The cold bit deeper the longer they stood there.
West exhaled slowly with blue mist escaping his lips as he surveyed the alien landscape stretching before him.
A third layer... hidden, undocunted and undiscovered for over a century.
And that realization hit him harder than the cold ever could.
If this place had remained untouched for a hundred years...
Then no awakened gang or faction had ever stepped foot here.
Which ant one thing... fresh territory... fresh loot..
West’s lips curved faintly.
He had co down here for Calvin, Emily, the missing guide and teacher... and for the woman’s son...
But he wasn’t stupid.
Survival in a world like this required resources and power...
And if this place held century-old sealed treasures, he would not walk past them empty-handed.
He still had significant space in his inventory... plenty of capacity.
He adjusted the pendant resting against his chest and stepped forward.
The crystalline ground beneath his boots emitted a faint chi-like crunch with every step.
All of a sudden, a hand phased out from a slanted rough wall over fifty feet eastward...
Elongated fingers shot toward his ankle but didn’t even get close...
A blast of erald fla tore through it.
Gor’thala didn’t look in its direction... she simply flicked her wrist.
The limb splattered into dark residue before evaporating into blue vapor.
Another erged from beneath the ground near his left foot.
This ti, Seraphyra coiled slightly and snapped her tail through it.
The hand dissolved like mist pierced by light.
Seraphyra’s voice echoed in his mind, playful and rich.
"They are persistent... and quite rude."
Even now, her tone carried that mischievous lilt.
"You should allow one to grab you, just a little. I would enjoy tearing it apart properly."
West didn’t even glance at her.
"Focus."
She giggled softly.
"I am focused, master... but only on you..."
Gor’thala remained stoic as ever, watching silently and scanning the terrain for threats.
They advanced deeper into the cavern.
The blue hills grew larger as they approached with surfaces that shimred faintly like frozen waves mid-motion.
Embedded within one of them... sothing glinted.
West’s eyes sharpened.
He changed direction imdiately, heading towards the glint...
As he approached the hikl, the air temperature plumted further.
Frost began creeping along his boots, his legs and soon a thin layer of ice ford across his coat...
With every step closer, the cold intensified exponentially.
By the ti he was within three ters, his fingers had stiffened and breaths ca out of his nostrils and mouth in heavy clouds as ice began forming along his shoulders.
If he moved any closer, there was no doubt that he would freeze solid. This was surprisingly effective for soone of his strength level... he couldn’t imagine how any regular human would survive this.
Gor’thala stepped forward.
"I will retrieve it, Master."
Without waiting for permission, she strode toward the hill.
Erald flas ignited across her palms.
Without flickering, itburned steady and dense, resisting the frost aura pushing outward from the hill.
Ice ford briefly along her forearms, then evaporated as her flas burnt brighter.
She thrust her hand into the crystalline surface.
And although, the surface resisted briefly, it cracked under pressure, screaming faintly like breaking glass.
Then she ripped the object free and te frost aura vanished instantly.
She returned and placed it in West’s palm.
It was a shard-like crystal about the size of a dagger blade, deep blue in color with veined with silver lines.
The mont West touched it, atranslucent panel appeared before him.
---
[ ITEM ACQUIRED ]
Na: Cryoheart Shard
Rarity: High
Type: Elental Core Fragnt
Effect:
Grants 15% resistance to frost-based effects when equipped.
Can be used as crafting material for high-tier frost artifacts.
Origin: Unrecorded (Ancient Subterranean Source)
---
West smiled faintly. High in rarity... which ant, it would certainly be more expensive.
He already got such an item first... this place was already looking promising.
He slid it into his inventory and they began moving again.
The hands continued to phase from walls, ground, even the ceiling occasionally.
So reached with more aggression while others tried to grab and retreat quickly...
None survived contact.
Seraphyra remained annoyingly cheerful.
"If this is what guards this place, I am disappointed," she teased.
"I expected sothing grander. Sothing that would at least bruise you a little."
Gor’thala did not respond as she incinerated another limb without comnt.
West’s eyes remained forward.
The deeper they moved, the terrain grew more uneven.
Blue crystalline pathways twisted into elevated ridges.
Pits opened abruptly at random intervals with their depths emitting blue fire.
Occasionally, skeletal remains could be seen near the edges of those pits.
So seed humanoid and others seed far too large to be human...
In one clearing between hills, West spotted another faint glimr.
He approached cautiously this ti, glad that this one wasn’t embedded in a frost hill.
It lay half-buried near the edge of a pit.
He knelt and brushed aside crystalline debris.
It was a black tallic ring that felt cold to touch.
---
[ ITEM ACQUIRED ]
Na: Ring of Eternity
Rarity: Rare
Effect: Stores a portion of ti within
West was confused when he saw this. Stores a portion of ti within? What did that an?
Nonetheless, he kept it within his inventory. He could figure it out when this was all over.
Eventually, the terrain funneled into a narrower passage that widened again into a three-way intersection.
Three cave-like paths branched out towards the left, right and center... all equally dark.
West paused.
"We don’t know which path leads to them."
A small tremor caused the surroundings to vibrate again and this ti it was much more intense... It seed to originate from sowhere ahead... but not clearly from one direction.
"Fork out," he said.
Seraphyra tilted her massive serpentine head slightly.
"Splitting up in a hidden third layer filled with hostile entities? Bold."
"Left," West instructed.
She smiled mischievously.
"How can I ever bear to part ways with master."
"Seraphyra... behave..." West rolled his eyes.
"Yes master. If I find sothing amusing, I will inform you."
She slithered into the left path with her luminous form casting pale light along the walls.
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