rely gazing at It, Annan felt his breathing beco labored.
He vividly experienced an intense shudder coursing through his entire body, a feeling of lethargy injected into his brain through his vision, a tangible fear that shackled his limbs like fetters, and an almost material sense of despair suffusing the air around him...
—Trembling, fear, lethargy, despair.
However, unfortunately for It...
None of these things were particularly effective against Annan.
Even so... Annan was able to make a judgnt based on common sense.
This extrely tall freak.
He must be the skeleton lord that he and the players kept talking about...
If it were anyone other than himself appearing before It, even the best outco would be to flee in total embarrassnt.
If their perception were a little sharper, they might even go insane at a glimpse of It...
That wasn’t even a face-to-face encounter.
The skeleton lord’s gaze was completely obscured by Its own Golden mask. Annan rely got a rough sense of Its presence in reality and was imdiately affected by multiple negative auras.
Annan suspected that if he truly made eye contact with the skeleton lord. Even if his talent could resist negative emotions, his soul might not withstand that mysterious onslaught.
After a very brief silence, Annan bowed respectfully to It.
"...Is there anything I can help You with?"
What Annan feared the most now was if the skeleton lord, with an indifferent face, replied, "No, go die."
And then squished him to death with a slap.
But fortunately, the skeleton lord was not so heartless...
"You seem to be a Frostborn of Rigret..."
A deep, echoing, aged voice arose beside Annan’s ear: "But are you... an heir recognized by her..."
The mont Annan heard the na Rigret.
He suddenly felt that his body couldn’t move.
The sound of freezing crackled in his ears.
He saw with absolute clarity that the buildings around him started to freeze on a large scale.
Trails of frost, like the frost flowers on windows, erged on the ground and the walls of the alleyways around him.
"Huh..."
Annan let out a slow breath of white air and felt his spine stiffen and beco immobile.
It wasn’t steam; it was a cold breath...
He distinctly felt a chilling sensation, like bone-biting insects, being stirred in his blood by that na and darting through him.
He looked down to see his skin suddenly swelling and moving across a distance before settling and leaving a trail of frost. It was as if countless tiny ice beetles were scurrying just beneath the skin and then lting away.
Although Annan’s sense of pain was very dull, he could also faintly feel a disagreeably intense cold.
After that, a prompt suddenly erged before Annan’s eyes:
[Health: 1%]
Annan’s pupils narrowed slightly.
But the strange reaction on his body continued to intensify.
A strong chill seeped out of him, freezing the ground. Annan’s skin beca paler and almost transparent. If a strong light shone on him from one side, it might even pass through to the other.
His body quickly began to display crystalline frost patterns like scales.
Yes, just like scales.
It was then a low, indistinct, crisp female voice began to break the silence in Annan’s ear.
"...Annan... Maria... Annan..."
She seed to say a lot of things.
Hearing this voice, the skeleton lord fell silent too.
It rely stood by in silence, watching Annan without a word.
But Annan couldn’t understand the language at all...
He could barely distinguish two nas—
Twice Annan, once Maria.
Finally, that voice gradually faded away.
And then, so data appeared again before Annan’s eyes:
[Activated: The Path of Old Blood]
[Talent "Heart of Winter" is evolving—]
[Upon eting the requirent of "Old Grandmother" Rigret, the "Heart of Winter" (Reverse) will evolve to the next stage: Bounty of Winter (Reverse)]
[Bounty of Winter (Reverse): You will no longer feel any negative emotions; the damage of the "Frost Chill" elent you emit will permanently increase by 50%; you will be completely immune to all "Frost Chill" elent damage below the level of truth]
[Mystic Knowledge Acquired: The True Na of the Frost and Tradition God "Old Grandmother"]
[This mystic knowledge can be used for "Divine Descent Ritual: Call upon ’Old Grandmother’, "Golden Incantation (Disabling School): Sudden Deep Freeze", "Legendary Material: Core of Frost", "High-Level Influence: Remnant of The Frigid Deity"]
[This mystic knowledge will be forgotten after being used "once", and can only be reacquired by "Listening to ’Old Grandmother’s’ voice"]
——Wait a minute!
I did guess that the cool-sounding big sister’s voice seed to co from the True God "Old Grandmother"...
But what is Old Grandmother asking for?!
Annan was utterly bewildered.
It wasn’t a problem of dialect or the language of the Winter Principality... It wasn’t a language that belonged to humans at all!
Annan could be one hundred percent certain that human vocal cords simply could not produce such a strange and deep sound.
Fuck, wait... it looks like there’s a serious problem now!
Although he had acquired a body infused with the Blood of Winter, becoming a divine offspring of Old Grandmother... he hadn’t acquired the linguistic knowledge necessary to communicate with Old Grandmother.
Then it seed that the mont the skeletal being uttered her na, it took that as a dium to give Annan so kind of task.
The problem was... Annan didn’t understand at all what task she had given him.
The damned system either didn’t display tasks from the real world, or it didn’t understand them either... Anyway, Annan now knew only what the reward for the task was, but had no clue what he was actually supposed to do.
I’m really in trouble... Well, I can’t suddenly recall it anyway.
I’ll have to find a way to urgently gather and study so ancient knowledge... mainly in linguistics, and also about Old Grandmother and the Winter Principality.
My goal is to urgently cram this foreign language by the next ti I summon Old Grandmother, so I can understand her at least approximately...
By the ti Annan once again felt the presence of his body as the chill gradually dissipated, three minutes had passed.
And at that mont, Annan’s health was still at the brink of death at 1%.
He still hadn’t understood a single word Old Grandmother had said.
——But Annan was filled with a sudden surge of courage.
Without fear, he looked again at the skeletal being and asked with dignified composure, "May I ask... is there anything else?"
But the skeletal being suddenly chuckled.
Yes—Annan heard it very clearly, a soft, hehe chuckle!
"Indeed, Frostborn. Since you have chosen this path, we shall et again..."
After Annan regained consciousness, the skeletal being had more to say.
And his tone no longer sounded as detached and cold as before, even noticeably friendlier, "Your na is... Annan, right? Annan Frost Speech..."
...What’s up with this surna that sounds like so lich?
Annan paused for a mont.
He suddenly realized that the skeletal being seed to understand Old Mother.
...No, isn’t this bony geezer too realistic?
He was definitely here to cause trouble at first.
But once he knew I was a blood descendant of Old Grandmother, he changed his mind on the spot...
Changing sides so decisively, Annan was a bit thrown off.
So he spoke indirectly, with a solemn voice, "My na is... Annan Winter."
"It will be Frost Speech, sooner or later..."
The skeletal being just chuckled again, its deep, raspy voice echoing in Annan’s heart, "If you’re not afraid... when you advance to the truth, you can try using my ritual... If there’s a problem, you can also conduct a ritual to call upon ... I know that you understand the rituals to contact ..."
As it spoke, it extended its steel-clad right hand, pointing behind Annan, "But that book, I’ll take with ..."
Speaking of which, the skeletal being pointed at Annan’s bundle.
Annan imdiately understood which book it was after—the one with the skeletal being’s true na in it!
"Allow to—"
Annan readily agreed, and imdiately started to take down his bundle, intending to hand it over as a parting gift.
"There’s no need..."
The deep voice of the skeletal being resonated again.
By the ti Annan looked up again, the skeletal being had already disappeared.
And from his bundle, that book had also vanished without a trace—the entire box was gone.
Annan didn’t even feel when the weight had lightened...
...Or perhaps the being had already taken the book stealthily while he was frozen?
Annan, holding back his words, lanted, "This big brother..."
The forthrightness was truly straightforward...
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