The next day Jas returned to the snowy passage, now ard with an enchanted Red Iron Warhamr. Unlike the heating strips, which started to damage themselves if he ran them too hot, the hamr seed to be limited more by the enchantnt itself than the underlying material. At a certain point, he couldn't push any more mana into the enchantnt to increase the heat of the hamr higher than it was, not that he could asure this with any great accuracy.
He once again tied the chain around his waist, ensuring he could find his way back out, and ventured inside.
He kept his eyes peeled for specters, but was caught by surprise when one struck him from the back, instantly frosting over his armor and chilling him to his core. It phased right through his body and after flinching from the cold, Jas nailed it with a [Hamr Strike].
There was a howling shriek, almost like the sound of a windstorm, and the monster seed to shrink into itself, eventually coalescing into a pale blue magic stone.
[Appraisal] failed to identify what kind of magic stone it was, which did confirm that it wasn't a Water Magic Stone, but there was no great mystery to Jas what kind of magic stone it must be.
He picked up the stone and put it in his magic bag and stood for a minute, focusing on the heating strips. Slowly, slowly, the chill faded. He stretched his arms, getting a feel for how they moved despite the cold, and then resud his trek, making sure to scan in all directions periodically.
It took him a mont to register that he had indeed killed one of the specters, and a grin ford on his lips. It felt really, really good that he had had a problem, and he solved it right away using both of his Classes. It gave him a sense of accomplishnt and a sense of confidence that he could overco the challenges he faced in life. Maybe, if he made it ho, he could train more with his parents and figure out a way to deal with people even without a combat Class.
The chain was also proving exceptionally useful. As he paused and turned and scanned around every few steps, the chain behind him kept him oriented and heading in generally the sa direction. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another specter, and this ti he t it directly with a [Heated Blade] [Hamr Strike], once again killing it instantly and dropping one of the, presumably, ice magic stones. He collected it and continued on.
A short while later, he encountered another specter and slayed it, collecting another stone, when a new monster appeared. A snow drift shifted and coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape, compacting in on itself and standing a head taller than Jas himself before it stalked closer.
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Wary, Jas quickly scanned for other monsters and readied his shield. The snow monster lumbered closer, stomping through the snow, and raised both its arms to crash down on Jas' shield.
He simply backstepped out of the way.
For once, there was a monster that wasn't significantly faster than himself, and he rembered his mother's wisdom to never take a hit that could be easily avoided.
There was a trendous crash and snow was blown in all directions as the monster slamd down on the area just a few feet in front of where Jas now stood. He countered with a side-swipe [Hamr Strike] that sizzled all the way through the monster's arms, lting straight through the snow that made them up.
The monster reeled back, waving the stumps of its arms in the air. Jas stepped forward boldly and struck the distressed snow monster in the chest with an overhand strike. Almost effortlessly the hamr passed through the snow, lting it as it went. He stepped back and retreated behind his shield again, ready for reprisal, but the battle was already over. The monster quivered silently for a mont before collapsing in on itself, with massive chunks of compressed snow falling to the snow-covered ground. A larger pale-blue magic stone fell to the ground and was quickly buried under the blowing snow.
Jas spent a mont digging the thumb-sized magic stone out of the snow and stood, finding a specter approaching silently from the front. He swiped it with his Red Iron Hamr, killing it, and spun around, checking for more, but he was finally alone, at least for the mont.
He collected the final small magic stone and continued forward, but another specter got him from behind just a minute later, worsening his chill. The heating strips were barely keeping him from shivering at this point, even as he could feel his skin growing painful from the heat. After dispatching the sneaky specter, he scanned around and saw not only several more specters gliding towards him, but also a snow monster forming at the far edge of his vision, fewer than ten yards away.
Much closer than he would have liked.
He made the decision to retreat again. He quickly put the slow-moving snow monster behind him, and after dispatching another three specters, he was on his way back. The snow had mostly filled in the path he had left behind him, but it was slightly less effort than pushing deeper into the passage had been, so he didn't mind.
Rather, he was worried about the chill. He had to turn the heating strips down to keep from burning himself, even with the mole monster hide insulation, but his chill was worsening. He was starting to shiver uncontrollably.
Jas made it out of the passage without any more monster encounters, and took a mont to catch his breath outside the passage, away from the chill wind. But he couldn't seem to get ward up, even with the heating strips running. He had to force himself to turn them down now that he was out of the icy passage, so that they wouldn't be damaged. Eager to get back to camp and heat up so water to drink, since that had worked last ti, he dumped the chain in a disorganized ss inside the little warded area, and quickly headed back to base camp.
There were still no bird monsters in the nests on the cliff.
It took several hours of drinking hot water to recover from the chill which had made his bones feel like icicles. Looking at his arms and legs after removing his armor, he noticed several patches of skin where he had been lightly burned by the heating strips, through gaps in the mole monster insulation. He had been running the strips a little too hot, and it still hadn't been enough after taking direct hits from the specters.
Jas sighed, but still buoyed by the success of his Red Iron Hamr against the monsters in the snowy passage, he pulled out his loot from the day's excursion. Six small pale-blue magic stones, and one larger one.
It was ti for so experintation.
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