Frostbound [LitRPG Apocalypse]

Chris

As the storm built, my body was continually covered in layers of snow. It started slowly, but quickly built as layer after layer fell. To avoid being buried in it, I had to occasionally sweep out with [Ice Manipulation] to clear it off of me.

The action occurred on a subconscious level, as I kept all my attention focused on understanding what I was seeing.

It was like I was back on that mountaintop in the tutorial, playing around with ice to form a hammer for the first time. Before I even had a Law to call upon, or I understood the concept of laws themselves. Now, instead of the initial exploration, I was delving deeper, gazing further, and grasping at what was more than just that initial step that gave me my first Tier 1 Law.

It was a feeling that I hadn't encountered in a long, long time. Not since the battle with the Mindbreaker at the end of the tutorial, when I last upgraded my Law. The only difference was that the upgrade was during battle. I was straining all I had to give myself more in order to win.

This, sitting here and watching a Law pick up speed and form into a storm naturally, was entirely different in a way that was novel.

It wasn't that I hadn't tried to seek this feeling out. Over the years of being stuck at the peak of E-rank left a bit of time to explore and try to deepen my Law when I wasn't pushing my Profession forward, but it just wasn't meant to be.

The Ice Laws inside the storm, both powering its might and being nourished by the storm around it, were entirely different from the way I used my Law. It was known that the further you go along a Law's path, the more inclusive it is. A Tier 1 Law is just the tip, while a Tier 2 is only a small step further. The gulf between the two wasn't that large in comparison to the gulf between Tier 2 and 3.

The way I most commonly applied my Law was in battle. The aspects I leveraged were how hard and dense it could be, and increased resilience. The Law Storm leveraged different aspects.

Ones I didn't yet know.

It wasn't long before the storm unleashed in full, and the cold wind nipped at my skin. Even for all my resistance, it still had an effect. Not that it was a large effect, but an effect nonetheless. As I sat and tried to resonate with the storm, I swept out with my aura in the surroundings. There wasn't a single living thing I could feel, all having either fled or avoided the coming storm, unlike what I had done.

The snow held a certain aspect in it that I couldn't yet grasp. There was something empowering it and saturating it that I could feel clearly, but didn't understand. As layer after layer fell from the sky and carpeted the ground, that aspect got stronger. The energy of one snowflake added to the one under it and around it. After another fell, it added to the one above it.

The Blizzard was one of the roughest I'd ever seen, and there was more white in the air than anything else, leading to inches of snow growing at a pace that was hard to fathom. That build-up resonated with me. The slow but continual pressure reminded me of [Weight of the Arctic]. The skill did it through different means, but it was the same result, which made the two feel similar.

While the first flakes were the precursor, and I felt that there was something there to explore, this felt like another route to go down, different but just as viable.

Scenes of past battles replayed in my mind as I tried to grasp some similarities between the two. Back when I hammered down Lakeshore's gate, when after the first charge didn't do anything, nor the second, but the continual buildup eventually resulted in a force the gate couldn't withstand. The unrelenting nature of it agreed with my mindset. It was similar to my personality and my instinctual urge to go through the gate, rather than over it or under it.

That wasn't the only note the storm held. There were others, less impactful and harder to grasp, that I could only get the barest hint of. They weren't as readily grasped as the weight I felt. I tried to tease one of the notes out in order to understand just a hint of it, but I wasn't sure that what I grasped was right. It felt... shadowy. Not like true shadows, as I'd felt those before in people with that particular affinity, but ethereal in a particular aspect that was hard to put a name to.

The clouds were definitely thick enough to block out the sun, and the shade brought by it was dark enough to simulate night, but none of the area held the Shadow mana I would have expected to come from such a feeling. After noting that, I also saw that the Light mana I'd grown accustomed to was gone as well. The source of the mana was gone, as the clouds blocked out the sun, but the mana should have stuck around for a little bit afterward.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Even though the source was gone, it just didn't disappear immediately afterward.

Like my ice after it melted. While the ice would be gone, the mana stuck around for a brief period after until the ambient mana overwhelmed and converted it. Without a source to draw from and create more of it, it would eventually be ground down, but the Light mana in the area wasn't like that. At the onset of the storm, it was like it was dispersed.

Or was it absorbed? I wasn't sure. I wasn't close enough with the element to tell the difference. All I knew was that it was there, and then it wasn't, not the how.

