Snowdrift’s training field was a spacious area far larger than any single building or estate. As Jayce approached with Vilar and Falia in tow, he saw well over a hundred people gathered in the field. Some of them were sparring atop raised silver platforms while others practiced with silvery targets and training dummies. There was also a horde of kids exercising while a burly teacher towered over them. Jayce even saw many people who weren’t training at all. They were either watching the spars or talking excitedly in small groups, their animated gestures suggested that they were talking about class abilities.
Jayce’s posture faltered when he noticed Soest officiating a duel. Coincidentally, Soest turned his head at the same time and their eyes met.
‘Why did it have to be you?’ Jayce wondered while forcing himself not to frown. Even if he held a grudge against Soest for leaving him with Weiss, there was nothing to be done about it.
As the trio entered the training grounds, Soest walked up to meet them. The wolfman mirrored Jayce’s neutral expression and greeted them in turn.
“It’s good to see that you’ve recovered so quickly, Jayce. Also, congratulations on opening the first gate.
“Vilar, I hope to see you working diligently today. Even if you don’t see yourself as a fighter, you won’t stimulate your class without genuine effort.
“Falia, I’m honestly a little surprised. I thought you stopped training after you opened the second gate.”
“Haha~.” Falia scratched her head in a nervous rhythm and glanced at Jayce. “Even though I don’t plan on challenging the third gate, I still want some exercise every now and then.”
To her relief, Jayce stepped in and got Soest’s attention.
“I’m here to visit the training field, but I also have some talismans that I want to sell. I was told that you could help me with that.”
Soest nodded. “I can.”
Jayce activated Star Girdle and a small pile of monster parts appeared in front of him. They hadn’t spoiled in the slightest, and Jayce suspected this wasn’t only because of Star Girdle’s temperature functions. These materials seemed to preserve naturally, possibly because of the aspects inside them.
As for using Star Girdle, Weiss had already told everyone that he had a storage device. Jayce only had to be careful about retrieving too much at once.
Soest looked at the pile and his eyes widened. Once again, he was reminded that Jayce really had stolen from the jotun and managed to survive alone in the Frozen Expanse. It was an unthinkable achievement for someone below the first gate. Soest caught a frown creeping onto his face and quickly stifled it.
“This is impressive. I can make the transaction now, but you’ll need to register with the pathfinder guild.”
“Alright?”
“First, tell me about your background and the details of your race.”
Jayce paused and stared into Soest’s eyes. When the old wolfman met his gaze, Jayce finally scowled. “Are those questions part of the registration process?”
“No, but your life will be easier if you conduct business honestly.”
Much to Soest’s displeasure, Jayce shook his head. Jayce knew that Soest was wary of him and he wanted to keep it that way. Initially, Jayce couldn’t prove that there was anything special about him without revealing his valuable artifacts. Now that he had survived in the Frozen Expanse, Jayce’s unknown background became more threatening. In reality, he was completely alone without any support, but Jayce could pretend that wasn’t true. If Soest and the other elders were afraid of the imaginary person or clan behind him, they would be less likely to toss him aside in the future.
“Soest, do you believe I’m an enemy of this village?”
“If I did, I would have killed you,” Soest growled.
Jayce didn’t react when the older man bared his teeth. He simply replied in a plain tone, “Then there’s no point in antagonizing me, is there?”
Soest ground his teeth for a moment before reaching into his shirt and pulling out a pendant. At the end of this pendant was a veined cylinder that looked a lot like an IC. He held it out to Jayce.
“Let this record your mental energy signature. Snowdrift doesn’t have the authority to register teams or individual pathfinders, but we need to do this much when someone sells us materials.”
Jayce did so while Soest counted out the materials. The elder didn’t stop to examine any of them in detail and Jayce guessed that the guild paid based on the monster’s level rather than the talisman’s aspects or shape.
When their trade ended peacefully, Jayce watched Soest stalk away before looking down at the coins in his hand. Each of them had a black crystalline inner plate and a golden outer ring. There were five eyes carved into the outer ring along with the phrase, ‘The Federation in service of the five great clans. May Sky-Blue reign in eternal prosperity.’ Meanwhile, the inner ring was left blank.
