After a few hours of flight, the transwhale steadily neared its destination. Although their team had a room for themselves, Groob took his companions towards a spacious lounge to connect with other adventurers. Since the Frozen Hell was mostly untouched by civilization, it was always advisable to be in on good terms with others.
While Lilly and Iain trained their small talk and even raised their acting levels incidentally, a weak turbulence had suddenly occurred. The rumbling noise combined with the transwhale's shaking had unnerved the siblings to the other adventurers' amusement.
Fortunately, Groob had easily calmed them down as he explained that their vehicle would often be attacked by flying beasts. These naturally couldn't pose any threat to the marvel of magical engineering they were traveling on.
Thus, the behemoth continued its travel uninterrupted. Iain and Lilly were frightened and amazed by the transwhale's' power. They were only missing some windows, but those were wisely forgone to keep the light at a comfortable level.
Shortly before the transwhale began its landing process, Groob called the siblings into their cabin.
"Ok, listen kids. I have a few things to say before we arrive."
Noticing that he grabbed the Rottals' attention, Groob continued:
"You might have asked yourself before what those boots next to the door are. Those are anti-gravity boots.
The city is protected so even normal humans can live comfortably, but out here we won't have such cushy conditions. Before your strength stat reaches 60, you won't be strong enough to completely offset gravity. Naturally you can't go into fights with such disadvantages."
Some troubled looks appeared on the siblings' faces.
"We haven't even thought about this yet.", mentioned Iain, earning him a side-eye from Lilly. While the young smith said 'we' he really only meant 'I'. However, his younger sister didn't want to expose him.
"It's not only gravity. The light from our six stars will also reach us unobstructed. Thus, I also prepared stronger shades for you.
Other than the problems Hex is throwing at us, we also need to be careful of the army. The base camp we are travelling to is organized by the army. They have all the power there. It's best to just avoid them altogether."
Iain and Lilly kept those advices in mind as they nodded. After Groob's reminders the whole team checked their equipment once more before getting ready for arrival.
Noticing that Voro also wore anti-gravity boots, Iain was slightly confused. But the former freely explained, that he mostly chose magical abilities for his main skills, so his strength stat was actually rather low even though he had reached the expert rank.
This gave the siblings a little more insight into the stat system. Since their parents automatically set their highest leveled skill as main skills, Iain and Lilly hadn't had much reason to manage their skills yet.
Therefore, while the transwhale already began to slow down, the siblings took a few minutes to check.
[Vault connection:
Name: Iain
LVL: 9
Attributes:
STR:45 VIT:45 END:79 DEF:36 PER:59
AGI:8 INT:7 MNC:11 MGP:16 MND:16
Skills:
Basic:
Basic Smithing Lv. 8; Cold Resistance Lv. 9; Heat Resistance Lv. 7; (Ex)Hammer wielding Lv. 6; Basic Acting Lv. 2]
[Vault connection:
Name: Lilly
LVL: 8
Attributes:
STR:9 VIT:33 END:37 DEF:25 PER:47
AGI:10 INT:39 MNC:25 MGP:37 MND:19
Skills:
Basic:
(Ex)Healing Magic Lv. 6; Cold Resistance Lv. 8; Heat Resistance Lv. 5; Basic Acting Lv. 2]
Secretly comparing their sats, the siblings soon understood that Iain's basic smithing gave him a lot of physical skills, while Lilly's Healing Magic provided more intelligence and magic power.
The siblings were impressed by the vault's capabilities as they discussed which stats would be the most useful for them. Naturally Lilly didn't have any reason to change anything.
After some debating Iain also decided to keep his resistance skill instead of his hammer wielding in order to keep his higher defense.
While Lilly and Iain deeply contemplated the vault system, a loud massage suddenly interrupted them. The captain finally informed the passengers of their arrival, as the transwhale gently landed on the ground.
Lilly and Iain followed their team full of curiosity. Over the last few days, they had heard and read a lot about the notorious Frozen Hell, but now they would finally get to see it with their own eyes.
