The Ice Lands

by William Dickey

  Defense +50 (increases with level)

  Endurance +30 (increases with level)

  Vitality +50 (increases with level)

  Agility +10 (increases with level)

  Dexterity -10 (increases with level)

  †Low Temperature Resistance† is temporarily disabled

  Dexterity is reduced by 50%

  Magic is set to 0

  Energy is set to 0

  When I woke, the burning pain that had suffused my body was gone. But the second I opened my eyes, intense light filled them, forcing me to seal them back up but not in time to prevent the flash from giving me a headache.

  “What the hell, Mai. You’re supposed to compensate for such things. And what the hell is going on with my hearing,” I said. My voice sounded deep and hoarse like I’d huffed xenon after having an hour long shouting match.

  ‘It’s not your hearing,’ said Mai. ‘Your voice has changed. So have your eyes, so excuse me for not being able to correct for them instantaneously.’

  “Sorry…. Can you fix it?” I asked.

  ‘Give me a minute,’ Mai huffed.

  I waited for a full minute, then two, before I asked Mai for an update. “Ready yet?”

  ‘Okay, I’m ready,’ Mai replied.

  I opened my eyes. Again, overwhelming light seared them, forcing them back closed.

  “Damn, Mai. I thought you said you were ready,” I said.

  ‘I was,’ said Mai.

  “Then you just decided not to do it,” I said.

  ‘No, I said I was ready to answer your question,’ said Mai.

  “Question?” I asked.

  ‘You asked if I can fix it and I said to give me a minute before answering. I am now ready to answer and yes, I can fix it,’ said Mai.

  “How long until you fix it?” I asked, more than a bit of frustration leaking into my voice. I knew I’d been a bit short with her, but did she always have to jab back this hard.

  ‘Oh, I already fixed it,’ said Mai.

  I opened my eyes. The bright light of midday flooded in from the cave entrance nearby. Since it was midday, I knew it had been at least half a day since I’d eaten the heart. I wasn’t surprised. I’d been warned ahead of time that it took a few hours for your body to adapt after eating a heart.

  I immediately noticed my point of view was significantly higher than normal. I looked down at my hands and body. My fingertips all had razor sharp claws and my feet had become a set of hooves. I was in the powerful body of the augmented murlimp.

  ‘Daemons live underground so they’re vision is extremely sensitive. I had to run your vision through multiple band-pass filters then use a recurring Neiman algorithm to compensate for gaps of signal loss,’ said Mai.

  “And am I meant to understand any of that?” I asked.

  ‘Not at all, I just want you to know how hard it was,’ said Mai.

  “Status,” I said.

  Name

  †Isaac N. Stein†

  Level

  52

  Class

  †Otherist†

  Exp

  123/11650

  Health

  950/950

  Satiety

  45/100

  Stamina

  660/660

  Hydration

  41/100

  Mana

  0/0

  Status

  Awkward

  Vitality

  45 (+50)

  Strength

  34 (+60)

  Agility

  40 (+10)

  Endurance

  36 (+30)

  Magic

  10 (-10)

  Dexterity

  40 (-10)

  Energy

  15 (-15)

  Defense

  30 (+50)

  Intelligence

  50

  Unused

  20

  †Skills†

  †Cooking Lvl. 6 (13.9%)†

  †Skinning Lvl. 4 (12.1%)†

  †Blacksmithing Lvl. 16 (19.1%)†

  †Leatherworking Lvl. 4 (13.4%)†

  †Carpentry Lvl. 2 (93.1%)†

  †Otheristry Lvl. 11 (0.2%)†

  †Sigil Mastery Lvl. 5 (5.0%)†

  †Mana Recovery Lvl. 3 (14.8%)†

  †Sewing Lvl. 8 (0.3%)†

  †Sense Jeopardy Lvl. 1 (70.0%)†

  †Artificing Lvl. 8 (12.8%)†

  †Riding Lvl. 7 (45.2%)†

  †Shapeshift Lvl. 1 (0.0%)†

  †Murlimp Physique Lvl. 1 (0.1%)†

  †Low Temperature Resistance Lvl. 8 (46.2%)† (Disabled)

  †High Temperature Immunity Lvl. Max† (Temporary)

  I tried mentally focusing on a sigil and feeding mana into it, but nothing happened. The murlimp form had greatly improved my physical constitution but removed any magical ability.

