28 Obstinance

After witnessing the strength of Keith, Linnaeus had a better understanding of his standing among other Fledglings.

Though Keith had been powerful, he didn't give off the impression of someone beyond Linnaeus' means to deal with. Instead, Linnaeus felt like he would come out ahead more often than not, so long as he didn't get caught off guard. With this in mind, he started to second-guess whether or not he was truly weak as, with more than 2/3rds of the remaining Fledglings having already moved to the Fourth Floor, this indicated the rest should be amongst the strongest.

Having fought stronger opponents much of his life, Linnaeus knew that having higher attributes didn't necessarily mean you were able to suppress an opponent. If they fought cleverly and exploited your weaknesses, even those much weaker than yourself were able to come out ahead. This was how he won most of his battles so, after seeing Keith's battle against the Frost Wolves, Linnaeus felt more confident in his own power.

The only Fledglings he really needed to be wary of were the members of the Eight Heavenly Families and outliers such as Ryuuna. Her existence had taught him that there were perfect counters to his Blessing, just as his could be considered a counter to most ranged attacks. In the future, he would have to be cautious of anyone who had a Blessing that could either penetrate or ignore his barrier, lest he finds himself on the receiving end of a brutal beating once again.

Pain was an old friend to Linnaeus but that didn't mean he could disregard it entirely. Even with his [Pain Tolerance] reaching LV21, he still felt the full effects of his injuries. Thus, in order to avoid pain, Linnaeus continued to increase his proficiency with [Barrier Aura] while honing his Skills and Abilities as much as possible.

In this manner, two more days had passed without incident, reducing the total number of Fledglings on the Third Floor to 87 as a layer of permafrost settled into the landscape. It was starting to get to the point that Linnaeus couldn't resist the cold so, after reaching Level 26, he decided it was time to seek out Ryuuna. He knew she was too proud to come seeking him so, unless he proactively sought her out, the Third Floor would likely become his grave.

Fortunately, Ryuuna rarely ventured far from him so, after traveling for the better part of an hour, he came upon what looked like a massive graveyard. There were more than a hundred corpses of Frost Wolves present while, on the periphery of the grounds, icy blue Slimes, known as Frost Slimes, were slowly feasting on the abundant meal. They were relatively rare in other regions but, due to the large number of corpses, the Frost Slimes had started to congregate in the area in great numbers.

Linnaeus had killed a few of the deceptively weak-looking monsters, looting a pale-white gel from them that, after ingesting, nearly froze him. He imagined they would be extremely beneficial in hot climates but, with even the day time temperature in the freezing range, it had put him into a state of Hypothermia that forced him to make a fire out in the open.

To make matters worse, the Frost Slimes themselves weren't easy to deal with, as they would emit a penetrating cold plume, much like steam escaping from a pipe under high pressure. Thus, before he had ingested the chilling gel, Linnaeus had already been extremely cold as a layer of frost covered his dense layer of furs. Since then, he had made a point to avoid the troublesome creatures, despite the potential uses for the gels in later Floors.

With an adequate amount of caution, Linnaeus navigated around the Frost Slimes before finding himself at the mouth of a cave. There was a current of warm air flowing from the interior, carrying with it the smell of burnt meat and fur. It was a very pungent aroma but, rather than stay out in the cold, Linnaeus ventured inward after covering his mouth and nose with fabric he had looted from the corpse of an unfortunate Fledgling several days prior.

As he proceeded deeper into the cave, Linnaeus noticed that the ceiling was covered in a black residue that indicated exposure to smoke. Thus, when he found a campfire at the deepest part of the cave, he wasn't all that surprised. What confused him was that, despite his Party menu indicating that he was near Ryuuna, he couldn't pinpoint her position beyond the piles of partially rotting corpses that barricaded the warm interior from the external chill.

It wasn't until he breached the foul-smelling chamber directly that Ryuuna's position became known to him as, adjacent to the cavern's entrance, he caught a bit of movement. In the next instant, several corpses were tossed aside as a petite figure wearing a white bodysuit charged him like a phantom as it released a feral-sounding war cry.

Linnaeus knew there was no way Ryuuna hadn't sensed his arrival, especially as the Party Leader, so it was obvious she just wanted to lash out at him.

Though resistance would only encourage even more violence, Linnaeus grit his teeth as he solidified his [Barrier Aura] and brought up both arms in a crossguard. He was honestly tempted to announce he was leaving the Party, as this would allow him to move on to the Fourth Floor, but he knew the rather fierce woman wouldn't forgive him so easily if he slighted her in such a manner.

As could be expected, Ryuuna's attack slammed directly into Linnaeus' crossguard but, instead of a fist, she only struck with her palm. This caused him to be pushed into the wall by a pulse of golden energy, draining about 500 SP from his reserves. Rocks, dust, and soot also rained down from above, causing the interior of the cavern to become cloudy and sending Ryuuna into a coughing fit as she complained, "You sure kept me waiting...!"

Understanding the futility of arguing, Linnaeus remained silent for several seconds before saying, "If I came running in the first few days, you would look down on me. I may be weaker than you, but I'm not incompetent..."

After saying his piece, Linnaeus cast his [Barrier Aura] on Ryuuna, a functionality he had obtained upon reaching LV50 in the associated Magic. Though it was only effective within 50m of his position, he could cast his [Barrier Aura] on as many targets as his SP could sustain.

