Chapter 5 - Ice isn't good for Battles

[Hikari POV]

"3 hours..."

"I understood that the idea was bad, but we have to enjoy it, don't we?"

"..."

"No...?"

"TOUCH_ME! WE'VE BEEN HERE FOR 3 HOURS TRYING TO COMPLETE THIS DAMN DUNGEON!" I exclaimed with all the strength my character had, while using [Rougue's 101: Thief's Dash] to dodge yet another freezing attack that came from holes in walls.

[Player Hikari took damage from the Freeze effect done by the dungeon.]

[Danger! Player Hikari is at 1/4 max HP.]

"Damn it!" I exclaimed with that notification that appeared in front of me, even though I wasn't hit by the attack, that place still gave a passive effect of Freeze.

"Argh! Why does this Dungeon even exist?!? We're still in Early Access!!!" I exclaimed again watching Touch_Me defending himself from ice blasts using his shield.

[Danger! Player Touch_Me has equipment durability less than 10%]

"I think this is really a beta and unbalanced dungeon." My partymate said as I watched the notification related to him and he was approaching me in that big ice corridor.

"Even so! This was so easy to find that I'm thinking some of the Devs are sadistic and want to destroy any curious explorers!" I replied as I ran along with him, trying to dodge more of the attacks.

{4 hours ago...}

I had just logged into YGGDRASIL, deciding to go to Niflheim. When my character spawned in the initial area, my body was already feeling the gigantic cold of that mountainous environment, even though the common spawn area was surrounded by a basic dome that allowed players not to be affected by the Freeze status that that realm had.

On my last visit here during my first month exploring the Early Access, this and the Poison effect were my biggest enemies. There were swamps in other realms where, just reaching the limit of the entrance, the Poison effect was activated, causing me to take 5% passive damage every 10 minutes, but the Freeze effect was another story...

Nilfheim as a whole, with the exception of protected cities, was a terrain covered by that annoying and absurd debuff effect, which made it a place considered Late-Game for most of the possible races the players love to choose. Freeze simply debuffs the agility status of players and monsters, in addition to causing 10% damage every time someone tries to use spells or skills to counteract the loss of speed. Seeing this, it was obvious to think that there must be honest ways to not be affected by that damn negative effect. I still remember the exact words I wrote on my website when I made my discoveries.

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Hello my dear followers, Hikari here for an update on the effects I discovered in my playthroughs in YGGDRASIL, more specifically in Nilfheim.

In this realm, there is a passive effect that will affect everyone just by simply walking. A lot of people might hate it, but the existence of the special effect called "Freeze" makes complete sense.

In order not to be affected by this and to walk freely in Nilfheim, it is necessary that you are equipped with a full set of protection. This set can either be purchased in cities in this realm or found in random chests spread across the other 8 realms. The durability of each piece of this set is greatly reduced when directly attacked by temperature-related attacks. Other ways of not being affected are: either being covered by a [Resist Freeze] spell or similar; or be of a Race or Advanced Job Class linked to the elements of ice and fire.

...

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It took a few minutes for Touch_Me to arrive with an extra set of equipment for me, the last time I was here, a piece of my set had been broken, thus taking away my Freeze immunity, I took advantage of the fact that the other pieces of the set could still be used as common equipment and did some solo adventures to test some strategies. With that said, it was obvious that I was out of parts at the moment.

"Hikari-Kun!" Touch_Me caught my eye as he approached me.

[Player Touch_Me wants to give you 4 items, accept?]

The message box appeared in front of me, and while I clicked on to receive the items, my fellow vigilante was getting ready, a set, which was hot just to see it, appeared on his body, and then he put on his common armor on top of it all. I looked at him, one eyebrow raised and I was also going to put that set on my body.

The headpiece was a simple hat that was a mixed design between a classic aviator hat and a Viking helmet, the torso area was a large long-sleeved coat, filled with dark fur on the outside, while the inside was incredibly smooth. As pants, it was also a piece of clothing full of dark fur, following the same style as the torso, and finally, as footwear, there were high boots, with a very characteristic style between a mixture of medieval dwarf and viking.

