Denizens of the Labyrinth

The gate that led them away from the demon castle, had migrated them to a completely new space and Jazmel smiled at the strangeness of the labyrinth. No matter where you were, you had no say on the sort of place the labyrinth would place you in, he had been made aware that sometimes places and areas would have more than one gate in them, so depending on whichever gate was used, it could land the seeker in another place entirely. Even now after being inside a massive castle that seemed to be enthralled in permanent night.

Jazmel took this moment to look at the notifications from the demon castle and they all appeared, and he whistled at just how many had appeared.

DING!

TIER II DEMON NIGHT TERRORS X50 KILLED

TIER I DEMON NIGHT TERRORS X100 KILLED!

…

TITLE DEMONIC SLAYER AWARDED!

EXP EARNED

…

He nodded at this but kept looking.

+1 STR

+1 PER

+1 VIT

+1 END

More stat points were always good, and he was happy to see it, but he needed to earn more stats that would allow him to raise his skills to the be around the same level, gaps were forming, and he had gotten so used to them being close to one another, he was feeling worried. But he kept looking at his notifications and continued.

DING!

TIER III DEMONIC DARK WING KILLED!

…

LEVEL UP!

EXP EARNED

…

LEVEL UP!!

…

The gate that they had used, had brought them out into the frigid open of a glacial plain. The cold was blistering and Baek and Tango seemed not too bothered by the cold, but Jazmel was stunned by just how frozen he felt. He tried to use Mana to block it out, but his fingertips were still feeling the utter coldness of the plains.

Snow whipped about them in torrents of different wind dances. Snow poured from the sky like rain and then buffeted them from below. Jazmel zipped up his aviator jacket and stuffed his hands in his pocket, but it was still cold.

“Do you still have those cores from the yetis? You should consume one now, it will help you against the coldness while you learn to try and build some resistance. He did as he was told and pulling a frost shard from one of his rings. It was about as thick as two of his fingers and about the length of his finger to the wrist. It was cold in his hand, it felt like he was holding a piece of ice it wasn’t as cold as the environment he was currently in, but it was cold enough that he held it gingerly. He bit into it; breaking off a piece with his molars and to his surprise it broke apart easily. He swallowed and it tasted of clear cool water and mint. He crunched through the rest and after he had swallowed all of it, the system alerted him immediately.

TIER II FROST SHARD CONSUMED

…

YOU HAVE GAINED SOME IMMUNITY TO THE FROST!

IMMUNITY BUFF FOR 1 HOUR!!

He smiled at the notification and nodded his head, he felt the change immediately, the Mana he had been pouring into his will to prevent him from being frozen solid lessened admirably and he felt warmth crawl to the tips of his finger again.

The fjord had been frozen over and the lake still thrummed below them but the ice that encased it was both solid and thick. Standing atop it and the ice didn’t crack or even creak with their extra added weight. Baek pushed forward, moving through the snow and ice that rained down from the heavens atop them.

the snow churned up and honestly Jazmel felt like he was swimming against the tide, the winds were waves and the unwavering snow felt like storm pelting them from above. The clouds groaned and churned out more snow and he watched as Mana moved through them creating this powerful and all enduring storms.

“Look!” Tango pointed and above them, through the clouds a pod of whales burst from the clouds and swam through the sky! The air was thick with ice and water Mana, which was what was churning up the snow. This was something he had never seen before; this pod of whales were swimming through the sky and the clouds! This was a sight of beauty and amazement and he felt this was what he lived for. For moments where he was so amazed that he couldn’t do anything but just guffaw at them.

“They are Storm Balene, tier II, and sometimes tier III monsters. They have thick defences but are not prone to attacking. Most times they are hunted for the items that can be made from their corpses.” Baek explained and Jazmel simply paid attention not wanting to lose sight of the pod of almost fifty whales as they soared through the clouds and skies.

A careening cry was heard and tracing their trail through the skies, Jazmel watched as a new pod of smaller and more streamlined whales chased after the pod. The patriarch of the storm Balene’s whirled around charged through the pod crashing into them and trying to draw them away from the calves and females. But the smaller whales were smart. They drew away the stronger Whale and then used this to dive into the flanks of the females who had moaned and brailed cries of anguish as calves were bitten into and pulled from behind or beneath their mothers.

The patriarch realised what had happened and wheeling round, he nosed towards his pod and led them away, leaving them too wounded and already taken calves.

“Those are Orca’s they hunt everything, and they are incredibly smart. Be careful that they don’t try and come for us.” Tango said but the orca’s had already spotted them, a booming; rallying call went about and the wheeled and whirled around and descended from the skies to go for the three of them.

A little bewildered, Jazmel watched as they descended towards where he, Tango and Baek stood and waited for the Orca’s to hit them. the first three were cut through by a slashing motion with his hand; Baek was formidable. Jazmel had only heard him use a skill name once. His Mana was so thick and dense he simply had to cast it about himself, and monsters fell about him.

The pod squealed in anguish, sad to see some of their own killed. Others dived at Tango and Jazmel ; he acted quickly.

Blade wrath!

His skill drove them down from the sky and they crashed into the ground wheezing and struggling against his aggressive skill. The wound flickered with ethereal flame, and he almost felt sorry for them, if they didn’t try to eat him!

DING!

TIER II SKY ORCA X2 KILLED

Tango had decimated the pod, Baek and himself. The few that remained rushed to enter the clouds again, Jazmel didn’t even look about the items. He bit through another frost shard as he felt the buff beginning to wane. He didn’t want to feel the cold as badly as he had done before.

