Blackstone even drew them up a diagram of the monsters’ movements, underlining her theory as to why that must be the case.

“This is set up to fail”, she declared, hammering her small hand down the table in excitement. “Intricately planned! The details! If things really are as you said, then someone must have worked a long time to figure out how to do this!”

She raised up a thick finger. Standing, she was still smaller than Ice while he sat, but she had chosen a stone to stand on, which lessened the distance.

The mage sipped at the tasty soup as he watched the dwarf, who was quite talkative since there were only Ice, Bloody and Spiderlily around.

“You see, there are three reasons why you fail. Number one, the wild boss cuts off your path. Number two, the monsters notice you. Number three, you mess up the timing and run right into them on your own. You see, if you check out this here… There and there!” She circled two areas on a detailed map they had drawn after a lot of effort. “These places here, you said there are loose stones everywhere. This area is pretty loud to go through. Whenever you do, you’re going to attract monsters that are too close by.”

“But we waited before going through there”, Bloody complained and chewed on a piece of roasted meat in between sipping his soup.

“Of course! But if you do that, you will reach this area here while those monsters are very close by. But you can’t just keep on waiting, because the hiding place is even colder. You’re forced to leave and run right into them. Or! Or! For example, if you dash through here while these guys are there… The wild boss shows up!”

Blackstone gesticulated wildly. Ice had no idea what exactly she meant, but Spiderlily made a small sound. “This…”

“So! This looks like a stealth mission where you’re supposed to go that way, but in fact, it is not!” The dwarf giggled proudly. Bloody raised a hand and the girl pointed at him. “Speak!”

“If that’s the case, isn’t that a bit too unfair? Because we’re wasting a lot of time. We don’t even know what else to do.”

“That’s why I have one more theory. Hehe…” She crossed her arms, proudly letting her gaze wander from one person to another. “I’ve talked to a good friend of mine who also develops these types of games. Smaller ones, of course. Do you know what she said?”

“What did she say?” Bloody played along, leaning forward to showcase his curiosity.

“This might be a natural and hidden time constraint. To make the players nervous. Think about it, we are trying around a lot right now, but what are we ultimately waiting for? What do we want to include into our plan, because it was hinted at as super useful?”

“The blizzard”, Spiderlily answered. “We are waiting for the blizzard. The prince mentioned it too, didn’t he?”

“Any good player would keep an eye on the blizzard after finding out that the monsters vanish when it appears. We thought this was a random weather phenomenon that appears, but what if it’s not? What if it’s like the spiders in the forest that come out every night? What if this blizzard appears at a certain timeframe, and it’s needed for us to pass through the third circle? Then all this… might just have been a distraction and a timeframe in which we are supposed to set up people to watch out for the blizzard’s effects.”

“Why do I feel like we are going back and forth with this quest? At least we are already waiting for news on the blizzard.” Bloody grimaced, showing his pointed teeth.

While everyone practised and practised, on day 10 of the quest… the blizzard finally appeared.

The report came while Bloody was offline, so Ice decisively logged off and called him. Only when the call did go through, Jian Lin started to choke up. He actually hated phone calls - he called the other in the spur of the moment.

Phone calls were terrible because you talked to someone, but there were no faces and no body language. You couldn’t gauge the other’s mood, and other people likewise wouldn’t pause if they saw you think. No, any silence was weird on a phone.

On the other side, Xi Yang waited for the seconds to pass. He continued pushing a curious Xi Yun away from him, walking around the room to escape his little brother until Jian Lin caught himself.

“H-Hello…”

“Hi! What’s up?”

Jian Lin summarized the situation. He dimly heard Xi Yun in the background roar with laughter, while Xi Yang’s tone was painfully monotone.

“You’re kidding.”

“No…”

“I thought it was stealth. I got used to the thought. But this? This isn’t just stealth. It’s the most classic stealth mission you would find in any game!” Xi Yang must have hit his head onto the table, as there was a dull thud and then his voice became a bit muffled. “It’s a, hide from the guards and sneak into the building mission!”

Frankly speaking, Jian Lin could relate.

The information they had gotten was a huge surprise.