"Why do you wear your regular armor over that? Seriously, as far as I know, your half-insect appearance isn't that bad." I commented, adjusting my hat while playing with my daggers.

"Because that's my mark, if I don't keep my beautiful armor, I won't be representing JUSTICE!!" Touch_Me exclaimed all happy.

"Are you telling me that you'll have this specific armor forever? I mean, it's great and all, but this armor is a basic iron one." With my comment, his extreme joy was instantly gone.

"I-I... I'm going to upgrade my mark... but for now it's THIS armor!" He answered me and I just sighed, leaving the spawn's protection area.

I felt all that cold touching me, but I couldn't feel the effects of the "Freeze" affecting me, that was to be expected. My half-insect companion followed me, we walked side by side observing the icy and mountainous landscapes of that realm. It didn't take long for us to arrive in the first city.

It was considered a very friendly place, unlike other realms, this city was one of the few in early-access that, as a whole, had the anti-PvP system. The houses, taverns and hotels there were all completely themed in a rustic style of dark wood and stone that faintly resembled marble. We walked around, observing the landscapes and the clear lack of players in that place, until we saw an NPC with a question mark on his head, symbolizing a side-quest.

"Was that NPC there before?" Touch_Me asked.

"I don't think so. As I recall there was a little update a few days ago, wasn't it?" I replied as I walked towards the NPC.

The NPC was from a heteromorphic race that until now I had never seen a player using, his body seemed to be made of solid ice, but if I focused my vision well, I could notice its skeleton underneath those layers. Over the "skin" the NPC wore only pants and a sleveless coat, both made of what I would guess was bear parts. His head was pointed, like the tip of an iceberg, and tall, he was only a little taller than me. That NPC was a kind of ice golem.

"Oh! There was an update? This explains why the loading screen took a few minutes this last Saturday... I thought I had slow internet due to the acid rain that rolled down that day." my companion said, as I started interacting with the NPC.

"Hello, travelers! I see you're not from around here! I need a lot of help with hunting snow rabbits. I don't need to eat, but I work as a staff member at a nursing home where some Demi-human children have been taken because of the terrible blizzards that occur all around. The blizzards are so intense, that I can't see my surroundings! You, being travelers, must be used to this kind of weather, so could you help me?"

[Terryvja, the gentle and tiny ice golem, is asking for your help. Accept or Decline?]

"Hm... It doesn't say how many rabbits he wants beforehand." I commented.

"Agreed, maybe it's one of those side-quests they make it look easy but it isn't?" my half-insect companion asked me.

"Yep. Wanna do it?" I said smiling at him.

"Well... Hm... Hunting something he's just referring to as snow bunnies. I don't see a problem if it's something simple." With that phrase from my friend, I clicked on Accept the side-quest.

[Side Quest: Humility of Ice - Rabbit Hunt]

[Description: "Terryvja is an ice golem who suffers a slight bully for being of a size considered small only for his own race. He needs help, because he is afraid to enter the region of the ice golems that abandoned him, and that's where it has the highest chance of encountering [Icy P-Rabbit]s.]

[Win Requirements: 8× "Icy P-Meat" for each Player in Party]

[Rewards: +10 XPCrystals; +5 Low HP Potions; +40 Gold Coins; +1 random medium loot box.]

"Woah... A random loot box in the medium level? Interesting" Touch_Me commented, taking a good look at that notification.

Loot Boxes are common in any multiplayer game, and YGGDRASIL is no different. I had never seen one, but I knew about its existence and how it worked. The lootbox level meant the minimum rating of the item it could give you, being able to give drops from monsters, equipment, or single-use items. Low, Medium, High, Top, Legacy, Relic, Legendary, and Divine, these are the ranks an item can have, for what the Devs are planning, so I knew we wouldn't get a Low Item in that lootbox, but there was a small chance that we would get something of a good and high rank.

