Frostbound

Chapter 253 - Stingy System

"Whooo," breath escaped me in a giant plum that frosted up the air and for once, it wasn't because of the outside temperature.

That came strictly from me.

My Bloodline drove my body temperature down and while it wasn't enough for ice crystals to form on my body anymore, it was enough to fog up my breath.

My hammer swam through the air in vicious arcs as I trained getting used to my new strength. The upgrade to my Body was much more pronounced this time than the first.

I should've expected it. Every subsequent upgrade was more than the last. The initial building blocks of my foundation were paving the road for the power that was slowly being accumulated.

Refining my Body didn't come with a stat point adjustment. It didn't suddenly increase my Strength or Fortitude by a number I could see and expect. It was more nuanced than that.

Having my Mana Heart go haywire for a few days was also outside my expectations.

The Runes lining my heart, carved into it in Frost, adjusted to my body's increased capability. My mana pool grew and so did its regeneration. The concentration stayed the same, I had to get Gabriel to test that as I didn't have good enough senses for it, but the other two increased.

It wasn't a large change, but it was still welcome.

I let the Bloodline energy burning through me go and felt the changes slip away. It was still odd to get used to growing and shrinking. If only by a few inches.

After getting back on my feet, I had to readjust to practically everything. An all-around boost like this was more than I was used to.

Speed, reaction, strength, fortitude, constitution.

This Refinement pointed out all the places my Body was different in large, highlighted swaths. Body of Wood was a stark change, but this was something else.

Not only did I have to get used to my body normally, but with everything I could do to it as well.

While my status claimed I had 1600 or so points in strength, that could very quickly change depending on the conditions. [Momentum of the Avalanche], [Fury], [Glacial Presence], all three had a way to push that further.

Those, including my Bloodline, resulted in a major difference from when I was just training normally. My goal was to get used to them one at a time and my Bloodline was the easiest to call upon.

[Avalanche] would have to come from the Dungeon or when another Wave came. [Fury] was easy enough to activate, but I didn't want to use it unnecessarily as dealing with the aftereffect wasn't exactly pleasant.

[Presence] altered its boost a lot, which made practicing with that one the hardest. The weather would change how effective the boost was.

Swinging my hammer at nothing always felt silly to me, but it was the only way to get used to it again.

I tried to imagine aiming at phantom enemies but even that didn't help. I didn't know any set 'forms' or weapon techniques. All I could do was swing at what felt like the right pace, which made it hard to feel like I was doing anything worthwhile.

That was, until a very chipper Austin came skipping over to me in the courtyard.

"You ready?" He asked all decked out in his new armor. Sam had done good work with the leather and Vincent forged the plates wonderfully. It was a touch upsetting that my part in his armor was diminished, but I knew Vincent was a better forger than me.

Still, I had my hand in it by enchanting it. Some of my best work, too. My Rune Engraving abilities rose more steadily than my fighting capability, but they still rose with practice.

Practice I was getting a lot of. My skills only had a few upgrades to show for it, but it wasn't nothing.

"I guess," I said and packed away my things. I didn't bring much with me, but I knew better than to leave them out.

"You guess?! I basically had to bribe Abigail's assistant to get me a slot in the Dungeons!" Austin complained.

"Calm down, bud, I'm just messing with you." With my things packed, I walked after him toward the Dungeons.

What Austin brought up was beginning to become an issue. While we had two dungeons, when other settlements only had one, it still wasn't enough for the entire City.

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There were only so many people who could delve in a day and we had reached that point. Feeding the Dungeons mana crystals from the mine helped, in addition to making them grow faster, but it still wasn't enough.

A waitlist had to be made and slots had to be divvied out.

I made sure the Orders all got some, and that my family did, but that took away from the thousands of people who wanted to delve.

The only way around it was for the Dungeons to grow another floor, or to start branching out to ones further away. We had two in our immediate vicinity, but there were others a day or two travel away.

It would be annoying to travel there and back, but it would increase the amount of people able to go in them. Some had already begun doing so.

Everyone was trying to get last-minute levels or skills before we left. We were only a few days away from the date we needed to leave and the hustle had gradually picked up as we closed in.

I was not looking forward to the trip, but there was nothing I could do about it.

We would meet up with Marcus in his City before heading further South together. Since our final destination was on the same river, it felt like common sense to use it to our advantage.

Except, from Marcus's recent messages, that was easier said than done. He was confident that with our Faction's help, travel over the water would be fine but we allotted a few extra days in our planning just in case.

That way, if a boat got damaged or something held us up, we would still make it on time.