The trio pushed across the lake and entered the land that was beyond the lake. To his thanks, the ice didn’t break and though the lake beneath churned and frothed; the ice still held. After the pod of Storm Balene’s and the sky orca’s they were left alone, they saw a few other pods, but they steered clear, and Jazmel got to enjoy the frigid peace that came from the trio travelling.

There were no drops of loot from the sky orca’s and Jazmel wondered what they might have dropped, Tango told him that he had gained an orca core and he offered it to Jazmel , but he declined. Telling Tango, he should keep using all his drops towards preparing for his next tier tribulation.

“I cannot believe you are so close to ranker tier.” Tango laughed and Jazmel could tell he was actually quite proud.

“I think it just so happens like that, because we did so much inside the labyrinth.” Jazmel explained with a simple shrug.

“The labyrinth offers you the means to grow, but some people are happy with their strength and so do not finish the tasks or plots they are offered.” Baek offered in tandem, and Jazmel and Tango listened to his wise words.

“How long did it take you to become a master tier?” Tango asked Baek and the old man got a smile on his face as he reminisced.

“It took me ten years to become a master, I became a ranker in my first three years. But then I settled and when I settled everyone surpassed me. But by the time I decided to push for master, I had to achieve extremely hard tasks to gain the things I needed for the plots the labyrinth offered me.” Baek said with a wistful smile, and he nodded.

“Tango have you finished all your plots?” Baek asked and Tango shook his head.

“I think when we head back, you should plan for that. Complete your plots and I think you might even make it to master.” Baek said and Tango listened, quietly but Jazmel could tell he also hungered for power. For the responsibility of strength or the comfortability that came with it.

“Do you have plots too?” Jazmel asked and Baek nodded and then raised two fingers.

“I have just two and I imagine if I complete them, I probably will tier up to tier III.” He said and Jazmel shook his head at the impossibility of Baek’s strength. Master tier felt far away from him still and Jazmel was shocked, he couldn’t imagine what strength of any plot the system could provide. But he imagined that at ranker tier, he would gain new plots too. He still had to find monarch tier tribulation items too as well. Currently he only had the twilight crown, but within ranker, he needed to find extremely rare items for tribulation too.

They hit land and Jazmel felt the thud of thick ground as he stepped off from the lake. The ground was covered in sleet and stone, the frost of the lake had encroached onto dry land here too, but not without the land pushing back. The plants that were growing here hardy and used to growing in the lands of bitter frost and ice.

They travelled further inland and the icicles that sliced through the air as they dropped like knives from the sky pounded them from above, but Jazmel had gotten infinitely better with managing his Mana and he used it to protect himself from the worst of the snowstorm, he was still cold; he also still had to eat the frost shards and he had already gotten through the half of those he had collected in loot.

Two hours in and Jazmel found themselves in a small town, it was derelict, and few people were in the town, but Jazmel could see that they had small stalls set up and items were being traded or sold to whoever was in the town. He looked around him and saw that a few other seekers were moving around the town. Tango was leading and Jazmel followed him as Baek walked behind them, quietly and nimble on the dirt trodden road.

The first stall Jazmel happened upon was filled with little items of worth, but he noticed some herbs and he thought that they should be grown back at the outpost. He bought seedlings, three sacks worth and paid the old man who was selling his wares a handsome price of one hundred gold coins. The man accepted and holding Jazmel ’s hand with both his own; gnarled and callused as they were. He thanked him profusely.

Moving on, Jazmel came across another stall, this time it had tier tribulation items. Nothing for himself, he had decided that he would only be using draconic items and there wasn’t anything he could buy. Or so he thought, the system notice popped up and he looked at the notification.

TIER III LEVIATHAN BONE FOUND

Jazmel looked at the stall again and noticed something he had thought was part of the actual stall and it was, it wasn’t on display to sell. The wares were actual fruit a few were interesting and picking them up, he managed to read the system notifications regarding them.

TIER II GLACIAL FRUIT, the glacial fruit grows in frozen areas which has adapted to attribute Mana to its consumer

TIER I FRIGID HERB, the frigid herb will allow a semblance of permanent immunity to cold and ice environments

TIER II ARTIC SPICE, a spice that combats the cold from within. It will allow the consumer to draw Mana from them

TIER II FREEZING FRUIT, a freezing fruit that can be used for tier tribulations in some instances.

This was interesting, he bought them all. The stall owner was happy to take fifteen white gold coins, the man was incredibly thankful, and Jazmel took more notice looking around that a lot of people here were not as affluent as other markets he had seen. There wasn’t even an auction house here, but he figured this was due to how hard the land was to produce and toil.

“Sir, I will buy that bone off of you for thirty white gold coins.” The stall owner froze and looked at the bone and then looked at Jazmel intently. Trying to figure out if the bone was worth something. “70.” “nope, 40.” “60?” “45?” and finally the man and Jazmel both settled on fifty. He opened his palm of his left hand and let the coins appear from his ring in his hand and then he handed them over. Tango and Baek simply watched; neither asking him about it and for that he was glad. He put it in the storage and immediately he felt the egg wiggle.

TIER II LEVIATHAN BONE!

…

EGG WISHES TO EAT IT!

WILL YOU LET IT?

Y/N

Jazmel accepted and the bone disappeared, and he felt the egg filled with mirth, the scales flexed and then it fell dormant again. He perused the other stalls but didn’t find anything that he remotely liked and instead took the time to move through the town looking around. But he didn’t see anything else that interested him.