329 Chapter 329: Caves of Ice

The first day ended without incident. Well, I guess the Assassins weren't going to attack this early. Maybe? I had no idea. In any case, even though we silently kept a vigilant eye out for those Assassins, we saw none of them.

Yet.

As we trudged through the snow, trekking through the forest at the foot of the mountains, the sky overhead slowly darkened. It wasn't unusual for the sun to set early during the winter. During December in Minnesota, the sun set as early as 4.30pm. Hell, I heard that the sun set at 3pm in Alaska, and they had less than six hours of daylight during some periods of winter. In fact, there was that famous legend of thirty days of night in Alaska (there was a book series about vampires on it that even had a movie adaptation). I wasn't sure if Alaska really had polar nights, but I knew for sure that the north and south poles definitely underwent a month without daylight, occurring between latitudes of 67˚24' and 72˚34' for both.

Fortunately, we made good distance despite our earlier pessimism, and ended up reaching the foot of one particular mountain. Cody Crosby, in particular, claimed that he saw something just as he crept over an outcrop of snowy rock, and waved us over.

"I think I see a cave over there!"

I tapped my glasses to magnify the image and filter out the snow. Sure enough, there was a cave at one small portion of the foot of the mountain. I turned back and nodded at my friends.

"Cody is right. There's a cave over there."

"I'll lead you guys there!" the assassin wannabe scrambled over the rock and darted through the snow. I noticed that he didn't leave any tracks at all, not even a single footprint. Wow, Cody was pretty skilled. His stealth skills were immense.

I was glad he was on our side.

Wanting to be out of the cold, the rest of us hurried toward the cave, following Cody closely. We didn't bother to hide our tracks. With the amount of snow falling, any footprints that we left on the trail would be covered up in minutes. Even though the interior of the cave was going to be similarly cold, at least it would provide some shelter from the howling wind. The extreme temperature was one thing, but the wind was a killer, its icy touch biting deep into our bones and causing us to shiver uncontrollably. My fingers and toes had already gone numb, and having lived in Minnesota for a few years, I was aware that we had to watch out for frostbite.

Even with our magic and enhanced physical constitutions, we were still not completely immune to the elements.

"Let's camp here tonight," Harrison Reed suggested, turning around to ensure that all of us had made it. To be sure, I counted ten, and then nodded at him. He smiled gratefully in response, and turned back to the rest of us.

"Be careful," Craig Carlson warned, his crimson spear already out. "We are not the only ones in this cave."

"Yeah." I nodded. We would be extremely naïve to think that the cave would conveniently be empty. Chances were, there was already a monster that had chosen the dark, sheltered dwelling to be its home.

We spread out cautiously, keeping our eyes peeled for any movement. With a stealthy gesture, I adjusted my glasses and switched to nightvision, turning my view green for a moment. Even so, I saw absolutely nothing.

I frowned. There was no way such a perfect spot would be empty. At the very least, it should be inhabited by…

That was when I caught sight of a dark shape stirring in the back of the cave, and rising from its slumber. Glowing red eyes glowered at us, and jaws opened to exhale a foggy breath, the vapor from its lungs condensing immediately the moment it came into contact with the cold air. Dagger-like fangs gleamed in the darkness, seemingly illuminated by its crimson eyes, and framed a fork-like tongue that darted out in our direction.

Pushing my glasses up my nose, I studied it, recognizing the Frost Fiend, a rank D monster whose body was laced with armored scales and armed with wicked claws. The sharp tips pierced the crust of the earth, leaving small holes on the ground with a clack. It had impressive physical capabilities, but was ranked D because…well, it couldn't cast elemental magic.

Just as well it couldn't, or it would be quite the troublesome opponent.

"I guess we found dinner for tonight!"

Craig, on the other hand, didn't hesitate at all. The Frost Fiend's eyes were still fixated on me for some reason (okay, it was because I was the closest, having ventured out in front of my teammates because I had nightvision), so it couldn't react in time when the Demonic Spearman's weapon pierced through its hide and ruptured its heart.

The Frost Fiend screeched and flailed about wildly. Craig leaped back with his spear, avoiding getting struck aside by its violent death throes. He was confident that he had delivered a killing blow, however, and smiled as he watched the result of his attack.

"A clean kill," he murmured proudly to himself as the Frost Fiend's thrashing finally died down.

"You should be careful," Sheila Scarlet chided him as she advanced forward, her shield out just in case the Frost Fiend was merely feigning death. She proded it with her spear, and then stabbed the head, puncturing the poor thing's skull, to ensure that it really was dead, and turned back to us with a nod. "Clear."

