Valerie kept her hands in front of her in as best of a defensive position as she could get in the rough, snowy terrain. The Greater Glacial Spirit in front of her neared too close, earning a quick swipe to its blue core as Valerie shot out at it with a quick jab, only barely failing to make contact. Even from that swipe alone, pulling her fist away, Valerie's hand was cold and stiff.
You take 2 Ice Damage!
I gotta hit them real good before they whittle away at me… This is such a pain in the ass.
Being stuck in chest-deep snow and needing to dodge the worst case of a hailstorm she’d ever witnessed wasn't really a good idea for building momentum, so Valerie thought to use the spirit's momentum from charging at her to her advantage. Seeing no other alternative, Valerie decided to use this plan, waiting patiently with her arms at the ready until the Greater Glacial Spirit rocketed forward and tried to hit her. The spirit, not knowing of her plan—as it should—charged forward mindlessly and shot towards her face.
She poured everything into this single punch, pushing her body to its mortal limits, feeling like time slowed to a standstill.
Valerie, at this moment, felt like she was unconquerable. Peerless. In the most peak, physical shape any human could ever reach. Nothing could even come close to how close to perfection she was.
Her fist hit its mark.
You dealt 1 Blunt Damage!
Crap. That’s no good.
The Greater Glacial Spirit softly twirled around in the air before landing against her forehead gently, inflicting her with what was most likely the World Record for how severe of a brain freeze a human could withstand.
She couldn’t really withstand it, however.
You have died from [Severe Hypothermia]!
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Valerie breathed a heavy sigh as she respawned for the third time, a cloud of warm steam escaping from her mouth before being dragged away by the frigid winds. A lone Sol’s Ember firefly hovered right above where she spawned before being snatched up by her and added to her inventory.
Thank you very much, she thought to herself. Inventory!
INVENTORY
* A Tree Branch
* Beef Jerky [x10]
* Canteen of Purified Frozen Water [1 Litre]
* Sol’s Embers [x2] –
* Sol’s Ember {Alive: 59m, 59s}
* Sol’s Ember {Alive: 58m, 36s}
A frickin’ tree branch? What the hell am I meant to do with that? Swat away at the… Valerie paused mid-thought. Well, actually, that does sound like a better idea than punching it. Fine, that works, but why’s it even here though?
The moment she wondered why, another blue popup box appeared in her vision.
Codex: A Tree Branch [Martial/Magic Weapon]
Description: “I’m going to be an adventurer, Ma!” – The First Hero’s declaration, made at age six with a stick in their hand.
A simple branch that fell from a tree during your childhood. A leaf hangs off its end, swaying with the wind, never falling off no matter how hard you thwacked it against something.
Attack Types
Thwack – Deals 2~3 Blunt Damage. Critical Hits deal x2 normal damage.
Uses 5 Stamina per attack. 2 attacks/second max.
Poke – Deals 1~2 Sharp Damage. Critical Hits deal x5 normal damage.
Uses 3 Stamina per attack. 3 attacks/second.
Flowing Leaf – Deals 5~10 Nature Damage. Critical Hits deal x1.5 normal damage.
Uses 50 Mana per attack. Casting time is 1 second.
Alternative attack types are currently undiscovered. Experiment and research to find out the other attack types!
Proficiency: Novice
Durability: ∞/∞
Aspects: Unique, Untradeable, Unsellable
Selling Price: N/A
“Magic!” She pumped her arms in excitement before blue motes of light manifested on her arms, the tree branch and the two Sol’s Embers appearing in her hands. The firefly was intended for when she was affected by Hypothermia, but they radiated warmth as well as light from the inside of her cupped hand, providing some much-needed relief from the bitter cold. She focused on the spell, a blue popup appearing.
Codex: Flowing Leaf [Spell]
Description: One of the first spells that many diligent adventurers learn intrinsically at a young age, often taught by the whispering winds of Mother Nature.
Upon casting, a single razor-sharp leaf cuts through the air, dealing 5~10 Nature Damage. Critical Hits deal x1.5 normal damage.
