The wind howled across a barren wasteland of ice and snow. All around was a tundra with nothing to see for miles. Except for one thing or person.
In the ground covered by snow lay Elliot. His body no longer dressed in the Frostbloom attire, instead, he was in light armour like that seen in fantasy games. Over a tattered tunic and trousers.
What's going on
[Welcome Aspirant]
Elliot looked for the voice, confused, but soon his puzzlement was answered as a mysterious blue screen appeared in front of him
[System Starting]
[Stats Displaying]
[Status Window]
Name: Elliot Nightwalker(Elliot Frostbloom)
Title: None
Race: Human
Class: Ice Soldier
Rank: Aspirant
Affinity: ICE (Transcendant++)
Attributes:
STR: 15
AGI: 10
END: 13
INT: 14
WIS: 11
MP: 120/120
HP: 150/150
Skills:
[Frost Pulse - lvl.1] Send a burst of freezing mana at the enemy
[Basic Swordsmanship - lvl.2] Basic control of swords
[Mana sense - lvl.1] detect mana on a basic level
Bloodline: ICE FOX
- gives buffs in cold weather
- NOT UNLOCKED
[END STATUS]
This looks just like the game menu. Does everyone get this?
Elliot stood staring into the air for a while, examining all the new information he had been given. He was prepared for some stats, but not all the information he had. The books in the library mentioned the system's appearance.
Finally, taking time to look around his surroundings, Elliot notices something. There was nothing surrounding him. The tundra was empty.
I'm lucky my bloodline allows me to resist the cold, or I'd be dead already.
Looking down, he spots a claymore lying by his feet. The claymore was coated in a thin layer of frost.
Elliot picked up the sword, finding an instinctive connection to it.
In curiosity, he starts to swing the sword about with surprising ease that his body wasn't used to.
Elliot finds a sheath attached to his belt and slots the sword away. He wasn't confident that he wouldn't stab himself.
Why has no mission popped up
Elliot was confused about what he had read told him a mission should pop up to tell him the goal of the trial.
Think Elliot, think. Wait
I remember one unlucky Duke got a mission where they had to start progressing to unlock the final task.
No. How stupid
Elliot started to trudge through the snow in some random direction he couldn't tell. He had to start somewhere, even if that somewhere led to nowhere.
Time passed quickly, and soon night was starting to fall.
I swear I was walking in circles all this time.
There was one thing that Elliot didn't manage to notice. The ground was falling. As Elliot had walked around, the snow underfoot had slowly been sinking.
Soon, a rumbling sound sounded out around him. Elliot looked around, and now he wasn't in some barren tundra; instead, peaks of mountains could be seen.
What the fuck is going on
Elliot's feet quickly became unstable as the ground below started to crumble and fall rapidly. Soon, Elliot was in a free fall with the snow. As he looked around during the fall, he noticed the mountains growing and growing until they were 1000s of metres tall.
*thud*
[HP: -78]
[HP: 72/150]
[Critical damage taken]
"Ugh"
Elliot's back felt sore from the fall.
What the hell, how can the snow just disappear like that
That's not how anything works; it's not logical
Sitting up, Elliot looked around the new surroundings he found himself in. The barren tundra is gone. Replaced with an ice mountain valley that seemed to stretch on for hundreds of miles. At the centre of the valley was a small black dot too far away to make out what it truly was.
"Grrrr."
A low growl sounded out towards Elliot. Spinning around, Elliot soon spots a wolf made out of Ice.
[Feral Ice Wolf detected]
Any more information for me system
....
Nothing great. What do I do
Not giving Elliot time to think, the wolf lunged at him. Elliot tried to sidestep out of the way, but a claw scratched his thigh.
[HP: -5]
[HP: 67/150]
Not used to the pain, Elliot collapsed to his knees as pain shot through his body. Making his body just like being frozen by ice.
The wolf quickly turned around and lunged back toward Elliot, giving him no reprieve. This time, Elliot managed to push through the pain and roll to the left just in time.
Quickly trying to prevent himself from being injured again, Elliot drew his claymore.
What can I do? Skills
[Frost Pulse lvl.1 Activated]
[MP: -20]
Elliot swung down from head to toe in a wobbly downwards arc aimed towards the wolf.
