Arthur sat under a stone structure to protect him from the unrelenting snow. Conjuring a circling fireball around him, just like Revan had done. Although the fireball was doing its job, it wasn't doing it well enough, and he would freeze to death before he could even reach the peak. The white flames would be much more beneficial. As they burned hotter than any flame, and were as dangerous as they were helpful. He tried his best to sleep. But couldn't. He took out his notebook. Examining the runes in order to conjure white flame, it had been a day since he started ascending the mountains, he had managed to learn the rune of flame. But the purifying flame used 3 runes, which made it much, much more annoying. Purification, flame, and emptiness. For some reason. Both the destruction and purifying flames used flame and emptiness.
'Although…I guess the rune for emptiness could also be interpreted as abyss, or void. Did these flames origin from the abyss? And not from the mortal realm?'
Purification wasn't a difficult rune to learn. It was the simplest out of any rune he had learnt yet. But emptiness was different. It felt like the rune had an infinite number of layers to it. And he felt like just attempting to draw it out would bring some kind of danger to him. Just drawing it was draining his mana quickly. He managed to draw only a single layer of emptiness until he had almost ran out of mana. He slumped against the stone structure and sighed.
'I really just might die out here…goddamn it, why'd I use all of my reserves on a damn letter…now I might just die…'
He slowly let his mana come back to him, until he had enough to empower the encircling flame and continue walking up the mountains. The air grew thicker as he looked back at the stone structure. It was just a pillar of stone with a small overhang. But it felt very out of place. With the emptiness of the mountains. He shrugged it off and kept walking. Enduring the harsh conditions. He could feel his legs start to numb. But he ignored and just kept walking.
'This was...an incredibly bad idea. But I really can't stop now.'
As he climbed closer he was met face to face with a wolf twice the size of him. It gazed him down. Preparing for a hunt. As it charged, Arthur simply stopped thinking. His brain paused with the everlasting cold.
'Draw a star...'
He simply slashed his sword. Watching silently as it tore the wolf apart. The wolf was not dead. He had expected it. It charged again. Unbothered by the blade pierced inside it. Arthur had used the slightly dull iron sword against the wolf for this very reason. He drew the moonlight blade and dove beneath the wolf. Stabbing his blade into its stomach and slashing it in a perfect circle. The wolf squealed before it fell onto him lifeless. Arthur almost enjoyed the warmth. Before shoving the corpse off of him.
[You have slain 'Greater Wolf']
'...huh. That was weird. It felt like I was in a trance for a moment there.'
He pulled the dull iron blade out of the wolf and put it back in his inventory. While sheathing the moonlight blade.
'Everything on this damn mountain is so bothersome...'
He finally walked until he glimpsed the peak of the mountain. A stone statue was there. Pointing up into the sky. It's finger seemingly colliding with it perfectly causing a small fracture. But that wasn't the only thing there. There was a figure. A knight. Kneeling to the statue, his armor obsidian, matching the color of his eyes and his blade. He stood to look at Arthur.
'Well, I should've figured there'd be a gatekeeper up here...'