Great for point-blank attacks due to its relatively high damage, but it becomes inaccurate with distance.
Mana Cost: 50 Mana
Casting Time: 1 second
Range: 3 metres
Degree of Spread: 5°
Learned: No
Proficiency: [A Tree Branch – Novice]
Before Valerie could question why she hadn’t learned the spell like she had with Identify, two Glacial Spirits approached her from a few metres away, coiling through the air and weaving past the orbs of hail to get to her. They neared each other’s orbits enough to transform into a Greater Glacial Spirit, a flurry of snowflakes erupting from their combined cores.
Round two, you big fuck.
Her right hand that held onto the weapon lifted itself, aiming its leafy end at the now-stronger enemy, only a metre and a half away from her at this point.
“Flowing Leaf!”
The veins in her arms bulged, siphoning off her Mana to cast the spell. The ambient, wild, natural winds that came from the snowstorm all around her coalesced into something greater within the tip of the branch, building up before suddenly shooting out of it. Like a bullet shot out of a gun, a single leaf howled through the air and sliced through the large Greater Glacial Spirit, which was in the middle of charging up to shoot forwards at her, cleaving it into two perfect halves, the two halves compacting the snow it landed upon.
You dealt 15 Nature Damage {Critical Hit}!
You have slain: Greater Glacial Spirit, LVL 1
10 EXP Gained!
The EXP flowed into her, bringing with it warmth and invigoration. The two perfect halves of the core twinkled as it lay upon the snow, a new popup appearing in Valerie’s vision as she cast Identify upon it.
Identified: Greater Glacial Spirit Core {Half}
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Description: The halved core of a Greater Glacial Spirit.
This Greater Glacial Spirit Core {Halved} is equivalent to one Glacial Spirit Core {Whole} in its effectiveness.
Hint: Try focusing your attacks on the trail a Glacial Spirit leaves behind to avoid damaging the core.
Immediately she picked the two halves of the core up, right before three Glacial Spirits surrounded her from all sides. Turning to face the nearest one, she cast another Flowing Leaf attack only to miss by a few centimetres from its intended target. Surprising her, the one farthest away from her suddenly shot forward, targeting the back of her head as it had before. Acting on instinct, Valerie swatted it away with the hand holding the firefly. The spirit sizzled as it made contact with that hand, steam rising from its core before abruptly losing all cohesion and dropping its core onto the snow, the warmth from the fireflies fading slightly as one of them lost its glow. A blue popup box appeared in her vision, but Valerie ignored it for now, instead dragging it off to the corner of her vision.
The two remaining Glacial Spirits pincered her, each one shooting towards her sides at the same time. Ice crystals grew on her skin from the hits she took, bringing her up to Moderate Hypothermia, but she managed to focus and thwack away at the Glacial Spirit to her left, eventually knocking them down to the ground and allowing her to finish off the last Glacial Spirit with another Flowing Leaf attack as it charged at her.
You take 26 Ice Damage!
You have slain: Glacial Spirit, LVL 1 [x3]
15 EXP Gained!
With chattering teeth and frostbitten skin, Valerie popped the remaining Sol’s Ember firefly in her mouth and gulped it down as she picked up the drops of the spirits. It tasted like battery acid, but when combined with the warmth that came from the EXP gain, it helped greatly to combat the Moderate Hypothermia she was suffering from as an instantaneous well of warmth suffused into her being. Valerie’s body began cooling down just a few moments later, the effects of the EXP and Sol’s Ember now spent, as she began to walk through the snowstorm to search for more of the fireflies for future use, toggling the popup box from earlier to appear directly in her vision.
Hidden Quality Revealed: Sol’s Embers
Description: “Do not let yourself be taken by the embrace of Luna, my children. Remember, always, that I am just above these grey clouds, waiting for you.” – An excerpt from a folktale from the Ni’wuatu, the White Land’s native people, about Sol’s Everlasting Embers.
A unique firefly that can be found by any who braves the Wasteland of White.
HIDDEN QUALITY!
