Savage Awakening 71. Winter Overworld (I) (Patreon)

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"All we know about what's inside comes from a few NorCal folk," Walter continued. "They were rich or lucky enough to have C-ranked escape portals on them. They got out. Well, the Faction Leaders, anyway. Those things only let one man through. They say the Bosses were so strong their whole teams got wiped."

The old man shrugged. "Who knows? Could be they just saved their own hides. Could be their people are still in there."

Zane took a sip of the tea. "How many teams went in?"

"At least… say… fifteen?" said Walter. "That we know of. But most are dead by now, I'd guess. More keep coming, though. Those NorCal folk had to go running their fat mouths. Now folk are getting stuck in there—they're inside, sending out Rescue Quests. They're pawning the house to save them. For some of them, their whole Faction leadership's stuck in there. It's a joke. No one's coughing up Escape Portals for parties that big, especially not C-ranked. Only way they're getting out is if someone clears the dungeon."

It made sense to Zane. Escape portals were incredibly rare, especially for higher-ranked dungeons. You couldn't buy them from the Beacon Store, only pick them up as drops. Even Zane didn't have one.

Something stuck out to him, though.

"Hold on," said Zane. "'Pawning the house'?"

"Yep," grunted Walter, "There's four or five Rescue Quests floating around that dungeon—rewards are something like five, six C-grade Essence Vials per quest. They want out, and bad."

"Hmm," said Zane.

"You thinking of taking them up on it?"

To Zane, it sounded like free money. And a lot of it.

"I'll say this," said the old man. "You're not the only Signed who's come round these parts. You're not even the only World Ranker. And so far, far as we know, the first floor hasn't even been cleared yet. Could be you're the one to do it. I don't know," he shrugged. "That's all I know, though. You decide if it's worth it."

***

When Zane went out he found Henry waiting, pretending to drill his moves in the square. Zane sighed and went up to the boy. He agreed to have a friendly spar.

It felt a little awkward talking to Henry. He was like… well, like a kid meeting his favorite NBA star or something. He was stammering the whole time. His eyes were shining. He spoke as if Zane was far more important and interesting than he actually was. Zane wasn't sure how to handle it.

And when the spar came around, suddenly the square was alive with people. It felt like the whole Winter Warrior Faction crawled out to watch—there must've been a hundred-odd people in parkas standing in a loose circle, cheering.

Zane tried not to embarrass the kid. But it was weirdly hard. The power difference was just too big. Even without using most of his strength, the difference in fighting experience—in fight intuition—was also too big. Walter had it right. The boy had heart. But he was too predictable. When he rushed then, swinging wildly, all Zane saw were holes.

Eventually, Zane got out his Chains, which drew gasps all through the crowd. A chant came up: "Axes! Axes! Axes!"

… How did they know about his Axes? Zane thought, ducking another one of Henry's wild screaming blows and giving the boy a soft tap on the backside which sent him sprawling. It was always a little jarring realizing people talked about him. People he'd never met. Even somewhere as remote as these mountains.

He supposed they weren't that far apart in the grand scheme…

They'd been nice enough to him, so Zane did get out his Axes—to wild cheering—and did a couple of twirls with them. He made sure never actually to hit Henry, though he did send the boy's spear flying.

In the end, he gently bound the boy with his Chains, made him yield, and that was the end of it.

Afterward, Henry came up to him and asked for some tips. Zane didn't feel he had anything profound to say. He just gave some basic advice—don't swing so wildly, time your shots better, that kind of thing—and Henry listened a little too intently. Zane got the sense he'd take these words to heart forever.

Zane wasn't built for… whatever all this was. Too many eyes on him, he felt. He scratched his head; he just wanted to punch monsters. They all stood around staring at him—He wasn't sure if he was meant to give them some kind of inspirational speech or something. In the end, he just left it there and wandered off. They seemed happy enough.

Before he left, Walter asked him to sub-Faction for protection. Zane put him through to Reina.

He also borrowed the Winter Warriors' Beacon and checked out those Rescue Quests. It was like Walter said.

URGENT: Rescue Requested at Abyssal Crater Dungeon!

Calling all World Rankers! We, the Guardians of Eureka, are trapped on the first floor of the Abyssal Crater Dungeon. Requesting immediate rescue, either by providing sufficient Escape Portals or by clearing the dungeon!

Reward:

Five C-ranked Vials of Essence

There were four quests like this, some offering three Vials, some offering seven. If it wasn't Vials it was other essence treasures. All of them had a prerequisite to accepting them—the System had to recognize them as a World Ranker.

Zane took them all.

If he cleared the dungeon, that was probably enough essence to boost him past Level 90. He was feeling pretty pleased as he set off for the Abyssal Crater Dungeon.

***

He set off around noon. There was one last climb through a wintry forest. The trees, tall and solemn, had boughs heavy with fresh snow. His footsteps crunched as he went.

It took half an hour of climbing before he saw the peak coming up—a wide rocky lip. A few leaps took him to near the top of it.

You have entered: Dungeon: Abyssal Crater (C+)

Clearance Objectives:

Slay the Phoenix of Falling Snows X

Slay the Overlord Basilisk

Slay Nymeria, the Blizzard Wolf

Second Floor

Slay the Leviathan Glacier Whale

Slay Jotunn, Lesser Ice Giant

Objectives Met: 1/5

Zane wondered at it for a moment.

