43 Who is he?

There is a big mansion in the second district owned by the Lord of the Glacie family. The lineage of the Glacie family is famous for raising several strong ice mages.The prestige of the household is represented by their eldest daughter.

Her talent was recognized by the strong magic resonance on her awakening. Among her peers, she is known for her analytical nature, while others were busy being idly, she was already on the battlefield to see what burden every warrior has to carry. As she turned 5, she already possessed enough magic power to many mages, who were turning 12. By the age of ten, she was unrivalled in the main family branch.

At 16 she was compared and fought against the best of her generation. It was then, that she promised to only marry the men, who would best her in combat. Many of her suitors declared to marry her, but each one of them was brutally beaten down and their dream crumbled into dust. Henceforth she carried the title of Icy Maiden. Her aloof and cold character was something you could only savour from the distance.

That is why the current situation would leave every witness stumped. The lady, who practised magic all day was sitting in the library surrounded by thick books. She turned page after page and a mix out of defeated sighs and annoyed grunts escaped her lips. After she finishing a book it went flying across the room and the next one was picked up. She had been doing this for the last 6 hours and yet did not stop. If the books were about warfare or magic it would have been considered a bit strange but still acceptable to her character. But those books were about history, local ethnic groups, special tribes and ancient weaponry.

Even after many books, she hasn't found the thing she was searching for. She looked dazed in the room, at all the books she has skimmed through by now.So much different tribes, yet no one is even remotely close to the way he was. He was a man of few words, had a broad stature and was quite handsome. The most vexing thing about this man is that even after me getting serious he did not consider using magic, he just used his body to defeat me.Who does he think he is treating me like that. Not even giving me his name and then just defeating me like that.

Yes, the young lady who did not put anyone else in her eyes was intrigued for the first time in her life. She was caught completely off-guard, by the man who did not even gave her a name after besting her. She could not put into words, why he was that appealing to her. Was it the mystery surrounding him, the muscular body, his obscure fighting style that made his presence that captivating. Or was did she just not know how to handle being defeated for the first time?

It is so strange, no matter what I read and searched for in all of the documented histories, there has never been a body that could go head to head with magic. At first, I thought, that he was just a strong NPC, but every NPC reacts the same way when faced with magic, they are scared or at least respect it. But no, he did not pay any heed to it. There was no change in his expression, even though the pain that he must have felt, would make any grown men scream in terror. Judging by this I should really question, whether he was a man, machine or a monster.

The strangest thing is, that I did not feel even one ounce of magic fluctuation from him and as we all know every living being has magic fluctuations. Even those Nagants. So why did I not feel any from him? It cant be that he is not capable of using magic, that just can't be it, it just sounds so ridiculous and absurd. Maybe he has sealed his magic power, yeah that must be the reason.

I will have to read books about myths and legends next before I can decide whether he is a special NPC or a human. He may as well be groomed as a hidden force of the Church. I do not want to believe that something like that was made up by a machine. Losing to a machine would be too shameful.

Samantha was so fascinated, that she did not notice, that her little sister Claudia has been watching her from time to time, to see what was wrong for her sister to behave that way. Only reading the book titles she was already hit by a wave of confusion. What could have caused a sudden change of interest of that magnitude, it felt like Samantha's whole character did a 180. Why would she be interested in something like that? Normally her sister would be training her magic or studying guides on how to deal with certain monsters. Not reading literature about history.

Claudia felt like she was spectating an alien,the otherwise cold and always serious girl was currently deeply caught in her own thoughts. From time to time, a deep grin became visible on her face. Claudia felt perplexed, she did not know that her sister was even capable of making such a face. Who are you and what did you do to my sister?

Who or what could cause her sister to act this way? Was it any of her suitors? That seems unlikely, otherwise, her sister would have taken a fight with him directly and she did not battle any suitor recently. Besides all the time she had, was either spent on training magic or fighting inside "Primal Survival" and even there she was not beaten by any player. Do not tell me that, this was caused by her loss against that wicked NPC? Did my sister snap because she lost for the very first time?

