Chapter 31: The Long Frost

"I wouldn’t joke about something like this."

The words hadn’t fully landed before Elara’s grip tightened on his arm, urgency cutting straight through the exhaustion in her voice.

Even half-broken from three months in the dark, something fierce was already surfacing behind her eyes the first real flicker of the queen she was supposed to become.

"My lord, whoever’s wearing my face in that city is planning something. I need to reach my father now, tonight, before whatever this is goes any further."

"I hear you." Kael kept his voice level, steady, the kind of calm meant to anchor someone standing on the edge of panic.

"But charging into a royal palace on nothing but a rescued girl’s word gets us nowhere.

Worse it gets us both arrested before anyone even hears the accusation." He crouched slightly, meeting her eyes.

"The palace doesn’t just let strangers walk up and demand an audience with the king. Is there anyone inside those walls who’d actually vouch for you? Someone who could get us through the front gate without a fight?"

She went quiet for a moment, brow furrowed in concentration, dredging up a plan through the fog three months of captivity had left behind. Then her eyes lit some of that fog finally burning off.

"My tutor. Archmagister Corwin Vale, court mage of the Ice Order." She straightened as much as her weakened body allowed, pride bleeding back into her posture despite everything.

"He has standing access to the palace, and he taught me everything I know about ice magic since I was a child. If anyone can get us in front of my father without question, it’s him."

"But there’s a problem," she added, quieter, some of that pride slipping. "Right now, you’re nothing but another adventurer who wandered into Frostwatch a day ago.

He has no reason to receive either of us let alone believe a story this strange."

Kael raised an eyebrow. "So getting to him isn’t going to be simple either."

"Actually it might be simpler than you think." A faint smile broke through despite everything she’d been through.

"He’s had a standing bounty posted at the Adventurers’ Guild for months. Wants the elemental core from a Frostscale Python some kind of research project he’s obsessed over.

Deliver that core to him personally, and he’ll grant an audience without a second thought. That’s our way in."

"Main Quest Unlocked SS Rank: The Long Frost."

"Objective: Accept the bounty at the Frostwatch Adventurers’ Guild for a Frostscale Python’s elemental core.

Deliver the core to Archmagister Corwin Vale, and arrange a meeting between him and Elara Winters."

Kael exhaled, satisfaction settling in as the shape of the whole plan clicked neatly into place a genuine main storyline, dropped in his lap on his very first day past the tutorial zone.

Whatever the Scourge Legion was actually planning with their fake princess, he intended to be standing in the room when it finally unraveled.

"Alright. I know exactly what we’re doing next."

He turned to Elara, his tone gentler now than it had been through the whole fight. "You’re still running on fumes.

Get some real rest my companion space will do more for you right now than anywhere out here ever could. Once I’ve got that core in hand, I’ll pull you back out and we’ll go see your tutor together."

"Thank you, my lord."

She dipped her head, obedient without a trace of hesitation, and dissolved into a soft wash of light drawn into the private pocket dimension every Beastlord carried, a space outside the normal rules where bonded companions could recover free of hunger, exhaustion, or injury, no matter how badly they’d been broken.

Even a Legendary-tier companion needed somewhere safe to heal, and three months under a Lich’s hands had left Elara nowhere close to fighting shape. For now, rest mattered infinitely more than her stat sheet ever would.

Behind him, a strangled, agonized shriek finally tore through the burial chamber.

The General had finished its assignment.

Kael turned in time to watch the Frostwraith’s body dissolve into scattering light, and crossed the room to sort through what she’d left behind.

Even in death, she gave one last gift a longbow, gold-tier, its surface still humming faintly with residual frost that hadn’t quite decided to fade.

[WINTERPIERCE] (Gold)

ATK 72–83

+14 CON, +16 STR, +21 AGI, +13 SPR

Special: Every attack deals +15% ice damage and applies a 5% slow

Level 16

The Lich’s death had already carried him to level 16 moments earlier, and the bow’s requirement matched the number perfectly like it had been waiting for him specifically.

He equipped it on the spot, weighing the frost-wrapped wood in his palm, feeling the faint cold radiate up through his glove.

He glanced down at the empty patch of stone where the Frostwraith had stood, something almost apologetic crossing his face. "You earned that ending. I won’t forget it."

He checked the time glowing faintly in the corner of his vision. Past 10 PM.

Ascension didn’t let anyone cheat their way around basic biology no matter how deep a player went, the body waiting outside still needed food, water, and sleep eventually.

That would change down the road, once the merge properly took hold and player vitality started scaling past ordinary human limits.

For now, everyone still answered to the same unforgiving clock, professional gamer or not.

Twenty straight hours online, and Kael’s exhaustion had finally caught up with every part of him at once the dull ache behind his eyes, the stiffness in his shoulders that no amount of adrenaline could talk away anymore. Time to log off, before his own reflexes started slipping.

One thing left before he could close the session out properly. The auction house was waiting, and there was no sense sitting on a haul this size overnight when prices only dropped the longer gear sat unsold.

He cracked a return scroll between two fingers, felt the familiar pull of teleportation drag at his stomach, and reappeared inside Frostwatch’s gates a heartbeat later.

Straight to the auction counter, no detours, no distractions. Item after item went up for listing in quick succession, and within minutes the sky overhead lit up with the telltale chime of server-wide broadcasts, one after another.

"Server Announcement: The #1 ranked Gold-tier item on the equipment leaderboard, [Staff of Netherflame], has been listed at Frostwatch Auction House starting bid, 1,000 gold."

"Server Announcement: The #2 ranked Gold-tier item, [Netherflame Robes], has been listed at Frostwatch Auction House starting bid, 800 gold."

More followed in rapid succession, filling the sky for several unbroken minutes before the noise finally trailed off into silence.

The forums caught fire instantly, threads multiplying faster than anyone could keep up with.

"Since when did Gold-tier gear become this common? How many pieces IS this guy sitting on?"

"Doesn’t matter who posted it everyone already knows it’s him again."

"Meanwhile the rest of us grind an entire day just to walk away with one piece of white-tier garbage."

"He just casually dumps a dozen top-shelf items like he’s cleaning out a closet he doesn’t need anymore. Some of us are still farming copper coins by hand."

"There’s no possible version of RNG that looks like this. He’s got something boosting his drop rates, has to be."

"Whatever it is, it’s absolutely broken. This can’t be intended game balance somebody at the studio needs to look into this."

"At this point I’d just be happy watching him play for a week. Free education."

Kael scrolled past the noise with a faint, tired grin, clapped the last listing closed, and rolled his shoulders, more than ready to finally call it a night.

"That’s everything."

He’d barely finished the thought when a voice cut cleanly through the crowd behind him smooth, composed, and unmistakably familiar despite how long it had been since he’d last heard it.

"Unrivaled. Got a minute?"