Five bosses. It was the biggest dungeon he'd ever been in.

Nymeria? Jotunn? He'd never seen bosses with names before. Curious. He wondered how they were different.

At last, he crested the rocky ridge.

It went left and right for miles in a slow, long arc that made the lip of the crater. And below, sloping down hundreds of feet, was a sprawling landscape of snow and ice and stone, peppered with trees. There were frozen rivers and ice-covered rocky outcrops, and frozen waterfalls draped all over. Bitter winds swirled, drifting snow.

In the distance, on the far side, there were even little lakes hissing steam where flowing water gurgled—as though geothermal vents lay hidden beneath. A strange little micro-climate amid the cold.

The whole place glittered in the noonday sun, brilliantly white, brilliantly blue. Almost blinding.

But that was just the crater's rim.

The centerpiece lay in the middle. And it dominated Zane's sight. A frozen lake. A mind-bogglingly huge expanse of ice, so large it dwarfed the massive rim.

It was a blue so bright and pure it seemed unreal. It threw back the color of the sky, but even brighter. It was so clear Zane could see the tunnels stretching far underneath, crossing over one another in an infinite lattice, a hidden world under the ice. He saw schools of strange, monstrous, large fish frozen in between. He saw huge gray shapes even farther beneath—were those whales? Below even them, he could make out the outlines of murky chasms where vague ghostly creatures shifted, scarcely seen…

The Second Floor.

Zane was not an easily awed man. But this… this was breathtaking.

His gaze shifted back to the surface.

There was something in the middle of that vast frozen lake. From afar it looked like an island topped with trees so pale they seemed like ice sculptures. Even from out here, Zane could feel the Law flowing off it like heat—not any Law he knew.

That had to be the special treasure area. It was a little too far to make out even on his mini-map. But it was a Law treasure area—that much was clear. Something like a Cavern of Insight, he guessed? Which was a little disappointing— For now, at least, it was useless to him. He was still too fried from his last Law session—

Wait. Was that… a person? It was a little hard to see. Could be pale blonde hair, could be ice… no. Some woman stood there, hands on her hips. She was tall and slim. That was all he could make out.

He couldn't see her face from out here. But for some odd reason, he swore their eyes met.

She turned and vanished behind the trees.

Odd. Well. It seemed the Cavern—treasure area—whatever it was, it was in use. He scratched his head. If he was in there comprehending Law, he probably wouldn't want to be disturbed.

He'd clear the Bosses first, give her space for now. But he'd check it out before he went to the second floor, at least. Hopefully she'd be done by then.

He started his way down the slope and got into the thick of the crater rim. It was all rocky, snowy forest.

It wasn't long before he came across his first patch of X's. A team had died here, in the middle of this innocent-looking snowy clearing. He wondered what killed them.

He kept walking. Soon enough he found out.

Red dots popped up at the edges of his map—a clump of them, moving shockingly fast. Zane turned to face them, frowning. They burst into the clearing so fast they seemed one huge streak of white light, almost indistinguishable from the snow they padded on. They panted heavily, their thick breaths frosting the air. Low growls tickled their throats. Their eyes glowed red. Great fangs stuck out of their mouths like saber-tooth tigers.

Primeval Snow Wolf (Monster)

Essence Level 67

Law: Minor Law of Frostbite

Key Skills:

Frost Fang (Active) [Rare]

The wielder's bite inflicts frostbite on its victim's limb, deadening it instantly.

Pack Command (Active) [Rare]

Wolves find strength in packs. They have intuitions that border on telepathy, allowing them to coordinate attacks supernaturally well. Packs of Snow Wolves have been known to end entire armies who vastly outstrip them in Level.

Their weaknesses—belly and throat.

There must've been twenty or thirty of them, all in the 60s. Zane had hardly registered them—they were already on him, falling like an avalanche. His Axe was out in an instant. Too slow. The frothing mad beasts tore into him.

Before Spirit Steel Body, that might've been the end of him. Those fangs were wickedly sharp. So were those claws. They would've shredded even high Level human skin.

Before Man of Steel, even if they hadn't instantly killed him, those fangs would've shot frostbite so deep he would've been immobilized. Easy pickings.

But now it felt like stepping into a fast-flowing stream and watching the water course around him. They left thick white scratches on his skin. They couldn't even break it—it kind of amused him, watching them scrabble and hack.

They were fast. He'd give them that. He had almost no time to react.

They crowded around, snapping, yowling. Two had lashed onto his thigh and were trying to gnaw it off. The rest were shredding his clothes fairly well. Not so much anything else.

He casually got out his Axes. Rising Sun Slash!

It was nice of them to put themselves in such a clean row for him.

A new color flooded this blue-white world. A furious yellow-red. It made a simple, almost lazy circle.

And many, many wolves found their top halves falling away from their bottom halves. They clawed at the air, had a moment of blinking shock.

Then there was a lot more red.

Zane kept walking. He imagined these things had something to do with that 'Blizzard Wolf' boss. He was in its territory.

Time to go hunting.