Eternal_Winter
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Chapter 9
🕑 Added 2025-05-02 12:47:53 +0000 UTCReworked on the 20/05/2025
The mystical force known as magic, Ethan noticed, wasn’t set in stone. It was malleable and with the right knowledge, could be formed like wet clay but also just as easily broken when it was used the wrong way. Then it will shower you with the remains of your work and if you’re unlucky enough take a part of your body too. Ethan rubbed over his burning arms, he used too much magic and was hit in the face by the first snowball of the tutorial, his own spell backfired and hit him on the cheek when he lost concentration during his casting due to the pain.
But despite this obvious failure, his plan was one step closer to being achievable, the fact that he managed to create snow in the first place was a step in the right direction. It didn’t feel as solid as his ice magic, his best guess was because he didn’t have the skill or the right knowledge to understand the concept of snow in a magical sense.
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During his journey he experimented, Nora helped him avoid the bigger creatures with her superior senses and guided him towards smaller prey, usually boars and one deer. The thing was that all of them were below his level and not worth much experience. Because level six was still out of reach, what the system was lacking was a way to see his experience but maybe it deemed it unnecessary. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t mind the speed of his progression, in his mind developing a small core set of skills seems better in the long run, the simple fact that he could lose the overview over his abilities made him shudder. Having skills from the start and using them until the very end could make them evolve in different ways, it also seems more manageable to have a few powerful skills than hoarding basic skills.
With his new self taught ability to create snow he managed to form it into simple shapes. From a ball to a cube and from a cube into more complex things like rings or pyramids. But that wasn’t his goal at all, he planned to hurt as many goblins as possible in a short amount of time and his new ability gave him an idea. What if he could, instead of shooting ice spikes, make traps that damage multiple goblins at and not only once like ice spikes but different goblins while also sowing chaos at the same time. So he formed something like a caltrop. The concentration needed to form the shape out of snow made him nearly pass out, compressing a not one hundred percent understood element was hard without really knowing what you did in the first place.
The pain he felt when overextending his mana again slowly came back, the feeling of molten metal in his veins as it forced its way to his hands. But he powered through and with a silent scream and a loud grunt the snow turned to ice, leaving a single caltrop on his palm shining in a brilliant white of frozen snow. He collapsed right there, landing on his eyes, his eyes closed around the caltrop, careful so he didn’t injure himself with it.
When the stars stopped to dance in front of his eyes he looked at his mana pool.
Mana Points (MP): 40/250
He made it barely but there was still so much to do. Because he knew from his fight with Ouroboros that the system can grant you skills if you achieve something and at least understand most of how it works. So he regenerated his mana until he was back to full and continued his training.
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During this Nora became his lookout, she didn’t have magic the same way as he did and while she was mature she was still lacking knowledge just like Ethan. So she decided to keep watch and made sure he was safe and in exchange he hunted small animals for her to feed on. They talked about it and she didn’t need to eat as the system included her as a tutorial attendeebut she was constantly growing since she hatched and the emptiness made her feel a bit sick, so Ethan killed some squirrels Nora sniffed out. They only knew each other for half a day at this point but their bond was surprisingly strong, strangers still but it seems that his patron was right, he could grow with her and become a team.
As the day progressed and night began to encroach on the tutorial Ethan knew it was a very bad idea to stay on the ground. So he needed somewhere safe, while he didn’t know if any animals walked around a night that had a stronger level he was sure the goblins had patrols in the night so it was better to stay out of sight. Nora guided him to one of the tall, large trees and he climbed it rather easily with his increased stats.
Sitting there on one of the higher branches he practiced a bit before drifting into a dreamless sleep, memories tried to surface but something was suppressing them, like a hangover and you couldn’t remember what happened the evening before. When he woke up he felt refreshed but sitting on a tree branch wasn’t something he enjoyed, his ass, back and legs felt sore but Nora told him they would soon reach the goblin camp. While he was sleeping she noticed fire in the distance from multiple patrols that marched through the forest, but they all started and returned from one point, right in the middle of the forest.
It turned out that Ethan almost walked a whole round in the inner circle of the tutorial without running into the camp or fighting other goblins. He certainly played sneaky with such a low level. Why did he know that? Because Ouroboros cheated and he gave Nora some knowledge about the tutorial, only the basics but even those would help him in the long run.