Any Glacial Spirit, Greater Glacial Spirit, or Grand Glacial Spirit that makes contact with the warmth this firefly radiates will lose its cohesion. What results from this is an Empty Spirit Core, which can be used for a variety of purposes, the most notable of which is the creation of a Tamed Core that can be attuned to any Element/Spell.
1 Sol’s Ember is needed to create 1 Empty Spirit Core from a Glacial Spirit, then doubled for the next tier: 2 Sol’s Embers for 1 Empty Greater Spirit Core, 4 Sol’s Embers for 1 Empty Grand Spirit Core.
Doing this will lead to the Sol’s Ember dissipating upon interaction with any Glacial Spirit.
Sol’s Embers nullifies the Status Effects [Mild Hypothermia], [Moderate Hypothermia], [Severe Hypothermia] upon consumption.
Sol’s Embers will dissipate upon leaving the White Lands’ Region, or after an hour has passed since catching one.
Upon reading about the empty core from the interaction with the Sol’s Ember firefly, a plan brewed in her mind as she looked into her inventory once more.
INVENTORY
* A Tree Branch (EQUIPPED – RIGHT HAND)
* Beef Jerky [x10]
* Canteen of Purified Frozen Water [1 Litre]
* Spirit Cores –
* Greater Glacial Spirit Core {Halved} [x2]
* Glacial Spirit Core {Fractured}
* Glacial Spirit Core {Fragmented}
* Empty Spirit Core {Whole}
Bringing out the Empty Spirit Core into her hand, she could feel it trying to tug at the Mana in her veins as she Identified it.
Identified: Empty Spirit Core {Whole}
Description: The whole core of a once-Glacial Spirit.
This Empty Spirit Core can be used to create a Tamed Core that is attuned to a certain Element/Spell, or for other pursuits like Enchantment.
Hint: The process of completely attuning an Element/Spell to an Empty Spirit Core is often Mana-hungry at the 50% mark. Once the process has begun you cannot change what you are attuning it to, only continue feeding it.
The hint at the end changed her approach to the plan, though it didn’t outright make it useless. She decided to keep searching for another Sol’s Ember firefly, which there thankfully was one of off in the distance. Trudging along through the snow, staying out of the 5-metre range of the Glacial Spirits, and avoiding the falling projectiles of ice from above, Valerie finally made it to the firefly, grabbing it with her hand and softly bringing it close to the empty core. The firefly in her hand shrivelled up and turned into a husk of what it once was, its warming light being absorbed into the core.
Empty Spirit Core being Attuned to: Warmth [Element]
Attunement Progress: 25%
The core hummed to life, an undulating warm light at its centre. It was weaker than the firefly on its own but radiated enough warmth to prevent the snow that pelted onto her from building up, keeping her frost-free, though it did not help with her dwindling core temperature as the snow wicked away at her body.
Status Effect Applied: Mild Hypothermia
Seek warmth as soon as possible.
Valerie bit her lip in contemplation as she looked into the distance. Rolling white hills were all she could see. No trees, no caves. Nothing for her to use as shelter.
Either I keep pushing through this storm, eating every firefly I can get my hands on, she thought. Or I try my luck with the core and hope that it doesn’t need a lot of Mana to complete its attunement process…
Curious to see just how much Mana she had, Valerie looked through her menu and searched her Characteristics tab.
CHARACTERISTICS
Level: 1
Race: N/A
Class: None
Health: 225/250 (+1 Health/minute)
Stamina: 196/250 (+3 Stamina/minute)
Mana: 122/250 (+0.5 Mana/minute)
Satiation: 53%
Rest: 63%
Hydration: 44%
Attributes
Path of the Warrior
Path of the Thief
Path of the Mage
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Endurance: 10
Dexterity: 10
Vigour: 10
Agility: 10
Intelligence: 10
Mind: 10
Spirit: 10
Traits
A Blessing and a Curse {MYTHICAL}
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Description: The first—and last—trait ever given by the System.
You gain the ability to Respawn upon death.
Valerie tilted her head to the side as she read the last sentence of her Characteristics tab.
The ability to Respawn upon death? What a useless trait; everyone already has that one... I must’ve really annoyed that System-guy badly, huh? Now I feel sorta bad... Welp, not my fault.