This side-quest didn't seem like a big deal, so we headed towards where the map was showing. It was an area away from the city and, as the NPC said, there was blizzard. However, the map continued to show us a possible path to walk. It was obvious now why Terryvja commented on how "travellers" manage to navigate these situations easily, the map is our best friend.

"Touch! Zoom the map to 4.5!" I exclaimed through the blizzard as we walked.

"Good idea!" He answered me.

We were guided along the path that was created on the map, even so, we walked carefully, after all we didn't know if that region was on top of a mountain or if there was a cliff near there. After 10 minutes walking, I saw what looked like a small cabin in the middle of so much snow covering my vision. I caught my companion's attention and we went in there. It was a pretty wrecked cabin, but luckily, it was enough to make the snow filter out of our sight. There was a single bed, a kind of improvised sofa made of a large trunk cutted and covered with animal skin, and some Data Crystals on the floor. Touch_Me sat on that sofa and cracked his neck a little while I took my hat off for a moment to test something out.

Yup. The Freeze effect was still present.

"We'd better wait here for a while until the blizzard stops." Touch_Me opined on a possibility, while he walked up and took those Data Crystals, since he said nothing about those, I understood they were just random low tier items.

"Hm... Really? I mean... I know the side-quest doesn't have a time limit, but do you think that all this blizzard is not coming from the side-quest, but from the changes in the realm's weather?" At my questions, he gave a strong and characteristic sigh of his big physique, only agreeing that yes, that was his thought.

"Great, let's stick around for a while, even with my body unaffected by the Freeze, I still feel very cold from the walk we had." I commented as I sat on the bed there.

With an immense surprise, I gave a cry of fright. When I had sat on the single bed, it broke under the weight of my body, as if it was on a thread of not being destroyed before we arrived. However, it didn't stop there, under the bed there seemed to be a very deep hole, into which I fell into.

"H-Hikari-kun?!?" I heard Touch_Me screaming my name, worried.

"I'm fine! I-I didn't take any damage!" I exclaimed as I looked up and saw my colleague's helmet watching me from above.

It looked like that hole was about 7 meters deep, the walls were a mixture of an ice structure and dark wood and when I looked around I noticed an odd but untouchable door, compared to the rest of the cabin. This caught my attention, making me get up, brush the snow and debris off my body, and I turned towards the door.

"Yo! Touch! I found something interesting here!" I called my friend as I was opening the door, which had a tight handle, but I was able to pull it hard.

"Really? More interesting than the side-quest?" At his words, my expression turned to one of complete animation as a notification flashed in front of me as I took the first step to the other side of the door.

[Player Hikari! Congratulations! You were the first player to find The Frozen Hut dungeon.]

"Yes! Very interesting! There's a dungeon down here!!!"

When I said that, my companion didn't take long to jump and go down to the place where I had fallen, and when passing through the door, he also seemed excited, possibly also seeing the notification. After a few steps into that strange and mysterious dungeon, we heard the noise of the door closing, I turned around and when I touched the door another notification appeared, which left me with one foot behind if it was a good idea to explore that place.

[Warning: This dungeon is classified as a "single run". Players who enter here will only have a single chance to leave and complete it, if this first chance of leaving isn't used now, they can only leave by dying or completing it! Do you want to leave or are you going to continue the adventure?]

"Should we do this? Do we have proper equipment to explore here, Touch?" I could be someone experienced in MMORPGs, but due to the option to teleport out of here didn't existing, it made me a little tense, after all, I was only a Lv.12, and my skill list wasn't that amazing.

But it wasn't just that, I also wanted my partner's opinion, who, upon seeing the notification, responded to me. "We have several HP and MP potions, plus I still have 2 complete sets against Freeze in my inventory. What are your equipment again?"