But the Samantha I knew, would dive headfirst into training after losing to an NPC. Maybe she is researching the NPCs weaknesses. That must be it and seeing a strong opponent caused her too much excitement.

As the number of books that flew through the library increased, so did the baffling look of Claudia, her mind was still having difficulties accepting the reality. Why did the books turn from history to myths and legends? I doubt that there is not too much to find, about combat strategies in those kinds of stories. She must be interested in the origin story of that man. Information is the key to victory after all. But I have no clue, why she is sighing while doing her research, is she not content with the information available?

I do not get it, she just could have asked our father on his experiences if she wants to beat him that badly, she was not afraid to do so in the past if she was unable to progress. Father would most likely help her even more gladly then usual after she found herself a target.I have not seen that level of ambition on her for a very long time.

Samantha was currently busy lamenting the fact, that she was unable to find anything about that mysterious man, even in legends there was no such thing as a body without magic, such a concept was so foreign that it did not even occur in myths and legends.Something like this is not something that can exist in this world. So does that mean, that the whole man is just made up by someone? But what is he depicted on, there has to some sort of inspiration, after all even the legends were not able to come up with such an obscure idea.

What I still fail to understand is that even though NPCs are quite intelligent their behaviour pattern is something that can be considered normal or expected, but that fighting style he used against me, was something I have never ever seen. Fighting against monsters is mostly based on instincts, fighting against a human is based on behaviour and fighting tactics, but he took advantages of my misconception to viciously strike me when I did not expect an attack. If an NPC was capable of using that level of tactics without a doubt the developer would have sold that as a strong point, to gather more sponsors.

But either they withheld that information or they did not know about him in the first place. Both statements have quite heavy implications if they turn out to be true. For one, withholding that information would either mean that they knew that they would get enough funding anyway and kept that information as a backup plan or did not dare to mention that level of intelligence to get that funding. If you think about it an NPC with that kind of combat style would surely be extremely dangerous and unpredictable.

But if they did not know about that NPC, that raises the question how it came to be in the first Place, is there more to him? Does he have a purpose, if so what is it? Are he and bugboy part of the same group of intelligent NPCs? Is this just a great scheme for the player to get invested in this game?

I want to know whats all behind this stuff, something like that can not just appear out of thin air and it is definitely not something that was created by gods. No the gods she knew would not defile mana and create such a blasphemy. After pondering on this matter for a long time she realized, that she was running out of possibilities.

As it turns out the only option left, was to seek him out and try to talk to him. He did not show any aggression before he was attacked. Let me see, what his motivation and reason for existence are. But at first it was time to hone the magic, she had been prioritizing the whole affair around that strange being for so long, she actually forgot about her obligation.

Ice magic requires a calm mind and body, guiding the magic flow takes a lot of practice, but no longer a problem for her. She had reached a level, where she could freely manipulate the mana to her liking. Refining the magic particles was her current goal, the purer the magic the more potential it offered, though it came at the price of being harder to control. That is why, refinement should happen step by step, to not lose control of one's body and emotion.

Preparing herself, she noticed that she was unable to calm down. Was she really affected by that loss? As a scion of the Glacie family, losing her calm regardless of the reason is an unaccapptable circumstance. She caught herself thinking about that man over and over again. Coming back to her loss and his fighting style.

She could not fathom, why her mind did not let go, it was as if her mind was pointing out something, which she has not noticed beforehand. What could that be? She had analyzed everything about his fighting style and found nothing about it in any book she read. His weapon and his body, everything about him seemed to not make any sense. She had a lingering feeling, that he represented something, that did not fit into "Primal Survival".

She would go even further and say that he represents a concept that is absolutely foreign to this world as if it was never meant to exist in the first place.

She did not notice it, because she was savouring the fight, but wasnt his presence alone was eerie, it felt like mana itself was moving away from him. If even the foundation of "Primal Survival" is afraid of that monster? Who is he to induce such a feeling to mana itself?

Unable to escape that loop, she continued pondering about possible scenarios for the rest of the day, before returning to "Primal Survival" in search of the truth behind the man that bested her.