Even Anne, typically unflappable, looked skeptical. “We have done well so far, but twenty without a bottleneck is a stretch, doing that four times in five minutes may be more than we can handle right now.”

  Akira nodded vigorously. “I know I am new here but remember the day before yesterday. We almost got killed. I realize that the Ice Howlers played a large role, but I think we need to get stronger before we attempt this.

  Jamal and Michael shared one of their looks again before they both shook their heads.

  Ben nodded. It was the right choice. The smart choice.

  He still felt a pang of regret.

  “Let’s go see what those forests have to offer,” he said before turning around and heading back into the burrows.

  They managed to increase their counter to 300 as they made their way out of the tundra and back to the platform that held the portal out of the dungeon.

  For the first time Ben consciously noticed that there was no day-night cycle in the dungeon. The sky was always the same light gray that sapped color from the environment.

  Ben looked to the others and shared what he had been thinking about on their way back through the tundra. “We could also choose to leave right now. We have cleared quite a few monsters, so it is possible that the dungeon will no longer overflow into the environment. We could abandon the System quest and focus on getting stronger before we return.”

  “It doesn’t hurt to take a look, though, boss, does it?” Jamal said.

  “Also,” Anne added, “we could get more rewards as long as the dungeon counts as broken, right?”

  Ben nodded. “Probably true. I also don’t mind taking a look. Maybe the forest offers a challenge we can overcome. Let’s try the left side first.”

  The forest was slightly depressing with a lot of dead, barren trees. The bark of most trees was as gray as everything else in the dungeon seemed to be. The few evergreen trees had frost covering their boughs.

  “Is it just me or is it colder here?” Anne asked.

  Ben hesitated a moment because it didn’t seem logical to him, given that the trees offered some protection from the cold winds. “I think you are right. It seems to come from the ground which is even more frozen than in the tundra.”

  While he and Jamal had Body attributes high enough to deal with the situation the others suffered despite their winter gear.

  Despite being quite affected by the environment, Michael scouted ahead; after about 15 minutes, he came sprinting back towards them. “Ice Howlers following.”

  And indeed, seconds later, they could hear the sound of the massive creatures breaking through the underwood, following their friend.

  “All-out attack!” Ben shouted, indicating to his team to give it their all. As he didn’t know how many enemies were incoming he did not want to take the risk of getting overwhelmed.

  Four… seven… nine Ice Howlers were storming towards them, as far as Ben could see. Fortunately, at first glance they were all scouts.

  Ben ducked under the attack of the first and immediately retaliated with [Unyielding Retribution] delivering a slice to the torso of the humanoid wolfkin that made them stumble back and crash to the ground, likely out of the fight or even dead.

  Jamal by his side had activated his [Provoking Roar], which succeeded with a handful of the creatures, but he suffered from two of them attacking with their ice howl attack which hit even harder in the colder environment than it had outside of the dungeon.

  Anne attacked her opponent with [Flurry of Blows] taking one out and Akira’s massive lightning bolt hit two stragglers, not killing them directly but stunning both, making them drop to the ground.

  Ben went on the offensive, accepting a hit that was partially blunted by his new leather armor and cut into the leg of one of the Ice Howlers attacking Jamal. Meanwhile, Anne used [Power Projection] to finish off the two stragglers that Akira had stunned earlier.

  Michael shot one of the attackers in the eye with his crossbow and within a few seconds the fight was under control and shortly after ended.

  They all took a moment to breathe before checking the Howlers for cores, which they did not have, but at least their counter had risen to 318 points, meaning the wolfkin awarded twice as many points as the Tundra Prowlers.

  “What happened?” Ben asked Michael.

  “Ambush. They caught my scent the moment I saw them.”

  “Mhh, ambush tactics combined with their breath attack… Not easy,” Ben mused. “As long as Jamal or myself get hit by that ice howl it is fine, but one of you,” he looked at the others, “would be disastrous.”

  Two hours later, they had fought off two more groups, once Michael had been able to identify them before they caught on to him, the second time had gone very similarly to the first group.

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  Returning from one of his scouting trips, Michael signaled for them to come together. “Frost Ogre ahead in clearing. Alone. Rare.”

  “Could you [Backstab] it?” Ben asked curiously.

  Michael frowned. “Unlikely. Could at best hit the leg.”

  Ben was not too worried. A single creature was his sweet spot with [Unyielding Retribution], so it should be fine. “Maybe Akira can stun it with lightning, then we rush it?”

  Everyone nodded; that was the full extent of their plan.

  The creature was massive. Easily four meters tall and very wide with arms that were disproportionately long.

  It had thin, shaggy hair, a long bulbous nose and carried a sapling as a weapon.

  Frost Ogre. Energy-Born. Tier 2. Rare challenge.

  The ogre roared as he saw them coming and was even more enraged as one of Akira’s normal lightning bolts hit it. While it seemed slightly hurt, it was not stunned at all. Instead it swung back its sapling-turned-club to smash into Jamal and Ben who were at the forefront of their attack.

  The impact was incredible and Jamal stumbled to one knee as he blocked it with his shield, which fortunately was able to withstand the pressure.

  Ben activated [Unyielding Retribution] for a counterattack, going after the creatures leg, however before he could connect, a thick coating of frost grew out of the ogre’s body right where Ben’s attack should have hit.