With the question he asked, I showed my inventory window, as equipment, in addition to the set of anti-Freeze armor I was wearing, there was also a bow I bought in Alfheimr, a total of 150 common arrows and 30 arrows that could be enchanted with elements without spending mana, a leather whip that I had bought in Midgard a few days ago, my standard light armor, and lastly, a round and small shield, which I had bought to keep abusing the parry system. I also showed him the amount of HP and MP potions I had, they were all Low Tier, but they were an acceptable amount, taking into account that, when we go to farm XP, we usually spend hours without going back to a city to replenish our things, unfortunately, there were only 5 potions against debuffs.

"Hmmm... we came to this part of the map, behind [Icy P-Rabbit]s, didn't we?" He asked.

"Yes... and?"

"This dungeon we're in, looks very close to the area marked on the map." He spoke vaguely so I gestured for him to continue. "In dungeons, the monsters that appear are related to the type of dungeon and the monsters that spawn in the surroundings~" With him talking like that, I understood what he wanted.

"Really? Exploring a dungeon and doing the Side-Quest at the same time? Back to the real question at hand... Do we have resources for that?!" I exclaimed, for my companion to finally give me some real answer.

"We have plenty of resources for that. After all, the Devs wrote in the main menu's news area that any dungeons that were created in early access would be considered accessible for a party with members at Lv.20, as they would be incredibly rare." Before I could say anything to retort his line, he continued. "Even though you're Lv.12, I'm Lv.27... You're safe with me, my fellow Justice!"

I took a deep breath and looked deep into the eye holes in his helm. "If we die and lose a lot of Levels... Can I entirely blame you for that?"

"Of course, I'll take all the responsibility, after all, you're much younger than me, Hikari-kun." With that, I clicked to decline the exit for the dungeon in the notification and the door disappeared.

{In the present...}

"At least we got all the Icy P-Meats!" Touch tried to say the good side of the situation as I continued to run.

"Oh! No shit, Sherlock!" I exclaimed, taking a Low tier HP Potion from my inventory and drinking it as I ran, thus recovering part of my life points.

From inside of the Holes formed in the ice walls, several ice beams were shot. We kept running for a while, until we finally found a door, with my companion using his big shield to protect us while I tried to open the door, it was quite stuck.

"It's frozen like a solid wall! Try holding them a little more while I try to unfreeze it!" I exclaimed to him as I extended my hand.

[Player Hikari activated [Wizard First Lesson: Fire] inside The Frozen Hut dungeon, mana consumed will be 1.5 times higher than normal.]

With the flame in hand, I started to increase the point of contact of the flames with the frozen door, I smiled seeing the ice melting, but my smile instantly disappeared when I heard cracking noises. Watching my companion, I noticed that the shield he was using to protect us was being destroyed.

"Got it?!" Touch exclaimed as I pressed my hands hard against the door.

"Almost!" I answered him, feeling the effect of Freeze destroying my protection set even more.

But the door finally unfroze enough for me to get it open, I kicked it all the way open and grabbed my companion by his armor belt, pulling him with me. Being in that other room, my first thought was to close that door and walk away, seeing that it was frozen again due to the ice beams that possibly hit it.

"Oh my freaking god!! This is a Boss Room!?" My mind stopped for a few seconds with what I heard Touch_Me saying, I turned around and dazzled the scene in front of me.

We had entered a large semi-destroyed hall, with large glass windows on the sides, which let in natural lighting in a very theatrical way, or even as if it were something I would see inside a cinematic church. On the floor there was a navy blue velvet rug that was very messy, but my vision followed the path that beautiful rug made until it reached a large throne. On top of that throne was a classic snowman that anyone would make in times before environmental disasters in the real world. It even had a top hat, a blue scarf, dark stones for decoration, tree branch arms and a pointy nose, which resembled, but obviously wasn't, a carrot.

"Christmas...? But it's May now..." Touch-san made that comment, which made me slowly turn my head towards him.

{A/N: But it's already December as I'm writing this. Ha!}

"He didn't say that...did he?" I thought to myself as I slowly walked towards the center of the room.