This wasn’t Jayce’s first-time holding Federation credits, as Marin had loaned him a pittance to visit the bathhouse. However, it was his first-time truly owning money in the Upper Bound. A smile tugged at his lips as he stared at the foreign coins. By selling a quarter of his talismans, he estimated he’d be able to live frugally for several weeks if some of the hotel advertisements he found were to be believed.
Storing the credits, Jayce turned back to Vilar and Falia. “I’m going to check out the dueling area. Do either of you want to come?”
“Sure, why not?” Vilar muttered. After reaching the training field, the insectoid seemed to have deflated a bit.
Jayce was about to take a step forward when Faila rushed out and pulled on his arm, dragging him forward. In response to his confused look, she flashed him the most appealing smile she could muster.
While they walked, Jayce narrowed his eyes. ‘According to Soest, this woman is actually level 40. You really can’t judge anyone by their looks in the Upper Bound. I need to get used to using Essence Appraisal more often.’
When Falia looked back and caught Jayce’s wary gaze, her smile grew strained.
They arrived at the dueling platforms, but Jayce was interrupted almost immediately.
“Oh, it’s the little guy who survived for over a week in the Frozen Expanse!” This booming voice caused a minor commotion at the dueling platforms.
The crowd parted and an enormous, muscular blue-furred man stomped his way over to Jayce’s trio. He wore a silly smile and was waving like he’d found a long-lost friend. His disproportionately large upper body was matched by equally exaggerated curly hair adorned with a pair of pointed buffalo horns. While he wasn’t quite as old as Soest and the other elders, Jayce noticed a few wrinkles on the man’s bearded face.
“My name is Jayce. You are?”
“The name’s Caesar. I work as one of the trainers around here,” Caesar paused before suddenly throwing out a heavy punch that stopped a head’s length away from Jayce. The air in front of his fist was blasted apart, sending a torrent of cold wind out in a cone. It was hard to tell if this gust was the result of pure physical strength or an ability, but it looked impressive. “You’re strong enough to travel through the Frozen Expanse at your level. Don’t you think you’re suited to learn my extreme close combat techniques?”
‘Look at my body compared to yours. I wouldn’t survive a single hour in the Frozen Expanse if I fought with my fists,’ Jayce retorted in his head. In front of this hulking figure, he wanted to choose his words carefully.
“That’s, uh…” while Jayce was trying to find a way to let Caesar down gently, he was interrupted again as a new voice swept across the crowd.
“Hold on Ceasar, I think you should be careful around this outsider. Right now, all we know is that he’s a thief. He claims that he survived alone in the Frozen Expanse, but who knows what actually happened? I heard that he made it out a few minutes after the jotun did. That doesn’t make sense if he was surviving on his own.”
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A kid who looked a couple years younger than Jayce stepped out of the crowd. He had large fuzzy ears and a long ringed tail just like the village head. Animal features weren’t hereditary, but Jayce noticed that the two also had the same lean frame and bushy eyebrows. The village head gave Jayce the impression of a deep, calm pool and this guy’s slicked back hair and austere expression conjured a similar vibe. Though, his lightly twitching tail showed that he wasn’t as calm as he pretended to be.
“Look,” the kid glared at Jayce. “I’ve hunted in the Frozen Expanse, so don’t try to fool me. How did you get out of there?”
“I mostly just ran and hid,” Jayce answered flatly.
This technically wasn’t a lie, as Jayce had avoided most of the monsters he came across using the Bands of Freedom. There were still many instances where he was forced to fight before finding shelter, but his battle with the kobolds was an anomaly.
The kid blinked slowly, and his tail stopped twitching. “Oh? So that’s what happened.”
Despite warning others to not trust Jayce, this kid didn’t seem to doubt him. After a brief moment of calm, the kid turned to Vilar and his wise façade was once again on the verge of collapse.
“Vilar, let’s have a duel.”
“W-Why me, Yule!?” Vilar stuttered, shrinking back. With his large body and wide, intimidating sickle-arms, the scene resembled an elephant cowering in front of a mouse.
“You don’t seem to have much faith in me. So, I figured I’d show you what would have happened to that jotun if someone had asked me to deal with him instead of Marin.”
“Wow~. Our leader is bullying someone,” a new, feminine voice came from the crowd.
“Hey Yule, don’t be mad when you were the one who skipped out on the expedition,” another voice followed the first.