  His axe managed to penetrate the ice-like substance, but the damage to the ogre was minimal. That was a serious problem. Ben had come to rely heavily on the perk. Not just in his planning for this fight, but in general over the last weeks.

  It had become a cornerstone of his fighting style and in his mind almost a silver bullet to solve tough situations.

  In hindsight it was not completely surprising that the perk would have its limitations, especially against Tier 2 creatures – but if Ben was honest with himself – it hadn’t occurred to him until now.

  He needed to broaden his spectrum of attacks, which highlighted the need to finally take the time to consolidate his fighting style into something that he could try to turn into a more powerful, versatile perk.

  Now, however, he needed to focus on the fight in front of him. The ogre was preparing its next smash. “Akira, full power,” he yelled.

  He saw Jamal grimacing in preparation for receiving the ogre’s next attack and chose to try to stop it before it could land.

  He leaped upwards and tried to land a blow on the creature’s shoulder to either incapacitate it or at least make it abandon the attack.

  He landed the attack but, despite the ogre not blocking or resummoning its frost shield, did not manage to get enough momentum behind the swing to do more than a superficial cut.

  Still, the ogre roared and, as Ben landed, chose to smash him instead of his friend.

  So far, not much had gone the way Ben had hoped in this fight, so it felt like he should try something new. He focused on the club as it neared him and he decided to turn this into a contest of strength and equipment.

  As the club descended and was just moments from hitting him Ben counterattacked, not the ogre but the club.

  The sound was deafening as the axe and the sapling collided. It turned out that the axe won the competition of equipment but the ogre won the competition of strength. At least that’s how it felt for Ben, Ben’s arms and shoulders burned from the vibrations as the two weapons collided.

  At the end of the exchange the sapling was little more than tinder, Ben was exhausted, and the ogre was in a state of rage and confusion.

  The exchange had, however, allowed the rest of the team to do their thing.

  With another thunderous boom Akira burned a deep wound into the ogre’s side while Anne and Michael had coordinated to go after one of the creature’s knees.

  It sagged to one knee, making it much more accessible. Jamal hit the wound that Akira had opened while Michael stabbed into its back.

  A few seconds and several heavy-hitting attacks later the fight was finished.

  “That was intense,” Anne huffed as she tried to catch her breath.

  Ben nodded. “Yeah, important lesson on how difficult it is to deal damage against creatures that can counter our main attacks, whether that is [Backstab] or my retribution. Fortunately, Akira’s attack still hit extremely hard.”

  The others nodded as they recovered.

  To unlock each node in this area, you need to defeat three Frost Ogres.

  Good luck.

  1/3 Frost Ogres defeated for node 1.

  “So the tundra had one node, this forest has at least two nodes, and if I remember correctly there are six in total…” Akira said thoughtfully.

  “Looks like it. I don’t expect this one to be much simpler than the one in the tundra…” Ben said rubbing his chin.

  Michael had, unsurprisingly, not participated in the discussion, but now waved them over to one of the trees that lined the small grove.

  It was an evergreen tree that had blue-hued bark instead of the gray that was typical for the rest of the forest around them.

  Frost Crystal Resin Spruce. Energy?infused plant. Tier 2. Rare crafting ingredient.

  “Seems like the ogre was defending something, boss,” Jamal said as he sliced into the tree with a knife.

  Once he had pushed past the bark, a blue tinted sap started to pour out of the tree in drops that they quickly caught in a vial. Once the vial was full, the tree had nothing left to give.

  “I wonder whether there was something like that in the tundra area?” Akira mused.

  Ben shrugged. “It seems to me like we could spend many days if not weeks to fully explore this place. Let’s check the ogre for a core.”

  A few minutes later he raised the core he had carved out of the creature’s chest. “So the defenders seem to have cores the rest did not. Anyway, should we continue deeper into this forest or should we check out the other side?”

  “We could return to the platform, rest there for a few hours, then check out the other side, or even go towards the mountains,” Anne suggested.

  Jamal grimaced, seemingly not too happy with the approach. “I think we should stay here, grind until we reach an acceptable point total and then get out of here. It feels like we are not really strong enough for this dungeon right now and exploring into even more areas is… taking a lot of risk.”

  Ben looked into the sky, trying to form an opinion. His thoughts wandered back to his perks. It was not reasonable to wander a broken Tier 2 dungeon with [Self Defense] being common and [Axe Handling] uncommon. He wasn’t sure whether it was an option, but if they were to run into two ogres at the same time it would be really hard to beat them without injuries or worse. He also didn’t want to spend two or three more days here, not knowing what was happening at the settlement and without teams that could easily run the Rings of Return dungeon.

  His gut told him that the mountain region was too difficult for them right now, even this region carried risks. Should they ever run into an Ice Howler ambush instead of triggering it on their own terms it would be difficult.

  They could probably do it, but the question was whether it was truly necessary, they had already collected a fortune in Tier 2 cores, after all.

  But on the other hand, understanding what the nodes in this area were like was also helpful.

  “Why don’t we stay here, try to get two more ogres so that we understand what the node is. Once we know that and we are at about 500 points, we leave and return once we are a bit stronger?”

  “Okay, we should probably only fight the ogres when my [Thunderous Lightning] is available, though,” Akira suggested.

  The others nodded and they agreed to take a short rest, before continuing to explore the dungeon.