[Boss Door] Encounter 3/7 - The Mountain of Faces. Choose a Difficulty Tier from 1 to 5. Greater Tiers bring more rewards, more challenge.

  “Tier five, please.” ‘Click.’

  The moment his choice locked in, the world twisted. Not the polite, seamless transition of a loading screen, but the gut-wrenching lurch of something correcting an error in reality. His stomach flipped. He was getting used to these transitions by now, and thus, they got easier. A heartbeat later, he stumbled forward, boots crunching onto a frozen expanse. It stretched endlessly, ice cracked into sheets, thin mist curling from the jagged fractures. The horizon itself? Gone! Swallowed by an oppressive glacial void, broken only by the monolith of a mountain that rose ahead in one single direction. It was less of a peak and more of a grotesque vertical wall of slurred faces. Dozens, maybe hundreds of them, carved in every expression imaginable. Sorrow. Rage. Terror. Some seemed to scream in perpetual agony, others frozen mid-laughter, yet they made no sound. That job belonged to the ice groaning beneath his soles. It looked thick and ancient, a vast thing undisturbed by his presence. After all, he was miniscule in comparison to the scenery.

  [System] Sustained environmental effect detected. Frostchumb. Frost Damage: 2. Re-triggering in 1 minute.

  [HP: 8/10]

  Bob’s breath turned sharp, chest burning as the air sank its frozen claws into his lungs. “Son of a..”

  [Echuu] Oh! I tried to warm.. I mean, warn ya! So, uhh, unless you’ve got access to an orca’s stash of regen potions or a top-tier winter coat, then you might wanna get that inner fire blazing quick, young flame. Otherwise? You know.. Bobsicle time!.

  No. That is NOT happening. Bob popped a path orb without hesitation. Stats could help here. HP regen might offset his suffering and ArcDef could provide flat mitigation against elemental damage.

  [System] Path Orb Activated: Stats. Rolling..

  Choose One Stat Increase:

  +0.5 ArcPow (Tier 1)

  +0.5 PhyDef (Tier 1)

  +10 HP (Tier 3)

  Bob’s eyes flicked between the options. Only the HP boost was going to help the current predicament of periodic damage by doubling his total pool. But even then, it wouldn't be enough if the fight dragged out. It was a buffer. Just enough to buy him a few more minutes, before he dropped into danger-zones. ‘Click’

  [System] Max HP increased to 20.

  Still not enough. What ever was coming, it was probably not one-punch’able. Bob reached for another path orb. Hesitation, then switch of tactics going for an active skill. Something fire-based thanks! ‘Pop’. The familiar pulse of system energy rippled up his arm. A faint, momentary warmth.

  [System] Path Orb Activated: Active skill. Rolling..

  Choose from the following options:

  Ice Spear.. ‘NOPE, not it’

  Arcane Dash. ‘Got that already. Maybe it tiers up? Still, bad timing.’

  Rock Throw. ‘Nah, I’m not some raggedy-ass kobold in a starting-zone mine.’

  [Echuu] Oof. RNG, am I right? Mental high-five if you’re feeling it!

  Bob scowled. He needed heat sources, not the opposite. And definitely not the ability to roleplay a medieval peasant at a pillory. Then, a sudden, frigid wind howled down from the Mountain of Faces, slamming into his exposed skin like a fist made of razors. Bob grunted, his entire left side going numb for a solid two seconds.

  [System]

  .. Frost Damage: 2. Re-triggering in 1 minute.

  [HP: 7/20]

  “This shit again!” Bob shook, gritting his teeth. His voice came out sharp, carrying through the vast, frozen expanse. So just max HP, huh.. That didn't help much then. His HP regen would tick once, for each Frostchumb. That meant he was loosing one point of health per minute. and he’d be dropping dead in seven. Without hesitation, he rerolled, sending fifty hard-earned coins spiraling down the drain of terrible luck.

  [System] Path Orb: Active skill. Rerolling..

  Choose One from the following options:

  Glitter Step. ‘The actual fuck?!’

  Water Barrier. ‘Bet it’s not warm water. Either way: Piss-your-pant effect’

  Ghost Sound. ‘This is getting ridiculous.. ’

  Bob’s eye twitched. None of these were it. None had any ounce of worth. He sucked in a sharp breath, feeling the ice settle into his very bones. Guess I’ll gamble this aaaalll the way out.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [System] Reroll Cost: Randomizing..

  A pause. Bob’s gut clenched. This wasn’t gonna hurt, right?

  [System] Debuff Acquired: -5 Stamina Max. -5 Mana Max. Lasts until next victory.

  Yeah, right on que. That one cut deep. Gone was Arcane Dashes. And the stamina drop was near a death sentence, if this fight turned into a tug of war. Bob’s teeth clenched, jaw locked tight enough to crack. When his breath came, it curled in the air like a ghost escaping its corpse. He gazed at the interface, bracing himself for more disappointment.

  [System]..

  .. Choose One of the following options:

  Blood Shield (Tier 3)

  Mana Drain (Tier 2)

  Shadow Gate (Tier 4)

  Fuck me. Judging by the names alone, all three were incredible in their own right. He had no idea how they were hardcoded, but each one could be a gamechanger depending on mechanics. His eyes locked onto the first option. Blood Shield. Protection. That might be what he needed, if it worked on elemental damage. His crossed fingers twitched, second guessing, then committed.

  [System] Skill Acquired: Blood Shield (Tier 3). Sacrifice HP to gain a damage absorbing shield for 2 minutes. Conversion Rate: 1 HP for 5 Shield.