Jayce watched as a cat-eared girl with frizzy hair and a boy with feathers like Marin's sister and a large backpack walked up to Yule. The girl tried to rub Yule’s head and was gently, yet swiftly, swatted away. Meanwhile, the boy folded his arms while Yule glared at him.
This staring contest lasted a few seconds until Yule’s ringed tail lashed violently and his calm demeanor crumbled.
“Yes, I didn’t go. What’s the point of going if the adults are going to do all the work? Also, you were the only one of us who joined the expedition. Who are you to criticize me when you could have challenged that jotun yourself? Coward!” Yule snapped.
The feathered boy clenched his fists at the insult, but he lowered his head without replying.
Turning to Vilar, Yule shouted, “As for you, don’t even think about running away!”
Vilar, who had been trying to do exactly that, froze mid-step. Taking advantage of the pause in their argument, Jayce stepped between Yule and Vilar.
He took up a polite tone asked, “How about you duel me instead?”
“And now even the outsider is looking down on me. I swear I’ll put all of you in your place and—!”
“Yule, you lost your composure again,” the cat-eared girl interrupted him.
Lowering his bristling tail, Yule made a show of coughing into his fist. While he was calming down, the girl looked at Jayce with a sincere gaze.
“Please be patient with my friend. When Yule told his father that he wanted to be the next village head, his father said, ‘You?’ And now Yule’s already short fuse has gotten even worse because he’s forcing himself to act like his grandfather.”
Yule shot a glare at the catgirl. “Naya, if you want me to calm down, please don’t introduce me like I’m an invalid.”
“I prefer you acting crazy, so I don’t want you to calm down at all.”
While they argued, Vilar grabbed Jayce’s shoulder with one of his three-fingered hands and whispered, “Jayce, dueling Yule is a bad idea. He leads the only team that hunts in the Frozen Expanse right now. He’s also the head’s grandson and one of the fastest people to open the first gate in our generation.”
Jayce shrugged. “He already accepted, so it’s fine.”
“It’s fine isn’t it?” Caesar laughed, his hulking body bending as he retrieved a glowing blue cube and some metal cuffs from his coat pocket. “Better to make mistakes during training than in a real battle. Everyone, step away from them. Jayce, put these cuffs on. They’ll inhibit the force behind your attacks and make it easy for me to stop the fight. We also have a doctor on standby, but you’ll be paying the fees if you seriously injure someone.”
Following Caesar’s eyes, Jayce saw a woman lounging on an embroidered cushion not too far away. Her fair skin and bewitching features were wreathed within a pair of curled sheep horns. She looked to be in her 40’s and her haughty expression made Jayce want to think twice about bothering her for medical treatment. His eyes shifted to her long grey fur coat, which he realized might have been made from kobold hair, and then to her seat. It was a little painful to see such an ornate cushion sitting atop the slush that had accumulated at the edge of the training field, but its owner didn’t seem to mind. When Jayce turned back towards Caesar and Yule, he felt a little more grateful towards his healing ability.
Soon, there was only Jayce and Yule surrounded by a circle of onlookers. Caesar gripped his cube and the ground under Jayce’s feet rose up, creating a new dueling platform with a diameter of 30 meters. Only now did Jayce realize that the material under his feet was the same dark silver sand that held up most of Snowdrift’s buildings. Glancing around, he saw that the entire training field was paved with this miraculous substance. Even the silver training dummies and targets were just impromptu constructs made from sand.
Jayce’s eyes fell on the cube in Caesar’s hand. It looked very similar to the multi-faceted cube that Theresa had used to control her artifacts. His attention only drifted for a brief moment before he raised his head and met Yule’s peevish glare.
The boy moved behind a line carved out on his side of the platform and Jayce mirrored this action. A pair of daggers appeared in Yule’s hands while Jayce brought out Seeker. Jayce saw Yule smirk when it became obvious that this was a match between close and long-range fighters.
‘He’s confident in getting close. Coupled with his daggers, his class should be…’
“Begin!” Caesar shouted and both fighters snapped into action.
Yule sprung forward and Jayce immediately fired Seeker. Jayce had developed a habit of using his Marksman tags before a fight, and Seeker’s first bullet would always be empowered by Acceleration Tag. His cuffs flashed and Jayce sensed that his mana bullet was weaker than usual, but its speed was unaffected. The already speedy bullet broke the tag and leapt across platform in an instant. Yule couldn’t dodge but his upper body wavered strangely as if he were an illusion. The bullet passed through his head without harming him.