With a membrane now filtering out all the dust and soot, Ryuuna was able to breathe easily once again. Instead of saying thanks, however, she murmured in a voice that obviously wasn't intended to be heard, complaining, "You should have used your barrier earlier, you bastard..."

Linnaeus elected to ignore Ryuuna's remark, understanding it was just her being petty, something he had no control over. She likely had her reasons for behaving this way so, for the time being, he could only do his best to avoid antagonizing her.

Since there was no sense in beating around the bush, Linnaeus asked, "Do you intend to stay on this Floor much longer? The outside temperature is reaching the point that I can't move freely. Since you are the Party Leader, I will respect your decision...but I would like to move on to the next Floor so we can make preparations for the next challenge."

Hearing Linnaeus' words, Ryuuna seemed to fall into deep thought but he knew she was just looking at the information panel in her Status. There were now 81 Fledglings remaining, six less than when he had previously checked. This had many implications, the most likely of which indicated that other Parties were beginning to grow impatient. After all, while it was a show of strength to be the last on this particular Floor, they would lose their chance to prepare for the next challenge if they were too obstinant.

Unfortunately, obstinance seemed to be Ryuuna's default mentality so, after contemplating for a few seconds, she stated resolutely, "Most of the crap in the rest areas is just a waste of Aether. It would be better to stockpile as much as we can for later Floors. It's not like any of the challenges require us to have supplies so we'll be fine. For now, we'll wait here to see what changes the tenth day brings. If my guess is correct, we only have a few hours of light left before permanant nightfall. I've saved up a ton of supplies at this point so we can hold out here for a few days, at the very least."

Though he wasn't surprised by Ryuuna's words, Linnaeus barely resisted the urge to sigh as he gave a lazy nod and answered, "I understand...I'll cook us some food. If we want to be even safer, we can collapse the entrance to the cave and snuff out the fire once I'm done. With the size of these tunnels, we should have more than enough oxygen to last for a few days..."

Hearing Linnaeus essentially say he wanted to avoid combat, Ryuuna snorted through her nose but, as she hated the cold quite a bit, she decided against insisting they go outside. Instead, she began to move some of the corpses outside of the cave as, if they were going to seal the entrance, she didn't want to be trapped inside with rotting bodies polluting the air they were breathing. Even if Linnaeus' [Barrier Aura] blocked out most of the smell, she had already tolerated it long enough over the last nine days.

While Ryuuna was clearing out the cave, Linnaeus rekindled the campfire she had been using so he could cook some meat for them. It was obvious from the smell that the majority of her food over the last few days was burnt so, while his own cooking may not be the best, he expected it was infinitely better than anything she could prepare. He put a lot of care into preparing his meals as, after living in the slums his entire life, Linnaeus had a great appreciation for the savory meat he had gone most of his life without...

After a few hours, the burnt smell in the cave had been replaced by the fragrant aroma of seasoned meat and various herbs. There was still a pungent aroma of rotten flesh in the surroundings but that wasn't really something he could do anything about. Ryuuna had left the bodies to fester too long and, if not for the cold temperatures, the smell would have been even worse.

Since her nose had already filtered out the smell of rotten flesh, Ryuuna was largely unaffected by the pungent aroma inside the cave. This allowed her to smell Linnaeus' cooking even better than him, causing her stomach to let out a loud grumble, despite the fact she had eaten earlier in the day. When this happened, she instantly glared toward Linnaeus to see how he would react but, as if he hadn't heard her, he kept cooking the meat and tending to the fire with unwavering focus.

Ryuuna suspected he was only pretending to have not heard her but, as there was no benefit in pressing the matter, she decided to let it lay. Instead, she sat down a bit away from him before extending her hand with a warning look reflecting across her golden eyes.

With the predatory woman turning her gaze to him, Linnaeus looked up to match her line of sight. He could see the reflection of the campfire dancing in her eyes, giving her an especially vicious look that promised violence if he didn't give her what she wanted.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Linnaeus pulled out some of the meat he had cooked previously. It was kept warm due to the fact he had used excess SP to preserve its state. They wouldn't have a fire after today and, knowing Ryuuna would complain if he gave her cold meat, he had already made the necessary preparations to ensure they had hot meals.

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After snatching the skewer from Linnaeus' hands, Ryuuna voraciously bit into the meat, finding it's taste considerably better than anything she had prepared herself. It lacked the gamey and burnt flavor she had grown to hate. Instead, it had a mouth-watering aroma, a palatable flavor, and a large volume of savory juices. It was even seasoned lightly, amplifying the flavor and making it taste like a completely different kind of meat, despite being the same thing she had eaten for the past few days.

Before she realized it, Ryuuna had already eaten all of the meat from her skewer. This wasn't nearly enough to satisfy her, however, so she was about to demand another skewer. Before that, Linnaeus had already extended a second skewer to her, saying in a curt tone, "This will be the last one. I'll have something else for you to eat later, so pace yourself. Most of the stuff you dragged out is unusable so we'll need to ration our supplies to avoid running out during the Fourth Floor's challenge..."

Though her instincts were to argue, Ryuuna mulled over Linnaeus' words and found them sensible. Despite this, she wasn't going to simply agree with him so, before collapsing the entrance, she was intending to go out and collect some fresh prey. A single large Frost Wolf would supply them with food for several days so it wouldn't be much trouble. Thus, after finishing the second skewer, she left the cave without explaining her intentions, leaving Linnaeus sighing in the background as he grilled more meat...