Singer Sailor Merchant Mage

“The windfall of great riches can, if mismanaged, make things worse, not better, for the recipients.”

Michael Mandelbaum

My medical duties were not finished with Gervir. Fascinated and astounded by the possibility of reviving giants frozen in the battle against the ice giant, the hunters and warriors gathered any entirely or partially frozen fighters and brought them to me, forming a long line. Volur and his students continued to provide me with mana as I worked my way through the line.

In the end, we were able to revive half a dozen frozen giants, but the revival was not always perfect. I lost two. I did not get to them in time, or they did not have enough resistance against the ice and cold of the calamity. They perished before they were ever brought to me. It was tough watching their friend’s hopeful faces turn to despair. It was incredibly tough when others had survived and were jubilantly rejoicing their return to living from their frozen state.

Fingers, toes and noses were the most common injuries; provided they were still attached, I could thaw and heal them, returning them to full use. I had been unable to return those that had been frozen and shattered. Simply healing the wounds left over, I could not regrow flesh. At least not with my skills as they currently stand; I could perhaps work out a way in time. However, that time was not today.

In fact, the most challenging injuries to heal were those I caused. Not me directly, but the exploding Ice Giant had flung molten metal throughout the Thorpe, and where it had hit the Giants, it had often burned its way in. There, we had to dig out the offending splashes of metal before attempting to heal the area, which had been the most complex injury to heal correctly with the molten metal cauterising the wounds they created. They had to be cut open in order for them to heal properly.

I had not charged a penny for the healing, seeing it as simply a cost of the conflict, but that did not mean I was not hugely appreciated with offers of favours and gifts given with each healing. The one benefit to being surrounded by healthy giants and giants waiting to be healed was that Namir could not get hold of me just yet. However, I could see him silently prowling around the group agitatedly. I could tell he would have words with me when we were alone.

Focused as we were on healing the injured, I was surprised to see Stamfar return to Volur ahead of the returning refugees who had fled the Ice Giant’s approach. It appeared that he had witnessed the Giant fall and brought them back rather than fleeing south to Tramontana, which meant the Thorpe still had its Shard of the Lodestar. Stamfar did not return alone but was accompanied by Nyx, who, after enough ice wyrm cores, could now spend time out and about on the endless ice, although she still preferred warmer temperatures. I had lost track of her in the flight, battle, explosion and healing afterwards. I was relieved to see her safe and sound.

With the last of the wounded warriors seen, I watched as the returning giants took in their destroyed Thorpe and the remains of the Ice Giant standing in the centre or scattered around it. They seemed to face the destruction of their home stoically and grateful that the majority of giants had survived the attack.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Volur commented as I considered the destruction surrounding us and the returning giants.

“Will you move or rebuild?” I asked, intrigued as to whether the exodus would become a permanent but more organised process.

“Rebuild, of course. It looks worse than it actually is. With most of the Thorpe dug into the Dell, all we have to do is unearth it again.” He smiled before turning to me with a question he had clearly been dying to ask. “How did you kill it?”

“Especially so spectacularly?” Namir added sardonically, slipping into the conversation now that the remaining warriors, hunters and giants had departed to start restoring their Thorpe and their lives. It was just Volur, Namir, Varvara, Eryk and I now.

“A practical application of theoretical science,” I answered.

“What?” Eryk asked.

“The Ice Giant was healing its wounds with ice.” I started to explain. “If you heat ice quickly enough, it melts, turning into water, then steam and expands with each change in state.” I continued. “By both injuring it and heating the ice, it was attempting to heal itself with its body exploded from the pressure of the ever-expanding steam within it.” I summarised my understanding of what I had hoped and gambled on happening.

“Did you know it would work?” he asked

“I hoped,” I said, carefully watching Namir. This was not exactly what we had agreed upon before returning to help the village.

“Well, we are all truly grateful it did.” Volur bowed low before being joined by Varvara and Eryk. “You will always be welcome on the Endless Ice.”

“I’m glad you feel that way. Because if you recall, our original agreement was that I get to keep what I kill. I was just wondering where is the core?” I asked, happy to have asserted my right to it.

“Probably somewhere in there.” Volur huffed. “If you did not destroy it outright with your practical application of . . . theoretical science.” He had been listening.

We trawled through the more prominent remains until. Finally, we discovered it behind what remained of the Ice Giant’s ribcage—tucked in behind what would have been its sternum. The enormous core continued to send out chilling waves of mana, the main reason we had been able to find it so quickly. All of the remains were frozen to some degree or other, but these were particularly so.

“Your prize, little hero.” Volur did not hesitate to offer me the spoils of the battle. Though at twice my size and weight, I would not be walking off with it anytime soon. Still, I was not without my own tricks.

"Of course, thank you." I opened a door to my spatial vault below it, and it fell through. I would deal with that later when I did not have an audience to watch what I thought might just happen when I did.

“Ice is worthless here where it is endless. But should you take it further south, its value will skyrocket the further south you travel. I am sure the Southern Lords of Ostro would pay a king's ransom for the ability to cool their castles. Even in Tramotana, Maestro and Ponente, ice can be a precious core to have in keeping provisions stored for longer. His words awoke me to the thought of creating my own walk-in freezer in my spatial vault. Time continued to pass in there, and if I could freeze provisions, they would keep them far longer than most medieval forms of storing would last without a significant amount of time preparing them. I nodded my thanks for the advice, even if it was only a reminder of what I already knew but had forgotten.

It was at this point that our hunting crew finally returned. Running over the ridgeline, they stopped and stared at the fallen Ice Giant.

