Eternal Winter's Reign - Book 2 - Chapter 51 - The Endless Swarm (Patreon)

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Alexander North

It doesn’t take long for me to realize just what sort of trouble I’ve ended up in. Not after I find myself surrounded by dozens of Tier 3 frozen one bugs.

I slay one after another, using whatever weapons I can at the time. Whether they’re cold energy attacks like Cold Burst or Cold Energy Arcs, physical attacks like my claws, or even the new Frost Spikes that I grow from my fist and use as a rather convenient longer range weapon that aren’t simply my claws.

And while this is getting me more and more energy, making me grow stronger far faster than I was outside of this place, it’s also growing more and more tiresome and difficult to keep fighting. Because there are simply too many bugs here.

After nearly three entire hours straight of moving down the ravine while repeatedly stopping to fight, I completely stop to take a break. Hiding myself inside of a side cavern within the ravine.

Then I go ahead and rest while occasionally dealing with a frozen one insect that makes its way inside.

I spend another hour in here resting and building up some of my energy before leaving the cavern and continuing my trip down the ravine for a couple more hours. Only to quickly feel overwhelmed again. At which point I begin to make my way out of the ravine.

Because I can’t regenerate enough energy in just an hour or two of rest.

I’ll have to come back tomorrow.

So after leaving the ravine, I head straight back to our bunker. Finding Alexia and Cynthia inside waiting for me.

The two look me over, finding me covered in wounds with the armor over my lower half damaged and still shirtless. Then Cynthia simply looks me in the eyes and asks, “Where are the shirts?”

I stare at her.

She stares back.

“Shit,” I mutter, “I forgot.”

Cynthia stares for a few more seconds before asking with a rather judgmental look on her face, “How did you go to get clothes and then forget the clothes? And after spending several hours there as well.”

I frown at her and cross my arms, “Not my fault a large ravine opened up in the street and insect type frozen ones started flooding through it.”

“Oh?” she utters while tilting her head, sounding interested. And Alexia leans forward as well, seeming equally as interested. “Continue.”

And so, I spend the next several minutes going over everything that happened. With the ravine, the frozen ones in it, how strong they were, and my worries that they might spread this way.

After I finish, Cynthia and Alexia share a glance before Cynthia turns to me again and asks, “So you plan on going back tomorrow?” I nod my head. “Then don’t forget the shirts this time. Bring them on the way back.”

I blink at her, remembering that that’s still a thing.

“You shouldn’t be walking around everywhere half naked,” Cynthia adds after a few seconds.

Yeah, probably shouldn’t be.

“Well, for now, I’m going to go sleep,” I tell them before walking over towards the bed while waving at them. “Night.”

“Night,” Cynthia responds, followed by Alexia’s more enthusiastic, “Goodnight!”

After making it to my bed, I quickly fall asleep due to my exhaustion. And when I wake up again, I find both girls already gone on their own hunts.

So I leave the bunker and head back towards the shopping district. Where I soon find bugs for days again.

I frown at the sight of the entire shopping district being infested again. Despite how many of the bugs I killed yesterday.

Either there were far more bugs further down, or these bugs are being replaced with more bugs.

If it’s the latter… actually, that might not be the worst thing possible.

Definitely a problem, but maybe I could… use this as an energy farm of sorts.

I frown at that thought as I slaughter more bugs.

It’s a good idea, but I need to make absolutely certain that the possible Frozen Lord down there won’t cause more problems. So I should go take a look at it before I decide on anything.

Then, if the frozen one at the bottom of the ravine isn’t something I need to worry about, I might just leave it be for a bit. Just to farm the bugs for energy.

I really need a way to get stronger faster if I want to stand a chance against the Frozen Lords.

My frown grows a little deeper.

Of course, there’s also the chance that the leader of these bugs may just be too strong for me to even handle in the first place.

But if that happens, then I’ll just flee and farm the bugs until I am strong enough to deal with it. Assuming I can.

There are just too many unknowns to make a set in stone decision right now.

So with my thoughts made up for now, I go ahead and begin hunting the frozen one bugs again. Slaughtering them all with ease since the ones at the surface are all Tier 1 frozen ones again. Likely having the Tier 3s deeper down like before.

One other benefit of this little hunt is that it gives me plenty of experience using my wings. What with me having to use them to fly down and around the ravine.

I slowly watch my analytics rise with every kill, going from early Tier 3 up towards early-mid Tier 3. With my statistics rising rather quickly when I start fighting against the Tier 3s again.

But this time around I don’t focus on killing them as quickly as possible. Instead, I focus on killing them as efficiently as possible. Taking as few injuries as I can while trying to keep my exhaustion to a minimum.

Because I need to get to the bottom to see what’s going on.

And if they keep replacing themselves with every trip, that could prove difficult.