End of an Era (Project Chrysalis Book 2), John Gold [ebook reader online txt] 📗

the games being played on the side. In the entire clan, just a few people knew about the hunt for Sagie and why Talamei had attacked the Golden Hand’s fortress.

Three groups of their most loyal warriors set off for the floating cities.

***

We’re heading south along the ice. In five days, we’ve been able to run across the frozen channel dividing the continents and get to the frozen shores of Ferengar.

Things change immediately the second we step onto firm ice. The monsters on the cold continent have incredible survivability, and they can run even after they’ve sustained serious wounds. I can’t help but remember the time I spent hunting monsters near Sural.

Damage received: 850 (ignored: 705)

5298/5420

Resistance to cold: +0.01%

Cold damage ignored: 716/second

 

Fem is having a much harder time. She can’t heal herself the way I can, though her strong survivability is keeping her ahead of the damage she’s taking so far. Ultimately, we decide that we’re going to need to slowly boost our resistance to cold. I even take off the items I’m wearing that increase my morale and survivability, otherwise I won’t see an increase.

Blood Magic seals are hard to create. At least, creating them here isn’t a problem - they work well on the snow. On the other hand, drawing large seals is difficult, as the snow piles on top of the elements I’ve already drawn and ruins the symmetry. I end up sticking with a small circle and ten victims to combine our health.

Monster, Baby Mammoth, Level 430, local boss

 

The little mammoths are neutral toward us and sport incredible health pools. I’ve seen old pictures of elephants, and even these babies are twice as big. Just for myself, I take a screenshot when I see ten of them lying symmetrically in a circle. The blood magic seal is in the middle.

Femida loves the quest we have as well as the fact that we’ve made it to the ice.

“Finally, a good spot to do some leveling up. Over there, it was just gods, undead, an ocean full of monsters, and then the poisonous swamp with everything looking to eat you. Running around in the snow wearing armor is the worst. We don’t have snowshoes, and I am so tired of sinking in. It’s easy for you, you’re light. I’m wearing heavy armor.”

“No, you’re just fat!”

“Idiot!”

It really is hard for her to waddle around in the snow wearing her armor. Where we are now, the climate is too harsh for much snow. It instantly turns into ice.

Trolls, snow giants, mammoths, snow worms, snow leopards, tigers, yetis, packs of snow wolves, cold spirits, frost spirits, mist spirits - we battle them all in the three weeks it takes us to get to the mountains. We do fashion a sled out of our trophies, however, using bones, hides, and a few ropes made out of skin, though we’re the only ones around to pull it.

The farther we go, the more monsters we come across. Their levels are getting higher, too.

The monsters right by the mountains are utterly terrifying.

Monster, Fazz the Snow Demon, Level 1330, local boss

 

Two pairs of arms, a thick white coat, small mammoth-like tusks, and the body of a gorilla make it a very, very strong opponent. A bunch of them guard a herd of mammoths grazing along the valley at the base of the mountains.

Monster, Mammoth, Level 1251, local boss

 

If we could just take a couple of those mammoths back to the kobold village, they’d have enough food for a year. The ten-meter giants with thick fur coats and long tusks prefer to attack in groups of four or five. A wild, deafening roar and a powerful physical attack is their favorite strategy.

The mammoths have unbelievably poor agility, and so they always get in each other’s way. Their demon guards are a very different matter. We worry much more about them.

But what can a blood knight and a renegade mage do after three weeks spent leveling up on very strong monsters in harsh conditions? None of the monsters were less than 200 levels above us.

“Attribute panel!”

Name: Sagie

Level: 551

Experience: 4500320/16811200 (12310890 left until the next level)

Race: Human

Class: None selected

 

Basic attributes

Strength: 257

Agility: 924

Stamina: 830

Intellect: 5953

Wisdom: 2229

Available attribute points: 0

 

Who’s the monster now? Who should be afraid of who? I spend all my points on intellect, letting my other attributes grow thanks to my scalable items. The basic boost plus the rewards I’ve been getting for a variety of achievements mean that I have +140 to all of them.

There’s a group of mammoths and their demonic shepherds heading toward us. The air tingles with the power of the spell I have in the chamber.

“What are you waiting for? Fire!”

“Chain lightning!” Femida jumps. “Maximum!” The ice doesn’t transmit electricity that well, though it still does transmit. I’ve already hit Fem twice with residual charges.

What happens to mammoths whose hearts stop for a second while running? They collapse, falling easy prey to a close-combat fighter.

Watching a blood knight leap into the air amplified by a factor of ten is no less impressive a sight. Her armor instantly fills with blood, and a fountain of ice shards explodes from where she was standing. Femida uses dissection to maximize the situation. After ten minutes of fighting, we have mountains of meat and an enormous pool left over from my dragon breath. Oh, yeah! And lots of valuable loot. My Fire and Space Magic, along with my boosted fire attribute, are becoming terrifyingly powerful. The ice explodes when I hit it with just a normal fire ball. Dragon breath leaves a pool of water.  When I turn them up to maximum, however, we get a nice little sauna right there on the ice. We decide not