Awakening a 10,000x Skill Proficiency Multiplier in the Apocalypse-Chapter 58: []: The Frozen North, General Iron

The teleportation transit was intense.

Sebastian was instantly transported across the server architecture. He bypassed thousands of miles of virtual landscape in a fraction of a second.

When the world rendered back into existence, the first thing Sebastian felt was the pain.

"Fvck!" he hissed. His teeth instantly chattered.

He materialized on a snow covered cliff. The wind hit him like a physical wall. It was not just cold. It was absolute freezing.

BING!

[System Warning: You have entered the Northern Continent.]

[Environmental Hazard: Extreme Deep Freeze]

[Debuff Applied: -100 Stamina/sec. -50 HP/sec. Movement speed reduced by 40%.]

Sebastian stood knee deep in fresh snow. He was still wearing his ragged cloth tunic and his black leather coat. The leather froze solid in less than three seconds. It turned stiff and brittle.

His lips cracked. A thin line of blood trickled down his chin and instantly froze into a red icicle.

Beside him, three columns of blue light flared as his team spawned in.

"Holy sh!t!" Valerie screamed. She instantly wrapped her arms around herself.

Her azure silk robes offered absolutely zero thermal protection. Her lips were already turning blue.

"Sebastian! We are going to freeze to death before we even find the thing!"

Galleon grunted and stomped his heavy boots in the snow. "Dwarven blood runs hot, but this is ridiculous. Even my beard is covered in ice!"

Wraith did not speak. The Assassin simply activated his skill. The dark aura wrapped around him and created a thin insulated layer of mana that shielded him from the worst of the wind.

"Do not panic," Sebastian ordered. His breath formed thick white clouds in the air. "Valerie, use your magic. Do not make a shield. Make a dome around us. Keep the wind out."

Valerie nodded frantically. She slammed the base of her oak staff into the snow.

"Aegis!" she yelled.

HUMMM.

A faint blue dome of kinetic energy expanded outward and encompassed the four of them. It did not provide heat, but it completely cut off the howling wind.

"Better," Sebastian said. He wiped the frozen blood from his chin. "We move fast. The ambient cold will still drain our health pools. Keep walking, or your character models will freeze completely."

They began to trek through the deep snow. They walked up the steep incline of the mountain.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

The Northern Continent was a desolate place. Towering peaks of jagged blue ice pierced the grey sky. There were no trees and no grass.

There were just endless expanses of white and the occasional frozen corpse of a massive beast half buried in the snow.

Suddenly, a low growl echoed off the ice walls.

Grrrrr...

Emerging from the snow ahead were three massive shapes. They were Frost Trolls. Standing twelve feet tall, their bodies were composed entirely of jagged ice and thick white fur. They carried massive clubs made of frozen mammoth bones.

[Monster: Frost Troll (Level 35)]

"Hostiles," Wraith whispered. His daggers were already drawn.

"Do not bother," Sebastian said.

He did not want to waste time or stamina. He raised his right hand and extended his thumb and middle finger. He tapped into a small fraction of his mana pool. He did not use a massive spell. He just used the base Tier 1 evolution of his Fireball.

SNAP!

FWOOSH!

Three perfectly spherical fireballs shot from his hand. They moved in perfectly straight lines.

The fireballs hit the Frost Trolls square in the chest.

There was no epic battle. There was just a loud SIZZLE as the extreme heat instantly vaporized the moisture in the trolls’ bodies. They did not even have time to scream before they melted into puddles of boiling water and steam.

"Keep moving," Sebastian said. He did not even look at the loot drops.

They marched for another twenty minutes. They pushed through the agonizing cold until they finally reached the crest of the mountain ridge.

Sebastian looked down, and his eyes narrowed.

Below them lay a massive canyon of ice. In the very center of the valley, resting on a pedestal of pure glacier, was the lair of Velkhana, the Frost Monarch.

But they were not the only ones looking at it.

"Boss," Galleon whispered. He pointed a thick finger down into the valley. "Tell me those are just really organized penguins."

"No," Sebastian sighed. He leaned against a frozen boulder. "That is an army."

Marching through the canyon below was a force of easily five hundred players. They moved with terrifying precision.

They were arranged in perfect formations. Every single player wore identical plate armor. They marched in complete silence, their boots hitting the snow in perfect unison.

CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH.

There was no voice chat banter. There were no flashy items.

"The Iron Covenant," Valerie said. She recognized their guild banners, a black anvil on a grey field. "Chinese server. They operate like a literal military force."

"They are disciplined," Wraith noted from the shadows. "Look at their flank coverage. No gaps. They are here for a raid."

Sebastian stared down at the sea of grey steel. He did not care about their discipline. He did not care about their military training.

He cared about the fact that they were standing between him and his building materials.

"Let us go say hello," Sebastian said. He stepped off the ridge and began his descent.

