The Ice Lands

by William Dickey

  A few minutes later, after the newly baked extra layer turned my feet into bricks, Talia carefully looked over my completed mud armor.

  “Good enough, for a first attempt. I guess it’s good that your muscles are small, you’re flexible enough to reach everywhere,” said Talia.

  “What’s next?” I asked.

  “Naturally, we try it out,” said Talia just before she dashed into the woods clearly intent on me following.

  I turned to Mai. “You know it’s kind of strange. With Lilith and Rose, you were constantly nagging at me to stay away. But now that I have a beautiful woman flaunting herself you are suddenly silent,” I commented, giving myself a few seconds to enjoy the view before following Talia.

  ‘I tried to break things with Lilith because she was a succubitch who would have drained you dry,’ Mai began.

  “You say that as if it’s a bad thing,” I joked.

  ‘As for Rose, mark my words, it isn’t going to end well,’ Mai ignored me. ‘As for Talia, well, what’s there to worry about? It’s not as if you have a chance?’

  I tried my best to ignore Mai’s grating response. I didn’t like it when she pretended to know everything.

  I did my best trying to keep up with Talia but no matter what I tried, she remained firmly in the lead and it wasn’t too long before I gave up trying.

  The cold causes stats to decrease by 5%

  Until you get warmer, stats will continue to decrease.

  A five percent loss might not have been much but I could immediately see its effects. I dropped back and Talia’s lead steadily grew. At some point Talia must have noticed because her speed dropped, allowing me to keep up. Over the next hour, things steadily got worse.

  The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%

  Total loss due to cold: -10%

  …

  …

  Hey dumdum. You’re freezing your ass off. Do something.

  The continuing cold causes stats to decrease by additional 5%

  Total loss due to cold: -45%

  Eventually, the cold reached the point where a violent stinging pain saturated the nerves in my feet and toes. I lost all useful feeling and with it, all means of control. I tripped over my own feet and stumbled headfirst into a snowbank.

  It was a struggle to pull myself out, but I managed it. Unfortunately, when I tried to regain my pace I found I couldn’t. The cold had dug too deeply into my feet and I couldn’t take more than a handful of steps before stumbling back down. Before long, I lacked the strength to continue trying. The cold was simply too much. I would have felt depressed towards my failure, but all I could do was think about the pain as everything faded to black.

  When I came to, I was lying in my bed covered in half a dozen fur blankets and with a vibrant fire dancing only a few feet away. Still, despite such heat sources, my teeth continued to chatter against one another, the vibrations quickly generating a headache as my brain was shaken inside its casing. It was as if my body’s internal furnace had been shut off. It had given into the cold and refused to relight.

  The flap to my yurt opened. I couldn’t see it from my current position, but I felt a sudden cool breeze on my face and saw the fire shudder in response.

  “What happened? I know you can be a bit excessive, but I did not expect you to take things this far,” said Izusa.

  “Shh, he is sleeping. Let us take this outside,” Talia whispered back.

  I felt the brief breeze again as the pair headed outside.

  “Mai,” I whispered.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, appearing on the other side of the fire with her hands pressed against it as if she were trying to absorb its warmth.

  “Enhance my hearing. I want to hear what they’re saying,” I said.

  ‘Sure.’ Mai vanished and my hearing improved to the point where the crackle of the fire nearly deafened me before Mai filtered it out, leaving me with the pair of voices from outside.

  “So what happened?” Izusa asked.

  “I did as you requested,” Talia answered. “I showed him what he would have to do at the start of the hunt. Then I had him try it. He did not even last an hour.”

  “You did not even bother to check his mud armor to make sure he did it properly. I know you do not have much practice at teaching but come on, Talia, you should know better than that,” said Izusa.

  “Of course I know better. The mud armor was fine,” said Talia.

  “What happened then?” Izusa asked.

  “It is him. He is too soft. His human physique is just not cut out for this,” said Talia. “And winter has not even really set in yet. Two months from now it will be far worse.”

  “But other humans have participated and even succeeded in the Blood Moon before,” said Izusa.

  “Yes, but they were captured orphans from border raids. I doubt very many of them were in clans this far north. This Blood Moon is in the middle of winter and during a bad one at that. Normally, a fifth of our clan’s participants fail from exposure during winter Blood Moons. I fear this time will be worse. I fear it might not be possible for a human to succeed in a Blood Moon under these conditions,” said Talia.

  I frowned at that, but she was just saying what I already knew to be true. I was smaller in both height and girth than any beastmen. Heat would dissipate from my body more quickly. I wasn’t cut out for this, any of this.

  A wave of despair ran through me. I had come so far, suffered so much yet I was to be undone by the weather. Normally, I’d get out of any problem with a clever use of tools, but this time I had none. The beastmen forbade it. There was no way out.

  The cold in my bones lessened. My shivering stilled. I thought it was because of the hopelessness of this situation, that it had rendered me numb to the mortal concerns of my body, but then clarity was brought by a simple ring.

  Brrinnng.