When a blizzard appeared, the monsters on the third ring did go into hiding. However, only as soon as the blizzard actually picked up. Then, during the roaring storm, cristalline guard figures would come out of nowhere and patrol the area. Once the blizzard settled, they returned in small groups, each following their own path.

The monsters would return, but only with a good distance to the guards.

The experienced gamer would have looked at the report and the paths drawn at the map and notice: With a high probability, you were supposed to follow these guards before the monsters returned. The entrance to the castle was going to open for them.

“That means we only have a limited amount of chances, right? This blizzard reappeared after ten days. Ten! That would mean we have two more chances to enter the castle! Are they sure that’s not a bug?”

“It might appear more often now, or irregularly”, Jian Lin corrected.

“I hope so. Two chances is… not enough at all! Especially since we might not be able to meet up on those days. Wow, that sure sucks. I mean, I know it’s a world quest, and… ...No, okay. It’s a world quest. It doesn’t care if we fail or succeed. I mean, that red wyvern danger level was super high too.” 

A voice could be heard in the background and Xi Yang’s voice moved a bit away.

“Hm? Yeah, no. … Maybe they’ll release it sometime? How would I know? … No can do. You’re too troublesome.” The young man cleared his throat and spoke back into the phone with unhidden glee. “YunYun is annoyed that he can’t watch. But honestly, I don’t wanna carry others along in this quest. We’ve got more than enough troublemakers with Absinth.”

“I have a bad feeling about her”, Jian Lin admitted quietly. She was extremely irritable and did not like listening to orders. She had her own mind and was stubborn.

“She wouldn’t sabotage a world quest, though. Riiiight…?”

“I’m… not too sure.”

“I should start praying. What else did White Light say?”

“He believes it’s more likely for the blizzard to appear regularly as it is easier to plan. He wants us to have everything prepared and be ready to move out the next time.”

“Roger that!”

With their goal seemingly within reach, even Absinth calmed down a lot. Every day, they met up at certain times to practise the first two steps of their plan.

Another ten day passed.

Blackstone was humming peacefully to herself as she cut the meat and put it into everybody’s but Little Droplet’s and Spiderlily’s bowls. Those two were vegetarians.

“I spent the last days practising this. It’s light on the stomach but filling and gives you a tiny buff for warmth”, she explained. “Uhm, preferably this is the only time that I’ll cook this… The ingredients are expensive and the recipe is exhausting to prepare.”

“Thank you very much”, Ice told her in a quiet voice.

The thick stew was smelling good enough to attract the support party’s interest, but there was only enough for the main group. Spiderlily licked every drop off her plump lips, eyes often flickering over to Blackstone, who laughed heartily and promised to share the recipe.

Ice felt warmth spread through his body with the first bite. The meat melted on his tongue, accompanied by a slightly nutty taste. He narrowed his eyes in pleasure.

Beside him, Bloodless Sunset scooted closer. A naughty fork reached over, poking into one of the meat pieces in Ice’s bowl and stealing it quickly. Ice exhaled through his nose in amusement but did not stop the other from doing so.

“We have enough time for a short break after eating, but then we should move out. Has everyone changed their equipment?” Knightrider wolfed down his portion and put the bowl away. He glanced at the support party. Some of them reacted, but most were talking among themselves - they were here to act as inventory spaces, not for anything else. Knightrider scowled at their behaviour.

Bloody’s friends, on the other hand, gave Ice a thumbs-up with a broad grin. They were still marvelling at his equipment, sometimes taking something out to look at it.

“I gave everyone their potions. It should be enough to get you through the waiting time until the storm settles, I hope”, Blackstone said with a hesitant expression on her face. She had made as many as possible, but she wasn’t sure how quickly they would drain if the group was forced to wait out the blizzard while being logged in. None of them would dare log out at this point.

“We will move as planned. I am the top, directly followed by Bloodless Sunset and White Light. Absinth and Spiderlily will follow us with a bit of a gap, and Ice and Little Droplet will be behind them. Make sure to watch out for my orders, Ice.”

“Yes”, Ice obediently responded.

“We should reach the area around twenty to thirty minutes before the blizzard starts”, White Light mused. “Enough time to create a safe space for us. The last stretch should be especially easy because the monsters should clear out.”

