"What?" Astrid asked the air. She didn't seem to realize that I was the one responsible for what she was seeing.
"That's what saved my life. It is a tool to make you stronger. Made strong enough to kill, shit, 3 Eaters. But, you don't have to take it. If you say no, I'll still try to help you and make sure we get out of here in one piece. But if you have this, it's going to help a lot," I replied.
Astrid frowned. Unlike Pops, she didn't rush to accept the System.
"Will I change?"
"Only physically, and I don't an your appearance. You'll be stronger, faster, more resilient. And you will have a voice in your head that you can talk to. You'll also be able to get skills, powerful abilities that seem like magic, like the thing I did with the boulder," I pointed to the barricaded door.
Astrid looked at the door, and then at for a long mont, staring deep into my eyes. She suddenly winced, clearly in pain because of her stomach. Despite that, she nodded, "OK."
I felt the particles leaving my body and rushing to Astrid's. I knew that in just a couple of minutes, she would have full access to the System.
"A couple of things. There are two skills that I want to share with you, one to help you heal, and another for you to level up faster. If you don't understand what that ans, don't worry about it. The System will explain it. But you're going to need so food," I quickly rummaged in my pouch. I had left the backpack at Astrid's house, but I still had so basic supplies with , even if there was nothing I could use for bandages. I really should change that. "Finish integration first, and then let know so I can give you {Body Regeneration}. Then you can eat. Trust , it will all make sense."
Astrid just nodded, but her eyes were focused sowhere else. While she was finishing up integration, I turned to the fireman's axe. I still could feel the particles inside of it and a part of hoped this was so sort of special item, like a weapon from a ga with special attributes.
'Sys, what does this actually do? Does it have any special power, or is it just sturdier?'
[Analyzing....]
[Analyzing...]
[Analysis complete. Display information about the item in question.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frosted Axe - Rank 2 (Aspirant)
The cold environnt perated the very essence of this weapon, increasing its resilience and making it so the weapon is always cold to the touch.
Cold Edge:
Passive - Uncharged
Charge required: 1 Energy
Duration: 24 hours
The years beneath the ice created a frozen blade capable of piercing even the toughest of hides.
If the weapon is charged with energy, the blade of the axe will be covered with cold energy, increasing the damage dealt by the attacks.
Frozen Crash:
Active
Cost: 2 Energy
The ice lying underneath this weapon is always ready to strike.
Sharp shards of ice will be launched from the edge of the axe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'You know I have questions, right?' I asked the System.
[System agrees that was a likely possibility. What is user's first question?]
'What does the uncharged an? I think I know what it is, but I want confirmation.'
[Unlike a user, items, for the most part, are unable to generate Energy by themselves. However, it is possible for items to have passive skills. Those skills might require energy to be activated. When the required Energy is given to the item, the passive skill will remain active until the end of its duration. Passive skills on items will always have a considerable duration. If skill {Cold Edge} lasted only a couple of hours, it would not be considered a passive.]
'If you need to activate it, it's not actually a passive, is it? It's more like a long duration buff.'
[That is a valid interpretation of the skill. Does user wish to change the na of the classification passive for skills in items?]
I tried to think about a better na for this, but nothing ca to mind. Calling it temporary buff felt weird and aura wasn't exactly right. 'No, you can keep that. But just confirm I have to give Energy to the item to activate it, right? And can I use the other skill without activating the passive?'
[Correct. In order to activate the passive, it is necessary for the wielder of the weapon to send the required Energy. User is able to activate each skill individually. In most situations they will not interfere with each other.]
'Fair enough. And how do items beco like this? Do they have to be in dungeons or can I make one sohow?'
[Items can receive skills if they are in an environnt saturated with SP. It is also possible that certain skills would allow user to develop items with various skills themselves. However, System is unable to identify the path for the creation of any such skill at the mont. More data is required.]
"Cass?" Astrid spoke up, which made stop talking with the System.
"Is the integration over?"
"Yes."
"Ok, then here," I touched Astrid's shoulder and asked the System to send {Body Regeneration} to her. "Just so I know, how much Energy do you have right now?"
Astrid looked to the wall, likely seeing her own status screen, "One."
"And mory?" I asked.
"Three."
"Just like Pops then. Don't worry, start using {Body Regeneration}. I'll give you the one to level up faster after it, and if you want, I can give you Energy Storage so you can start gathering more Energy later. It's just going to take a while. To pass the skill takes a few hours."
Astrid just nodded and leaned back, closing her eyes.
"Hey, hey," I snapped my fingers in her face. "Stay with . You're really hurt right now and it's really cold here. It's not a good idea for you to sleep. Hold on until you use {Body Regeneration} a couple of tis. Then I think it'll be safe for you to sleep. Here, start eating," I pulled so jerky and gave it to her. If mory serves right, it would take around 2 hours for the at to convert into one point of energy. Maybe we would get lucky and things would synchronize really well.
There wasn't much to do in the next hours. I wasn't about to leave Astrid alone. Not to ntion she was injured, and she didn't really have a way to move. But that also confird the problem. The dungeon was cold, extrely so. The only reason that wasn't an issue so far was because we were constantly on the move. Now that we had stopped, our body temperature was getting lower and lower. When it ca ti for us to sleep, that would be a big problem. And I was under no illusion we would be able to leave this place today.