"Hey Chris, I've got a question for you." We weren't rushing toward the Dungeons and the walk took a few minutes to get there. Which left ample time for conversation.

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever tried combining your Laws?"

The question was a bit out of the blue but not all that unexpected. Austin was one of the few with multiple Laws. Fewer still with an Affinity that encompassed both, like I was.

"Yeah, a little. Nothing I've done has worked out yet." I answered. "You?"

Austin nodded, "Same here. I thought I'd get them to merge when I upgraded my Fire Law to Tier 2 but they still remain separated. They work together well and all, but they refuse to merge."

"Maybe we're missing something."

"What do you think it is?"

"If I knew that, I would've told you by now."

"Oh come on, you have to have a guess at least. A hunch?" Austin pleaded.

"I'm not sure, but I feel like we're missing a piece of the puzzle. The Sun is more than just Fire and Light. Maybe we need to find how they combine better." It was my hunch when upgrading my Wind Law.

Going into it, I used my Wind Law as supplementary to my Ice Law. I gained it purely to make my Cold more effective and upgraded it along those lines. Both times, it was to make Wind compatible with Ice.

My Ice Law was the opposite. Not once did I explore how it would mesh with Wind. Now that I was looking back, and exploring combining them, I felt it was a mistake.

"I've tried that though." Austin said, "I've tried to merge them for a while now but never could."

"Maybe you need another one?" I said, "Maybe Gravity?"

"Ugh, that sounds complicated." He sighed. "Do you even know anyone with a Gravity Law?"

"No," I said. At most, I knew someone with a Kinetic Law. Which was freaky. It was invisible to all but mana senses.

Austin didn't respond and instead looked thoughtful.

"How come you're asking?" I questioned, "Worried about your evolution?"

"Who isn't," He snarked, "What can I say? You've set a standard now. Everyone's doing all they can before evolving."

He looked more... contemplative than usual, which sparked a thought. "Wait, what level are you?" He was fighting in Minnesota for a while, if I was close to 100, he should be too.

Austin's Profession gave him a [Blocker] stronger than I could get through which made his level a mystery.

"99." He said. "I capped my Profession a while ago and I'm only one away from the big day."

Wow, that's a lot closer than me.

"It doesn't matter though, I still don't have anything to evolve with. I want wings damnit!" He lamented.

He brought up a point that kept a lot of people from evolving. Even with the upgrade to our Pylon, it still wasn't enough to buy things from off Planet and evolution materials were hard to come by.

The Auction House/ Trading Hall/ Marketplace was still in the process of being built. Jonathan's new linking ability as our Head Merchant was our last hope.

Parts could be gathered from the surroundings, but finding the exact creature you needed was damn near impossible. I doubted there were Frost Giants on Earth. Austin's case was easier. The odds of there being something he could use were a lot higher than mine.

Gabriel had it the easiest. Connor's... contact came through and managed to distill the Arctic Fox Bloodline without ruining the parts. So not only did he gain a Bloodline, but he also had the materials ready to evolve.

Hal had yet to find a Griffin and we were too far away from the Ocean to even look for the Water Bloodline parts we needed. Jonathan didn't have any luck either. It wasn't even worth it to mention Rachel, but she knew that going into her Bloodline.

"You think we'll get anything good if we pass?" Austin asked.

"What, like a reward?" I said.

"Yeah," he said, "We got a reward from the tutorial, why's it such a leap to get one for a test."

"We're already getting a reward. The continued protection from outside forces."

"Yeah, but what about personal rewards? For those who actually participate in the fighting."

"I'm not arguing against you, Austin. I want there to be a reward as well, but nothing I, or Abigail, know says there will be."

"Stingy fucking system," Austin muttered.

The entrance of the Dungeon came into view and we were at a natural stopping point in our conversation anyway.

As the timer closed in on zero, people from all across the continent readied their forces for what was to come. All knew the importance of the tests and sent their best and brightest to face it.

It would be the single largest gathering of people since the Change. One that no one wanted to miss.

From the far reaches of the North to the coastal cities in the South, all who could spare the men were preparing to make the journey.

In 13 separate places around the globe, people were converging on what would be the first meeting between champions. Only one continent didn't have an obelisk people were traveling towards and that was only because there were no inhabitants on it.

Not that anybody knew that.

Communication between the continents was still non-existent. Some were even split in half turning into separate land masses altogether from an outside point of view.

Other than being a meeting point for all the various Factions, it would be the first time Nobles came into contact with one another. Some had already met, but those were few and far between.

A Gathering of Champions, if one were to put a label on it was well under way.