345 Clear Water Lake

"Give me a second. I have to use a spell on Tiger," Leo asked just as they entered the White Desert. This was the coldest place he had ever been with his pet, and frogs weren't very well known for dealing with sudden temperature changes. Luckily, he had a spell that could protect Tiger from the weather. Essentially, Leo would be sharing his own body heat with his pet, but unlike most amphibians, he could warm himself up without relying on external sources. If there was any heavy snowstorm or something stronger, it wouldn't help as much. Another issue was that it required a lot of mana to keep that spell up, meaning that Leo wouldn't be in the best shape to fight, "How long we are going to stay here?"

"Well, if we go straight to the next room, we should arrive there in about 6 hours or so. Well, that is if we follow the same path we did last time, and honestly. I don't think it's a good idea to try crossing through the middle of the snow. Everything is too white, is too easy to get lost even with the maps. Not to mention that those skinny bear things can hide in the snow way too well," Alex replied.

"So we have to walk for 6 hours nonstop? I thought I wasn't in the coalition anymore," Leo sighed.

"Don't worry, there is an outpost nearby, and we can take breaks at any time we need. Also, we have internet connection in the entire room," Hera tried to cheer him up.

"Yeah, this room shouldn't give us any unpleasant surprises," Blue added.

"Actually. I have one thing to tell you guys that you might not like," Hera turned to the controller.

"What did you do?" Alex squinted at Hera.

"I called Shane to talk about the Wailing Valley. I didn't mention anything about what I'm looking for, but I had to ask her about the snake and if the guild is doing something about it. Or just if there is any news of what was going on there," Hera explained.

"She's not going to go with us to the tomb, is she?" Blue asked.

"I don't think so, but she asked me if I figured out the element of that spell. You know, the one that no one knew about," Hera explained.

"What do you mean figure out? Can't you tell what type of mana are you using?" Blue had a confused expression.

"Can you tell what's the element of mana from all your spells?" Hera asked.

"Only the ones that I use with Stormcloud. Not the others, but you focus more on spells than I do."

"True, but I don't have something that tells me the element of every spell. Some I can kind of figure out, but there isn't something from the system. Only mages can tell what type of mana a spell uses, and that is only while they haven't locked their own mana," Hera explained.

"Yeah, I heard that too, but if you don' mind me asking. What is Stormcloud?" Leo turned to Blue.

"It's the name of my legacy. The one I told you about yesterday," Blue replied.

"Right. I still can't believe you got a legacy. Even in the coalition, I don't think anyone has one," Leo sighed.

"Really? I mean, everyone says they are rare, but they are that rare?" Blue asked.

"Are you kidding me? Most people spend their entire lives not even seeing someone who has a legacy in person, much less have one themselves," Leo gasped.

"Oh, c'mon. It's not that much. I mean, even we know like three people with legacies," Blue rolled her eyes.

"Three?" Leo turned to Hera.

Hera glanced at Blue with an angry expression. She told the controller several times that talking about other people's legacy was something she shouldn't ever do. Even her own legacy should be a secret from most.

"She meant the dwarves. They have a couple of legacies that were passed down since before they came to Boothudurn. We try to avoid talking about it, and I don't think I have to tell you why," Alex jumped in, trying to defuse the situation.

"Right. Yeah, that's a good call. I heard some real horror stories just because rumors of someone having a legacy popped out. Apparently, a few years ago, a guy in the coalition told everyone that he had a legacy to try to get better treatment from the top brass. Since he boasted so much, he attracted the attention of a group of people who only cared about money. Their plan was to steal the legacy and sell it off at a high price," while Leo talked, the group started to move. They had a lot of ground to cover, and there was no need to stop to talk.

"And then what happened?" Blue asked.

"Well, I only know the rumors, so take this with a grain of salt. But apparently, they kidnapped the guy, beat him up, and dragged him out to the middle of a forest to be eaten alive by the monsters. That way, they could just capture the monsters and sell them without having to do the whole inheritance thing and get the penalty for it, but in the end, it was all fake. People think that he had an innate skill that changed some of his abilities, and that's why it seemed like there was something else."

"Did he end up being killed?" Blue seemed more serious about the legacy for the first time.

"Yeah, didn't I mention it? The bandits, if you want to call them that, fed him to monsters."

"Oof, that's a rough way to go," Alex sighed.

"Tell me about it. They even went to a room on the first layer so the monsters would be very weak and anyone could kill him. Since the guy was around level 20, it took almost a full day for the monsters to hurt him enough to finish him off. Or at least that's how the story goes," Leo was now rubbing his arms, trying to heat himself up in the cold of the White Desert. Since he was splitting some of his body heat with Tiger, the freezing air hit him harder.

"Dam, that's brutal. Is that story really true?" Hera asked.