Without approaching the throne, I changed my equipment, taking my bow and having enchanted arrows, forcing them to become of the fire element. I looked at my friend, who was obviously changing his armor to the reserve set, and I whistled for attention. I didn't even need to speak and he threw me a large Data Crystal, which I caught after putting the arrows in my quiver.

I opened the menu quickly and was changing the old and worn out set with the new one he gave me inside that Data Crystal, I looked at my current amount of HP and MP, and to prevent any situation, I drank potions so that everything stayed at 100%. I was staring at the screen for a few seconds, seeing that in the status tab I had evolved a bit by facing the hard monsters in this dungeon, being more specific, I had reached Lv.15. However, until now, I had not distributed my status and job class points. Without thinking too much, I already made it so that I was really ready and soon I took an arrow in my quiver and started aiming at the snowman. The tip glowed as if the metal was heating up.

"Are you ready?!" I asked my partner.

"Yup! I've replenished all my HP and MP, and I've taken a new shield." I heard his voice but kept my gaze on the snowman.

"Great! Let's go!" I said shooting the arrow.

I didn't have the Job Class Archer, so skills involving arrows weren't on my list, but none of that stopped me from trying other tricks that affected my attacks, or even buying arrows already enchanted. I saw that arrow touching the snowman and just like that, a high pitched scream could be heard.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!" The scream was agonizing and quite terrifying, as expected, that snowman was alive and was the boss of this place.

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 received a fatal method damage]

[Due to Boss rank, fatal method damages are in half power]

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 received Burn status]

My eyes widened at the name that appeared above its head. Not only was its name in red, which meant it was way more advanced than me, but that notification... "I dealt him a fatal method damage... But how?! I just threw a fire arrow at it. Besides, he's a BOSS!" I thought, but soon my question was answered.

The snowman wasnt in his battle form yet, this is why a single fire arrow was almost fatal. Its body was changing while the snow was still burning. Large and monstrous snow legs were emerging, the branches that formed the arms grew, transforming them into hideous trunks. That pointy, orange nose got bigger and now seemed to be some kind of cannon, the top hat changed shape, turning into a generic black crown, and finally his scarf seemed to stretch and encircle the base of its arms, as if it was being something that leaves the trunks glued to the snow.

"Do not stop!" I exclaimed to Touch, who started running towards the boss and attacking it with his sword in the leg area.

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 received Slash damage]

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 received Burn damage]

If it wasn't for the notification, I would have thought that Touch-san's attack had been pointless, as the snow leg appeared to be intact. On the other hand, the Burn effect I gave the Boss seemed to still take effect, but I didn't know how long it would last.

Soon, that big snow monster used one of his trunks to try to crush Touch_Me, but he managed to dodge passing under the monster's legs. Meanwhile, I watched that cannon that was its nose, the monster was aiming at me and I could see cyan light coming from there.

I held tight to my bow and tried to fire arrow shots, aiming inside that cannon, something that apparently worked, as a big explosion was made in its face, making him shoot whatever that attack was for the ceiling. Unlike the ice beams the walls used to attack us before, that attack looked more like a blue laser than snow or ice.

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 received Explosion damage]

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 received a increase of Burn damage]

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 destabilized the boss room]

[Time Limit to defeat the Boss: 10 minutes]

My eyes widened with the last two notifications... The game was really messing with me, wasn't it?! Just because of my attack, we now had a time limit, or else we would be buried here!!

We continued to fight like crazy there, I always stayed away from the Boss, while Touch_Me was attacking using his skills, to increase his physical attack stats. After using several enchanted arrows, I ran out of them and started using regular arrows, being forced to use Mana to set them on fire from now on. The Boss continued to attack us with his wooden arms and that blue laser.

With 1 minute left for the time limit to end, the arena was pretty much destroyed and finally one of us was hit by its attacks. Touch-san had taken a high jump and plunged his bigsword into the Boss's head, causing the cannon that was the monster's nose to crumble, but before this was disconnected from its body, it fired and hit my companion directly in the torso, throwing him to the other side of the arena... and just like that the message appeared in front of me.

