(Conclusion of the Frost Realm Arc)
The trio slept beneath what used to be a shop—roofed in crumpled tin and signs that no longer pointed anywhere. Guruji sat cross-legged, veiled in cloth, face pale and unreadable. Grimbleshank snored upside down under a meat sack, with Minimus gnawing a bone beside him.
Everett's hand was bleeding again. His legs were sore from the fight with the elephant. His breath still carried frost.
Then came the notification—etched in cold light before his eyes.
---
[QUEST COMPLETE: SURVIVE FOR 24 HOURS]
🗡 Excess survival time across flowstream may lead to greater benefits or unexpected traps.
⚠ Proceed with caution. Time is not your ally.
---
Everett sat up, rubbing his eyes. "It's done," he whispered. "Guruji... Grimbleshank... we made it."
He looked to Guruji, who said without opening his eyes:
"One day is a curse… two is balance… three is fate. Four is ruin. Beyond that, the flow breaks. Balance is the truth. And truth, my child, is cold."
Then Everett turned to Grimbleshank. "The task is complete. But the system says staying longer might be a reward. Or a trap. What should we do?"
Grimbleshank rubbed his eyes and coughed out a laugh.
"Could be both," he said. "That's the thing about fate—it doesn't care what you expect."
He leaned forward, his expression sharpening.
"But I'll tell you what I know. Time doesn't flow the same here as it does back in your world."
He began to count on his short, knotted fingers.
"Day 1 here? That's just a day over there.
Day 2? Feels like a month when you go back.
Day 3? A year might've passed in your home.
Day 4? You'll return to find ten years gone.
After that? It's anyone's guess. A hundred years? A dead world? No one knows."
Everett's eyes widened. "So even if we survive longer, we might lose everything?"
Grimbleshank nodded. "It's a gamble. Your body returns… but time doesn't wait."
Everett asked, "Do you know what the reward is?"
"No," Grimbleshank said plainly. "I didn't return."
"Why not?"
"I was a greedy lad like you once. Stayed eight days. On the eighth day, I realized… too much time had passed. The flowstream between here and there had stretched so far that if I had gone back… I might've shattered it all. The system warned me. So I stayed. That's how I escaped the first trial."
Everett went quiet, then turned to Guruji.
"Can you divine how much time we should stay?"
Guruji opened one eye and said:
"One day is curse.
Two, balance.
Three, fate.
Four, decay.
From five onward—nothing but loss."
Everett nodded slowly.
"I'll stay for three," he said. "Guruji?"
Guruji smiled faintly.
"As fate has been for us, so let it remain."
Grimbleshank slapped his thigh. "Good choice! Stay for three days, and you'll work for me too. I won't be tired."
---
Day Two
The message hung in the air, unnaturally still.
"Would you like to leave the Frost Realm?"
YES / NO "
Everett stared at it like a suspicious popup ad. "So… we just click no?"
Grimbleshank Ironpocket yawned dramatically. Guruji, with a smile full of hidden omens, nodded.
"As always," the monk said, as if it were the most natural decision in the world to stay in a death-frozen realm crawling with cursed beasts.
They both tapped "YES."
The air shimmered like ice being scratched from a mirror. Two new system notifications appeared in stark white glyphs.
[Everett's Quest: Defeat a Frost Realm Creature Alone.]
[Guruji Gopalan's Quest: Locate 7 frost beasts within 10 km, without using sight, smell, hearing, touch, or taste.]
Everett frowned. "Why does mine feel like a death sentence while his sounds like a riddle from a monk's sudoku book?"
Guruji didn't answer, just folded his hands behind his back as Sanskrit letters drifted around him like lazy fireflies. Then, with the exact wrong timing, Everett asked:
"…So where exactly do we find these creatures?"
Grimbleshank chortled from the shoulders of the massive six-headed hound, Minimus. "Boy, frost creatures don't always knock on your door. The city's only attacked when the Second Sun rises. Normally, they stay outside, quiet-like—until it gets... colder."
"Wait. Colder?" Everett looked up.
And there it was.
Above them, the first Sun had risen.
It wasn't yellow. It wasn't warm.
It was red—colder than bone, brighter than guilt, and larger than the moon. Its eerie glow blanketed the white frost desert in shades of blood and silence.
"So it begins," muttered Guruji.
---
The trio stepped into the frost sands—an endless desert of shimmering, icy white dunes that reflected the Second Sun like cracked crystal. Every breath turned to frost.
Minimus, the six-headed beast dog, Grimbleshank on beast dogs head padded ahead. Guruji floated Sanskrit characters with every step, forming silent protective mantras. Everett walked with daggers drawn, glancing between his companions and the horizon.