“If it does”, Absinth dampened everyone’s mood. She looked almost smug at the effect her words had, possibly not considering that if the blizzard did not appear as they hoped… she, too, would have a problem with the quest progression.

They rested for ten more minutes after eating before getting ready. Methodically, everyone checked their equipment again, then popped open a little red vial and swallowed the disgusting liquid within. The heat flooding through them would have felt like a fever in warmer weather.

“We can do this”, Bloody whispered to Ice while pausing for a moment at his side. “We’ll find that second Ice Emperor for you.”

Blackstone and some of the more cheerful support members waved at them from the little camp. Looking up the mountain, the group’s faces were quite blank - they had walked this path so often now that it was turning into an annoyance.

No one would like attempting an attack over and over again when it was such a long way.

Despite it being the first time that Absinth joined their new tactic, things worked surprisingly well. As arrogant as she was, she had skill.

Wyverns loomed high above them, watching their group as if to make sure they did not try to fly. More and more mutated yetis appeared around them, some even trying to attack from behind where the weak link of the group was.

Bloody howled in anger whenever one managed to sneak up on them, endangering their healer and ice mage. Little Droplet was quite relaxed, but Ice’s shoulders were hard with tension. He didn’t want to die here.

“Fuck. Ice, how’s your mana looking?”

The ice mage swallowed a greenish yellow liquid. He stuck out the tip of his tongue in distaste at the heavy bitterness in his mouth.

To manage the increasing number of mutated yetis, he had to cast spells over and over again. They couldn’t be too small, either, or they wouldn’t have an effect.

At that point, he must have cast the spell twenty to thirty times already.

“I’m at 32 mana. It’s regenerating, but it won’t increase if we keep on running into enemies.”

“I’m at 51”, Little Droplet announced, likewise sipping at a potion. It was better to drink one too early than too late, especially considering that potions only regenerated over time. There were fast-acting potions, but because those were very expensive, people would reserve them for bossfights.

During a longer expedition like this, you’d take the normal ones and hope that there was enough time between the fights for your health or mana to regenerate.

“How’s everyone’s health?”

“Good.” Spiderlily did not bother to say anything else.

“Since Little Droplet healed me up, good”, White Light echoed. There was a tear in his sleeve where a yeti’s claw had drawn a mean gash on his arm. It wouldn’t have happened with his usual gear.

“My mana is starting to drain”, Absinth complained loudly. She was very helpful, but because she used spells to actually cause damage - contrary to Ice, who was attacking to cause the debuff - her mana consumption was higher. In the first place, she did not have as much mana as Ice did, which made her glare at him in envy.

“I think the amount of enemies is lessening, though.” White Light looked around. They had run into an unexpected amount of enemies in hiding - sometimes even sitting in piles of snow - but right now, there were only a couple in sight.

Excluding the huge wyverns, which did not plan to attack.

“How far away are we from the third ring? According to our calculation, the blizzard should start soon, right? Then they might be retreating.” Bloodless Sunset paused to look at his minimap. “Yeah. We are close.”

“Finally”, Little Droplet whispered.

“Guys, guys!” Suddenly excited, Bloody pointed at a spot in the sky. Everyone’s heads tilted upwards, staring in the direction he was pointing.

The shadows of the harpies were moving like swallows before a storm. They were diving near the ground, scattering slowly.

“Let’s wait until they’re gone”, Knightrider ordered.

White Light waved everyone over to them. They gathered at one spot, enduring the increasingly biting wind until the harpies had completely vanished. Ice nervously looked at the clouds gathering in the sky.

“It’s starting soon”, he warned everyone. “We should run and drink the potions.”

“Great idea”, Bloody agreed, already pulling one out.

Dashing through the snow was not only slow, it was also exceptionally exhausting. This was the most uneven terrain they had gone through until now. The snow was freshly fallen, causing them to sink in a bit with every step.

Absinth cursed the whole way. Most of the curses were curses that Ice had never heard before in his life, some so vulgar that he found himself blushing from embarrassment rather than the cold.

The wind picked up in speed before they reached their target area. Eerie howling echoed between the mountain tops, sounding like a chained beast screaming out in annoyance. Thick flakes and hail were beginning to obstruct their view.

Bloody kept his eyes to the side, where their original stealth route had been.