Chapter 47: Chapter 47: Then It’s Iron I’ll Be

Nay held Thorn in her hands, admiring the craftsmanship of the blade. But she was also marveling at the fact it was one of Quella’s weapons.

Il Fantasma.

This dagger was a relic from a feared assassin. How many lives had it taken? At least six that were mentioned in Quincy’s tale.

She saw the Lodge owner in a different light now. She understood why a man from the peninsula would move to the edge of the world to run an inn and tavern, now.

It was his way of distancing himself from his past.

Why in the world had he given her his sister’s blade? , she thought. I can’t live up to her legacy. This belongs in the hands of someone capable. I’m just a chef.

“Make sure you get some rest tonight,” Ilyawraith said.

Nay looked up and her teacher had come back to the hearth. Quincy was already sleeping in his bed.

“Another trial?” Nay said. “What am I learning this time?”

“Tomorrow you either get to Iron Rank.”

“Or?”

“Or you die.”

/////////

Nay got up before everyone else and stood in the eye-socket of Ianthe, looking out over the Caraxe Strait. It was a frozen wasteland. Sea spray immediately turned to icy mist in the still dark air. The promise of the sunrise was to the east, a corona of purple light on the horizon.

“There you are.”

Nay turned to see Quincy. He was holding two cups of tea. He handed her one and leaned against the orbital socket wall and shared the view with her.

“The Moving Ice,” Quincy said. “Just when you thought we had it cold in Stitchdale, there’s this cursed sea.”

Nay took a sip of her tea. She didn’t recognize the faint flavor she picked up. There was a kick to it.

“It’s bloodrush tea,” Quincy said. “It’ll get your blood flowing and keep you alert through the rest of the day.”

“Guess I’m gonna need it.”

“Aye, that you are.”

“Why did you give me your sister’s dagger?”

“What do you mean?”

“This is a relic of someone great. Wouldn’t you rather have it under safekeeping?”

“Not much use in safekeeping. It’s meant to be wielded.”

“Quincy, I hate to break it to you, but I’m just a chef.”

He turned to her then and looked her in the eye. His solemn sincerity disarmed her.

“You were never just a chef, not even in your previous life. We aren’t just what our jobs are. We are trees with many branches. Being a chef is just one of your branches. Here, in my world, if you want to survive you have to strengthen yourself.”

“What about the normal people? People like Gracie or Bryja or Alric? They seem to survive just fine.”

His voice lowered. Nay almost mistook it for anger. It wasn’t anger. It was gravitas.

“You don’t get it, girl. Those people have people like me watching over them. They have everyone at Fort Nixxiom trying to protect them from forces that mean them harm. The Base Rank people on the Peninsula? Their life is one of hardship and toil and unfair treatment by those who lord over them.

He put his scar-covered hand on her shoulder then. It radiated strength. And love.

“So, understand this now. You have the capability in you to protect the normal folk, too. I see it in you. Nether hells, girl, you’ve already done it whether you realize it or not! Because of what you can do, the cook, the sous chef, the farmer, the gardener, the librarian, even the miners and the lumberjacks, they may be able to live because you can be one of the guardians that’s willing to stand for them and defend that which is good in this world.”

Nay was stunned by his earnest conviction. She didn’t know how to respond and stammered something incoherent.

“So, Thorn belongs to you now. Yeah? “

Nay clenched her jaw and nodded.

He turned to leave and then stopped. His jaw tightened. “I’m not going to tell you goodbye because the next time I see you, you’ll be an Iron.”

He left her then, heading back into the iceberg. She watched him disappear on the decline as it curved out of sight.

She finished her tea, staring over the portent wasteland of moving ice.

“Then it’s Iron I’ll be.”

/////////

Ilyawraith took Nay to the North this time, flying deeper into the Caraxe Strait on her eddy of snow. The more distance they crossed, the darker it seemed to get. The light seemed to be blotted out here by the gray clouds and white mist.

When they began to descend, passing through the cloud cover, a treacherous ice island emerged into view. There were pillars of ice formations shooting into the sky like the fingers of a frozen god, and there were sharp contrasts in elevation.

It was as if two glaciers careened into each other, rupturing the surface into crags, peaks and deadly chasms.

“Today, you learn about Beast Cores,” Ilyawraith said, turning her head back at her.

“Beast Cores?”

“There are some creatures who also practice cultivation. Their vigor amasses together inside their bodies. This is their core. So, when you slay them, you can take the core and absorb it into your veins, thus gaining their vigor. Cores can provide considerable upticks in your cultivation process.”

They landed on the desolate frozen island then. Nay looked around. They had landed in a small valley next to a steep crag. Everything was dark blue. The place was empty.

“There’s a beast who rules this glacier, an ice troll,” Ilyawraith said. “Slay him. Your True Eye will reveal his core. Absorbing it should get you to Iron Rank. If that's not enough, there are other creatures here you can hunt.”

---

[Quest Detected]

[Quest: Slay Caraxus the Ice Troll]

[Accept Quest Y/N?]

---

[Quest Detected]

[Quest: Slay Ice Imps and Collect their Cores]

[Accept Quest Y/N?]

---

Nay accepted the quests. Already she was jittery with nerves.

Nay had an idea. “Can someone rank by just purchasing and absorbing cores? Without having to do the heavy lifting of you know, defeating the actual beasts themselves?”

