I checked the book again, and the carefully carved out geometric symbols and runes for the ritual in a chamber on the 1st layer. Since I had to use my sword carefully to cut into the dungeon floor, it was as good as I could make it. Ozy had fixed some minor mistakes I had made, but he wasn't good at altering stone. He could only make small changes to stone.
The first step was to place all seven yellow cores carefully. Those had been a pain to get from Champion monsters in the 11th layer. I had spent a lot of time doing this. At least sneaking around had sped things up quite a bit to get yellow monster cores.
After placing the seven cores in the center of the ritual circle, I then began pouring the Alchemically prepared ritual ink over each core one at a time.
I had to go quickly, but I also couldn't make mistakes. The more mistakes that were made, the higher the chance the ritual would go wrong. There was an unknown margin of error in each ritual.
I found some metal-based monsters with iron-based claw tips. I had cut them off and carefully shaved them down before storing them. Ozy helped to prepare the ink Alchemically a little while ago to ensure it was mixed properly. After that, I had collected the monsters from adjacent chambers, bringing them back here.
The monsters were all from the first layer. Sleep was a useful skill for handling them.
I had to use some Mana potions to make sure I had enough. I then eased monsters to their places at the outer edge of the ritual circle, being careful not to wake them.
Everything was in place, and I moved to the edge of the ritual circle.
I then channeled my Mana into the Alchemically prepared ink in a large burst while focusing on a passage to the surface. The ink burst into green flames, and I quickly retreated to a tunnel. Ozy was already staying back as well in a tunnel.
The monsters woke up and screamed as they burned, but they couldn't move. Their Mana had already become part of the Mana of the ritual circle.
Their screams and cries carried nothing but pain and suffering.
I would never use a ritual with actual people as ingredients. It was horrifying watching their flesh peel away as they struggled helplessly.
There was a burst of Mana. I activated my various sensory skills, and everything seemed to twist above the ritual circle. The dungeon felt like it was groaning as a hole broke open in the ceiling and a set of stairs formed down into the circle of green flames.
The seven yellow cores shattered, and the green flames died down after thirty seconds.
There was no large Mana burst. The ritual had worked.
While I had expected it to work, I was glad there were no unexpected complications or the ritual failing. If it had failed, it would have been dangerous, since the results would be unpredictable only in the sense of how bad the outcome would be.
Rituals weren't joyous things or things to be used lightly. They used suffering and the emotional power from that suffering to bend Mana for the ritual. Focusing on potent emotions strengthened various skills, but this boost was comparatively small compared to getting support skills.
Also, using emotions to make skills strong was much riskier. Having a certain emotional state all the time would unbalance a person.
The stairs crumbled and were poorly made, unlike the stairs used in passages for various cities. But that was fine. I needed nothing amazing.
With the ritual complete, I quickly made my way up the stairs to the surface. Each step brought a deeper chill.
Emerging from the dungeon, there was icy wind and snow everywhere I looked. The beastkin continent seemed to be a very inhospitable place to live and offered very little natural cover.
Quickly, I began removing my armor in the dungeon. I had one heavy cloak I put on as well as all my shirts and pants. I didn't have specific cold-weather clothing. While the dungeon environment could change, normally it was only for a short time. It was not worth changing one's outfit.
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If you had to change your clothing in the dungeon to match the environment, you weren't ready for that layer. The surface was an entirely unfamiliar situation. I would be up there for a while, trying to find food.
Ozy went under my cloak, wrapping around my neck and shoulders. He poked its little head out by my ear while hiding under the cloak, leaching off my heat.
Scaled creatures had a harder time warming themselves up and were more vulnerable to that type of damage. He wouldn't be flying around without freezing to death.
Leaving the dungeon, I looked around at the expanse of white, while trying to figure out which way I should head. I knew nothing about the beastkin continent. There was a major city where various tribes came together near the coast called Frost Fang. But beyond that, I had no idea about the geography of this place.
