Extra's Path: The Eternal Frost Monarch

Noah slipped away from his teammates quietly, moving in the opposite direction while they pushed forward along the second floor corridor.

One of the students noticed and looked back.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Noah didn’t slow down. He glanced over his shoulder with a casual expression. "Lower floors. Most of us have moved up. Someone should check what’s down there. There are only few down there."

The student considered it for a second and nodded. "Alright. Be careful."

Noah was already gone.

He moved down the frozen escalator steps quickly, descending from the second floor to the first, then the ground, back down to the main lobby. The sounds of fighting above him. Spells, clashing weapons, shouting grew more distant with each floor he passed.

The lobby was mostly empty now. A few tankers still held position near the entrance, their shields ready. The mages who had been providing cover fire had moved up to higher vantage points.

Noah crossed the lobby floor without stopping, his eyes scanning ahead.

He spotted the corridor that led toward the basement. A wide passage running off from the far end of the ground floor, darker than the rest of the building, the flickering lights barely reaching into it.

He moved toward it.

He was ten meters from the corridor entrance when the ground beneath his feet lit up.

A magic circle flared into existence directly under him, dark orange lines spreading outward from a central point in a sharp geometric pattern.

Noah didn’t think. He threw himself sideways instantly.

Crack.

Stone spikes erupted from the circle, shooting upward in a tight cluster exactly where he had just been standing. One of them grazed the side of his jacket as he rolled clear, tearing the fabric.

He hit the floor, came up immediately, and shoved his bow into his storage ring in one motion. His hand went to his hip and came back with his spear. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

He dropped into a low stance.

The spear rested diagonally behind him, tip angled toward the floor, both hands on the shaft. He said nothing. His eyes moved to where the attack had come from.

A figure stepped out from behind a wide concrete pillar to his left.

A young man with brown hair and a heavy build, holding a war hammer in both hands. The head of it was thick and broad, clearly designed to crush rather than cut. The man’s expression was composed. He had been waiting down here. Hiding. Either as a guard or as a trap.

Noah held his position and let his mana move.

It came up from his core and traveled outward through his body, flowing down his arms and into the shaft of the spear. As it reached the blade the temperature around the tip dropped sharply.

Noah gaze forward and said. "Who are you?"

Mana particles condensed and frosted over the metal surface, forming a thin but solid layer of pale blue ice along the blade. At the very tip, a single drop of ice built itself to a sharp frozen point.

He was performing the first petal of Frozen Lotus Blade Art.

Dewdrop stance.

The ground around Noah’s feet began to frost over slowly. A quiet circle of ice spreading outward from where he stood, creeping across the cracked tile floor without a sound.

The brown haired student’s eyes dropped to the frost spreading beneath Noah’s feet. Something shifted in his expression.

"Oh its you...Noah Eldritch. I have heard about you. How weak and good for nothing son of Duke Eldritch. I was worried for no reason. Well I shall eliminate you. I gave you enough time yo prepare. "

He charged towards Noah.

The hammer came up as he closed the distance, his footsteps heavy and fast, arms drawing back for a full overhead swing.

Noah didn’t move backward.

He shifted his weight to his back foot and drove the spear forward to meet him, the tip aimed directly at the hammer’s head as it came down.

The blade connected with the hammer on the downswing.

The moment the ice-coated tip made contact with the metal head of the hammer, the frost detonated outward from the point of impact.

A sharp crack rang through the corridor as ice exploded across the hammer’s surface in a fraction of a second, spreading from the contact point all the way up the shaft and across the entire head.

The hammer froze solid.

The student felt it instantly. The weapon locked in his grip, suddenly weighing double, the ice seizing his fingers against the handle. He pulled back instinctively, trying to break free.

Noah was already moving.

He pulled the spear back, stepped into the student’s space, and drove the shaft hard into the side of the young man’s knee.

The frozen ground beneath them helped, the student’s footing was already compromised on the slick surface and the impact buckled his leg immediately.

He went down on one knee.

Noah brought the spear around and pressed the flat of the ice-coated blade firmly against the side of the student’s neck. Cold radiated from it instantly, frost crawling up toward the student’s jaw. Sharp frozen particles dugged into his neck. Blood splattered on the ice particles.

The student went completely still.

For a moment neither of them moved. Then the system registered the outcome.

The student’s body began to flicker, that familiar shimmer of someone being pulled out of the simulation. His expression shifted from tense to frustrated as the light took him.

Then he was gone.

The frozen hammer clattered to the floor where he had been kneeling, the ice already beginning to crack from its own weight.

Noah lowered his spear and exhaled quietly through his nose.

"This man...he was just dormant core high. No wonder I beat him easily. " he said.

They give double the points of master.

Dormant core, low to high.

They gave points from 20, 40, 60.

Awakened core, low to high. They give points from 100, 150 and 200.

While D- to D+ have points from 100,150 and 200.

He looked down at the frost circle around his feet, then toward the basement corridor ahead.

He rolled his shoulder once, adjusted his grip on the spear, and kept moving.

He walked towards the basement and entered the staircase that led downstairs.

---

[A/N: Hello guys! Well, the novel is doing okay I guess. So, I needed some more coins to get 200$ this month. I know it’s shameless to asked, but if possible hope you guys can give me some gifts. Of course not expensive one. But cola, pizza anything would work. I need to get 5k coins within remaining days of this month if I need to reach 200$ next month.

Anyways enjoy your day!]