Morning came, and the four left the inn with Henrick guiding the way. They walked for quite a distance before arriving at a cemetery. Shaneth looked around before asking, “You put your family’s heirloom in a place like this…?”

“What? It’s much better than a castle filled with undead, right?” Henrick retorted as he rubbed his chin and walked toward a grave. It was an old and shabby grave that did not seem to be special in any way.

Henrick got down on his knees, starting to dig through the soil covering the grave. He dug through the ground for quite a while before turning around to look at Iris and remarking, “Come to think of it, you’re stronger than me, right?”

“Hmm… I suppose you are right,” Iris said. She grabbed the tombstone with one hand and easily pulled it out of the ground. It was an amazing display of strength; Henrick was shocked, despite having seen it multiple times before.

“I just can’t get used to it, since she’s doing that while in the form of the princess,” Henrick said with an awkward expression.

An old, worn-out box was in the ground; Henrick opened the box after pulling it out. It contained a set of crafting tools, a few brown patches of leather, and a strange-looking thing; one could not possibly imagine what the last item was used for. Although it looked quite old and shabby, the box and its contents strangely resembled a first aid kit.

Shaneth frowned as she asked, “Don’t tell me… This is your family’s heirloom…?”

“Huh? How did you know?” Henrick replied.

“…” Shaneth felt a sense of meaninglessness. She had not expected anything grand, but to think that all they had received in return for completing Henrick’s quest was some worn-out box containing useless miscellaneous items… Her reaction was justified, as anyone who put in the effort to complete his quest would feel a sense of loss upon seeing the rewards.

Henrick clicked his tongue a few times before exclaiming, “Hey, you punk! Aren’t you looking down on it too openly? I guess I have to show you how it’s used.”

He grumbled a few times before grabbing the worn-out box that resembled a first aid kit. He took something that looked like a sharp awl[1] and gently slashed his left wrist with it.

It was not that strong of an action, but Henrick’s left hand suddenly detached from his arm.

Thud.

His left hand helplessly fell to the ground; the area around his wrist was severed cleanly.

“…!” Shaneth was so shocked that she could not close her mouth. Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.

Iris looked at Henrick's left hand on the ground and asked, “Can I eat it?”

“I know our little miss is an epicure, but my conscience will be guilty if I let you eat junk food like that,” Henrick answered dramatically as he picked up his left hand without a fuss. He then pointed toward the first-aid kit and said, “This is my family’s heirloom. It lets you attach doll body parts to yourself and use them as your own.”

A message suddenly appeared on the wrist device.

[The owner of the heirloom has taught you how to use it.]

[You may check the new information made available to you.]

New information and details on the worn-out tools in the box popped up.

[Body Crafting Kit]

The heirloom of the Elrickerson family. It is a magic tool that allows the user to attach doll body parts to their own body. It is said that an insane Puppeteer once used this to convert numerous children into puppets. It is highly dangerous to attempt to attach or convert a body party to a doll if the user does not have good crafting skills.

*If someone else’s body part is attached to the user, it should be fresh and well preserved before being attached.

*A poor attempt to attach parts may cause the user to lose sensation in their nerves.

“How is this possible?” Shaneth asked in utter disbelief as she stared at Henrick waving his left hand—attached to his right hand.

Henrick scratched his cheek with his right hand and said, “I don’t like to be dramatic, so I’ll keep the explanation brief. The Royal Artisan suddenly caught an incurable disease on his left hand that slowly made it stiffen, and knew it would soon spread to his whole body. He decided to retire and wander around before finding out about the heirloom, and he decided to chop his left hand off and replace it with a doll’s hand. Then, that guy felt immense guilt about performing one of the forbidden acts for a Puppeteer and resigned from his position as the Royal Artisan, and spent his days drunk and wasting away.”

Shaneth was still in shock, her mouth hanging wide open. Kang Yoon-Soo, on the other hand, was still indifferent to the whole story, calmly putting the Body Crafting Kit into his backpack.

Henrick watched Kang Yoon-Soo take the Body Crafting Kit and gave him an ominous warning. “Listen, I’m giving that to you because it was a promise, but I want you to remember this. The fact that you can replace a lost body party with a doll’s isn’t that great, and there’s a high chance of failure.”

