As I stepped into the mirror, a scene of utter frost greeted me, the air biting cold against my skin. The snow, pristine and untouched, stretched out endlessly, the sky above a serene light blue.
"So this is the mirror of Ten Thousand Monsters." I muttered, my breath forming a mist in the icy air.
My family had possessed this mirror for generations, its mysteries whispered in tales of danger and treachery. Yet here I stood, facing a tranquil landscape that belied its reputation.
Whenever I had asked my family elders about their most dangerous adventures, 3 out of 10 stories were of this mirror. They had always warned me about the dangers and treachery of this place.
[By their explanation, this place is like a nightmare but here I am looking at a calm and serene view.]
"The cold is real, and the snow beneath my legs seems somewhat solid. Could it be a frozen lake?"
~crack~crack~crack~
Just as I understood where I was standing, I felt a sudden shake beneath and cracking sounds.
"!!!"
I immediately leapt forward with full force.
~boom~
The mini blast covered almost 3 meters radius and a small wave hit me which pushed me further ahead.
Struggling to regain balance, I was thrown aside like a discarded rag.
"Ugh, what was that?" I groaned and tried to calm down myself.
But as soon as I hit the icy floor, I began to feel similar tremors and quakes beneath me.
[Something is coming!!!]
Instantly, I chipped the ice with my armoured shoes to create a foothold and used a body-empowering technique to strengthen my legs for a frog-like jump.
~boom~
The place was blasted and made a hole in the floor, where I had been lying just moments ago.
Not taking time to feel the tremors, this time I jumped the instant I landed.
I landed on my legs and had almost two seconds interval to act.
[If my speculation is correct then my first challenge is a water creature with a long-range attack.]
~boom~
I jumped again before the blast and this time I took a long jump with my empowered body.
[Earlier the armour didn't make a metal sound when I landed but the creature still found out the precise spot of my position, so it has sensing abilities other than sound waves.]
To test more, I started running instead of jumping and found out the extent of the delays done by the creature.
But as the blasts continued, a sinking realization settled in – I was outmatched, my skills inadequate for the challenge ahead.
[Even if I can gain time and find its location, I am still not qualified to fight it.]
"This is frustrating."
I muttered under my breath and sighed internally, conceding defeat.
My speciality lay in close combat which limits my options in this challenge. These conditions give me only two possibilities, first to force the monster inside the lake to appear above the surface and second, to fight it inside the water which I don't want to risk right now.
"Retreat is the only option now."
[Is this okay? To just leave and give up?]
[No, but this is the best choice right now. The stakes are high.]
Frustration boiled within me as I grappled with the decision to retreat, to admit defeat in the face of overwhelming odds.
With that bitter thought, I started running towards the sun to find an escape from this lake and challenge.
After four to five more blasts, it stopped and I looked back with a sad expression.
"huff~huff"
"So it has a limited range of 80 meters."
~sigh~
I sighed in defeat.
[The monster didn't even appear and I lost to it.]
This felt like a stain on my life and reputation. In my 'Divy Veer' Royal family, all of us are raised as warriors. Running away from adversity is not in my blood but the rational mind said something else.
Suddenly a rush of emotion swelled up inside me, I tried to dismiss it but it gave me a sudden pound in my heart which was quite unbearable.
"Aargh!"
I kneeled on the spot and tried to clutch my armoured chest with both hands but couldn't, struggling to take a breath I removed my helmet and looked around in a panic.
"Wha-what should I- Ugh! " There was a sudden pain in my chest so I quickly took out a healing potion from my inventory and drank it.
Soon my condition calmed down giving me a rational mind to think things through.
"A heart attack."
[if my guess is correct, chest pain and breathing difficulties are some of the symptoms.]
The first heart attack of my life came suddenly and unexpectedly.
[well it's not like I don't know the reason.]
Due to the absence of mana in me, my body is slow to adapt to new elemental mana environments, leading to such situations.
However, this was the first time it caused a heart attack.
"The Ice elemental mana should have only made me short for breath, then why? Is this mana pure and potent enough to cause a heart attack?"
Thinking about this I stood up and while picking up my helmet I saw my family insignia on its back and felt humiliated for tarnishing the family name by running away from the opponent.
Gritting my teeth and clenching my knuckles I muttered.
"I will come back."
And started walking in a straight direction.
_3 hours later_
Rather than a lake, it was more like a sea of ice and frost. The snow was like an ocean, with no shore.
Wherever I turn, only snow is present.
I am not even feeling thirsty even though I am walking for 3 hours.
Just as impatience began to set in from the long wait, I finally spotted some figures in the distance.
"It's-it's a Mountain Valley!!!"
My desperation got the better of me as I started running towards it at full speed automatically.
In just 30 minutes I reached the entrance of the valley, where the frozen river connects with the frozen sea.
[What should I do now? Should I wander inside or stay back.]
The risks are in both if I stay here, I might not accomplish anything but if I go inside, I might find a powerful and mysterious monster like earlier.
At that time I remembered something that my uncle had said: "He who is not courageous enough to take risks, accomplishes nothing in life."
"Risks huh."
"Okay, no more retreats."
I spoke with resolution and started walking in the direction of the frozen river.
There were no plants or any types of vegetation due to frost, the mountains were also covered with snow.
After walking for a while just as I reached the first mountain, I felt the ground shake.
~shake~
~shake~
~shake~
[This is bad!!!]
The moment the ground started to shake I knew it, I messed up.
In a cataclysmic display of nature's fury, the mountain itself stirred to life, the colossal mountain rising from the earth, causing a small snow tsunami.
~crash~crash~
~slam~slam~
Putting my hands on my right sword hilt, I quickly made some distance and observed the event unfolding in front of me.
Visible to the naked eye, the mountain started to crack and transform into a large monster. With each crack and connection of the rocks, it made its own hands and legs.
Fear gripped me as I beheld the colossal creature, its form towering over the landscape in silent menace.
[A golem!?]
The giant humanoid monster had a greyish-brown colour and was approximately 90 meters in height and 25 meters in width.
"grrrrraaa" He growled loudly, his growl making minor breezes which hit my face with a smell like the wallow of the capital where I had fallen.
I stared at the giant monster wide-eyed in shock, while my grip on the hilt loosened a little bit.
[!!! Is this a golem? No, it is not. It is different, it has a tail and it also behaves like a beast.]
The giant's eyes fell on me as he gazed at me, his eyes between the rock cracks were green like a young leaf of a tree.
Suddenly it moved its hands and scraped its giant back as if feeling a great itch in that part but I couldn't have been more wrong.
It ripped the rocks from his giant back and suddenly swung its arm to throw them at me.
It was too sudden for me to react but I still pushed my legs forward to jump and tried to dodge the rocks in panic.
Still, I got some injuries as my left leg armour got cracked and gave me minor aches. Even though the armour is A-rank it still cracked under the casual attack of that monster, this only shows how dangerous and powerful that thing is.
[Damn! that was close.]
I stood up in a hurry, not letting the monster lock on to my location in the fog of snow.
[It will most likely attack me again so I have to escape-.]
My mind paused thinking and at that time there was a change in me, I could feel it. It gave me a sudden surge of emotion of anger.
"I am still thinking of escaping huh?"
Muttering to myself I clenched my left sword tightly and took it out from its sith. And roared with full of raw power and resolve.
"I will defeat you."
***