A part of wanted to just go out and start looking for sothing that could help. Maybe I could even find one of those bears, kill them and sleep inside its carcass. There was a scene in a movie Pops loved that was similar to that. It would also help if there was any way to start a fire. The storage to the side of this room had a bunch of wooden scraps. Blue wood, sure, but those should burn just as well, even if it would be harder for them to catch on fire. Or at least, that's what I was assuming. Since this kind of wood was changed by the particles inside the cave, they might also have so ice attributes.
I didn't even notice when {Body Regeneration} finished copying to Astrid. What I did notice was her attempt at getting up.
"What are you doing?"
"We must leave."
"No, we don't. You're not in any condition to walk around," I held her in place, being careful not to make her wounds even worse.
"The skill helps."
"That's kind of the point. While it helps, it doesn't fix everything, not this quickly," I pulled her shirt up, the wound on her side was getting better. In fact, I could clearly see it slowly closing. While the skill was currently active, "are you in pain?"
"No."
"That's because of this skill. It numbs you until it's over. You're still hurt, you still need rest. Sit down. Also, we might have a few problems."
Astrid slumped back to the floor, her body unable to sustain her weight. Between all the blood she lost and the fight with the bear, she had to be exhausted. "What problem?" she asked with a half groan.
"Before I tell you, I need you to promise you're going to sit still. Don't rush off, don't try to do anything. We are going to handle this, but we need ti and planning. Understood?" I was honestly scared about what would happen once I told her about what was waiting outside. I was pretty sure that was the creature that killed her father, or at least was responsible for her father's death. If I were in her shoes, it would be hard not to rush out and try to kill it.
"Understood."
"Just for the record, if you try anything I am going to knock you out," I paused but Astrid didn't say anything back. "The tunnel outside leads to the Ice Devil's nest, or lair, whatever you want to call it. And the monster is there, but it's much bigger than us, it's much stronger than us, and it can kill us quickly. So we're going to need to be careful here and make a good plan before going after it."
Astrid glanced at the entrance with wide eyes. She paused for a mont as I got ready to wrestle her back to the ground. Yet, instead she turned to and nodded, "Ok, but we kill it."
"We kill it. I might not have a personal connection to it, but I don't like the idea of leaving sothing like that near a village, even if the people who live there are a bit annoying."
"Plan?" Astrid asked.
"I'm still working on it. For now, you need to recover, and I need to see if I can find sothing to keep us warm for the night. I still have so water, but worst-case scenario, we can drink the ice that's covering the walls. It would be better if we could boil that first. I'm not sure if bacteria will be affected by the System," I frowned.
"What?"
"Oh? You didn't get that far? Ask your System about Dungeons and how the particles affect monsters and other creatures. I can help fill in the blanks but it knows more than I do. Also, keep using {Body Regeneration} every ti you get energy. I will give you another skill later. It's called {Quick Tier 1 Evolution}. It's going to help you level faster so you can get stronger quicker. Ask the System about the tiers. It's better if it explains it to you. Now, I'm going to try to go outside. This was supposed to be an old gold mine, so maybe there's still sothing that was left behind that we can use to get warm."
Astrid looked at the rock blocking the entrance and nodded, "Be careful."
I gave her a thumbs up and checked the passage to see if there was any noise coming from the other side. Since the coast seed clear, with another two uses of {Compression} I quickly opened and closed the entrance of that room. To my right I could see the large form of the Ice Devil in the distance, but it looked like the creature was still sleeping.
Heading deeper into the mines, I continued searching for sothing. There was a strange lack of other bears in the area. According to what I heard before the ground collapsed, there should be a lot more around here. Then again, the Ice Devil was nearby. It is possible that they were staying away from its territory, but that didn't explain what happened with the ones that fell along with us.
After around 20 minutes of careful walking with the Frosted Axe in my hands, I started to get worried. The tunnels here followed the sa non-pattern as the ones above. It was very easy to get lost in the middle of all these corridors that were seemingly random. What if I wasn't able to get back to Astrid? Even if she recovered, there was a chance she wouldn't be able to get out of the door. After all, the lock was able to hold back a bear, a Tier 1 bear at that. Maybe soone who just got the System wouldn't be able to break through.
Deciding I had spent too long trying to find sothing, I entered one last room just in case before heading back. Every single larger opening I found only led to more corridors or mostly empty spaces, only with scraps of wood or tal. There was no bone, no storage facility, no weapons, no tools, nothing. But this last place was different. It was smaller than any of the other rooms and there was a large table in the back with so broken down tools like a hamr, a pickaxe, and so other smaller ones that were too rusted and broken for to recognize. There was a tal box to the left with a padlock holding it shut.
I didn't even have to use the axe for this. Just by yanking the lock, the thing fell apart. But inside wasn't a weapon like I was hoping. Instead was an old broken down lantern, the kind of thing that would be considered old even for the old world. And to the side was a small piece of tal with a wooden handle and a chisel attached to it. I had seen sothing similar one ti when a rchant showed up in the Hidden Horn Village. He said this was a fire starter. If you struck the tal rod with the chisel, sparks would fly and that could ignite a fire. But for that to work, I would need sothing very flammable.
Taking a shot in the dark, I grabbed the lantern and opened the small internal piece where people would put the oil. I doubted anything would have lasted from the old world, but I could at least take a look. To my surprise, there was still so wet mush inside it, and by the sll, it was oil not simply water. With this, I might be able to create a fire for the two of us back where Astrid was.
Satisfied with that small expedition, I grabbed everything I could, including so wooden scraps and pieces of tal that were not too rusted, and ran back to the room near the Ice Devil, hoping that nothing went wrong while I was away.
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