"Are you insane?" Valerie hissed as she slid down the snow behind him. "That is five hundred trained soldiers! You cannot just drop a spell on them! They will have anti magic wards everywhere!"

"I am not going to fight them, Princess," Sebastian said. His boots slid effortlessly over the ice. "I am going to tell them to leave."

----

The sound of five hundred heavily armored soldiers marching through the snow was deeply intimidating.

Sebastian did not give a sh!t.

He walked out from behind the cover of the icy cliffs and strolled directly into the open path of the Iron Covenant rear guard. His hands were stuffed in his pockets. His black leather coat flapped wildly in the freezing wind. Valerie, Galleon, and the invisible Wraith followed closely behind.

The moment Sebastian stepped into the open, the army reacted.

There was no panicked shouting. There was no chaotic scrambling.

CLANG!

In perfect unison, the rear guard spun around. Fifty massive iron shields slammed into the snow and formed an impenetrable wall of steel. Fifty heavy spears dropped and pointed directly at Sebastian’s chest.

They did not attack. They held the line and waited for orders.

"Now that is a proper aggro response," Sebastian noted. He nodded approvingly. "Much better than the boys in Ironhold."

The shield wall parted perfectly down the middle.

A single figure walked through the gap.

He was a tall man wearing heavy plate armor that lacked any flashy details. He carried a massive two handed broadsword resting casually on his shoulder. His face was weathered and completely devoid of emotion.

[Player Identified: General Iron]

[Level: 45 - Paladin]

[Guild Master: Iron Covenant]

General Iron stopped ten feet away from Sebastian. He did not sneer. He did not mock Sebastian’s ragged clothes. His sharp eyes coldly analyzed the four man party. His eyes lingered on the invisible distortion in the air where Wraith was hiding.

"Player Zero," General Iron said. His voice was deep and authoritative. "Or do you prefer The Drifter?"

"Sebastian works," he replied as he met the general’s gaze. "You know who I am."

"I know you slaughtered the Golden Lions and Crimson Skulls," Iron stated flatly. "I know you manipulated server mechanics to manifest an anomaly in the Valley of Cinders. You are an incredibly dangerous variable."

The General planted his broadsword into the snow. He leaned on the handle.

"But you are also highly inefficient," Iron continued. "You are four players. Velkhana is a Level 50 Frost Monarch. Her passive aura freezes mana conduits. Your spells will misfire. Her physical breath attack will shatter your bones. You cannot fight a World Boss of this magnitude without a tank rotation."

"Your point, General?" Sebastian asked. A faint smile touched his lips.

"My point is that we share a common obstacle," Iron said. "The Iron Covenant requires the Guild Token and the localized experience points to secure our territory in the Eastern Servers. You require the boss materials."

Iron extended a heavily gauntleted hand.

"An alliance. We provide the vanguard. We hold the aggro, absorb the damage, and cycle the healing. You provide your damage output from the rear. When the beast falls, my guild claims the Token and the gold. You claim the Dragon’s Heart and the crafting materials. A mutually beneficial transaction."

Valerie stepped up beside Sebastian. She nudged him slightly.

"Sebastian, take the deal," she whispered urgently. "He is right. If the dragon freezes your mana, you cannot cast your heavy hits. Let them take the physical damage."

It was the logical choice. It was the smart and perfectly reasonable gamer choice.

Sebastian looked at the offered hand. He looked at the five hundred disciplined soldiers waiting for the command.

He let out a slow frosty breath.

"No," Sebastian said.

General Iron did not react immediately. "You reject a tactical advantage out of pride?"

"I reject it because I do not share fvcking loot," Sebastian said. His voice dropped into a cold tone. "The moment that dragon dies, the server assigns drop rights based on damage percentage and party affiliation. I am not rolling the dice on a system glitch giving you the Heart. I need it. All of it."

Sebastian pulled his hands out of his pockets.

"Take your men and march back down the mountain, General. This boss is claimed."

The air between them grew tight. The ambient temperature seemed to drop another ten degrees.

General Iron looked at Sebastian. He saw the sheer arrogance of a man who truly believed he was beyond the rules of reality.

"You are a fool," Iron said softly. He pulled his broadsword from the snow. "And in the new world, fools are liabilities."

Iron turned his back on Sebastian and walked back through the shield wall.

"Covenant!" Iron roared. His voice echoed through the icy canyon. "Target acquired! Execute the anomaly!"

CLANG!

The shield wall slammed shut.

"Well," Valerie sighed. She raised her oak staff as the entire guild turned their weapons toward them. "So much for diplomacy."

"Stand back, Princess," Sebastian said. He did not reach for his sword. He did not prepare a fire spell.

He just looked at the mountain of ice towering directly above the Iron Covenant’s formation.

"Let us see how disciplined they are when the sky falls on them."