Fatigue hung on Liesta's shoulders like a heavy cloak. She was crouched at the mouth of a temporary shelter, a cave. Sleep was a necessity, but a dangerous one; in this frozen hell, every shadow in the snow could birth a new threat. The creatures here demanded every ounce of her strength, constantly forcing her to risk her life. The blood of the ice-wolf pack she had slain just hours ago still stained the snow like a frozen red lake, a battle that had pushed her to the brink of death. Only the raw, relentless power of her awareness had pulled her back from the edge.
It was a wretched existence. Since arriving in the desolate northern wastes, rest had become a forgotten luxury. Every moment was a struggle for survival, and every encounter with other survivors ended with the bitter taste of betrayal in her mouth. The cycle was relentless, each repetition carving deeper lines of weariness into her very being. Even her pristine, alabaster skin seemed to radiate a deep, bone-chilled exhaustion.
'I was only days away from escaping this place. Now… I have no idea where I am. What do I do now?'
A glimmer of light in the distance ripped her from her thoughts. It wasn't the eerie glow of monsters or will-o'-the-wisps, but the steady, warm gleam of civilization. Torches. Lanterns. Liesta's golden eyes narrowed, focusing on the promise of shelter. With a groan of effort, she forced herself to her feet. Her light armor was scratched, notched, and encrusted with a shell of frozen grime. The enchantments woven into the metal mesh flickered weakly, trying to repair themselves, but the deepest gashes seemed beyond magical mending.
---
Meanwhile, Touya and Lanert walked. And walked. And then walked some more. The frozen continent seemed endless, every promising crevice or outcry offering not shelter, but a new horror. Nine out of ten corners harbored a fresh cause for fear.
Lanert spoke through teeth that chattered, his breath misting in the air. "You've unlocked the essence of your awareness. You said you gained a Simple Name, though you can't explain it. And you haven't fully integrated the Third Dimension yet. Ah, it's exhausting. I feel like I'm doing this for the second time!" He stopped and turned to Touya with sudden intensity. "TOUYA! You need to feel your own soul. Try to see it, visualize it in your mind. The rest will follow. Every human has their own dimensional awareness realm. It has unique characteristics. If you're not Tier 4, you can't project it into reality, but you can visualize it in your mind."
Touya looked overwhelmed, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Maybe if you told me what it's supposed to look like, I could imagine it! But you're not saying anything! Feeling my soul is harder than breathing this damn, stale air stabbing into my lungs!"
Lanert put his face in his palm, shaking his head slowly. "Touya, everyone's soul is different. Everyone's soul realm is unique to their own awareness. Describing mine... it's like a pristine river in harmony with a meadow, shaded by a lone tree on a hilltop. That place is where my soul resides, an abstract manifestation of it. Yours, I hope, is not as... desolate as your personality."
Touya was genuinely taken aback by the insult. It was the first time he'd heard such bluntness from Lanert. The shock was... disturbingly plausible.
Touya swayed slightly, then sat down hard in the snow. A moment later, he sprang back to his feet. "We need to find clothes. I'm going to freeze to death."
Lanert sighed. "If we took from the dead, we'd have to show our gratitude by burying them. We took nothing. We gave nothing. If we had, we'd have frozen to death right there from the effort."
Touya shrugged with an air of indifference. "Actually, I took some crackers from a guy. Drank some water too. As for gratitude... I puffed out my chest and stepped on him."
Lanert looked at his companion with a disgusted grimace. Perhaps he needed to be more careful in his choice of friends.
Lanert and Touya found a shallow hollow to shelter in, desperately trying to light a fire to warm their freezing bodies. Throughout the process, Touya turned inward, completely focused, battling the swirling sensations of trying to grasp his own soul. Then he remembered.
'That moment... I felt the troll's soul. I took its power for a while. Or... I stole it. It was different. Its soul wasn't complex, but it had a strange purity to it, like a newborn's. Can I feel my own like that?'
He placed a hand on his chest, lightly at first, then harder, then focused with an intensity that began to pound in his temples, straining his brain. The flames of their meager fire flickered for a moment and leaned toward him, responding to his will.
Seeing this, Lanert rushed to his side with an excited, hurried whisper. "Look, now you can see the nature of your awareness! Your trait! Your body will remain here, but your mind will be there. You can return immediately. Just try asking your awareness, focus on it. A woman's voice will tell you what you need. The explanation is always the same and only responds to specific prompts. Think of it not as a conscious response, but more like a... text reader. Anyway, I don't want to explain too much. You must learn this yourself."
Touya swayed, feeling a headache beginning to pound behind his eyes. It grew sharper, and sharper still, until it was a blinding agony—not a pain, but a gateway.
Other hand
Liesta approached the settlement. She had barely managed to kill a few more wolves on the way, doing her best to appear strong and alert. It was a crude town, a haphazard cluster of buildings behind a wooden palisade, with a sordid background. As she headed for the gate, the guards leered at her with smiles far from friendly—their eyes held a hungry, predatory glint. The place reeked of base desire and desperation.
When she moved to enter, a guard blocked her path. "You can't pass without payment. Twelve silver for city lodging."
Liesta directed her coldest, most distant gaze at him. "I have no money. I have monster remains."
The guard tried to maintain a jovial appearance, but it turned ugly and repulsive. "The remains trader is over there." He pointed a grimy finger toward a shack.
Liesta walked, her posture rigid with disdain. She found the trader and laid out her disgusting wares—claws, fangs, frozen, stiff pelts. A tense, silent haggling began. She bargained hard, her expression never changing, and finally walked away with a small, jingling pouch of coins. It was a simple exchange, devoid of warmth, death's chance for one more night of life.
***
In the hollow, Touya and Lanert had failed again. Touya still couldn't fully grasp the Third Dimension, and Lanert had yet to find real civilization. As if mocking their efforts, a low growl echoed from the entrance of their shelter. A predator, drawn by their scent or their fire, had found them. It was larger than the wolves, its fur matted with ice, its eyes gleaming with a feral hunger.
The confrontation was immediate and tense. This would not be an easy fight. It was the kind of encounter that separated the living from the dead in the frozen north.