"Guruji," Everett said, after watching the monk conjure spiraling mantras that seemed... weaponized. "Aren't you supposed to be a prophecy-type support class or something? Why are your letters slicing through the air?"
Guruji didn't stop walking. "In our tradition, Everett, do you know who held the greatest power?"
"Uh… Kshatriyas? The warrior class?"
"Wrong." Guruji smiled without looking back. "The Brahmins. The sages. They didn't fight with swords. They spoke words that became swords. They prayed with such purity that even gods listened—and when angered, they could curse kings."
Everett blinked. "So, you're a... battle-priest with holy cheat codes."
"I am a voice in the shape of a man," Guruji replied. "And today, I speak violence."
---
Two kilometers outside the border, the sands shifted.
Seven wolves padded into view—Glimmer Frostwolves. One large Alpha and six smaller, shadow-laced wolves. Their fur shimmered like moonlight trapped in cracked glass.
"They travel in packs," whispered Grimbleshank from Minimus' shoulder. "Not smart, but sly. Not strong, but fast. Watch the shadows."
Everett nodded, gripping his daggers. A chill wind passed through him—not from the frost, but from his own realization.
He wasn't human anymore. Not entirely.
A day ago, he could lift 40 kilos. Now? His steps cracked frost like it was nothing. His arms flexed with a strength that didn't feel borrowed. It felt earned.
He had been changing. Slowly. Quietly.
---
First Blood
The wolves lunged.
Minimus roared, charging two of them like a storm of tails and teeth. Guruji's letters floated into spears of golden light. Everett, meanwhile, held his ground.
One Glimmerwolf darted toward him. Everett met its eyes, then slashed with a dagger. The two collided in a blur of frost and pain.
Everett was flung back—ten meters across the snow. His bones ached, but he stood.
The wolf came again. This time, Guruji's shield of light intercepted it—barely.
"Do not wait for death, Everett. Welcome it with a blade instead."
Everett's hand trembled. He recalled something someone once said—maybe in a meme, maybe in a textbook.
"Wolves have iron bodies, steel bones... but tofu stomachs."
He didn't know if it was real, but it was now gospel.
Everett lunged and sliced at the wolf's belly. Blood spilled like silver ink. The creature howled. Another lunged at him from the side. He dodged by instinct—but his old wounds reopened.
Pain flooded him.
Still, he fought.
Guruji summoned a golden dagger, inscribed with divine letters, and threw it to him. "Use this. A dagger of words. It won't last long."
Everett grabbed it, turned, and hurled it into the wolf's skull. It didn't kill—but it crippled. The wolf howled in agony. Everett rushed in, slashed its neck, and ended it.
The others came.
Guruji blocked one with a wall of light. Everett rolled beneath another's claws and stabbed up into its throat. The first sun glowed crimson as Everett danced with the wolves in the ice.
And finally... silence.
---
After the Hunt
The snow was red.
Everett collapsed beside Guruji, breathing heavily. His arms were numb, but his eyes burned with something new.
Grimbleshank returned, carrying the severed heads of the remaining wolves like trophies. He looked far too cheerful.
"Done already?" Everett wheezed.
Grimbleshank grinned. "What, you thought I was gonna let you kids have all the fun?"
They sat together in a silent frost, bruised and bloodied.
But victorious.
The Second Sun loomed above, but for the first time… Everett looked up and didn't flinch.
---
Day Three
The Second Sun returned—bright, slow, and cold. The city didn't stir.
Then came the final beast.
Tall. Starved. With a mirror-belly and antlers of broken glass. Its limbs were almost human, but its eyes were ancient.
Guruji finally spoke:
"Now the fate is most positive for us… whatever may come."
Everett held his knife tight.
Grimbleshank stood slowly. "Boy," he said, "I've watched many travelers. Fought beside monsters, even fools."
He smirked. "You're not the strongest. Or the kindest. But I'll be damned… I've had the best company with you."
He tossed a meat sack over his shoulder.
"Go. Return to your end. Let's meet again—if fate ever bothers to look back."
Guruji added softly:
"If it is written… we shall meet. Another sun. Another wound."
Everett stepped forward and accepted the system's return.
"Will anyone even remember my name?"
> ✅ Trial Complete: 3 Days Survived
⚠ Remaining longer may grant greater rewards—or consequences.
⏳ Estimated Time Passed in Origin World: ~30 Year
The frost dissolved like mist. Time twisted gently. And behind him, a mystic hummed a forgotten verse, and a dwarf laughed at something only he could understand.
There was no stew left. Only silence, and the memory of warmth.
---
[END OF FROST REALM ARC]