“I know,” Kang Yoon-Soo nonchalantly replied as he started walking toward the streets.

He now had two more things to do. The first was to conquer the Ruins of Ice and Spirit to continue with the legendary quest, and the second was to meet the alchemist who had created Iris and ask about the identity of the White Shadow who knew about his regression.

‘Which one should I do first?’ Kang Yoon-Soo soon made his decision.

***

The Martial Blood Clan was an organization that used their intense bloodlust to fight to the death. It boasted a massive 1,000 members, but it was only considered a middle-sized clan in the capital.

The condition to register as a member of the Martial Blood Clan was simple. Anyone with a powerful desire to grow stronger and was able to prove their thirst for battle, whether they used the sword, the bow, or magic, was allowed to be a part of the clan.

“The Ahinkuls have recently been rampaging in the swamps northeast of the capital. The Ahinkuls are animal-type monsters that feast on animal fat and convert it into explosive oil in their bodies. You will make it easier for the traders and merchants to travel outside the city walls if you manage to dispose of at least 2,000 of those monsters.”

As expected of a middle-sized clan, the quests they carried out were quite a bit larger than what an average party would receive. Most clans that exceeded a certain size could also receive massive quests, such as manufacturing goods to be supplied to the royal palace.

The Martial Blood Clan were usually in charge of carrying out quests for bandit or monster subjugation. The leader of the Martial Blood Clan, Jiang Ren-Wei, took two hundred of his clan members to the swamp to subjugate the Ahinkuls.

The Ahinkuls lived in herds, but their individual intelligence was quite high for monsters. They were around Level 200, and each of them could hunt prey alone.

Jiang Ren-Wei struck the last surviving Ahinkul on the head with his blunt weapon, and it died on the spot.  He returned his weapon to his waist and began walking slowly, lightly swinging his thick, muscular left arm.

“Good job, everybody. I’m glad no one died this time; go get some rest,” Jiang Ren-Wei said to his clan members. The clan members of the Martial Blood Clan lowered their weapons and started to rest.

Jiang Ren-Wei was a sophisticated man who had an intense thirst for battles. His main weapon was a destructive but hard to control blunt weapon, and his combat sense was far higher than that of most average Travelers.

However, there was one thing about him that stood out—he only had one arm. After he had been abruptly summoned to the Sylphia Continent, he had been attacked by a vicious monster. That monster had bitten his right arm off and feasted on it in front of him.

Most people would have despaired at that sight, but it was different for Jiang Ren-Wei. He did not give up. He had originally been a right-handed person, but that did not deter him as he had rigorously trained his left-hand day after day. He had managed to become the leader of a middle-sized clan despite his disability of having only one arm.

Jiang Ren-Wei had obtained the class Indomitable Warrior after countless battles; it had been made possible by his intense grit that transcended that of a normal person. Unfortunately, people often assumed that the reason the Martial Blood Clan only remained a middle-sized clan was because he only had one arm, thinking that if he had both of his arms, it would have been very easy for him to dominate the leaders of other clans.

However, the clan members of the Martial Blood Clan respected Jiang Ren-Wei. His attitude of passionately fighting on the front line and treating his clan members well without any prejudice was something his clan members highly admired about him.

It was around the time the clan members sat down on the ground and took out their rations that one Continental quickly approached Jiang Ren-Wei, reporting, “Boss! I found something strange over there!”

The Martial Blood Clan, unlike other clans, did not differentiate between Travelers and Continentals when accepting members. That was one of the reasons why most of the other clans made fun of the Martial Blood Clan, calling it a half-breed mongrel clan.

Jiang Ren-Wei slowly stood up and asked the Continental, “What did you find?”

“Ah… Well, I couldn’t believe my eyes either when I saw it… If you put it in fishing terms, it’s a big catch, and if you put it in bed terms, it’s a giant cock!” the Continental named Durman, who was the breadwinner of his family, exclaimed.

Durman had been an alcoholic, and he had caused a commotion one day that forced him to become a mercenary at his age. However, he had turned his life around after meeting Jiang Ren-Wei, and he now focused on working hard to provide for his family.

Jiang Ren-Wei scratched his cheek with his left hand and asked, “Big catch? Giant cock? Have you found a treasure or something?”