"We're pretty lucky," I remarked, looking around the cave and finding no sign of any other inhabitants. "I'm pretty sure that Frost Fiends usually gather in packs. It'll be troublesome to deal with a huge number of them, considering their armor and toughness."

Glancing at Craig's spear, I marveled at how much stronger he had gotten – again. Craig's spear technique allowed him to penetrate any magical or physical defenses…well, almost any. It was obviously dependant on how much mana his opponent had – if his opponent had several times more mana than him, then the curse would be overwhelmed by sheer power. Quantity over quality and all that. All, as someone once said (they attributed it to Joseph Stalin, but I had my doubts), quantity is a quality of its own. It was actually said by Thomas A. Callaghan Jr., who was a US defense consultant in the 1970s and 1980s, who apparently wrote it in his 1979 strategic report or something.

I couldn't help but smile. Craig was going to be a major player in the national tournament, and to hell to those idiots who mocked us as a so-called C-ranked team. And also to hell with the readers who labeled him as a mob character in the comments section. Seriously, so many readers loved to deal with the idea of absolutes and thought that fighting was as simple as "X can beat Y, so X must be able to beat all people ranked lower than Y." What utter bullshit. Reality never worked that way, otherwise why the hell would we bother organizing matches and having leagues where teams played against each other? Even Leicester City can beat Manchester City. That was the beauty of the game. Similarly, that was the beauty of fighting tournaments – we had matches because there was always the possibility for anyone or everyone to win. Outcomes were not decided by ranks alone, otherwise we might as well skip fighting and not go through all that trouble of stepping into the arena in the first place.

But no, some readers wanted to obsess over their overly simplistic and downright unrealistic view of "ranks are absolute!" without caring that the protagonist is a special snowflake that breaks those stupid ranking systems in the first place. They were too used to cultivation and xianxia stories or LitRPG stories where everything was neatly categorized into ranks and levels, and people's strength could somehow be conveniently measured.

Sorry, dudes, but that was not how the real world worked. sorry to burst your bubble, but there is no level 100 or Nirvana whatever Stage in real life, and a black belt Karate master can still lose to a street-fighter who spent his entire life surviving brutal gang fights, but would otherwise be unranked in the martial arts scene.

With that done, we began setting up a fire. Thanks to Dong Fang Yue Chu, that was a simple enough task. With a single flick of his hand, he set the improvised firewood that we gathered ablaze. All of us then gathered near the fire to bask in the heat. After suffering so long in the cold, the sensation of having warmth wash over us was heavenly.

The fire didn't just serve as a natural heater – we also used it to cook our dinner. Theodore began dragging the body of the Frost Fiend over and chopping it apart with the swiss army knife that was included in our backpack. Within moments, he carved out chunks of juicy meat and hung the slabs on a stick above the sizzling fire.

"This might not seem delicious, but I don't think we have much of a choice," Yue Chu said sheepishly.

"None of us are going to complain," Lily Liam assured him. "We all have some experience of what outdoor camping is like. All of us have undergone survival training in the wild."

"That's right." Pearl Pang nodded in agreement. "This much is nothing!"

Despite our optimism, the Frost Fiend's meat was not palatable. It might seem strange, eating monster meat and all that, but we didn't have much of a choice. Monster meat, fortunately, was edible, and was even a delicacy in the Amazerian Empire and Zurium Empire, where tribal warriors often went out to hunt monsters and bring them back for gigantic, celebratory feasts in their villages or towns. It was pretty much a fun festival.

Unlike the empires, the Global Federation relied more on domesticated animals that had continued to survive through millennia, rearing livestock within the safe territories of their domains in specially protected farms. The main population tended to eat meat butchered from such livestock, and even kept normal "pets" that were descended and almost identical to dog and cat breeds of my previous timeline. Obviously it wasn't just dogs and cats, but other domesticated animals too, such as rabbits, parrots, fish, terrapins, etc.

I glanced outside of the cave, pondering deeply. What did that mean for all the other creatures living in the wilderness, outside the territory of man?

I wasn't sure, but from what I had read…they had evolved. While monsters were entities from another dimension that surely dwelled in a different form or shape in their original homes, when they crossed over, they took on very familiar shapes, that resembling the terrestrial animals that inhabited Earth. Scientists speculated that the monsters had almost certainly replaced the majority of the biosphere and species that once lived in or world, taking their place entirely and creating the new ecosystem. Either that, or the animals had mutated and evolved into monsters, probably from ingesting monster carcasses or whatnot.

