"Is the lake completely frozen yet?"
A middle-aged man with a beard asked his butler with a complicated gaze.
"Not yet, Viscount; I believe that in about a two-week's worth of time the lake will completely freeze over."
The visitor remained silent as he listened to the response, thinking deeply as he looked at a map that covered the city and the surrounding environment.
"Send a message to all the Path Master's that I have contracted. Let them know about the upcoming situation. In two and a half weeks' worth of time, the expedition will finally begin."
The viscount spoke in a firm voice; he had a stern face, and his voice was filled with determination.
"Of course, I will take my leave and relay this message right away."
The butler replied quickly before bowing and leaving the room.
The viscount glanced up as he saw the butler slowly walking away, leaving him behind as the only person left in the room. The viscount took another glance at the map that he had and let out a great sigh.
The room fell silent. The only thing he could hear was the cold wind blowing and the cold snow falling outside, covering the city in a deep white color.
Glancing upwards, the viscount couldn't help but talk to himself. His voice was deep and solemn, yet a small trace of fear could also be felt in it.
"Is this really enough? I've done all I can to gain powerful allies, yet I still feel fear towards this expedition."
The viscount glanced outside the window, looking at the white scenery in front of him. He took a deep breath before quickly calming himself down. Right now, there was no room left to think about failure.
The viscount quickly turned back to his desk, writing his letters and quickly focusing on his work. With the expedition coming soon, he had tons of work to do. He had to manage the supplies and send letters to allies; he was going to be busy for the next two and a half weeks.
.
.
"Here's this for you, sir. Thank you for completing this quest!"
Lorian grabbed a pouch of coins that the person in front of him had given him. The sun was starting to set, and Lorian had rushed back to the Moonlight Sanctuary to turn in the quest that he had completed.
Looking around, he heard a small commotion as he went towards it; getting closer, he could hear people all around him whispering to each other.
"Did you see the message that the visitor had posted?"
"Of course I did; I can't believe that it's going to start so soon!"
Lorian could hear similar comments that surrounded him. Lorian walked towards the center of the commotion, slowly making his way inside.
After reaching a spot where he could see what had been posted, his expression shifted slightly. He could see a big piece of paper that was posted all over the board.
This piece of paper was on a big board in the middle of the room. The message was extremely big and could easily be seen. It attracted a lot of attention the moment it was put up.
Lorian glanced at the message as he scanned through it. He looked through this message and saw the time that the experiment was going to start.
"Two and a half weeks..."
Lorian backed out of this massive group of people after reading the message, and while he walked away, he had a complicated gaze on his face as he thought to himself:
"This is really unexpected. According to my previous lives, this wouldn't have happened until a couple of weeks later. It appeared several weeks in advance this time."
This was extremely troublesome for Lorian. Up until now, Lorian knew that this finale attempt was going to be the hardest one out of them all, but it seems like he truly wasn't prepared for just how drastically different it would be.
Even with his major progress and his accumulated strength that far surpassed a mood majority of his previous life, he felt that he wasn't doing good enough.
"I might have to do this earlier than expected, don't I? This might be risky, but it's the best option that I have now."
Lorian's mind worked as he thought of possible options and solutions to this new situation. Lorian was still at a big disadvantage; not only was he still seriously behind in his Path Progress, but other aspects like money and mana were also below average.
With this being the case, Lorian had barely any options left. If this went according to his previous life, then by the time the expedition rolled around, he would have sufficient strength to fight and gain benefits from this expedition.
Throw away the thoughts of getting any benefits; Lorian was lucky if he even made out of this situation alive. With his current acumulation, he had a very small chance of completing anything, much less surviving.
With this in mind, he only had a couple of options left. All of them carried some version of risks, and not all of them could get him out of this predicament alive.
The simplest option he had was just leaving this city. But that was a stupid option; he would be left with little money and no connections to anything.
If rumors spread about him, he could do nothing but receive them; his reputation would go plummeting and his future would be bleak.
Lorian slightly gritted his teeth as he walked down the streets. He was dressed in multiple thin layers of clothing; the snow fell around him as he walked down the streets.
His mind was in a storm right now; he had so many things that he needed to accomplish within this small period of time. After walking down the street while thinking, he finally made up his mind and decided to go with this plan that he had made.
This attempt was vastly different from his previous ones; the difficulty went up immensely. As of now, Lorian truly felt how different this was compared to his previous attempts.
The expedition had come up weeks earlier than he had expected; this was something that he hadn't even thought of. The time difference from this and his previous attempts was simply too huge!
But even with this massive pressure and difficulty on him, Lorian felt a sense of excitement and joy; his usual calm and unmoving expression had an ever so slight smile on it.
Lorian walked towards the city gate; he walked at a rather quick speed but didn't break into a run. Lorian still wanted to focus on his future plans; even though he had a general idea for it, he had to plan accordingly and had to adjust properly to this difficulty that he just experienced.
When he got towards the city guards, they looked towards Lorian and quickly reconized him and had a quick conversation with him.
"I heard the expedition that the viscount has is coming up in a couple of weeks. How's that going along for you?"
One of the guards talks to Lorian, giving off a warm attitude and having a bright smile on his face.
Lorian looked towards them with a quick smile as he replied,
"The expedition is coming in about two weeks; it's way earlier than what we all expected. Right now I'm just getting ready for it. If you guys don't mind, I have to head off and gather supplies. I need to save all the time I could get."
Lorian quickly ended the conversation but did it in an understanding and warm way. The guards understood the pressure of having to prepare for a big event, and they quickly let him go without another word spoken.
Lorian quickly headed off into the woods; the sky was clear, and pale moonlight could be seen, glistening with the pure white snow that covered the entire floor.
The sight was beautiful; even with the limited view, the sight held a sense of peacefulness. Even though the air around him was cold and cold snow was scattered throughout the forest. This view was just something else.
Lorian quickly walked ahead while checking the surrounding area. Even though this part of the forest wasn't that dangerous and the beasts were extremely few in number, he still had to be careful and watch out for anything that could happen.
After a couple of minutes and continuous walking and checking his surroundings, he finally reached his destination and found himself looking at the very thing he had been holding off on doing for the past couple of weeks.
A faint blue light illuminated the surrounding area, and the temperature dropped by a couple of degrees. He could feel a small sense of danger and risk lingering in the air, threating his every move and action.
Lorian looked forward and had a calm expression on his face as he muttered to himself:
"It's been quite a while since I've been back here; it seems like you've passed away once again. I wonder if you died the same way like before, Riven."
Cold light shone brighter as Lorian got ready for this situation. He held his dagger in his hand as he slowly approached this mysterious place.