A pulse of light-blue mana left his sword, freezing the air to form a projectile heading towards the wolf.
The wolf didn't understand what was going on before it was too late, as it was sliced cleanly in two.
[Feral Ice Wolf slain]
[Aspirant + 0.05%]
Huh, that low of a gain
To rank up, you needed to reach 100% of your current rank, and that can only be done by slaying monsters.
I expected more from my first kill.
Great, but how do I heal myself now?
Not sure what to do next, Elliot sat down on the ground staring at his bleeding leg.
One thing that was taught to the younger him was survival techniques. Everyone who went through the trial knew how important it was to be able to survive through more than just luck.
In quick thinking, Elliot ripped part of the tunic he was wearing off and wrapped it tightly over the slash mark to stop the bleeding.
Elliot didn't move for a while, letting the pain die out.
But it seemed the trial didn't like Elliot resting.
*thud*thud*thud*
Elliot turned his eyes in the direction of the sounds, only to be horrified by what he saw. Thirty Ice wolves were on their way, being led by a Savage Ice Wolf.
Elliot sprang into action, not fighting, running. Soon, he was being slowly hunted down by thirty Ice wolves, and they were gaining on him.
Realising this fact, Elliot knew he couldn't do this forever, so he slashed backwards.
[Frost Pulse lvl.1 Activated]
[MP: -20]
The ice arc flew towards the wolves at a blistering speed, hitting some of the wolves.
[Feral Ice Wolf slain] + 5
[Aspirant + 0.05%] + 5
However, as soon as it got close to the Savage Ice Wolf.
*Crunch*
The Ice wolf crunched down on the Frost pulse, shattering it on the spot. The facial feature on Elliot's face froze as he realised his only real chance of killing the wolves was already rendered useless.
Not stopping, Elliot released more and more attacks, trying to get rid of all the Feral Ice Wolves. He succeeded in killing all of them; they fell easily to a frost pulse.
However, the Savage wolf was closing in and was soon on him. With no choice but to fight, Elliot swerved to the left, dodging a bite attempt. Then frusting the Claymore at the stomach of the wolf, only to be with the claws of the wolf.
Staggering back after being blocked, the wolf lunges at Elliot, swiping at his arm.
[HP: -10]
[HP: 57/150]
Ice shot up his arm, freezing it solid. The wolf's claws were infused with Ice mana. Luckily, Elliot had the frost fox bloodline, which granted a slight immunity to Ice attacks in cold weather as one of its buffs.
The Ice on his arm cracked, allowing his arm to break free and land a hit on the startled wolf. Not sure how's prey escaped. Elliot's claymore landed on one of the legs, cutting it open. This had stopped it in its tracks.
That's what you get, you bastard.
[Frost Pulse lvl.1 Can't Activate - Insufficient Mana]
[MP: 10/150]
All of Elliot's mana had been used up, killing all the feral wolves.
Fuck
Not sure what to do, Elliot charged recklessly at the wolf, hoping to do more damage. The wolf, still startled, didn't react in time, allowing Elliot to get a clean slash on its torso.
Even with its injured leg, the wolf managed to jump back to avoid any fatal damage.
"HAWOOO."
The wolf let out a visceral howl. Suddenly, Ice spikes began to appear above the wolf's head.
I'm screwed.
Elliot tried to run to get some distance, but the spikes flew at him at speeds barely allowing him time to dodge.
Putting all of his focus on the ice spike hurtling at him, he momentarily forgot about the wolf as it stalked behind him, waiting to strike.
It had found the moment. The next spike was going to hit, and during that time, Elliot would be vulnerable.
The wolf ran at Elliot, only to be met with an ice spike flying towards it instead of the prey. Before it could react, an ice spike hit it right in the head.
[Savage Ice Wolf Slain]
[Aspirant + 0.2%]
Elliot had managed to parry at the last minute the Ice spike meant to strike him in the chest. Deflecting it on accident into the exact path of the wolf.
"Huff, huff."
Maybe I'm just lucky, actually.
Elliot collapsed to the floor, unable to stand after being mentally and physically drained by the events that had transpired.
I wonder how strong I go-
Elliot passed out from exhaustion before he had the chance to finish.