In the center was the goblin camp located in this very forest. Surrounding it was the swamp filled with undead, Ethan was glad he didn’t encounter those so far. In the third circle the beastmen fought an endless war against each other…in the last circle there was no enemy, at least Nora’s memories didn’t mention one but if his guess was correct it would take a long time to reach the last circle, so more problems for future Ethan.
When his feet touched the ground again he stretched his sore body and took a deep breath of the stale air even though the morning felt depressing already with no fresh breeze…he really hoped his plan would work out. The duo continued on their way, Nora telling him where the camp was and Ethan made caltrop after caltrop, each of them looking better, more precise and deadly by the minute. Until finally his system responded.
Update [Ice Caltrop (Basic)] gained - Form your ice into a caltrop, can serve as a deadly trap if used correctly. Slows enemies down, has a chance to inflict bleeding, will inflict frost poison if not resisted.
Ethan grinned like a child on its birthday and he would have cried in triumph but he could restrain himself at the last second. This showed that his theory was right, the system could grant skills like this. Giddy like a kid he formed a new caltrop but with the new ability it worked a lot better and quicker, the drain on his mana was very small, still he noticed the improvements he made himself due to his understanding of the ability he created on his own.
He continued to generate caltrops, his hands overflowing with them while they slowly drained his mana. The caltrops could be a very good weapon but he needed to stop playing around, he thought, still staring at the new magic he created. They continued to play around and Nora interrupted him. I know you enjoy it Ethan but we’re getting close to the goblin camp. I feel a large amount of heat signatures up ahead so you better conserve your mana and wipe that stupid grin off your face, she looked at him. Even without the ability to move her face she looked at him accusingly.
I know, sorry, I’m just excited that’s all. I promise I'll concentrate, he stopped playing with magic and followed the guidance of Nora towards the camp. It wasn’t a long way but he quickly noticed the presence of goblins in this area. Footsteps left paths in the ground, crude warnings made from animal skulls and fur hung in the trees and the smell of feces and rotting flesh filled the air. He gagged twice before he managed to pull his robe up and over his nose.
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When he approached the camp he noticed the large hill on one side, the goblins had built a palisade wall against it so it would be quite easy to climb up the hill and look straight into the camp. Well if they were so dumb to provide him with a vantage point he would use it to his advantage.
Down below he spotted around fifty of the dark green creatures and again half of that number in wolves. The camp was bustling with activity, some goblins repaired rusty weapons, other cooked meals made from very human looking arms and legs. Some fed the wolves or inspected their rubbish equipment.
In the end Ethan was rather interested in their daily routine, it seems they followed a strict schedule and even when it looked like chaos there was a form of order in it. No goblin blocked another and they looked almost harmonized in their workflow. Still it didn’t feel right to him that goblins were this meticulous with their equipment but he couldn’t worry about such a feeling when he was surrounded by enemies.
Ethan decided to wait, the day was just beginning but he wanted to know everything important before he started something. The basic things were sometimes the most crucial in this kind of scenario. Like when a patrol moved out, how big it was and when it returned for example. Such information gave him a good count of how many goblins were outside the camp. He looked out for crafters and warriors, making sure to count them properly too, Nora helping him keep everything in mind. In the end he learned a lot, his focus never wavering.
When the day finally ended he noticed the activity dying down slowly, until only the night watch was still awake, patrolling around but not inside the camp. Nora and Ethan discussed what to do and she suggested breaking the goblins spirit, it would make them paranoid and prone to mistakes, so that’s what he did.
Like a madman he threw the caltrops into the camp, but instead of slamming into the packed earth they floated like snow through the whole camp and only when in contact with the ground did they turn to ice and gained some weight and the needed durability to pierce a goblin’s skin.
Ethan smiled, the ocean of shiny caltrops and the shining stars in the sky made it look almost magical. “Let’s hope you sleep well tonight goblins, tomorrow you will be in a world of pain.” He whispered and activated his poison before finally going to sleep for tonight.
When the first scream echoed over the camp Ethan opened his eyes and smiled. The brutality of the goblins last time seemed excessive and he enjoyed the idea of killing those that tried to hunt him down for sport. “I think it’s time to take a look, right Nora?” The snake was still sleeping so he decided to take a peek after all, hoping his plan worked as intended.
