“Brrr…We are not even there, but it’s already cold!” Clarissa complained, rubbing her own arms over the coat she was wearing.
Isabella grumbled next to her. “Honestly, I don’t know why the devs decided to go this realistic…”
“Look, look! The mountains!” Katie exclaimed, pointing at the mountains ahead of them.
Sam looked up from his discussion with Dan and stared where Katie was pointing. Instantly, he noticed the roiling white clouds surrounding them, while also expanding to cover the nearby territories.
“Snowstorm…” he said matter-of-factly.
“Are there any snowman monsters?” Katie asked curiously.
Sam just nodded. “More like snow golems, but yeah, there are.”
“Great! I brought some carrots, coal, and a bunch of top hats.”
The rest didn’t comment; they just trudged toward their destination, ignoring the odd girl and her even odder fixations.
And why were they walking toward the northern part of the continent?
Secrecy.
They started by dashing out of Ferabor on their mounts, heading toward Ironwood. There, they spent a few hours fooling around, while Tim created a few distractions that would distract the less competent observers. From there, still using mounts, they headed to the capital.
There, Sam took a few minutes to touch base with Nowhere, dropping a few hints about the Blood Army and handing over the files Tim, Lucy, and Adam put together, while also arranging a hidden way out of the city as the rest of the team shopped. Or in the case of Isabella and Katie, a romantic walk in one of the parks.
In half an hour, the entire team was bundled into a carriage, covered by walls and several runic inscriptions to protect against divination and other magics, heading north with a caravan owned by one of the merchant guilds, who suddenly decided to launch an impromptu trade toward the north due to some news about price fluctuations in certain materials and products.
They were taken up to the border of the Emerald Kingdom without any issue, where they had to sneak out and once again use their mounts to escape the watchful eyes of the people there.
A small map, courtesy of Nowhere, allowed them to cross the border while the guards there were occupied by a fight between two player guilds, and then it was only a few days until they were close enough to the main part of the northern kingdom and had to ditch their mounts as they were too recognizable.
Fortunately, thanks to the new coats and other cold-weather equipment, they simply blended in with the population who called this cold and desolate place their home.
Most of the player guilds in the north either dealt with mining or mining-related services. Melting or processing ores, blacksmithing, transportation, or even defending the miners. Most of the food was grown on the small stretch of land near the coast, where the endless fields surrounded their harbors and trading towns.
The biggest city in the north was Glacin, the jewel of the mountains. A city built half into the mountains for protection against the harsh weather, constantly surrounded by a haze of heat that was emanated by the countless magical radiators keeping the city at least at room temperature. It was also famous for the hot springs and the services built around them.
If Sam was honest, the only real competition Heavenly Forest had around the Emerald Kingdom came from these hot springs. Some of them were so exclusive that even if you were a king, you could only go there if they invited you.
Lucy had been making inroads with the locals to set up a Heavenly Forest, and one of the tertiary objectives of their small trip was to find a way to convince somebody to give them a chance. A Heavenly Forest built on an exclusive hot spring?
Practically infinite money…
They entered Glacin without any trouble, the guards barely glancing at their identification before motioning them to enter. It probably helped that there was a giant line, and the guard looked immensely tired.
Outside of the city, the heavy snow was still falling, the snowflakes melting as soon as they flew over the walls, dripping onto the roofs of the city, where they were collected, filtered, and then drank as water. An efficient system…
“Alright. I’m going to pick up our tickets for the fractures,” Sam told the team as they huddled together in a side alley, holding a small team meeting. He gave them a severe look before continuing. “Try not to get into trouble before I finish.”
Dan nodded resolutely while Clarissa rolled her eyes and pointedly didn’t look at Katie and Isabella. The two of them, well, mostly Katie, just grinned.
“Don’t make me bail you out of jail, please,” he told them, then sighed. “Anyway, let’s meet in the city center under the ice monument.”
“Gotcha!”
“I’m going to check the potion businesses…”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“I wonder if they have some special ice spells for sale?”
“Any fighting arenas around?”
Getting the tickets turned out to be surprisingly simple.
Sam went to the designated government office, where he showed them his identification card, then the letter of promise and letter of proof of payment Lucy had given him, then they made him run around for an hour or two in the building, getting permits and whatnot, paying ‘application fees’ due to being from a different country. Then came the ‘processing fees’ and ‘administration fees’.
Naturally, Sam bore all of that with a pleasant smile while in his heart he promised to take revenge when those fools least expected it.
In the end, he was out a few hundred gold coins, several annoying bureaucrats were unconscious in a closet, and he had the tickets. Then he went and confirmed it with a third party that they were valid tickets and not duds.
Satisfied that everything was done, he left the building, donned another look in an alley, and went to purchase a few things that were only available here in Glacin.
They weren’t exactly rare or valuable – to those who lived here – but they weren’t exported, so he couldn’t really order them without getting somebody curious.
In one shop, he bought the fur of a fox species living in the mountains. Specifically, the tail fur was used for special brushes, as it was too rough for anything else. If anyone asked, he heard about their use and wanted to try it for his own runic projects…
Another shop sold a small portable temple for those who worshipped the Mountain Gods. It was a simple wooden altar made by a family who had been doing the same work for countless generations. For most players, it was a junk or maybe a role-playing item. It conferred no benefit on the owner.
