LTSV - Harbingers of Change - 50 (Patreon)

If Mira hadn't already found the [Safe Room] then there might have been a real chance that she would have mistaken the ski lodge for a real building.

Penny circled it a few times and from the outside it appeared to be a half-timbered chalet plucked right off of an Alp and dropped into a dungeon. It had floor to ceiling windows spanning across multiple floors, which gave Penny a good view of the interior that stirred Mira's suspicions.

The main floor was furnished in soft upholstered furniture that looked like a weary body could just sink into it. There was an open-format kitchen taking up the back wall and she could see a huge bowl on the counter with fruit spilling over the side and a pot of something steaming on the stove. The exposed loft contained multiple beds piled high with blankets and pillows.

Everything was arranged around a huge central fire place—a fireplace that was already lit, yet somehow the chimney outside produced no smoke.

"Oh, that's bait," she said out loud. "I'm not sure if the building eats people or there's a Hansel and Gretel witch hiding in it, but the lodge is absolutely dangerous."

"Man, now I kind of want to see it," Alan mused. "Or at least get close enough to see if the entire building shows up as an enemy on Randall's map."

"You'll probably get your wish. The plan is to try and clear the fog off the entire map within the first few days, just in case we get a timed monster surge like in the Borough," Cece reminded him. "Mira, which quadrant is the lodge in?"

"Wait a moment," Mira murmured and took a large scratch pad out of her spatial bag. The bad thing about using Penny for recon was that she didn't clear the fog of war from anyone's map, not even Mira's. So she sketched out a rough map with the big points of interest on it. "There, it's in the northeast quadrant near the big lake with the crystalline growths spiking out of it. We are down here, near the icy stream with the tiny manmade bridge over it."

"What's the big stand of pine trees here in the center?" Cece asked, pointing as she crouched next to Mira with her hands braced on her knees.

"I'm not sure," Mira admitted. "They're big and appear to be trimmed in gold rather than pearl, but Penny was outside the range of your blessing so the illusion was too hard for her to penetrate on the fly. She didn't see anything moving, but the location seems significant. I've also noted a few places where specific types of monsters seem particularly concentrated, but there's roaming bands of them all over. It may be that they have particular spawning points. We never did figure out where the goblins were coming from in the Ruined Borough."

"Well, maybe its a sign there's good loot there?" Cece mused. "It'll be either dangerous or lucrative, based on our other experiences so far."

"It could also be a tool to use against the Lindwurm," Will pointed out. "We were supposed to get those energy drinks to fight the Lantern Collector with. The little convenience store was picked out with lighted signs and that one surviving streetlamp, plus the drink cooler still had power."

"We'll be cautious when we check it out," Randall decided out loud. "We know its possible to beat the Bosses without the hidden advantages and we already know it's weak to fire. So, lets keep getting our bearings and filling out the codex of useful loot."

"Sounds good to me," Mira agreed.

They fleshed out both Mira's map and the System map over the following day. They went directly north, aiming for the [Safe Room] so they could use it as their base of operations. Unfortunately, that meant going either through or around the zones that Mira had whimsically named [Winter Warg Ridge] and [Crystal Bear Cave].

Both areas were littered with monster den sites. Mira's hypothesis was confirmed when they spotted their first [Winter Warg Cub] near one of the shallow dens that the adult wargs were coming and going from. It got hustled back into the den by an older [Juvenile Winter Warg].

"Ok, so I know that the smart move would be to demolish their spawning point," Randall said quietly as they observed this going down from a distance.

"We are not killing puppies," Cece told them all flat out. "We kill anything that attacks us and everything that minds its business gets to live."

"At least for now," Mira agreed. She frowned when Cece turned a betrayed look in her direction. "We don't know how the spawning works yet. If those dens start pumping out waves upon waves of wargs then I will be dropping a magical bomb on them. For now, we leave them be."

Cece grumbled about it, but she acquiesced after thinking on it for a second.

There were [Gemjaw Ursine Cubs] tumbling about and wrestling in front of the [Crystal Bear Cave] and they gave the whole area a wide berth when they laid eyes on a passing [Gemjaw Ursine Matriarch]. It was twice the size of the other bears they'd seen so far, with huge sharp claws made out of black crystal. It had glowing red eyes and its name has a little white skull next to it when Randall examined it through the System.

"That is a field boss, if I've ever seen one," Mira muttered to Randall, who was nearby.

"It might be a mini boss, even," he replied even as he nodded. "I bet there's one or more like it in the warg dens. It probably would have come out to fight if we had attacked one. We're not tangling with any of that until we've established a base camp."

On the way, Cece found the fire berries that the kids had mentioned. They were the one thing in the environment that wasn't touched by illusion. They appeared as low snow-dusted shrubs covered in fist-sized bunches of glowing red berries.

[Fire Berries: This material is eagerly sought out by explorers working in arctic conditions. Eating the untreated berries will increase a hunter's internal body temperature and protect them from status ailments caused by exposure to freezing temperatures. Other effects can be revealed with higher levels of Appraisal for the following classes: Apothecary, Alchemist, Hedgewitch, and Chef.]

Obviously, they harvested as many of the [Fire Berries] as they could find.

They also discovered glowing blue mushrooms that looked like chanterelles made out of foggy crystal. Those were [Ice Pfifferlings].

[Ice Pfifferlings: Mushrooms that only grow in areas with high concentrations of cold-aspected mana. These mushrooms can be used to instantly freeze any material they touch when crushed against it. Other effects can be revealed with higher levels of Appraisal for the following classes: Apothecary, Alchemist, Hedgewitch, and Chef.]

They agreed as a group to let Randall use his skill to harvest those and no one was allowed to touch them.

"I bet they're meant as landmines," he commented as he used his [Disassemble] skill to clear the ground of the little mushrooms. "The System says 'crushed against', but I hear 'stepped on.'"

"Everyone watch where you put your feet," Mira announced by way of agreement.

Eventually, they found the Bothy. It was almost hidden amongst tall stands of pine trees and there wasn't an immediately obvious path leading towards it. They had to get Penny to guide them there and had to stop to deal with Ice Fox pranks.

Unlike the False Chalet, the Bothy [Safe Room] had smoke puffing lazily out of its small chimney. That was how they realized they'd gotten close; the inviting scent of wood smoke.

Later, when Mira had time to sit down and really think about what happened she wasn't sure that there was anything that she could have done to prevent it.

The attack came suddenly, but it wasn't a bear or a warg or even an owl that came for them.

Mira's only warning came from the sound of displaced air behind her and the sudden evacuation of air from her lungs as the tip of a sword punched through her back and out through her front.

She had just enough time before her vision dissolved into motes of golden light to peer over her shoulder at Andre's wooden expression as he pulled his sword out of her and let her fall.

By the time she could see again, she was already outside the Gate again sprawled on her backside in the tall grass.

[PLANETARY ANNOUNCEMENT: Hunter Andre Vale has discovered the PVP function of the Hunter Network System. All Awakened Hunters will now have access to the PVP Challenge Arena! Any Hunter who perishes in a PVP match while inside a Dungeon will be immediately ejected from that Dungeon and unable to re-enter for the duration of that cycle.]

Mira shrieked in outrage.

"That son of a bitch!"

Semi-Official Pearl Forest Map: