The cold wasn't Hanzo's enemy. It was the laughter.
"A broken dagger? Seriously, Hanzo? Even a kitchen knife has more utility than that piece of scrap metal," the voice of his cousin, Ryker, echoed through the Awakening Hall.
Hanzo looked down at his trembling hand. Hovering above his palm was a jagged, rusted blade of ice. It was barely six inches long, and the tip was missing. In a world where heroes awakened Flaming Greatswords or Divine Staffs, Hanzo had awakened a mistake.
"Silence!" the Clan Elder barked. His eyes looked at Hanzo with nothing but pure disappointment. "Hanzo of the Frost-Vein Clan... Rank: F. Potential: Zero."
The judgment was a death sentence. In their society, those without power were sent to the "Frontier"—the most dangerous dungeons—to serve as human shields for the elite.
Three Days Later: The Glacial Abyss (Rank-S Dungeon).
"Keep moving, trash!" a guard shouted, shoving Hanzo forward into the blinding snow of the dungeon.
Hanzo stumbled, his thin boots soaking in the freezing slush. He was part of a 'suicide party,' a group of F-rank failures forced to scout ahead for the main raiding team.
Suddenly, the ground shook. A massive roar tore through the air as a Frost-Colossus, a beast forty feet tall made of solid ice, emerged from the blizzard.
"Retreat!" the leader of the scout team yelled, but he didn't mean for everyone. He looked at Hanzo and the other failures. "Stay and distract it! That's your only purpose!"
Hanzo tried to run, but a heavy kick from behind sent him flying toward the beast's massive feet. He watched in horror as the raiding team sealed the exit, leaving him in the dark with the monster.
The Colossus raised its massive fist. Hanzo closed his eyes, clutching his broken ice dagger. Is this it? Is this how a 'failure' dies?
The fist slammed down.
[CRITICAL DAMAGE RECEIVED] [HEALTH: 1/100] [CONDITIONS MET: "The Despair of the Weak."]
Suddenly, the world turned gray. Time froze. A screen made of crystalline ice appeared before his fading vision.
[Hidden Quest: "Survival of the Scorned" Completed.] [The Blood of the Frost-Vein Clan has been recognized.] [Initializing the 'Sovereign System'...] [Soul Weapon Upgrading: Broken Ice Dagger —> Shard of the First Frost (Growth Type).]
"What... is this?" Hanzo gasped, his lungs burning.
[New Quest: Kill the Frost-Colossus.] [Reward: Level 1 Sovereign Authority.] [Failure: Permanent Death.]
Hanzo felt a sudden surge of freezing energy through his veins. The broken dagger in his hand grew longer, the rust falling away to reveal a blade so cold it turned the air into mist.
"If the world wants me to be a failure," Hanzo whispered, standing up as his wounds began to knit together with ice, "then I'll just have to freeze the world."
The Colossus roared again, but this time, Hanzo didn't flinch. He moved like a blur of white frost, his broken blade glowing with a deadly, ancient light.