With his decisions made there was no sense in wasting any more time on useless thoughts. Ethan focused on his frostforged legion and the hourglass melted away into ice crystals, even dust of it vanished leaving nothing behind just the raw energy settled into him that would upgrade his skill. He just had to wait until the new notification appeared. He opened it instantly the moment the system pinged him and there was the new description for his frostforged legion.
[Frostforged Legion(Expert)]
[Summon a squad of ice soldiers to fight alongside you. These soldiers are made of enchanted ice, granting them high resilience and frost damage in their attacks. They follow your commands and can be directed to guard or attack specific targets.]
->
[Frostforged Legion(Expert)]
[Summon a squad of ice soldiers to fight alongside you. These soldiers are made of enchanted ice, granting them high resilience and frost damage in their attacks. They follow your commands and can be directed to guard or attack specific targets. All weapon attacks now spread frostbite, which can slow enemies down if hit multiple times and can stack with each subsequent hit. The frostbite drains vitality from enemies, weakening them over time.]
Ethan smiled, the hourglass worked as intended, even better in some regards because the ability to stack the effect and increase its potency was great. Ethan imagined fighting the fire giant again but this time with his soldiers covering it in frostbite to bring it down to its knees. Going back in time he thought about the powerful attack he unleashed back then and wondered for the first time where he took the strength to do that from, especially at such a low level. But the thought quickly vanished, his expression going black for a moment. He snapped back to attention and suddenly turned his focus to the flask of the frost wraith like nothing had happened.
While the first item offered an upgrade of an existing ability this one was offering him an entirely new skill. During the tutorial he would never have thought he would end up like this but now that his priorities have switched over to a minion and summon focused class he was glad for the provided gift. He was wondering what kind of ability he would have received with his old class or if he could’ve used the flask at all.
Thinking back to his early days of the tutorial where Ethan still thought he could compete in melee combat with others was laughable, he would continue to practice it of course. There was no shame in being prepared for close combat even if you sucked at it. The enemies that managed to avoid everything else he threw at them would surely end the fight quickly in melee. Still it wasn’t wasted time as physical training helped him to focus his mind, emptying his head which was always spinning with thoughts, problems and ideas.
Shaking his head to focus his mind on the here and now he reached for the system with his thoughts convening his desire to use the item he was holding, the system prompt appeared silently in his vision like it always did.
Use [Flask of the Frost Wraith - Special] ? Y/N
Ethan confirmed it and the flask turned into a silvery dust that swirled around him, carried away from his palm by the system. Slowly it disappeared inside of him until the last speck of dust was gone and the spectacle left him sitting there in silence for a moment before the system demanded his attention with a new notification waiting on the edge of his vision, he didn’t wait and opened it instantly.
*Update* New skill unlocked
[Frost Wraith Summoning(Expert)]
[The user releases spirits formed from frozen elemental remnants. These spirits manifest as silent, invisible frost wraiths that can traverse winter terrain without making sound or revealing their presence. In other environments, they are visible unless concealed through special means. They deal non-physical cold damage, bypassing most armor and weaker enchantments. The spirits are primarily used for reconnaissance and can be used for offensive actions in limited capacity.]
He wasn’t sure what he expected from the skill, the description read basically like the flask itself with some small differences, like the fact that he could conceal the wraiths by special means which he had to figure out himself if he had to guess. That weaker enchantments could be bypassed which was nice, especially in this new world where magic equipment couldn’t be as abundant. At last the wraiths were now only usable in offensive attacks in limited capacity…whatever that means.
Excitement was slowly creeping into his mind, he jumped from the simple bed and cracked his neck, it still was a habit until this day from sleeping on couches and floors, but since the system he didn’t feel sore or stiff anymore, well only after intense fighting. Ethan grabbed his staff and went outside, his eyes wandering over the large tent of Andrew, he walked behind his own and tapped his staff on the ground.
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Skills were rather easy to use but the more you did the greater your understanding became. The system provided the process for him and without much effort he started the summoning of his first frost wraith. It was similar to his soldiers that the summoning itself was even easier for Ethan. A circle appeared on the ground glowing with a white light while cold mist rose from the lines of the circle. Slowly a ball formed in the air floating in front of Ethan’s chest, slowly taking a more humanoid form.