  Congratulations! Through your experience in enduring the vast depth of frost and snow, you have acquired a new skill: †Low Temperature Resistance†.

  †Low Temperature Resistance Lvl.1 (0.0%)†

  Grows with experience in low temperature environments.

  Effect of the cold on your health -5%

  Effect of the cold on your stamina -5%

  That was it. That was my answer. Like a life preserver thrown to a drowning man, the interface provided my salvation. Really, I should have seen it before. I’d seen several individuals with the same adaptation but, probably because I found comparing myself to those things so repulsive, my mind never found the obvious answer. All I needed to do was train this Low Temperature Resistance skill and become like Robin and the New Fallen, become immune to the cold.

  Ch. 11: Ceremony

  “Are you ready? Izusa asked.

  “Do I have much choice?” I replied.

  ‘There’s always a choice,’ Mai beamed because she knew there really wasn’t one.

  Izusa and I remained silent as we departed from my yurt and headed to the city outskirts. It was just past sunset, I could still see a dim glow on the horizon though it was no longer the brightest light source in the area. That belonged to a bonfire the beastmen set up for the ceremony.

  Near the bonfire, Jutmaek and several clan elders I recognized from the meeting were standing atop a large circular black platform fifty feet across covered in patterned symbols. The symbols looked vaguely reminiscent of a magic sigil, though a thousand times more complex than anything I’d ever seen before. In the center of the platform was an attached table on which sat a silver goblet.

  “Where did that thing come from?” I asked. Doraga was smaller than Crystalpeak or Dewpoint and while I had yet to fully explore it in the two months I had been there, I would have thought I’d have seen such a large, bizarre looking structure before then.

  “It was just uncovered in the past few days,” Izusa replied. “The dais is the heart of the clan. Each clan has one and only one. In the past, entire clans fell when their dais was damaged. In order to
ensure it is spared from the weather, it is normally buried. It is only uncovered for the Blood Moon.”

  Around the platform, mostly close to the bonfire, were numerous nude silhouettes. These were the other participants, in a way my competitors, although we weren’t in direct conflict.

  “Get undressed and join the others. Stay near the fire if you need to keep warm and take advantage of it while you can. Good luck,” said Izusa.

  I summoned my equipment menu and moved all my clothing into my inventory. They vanished completely. Despite the practice over the last seven weeks, I still hadn’t gotten quite used to the nudity.

  As for Izusa’s concerns over the cold, it was completely unwarranted. My Low Temperature Resistance had reached level 8, reducing the effect the cold had on me by 40 percent. At this point, my body was even more resilient than the beastmen and with the addition of mud armor, I was practically immune. Of course, the skill didn’t come without costs. With each level, my complexion grew a shade paler. At first, I only looked to be a bit under the weather but by level 8, I looked less human and more like some vampire. Already, I scared beastmen children, reminding them of the fearful New Fallen. Besides that, training the skill wasn’t easy. I’d spent nearly every moment I wasn’t with one of Izusa’s tutors sitting outside and letting the cold ravage my body.

  The cold is a strange thing. It first hits like a blow to your gut, sending a wave that startles your entire body. Then it settles down and slowly creeps into the system like hunger or dehydration, softening you up from the inside. Finally, if things go to their furthest extreme, the cold brings a cruel stinging pain that stimulates every nerve, in short becoming the perfect torture device that begins in one’s extremities and slowly works its way in towards your core.

  It was at the border of this extreme I spent most of my time. I’d stay out in the cold until the stinging pain had reached my shoulders. I’d return to the warm fire in my yurt but only until my fingers thawed, then I’d rush back out into the snow. Day after day, I worked to adapt to the cold until my time ran out.

  I joined the crowd of young participants. We were all about the same age but I stood out because I was by far the smallest. Over the next half hour, the whole of Doraga trickled in. Other than the few elders already assembled on the platform, the area immediately around it was set aside for the participants while the onlookers positioned themselves in a thick outer ring. In this half hour, the full moon rose but we still had to wait, the moon hadn’t turned red yet.

  Suddenly something hit me in the back of the knee, knocking it out of its locked position. It would have sent me to the ground if my reflexes were a fraction slower.

  “Oops, so sorry about that,” said a young man with long blond hair behind me. He was on the large side even for a beastman standing over two feet taller than me. From the lack of clothing, I knew he was another participant.

  “No problem,” I said as the blond teenager retreated into the crowd and I returned my attention to the platform, even though nothing was happening yet.

  ‘You should hear this,’ said Mai.

  There were many conversations among the waiting participants. Unlike me, a lot of them had grown up together and formed friendships. Mai filtered out all the other conversations until only the one she thought I’d find interesting remained.

  “Heeh he. Can you believe that stupid human thinks that was just an accident?” said a voice that I recognized as the blond man who’d just bumped into me.

  “Shhhh, that’s enough, Krill. Are you trying to draw attention to us?” said an unknown young beastwoman.

  “Come on, Mira. No one is listening. Everyone is too preoccupied with themselves at the moment,” said the young blond beastman, Krill.

