Isaac rummaged through his sack with icy hands. His fingers were numb and unfeeling, so he used his palms to work out the shape of things.
He found what he was looking for and tried to pull it out, however, his shaking hands made him drop it back into the bag. After finding it again, he pulled it out and put it next to a rectangular waterproof box on his lap.
The box was a set of matches, while the package he'd just got out was a lump of seal fat wrapped in birch leaves. It could be used as fuel for a small candle or lamp, but Isaac couldn't use it outside since the wind and rain would snuff its tiny flame.
He unwrapped the seal fat and opened the box of matches. They were a collection of short pine twigs, all tipped with sulphur. However, Isaac struggled to pick up any of the matches. The twigs were too small and fiddly to hold with his trembling fingers – every time he managed to grasp one, his hands would shake uncontrollably and he'd drop it.
Eventually, he managed to hold one. However, his hands were continuously twitching and shaking, so he couldn't strike it against the sandpaper on the side of the box. When he tried to do so, he dropped it.
Eventually, after countless attempts, Isaac successfully lit a match. Its tiny, flickering flame brought some light to the snow bunker.
He held the match with both hands, not even daring to breath since he might blow it out. He slowly brought the match towards a wick protruding from the seal fat and lit it.
The flame from the seal fat was stronger. It lit up Isaac's cramped cave and illuminated the sea of pine-twig matches on the floor. Isaac quickly extinguished his match and began rubbing his hands above the flame of the seal fat.
Whether it was a placebo effect or not, he could already feel his hands warming up. However, tiredness hit him like a wave. He'd been holding it back as he tried to finish the shelter and light a fire, but now nothing was stopping him from falling asleep. Well, other than the howling of wind and rain outside.
Regardless of that, Isaac quickly succumbed to his tiredness and fell asleep while leaning against the wall of his shelter.
When he awoke, he could no longer hear the storm. His seal fat had burnt out, but the snow cave was illuminated by rays of sun creeping through gaps in the snow.
When he realised the storm was over, Isaac pushed against the wall of his snow shelter, breaking the top part of it and causing half of the roof to collapse. Isaac peered through the gap and saw grey skies. However, it wasn't raining or windy at the moment.
He was still shivering and felt stiff from the cold and his awkward sleeping position, but he was in a much better condition than yesterday. He had warmed up during his time in the shelter, so the risk of hypothermia was drastically reduced. Sleeping had also helped him recover his mental and physical energy, so he was much less exhausted.
Since he was in an... acceptable condition, Isaac was ready to try and return to the sect.
He pushed down the rest of the snow wall and crawled out of his tiny resting place. In the daylight, he got a proper view of the forest around him.
...Yep, it was the same forest landscape you'd find anywhere in Northern Tundra. He had no idea where he was, or even what direction he was facing.
Realising this fairly large problem, Isaac went for the reliable 'when in doubt, climb a tree' tactic. It had served him rather well so far.
He found one of the taller pine trees nearby, shimmied up its trunk, then climbed through its upper branches. When he reached the top, he saw a clearing to his left and a hill far ahead of him to the right.
It seemed that no matter the situation, climbing a tree was always the correct answer.
After he climbed back down, Isaac got out his map and started to look for a hill and clearing near each other. He found them in the upper middle region of the map.
It turned out he'd deviated quite a lot to the left while walking at night. This put him about 6km north of the sect, which was at the dead centre of the map.
Now that he knew his location, Isaac was confident in returning to the sect. He wasn't at (much) risk of hypothermia, he had (hopefully) avoided frostbite in his fingers – though they were still numb – and the weather looked good (at least, considering it was winter in Northern Tundra). What could stop him? Literally any of the wilderness' hidden dangers!
Of course, Isaac didn't dare be overconfident. He had been confident in walking through the night until morning, but that confidence nearly got him killed. Now, he only set off after carefully considering each variable and plotting a safe path on the map.
Thankfully, things tend not to go wrong when you plan thoroughly and don't court death. Isaac did both those things, and he found his way back to the sect rather easily.
He reached the sect gates and recited the password to the guards. Then, after struggling to find it in his hemp sack, Isaac showed his mission pass and gained entry. Isaac's mission pass revealed that he only had 1 more day to hand in his mission. It seemed that, by the skin of his teeth, he would complete the mission.
In fact, the only thing troubling Isaac was that he still couldn't feel his fingers. At the very least, they weren't turning blue or anything, so he could only rush back to his house while hoping for the best.
When he got home, he slammed the door behind him and immediately went to light the fireplace. He warmed his hands over the fire for a bit, then got up to eat and change into warmer clothes, then returned to the fire and sat there like a statue for the rest of the day.
Fortunately, Isaac had regained feeling in his fingers after less than an hour. However, they still felt stiff and awkward after that, hence he decided to stay by the fireplace for several hours.
After Isaac made sure he wouldn't suffer any aftereffects such as frostbite or hypothermia, he went to bed and slept soundly. This was a far better night's sleep than he'd experienced in his cold, cramped shelter. In the morning, Isaac seemed much better. Before, his eyes were sunken and tired, whilst his face looked haggard. Now, he'd regained most of his normal features, including his piercing icy blue gaze. The only sign he hadn't made a full recovery was his slightly red nose, which showed he'd caught the common cold – a minor illness compared to frostbite or hypothermia.
Regardless of whether he was ill or not, he had to turn in his mission today. He wrote up a mission report in the morning and visited the Adventurers' Hall at midday. After handing in his mission report and the map he'd completed, Isaac received a reward of 1 reward point and 2 merit points. Then he headed home to drink hot pine needle tea by his fire.
He desperately wanted to exchange for another Basic Qi Pill and cultivate, but he knew the constant sneezing and other effects of a cold would stop him from meditating properly. The only thing he could do was eat lots, have warm drinks, and try to quickly recover from his cold.
Of course, catching a cold don't mean he was entirely useless. Isaac tried to battle through it and meditate as much as he could, and he was pretty successful. It would've been a waste to use a pill in this situation since he couldn't maximise its effects, but he still saw noticeable progress during his 3 days of illness.
Now it was time to consider his next step in gathering resources. While most of his troubles were caused by unexpected weather and his choice to fight wolves, Isaac couldn't deny that the missions were hard. In fact, they were too hard to be worth doing.
Instead, there was a much more efficient alternative, which involved gathering beast corpses and selling them to the alchemist disciple he'd met. The amount she would pay for some animal claws exceeded the rewards of most missions, so it might be better to go hunting.
However, he had reported killing 4 wolves when he went to submit his mission. The person at the desk told him he could only kill 1 more bear, 1 wolf and 5 arctic foxes this season.
Since that was the case, this wouldn't work long-term unless he found a better way of getting animals. Fortunately, Isaac already had an idea of what to do.