A chilly, dangerous welcome from the new home

"Here we are, our new home"

Elsa and Bruno were standing side by side looking at a little house made out of wood and rocks.

They were both bundled up in multiple layers of clothing since their new shelter was positioned in a pretty cold spot.

It would've been impossible to find it unless someone knew about it beforehand.

Surrounding them were walls, with only an opening high above that allowed a faint trickle of light.

That's right, their new isolated home was inside a mine, the only way to enter it, was from a waterfall that completely covered the entrance, the waterfall was quite high and the weight pressed upon who tried to pass under it was similar to that of an anvil, Bruno barely felt it but Elsa's shoulders and neck remained injured for a few days from crossing it just once.

Their first night was quite comfortable, for Elsa at least, since she slept on the bed, while Bruno ended up on the floor again, even if they had a double sized bed, apparently Andrei didn't plan the refuge for two people so he had to adapt for the time being.

The next morning, cursing him in his mind for the bad sleep, Bruno run to the nearest village and in less than an hour, he had already finished buying everything he needed and started heading back, on his way back he noticed another waterfall that seemed to have something behind it, he left the things he bought right outside the cave and entered.

Passed the cascade, as expected, he found a cave, it was a natural cave and was probably formed by the erosion caused by the water over time as a little river was still flowing in it disappearing in the deep.

From the end of the the tunnel, a light could be seen, slightly illuminating the rocks.

He ventured deeper into the cave and found the best treasure he could ever hope for: on the bottom , there was a little lake made solely out of crystalline water, while floating right above it, was an elliptical shaped, light emitting hole, Bruno was very familiar with it.

It was a gate, and a yellow one at that, actually, it wasn't completely yellow as it had a minuscule shade of green in it.

That meant it's rank was about 21,

A rank 1 gate is completely red, slowly rising in rank it's color get replaced with orange, becoming fully coloured at rank ten, the scale than proceeds as it follows: yellow, green, cerulean, indigo, violet, magenta, blue, and black.

He was really excited about it, since finding this gate meant he could now actually improve, not just stand there wasting time, actually, he was already half-convinced on leaving Elsa on her own and return to society, but with this, returning to a city would've offered more cons than pros.

Not wanting the items he left outside to spoil, he decided to return later.

He came back home and found Elsa still sleeping, careful not to wake her up, he prepared breakfast, they didn't have neither gas nor light, so he cooked outside with a little campfire and a steel pan.

He prepared the dough with the materials he had bought a few hours ago, and let them cook on the pan.

While he was waiting, the crackling of the fire echoed through the cave, he relaxed his shoulders and laid down on the fresh snow that came through the hole during the night.

After enjoying this small break, he got back to cooking, the four pancakes that he had positioned on the pan were now ready, sliding them on two plates, he let maple syrup flow on them and began eating a portion, he would've liked a coffee, but using the moca would've most likely disturbed Elsa sleep, so, not wanting her awake for now, he ate pancakes and without any drink.

He left the other plate under a cloche, and headed towards the cave he had found earlier.

Arrived in front of the gate, he hesitated for a moment, but was soon convinced to enter.

He didn't have time to waste.

They were now in the land were Odin resided, the idea was that Odin would never think of searching here for Freya, but it still didn't make him feel safe.

Without thinking about it a second time, he headed into the gate.

This time he found himself in the middle of the woods, however there wasn't much greenery as only a slimmer of light passed through the high pines, greeting him were some crows sounds coming from the sky, he didn't pay it any attention but, in just a couple of minutes the sound increased, annoyed by it, Bruno turned his head up and saw a dozen of crows flying in circles around his position, he was carefully watching the body of the crows, something seemed strange, and it didn't take him long to find out what it was, the moment his gaze reached the head of one of the birds, there was something missing, Bruno thought about it for a bit and then understood, the eyes were missing, he watched straight in the place were the eyes should've been, but the only thing he spotted was a dark hole in their place.

Just as he was analysing the black holes, his stomach hurt like hell, as if he had gotten hit by a truck, he looked down to figure out what was going on, but nothing was out of place.

Something lit up in his brain and he recalled something he had studied while researching:

Creature, Night Raven, this species of birds derives from Norse Mythology, differently from the normal one, his eyes are missing and he has holes through his wings, it is told that if someone crosses gaze with this monster, they will die, and just watching the holes in his wings will bring illnesses.

Indeed, if a normal person had been hit by something like that they wouldn't have survived for sure.

Now knowing what he was facing, he was a little bit calmer and regained his composed. He was now ready for battle, luckily, after surpassing the threshold of awakened level ten by killing the Otso, he had unlocked a new skill, and it fit the situation perfectly:

{Skill name: telekinesis

Description: Cronus was able to move things solely with his willpower.

Effect: you are able to move objects, the weight and the precision available to you will rise through, mana, mind, and skill rank.

Skill proficiency rank: lowest 1st}