But if you needed to pray quickly on the road…
He stood in line at a confectionery to buy two boxes of sweet root buns, hot, but when biting into the filling, it would explode into a cool liquid.
It wasn’t really needed, but he really wanted to try it, as he had only memories of somebody else eating them.
Sam also bought a bunch of raw food in case they got stuck in one of the fractures. Better to be prepared…
He was munching on one of the sweet root buns when his eyes landed on a shop window, decorated with cheerful writing.
“How fun!”
The team met in the middle of the city in a giant square filled with countless players – selling wares or looking for parties – and NPCs living their lives. In the middle was a giant ice sculpture shaped like an arrowhead from the Stone Age, every nick showing up with perfect clarity.
Legends said that it was the tip of a spear belonging to a titan who lived in the mountains eons and eons ago. ‘Let’s not touch that until the Titan invasion event…’ he mused as his eyes searched for the idiots he called friends.
A second later, he spotted them, standing next to each other, studiously avoiding eye contact with each other.
Dan had a nice shiner on his left eye, Clarissa’s hair was mussed in a way that suggested some kind of hair-pulling fight, and her usually immaculate clothing was also ruffled. Isabella and Katie were pouting, not looking at each other, but both of them reeked of soup. As if they had taken a swim in a pot of it…
“Do I even want to know?” he asked exasperatedly.
“NO!”
Taken aback by all of them yelling at the same time, he shrank back a little while shaking his head. “Fine. Keep your secrets. Did you guys at least get the supplies you’ll need?”
He got a few reluctant nods.
“Good, then we can start with the first fracture, the Ice Rumble.”
Nobody said anything; they just started following him when he started to walk toward the road leading to the exit from the city that would lead them to the fracture.
They were walking for a few minutes when Isabella hesitantly spoke up.
“Hey, uhm, boss?”
“Yes?”
“What are you wearing?”
“Oh, this?” he asked with a grin as he turned toward her. “My new pom-pom hat. Cool, huh?” Then he wiggled the knitted hat on his head, causing the pom-pom to wiggle too.
[Knitted Woolen Pom-Pom Hat: Expertly and lovingly knitted by a grandmother. Increases food requirements while increasing defenses against cold. You can increase your favorability with older ladies at an increased rate when wearing it.]
“Y-yeah. It’s…something,” came the hesitant reply from the young woman while awkwardly smiling at him.
Sam just grinned.
The fracture was located a few hours from Glacin in a small town called Seikron. Originally, it was a town specializing in raising hardy mountain goats for their milk, fur, and bones, but now their entire industry was centered on the fracture portal that was found near the town when the dimensional fracture event went down.
The five of them, all in matching pom-pom hats, walked into the town with all the hundreds of players, all here to do the same thing they were going to do.
Thankfully, they already had their tickets.
A brief time of standing in line, restraining Katie from running away, preventing Clarissa from destroying her new hat, and they were in front of a bored ticket agent, supported by a dozen stone-faced guards who looked like they ate gravel and nails for breakfast.
Without milk.
“Tickets?”
“Here you go.”
The agent took the tickets, looked over the group, then grinned. “Nice hats!”
“Thanks! They’re warm and comfy!” Sam replied with a smile of his own.
Laughing a little, the agent handed the tickets back and waved them forward, ignoring the sour look from the rest of the team.
“If you didn’t want to wear the hat, you should have told me what happened…” he whispered to them as they stepped into the fortification around the portal, constantly watched by countless dour guards.
Dan coughed into his fist, but otherwise, nobody reacted.
Reaching the portal, they were greeted by a white-blue portal that radiated cold.
After a final check, they walked to the portal, and Sam reached out with his hand.
[You entered a new fracture!]
[Fracture: Ice Rumble]
[An old underground (in all its meanings) arena that was used by those who came before to settle grudges, entertain their people, and dispose of those who were not wanted. Recently, their resentment had begun to manifest, taking the form of corpses and ice constructs. Go in and deal with the infestation!]
[Time Limit: No Limit]
[Charges: Unlimited]
With a swirl of snowflakes and foggy breath, they were away.
They arrived in a small room, once made out of wood, but now ice covered everything, with an artful dusting of ice shavings and snow dusting everything. Based on the look, it looked like it had been somebody’s bedroom.
Though taking a closer look, Sam would have called it a prison room. A bed affixed to the wall, one frozen basin in the corner, and the broken door looked rather sturdy with a small window in it.
They arrived in complete silence, but after a few seconds, a soul-crushing scream tore through the space, causing a shiver to go down everyone’s spine.
Sam pulled out his sword, and the others followed him. Clarissa was already casting her buffs on them, while the air began to heat up around Dan. Isabella hummed a song, causing sparks of magic to bounce off her body, while Katie, next to he,r looked ready to chew through the walls with an occasional black and yellow arc of magic jumping off the spikes of her armor.
“Let’s go!”
Owed bonus chapters: ---
Character Sheet
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