"Kidnap the Governor?" Sivelle yelled in surprise.
It was a good thing that I'd silenced our conversation to everyone around, otherwise that might have been call for alarm.
I nodded in reply. "There is a meeting between Monarchs, and I represent a burgeoning nation. The other Kings don't respect this new nation's claim, so the meeting is no longer optional."
"But the Governor?" She seemed incredulous. "No-one, not even I, know his true identity, most of the current City Lords don't even know who he is. If they even are a she."
"That's what I need to do." I shrugged. "I'm a bit indebted to this new King, so I'll do everything that I can to make sure that this deal goes ahead." For saving my life, there was no way I wasn't going to make this meeting happen, even if it took several weeks. For Sivelle's sake though, I avoided mentioning that this meeting was mostly a front, a war was coming that no-one would be able to stop. Not that the monarchs particularly seemed to want to prevent it.
Sivelle's tense shoulders seemed to relax a bit, and she sat back into her noble posture. Though she didn't glare at me, she certainly stared, but her eyes took on a distant look.
The silence extended beyond what felt comfortable, and just as I was about to break it, she spoke up.
"I will tell you the location of the next meeting between the City Lords and the Governor," She said.
"Oh, wow, that'd be really-" I started, but she held up a slender finger and I stopped.
"If, and only if, you let me travel with you for the next month." She folder her arms across her chest and waited for my reply.
It was a promising concept, but it also meant that I'd have to worry for someone who was a considerably lower level than myself while I rounded up the two remaining monarchs. It seemed that I would need to bring her to a dungeon or two.
I nodded, "I'll allow it."
She grinned, but I spoke up again.
"But, we'll need to take a detour before we go to Gaholt." I grinned, creating another piece of parchment and enchanting it with an enchantment I had done before.
--
The mana in the air rushed into a cave, carved from ice. Sivelle shivered as she stayed close.
"Yolen, tell me this isn't the dungeon I think it is," She pleaded as we both stood just outside.
I nodded, "It probably is." And strode forwards, Sivelle had no choice but to follow behind me and accept the dungeon quest as it showed up.
DUNGEON QUEST - REALM OF RIME
OBJECTIVE:
DESTROY 7 ICE CORES - 0/7
SLAY 50 ICE ELEMENTALS - 0/50
SLAY 20 BLIZZARD ELEMENTALS - 0/20
SLAY THE DUKE OF FROZEN HELL - 0/1
REWARDS:
+300 ABILITY POINTS
+50 SKILL POINTS
+60 TO ALL STATS
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
LOOT BOX
FROZEN LOOT BOX
It was a gold rank quest, so would be a good boost in levels for Sivelle, and a decent boost in stats for myself.
"Oh no," She muttered, but followed behind as the temperature in the cave dropped steadily. Where the air outside was a chill breeze, the air within the cave was so still that it seemed to lend to the cold, not even the movement of the air was there to provide a piece of warmth. Soon, I could see my breath even though my cloak was warming the air about me, and the ice lining all the walls and floor of the dungeon didn't seemed in the least bit effected by the enchantment.
"Stay close," I said to Sivelle as I continued deeper in, if the cold was fighting back so effectively against my cloak, then it would freeze a person solid.
As the two of us wandered deeper into the cave, I saw that thought to be true. Frozen within the walls of the cave, behind anywhere from an inch, to a few metres of ice, were people. Adventurers that had tried and failed to defeat this dungeon.
The bodies frozen within the wall seemed to be injured, some were entombed with splattered blood around them, frozen around them as if the time of their death itself was preserved.
"This is where you bring us? No-one has even gotten close to killing the elementals, much less the Lord himself." Sivelle lamented.
I shrugged, several balls of mana hovering about me as we walked. "Look into the future or something, Sivelle, you won't see our deaths."
At that, she sighed, but kept quiet as we moved deeper within the dungeon.
Soon we came to a branching path, where the flow of mana split into two asymmetrical lines. The one to the right had a far weaker concentration than the one to the left, but that only made me want to go that way more.
I moved right without asking Sivelle, and she followed silently behind.
As we wandered, I caught movement within the ice, well, not movement within the ice exactly. It was actually a movement of the ice.