  “What do you think, Ruhl?” asked Mira.

  “I think the two of you need to focus,” said another unknown beastman, presumably Ruhl. “Truant gave us a mission.”

  The conversation between the three ended and after a moment of silence, Mai stopped muting the rest of the background noise.

  ‘Be careful,’ Mai warned. ‘We are surrounded by potential enemies.’

  She wasn’t talking about the excessively competitive spirit between participants in the Blood Moon. I recognized the name the trio mentioned, Truant. He was the young ‘elder’ in the assembly who was dedicated to southern expansion. Other than the beasts and harsh environmental conditions, another threat existed for me during this Blood Moon. People were actively pursuing me, actively trying to make sure I failed.

  Over the next hour, all of Doraga watched as a red spot appeared in the corner of the moon. The spot slowly spread until it encompassed the whole thing. It was then that Jutmaek stepped forward and gestured for the chatting crowd to be silent.

  “I’m glad to see everyone here tonight on this most significant occasion,” Jutmaek began. He referred to the Blood Moon as significant because while for many it would be a joyous occasion in which their sons and daughters finally became full members of the clan, for others it would be the last time they ever saw their loved ones. Significant seemed to have the right balance to it.

  “We all know why it is important, but in many ways this Blood Moon is special. First, the last blood moon was almost three years ago, so the number of participants tonight is greater than any in our lifetimes. Next, of course this Blood Moon will undoubtedly be harsher and crueler than any in memory. I refer not to the number of participants, though that will present its own challenges, but to the fact that it is midwinter and the area will be resource poor. Accordingly, I wish to advise you all not to give up a potential form because it isn’t ‘good enough’ and remind you that we all understand the challenge you face and that success will be judged with that in mind,” said Jutmaek.

  Acquiring a powerful beastform played a large role in determining a young beastman’s standing in society. Jutmaek was advising participants to be prudent, to take any form early, other clansmen would understand the poor conditions they faced and show understanding. Jutmaek was hoping to reduce the number of this moon’s Fallen, but from the looks on the assembled young people’s faces, I doubted his words had much effect. For myself, it didn’t change anything. I still needed to get an impressive beastform in order to smooth Jutmaek’s path as he rallied support for an expedition.

  “On a final note, I would like to remind you all that despite the competitive nature of the hunt, you all are in the same boat and after today you will all be expected to work together as part of the clan. So, while there is nothing preventing you from interfering with one another, I recommend you take great care before doing so. Now, I have spoken more than enough. Let us get this underway.” Jutmaek nodded to the other elders on the platform who began to spread out.

  Each of the twelve took positions along the edge of the circular platform, roughly equidistant to one another.

  “Begin,” Jutmaek announced, his deep voice echoing through the silent night.

  All the elders began to chant in a strange almost guttural growl that would have been unrecognizable as any form of language if not for its repeating metric and the fact that all of the elders were repeating the same sounds simultaneously. As they chanted, the symbols along the outer edge of the platform began to glow a dim red that held the same shade as the moon. The glow slowly spread inward towards the raised goblet in the center.

  ‘A quaternary verbal spell input,’ Mai noted as she watched beside me. ‘That is a seriously strange way to do it.’

  “What do you mean?” I whispered, not wanting to draw attention in the silent audience. “Isn’t the platform just a large artifact that is absorbing the energy of the blood moon and focusing it into the goblet?”

  ‘The platform does draw mana and focus it into the goblet in the center but it isn’t an artifact, not really. An artifact automatically guides the mana in the proper form and casts the magic. The platform isn’t doing that. The platform is following the chant and is using it to generate the magic. Think of the platf
orm as a computer, the chant acts as a program that the platform will use to determine the magic that is performed on the goblet,’ Mai explained.

  “Isn’t that better than an artifact, doesn’t that mean that the platform could be used for many different spells instead of just one?” I asked.

  ‘Yes, it’s weird they are using a chant to provide the input. If a single syllable is off the whole magic could fail and given that the energy source is a rare natural phenomenon they don’t have many attempts,’ said Mai. ‘When the Travelers used these things they had an external module supply the commands but that must have been lost at some point.’

  “These came from the Travelers?” I said.

  ‘Of course, what impressive magitechnological devices didn’t come from them,’ Mai replied. ‘They used such devices to make things like the beastmen in the first place.’

  “They made the beastmen? They aren’t indigenous to this world?” I asked.

  ‘Nope, the beastmen were… are all human. They used these devices to fuse them with beasts because you humans were too puny and the Travelers needed help fending off the daemons. I guess after the fall, the beastmen took the leftover relic and formed their own civilization,’ said Mai.

  “But beastmen, even in their human forms, even before undergoing the Blood Moon ceremony are so much larger than normal humans. How can they be the same?” I asked. It should be noted that a beastman who completed the Blood Moon didn’t see any change to their human form. Their huge size was something inborn.

  ‘What do you expect from a few thousand years of harsh natural selection?’ Mai replied. ‘All the small or weak beastmen fail the Blood Moon and die. As such, no small or weak genes remain.’