Looking up at the sun, I found it hard to make out its position with the clouds and snow. Just finding this entrance again could be incredibly difficult.
I communicated what I wanted to Ozy mentally. He focused, and three pillars of snow came together around the dungeon entrance and froze into pillars. They were three times my height.
Hopefully, I could spot them again.
At least it would provide some kind of marker for this location. It would make it obvious to beastkin as well, but I didn't see any out on this snowy tundra. I was slightly back from a ridge and higher up that most of the surrounding terrain.
Everywhere around me was just snow, ice, and rocks. The beastkin continent's snow and ice were worse than I thought.
"I think we are in trouble, Ozy," I muttered behind a shirt I had wrapped around my face. I was bundled up, but the cold was brutal to me.
Each direction looked functionally the same except for there being mountains off in one direction and more flat areas off in another. I didn't know which direction was better. Frozen mountains or a frozen wasteland. The mountains might have something, but the wasteland was probably closer to the coast, maybe.
"Any idea?" I asked my pet as I was still undecided which direction I should travel in.
Looking at the mountains, they were probably the best bet to get a wide view of the surrounding landscape. From there I should be able to spot something.
I turned to the mountains and began making my way towards them. My speed was quick, and I had food for another month without rationing. I also had Mana and could make fire if needed. I wasn't worried about freezing or starving right away, but I did need to find something.
At least I had been right about the change in dungeon environments indicating we had been siloed into a new location. While it had been a heavily educated guess, it was still a guess. But seeing this wasteland, I was no longer on the Eldarin Continent.
It got darker and colder. Ozy focused and formed an igloo out of the surrounding ice and snow. His Cold Insight was helping with such tasks.
A small application of fire and then cold, solidified the structure. There was a small opening I had to crawl through and a small angled first-sized hole at the top.
At least I was out of the wind, even if I was still cold.
"This is brutal," I muttered. I struggled to free my blade and held it out in front of me. The cold was making the metal bind to the sheath.
"Fire Blade."
The surroundings immediately warmed up. A sigh of relief escaped me. I had an Alchemical container filled with monster meat. After giving Ozy a piece, I ate some of my rations.
All too soon I had to stop the Fire Blade and try to get some sleep.
Even with my Cold Resistance, this continent was going to be a struggle. I had no map and no understanding of where I was traveling.
My team would have died instantly on the surface. The war mech had some temperature control, but the components would lock up in this cold. The rest didn't have Cold Resistance. I was over level 40 with that skill. Even at that level, the environment here was brutal. Furthermore, training that wasn't quick.
I just felt conflicted over what had occurred and kept replaying everything that had happened. I knew I needed to move on, but no matter how much I knew that to be true, I couldn't help but think of how the team fell apart and then Harren going off on his own.
There was nothing else to think about out here except the cold, wind, and snow. My pace was solid during the day, but I had to bunker down during the night when the temperature plummeted to something so cold that it felt like death was out to freeze my very soul.
I had no clue how the beastkin even survived this hell. The inability to grow food would limit their population and limit their number of legends. But the beastkin who survived would be much stronger and, most likely, more aggressive. They would have to be to survive in these harsh conditions.
While it would have been nice to have a white cloak instead of a dark gray one, I had no options. I was an obvious figure traveling across the snow.
I traveled all day and reached the base of the mountains, where the terrain moved upwards and turned rockier. The wind would get worse as I climbed, but hopefully I would spot something. I had a general idea of how to get back to the dungeon entrance passage, but I probably would not be going back.
Finding a place with some kind of food, I would create another passage in that location. That was why best option for creating a food supply I could work with over the next several years. Getting to the coast and fishing would be my best bet.
I would need to get the fishing skill, which would be annoying, but it was necessary if I needed to stock up on fish.
But I would wait until I got higher up and got a better view. Hopefully the clouds would break apart for a couple of hours, so I could see my surroundings from the top of the mountain.