I stopped, holding a hand out to stop Sivelle, but she'd seen the same thing as me. Already, the shield of water was floating just next to her arm and golden streams of mana were concentrating in her palm. That divine mana still irked me, something I was so used to controlling seemed so far out of my reach.
I gritted my teeth, but as four chunks of ice cracked off of the wall, each the size of four men on eachothers shoulders, I forgot my worries.
Sivelle's spell leapt from her hand and collided with the chest of the ice Elemental nearest to us, even as it moulded itself into a semblance of a humanoid.
The bolt of golden energy exploded against its chest and suffused the Elemental with an eery light that seemed to move just before the Elemental did.
As Sivelle readied up another spell, I pulled in the motes of mana I'd readied, leaving one out as I absorbed the rest and let the mana influence my strength and speed. As a blur, I shot forwards and shattered the furthermost Elemental with one punch.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - ICE ELEMENTAL
In quick succession, I darted to the second and dispatched it with similar efficiency, loosing a Cero on the third Elemental at the same time, melting straight through it and the wall behind it by a few metres. What was left was a dripping hole in the wall, and melted slush where the Elemental had stood.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - ICE ELEMENTAL
YOU HAVE SLAIN - ICE ELEMENTAL
I looked back to Sivelle, but what I hoped to see didn't appear to be happening. Sivelle was huddled behind a shield of water as shards of ice were absorbed by it and small cuts on her arms where shards had cut into sealed up. I sighed, and exerted Psychokinesis on the ice Elemental, slamming it into the wall next to it, shattering the monster into pieces.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - ICE ELEMENTAL
"Hey, I had that," Sivelle complained, dusting herself down.
I pulled mana from the air and launched three bolts of rainbow energy at the ice Elemental that was pulling itself out of the wall behind the oblivious Cleric.
"I suppose you had that one too," I replied sarcastically as she looked behind herself in astonishment.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - ICE ELEMENTAL
The tunnel lead to a small opening, a place that was actually large enough, with little enough ice to see the black stone that the cave was actually made from on the walls. This chamber almost seemed to resemble the inside of an orb, but as I watched, what little ice sat on the walls was ripped off, and pulled into an actual orb that hovered in the centre of the cave. It was a sphere of blue ice that spun rapidly and glowed from within. This was definitely one of the Ice Cores that we were meant to destroy.
"Okay, stand back," I warned Sivelle as I levelled a zone of destruction at the orb.
She didn't seem to listen as I had to cancel the spell with a stifled yelp as she slid down the slope and into the room.
She turned around and grinned up to me, "You handle them while I get rid of this." She pointed behind me.
I spun to see ten Ice Elementals pulling themselves from the walls, as a cloud of ice and water sped through the tunnel towards me.
"Oh come on." I complained, smashing the first two Elementals into one another as I levelled my left hand towards the living Blizzard that was speeding down the tunnel.
I unleashed the Lord Flame as the notifications for my two kills came up. Suddenly the air in front of me was filled with such heat that the walls of the cave began to melt and what water dripped from the ceiling almost instantly hissed to steam. The blood red fire from my Artifact leapt forwards and carved a steaming trail from my hand to the monsters in front of me. They didn't stand a chance as notifications for all the ice Elementals pinged in my peripherals.
I halted the flow of flame, expecting the hallway to be a steaming mess of water, but as I did so, the Blizzard that had seemingly pinned itself to the walls as I erased its brethren formed back into a humanoid whirlwind and sped towards me. It engulfed me in its freezing wind, razor sharp blades of ice carved rents in my skin that sealed quickly up. This was probably the death move it pulled on adventurers, but this move would spell its demise rather than mine. I activated my individual skill and the Blizzard turned to ash that disintegrated down to nothingness.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - BLIZZARD ELEMENTAL
I turned around to see Sivelle channeling hundreds of streams of mana through herself, funneling the golden light into a spell resting between her hands. After a few seconds, the world erupted in a blinding light, so bright that I had to close my eyes, and the ground shook with deadly thunder. When I opened my eyes again, the sphere was gone, and a sweating Sivelle was scrambling her way up the quickly melting ice.
"See," She said, "you and I can make an effective party."
ICE CORE DESTROYED