The mist in the mountain began to accumulate over time, and Basil could feel something wrong with it. If his instincts and his senses didn't betray him, he would need to escape that area sooner than later.
By this point, Basil covered the majority of his body with a layer of moss and felt somewhat secure from the cold, not entirely, but considering that a reptile devised everything by himself was a lot.
When he was about to rest as the sunset settled in the mountain, his ears picked up a vibing sound only he could hear. The sound gave Basil a need to seek it, but experiences from before became engraved in his mind.
Basil used all his senses to understand where this sound proceeded, and after some minutes of looking at the landscape, he found it—a signal coming from the south of the range where "Golemites" seemed to wander.
He could also see a yellowish glow emanating from that place, coating the mist with a strange aura. The sound called for him in that direction, and he still didn't know if looking for it was a good idea, but his instinct said it was a good idea.
The orange sun was beginning to disappear in the distance, and Basil had to choose by this point. He ate the remaining moss from the bunny carcass and took Auriz fragment and the core pieces in his mouth. He was going to leave the cavern behind.
Determined to find what the Signal meant, Basil abandoned the hole and began to walk in the snow. There had to be something inside that mist that could help him in some way.
The dusk limited his visibility a little. Basil can't see in the dark in reality because, in the cavern, there was at least a form of lighting from where he could manage to discern his surroundings and enemies. The days he passed in the tunnel were filled with complete darkness as nothing grown in that area.
If Basil passed more time on the darkness, his eyesight would begin to adapt for him in time, or if he managed to hunt a night creature, he could mutate a part of his eyes to see perfectly in those situations.
Anyway, the journey for an enormous creature would have been much shorter, but because Basil was crawling in the snow, it was longer than he expected. The cold affected him greatly at this time, now with the sun gone to give him warmth, and the moss seemed to not be enough for him.
With each step, Basil could feel the energy drained from him, and he just managed to reach the boundary of the mist. The reptile could feel something good from it but didn't know what it was, so he touched it. The results were not what he expected because it wasn't cold neither hot.
Basil pushed forward towards the sound, seeing there wasn't any danger in touching it. Basil went ahead towards the sound in; What could you call it? Hope, desire, curiosity? Maybe all of them? We don't exactly know for sure, but it called for him. The next problem for Basil wouldn't be the cold, although the creatures could pose an issue if he were to battle one with his limitations.
Basil entered without difficulties the area and tried to scan with his vision any foe nearby. He needed to be stealthy for now, and Basil could hunt at another time with more preparation. The mist presented some difficulty navigating as it impeded Basil's regular sight and energy vision.
There were sky blue, turquoise, and a portion of orange dots everywhere. "What do the colors mean?" — Asked Basil to himself as there was no one to answer, making him feel somewhat sour at his solitude.
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Penrose-dreieck.svg/526px-Penrose-dreieck.svg.png]
Meanwhile, Evalyne kept a fixed gaze at Basil's actions while the others tried to help her find better mutations for him and whatever could be helpful in Basil's situation. That until a message appeared on her screen in bright lettering “Congratulations.”
"What is this?" — Asked Evalyne to the others, alarmed at the interruption.
"I don't know, first time seeing something like that." — Replied Bik.
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“I don't know either.” — Responded Moraeus while Mardok just shrugged when Evalyne questioned him too.
Everyone looked confused at the message on the screen. That until a robotic voice from nowhere spoke.
“Participant ID S-589, Name “Evalyne Kartolis.” Your creature identified as “Basil” got chosen as one of the few participants on the planet to be awarded for his consecutive achievements of survivability, battle, and miscellaneous actions since the games began. For his continuous development, the Administrator of the Stròmata has decided to reward the Core Gekkonidae with an advantage suited to him only. As for yourself being the owner of the aforementioned will receive a substantial amount of Asther units to advance in the Stròmata, use it wisely Limited."
Congratulations, you have received 600.000 Asther Units!
Evalyne, shocked by the message, didn't know how to react for a moment until she saw the screen with a bunch of zeros on it.
"... Je je jejajaJAJAJAJAJAJA" — Evalyne began to laugh manically with everyone still present in the room. Mardok and Bik were seeing a girl that just lost her marbles. Moraeus, instead, could understand why she was acting this way but decided not to say anything.
Mardok decided to interrupt her laughter. "So, what does this mean?" — He asked Evalyne.
Evalyne looked at him directly in his Amber eyes and smiled before responding, "I don't have any idea," — She answered while she began to guffaw again without reason.
Bik just looked at the scene with a Stoic face while, in his mind, another thought arose. "Damn, that's hot."
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Penrose-dreieck.svg/526px-Penrose-dreieck.svg.png]
On the planet, things were different, to not say the least. Basil had difficulty evading all the Orbs he had managed to detect before these bumped with him. But everything wasn't wrong, he was getting near his destination, and the Snow constructs avoided it with fervor.
You could be asking, then why are they patrolling the area? Easy, the mist created in the zone reinforces their cores and helps them grow their elemental control and prowess. It is a weird situation, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and for these snow construct to develop means to be near what could potentially kill you.
Basil's case was always this, but he doesn't know this or at least doesn't understand the concept. After some time, he finally reached his destination, and what lay in front of him were hot spring pools with a yellowish glow in all of them. The heat the ponds emitted transformed the cold around in a mist covering part of the mountain.
There was no danger around in this place. Basil felt better at the security produced by the zone. Reinvigorated by the warmth, he searched for whatever made the sound that got stronger after entering this area. The ponds were terraced above each other, creating a beautiful sight. In the upper echelon, a Beacon was positioned with an artifact and a giant orb by its side.
Basil began to escalate the best he could without his arm, sometimes getting inside the water to reach the other echelon of the small pile of pools. The water felt perfect, and sometimes he wanted to stay inside some more, but first, he needed to reach the beacon that still called for him.
When he reached the object, it turned off instantly without him touching it. Basil was concerned this was a trap of sorts, but nothing happened after a while. However, he still was cautious of what could be the thing that emitted the sound.
Basil left Auriz fragment and the now almost nonexistent cores in the water. He began to sniff and observe what these things did. The beacon was a rhomboid with white color and some purple lines with nothing noteworthy, a piece of scrap by this point.
The artifact that was by its side was shaped like a cube and was floating above the water. Above it was an indentation, capable of storing something, Basil just wondered how it flowed. It made him reminisce about how Auriz tried to do the same sometimes.
Oblivious to him, this was the Asther accumulator for golemites. Curious and a little sad, he put Auriz's fragment above it to make her broken friend at least feel she was floating, or at least that's what he thought, activating it in his recklessness.
The Asther accumulator responding to the signal of a Golemite inside the space enclosed it rapidly to begin the process. Basil seeing the object fold itself and trapping the fragment, became panicked and tried to pick it up, but it was useless. The artifact sunk inside the water and somewhat inside the floor of the pool, refusing to move.
The gecko felt terrible at the events. Basil couldn't do anything now. The best he could do is wait for the process to end. In the meantime, he needed endurance and more experience, so he didn't repeat something that stupid.