Unsurprised, Jayce fired again. This time, Yule’s eyes shone, and he started dodging before the bullet was even fired. It scraped past his barrier while he stepped in front of Jayce. Just when it seemed that Yule had closed the distance, Seeker vanished, and a pair of pistols appeared in Jayce’s hands. With a thought from Jayce, 12 weakened bullets would fly towards Yule at near point-blank range. Normally this would be going overboard, even with the cuffs, but Jayce had already activated Soul Strike. Instead of dealing physical damage, these bullets would shake Yule’s soul. Jayce was keen to try this tactic as he regretted not using it against Mize. He speculated that the impact from two full rounds might even knock Yule unconscious.
But right before he fired, Yule disappeared.
A low kick from an unexpected angle caused Jayce’s legs to buckle. A dagger followed up immediately, damaging the barrier on Jayce’s left arm and preventing him from turning to return fire. Once Yule started attacking, he didn’t stop. All of his moves flowed together like an artful and efficient dance. He was very familiar with fighting against barriers and even adjusted his attacks to counter the artifact’s shock absorption.
Yule’s fur also began to glow faintly as it turned a lighter shade of blue. Jayce guessed this was one of the blue-furred race’s innate abilities, but he couldn’t tell what it did. Yule wasn’t attacking with absurd, limit breaking strength like Marin had at the end of her duel. Jayce could only observe that Yule’s movements were extremely quick and agile. Even with Keen Eyes, he had no hope of keeping up.
“Died once,” Yule muttered.
He stabbed Jayce’s stomach and broke his barrier. The blade opened a small wound, but Yule carefully withdrew it before it could penetrate deeper.
“Died twice.”
Reversing his grip, Yule slashed at Jayce’s throat. Since the blade was on the wrong side, he ended up chopping Jayce’s neck with the butt of his weapon. Jayce’s eyes turned red and he raised Tiny Hammer, but Yule moved first.
“And done.”
Spinning, Yule threw out a roundhouse kick and sent Jayce flying off the platform. From this attack, it was clear that he was still thinking about Marin’s fight with Froker.
Seeing this, Caesar sighed and shook his head. What Yule did went against dueling etiquette, but he hadn’t gone far enough for Caesar to punish him. It was obvious that Yule only wanted to hurt Jayce’s pride rather than seriously injure him.
The platform sank into the ground while Jayce slowly picked himself up. Vilar and Falia moved to help him, but they froze when they saw his expression. Jayce was breathing heavily after getting the wind knocked out of him, but his face was completely calm. He didn’t look surprised, embarrassed or even in pain. Sitting down cross-legged, Jayce turned and met Yule’s gaze.
“Good match. If you don’t mind, how about we rest for a few minutes and go again?”
While Yule looked incredulous, Jayce’s gaze fell on the boy’s teammates. “I’d also like to practice with both of you, if that’s alright.”
“Hahaha, our leader is making such an interesting expression right now,” the catgirl chortled. “Fine, I owe you one duel for that. Be careful, though. All of us are over level 30.”
“I’m interested in your weapons, so ok.” The blue-feathered boy was more succinct.
“Ugh, I’ll put you in your place no matter how many duels it takes!” Yule announced boldly, losing his calm again.
Jayce nodded and turned away while the ends of his lips rose slightly.
‘I think I understand why Mize called Quint cute back then.’
Activating Keen Eyes, he carefully watched the other dueling platforms while he rested. His eyes took in all sorts of abilities and fighting styles that were foreign to him.
Jayce was very aware that he lacked combat experience. Back in the Fragmented Ruins, Jayce’s fighting style could be summed up as, ‘shoot the enemy.’ Meanwhile, his style in the Frozen Expanse was, ‘do whatever works to survive.’ Even though things had worked out, Jayce knew his skills were very rough. His last fight with Mize had proven that without a doubt. It was only in an environment like this, where he could fight strong opponents without worrying about death, that he could experiment and find a way of fighting that suited him.
“When Yule vanished, was that a short-range teleport?” Jayce mumbled to himself as he observed a duel on a nearby platform. Subconsciously, the look in his eyes sharpened and anyone who peered into them would see flames of obsession burning brightly. “I’ll have to look it up later.”