“Welcome, traveler. Find the forgotten temple and make a befitting offering.”

  Hearing that strange voice resonating inside him, Faust shuddered. He blinked heavily a couple of times before he finally stopped vomiting; his stomach had been cleared of every content. Eating the bread did not seem so useful now.

  Faust clutched his chest; his heart was still pumping fast, the panic from running away finally settling down and slowly dying.

  He exhaled heavily, murmuring for himself and himself alone: “Why did I run…?”

  If I had let him reach me, I could have died without much pain. Yet, I ran? Instincts… yes, it must be them acting up.

  For now, the reason he had run away was not of utmost importance. Instead, he focused on the present.

  Distancing himself from the vomit, he fell back and sat on the snow, taking time to recover his breath while his eyes swept through the place.

  What is this… is this what a normal dungeon looks like? Besides, ‘Find the forgotten temple and make a befitting offering?’

  That seems a difficult goal. But… what is this place?!

  Faust was keenly surprised; he could not deny that. Initially, he had thought dungeons possessed natural formations and were logical, but what he was seeing right now made it glaringly clear that was not the case.

  Below the absolutely black heaven and azure moon, there was a field of snow that extended as far as he could see. Cold gusts of visible wind swayed through the area, reaching his body, making him tremble, and obstructing his view like a moving fog.

  Erratically distributed across the white expanse were pillars… no, they were more similar to stakes of blue ice that impaled the ground beneath them, spikes that had fallen from the sky and gotten stuck. They were jagged and strange, being impressively well-made for ice structures, and formed something that could only be described as a sparse forest of icy trees.

  Not too far from him, Faust saw the outlines of a village. It was impossible to see well enough; the wind made it hard to even distinguish close objects with clarity. Still, he gave his best to recompose and deal with the current matter.

  Assessing his items, he was not in a great situation.

  My axe, my helmet, this… trash leather armor, and a bottle of wine.

  Faust had a strange gripe with the leather armor he had received; it was not too comfortable, but at least it was only that, not being too heavy or blocking his movements.

  What should I do? I entered this place without knowing much, but that guy said everyone would appear on the same spot… Faust recalled what Chris had said but had to shake his head to forget the fear associated with him.

  In that case… no, I will go alone. I won’t wait for anyone. I will die here.

  Nodding in confirmation to himself, he thought of his next steps. Since he was set on his death, why not make it interesting? This was an opportunity he would likely never have again. Although Faust let that thought seep aside, the truth was, he was damn curious about this place.

  Sensing the cold wind brushing against his face, it was easy to notice that waiting in place or taking too long to make a decision was not ideal. If he did so, he would die from the cold before being able to see anything.

  Then, he weighed his options. Either go toward that far village-like silhouette or away from it. The decision was obvious. He chose the village, as it was the only palpable thing for now.

  Standing up was strange; his body did not react well, as if it were half-asleep. Thankfully, it only seemed to be numb from the cold, and once he started moving, that passed rather quickly.

  One step after the other, Faust moved towards the village, walking amidst the frozen pillars. They had an interesting characteristic. Once he got close enough to one, it was possible to feel a strange energy coming from it. It was strong and, at the same time, controlled. It was difficult to understand, like a water bucket where the water rippled uncontrollably but could never leave the bucket itself.

  No, that’s not quite it, he shook his head, observing the ice spike. It’s more like… a tempest that is always happening but only in a specific area and never going outside of it.

  It was so strange Faust did not dare to touch it. What if it froze his fingers instantly? Living his final moments handicapped was not a happy idea in his mind. It could be even worse, in fact. What if he was frozen as a whole? He had read a book where the main character was frozen alive in solid ice for years; that was torture! There was no way he wanted to experience such a thing. He wanted a fast and painless death, and only that.

  Although the village did not seem so far away initially, he had been walking for quite a while now and still had not reached it, even though the outline grew clearer.

  Is it a mirage? I’ve read about them, but I assumed they only happened in deserts due to heat. Maybe it can happen in cold deserts too. But this has these… pillars? Whatever this is, can it even be called a desert? I wonder what the clear definitions are for categorizing something as a desert.

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  Not only that, but maybe this is closer to a forest instead of a desert, since these look like trees! Well, are trees enough to classify something as a forest? I wonder. Then what are the differences between jungles and forests? If the books describe them differently, there must be a difference. I can only imagine what a jungle looks like. Seeing those “furry humans” I read about must be interesting… I truly wonder what they look like. Are they really like humans but with fur?

  Some people have so much hair it might as well be fur. Are they connected to us? No way, humans are different from animals… maybe not so much, but there are differences. I don’t think these furry humans can speak, not our language at least. Oh!

  Now I can’t stop wondering how they communicate. Is their language something that can be learned, or are they just born with it? I could always speak as far as I remember, but I’ve never seen a baby learning it, so are they simply born knowing? If so, why do some people speak better than others…

  Unnoticing, lost in his idle thoughts, Faust spent a great deal of time walking. The temperature seemed to stabilize and stopped making him shiver so much, he was feeling somewhat comfortable.

  After some time, Faust stopped his movements, glancing ahead and seeing he had reached the outskirts of the village. His expression changed; he squinted his eyes and touched his temples.