Ilyawraith nodded. “There will always be those looking for the easiest and quickest route to ascendance. While they may seem impressive to non Marrow Eaters and those still at Base Rank, boosters are frowned upon by real cultivators. They don’t measure up compared to those with foundation and technique, who have bled to earn their vigor. In my opinion, they are all cowards. Children who have no idea how to properly use their vigor reserves or abilities.”

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“So what you’re saying is that’s not an option for me.”

Ilyawraith shook her head.

“Now, show me the items in your inventory,” she said.

“Really?” Nay said.

Ilyawraith waited.

She by showing her the magical biscuits imbued with the various Buffs.

“I’m not interested in your Epicurist food,” Ilyawraith said. “Those are things you have the ability to make. I want to see any trinkets or boons you might have that you’re not telling me about.

Reluctantly, Nay sighed and then pulled out Mirkwood’s Eye and the sea-shell Lain had given her, the Nautilus of Teleportation.

Ilyawraith examined the eye and the sea-shell. There was no curiosity in her face. Her manner was all brass tacks. She pocketed both trinkets.

“Seriously?” Nay said.

“Iron Rank must be earned through your own ability and ingenuity,” Ilyawraith said. “That is the way of the Banshee Sect.” Then her face softened a bit. “You’ll get them back when you’re Iron.”

“If I’m an Iron,” Nay said. She looked down at the ice beneath her boots. Hugging herself in the cold wind.

“I’m afraid there is no if. Either you are Iron, or the ice troll will be absorbing your core.”

An eddy of snow corkscrewed out of the sky and Ilyawraith stepped on it.

“I will return on the next sunrise. I hope to find you here.”

After she watched her teacher vanish into the mist, Nay said, “So I have to survive the next twenty-four hours on a frozen rock in the middle of the most dangerous sea ever. Got it.”

She wished Nom was with her so they could both complain and make dumb jokes in the face of almost certain death.

/////////

Nay figured the first correct play was doing some reconnaissance. If there was an ice troll on this island who wanted to kill her and eat her energy, then she wanted to find him first and at least gain the element of surprise.

As she picked a direction towards the center of the island, she accessed her mini-map. It showed the peaks and dips of the island and the chasms nearby her.

Upon her next step, a red glowing dot appeared on the mini-map. It appeared to be in a cave towards the northern side near her.

That’s gotta be it.

She followed the crag where it opened up to an incline of slippery, mountainous terrain. Her naga skin boots were doing her well on the ice, so that was some good fortune at least.

She had the feeling something was watching her and she looked behind her. There was nothing there but the falling snow.

She began her ascent on the incline when a frigid cold took her breath away. She gasped and noticed she was suddenly inside a stream of frost. She could feel the hair on her skin begin to crystallize and her lungs went tight as the cold stole her breath.

Her instincts told her to pick a direction and roll, and that’s what she did.

She came out of the roll and was wracked with violent shivers. She discovered she had stepped out of a cone of rushing cold air.

Its source was the shape of a head pressed into the wall of the crag. The ice cracked and a shape pulled itself from the wall.

The creature began to glow the blue of the glacier, and it seemed to be some sort of winged homunculus composed of ice. Almost like a sentient ice sculpture. It was only about three feet tall, but the claws on its two hands tapered into ultra-sharp icicles. Its teeth a frozen bear trap. Its eyes shone with a ice-blue sentience and malevolence.

It was an ice imp.

It flew at her, a gargoyle of ice. Its claw slashed through the sleeves of her tunic and the skin beneath, drawing blood.

Nay screamed and drew Thorn, lunging at the impish ice elemental. The blade chipped its torso and it snarled, flying past her.

It began to circle her and she turned with it, not taking her eyes off the thing.

It inhaled and exhaled more frost breath at her. She rolled again, staying away from the cold. She knew if she stood in it too long it would give her frostbite if not render her unconscious and frozen.

As it continued to circle her, she got an idea. She’d wait for it to fly at her again.

And it did, swiping its claws at her.

That’s when she used her Chef’s Thermometer ability and conjured a ring of searing heat in front of it. It flew into the circle of raised temperature and shrieked.

One of its wings melted and it crashed into the incline. Its ice form was turning to water and it struggled to right itself, its skin sloughing off it.

Nay rushed towards it, where its head was about knee level with her. She gripped Thorn and drove the skullcrusher into its face, shattering its head into slush.

There was a burst of blue light and the imp exploded, bathing Nay in slush and bits of hail-like ice.

She was certain if she hadn’t blasted it with heat, that death rattle burst would have been an explosion of shards of ice. A final attack in its death.

---

[Quest Complete!]

[Slay Ice Imps and Collect their Cores Quest Completed!]

[Congratulations!]

[You have been rewarded with Vigor Points]

[You have been rewarded with Ice Imp Core]

This is a repeatable Quest. Access the quest in your logs to accept.

---

Golden vigama raced out of the sky and flew into her chest.

She wiped the blue slush from her face and looked down at the glowing orb of vigor at her feet.

The core.

It was about the size of an apple and it shone a neon blue.

She exhaled, and began cycling her vigor. The core grew brighter as her veins expanded, spiritually reaching out for the core. She pushed it into her torso.

She staggered, the rush of dopamine almost rendering her horizontal. She put an arm against the icy incline and readied herself. Her veins expanded even more and they were filled with a burst of flowing vigor.

It was like someone turned on a faucet inside her. She sat down and laid against the incline, letting the vigor fill her.

Vigor Rank: Base

Status to Iron: 71%

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