Oh fuck I'm drowning, im drowning! I'm barely able to get to the surface without drowning. I float there for a few seconds, checking up a storm, before I manage to gather my bearings. I look around confused as all hell. I can't see a damn thing.
I make a small ice raft and I climb on. I then realize I am not in any clothes. I quickly summon armor of ash the very patted heavy plate armor weaves itself around me.
I flop onto the ice raft, I'm wet and cold, but I'm always cold so that's not new. Damn shitty flaw, would it hurt to be warm for one moment?
I sit up and I look around. This should be the storm sea but.... There are no stars or a moon. So it's not the storm sea? It's somewhere else.
I look around as my eyes adjust to the darkness. I find a little thing above the water. I paddle, yes paddle how embarrassing, to the little thing above the water.
I step off the raft and I let it melt. What I'm on isn't the biggest but it's solid ground. I look around, and there's nothing here. I sit down and I start waiting for dawn.
The night is uneventful, I'm pretty sure I fall asleep at one point because when I come to a loud noise that sounds like rushing water is all around. I watch as the sea quickly disappears, and I do catch that the water is pitch black. I stand up and look around, in the distance is a black wall.
That seems to be my target it seems to be north. I start walking around looking at the ground. I decide to stay up here for a day, to see what I'll be dealing with out here. I sit down after about an hour of watching the weird red coral labyrinth.
I don't see a damn thing down there so I decide to focus on my heat sense. At first, I have a hard time figuring out what each mean, but I try to relate them to things I sensed in the academy.
There are a few very large shapes, I was able to tell a being's rank, not well but I am. All of the shapes moving around are of the awakened rank. What kind of luck is this?!
I lay down incredibly annoyed. There's not a single dormant monster around just awakened rank. God damn it, I should be able to easily blitz through being a sleeper, not this!
I start making plans to get to the black city. It's going to be hard but if I act slowly and carefully I should be able to. I flop on the ground.
Damn, I'm already hungry but there's nothing to eat, I hate going hungry it's in my top 5 of least favorite things. I lay there for a while mostly using my heat sense, really bored. At, what I'm assuming to be, noon I decide to do something, so I start messing with my aspect.
I make a little snow castle, which takes a while for sure. I try to make the ice crown and I fail to get it right. Miserably too, it was too complex for me to get even slightly right. I even summon the daggers and I start testing them out. I swing the ash dagger and try to stab with the snow dagger. It's sloppy and not that good but it works, if i have to I could kill something, probably.
When night finally comes around I flop down after I watch the black sea rushing with so much speed it could easily kill someone, what I had figured out was that a particularly large coral, put an ice shell around the coral and I go to sleep. I'm cold and uncomfortable sure but I'm always cold so being a bit more uncomfortable isn't the worst thing ever, just annoying.
I decided to make a thick layer of snow and it's better but still uncomfortable. I get an okay night of sleep.
The next morning I get up and let the snow and ice melt. I stretch and I start climbing down the coral. I move slowly and carefully, if I fall ill die. I'd rather not die, or at least not die in such a lame way.
I finally make it down and I get to moving. For a bit, I move about just fine sticking to the darker parts of the coral hell. I notice a large outcropping of rocks about a little more than half a day away. I walk for a few hours making good progress, using heat sense I avoid anything with heat, thus not having to fight any nightmare creatures for now.
All goes well until I get caught in something thin and almost unnoticeable. I'm able to cut my way out with the daggers but I notice something big making its way towards me with quite a bit of speed. I'm barely able to get ready in time but I lose hope pretty quickly seeing a massive spider. An awakened beast, not a monster at least but still I'm boned.
I lift the daggers, hit the head, best to get the eyes that would kill it, the eyes have to be the weak point. I lift the daggers desperately. It attacks with incredible speed, i manage to stumble away barely dodging fast enough to only get hit in the shoulder
"fuck!"
I get thrown back rolling. I quickly get pinned to the ground. It bites at me so I stab it in the eye over and over.