  It was around two hours of walking… so this place can mess with my senses? Or was it truly just a mirage… a mirage…

  Seeing the daydream nearly pulling him in again, he shook his head and focused.

  The village in front of him was different from what he had imagined. It was not even a village anymore, only a small camp of ruins. Wooden beams and building stones were scattered across the ground, the aged materials sprawling around. Judging by the blackened wood, it was as if a fire had destroyed the place.

  However, something caused bewilderment to stir in Faust. Among the many destroyed buildings was something he had not noticed earlier: there was not a single stake of ice. They organized themselves around this place, as if they refused to come closer.

  Walking through the place, the cause was unknown, but Faust had a hunch. Right in front of him, in the center of these ruins, stood a building unaffected by anything. It stood tall, made out of some exotic darkened stone with details carved in contrasting pale wood.

  Atop its two-story height, there was a small sculpture of a wind rose that marked the cardinal directions. It did not point anywhere specific, seeming more like a symbol than having a practical use.

  Looking at it, Faust’s face twisted in confusion. It was not that he could not recognize it, but it was not used much anymore, as far as he knew.

  According to a geography book he had read, the mainland continent had mostly replaced it with its own navigation system called the “Star’s Seer,” which not only had an improved version of the wind rose counting sixteen cardinal points based on constellations, but also included guidance by these constellations and automatic mechanisms that helped in this.

  Though not everyone had become an adept of that system yet, it was the most used nowadays. Even if “nowadays” was a rather shallow term, considering the book was outdated by at least fifteen years… but that was a matter for later.

  What was important now was that Faust stood right in front of a pair of wooden doors that reserved this temple away from the cold. It had windows lined up on the laterals and on the back, exactly three windows each, perfectly spaced from one another.

  Whoever had built it had paid great attention.

  Only pondering about what, who, or when would not help Faust see interesting things. Based on that, he took the logical steps and pushed the doors open, which offered no resistance. The wood floor creaked under his steps, the interior far warmer than outside…

  Once inside, he closed the door and observed the interior. Besides him were long wooden benches, similar to those in the Goddess of Sun churches in his village.

  Opposing the doors, all the way to the back of the structure, a raised platform stood a few centimeters off the ground. Right at its center there was a pew with two black stone statues on either side. Behind these statues were two vertical cylindrical chambers with spiraled stairs leading to the upper floor.

  Those statues beside the pew captured his attention rather easily. Faust was not an appreciator of fine arts, as he saw no purpose in something being beautiful only for the sake of it. Yet, he had to admit they were incredibly well-crafted, even from a distance.

  One of them was a male, his intimate areas covered by a cloth so well sculpted it perfectly emulated motion. His face was perfectly chiseled and his body thin; he held a captivating smile on his dark stone face.

  The other was a female. Draped around her body were pieces of sculpted cloth that also covered her intimate areas but let her chest still be somewhat revealed. On her face was a partial veil that could not hide her pained expression, with tears so life-like it was scary.

  Both of them were obviously created by a master artisan; even the ignoramus mind of someone who understood nothing about statues or sculptures could tell such a thing.

  Illuminating the whole place was the azure moonlight seeping in from the clear glass windows, enough to radiate the place with a blue hue.

  There is not much here.

  He shivered from the lasting cold while his eyes focused on the stairs.

  Is this place just empty? What a letdown if that is the case.

  Faust went up the stairs, reaching the next floor. Differently from the first floor, this one looked more like an inn or a church shelter, with three rooms divided by thin wooden walls. Each room followed the same pattern, having four beds and a window allowing a view outside. A closer look at the beds showed they likely had not been used; the white sheets covering them were clean of any imperfection, and the structural parts were also perfect.

  Sitting on a bed, Faust removed the mattresses and covered himself with it. He spent a few minutes recovering from the cold. At the same time, he kept observing the blue moon outside the window with idle thoughts.

  I wonder if there’s anything in this place. Every room is the same, and the first floor didn’t seem to have anything besides the two statues. Even they didn’t seem to have anything particular. Though I didn’t analyze them well enough; it was too cold… but not so much anymore. I should go down soon and investigate better. It would make no sense for something to be inside the dungeon only for the sake of it.

  According to Chris… Faust hesitated, his eyes fearful. The dungeon should present a goal. The main goal I received is to find that forgotten temple. Now, how to find it is the question. I don’t think it’s this place…

  As he thought of the goal, a strange sensation evoked from his body. It was like a distant voice that spoke nothing, yet conveyed something he could understand. It seemed to guide him somewhere, somewhere far beyond the snow.

  Surprised by that sensation, he quickly forgot about the goal and attempt to focus on the sensation itself, but then it vanished alongside the thought.

  “Wait…”

  He thought about the goal again, and as expected, the sensation arose inside his being once more.

  “So that’s how I will know…” he stood up, realizing that sensation guided him somewhere, far from him, the goal of the dungeon. It was strange, he could recognize this gimmick as if it was natural to him.

  “Time to examine the previous floor, but before…”

  Faust collected two more mattresses and wrapped them around his body, the warmth being really comfortable.

  With slow steps, he descended again and examined the first floor with more precision.