Whatever the case, it remained a hotly contested scientific debate in academic circles. I wasn't sure. Perhaps it was both. It didn't really matter to me, other than I needed to watch out for monsters and ensure they didn't sneak up on us. As such, after our dinner, I raised my hand.

"I'll keep watch. I'll take the first shift."

"Okay." Harrison nodded. "I'll be counting on you then."

"You sure?" Yue Chu asked, concerned. "You need the rest as much as we do."

"Are you volunteering to take the first shift then?" Craig asked him slyly, and he spluttered.

"Uh, well…I'll take the next shift."

"I'll take the third shift then." Harrison, as always, was the responsible leader. "We'll be taking two-hour shifts, if that's all right with you. I suggest we move out at six in the morning. That should give everyone eight hours of sleep, and those on guard duty about six hours of rest. Is that fair?"

"Yeah!" Everyone echoed.

"I'll take the last shift," Bu Fan said, much to everyone's surprise. He shrugged when he saw everyone staring at him. "What? I'm part of the team. I'm not a slacker, it's only natural that I do my part."

"We'll be counting on you then." Harrison smiled, and then nodded at me and Yue Chu. "You guys too. Thanks for volunteering."

"We'll cover tomorrow's shifts," Craig spoke up, determined not to lose. Theodore and Cody nodded in agreement.

"Sure. We'll talk about that when tomorrow comes."

While everyone went to sleep, I sat by the fire and stared out of the cave. Raising a hand, I summoned a couple of Corvus and mentally instructed them to fly out to serve as sentries. Before readers could complain in the comments, I had to remind them that summoning would not work if I was asleep. The moment I fell asleep, my Constellation spirits and whatever Soul Beast I summoned would automatically disappear. You couldn't throw a punch or kick when you were asleep, right? You couldn't run while you were asleep, right? Similarly, maintaining the existence of a Soul Beast required conscious effort and will. You couldn't just summon one and expected it to remain flying around while you went to sleep. Reality was never so convenient.

I probably drifted off – not exactly asleep, but just lost in my thoughts. Thinking of my next move, of the enemies I had to face, and all that. This was only the first day, so I wasn't expecting the Assassins to show up just yet, but I knew we had to be vigilant.

"Another two weeks of this, huh?" I grumbled, staring absently into the flames. Reaching for a twig, I fed it into the fire, and then stretched my hands out to enjoy the warmth. Suppressing a shiver, I sighed. "I can't wait."

Minnesotan or not (well, as much as you could call a foreign resident living in Minnesota for a few years a Minnesotan), I still wasn't a fan of the cold. That said, this was a lot better than dehydrating in the Tallarab Desert.

"Richie, it's my turn now."

At some point, Yue Chu stirred and woke up, crawling out of his sleeping bag and looking at me bleary-eyed.

"Go get some rest. We have another long day tomorrow."

"Right." I was exhausted by now, and could feel myself drifting off. Dismissing my two Corvus, who saw nothing but a few monsters here and there – fortunately, they slinked away into the distance rather than choose to approach the cave, I then rose shakily to my feet. I wasn't going to be pretentious like Wang Zhong and pull that whole BS of tempering my own body or claiming that my large volume of mana allowed me to quickly recover and thus I didn't need rest or I wasn't affected by exhaustion. I wasn't a God Mode Mary Sue, after all. I was only human, and thus I was still vulnerable to human frailties.

"Anything interesting happen?" Yue Chu asked as I staggered past him. I shook my head and suppressed a yawn.

"Nope. Nothing."

"Eh? No academy lost their badge signal? Nobody got eliminated?"

"How the fuck would I know?" I snapped irritably, probably still cranky from my drowsiness. "Do you think the TOs are going to broadcast the elimination of a team to all the other teams? What would be the point? They want to keep us on our toes. If we know that the majority of teams had been eliminated, it will only breed complacency. Besides, what benefit would there be if we know who was eliminated? We're not supposed to look for them and rescue them unless absolutely necessary, and they will tell us if that's the case. All it does is bring humiliation to those teams. Best to let them bow out insconspiciously without announcing it to the whole world."

"Eh? But Battle Frenzy did it…"

"WHO CARES ABOUT BATTLE FRENZY?! This is our own story!"

"Right, right. Sorry. Anyway, stop shouting. Everyone else is still sleeping." Yue Chu looked at me apologetically. "You get some rest too."

"Yeah, sorry." Too weary to muster another retort, I crawled into my sleeping bag and immediately fell asleep.