  The cold has caused your stats to decrease by 5%

  Until you get warmer, stats will continue to decrease.

  I also felt extremely cold in my new form. This made sense, but it was a bit annoying considering the climate I currently faced and the one I would soon be traveling to. The murlimp form was powerful but I needed to take some care getting used to it.

  “I guess I’d better try to change back,” I said, cringing again at my strange voice. According to the beastmen, it was important to change back and forth occasionally in the first few days. In order to shift you had to hold a clear image of the desired form. Although it had been ages since someone failed to be able to recall their human state, there were horror stories of such occurrences.

  I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my human body. I imagined the claws returning to fingers and the hooves becoming toes. I imagined the murlimp’s protruding snout retreating back and allowing my fine facial features to replace the murlimps more brutish ones. I imagined my body shrinking down and my skin regaining its pale color. I felt nothing at first but what was perhaps a faint wriggle under the skin of the back of my hands, so light and ethereal I couldn’t be sure it too wasn’t my imagination.

  ‘Whatcha doing?’ Mai asked, her face jumping out of the blackness despite my closed eyes. Obviously, she broke my concentration.

  “Hey, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” I jumped.

  ‘I don’t know if I’d go so far to say that,’ said Mai.

  “But you knew exactly what I was doing and you did that just to piss me off,” I figured.

  ‘I don’t know if I’d go so far to say that either. I’d say I also interrupted you to let you know there is a better way of going about what you’re doing,’ said Mai.

  “Huh?”

  ‘You can use the interface so all you have to do to transform is say ‘Shapeshift’ to activate the appropriate skill,’ Mai explained.

  “Shapeshift,” I tried. It was like the wriggling sensation had magnified a thousand-fold. It started in my outer extremities before moving inward to my chest and as the wave of wriggling passed, it was soon followed by the most intense pain I’d ever experienced. The pain seemed to last for hours but afterwards Mai assured me it was only two minutes and 37 seconds.

  “That actually worked,” I said once I was back inside my own body. My feelings about it were somewhat mixed. Although shouting Shapeshift made the process straightforward, it did nothing for the excruciating pain experienced. I wasn’t sure how much I’d enjoy my new power.

  ‘Of course it worked, when have I ever led you astray,’ said Mai. I was in a good mood so I didn’t start listing examples.

  I exited the cave.

  “I guess I’d better be going. Which way is Doraga?” I asked Mai.

  ‘That way,’ Mai pointed.

  I turned to look in that direction and I couldn’t help but see an owl fly away. This stood out because of how hard a time I had searching for creatures in the area. I guess that’s just the way things go, the moment you aren’t looking for something it pops up everywhere.

  ‘That’s your mo
nitor,’ said Mai, answering a question I didn’t ask. ‘It’s a bit surprising that he stuck around for two days to make sure your transition went okay.’

  “Two days?” I asked.

  ‘It’s been two and a half days since you ate the murlimp heart,’ said Mai.

  “Two and a half days,” I exclaimed. I had thought it’d been half a day. “I’d better hurry back to Doraga before Jutmaek and Izusa worry… God dammit.”

  ‘What?’ Mai asked.

  “I’m going to have to shapeshift again,” I huffed. I figured travel would be faster as a murlimp and in accordance with tradition, I was supposed to enter Doraga in my beastform. According to the Shapeshift skill description, I could level it up to reduce the pain and increase transformation speed, but I wasn’t looking forward to that sort of training.

  “Shapeshift.”

  Being a Franken-murlimp was fucking awesome. I don’t know how to put it any better. I pounded my way across the snowy landscape like it was nothing. In this large body, every step carried me three times more than my previous stride and once I got up to speed I could run around thirty-five miles per hour, and that was at a continuous pace, in bursts I could probably make fifty. Snow flash boiled before me, ensuring I had secure footing, and with the daemon’s large mass I could smash through any trees or debris that stood in my way.