Bjorn broke the silence with, “What did we miss?”

Varvara and Eryk laughed and rushed to welcome him home while Namir and I headed off to our guest quarters.

. . .

“You got lucky.” Namir started as soon as we had entered our private space out of eyesight and earshot of the other giants. “That stunt was not what we agreed to when I said we could return to run interference.”

“Yes and no.” I waffled. No one likes to be told off or have their failings pointed out.

“Yes?” Raising an eyebrow at my audacity.

“We ran until we were caught,” I argued. “None of us expected him to be able to move quite so quickly. But even then, I was ready to flee to fly away.”

“But you didn’t.” He pointed out the fact that even though I started to fly away, I had not left very far at all.

“I was fleeing with Stamfar. It was one last trick before I left. I was out of reach. I was safely stored away in my spatial vault.” I argued. “If it hadn’t worked, I would have fled south with Stamfar.”

“Kai, your family is relying on me to see you safely home.” He stated. “How can I do that if you continually throw yourself in harm’s way?” He questioned.

“I don’t,” I argued. It honestly was a series of unfortunate circumstances.

“The storm.” He continued.

“Unavoidable.” We did not have an option.

“The monster hunts.” Reminding me of the time I’d paused mid-air.

“Calculated risks for high rewards and approved of by you.” I pointed out that he had been happy enough to support my hunting with the patrol.

“The Ice Giant?” Three for three, they set an alarming tendency that was difficult to argue.

“A moral imperative to do the right thing and system approved judging by the jump in attributes and skill levels,” I argued. But looking at them all together we were certainly running into many more dangers than we ever had on our little island.

“Just . . .” He seemed almost to give up. “Can we take it down a notch on our return journey?” He pleaded.

“Yes? It’s not like I knew there would be an Ice Giant.” That honestly was not my fault, none of them had been really.

“No. But you can choose to run away from it next time rather than toward it.” He tried to convince me.

“I’ll try.” I conceded, and we left it at that.

. . .

Having found it expanded again with the levelling of my skill ‘spatial vault’, I had space for the extra room I had created to store the core. I did not want it freezing my Elvish trees to death. The room would one day be a walk-in freezer, but it only held the Ice Giant’s core for the moment.

It was a tempting core to touch—a level 99 Ice Giant’s Ice Core. I remembered what had happened when I touched a mere fragment of the Loadstone Wyrm’s core. Would the same thing happen here? This was the whole thing; I practised my skills, inspected and observed without touching.

Inspect

Ice Giant Beast Core

Tier 6

Elemental Imprint Ice Aura

. . .

Observe

Ice Giant Beast Core

Tier 6

Elemental Imprint Ice Aura

Elemental Imprint Ice Immunity

. . .

On the one hand, an Ice Aura did not seem to be worth one of my few remaining slots; on the other, I had seen how devastating it could be if levelled up suitably strongly. The ability to freeze your enemies with a single touch would be worth it. Ice immunity, though, would be well worth a slot. Especially if I ever entered the endless Ice again. To complete the circumnavigation, I would have to end up doing it. That skill or resistance alone would make the endless ice a walk in the park when the environmental factors no longer threatened to kill me with every step.

Remembering my disorientation from the last time, I sat down to meditate as I pressed my hand against the core and used Analyse to gain as much insight as possible and hopefully continue to level up the skill.

Analyse

Ice Giant Beast Core

Tier 6

Elemental Imprint Ice Aura

Elemental Imprint Ice Immunity

Elemental Imprint Ice Creation

Expecting the connection this time. I was not surprised when it came alive at my touch. Still, I was shocked by the number of elemental imprints within the core. Was that because it was an intact core? Or had the Ice Giant simply gained a lot of skills?

A flash of ice spilt forth from me as I sat there, my arm frozen to the core, but it no longer hurt. In fact, despite the plummeting temperature of the room and ice racing across the walls, I was actually very comfortable. It only took one look at my status to confirm what I already expected.

Cold (Lv10->20) & Ice (Lv8->16) -> Merged/Absorbed -> Ice Immunity

I breathed out ice crystals forming and falling as my breath left my body, but my lips, tongue, and teeth felt nothing of the biting cold despite the evidence forming right before my eyes. Looking inward, I could see the gains carved into my status by the system as a mental list of my body's physical changes. I had lost two tolerances/resistances but had been given something better: Ice Immunity. I no longer needed to fear the cold. It could no longer kill me alone. Or at least not without some guidance.

Furthermore, the Elemental Imprints had been added to my Status. I now had an Aura Skill and a creation skill. My Tier 5 skills were beginning to be quite respectable, and Ice Creation was a Tier 6 skill. I hoped I did not start bleeding Ice like the Ice Giant, which would hardly be conspicuous.

Tier 5: Music Prodigy (Lv31) Omniglot (Lv28) Mind fortress (Lv27) Weapon Prodigy (Lv25) Polymath (Lv16) Spatial Vault (Lv14) Astral Projection (Lv11) Multiple minds (Lv5) Enigma (Lv2) Ice Aura (Lv1)

Tier 6: Sense Soul (Lv2), Ice Creation (Lv1)

As I returned to the reality of my spatial vault, Nyx, who had unexpectedly entered while I was focused on the core, excitedly jumped toward it.

“Nyx, no!” Was all I had to shout before she was clawing at the core, scratching a chip off it, and as I reached to pluck her away, swallowed it.

I held her, wondering what the consequences would be.

Her body fell limp in my arms.