[Party Warning! Player Touch_Me was killed by King SnowFlake Lv.30.]

[Due to the settings of this dungeon, Player Touch_Me isn't able enter it again.]

W h a t?!

Touch_Me hadn't taken damage from the Boss until this moment... And he had recovered all his HP before the battle... He... He's Lv.27!!! Even though it was only 3 levels above him, the snow monster managed to OHKO my friend!!

"Bastard!!" I exclaimed giving up the arrows and running towards my enemy.

[King SnowFlake Lv.30 is preparing charged attack.]

Don't tell me... So until now that thing never had done a charged attack!?!

I equipped my leather whip and continued to run towards the boss, watching the seconds slowly tick down on the floating notification on my HUD, I started to accelerate using [Rougue's 101: Thief's Dash] to get under it and using my whip with [Wizard First Lesson: Fire] to deal fire damage to the ice creature.

[30 seconds left...]

Abusing more and more of my speed skill, I jumped behind the enemy, climbing the wall behind it, which was crumbling with the seconds counter decreasing more and more. I took another jump needing to activate [Rougue's 101: Thief's Dash] again to get right on top of the boss.

[20 seconds left...]

Up there, I could see the bigsword stuck in the Boss's forehead, I used my whip to pull the bigsword towards me, making blue blood come out of the monster. As a mouth finally appeared on it, it was a mouth with teeth of bones and dark ice, there was a glow coming from the back of its throat.

[15 seconds left...]

I gripped the chandelier that was at the top of that huge hall. Watching the enemy attack being almost activated, as I once again used [Wizard First Lesson: Fire], this time, the leather whip channeled the magic and led it to the bigsword it was tied to, causing the blade to light up with a vibrant red, this produced steam in contact with the icy air of the region.

[10 seconds left...]

The attack was finally released, it was an absurd cluster of super dense snow that looked like it was covering a blue laser of strong brightness. I dodged the attack by jumping, making it actually hit the ceiling. With the whip in hand, I swung it with a rotating movement from top to bottom, at the end of the whip, the Touch_Me's biigsword was still well held by the hilt, which let it be enchanted with my magic.

[5 seconds left...]

With that hard spin, I hear the sharp, horrifying crunch of snow hitting the hyper-hot blade.

[4...]

Everything seemed in slow motion, maybe it was because of the timer, or maybe it's the adrenaline in my body..

[3...]

I managed to watch the show, with the sword making a beautiful vertical cut on the boss's face...

[2...]

With the movement and angle of the attack, that cut went from the top of its head to the neck area. The slicing in that region...

[1...]

My heart seemed to stop from the pressure, but I could see that instead of the snow gathering after the attack...it was pulling and falling apart...

[Congratulations Player Hikari! You have completed the dungeon!]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

[Player Hikari gained Experience Points]

Everything went white, not allowing me to see all those messages... but when my vision returned, I found myself lying on something very soft and fluffy, with one last notification in front of me.

[Player Hikari Lv.15 → Lv.20]

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Username: Th3Unkn0wnF0r35T

Began Playing: April 4th, 0000

IGN: Hikari

Job: The Magic Rogue

Residence: Álfheimr

Alignment: True Neutral ————— Karma: 60

Total Level: 15 → 20

Racial Level:

Human ————— Lv.Max

Jobs Level:

Rogue ————— Lv.6

Wizard ————— Lv.5

Craftsman ————— Lv.4

(5 Level points left for distribution)

Ability Chart:

Hp: 23 | Mp: 21

Phy.Atk: 22 | Phy.Def: 16

Agility: 23

Mag.Atk: 21 | Mag.Def: 16

Resist: 13 | Special: 22

(45 Status points left for distribution)

Total Stats: 177→ 222

(Base: 45; Early Access' Little Benefit: +6; P/Level-Up: +9)

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