  I think I started to understand why beastmen had placed such an emphasis on beastforms. The power I now held was intoxicating and although I didn’t receive significant upgrades to my senses, Mai already provided those, the improvement of my physical capabilities alone was stunning.

  I continued my insane pace for several hours. Normally I would have collapsed from exhaustion but with this body, my stamina barely dipped at all. My satiety seemed to be another matter though. Several times I had to stop to pull some food out of my inventory and eat it otherwise I would have starved. Mai informed me that, for a daemon, coal would work better but I didn’t have any. I’d have to stock up in the future.

  Travel occupied the rest of my day. Around an hour after sundown, I made out the fires of Doraga in the distance.

  “Finally, we’re almost there,” I said as I doubled my pace, eager to finish so I could finally rest.

  ‘Heheh,’ Mai giggled.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  ‘You should hear this,’ said Mai.

  A portion of my eyesight zoomed in so I could see a young boy shouting from a rooftop. A few seconds later, my hearing adjusted so I could hear what he was shouting despite being miles away.

  “It’s coming, it’s coming,” the boy shouted, a bit of fear leaking into his excited voice.

  “What is it exactly?” I heard someone close to the boy ask.

  “I don’t know but it’s the source of the red light you see coming from behind those trees, almost like a living fire headed straight this way,” the boy relayed.

  I heard a number of voices join his now, too many for Mai to filter out entirely. One rose above the rest.

  “Grab your weapons and head for the northern side,” a man yelled. “We don’t know what this is but we need to be ready.”

  “You think it’s funny that I’m scaring people?” I asked Mai.

  ‘I’m imagining how they’re going to react when they find out it’s you,’ Mai snickered.

  As I got closer to town, I slowed my pace. I didn’t want to scare anyone. I crested the last hill and I got a clear view of Doraga’s edge only a few hundred yards away. The residents of Doraga could also clearly see me. Children ran behind their mother’s skirts and their most skilled warriors lined up and levied their weapons.

  “Warriors we must defend Doraga,” one beastman yelled. A number of others voiced their agreement and many more prepared to charge. If there were to be a fight, it would be better to be outside the town proper were there was less chance of collateral damage, both in persons and property.

  I didn’t blame them for being worried. The daemon was far from a native species and looked both ferocious and alien.

  “I’m just returning from the Blood Moon,” I called out to put them at ease.

  I heard a flurry of confused voices as people discussed before the line of warriors opened to let me pass, although not a single one of them lowered their weapons.

  I took it one step at a time, marching up to the first row of yurts. As I moved, the air grew warm and the snow melted before me. It was like I was summer incarnate, banishing all signs of winter that stood in my way. As I continued past the outer rim and moved towards the center of the city, people began more and more to realize my words were true, that I was a soon to be clansman recently returned. Their aggressive stares became a mix of curiosity and admiration. They all wanted to know who acquired the strange and powerful beastform that walked before them.

  To me the daemon was quite gruesome. Human aesthetics generally revolved around symmetry and the daemon’s dark randomly cracked skin was a far cry from that. However, the beastmen favored power above all else and the muscle bound, spike covered, incredible hulk of fire was quite appealing to them.

  As I passed, people followed as if drawn in by my internal fire, as if mesmerized by my strength. By the time I reached Jutmaek’s tent, it felt like half of the clan had gathered to watch. Jutmaek sat outside at his desk, shuffling papers. As I walked up to him, he flashed me a knowing grin. The aerial monitor had beaten me there.

  I settled my hooves a dozen feet in front of him and shouted, “Shapeshift.”

  I tried my best to hold myself upright and hide my grimace as a surge of pain rolled through me. I closed my eyes as my body shrank down and my temperature normalized. The chill I felt also disappeared. The daemon was far more susceptible to the cold than I was. When I opened my eyes I turned around once to see the assembled beastman crowd and was reminded just how small my human form was next to theirs.