The adventurers calmly walked down a long ramp. Filled with tension, the siblings held their breaths until they finally entered the base camp.
While others hastily passed them, Iain and Lilly stood still next to the transwhale. Groob chuckled slightly as he observed their reactions, while the young Rottals took in the novel sight in awe.
The siblings instantly understood that the transwhale had landed on a mountain. In circles around them stood multiple simple, metallic houses, which constituted the base camp. Multiple plateaus had been artificially created to support all the necessary buildings.
Chaotic voices sounded from everywhere, as the heat from six stars boiled the air like a pot of water. A bloody and dirty smell filled the air here, overwhelming the siblings' senses. As they turned their heads everywhere, their eyes stopped on the most prominent building for a moment.
A temple throned above the base camp. It was also accompanied by a statue of the god of light, just like the one in the city. Although the statue here was rather small in comparison even Lilly and Iain could feel the dangerous aura it emitted.
The siblings remembered the warning Groob gave them earlier as their eyes continued to observe their surroundings.
After watching the busy market to their left for a second, Iain's and Lilly's gazes finally found what they came here for.
The Frozen Hell.
Their eyes widened in wonder while some fear appeared on their faces as they saw the spectacle down the mountain.
About a thousand meters away from them some unbelievable scenes played out.
Massive storms cut like blades through the air at this height. Their unbelievable strength exceeded anything the siblings had seen so far. As they noticed the dirt, metal debris, and even weapons shooting through the air, cold sweat former on their foreheads. One could only imagine what would happen if a human entered this danger zone.
Although the siblings had already read about this storm zone, which was also named Empta Line after an ancient human king, taking in this sight with their own eyes finally gave them an idea about nature's capabilities.
With its enormous power the Empta Line divided the Frozen hell from the rest of planet Hex.
As the siblings stared past this danger zone, they soon felt like staring into an abyss. Only some blurry silhouettes could be made out. Prior to this moment is sounded unbelievable to the siblings, but the Frozen Hell was almost wholly shrouded in darkness. Only a few scattered rays of light managed to leave this eerie place, letting the siblings see what seems to be a herd of wandering beasts.
It was common knowledge that the Frozen Hell wasn't a completely natural occurrence. A powerful treasure was deeply buried in the planets' core, swallowing almost all light and warmth around it. Like a gluttonous beast its appetite even reached a few meters above the surface, thus forming the Frozen Hell.
Many other phenomena were also attributed to its power. For example, that the star's light wasn't swallowed by the nearby black hole but was instead attracted by planet Hex.
Naturally this treasure was the reason for the army's strong presence on the planet, but for some reason even the mighty empire hadn't managed to retrieve it until now.
The siblings were spellbound by the unimaginable scene in front of them for a few minutes. Finally, Groob tapped their shoulders to draw their attention.
Iain and Lilly turned around with awe on their faces.
"How can this even be possible…?", whispered Lilly.
"Haha, you have the same reaction as everyone who sees the Frozen Hell for the first time! How powerful must a treasure be to affect a whole planet, right?
While we adventurers come here to hunt rare beast or gather precious plants, who doesn't dream of getting their hands on this jackpot. Sadly, we can only dream about it."
The siblings noticed the desire in some adventurers' gazes as they overheard Groob's remark, while a soldier to their right had a mocking sneer on his face. The latter even mumbled silently.
"Dream on!"
Feeling slightly uncomfortable in this crowded place, Lilly hastily asked Groob:
"Groob, where are is our team? We should find them and move on."
"They already went ahead. Voro needs to sort out some skills while the others let someone check up on their weapons."
Iain's eyes lit up when he heard this.
"Are they visiting a smith? Can we watch?"
"If we hurry up, we might catch up to them. First, we need to do something else, however. You guys still need a SMT or you will be blind as a mole in the Frozen Hell."
"Then let's go!", the siblings urged impatiently.