The Way Ahead

Chapter 10: Let it Burn, Let it Burn, Let it Burn

The storm was still blowing fiercely outside when Edwin came to. He was honestly surprisingly warm for being in the middle of a blizzard, his body heat having been almost entirely trapped inside the tiny space alongside him. It was still quite cold, though, and touching the stone walls of his shelter revealed why, as they sapped away any lingering heat from his already chilled fingertips instantly.

Also, it seemed that his hole was far deeper than he had thought last night. Only two of the sides in the cave were actually stone, the others massive walls of snow, melted slightly and resolidified into ice sheets. At the top of the bluff was a tiny opening, which was presumably where Edwin had fallen through, and the wind played an eerie tune as it danced across the snowbank. It seemed like it was just a drop in terrain, a small cliff that accumulated a pile of snow next to it, with just enough of a gap between them for a skinny traveler to slip into and spend the night. There was no way the banks of snow could have actually built up that much, right?

Eh, that was something Future-Edwin could deal with. For now, it was time for Present-Edwin to try and fight off frostbite and hypothermia. A bit of scrounging around in the snow uncovered a few twigs that he was able to light for a few minutes of fire, which he started with a mere snap of his fingers. Magic made things so easy. Hopefully he could figure out how to integrate mana into some of his other skills, though there wasnt any readily obvious way he could manage that. He called up his notifications as the sticks crackled and melted the snow around them.

Congratulations! For managing to sustain purely magical flames for an extended period of time you have unlocked the Novice Pyromancer path!

Level Up!

Firestarting Level 715

Basic Mana Manipulation Level 25

Survival Level 58

Sleeping Level 56

Basic Mana Sense Level 2021

Seeing Level 1112

Walking Level 1517

Athletics Level 1617

Improvisation Level 1011

Lots of levels. It seemed like near-death experiences were really good for advancement. Lucky me, he thought bleakly, So many chances to level up. This is probably a pretty good advancement rate considering Ive been here for what, less than a week? Like five days? Status.

Name

Edwin Maxlin

Age

22 years

Race

Extraplanar Human

Class

Outsider Novice

Attributes

Mana 1

Skills

Athletics: 17

Basic Mana Sense: 21

Breathing: 9

Firestarting: 15

Flexibility: 8

Identify: 12

Improvisation: 11

Mathematics: 2

Nutrition: 3

Research: 10

Seeing: 12

Sleeping: 6

Outsider's Almanac: 21

Survival: 8

Throwing Weapons: 3

Visualization: 15

Walking: 17

Paths

Skill Points: 37

Next Up

Skilled Arcanist 0/60

Very Much Yes- Eventually

Physical Alchemist 0/90, Micro-Biomancer 0/90, Path Less Traveled 0/90, Realm Traveler 0/120

Promising

Stonehide Vanquisher 0/60, Titan Slayer 0/90, World Traveler 0/60, Researcher 0/60, Explorer 0/60, Outsider 0/60

Maybe One Day

Survivor 0/60, Linguist 0/60, Woodland Athlete 0/60, Daredevil 0/60, Pioneer 0/60, Novice Pyromancer 0/60

Meh

Lumberjack 0/60, Way of the Empty Hand 0/60, Trapper 0/60

No

Beginner 0/30, Novice 0/12, Trainee 0/60

Completed Paths (Expand)

More than halfway to Skilled Arcanist, Edwin tapped his chin in thought, I wonder if theres any other easy skill levels I could get. He glanced upwards. Unsurprisingly, the storm hadnt abated at all in the last five minutes, Not going back out there if I can help it, thats for sure, though.

Edwins fire was starting to fail, the tiny mass of wood barely holding on after just a few scant minutes of warmth. He started scrounging around in the snow for anything more he might be able to use for fuel, and found a bit more, but nothing substantial. It lasted for a handful of minutes more before it was down to mere embers, and Edwin found himself huddled against the tiny patch of stone wall heated by his tiny flame, trying to stay warm once more.

Level Up!

Firestarting Level 1516

Basic Mana Manipulation Level 56

After quite a bit of trial and error, Edwin had figured out how to mimic fire-breathing. It required breathing through his cupped hands, but was still quite fun.

Level Up!

Firestarting Level 1617

Basic Mana Manipulation Level 67

Breathing Level 910

Edwin bit off a curse as his fingers turned numb, handling ice-cold snow as he allowed it to slowly melt into a puddle of water in his cupped hands. Eating snow when potentially battling hypothermia was a Bad Idea, and hence his current predicament. At least he was able to melt snow directly and quickly this way.

Level Up!

Firestarting Level 1718

Basic Mana Manipulation Level 78

Survival Level 89

Edwin carefully pulled off his shoes and socks, holding his ethereal, dancing blue flames close to his toes, hoping to get feeling back in them and chase off any potential for frostbite. It was the first time he had really looked at them in the past couple of days, and he was somewhat impressed at how calloused they had gotten, and relieved he hadnt had to deal with too many blisters. His shoes may be well-loved and somewhat water resistant, but they were still very much not made for several days of hiking through mud and snow, and it showed. At least he was wearing warm socks. It was the small mercies, sometimes.

Level Up!

Firestarting Level 1819

Basic Mana Manipulation Level 89

It was getting late, but the storm continued to rage outside. Edwin hoped that it would die down soon. He wasnt the most nourished, having only eaten chears for the past several days, and would need all the energy he could muster to find his next shelter and next source of food. The battle in the sky had shown him that not only was the wilderness decidedly not safe, even if he managed to figure out something sustainable, but also that there had to be some form of society nearby. Or, he bleakly thought, there was nothing anywhere close and thats why the two insanely powerful mages decided to settle their spat out here where nobody would get hurt. That thought wasnt actionable, though, so it was best left ignored.