“Ahhh, come take a look for yourself,” Durman replied.

Jiang Ren-Wei and the other clan members started to think that Durman might have actually found something big, because he was pushing for Jiang Ren-Wei to go take a look. Jiang Ren-Wei followed behind Durman as he led them to the deepest part of the swamp, and an eerie draft of wind below toward them. Autumn was around the corner, but it was still technically late summer. However, the atmosphere in the area was strangely chilly.

Jiang Ren-Wei tilted his head in confusion and asked, “Was there always a place like this in the swamp?”

The ground that would normally turn mushier as one went deeper into the swamp started to harden as if it had been frozen solid, and the trees that normally boasted a lush crown of leaves on their branches were replaced with rows of dried and withered ones.

It was around that time that the group reached the rows of withered trees that the sight in front of them made them exclaim in surprise, “Wow!”

It was a sight that did not suit the swamp at all. The scenery in front of them was covered in thin frost and layers of snow, and the glare that reflected off the ice made the group’s eyes hurt. The scenery was beautiful yet eerie, and standing in it made the hairs on the backs of their necks stand.

A large, majestic structure was in the middle of the area. Jiang Ren-Wei could only doubt his eyes as he stared at the structure with his mouth agape.

The structure’s majesty was carved in the transparent ice it was made out of. The carvings had been made so magnificently that the clan believed even the best sculptor in the world would not be able to replicate such a grand structure. In addition, the structure was so large that it was impossible to see the entirety of it at once. There was no way a structure so impressively awe-inspiring could be man-made.

“It’s a ruin…” Jiang Ren-Wei muttered under his breath.

“It’s as I thought, right? I was really surprised when I saw it,” Durman responded; his mouth hung wide open in awe as well.

Ruins were dangerous places that hundreds or even thousands of monsters inhabited. In the world the Travelers came from, they were also called dungeons. They were places crawling with monsters that gnashed their teeth at the sight of any intruders, and extremely rare treasures were guaranteed to be at the heart of each ruin. That was not all; the top contributor to the conquest of the ruin would even receive special powers.

It was the first time for even Jiang Ren-Wei to see a ruin in person; ruins were usually located far away from cities, and they were usually found in the wilderness, such as in canyon gorges or the desert.

However, no one could ever have imagined that a ruin would be located so close to, if not right beside, the capital of the empire.

The air suddenly turning cold was definitely the influence of the ruin. Durman felt the eerie chill; he gulped nervously and asked, “What should we do? It’s a ruin, so we might strike it big if we manage to reach the center of it. I don’t think any other clan has noticed it, so why don’t we take it ourselves?”

Jiang Ren-Wei looked at the icy ruin before falling into a dilemma. However, he raised his head after a short while and said, “No, it’s impossible for us to conquer the ruin alone.”

The ruin in front of him possessed an immense amount of magic power that could change the climate of the entire area, and there were bound to be unbelievably strong monsters in it. Around two hundred people were usually required to conquer a ruin, and the clan members Jiang Ren-Wei had brought with him for the subjugation quest made up approximately that figure. However, Jiang Ren-Wei instinctively knew that the icy ruin was going to be much more difficult than that.

The Martial Blood Clan was composed mostly of all kinds of classes that focused on combat, and they did not possess even one healer among them. Jiang Ren-Wei knew that only death awaited them if they decided to recklessly challenge the icy ruin. It was impossible for a careful person like him to be greedy and risk his entire clan just for the treasures of the ruin.

Durman sighed, feeling that a good opportunity had been lost, and said, “It’s a shame that we can only take a look at the ruin and not get its treasures…”

“It’s alright; we can come back after we’ve grown stronger or if we recruit more people,” Jiang Ren-Wei said, patting Durman with his arm.

However, Durman walked toward the ruin, as if he could not let go of his regret. There, he saw a small plate that had words written on it. Unfortunately, he could not read the words because of the frost that had settled atop it.

Durman was certain that the name of the ruin was written on it, and he wiped the frost away with both of his hands. The name of the ruin became fully visible.

[Winterkill]

“Winterkill, eh? Haha, what a frightening name…” Durman, who had been laughing just moments before, suddenly trailed off into silence.

1. An awl is a tool that looks like a screwdriver, used by craftsmen to poke holes in things. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awl ☜