"I think so, but it's a rumor, so I doubt the story went down like that. There are probably a bunch of details that were exaggerated."

"Could he still be alive?" Blue asked.

"Oh no, he's dead, and I'm sure of it. We keep records of the people who were part of the coalition and what happened to them," Leo explained.

"Right. That's still really bad," Hera nodded.

The mood turned sour for a while. Thinking about being eaten alive wasn't something that everyone seemed to be a bit shook up by. Leo, on the other hand, was focusing on trying to keep himself warm. A few minutes passed, and they arrived at the small outpost. In there, Leo stopped by a store to look for something to heat him up. He found a couple of heat packs that would be enough to keep him warm for a few hours. Aside from that, they also stopped by a cafe to get some drinks. They ate before coming here, but staying in such a cold area made them crave something hot. With a mix of hot coffee and hot tea, everyone felt much better about going forward.

For the following hours, there wasn't much excitement going on. They were just walking through the snow at a slow pace since Tiger was having trouble moving through the snow. Still, it didn't take much longer than the 6 hours they were expecting. Unfortunately, things didn't improve as they arrived at Clear Water Lake. Moving on top of an iceberg proved to be even worse for Tiger. It was a good thing that this shouldn't take long, but at the same time, the frog was freaking out, unable to stand up properly.

Still, after another half an hour, the group arrived at the small village that was being constructed in this room. It was still much like what they had seen before, but there were some minor upgrades. A better shop, a nice hotel, and some training rooms. Tiger could stay inside the room in the hotel as long as Leo was ok staying on the bottom floor. It wasn't unusual for the guild to have a few extra-large rooms to allow people with pets or just people who wanted a private area to do some light practice. The main problem would be to make Tiger pass through the doors, and in the end, he had to enter through the window.

Since he had the biggest room, the party decided to discuss their plans there. They had already stopped by the guild and gotten some information about the dungeons in the room. Two options were close to the village, and a third one required you to go underwater. No one was excited about the idea of going swimming in a lake that had a giant iceberg in the middle of it. If they did, the water should be freezing. With that, the group had two options. A dungeon called 'Penguin Migration' where they would have to protect the penguins while they travel through an area, and a place called 'Tip of the Iceberg' that deal with the iceberg in the middle of the lake and how it got there.

"You know what. I don't want to help those penguins. Unless the rewards are really good," Blue said.

"Same, they were dicks when we were trying to go to the Wailing Valley," Alex nodded.

"Well… the mission would be to protect them, and if it's anything like those escort missions we have on video games, that one would suck," Hera sighed.

"And the other one?" Leo asked.

"According to the people in the guild. That one is weird. We will meet a guy who wants to do something with the iceberg in the middle of the lake, but what he asks for varies a lot. Some people were just tasked with protecting him, while others had to help him make the iceberg smaller. I don't know what to expect," Hera explained.

"That seems fun. I'm also curious about that guy. Dungeons are supposed to be created because of big things that happened in the room, right? What did that guy do to make that dungeon?" Blue added.

"It seems we have decided. Where is the entrance?" Leo turned to Hera.

"On the other side of the lake. If we are ok with getting wet, we should get there in half an hour. If we go around the lake, it should take about an hour and a half," Hera had her map open and was double-checking the distance.

"Is it ok if we go tomorrow? Going near big bodies of water in the night gives me the creeps," Alex shivered with goosebumps.

"Really? Why? The weird things that live underwater don't care much about night and day. They just care about how deep it is," Leo turned to Alex.

"Well, at least during the day, we can see it coming. In the middle of the night, we can only hope that there isn't anything lurking in the shallow water and waiting to jump at us," Alex crossed her arms.

"I think you are watching too many horror movies," Blue chuckled.

"I mean, if we were back on Earth, I would agree with you, Blue, but here on the MAZE? Alex has a point. Things get weird fast. We had to fight those special monsters back in the Wailin Valley, didn't we? What if there is something like that around here too," Hera added.

Leo had heard the story about how they fought the three named monsters, and even he had to agree that the situation wasn't that great. With that, the group decided to wait for the morning before going to the dungeon. There was no need to put themselves at any big risk, nor there was any benefit for them to risk going to the dungeon at night. At least, not that any of them were aware of.

They talked more, ordered some food, and a couple of hours later went to their own rooms to rest for the night. Hera took that chance to retranslate the letter and see if Bonnie had any insights into what she should be looking for and the [Ancient Language Comprehension] skill. Hera meant to ask about it before, but she completely forgot about it.

Bonnie also got the skill, but hers was still on rank one. It seemed like starting with a letter made by someone with really bad handwriting gave the skill a boost and pushed it to rank 2 right away. Before going to bed, Hera had a video call with Silah to talk about nothing in particular. When the morning came, everyone ate some breakfast and left the outpost towards the other side of the lake. Their destination? The Tip of the Iceberg dungeon.