Isaac knew he had to get out of here quickly, before the smell of blood attracted the other 8 wolves. He deactivated his Spirit Sword Anima, since he was running out of Qi, and got to work with the bone hunting knife.
First, he removed the claws and nose of each wolf, tossing then into one of his hemp bags. Then he attempted to skin one of the wolves. His knife cut through its skin, trying to follow the same patterns he'd seen Johan do. However, he couldn't perfectly remember what to do, and the knife kept slipping as he cut.
By the time he was finished, the pelt was completely shredded. This made him realise skinning an animal was not easy; he'd underestimated how much practice it took Johan to become good at it.
Of course, this just meant that Isaac also needed to practice. He went to another body and tried to skin that, however it was even worse this time. He was rushing since he knew he had to leave, so he made even more careless errors. This pelt was so badly ruined there was no point in finishing. In fact, he'd wasted too much time already and he had to leave.
Isaac picked up his bag of loot and left the pelts behind. He was extremely thankful for the rain, which helped mask the area's bloody smell. It was even washing away some of the blood on him, meaning animals were less likely to catch his scent on the journey back.
The light of day was already fading, so Isaac used his map and the mountain in the distance to find where he was. In an hour or so, it would be too dark to spot landmarks or navigate at all, so he had to be sure of his directions.
The moment he found the right direction, he set off. Every so often, he would wince as he felt the pain in his back. There were 4 long, wide cuts running down it, inflicted by the claws of that final wolf. Fortunately, the wounds weren't too deep and Isaac had taken some of the fur from his coat and stuffed it into the cuts. It made it more painful, but the blood dried around the fur and fixed it in place, stopping the wounds from bleeding anymore.
It also formed a weak defence against frostbite, stopping his flesh being directly exposed to the cold. The back of his coat had been destroyed, so frostbite was a real danger. Fortunately, he wore two layers of socks and had gloves, a hat, and a thick cloth to wrap around his nose and mouth. These would protect his extremities (fingers, toes, ears, nose and lips) and reduce the risk of frostbite.
Fortunately, the gloves and cloth were in good condition. He'd taken them off before fighting so he could hold his sword properly and breath freely. Meanwhile, the rest of his attire was torn and soaked in blood, rain or both. Even if he didn't get frostbite, he would get hypothermia if his body temperature dropped.
Because of this, he ate some of the high sugar food he'd packed and kept walking to stay warm. Even when it got dark, he kept going and tried to keep going in the same direction.
If you've ever tried walking in a straight line with your eyes closed, you'll know that it's impossible to go dead straight ahead. This was why Isaac didn't travel at night on the way here.
However, now Isaac simply couldn't stop moving – he had to keep walking to stay warm. At worst, he'd head in the vague direction of the sect and try locating himself again when the sun rose in the morning.
Trekking through the forest at night was exhausting both mentally and physically, since he had to remain alert for any dangers hiding in the dark. The mental burden was taking its toll and Isaac had been on the verge of falling asleep for half an hour now. He had to keep pinching himself to stay awake, but that was slowly becoming less effective and he'd fallen into a semi-conscious state.
'Can I keep going until morning? If I can, will I still have enough energy to navigate and find the sect? Will I be able to find where I am at all?'
Questions swirled in Isaac's mind, seemingly the only thing keeping him awake. He wanted to answer yes to all of them, but he really wasn't sure: staying awake wasn't a matter of willpower, but a limit of the human mind. He didn't know how much further he could go before the cold completely sapped him of energy and his brain forcefully shut down.
Deep down, he knew he was too tired to walk until morning. Making a fire to warm himself was also impossible, since the heavy rain had drenched every branch in the forest. What could he do then? Wasn't he out of options and simply waiting for death?
'If I give up, then I'm truly doomed to die. Come on, think. I can't keep walking, so I need another way to stay warm. I need shelter, but how?'
Isaac urged his fatigued brain to work. Suddenly, he remembered the naturally formed ice caves he'd seen when mapping the area yesterday.
His first thought was to pull out his complete map of the area around the sect. The faint light of the crescent moon lit his map as he read it. However, it wasn't detailed enough for ice caves to be marked on it, and he didn't know where he was anyway.
Isaac's tired mind was truly struggling for solutions. He tried looking around his surroundings, hoping to find an ice cave, but how could things be that easy? He'd only found 2 in a large area that took a day and a half to cover. He wasn't going to find one here after 10 minutes of searching.
However, a moment of delayed inspiration struck him. The ice caves were naturally occurring, but he could create a similar man-made shelter from snow, like he'd read of other adventurers doing. It would help block the wind and retain his body heat, then he could rest and eat a lot to replenish the heat energy his body lost.
As the last of his energy continued to be sapped away by harsh wind and rain, he searched for a suitable place. Most of the tundra was not flat; it was undulating, and was covered in miniature hills and dips.
Isaac found one of these dips. It was an area where a ledge of earth jutted up 1 metre above the rest of the ground. The earth ledge was covered in snow and bound together by the roots of a nearby tree. These roots stopped the earth from crumbling into a gentle slope. Instead, they held it in a vertical position, forming something like a 1-metre-high wall.
Isaac braced his back against the ledge and took cover from the wind. He bit his tongue hard, using the pain to keep himself awake as he packed handfuls of snow onto the top of the ridge, making it higher.
He packed the snow tight and solidly, but the wind still threatened to blow over the part he built. In the end, he had to clamber onto the top of ridge and keep adding to his shelter. He built a thick, wave-like structure to protect his spot under the ledge. It was solid and aerodynamic, letting it resist the wind safely and giving Isaac more shelter.
However, he wasn't done yet. He knew the wind wasn't the only problem – his clothes were ruined and he couldn't retain his body heat. He remained at threat of hypothermia because every time his body tried to warm itself up, that warmth just escaped into the surroundings.
Isaac started constructing walls for his shelter, starting from his left and working his way around. When he had a 2 foot wall all around him, he stopped and got some food out of his bag. The only reason he'd survived this long was that he'd packed ample rations, which had helped him replenish the energy he'd lost.
After munching on sugary, high-energy snacks, Isaac continued to build. An hour and a half after starting, he was crouched in a pitch dark, tiny snow pod with walls all around him and a domed roof.
The only thing stopping the roof from collapsing was the rain – the droplets which fell on the roof all froze, acting like glue which held the snow together. It arched over Isaac's head, protecting him from the storm outside.
Meanwhile, Isaac was rummaging through his bag with shaking hands. His gloves were soaking wet after handling all that snow, so he'd taken them off. The cold had turned his fingers numb, and he doubted whether he would ever feel them again.
While his life was secure for now, frostbite could take his fingers, potentially cutting off his path as a swordsman. Isaac had never expected this from merely a Rank 1 easy quest, and he had been forcefully enlightened to nature's lethal power. Tonight had taken a burning poker and branded his mind with a lesson he would never forget: nature was always enemy number 1 in Northern Tundra.