Hopefully the snow wouldnt take too long to melt away, either. If it were truly almost ten feet deep like the wall of snow he kept staring at seemed to suggest, hed never get out. However, if that was just the result of how the wind was blowing, there was no telling how long it would take to go away.

Basically, if this was a snowstorm heralding the start of winter, Edwin was dead. If this snowstorm lasted more than a week, he was dead. If the snow collapsed on him, he was dead. If there really were drifts of snow almost twice his height, he was dead.

However, if this was an out-of-season or perhaps end-of-season blizzard, and it stopped soon, and the snow wasnt all that deep, he might still make it out alive. What a way to go, though. He had survived a bear the size of a truck, found food and water, endured a nigh-apocalyptic battle of individuals he may as well have been an ant in comparison to, and found shelter from a blizzard, only to die of starvation because he couldnt go looking for food.

He could also summon fire with a snap of his fingers, though, so coming to a new world wasnt all bad. He didnt leave that many people behind, anyway. And they would most likely think he was dead, what with up and vanishing in the middle of the day, so passing away in a snowbank wouldnt change much as far as everyone else was concerned. Just another face in the crowd, anonymous and forgotten as the tides of people swept by, carrying off any not secure in themselves.

The light in his shelter faded, until only the flickering illumination heralding from his magical flame remained. Edwin sighed. Even if the storm did stop, he wasnt going anywhere in the dark. He melted himself another handful of water and went to bed.

Level Up!

Firestarting Level 1920

Sleeping Level 67

Whatever it was that his Sleeping skill affected, it did wonders to make him feel more fully rested. Cold, hard ground or not, he didnt feel any more tired than a standard rough night of sleep would yield back in his room with a mattress, pillow, and blankets. An actual bed, no matter how poor quality, would probably feel like heaven.

The blizzard seemed to have abated overnight, and Edwin could see glimpses of blue sky above. After a quick bout with Firestarter to warm himself up, Edwin used the skill to melt some holes in the sheet of ice. About a minute of pressing his hands to the wall later, he broke free, stumbling forward and crashing through to the other side, coating himself with a thin layer of powdered snow. After brushing himself off, he was able to look back and assess his temporary shelter in the light of day and with more than two feet of visibility.

As he had suspected, it was indeed the result of snow being pushed off the edge of a small cliff, the precise angle having left a gap between the rock and ice. Around him, the snow was probably at most only a foot or two thick on average, though in areas not as sheltered from the winds it was significantly deeper. The sun felt heavenly, and he just stood and basked in its gentle radiance for a few minutes. It wasnt as warm as his flames, for sure, but he didnt have to constantly fight the sunlight to keep it from burning his clothes or even skin off.

As the sun continued to shine across the snow-covered slopes, Edwin both found himself having to regularly dodge piles of wet snow starting to collapse and make sure he wasnt blinded from the bright light glaring off the vividly white banks.

Level Up!

Seeing Level 1213

The uniform color of the landscape had one extremely beneficial aspect to it, though. It was incredibly easy to spot anything that didnt conform to the same dimensionless white as the rest of his surroundings. That was, after all, how Edwin managed to spot an oddly black line bisecting a hill some distance away. He couldnt tell what it was exactly, but it didnt look like a river- too straight for it, and the landscape didnt sit in a way supportive of one.

Of course, there was a big difference between seeing an odd landmark in the distance and then actually getting there. As Edwin walked, he amused himself by seeing when exactly his Identify stopped recognizing a handful of snow as snow, and when it started returning results for water.

Level Up!

Outsiders Almanac Level 2122

Oh cool. That hadnt leveled in a little while, not that he had been using it all that much. A quick test showed his new character cap was at 37, which would probably let him figure out the formula if he werent running on a week of rough sleep, no food, very little water, and probably suffering from low-grade hypothermia. Numbers floated by his head, and he tried to grab at them, but didnt make much progress, Mathematics skill or no.

His head was starting to feel fuzzy, but he kept pushing on nonetheless. The cold air was somewhere between bracing and extremely uncomfortable, but Edwin wasnt sure where exactly it fell. Maybe both simultaneously?

Level Up!

Breathing Level 910

Walking Level 1718

Only 8 skill levels to go. It was a bit strange how often two skills would level at the exact same time. Maybe there was some form of shared skill growth between them? Or maybe improving one managed to provide just enough of whatever magical energy made level ups happen to push the next-closest one over the edge? Or perhaps they didnt happen at the same time, but still close enough to both be logged by whatever his Systems refresh rate was. That brought up the question of what the refresh rate actually was, though. Was it seconds? Minutes? Variable? Probably variable, in all honesty. Though variable based on what?

Further testing required, Edwin half-mumbled, half-whispered, his throat dry and vocal cords decidedly feeling their lack of use. He stumbled his way through the wintry landscapes, scratches and bruises making themselves known once more, though nowhere near as painful as they had once been, a few good nights of sleep and rest doing wonders for him. His recovery was, admittedly, perhaps equally offset by just how numb his legs and feet were at the moment. Even those blisters he was so happy to have escaped were starting to come out in full force as snowmelt trickled down his legs and left his socks soaking.

Level Up!

Athletics Level 1718

After hours of struggling through snow that reached almost to his waist at times, Edwin finally found himself in front of the black band which had caught his eye from so far away and couldnt help but stare in a measure of disbelief.

It was a road. A giant, apparently well-maintained road without so much as a speck of snow to be seen on it.