The further I delved into trying to understand it, the clearer it became that I wouldn't be able to. Not in a short time, at least. Instead of trying to fruitlessly go down that road, I turned back toward the clearer one.

The weight.

It felt like swinging a hammer that was much too heavy to wield comfortably in a heavy downswing. At first, you had the raise the hammer into the air; in order to come down, you must first go up.

Similar to snow, in a way.

The thought came suddenly, but it wasn't wrong. Water first came from the ground before it came back down as snow. The metaphor was... a stretch, but it helped put the two on the same plane.

Since the hammer is too heavy, raising it is difficult and slow, but once the apex is reached, the rest is gravity. Its descent is equally slow at first, much like the first few layers of snow.

It needs time to gather speed, or in the snow's case, to add the mass of further layers. Just like [Weight of the Arctic] needed time to gain speed.

It was then that I realized the influence the past few years had on my thought process. The first thing I did in order to gain a bare understanding was equate it to my skill. The next thing I did was relate it to lifting a hammer. Both were things I wouldn't have done previously. Not even when I first gained my Law was this influence so high.

Not that it was a bad thing, but it became readily apparent now that I had noticed it. A person was the sum of their choices and actions, and that was more clear now than it ever was before.

[Ice Manipulation] caught the snow falling directly above me, and a flat circle was soon formed. I only grasped the bottom layer with my skill; all the rest was left to accumulate rather than be manipulated directly.

After the first, a second soon formed and another after that.

My skill held fine for the first few; the weight of a few inches of snow wasn't nearly enough to cause it to waver. It wasn't at the Rare grade anymore, but it was still enough. After a few feet, it became a slight strain. It wasn't just the snow I was holding up; there was something metaphysical making it heavier than it should be.

It became increasingly hard to hold up, and it got even worse as I had to employ [Wind Manipulation] too. The cylinder of snow above my head kept getting blown off if I didn't.

Neither skill usually caused this much difficulty, but the majority of my focus wasn't on them, but on trying to realize the aspect inside the snow. The wavering got worse, and some snow fell down upon me, but I recovered soon enough. I thought I'd break when all of a sudden, the strain lessened, and a small chime sounded.

I knew it wasn't my Law, sadly. It was [Ice Manipulation] upgrading back to rare.

It must have been close to Epic before if it regained its grade so quickly.

The upgraded provided a bit of ease that was instantly noticeable. The strain of holding up the many feet of snow diminished.

I also felt the difference between the two manipulation skills grow. One was at Rare while the other was still at Common. Using both at the same time made the difference in ease and control impossible not to spot, but I didn't dwell on that long. The pillar of ice grew, and I turned back to it instead.

I felt the growth slow, and knew that the Storm was moving past me. I wasn't sure how long it had been going, but it felt like a long while already. It was surprising it hadn't already moved on. Reluctance flared, as I didn't want it to end so soon, but I quashed that quickly. Impatience would only make things harder, as I had learned while forming my Anchor.

The more I wished for it to happen, the further away it fled.

Instead, I settled back in and just felt. I didn't worry about the storm waning or think about anything else. Not even the two skills I was keeping active drew much attention. I'd had them going for a while now, which made it easy to overlook. The strain was there, but that actually helped, rather than hurt. It added a physical feeling to the Law that made it somewhat easier to immerse myself in.

Before long, the snow stopped completely, but I stayed still and kept at it. The Law energy in the snow began to wane not long after, without the storm to replenish it.

Right as the last of the energy dissipated, I felt it.

The connection I had been striving for solidified, and my Law expanded. It wasn't a Tier increase, my Law was still Tier 2, and no chime signaled its upgrade, but I could feel the expansion of it in my Spirit.

Another concept had been integrated and understood, and now I could use it.

I smiled and let all the snow drop down on me.

Quickly after, the exhaustion that I had been keeping at bay came back with a vengeance. It felt like I hadn't slept in days, while also doing backbreaking labor during those days.

I thought about getting up and grabbing my pack, but I decided not to.

I was covered in a few feet of snow, and it was actually quite warm. The only thing I had to do was make a small hole for air, and I wouldn't have to worry about anything else.

In addition to adding an air intake, I also molded the snow to my body, making it feel like the most comfortable bed in the world.

While I was still a distance away from a Tier 3 Law, I was one step closer. There were now three Aspects I'd integrated, and the three were probably the most in tune with my fighting style that there were.

Hardness, resilience, and heaviness.

It probably wasn't a coincidence that those were the aspects I'd understood first.