  “It’s the human.”

  “I thought everyone said it looked like he failed.”

  “How could he be one with such a beastform?”

  “Perhaps it’s a sign,” suggested one crinkled old man.

  “Yeah,” another agreed. “The expedition he’s for claims to have a chance to fix the weather. Maybe he acquiring a beastform that can remove winter is a sign that the expedition could work.”

  Looks of awe filled faces in the crowd as my number of converts grew. Jutmaek also noticed and his happiness seemed to grow. I would have liked to take a moment to enjoy this new love from the people, but the ceremony still needed finishing.

  “Reporting in,” I said to Jutmaek.

  “You’re late, but I am glad to see you were successful in acquiring a beastform. Rotimer told me as much but he wouldn’t say what it was. Now I understand why,” said Jutmaek, taking a brief detour in his usual comments before clearing his throat and returning to it. “Who were you?”

  “I was Isaac, a native of another world. Once a prisoner forced here against his will and later a willing participant, eager to do what he can,” I said.

  “And who are you now?” Jutmaek asked.

  “I am the man who can end the war. I am the man who can fix the weather. I am now Isaac Daemonheart, clansman of Doraga,” I declared.

  ‘Jeez, think that head of yours has gotten big enough? You’re a freak science experiment on steroids, not a god,’ said Mai, immediately undercutting me.

  I ignored Mai even though I agreed with her. I was being ridiculous but that was intentional. Strength attracted beastmen above all else, so that was what I was trying to project.

  My declaration turned many heads. This year had been bad for Doraga. Hunting season had amongst the poorest returns ever recorded, cutting deeply into the clan’s food reserves despite strict rationing. Then, though not as bad as most of the other clans, a number of Doraga’s strongest warriors had been lost in the southern war. Finally, this recent Blood Moon had twice the failure rate as compared to normal.

  The beastmen were a resilient people
. They had to be to survive in these harsh, unforgiving lands, but no one is without a limit. Everyone felt the grim despair of suffering loss after loss. Everyone sought an answer, a way to change their luck. And standing there in the center of a circle of melted snow with warmth radiating from me, I became the embodiment of that answer, the embodiment of hope.

  Jutmaek turned to look out in the assembled crowd until his gaze met Adriel’s. The old beastman took in the rest of the crowd’s atmosphere.

  ‘Good enough?’ Jutmaek mouthed to Adriel.

  Adriel nodded solemnly in agreement.

  “The gods have made their intentions clear,” Adriel declared, his voice joining in with the earlier commentators.

  With his support, it was like the dam of emotions, which was previously just spilling over, broke, sending a new wave of cheers from those that had been cautiously reserved just a moment before.

  I saw a wrathful Truant in the crowd. But, he remained silent. He knew he’d lost this bout. It wasn’t long before he shuffled away in frustration and disgust.

  Jutmaek’s smile managed to grow by another stage as he rushed around his desk and embraced me. He took one of my hands in his and stood shoulder to shoulder with me as he lifted our hands into the air then spun around a bit for the whole crowd to see.

  “This is the answer,” Jutmaek yelled for the benefit of the numerous ears abound. “Come spring, we will travel into the depths of the Ice Lands. We will penetrate the mysteries of the Permerine Shrine. We will incinerate all this ice. And, most importantly, we will not become another Nest. We will not shatter and scatter under the pressure. We will not abandon our ancestral home. We will return Doraga to its proper state and we will prove the fools who choose to run and cower to the south than face the harsh north as cowards who don’t deserve to be called Othan.”

  Jutmaek’s statement was met with rapturous cheers. I took in all the remarks of approval. It was a rare opportunity to relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor. It always seemed like the something always came to spoil things. I settled down in Crystalpeak only to see it invaded. I handled the invasion only to be kidnapped. I freed myself of my capture only to be forced to stay with them because of larger concerns. Of course, I didn’t expect this time to be any different. I knew this respite wouldn’t last, I knew I would eventually be expected to brave the harshest environment imaginable and find a way to fix everything, but I didn’t expect the fun to end a moment after it began.