[You have slain an awakened beast, an iron spider. Your cold grows deeper]
[You have received a memory]
It lands on me, it's too heavy I push it off. My arm hurts so much. My breathing comes out fast and shallow. I have to get food, the soul shard I have to get the soul shard. I, mostly out of muscle memory, start cutting it up.
I grab the soul shard cutting out bits of meat. I hold it in my arms disoriented. I start moving, no running away. I get to the rocks not long after. I slowly and painfully climb up, it takes hours. When I get to the top I fall to the ground dropping everything I had carried here.
I curl into a ball covered in blood. It hurts, it hurts so much, my arm won't move right, it hurts, my vision is swimming. Why did I think I'd be fine? Where am I? Why am I here? I'm just a sleeper I shouldn't have to deal with this. Is it meant to be fair because I got such a good aspect? Why why why why why.
I slowly reach over my shoulder is dislocated, I know I'm lucky to have even lived but it hurts. I grab my shoulder and painfully snap it into place. Everything hurts, I'm screaming. I'm screaming that's my voice screaming. I'm dry heaving, it hurts everything hurts. There's black spots in my vision. What's that clinking noise?
I open my eyes, and my shoulder hurts a lot. I reach over, and it's bleeding, the cut is deep but not life-threatening. I slowly look up at the stuff I had dropped.
The meat and soul shard are still here. It's getting closer to night but is still day, if I light a fire at night it would be like a beacon for monsters. It takes me half an hour but I make a small fire. I grab a piece of meat and I just stick my hand into it, I'm immune to heat damage so it's fine.
It doesn't help with the cold at all but I don't really have it in me to care. When I think it's done I pull my hand out, my armor is burnt but fine. The meat is cooked enough not to kill me and that's what matters. I start eating, it's burnt and tastes horrible but it doesn't matter. I'm so hungry so damn hungry. Food is food.
I hadn't gotten much meat from the thing I was too out of it to do so. I use some ice and snow to make a thing to make it so my arm wouldn't move too much. I also make a cover made of ice and a particularly fluffy snow bed for myself.
I put the meat on another pile of snow. I flop on my snow bed and pass out pretty fast. I get woken up for a few seconds when the dark sea appears, as well as later when a storm comes in. The storm doesn't get to me while I'm in my ice box. It sure as hell tries to, the whole thing would have been blown away if I hadn't made it right.
I wake up when the dark sea goes away. I dismiss the ice wall, it was damaged but it didn't break. I make a bag out of ice putting everything in it. I'll stay here for the day. I sit on the stone pretty far out of it. I barely remember that I got a memory.
Memory: [priest's notebook]
Memory Description: [The notebook of a long-dead priest. Its pages never run out and the pencil never dulls.]
I got a useless memory too. A useless memory, how ironic. It seems I used my memory luck all on my armor and dagger. Maybe I'll get lucky again later. That is if I kill something again.
I probably won't have to do that ever again. Or maybe I will and I'll die by one of those spiders. I might have decided to stay here for today, but that doesn't mean I have much to do. I watch the movement of the spiders with a heat sense for an hour.
I get bored so I summon the priest's notebook. I started sketching the spiders, and I was lucky it hit my non-dominant arm. I take out the soul shard and I crush it. Nothing from the spell... so I wasted the damn thing. No matter I can sell whatever shards when I get to the city.
Eventually, I make an eye wall and I start trying to learn how to throw ice daggers, because it's cool as hell. I fail pretty badly but I started at least. When night comes around I go about making the ice shell and the snow bed.
I get it the next morning. I pick up my ice bag and I climb down this time if I'm attacked I'll use ice to hold it while I stab whatever attacks me. I have to stay calm. I start walking again. This time I'm aware of the iron spider web and I can watch out for them.
I keep walking holding the snow dagger, slashing attacks probably wouldn't be useful against those spiders.
I keep in walking sometimes grimacing as the cast jolts. I keep walking towards some very large bones I'm able to avoid the webs now that I know what I'm looking for. It's all for not as a spider still notices me.