Its form was clearly visible at first, a gangly humanoid, its arms too long, ending in clawed hands, the nails on each finger radiating cold. It had no feet, his body just becoming transparent from the hips down, becoming entirely invisible around the knees. But what stood out the most was its head, covered in eyes, eight on its face, arranged in a circle and another dozen of them spread around the rest of the head. A large maw with needle-like teeth opened and closed like it was testing the function of it.
The moment the summoning ended he felt the connection to the frost wraith, while there was the usual ability to command it he felt something else. Following that connection he suddenly saw himself, his expression blank. While he should have been shocked he instinctively knew that this was a function of his new creation, the ability to see through its eyes.
Ethan inspected himself for the first time in a very long time. Gone was the skinny man who barely made ends meet in life, the nervous look he always saw in the mirror was long gone, replaced with grim determination, a calculating gaze and something more…sinister. His pale, almost white skin and those snake-like eyes made him look scary in an ethereal way. Especially since his eyes glowed this cold pale blue from under his large hat.
He broke the connection and was back in his own body moments later, without skipping a bet he created two more frost wraiths, not thinking about the look he had at himself for too long, this was after all just what the system did to you. With now three wraiths at his disposal he sent one of them towards the entrance, one would stay there in the dwarven camp while the other explored the surrounding area. With the cavern, the entrance and the snow covered outside protected by his creations he felt a lot safer. Ethan just hoped the dwarves wouldn’t freak out when they saw them. He didn’t want them to fall over dead when seeing a literal ghost floating through the air. But his worries were probably ungrounded, after all those people have seen more combat than him in their tutorial.
With his new minions out and about he walked over to Andrew’s tent, he wanted to see if his soldiers were doing fine. While he still felt his bond to them he wasn’t familiar enough with them to know what condition they were in just from that. When he rounded the tent he tilted his head, his soldiers were standing on their assigned positions but with no dwarves to fight they looked more like statues. Their bodies were covered in cracks but otherwise they looked alright. He cast [Arctic Reinforcement] to heal them back to full and wondered where the dwarves were. While his sense of time was bad in general, even more so inside the cavern it should already be a new day.
Checking through the eyes of his wraith at the entrance confirmed as much, he had to blink a few times because of the brightness outside. Worry crept into Ethan’s mind and he turned to the tent city with his soldiers behind him, what he saw after properly looking over it was rushed activity. Soldiers running around their weapons at the ready, everybody else was carrying more weapons, crossbow bolts, bandages and so on.
Ethan knew why everything felt so wrong, it was quiet because the dwarven camp was basically empty, he followed the line of people towards the left side of the cavern where he saw the mines a day before. There arrayed in front three of the biggest tunnels were the dwarves, forming a half circle made up of bodies, shields and long weapons. So far Ethan couldn’t see anything that was worthy of such an ironclad defense.
He made his way over to them, his soldiers in lock step around him. Before he even reached the defense a rough hand grabbed his arm, he nearly jumped when he saw Andrew next to him, his head covered in a helmet formed like a wolf head. He had a worried expression on his face. “You shouldn’t be here Ethan, this is our business not yours. A guest shouldn’t involve himself with this.”
Ethan looked back to the entrances, the tunnels leading into the earth covered in pure darkness, something was hiding inside of them that much was obvious. He turned back to Andrew, looking down at him. “Maybe you’re right, maybe not but for your sake and my own let me help you.” Andrew sighed and let go off his hand. Gesturing for Ethan to follow him.
Before Andrew couldn’t even explain the situation a wooden minecraft flew from the center mineshaft, a pink star shaped nose appearing from the darkness, sniffing the air like it was smelling food.
“WE HAVE INCOMING!” A dwarf at the front yelled before a long slender tongue pierced his face, a sharp tip at the front penetrating his helmet with ease before pulling back. The dwarves watched as his lifeless body dropped to the ground. A horn sounded out…the fight had already started.
