[ Name: Moon ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Class: Classless]
[ Level: 10 ][ 89%]
[ Lives: 140 ]
[ Strength: 19 ] [ Agility: 21 ] [ Constitution: 24 ] [ Mana: 26 ]
[ Attribute Points: 5 ]
[ Skills: Elemental Attack(Uncommon,Lvl.Max), Four Element Affinity(Rare, Lvl.1)]
[ Talent: Grim Reaper ]
[ Class Skill: Class Slot {0/1} ]
By the time they arrived back at the broken camp, Moon was almost at level eleven from the experience he'd gained from all the beasts they'd slain along the way. The week of constant combat had pushed both of them to their limits and beyond, forging them into harder, more capable warriors than the frightened awakeners who'd first stumbled into this frozen hell.
At the camp, they sat by their small fire, the flames providing meager warmth against the relentless cold. Moon stared at his status, noting how his lives had dropped from over a thousand to just one hundred and forty. The skill evolution had been expensive, but it's worth was obvious.
"We need to make a decision," Selene said, breaking the silence. Her face was illuminated by the firelight, exhaustion evident in the lines around her eyes.
"We can't keep wandering aimlessly. We need a goal."
Moon nodded. "The temple. We need to check it out, see what we're actually dealing with."
"You think we're ready?"
"Ready?" Moon let out a harsh laugh. "No. But we're stronger than we were. And we have information now. The journal gave us a starting point."
He looked at Selene. "We don't have to attempt whatever's inside. We just scout. Learn what we can. Then we decide our next move."
Selene was quiet for a moment, then nodded.
They spent the next ten minutes preparing. Checking their supplies, ensuring their harvested furs were secured properly, going over what little they knew from the journal entries. The temple was northeast from the abandoned camp, roughly half a day's climb up the mountain with stone pillars carved with frost patterns.
"We'll leave at first light tomorrow," Moon decided. "Give ourselves maximum daylight for the journey back and forth."
Selene agreed, and they settled in for the night, taking turns on watch as they had every night for the past week.
When dawn broke, painting the swirling sky in shades of pale blue and violet, they departed toward the mountain mentioned in the journal. Their footsteps crunched through fresh snow, their breath misting in the frigid air.
The mountain loomed in the distance, its peak lost in clouds and ice. Somewhere up there, buried in the frozen wastes, was a temple that held the key to their escape and possibly…their deaths.
But they had no other choice. Standing still meant slow death from exposure or starvation. Moving forward meant facing whatever horrors the temple contained.
Moon adjusted the bear fur around his shoulders and continued climbing, Selene at his side, both of them advancing toward their fate with grim determination.
The heart of winter awaited.
♢♢♢♢
They arrived at the bottom of the mountain as the sun reached its peak in the swirling sky.
Moon and Selene stood side by side, their necks craned back, staring upward at the massive structure that rose before them like a frozen titan clawing at the heavens. The mountain stretched impossibly high, its slopes steep and treacherous, covered in layers of pristine snow and jagged ice that glittered like shattered glass in the pale light.
The only sound was the wind.
It howled across the mountainside in a constant, mournful chorus, carrying with it the whisper of a thousand deaths.
The scent of pure snow entered their nostrils, untouched by warmth or life. Underneath it lurked a subtle metallic tang of ice so cold it burned, mixed with the clean emptiness of air that had never known summer.
The sight was simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.
The mountain's face was a masterwork. Massive ice sheets clung to sheer rock walls, creating formations that looked like frozen waterfalls caught mid-cascade. Snow drifts rose in elegant curves, sculpted by wind into shapes that seemed designed, almost artistic in a sense. The ice caught the light and refracted it into pale rainbows that danced across the white landscape.
But both Moon and Selene knew that beneath that beauty lurked danger.
Moon's eyes traced the lower slopes.
Claw marks carved deep gouges into the ice-covered rocks, far too large to belong to anything they'd encountered so far. The marks were fresh enough that snow hadn't completely filled them, suggesting whatever made them had passed through recently.
Further along, partially buried in a snowdrift, lay the frozen corpse of a massive creature Moon didn't recognize. Its body was mutilated, as if it had been thrown against the mountain with tremendous force.
Ribs jutted through its torn flesh, with one of its legs missing entirely from the corpse. Whatever had killed it possessed strength that made the arctic bear they'd fought seem like a child's toy.
Selene pointed silently to a series of tracks leading up the mountain's lower path. They were enormous, three-toed like the ones they'd followed to the abandoned camp. Each print was deep enough that Moon could have fit his entire fist inside.
"Something big lives up there," Selene whispered, her voice nearly swallowed by the wind.
Moon nodded, his eyes continuing their scan. Blood stained the snow in several places, dark crimson against pristine white, trails leading both up and down the mountain.
At this point, both awakeners realised that this wasn't just dangerous territory, it was a battlefield. A hunting ground for things that made the level nine beasts look like prey.
And somewhere up there, carved into this frozen nightmare, was a temple that possibly held their only chance of escape.
Moon pulled his gaze from the mountain's peak, shrouded in clouds that swirled with unnatural patterns, and looked at Selene. Her face was pale, but her expression was resolute.
"Last chance to turn back," he said quietly.
Selene shook her head. "We've come this far. And there's nowhere else to go."
Moon nodded, accepting her answer because it matched his own thoughts exactly.