This time I'm well prepared and ready for the attack. It crawls from above to bite at me. I'm able to make an ice wall that breaks through, but it's massively slowed down. I freeze one of its legs and I stab at its eyes. I get a few small scratches on my body but nothing too bad this time.
[You have slain an awakened beast' the iron spider. Your cold grows deeper]
This time I'm not too out of it to collect meat and other stuff from it. Quickly take the meat, some of the hide, and the soul shard. I shove it in my ice bag and I get back to moving.
I use snow and ice to cover my cuts. The rest of the day goes pretty well all things considered. I get to the bones and use ice to have an easier time getting up. I start a fire and I cook some meat. It still tastes horrible but what can you do?
For the small time I have I practice throwing ice knives. I'm still bad but I just started. I'm really bored and it's cool.
The next few days goes the same as that day. I don't get into too much trouble, I stay away from any large groups, and pick off lone spiders when they attack. I gets some cuts but I seem to heal faster when I make ice bandages.
It's a neat trick honestly pretty useful, cutting the healing down by half is always welcome. I keep on the move, the webs and spiders slowly lighten up.
That is until I'm about a day away from the edge of what I learned is a massive crater. That's when I get attacked by two spiders at once.
"Oh shit" I watch as the two spiders crawl down. A deep sense of dread shakes my very soul. I can deal with one but two? Probably not. I've gotten some experience within these last few days but I doubt it will be enough to not get injured or die. What's worse is their coming from different directions.
I make an ice wall to slow them down. The first crashes through, I scramble to the side barely dodging, the second crashes through and I jump away in time to not get hurt. The two spiders collide disorienting them both. I use that time to freeze one of the two legs as I go after the other.
I notice a attack too late getting bit on the arm the same one that was already hurt. I stab at its eyes desperately, back and forth just trying to put it down.
[You have sla-
I turn around to face the other spider already coming at me. I get hit in the side taking a hit, which makes a large wound on my side. I'm thrown up onto its head and I stab away into its eyes.
[You have slain an awakened beast iron spider. Your cold grows deeper]
[You have received a memory]
I make ice bandages while I still have adrenaline. I run, well more like stumble, away from the two dead spiders. It hurts, the world is blurry, it hurts it hurts it hurts, I can't walk very fast, everything is so cold it's all too cold. This is hell, this place is hell I'm not going to survive.
I'm too injured to even think of getting meat and soul shards from them. It's almost time for the black sea to rush in when I get to the next safe zone. I climb more like crawl to the top. I flop barely getting it in my head to make an ice shell. I quickly passed out on the ground.
The next day I slowly wake up feeling absolutely horrid, like I was a doll for a child that throws their child around. It was already midday when I next wake up. I decided to stay here for two days instead.
My wounds aren't going to kill me but god damn do they hurt. I make a small fire, cook some meat, it is still bad, and I eat with a grimace. I decide to check my new memory
Memory: [silk thread]
Memory Description: [A nest of spiders spins their iron threads taking over a statue of a long-dead hero.]
I summon the memory, it's a long string that can change length. One of its sides is incredibly sharp. It seems useful for traps and the like. Because it can change length I can use it to pull myself up which seems really useful. Even more so with my horrid state at the moment. Only a day left of travel until I get to the walls, and what's left to travel is all a crater.
For the time I stay in this safe zone I train with ice throwing knives, sketch the spiders, practice with my new memory, and other such things. At one point I had desummoned my armor for it to heal, I dont need it for warmth after all. Instead I make some temporary ice clothes. Although this whole thing is horribly annoying.
When the time in the safe zone is up I grab my ice bag and I get on the move again. Its slower then before because of my injuries but this time im able to get away from the spiders easily so I make it to the crater and across it in time. I make simple ice steps from the wall. Im still so incredibly tired but im not any more injured. I walk over, watching as the sun sets over a ruined city. Light soon only comes from the castle in the distance.