Shrugging to herself, she returned her focus to her current Mana.
“122 Mana…” Valerie mumbled to herself, “Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna work.”
She reasoned that when something is a ‘Mana-hungry’ process, it’s most likely not something that could be done with just barely less than half of a Level 1’s Max Mana capacity. “Guess we’re going to brave the winter, Mr. Core, huh?” She asked to the core that was still in her hands, patting the top of its surface. “I’ll get you some more fireflies the moment I find shelter, promise,” Valerie said before pausing mid-step and sighing, the frigid winds blowing her hair around. “I’ve already gone frickin’ insane. I’m talking to an inanimate object… God, I miss everyone.”
A flash of blue appeared in her vision once again.
RARE TRAIT ACQUIRED!
{RARE} Favoured by Sol
Description: “You are not meant to be here, my child... Something is deeply wrong.”
You have garnered the concern of Sol, God of Spring and Summer.
Sol’s Embers will spawn more frequently around you.
Three blindingly bright points of light apparated in mid-air in front of Valerie, buzzing their way directly to the Empty Spirit Core she held in her hands, the incredible warmth from their tiny bodies being absorbed into it. The energies swam inside the core, swirling like a tornado in warm hues of yellows, oranges and reds before settling within it, the colours within suddenly blazing into life as it shot out of her grasp and into the air, then encircling above her head. The heat that radiated from it was so potent that it removed her Mild Hypothermia Status Effect.
Empty Spirit Core being Attuned to: Warmth [Element]
Attunement Progress: 100%
All Mana and Sol’s Embers have been absorbed!
Congratulations! You have created and tamed a [Warmth Core], LVL 1!
Would you like to name your tamed [Warmth Core]?
“Uhh... Sure?”
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Paulo’s mind reeled from the mental over-exhaustion as he vomited out the contents of his stomach, his throbbing headache turning to a migraine. His arcana-veins felt like they were on fire, having used up all of his Mana for activating the trigger of the mana-coded portal. He wanted to scratch and tear and rip his arms apart, the pain becoming near impossible to stand. Tired, with the taste of bile in his mouth, and drenched in sweat, he lifted his head to peek blearily out of the window nearest the stairs, not having realised that he was currently not touching the floor.
For the briefest second, the orphanage and everyone within it was floating adrift in the midst of a void of space. Stars and galaxies of all colours dotted the skies, making for a beautiful, if not picturesque, view. Some of the children oohed and aahed at the sight, while some of them were terrified by the sudden loss of gravity. Thankfully, the portal’s barrier held steady, with no integrity failures of any kind and keeping the air within the enclosed barrier safe.
The view of space suddenly flickered, gravity returning and dragging Paulo to the ground with a thud, and also taking along with it the orphanage that all of them were inside of. In its stead, a box of pure, white nothingness to contain them appeared around all of them. Similar to the experience of an anechoic chamber—a room built purposefully to absorb all sound or some shit, Paulo couldn’t quite remember exactly—that he once tried in Reg’s Dream Pod, this white expanse of nothingness was impossible to differentiate from that, absorbing the echoes of the children’s crying and making the whole ordeal barely passable for his already shit state of being.
One of the caretakers laid a hand on his back, Nature-based healing energies spreading from his back to his body, soothing and providing relief to his entire pained body. He turned around to give a weak, but sincere, smile at her gesture of kindness before slowly sitting up and finding Aimee, leaning his back against her legs for support. A gentle voice babbled from above him, one of the quieter babies in Aimee’s arms reaching down to grasp at his long green mohawk and playing around with it. Paulo reached a finger up to the baby to grasp instead, letting her hold onto it as he gently elbowed with his other arm at Aimee’s legs to get her attention.
“Wake me up when we’re there…” Paulo said, his voice just barely a whisper. The exhaustion, slight pain relief, and the loss of mana culminated in him slowly losing consciousness.
He couldn’t care less what happened next. They’re all safe now. Reggie and Liana can figure it out.
Paulo went to sleep, the adrenaline finally having run its course through his body.