  The knowledge settled into Bob’s being like a second heartbeat, a pulsing awareness that this power was his now. No time for deliberation. Blood Shield.

  Pain. A sharp, needling bite in his chest. Then, a red glow pulsed outward, tendrils of blood-energy swirling and hardening into a barrier just inches from his skin. His life force was spent and reshaped, coiling around him in a grim parody of temporary resilience.

  [Echuu] Oh-ho! That’s a spicy one. You're basically dying to tank, huh?

  If Bob had responded to Echuu's snark, it was overshadowed by the ‘CRACKS!’ and ‘CRASHES!’ in the distance to his left. He turned his gaze and saw the world detonate in a violent splintering of frozen chunks. A shadow surged from the depths, coiling skyward like an impossible leviathan. Tentacles, scales, a writhing mass of flesh, way too massive for Bob to process. It kept rising, breaching the clouds high above with effortless momentum, as if reaching for something beyond. Then the sky darkened, smothered beneath its vastness. The air groaned, reality itself buckling under something that shouldn’t exist.

  ‘SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH.’

  A sound like glaciers being ripped apart from the inside. The noise didn’t just ring in his ears, it thudded its way into him, his skull turned into a bell, the world a tuning fork. His knees buckled and he hit the ice hard, breath punched from his lungs. I'm staggered? His vision swam, fingers spasming uselessly against the frozen surface, limbs locked by force of soundwaves. Above, the thing finally hesitated. For just a moment. Then, started falling. There was no grace, no control. Just a hanging rope suddenly cut at the top. Bob’s pulse jackhammered. His body still wasn’t responding. MOVE. MOVE, YOU ASSHOLE.

  ‘IMPACT’

  And just like that, the world broke again, this time with the force of a falling elder-god, disrupting the ancient, solid sea within a miles-wide radius. A concussive wave blasted outward, sending massive plates tilting, grinding and crashing into each other. Bob too was flung into the air like a ragdoll, hitting a slick, solid surface hard, skittering about uncontrollably.

  [System] Shield Depleted.

  [HP: 13/20]

  ‘Blood.. Shield..’ The absorption came just in time for the retriggering environmental effect.

  [Shield: 3 / 5. Dur: 1m 54s.. 53s..]

  Bob coughed up blood through gritted teeth, as his hands scrambled for purchase. The solid sheet beneath him was tilting, an entire slab of ice dislodged by the energy contained in the forced waters below. One of his feet found purchase, and he threw himself sideways, fingers hooking onto a jagged edge, saving himself from tumbling into instant hypothermia and certain doom. Then, he pulled himself up and ahead, boots skidding on the unstable terrain, as he lunged himself onto a flatter ledge of ice. That x2 jump-power boost from ‘stick-the-landing’ came in handy here.

  [Echuu] Soooo.. I was gonna say something helpful, but honestly? Nope. No notes on this one.

  This wasn’t a fight. It was a natural disaster. Bob couldn’t even process where to attack something that size. He swallowed hard, eyes scanning for a way out. Maybe get to that mountain of faces. Maybe ‘they’ would be more welcoming. Atleast, one of them was smiling.. menacingly. Don’t think, Bob. MOVE! He pushed off, trying his best to sprint across the slippery ice, leaping from one precarious slab to another.

  Then, sound. A deep, resonant groan that made the ice vibrate beneath his feet. Bob had one second of warning before a massive tentacle erupted directly in front of him.

  He twisted mid-step, boots skidding, barely avoiding the initial slam. The force sent razor-sharp shards exploding outward, one slicing through his remaining shield, cutting up his cheek as he ducked.

  [Blood Shield Depleted], [HP: 11/20]

  The tentacle whipped about, gigantic, unyielding, smashing into the ice with random violence. No patterns, no tells, just chaos incarnate, pulverizing everything in reach. He pivoted, muscles screaming in protests as he narrowly dodge-rolled another thundering impact.

  [SP: 7/15]

  This is NOT sustainable. His reduced stamina-pool flickered at him mockingly as every frantic leap of survival cut deep to grab a fair but grueling share. He had to stop running. And so, with boots skidding about, breath clouding the frigid air, he spun to face one of many tentacles on a boss scaled into the unfathomable. Alright, let’s see if I got a patent for one-swing-Bob in me.

  The tentacle rose up high, yet didn’t come crashing down. Instead, it hovered almost in hesitated second thoughts, then slumped back into the dark waters. Bob squinted through the sudden mist of icy seaspray. Massive flies, each one the size of garbage trucks, were dropping from above, crashing onto the ice, buzzing and twitching helplessly, other tentacles burst through distant sheets of ice dragging bloated bodies into the depths.

  Oh.. Oh, shit! That uber-boss wasn't hunting him. It was just.. casually feeding. Its moves weren't meant for him, it had been all about stunning the flying mega-treats. Now, it was simply cleaning its plate. Bob was entirely beneath impact: a stray crumb on the floor during a King’s lavish banquet.

  [Echuu] Aw, that bloat-lover ignored you! Don't take it personally, mister petite. Plenty of other bosses are ready to make you feel all kinds of special by killing you first.

  “Yeah, thanks.” Bob muttered. He was alive, but barely so. HP was able to tick upwards at a miserable crawl due to the math of Blood Shield and regen, yet he still had an arena boss to fight, and that ‘thing’ he just bore witness too, was definitely not it. He turned to faces the mountain of faces once again. His singular post-shock expression against the many. Right. Let’s get a move on.