I get to the pedestal.
Something in my brain is telling me, however, muddled up it is right now, to climb that wall. I don’t usually do the first thing that comes to mind, but this feels… Different.
The Crystalline Icicle radiates light as I stab it into the wall of ice, moving me into a state of serenity. It pierces as if I was stabbing butter, but it lodges in place until I’ve gotten another handhold, then slips out again.
When I climb over the edge to the top, the Icicle is glowing so brightly I can barely look at it.
Looking at the pedestal, my eyes are drawn to the carvings all over it. They all lead to one circular spot, right in the middle of the two spikes, and it’s clear what’s supposed to fill that gap.
I place the Crystalline Icicle down onto the pedestal and take a step back, looking at it.
I feel a sense of accomplishment for climbing up with only 5 Strength, and grin.
Then a small piece of ice falls from the roof.
The whole room flashes, and I hear a loud sound of splintering ice.