Chapter 18: Freezing Hell
1369 Words
Despite the duties and the status, Clan Fawkes is not exempted from the pull of finding treasures and inheritances. In fact, among the legitimate explorers of ancient tombs and ruins in the Tree, the Grimlands are among the most active. Not including those offered by the black market and those bound for the Unknown Reaches, the Grimlands clears an average of 20% of the explorations marketed by the four Branches.
It is at its root for profit but the primary intention is for experience and to hone skills especially when such circumstances come where one outgrew a pocket dimension but is still insufficient to brave the next tier.
They would need something in between to fill in.
The ancient ruin in Treval is the exploration the Clan prepared for the top two of the Battle of Seeds and a selected. Unfortunately, due to the fiasco that Vanja orchestrated, it shifted into a pure selection for all three which took them two months to resolve.
However, to the revelation that he’s chosen as the third member, Lugiel was bewildered, “Why me?”
The Clan Master then explained.
There’s an important artefact in this ruin in Treval that the Clan wishes to retrieve. However, its entrance has two restrictions. First, there can only be three at one time and second, none should be older than twenty.
Thus, the recent Battle of Seeds had also functioned as a selection which among the twenty and below can be entrusted with the mission.
But then, the fiasco happened. It did not only disrupt the selection, it had also injured Remeel, the preconceived third member of the team.
Aside from the entrance restrictions, there’s also a need of a flame specialist to effectively venture and then clear the ruin. That should have been Remeel due to the blaze combat art of his House, the House of Flagel, in which he is extremely gifted.
Unfortunately, he is among the Seeds that were severely injured during the confrontation against the Unkgoods and it might take him another month or two to fully recover. Meanwhile, the reservation for the ruin will expire in less than a month.
They cannot wait for him but they can’t also entrust the matter to a foreign faction. Thus, they are now seeking the only other below twenty flame art specialist in the Clan which is none other than Lugiel.
“Believe me, I would have preferred to keep you out of this,” the Clan Master said. “But I cannot risk the chance that an outside faction might clear it before us. That artefact, it’s essential that it is returned to the Clan.”
“Care to tell me what’s so important about this artefact?”
“Yes.” But before that, he first gave a condition, “But you have to give me your word, you will not tell another soul, especially Athena and Merek.”
“Of course.”
He sighed, “It’s Tidus, the sword of the first Clan Master.”
“Uhm alright,” he said, both surprised and confused. “Next question, how did it end up in Treval?”
“It was stolen eons ago by a thief calling himself Jester Pan.”
“I heard of that name. Is it the same Jester Pan who was known as the ‘Man Who Does Not Want To Grow Up’? I heard he was a powerful cultivator during his time but unfortunately, he suffers from mental retardation.”
“Yes, it’s the same person,” he confirmed. “He stole the sword, hid it somewhere, and brought the knowledge of its location to his grave. It is only recently after centuries of extensive search that we tracked it in Treval. Unfortunately, staying true to his childish nature, his trial hinders us from personally retrieving the sword.”
Yeah, the twenty years or below age restriction surely complicates it since the seasoned cultivators cannot be utilized.
“Hence, we can only place our hopes to the youngest generation to bring our Clan’s treasure home.”
“I understand now,” he told him. “But are you sure you do not want to reconsider the outside help? I’m not exactly…” he gestured to his blindfolded eyes. “…the most adequate of people.”
He shook his head. “You can move and function without aid despite your disability and you’re capable too of defending yourself. Those are enough. Athena and Merek will handle the rest. We just need the presence of a flame expert.”
◆◆◆◆◆◆
The ancient ruin in Treval is the freezing hell called Proost Plains and a week later, Lugiel alongside Merek and Athena experienced themselves that the label was in no way an exaggeration.
*WOOOOO!!!
Powerful gusts of winds powerful enough to blow a grown man away struck from the unseen horizon. Then, merging it with the heavy snow falling from the sky and it is concocted into a world of white. The mountains and the trees, all are blanketed by a thick layer of snow.
*Graaaa!!!
Suddenly, a lion-type demonic beast as huge as an elephant had jumped out from the veil of the blizzard and lunged at them for an ambush. Its size is massive, its physical strength as well, its claws and teeth that are like swords, and finally, its white colour which allows it to camouflage in the snow.
All combined and it’s the perfect predator for the terrain.
However, the moment it descended to the trio, *Swish! Swish!* two swishing sound hisses and lion demon beast was dismembered into four pieces, gushing red blood onto the thick snow.
“Sneaky bastard!” Athena remarked as her two swords were returned to their scabbards. She then plucked the Mana Core from its corpse and tossed it over to Merek for his turn of the loots’ rotation.
“There’s two more coming from the right,” Lugiel warned and the two instantly sprung back to battle mode to engage them.
There are two major challenges in braving the Proost Plains which is why a flame specialist is a necessity. The first is the current situation. The predators and demonic beasts are immune to the cold and can camouflage like chameleons into the environment. Simple detection techniques, due as well to the added veil provided by the whiteout and the blizzard, would be inadequate for a timely reaction against attackers.
One must truly detect them prior to any hostility and cultivators that are leaned to the fire element can detect body heats even from a distance.
Second is the blizzard itself. Like what was just mentioned, it is already enhancing the camouflage of the resident beasts but moving to the more obvious, the extreme cold can be unbearable even to cultivators with adequate gears. Without the assistance of someone who can conveniently rise the temperature of his immediate surroundings, anyone will freeze here to death in a matter of minutes.
*Swoosh!
Evading the claws of the demonic beasts, Athena unsheathed her swords again and Merek had train his bow while staying close to Lugiel.
*Graaaa!
On the other hand, the two demonic beasts were focusing solely to Athena.
They were already close by earlier and had witnessed how Athena slayed the previous ambusher so they’re ganging up to them one at a time under the instinct that doing so is advantageous.
It is.
Thus, the boys had also made their move the same time as Athena.
Merek released an arrow while a bottle of a volatile concoction was thrown by Lugiel.
*Swooosh! Booom!
Same target which the hind leg of the slower of the two.
The slower was knocked off of their charge, allowing Athena to shift back to full offense.
*Swish! Swish!
Eliminating their newest attackers, the trio resumed their struggle against the blizzard which intensifies by each completed step to reach their destination, the heart and the source of the blizzard, the Frozen Fortress.
- Writer
