“What do you think?” Seo Jun-Ho asked in a cocksure manner. He had dark circles, but his eyes were bright.

“...” The Frost Queen inspected his sword carefully before slowly nodding. Then she broke it. 

“W-what?! Why?! It was perfect!” He looked at her in disbelief. 

She responded coolly. “Oh, the sword itself was good. I broke it because I was annoyed.”

“...” Why was she like this?

He sank to the floor, still shocked. The Frost Queen covered her mouth and giggled. “You did it, somehow. It simply took...Pffft, it took 152 tries.”

“I did my best.”

“I am aware. But it took you 152 attempts to create a single sword. The world isn’t fair.” She laughed as she completed her vengeance and checked the clock on the wall. “I will give you five hours to sleep.”

“...Hooo, do I have to make spears later?”

“No, there will be no more weapon training.”

Seo Jun-Ho looked surprised. “Then what?”

“As you wished, I shall teach you how to best manage frost.”

“I’m not complaining, but why all of a sudden?”

“I am fickle. Bear that in mind.”

“Is that something to brag about...” Exhaustion overtook him as he spoke, and Seo Jun-Ho fell over and started to snore. He had been making swords nonstop for two days, and the fatigue had finally caught up to him. 

The Frost Queen watched over him and muttered to herself. “He has innate talent and a terrifying work ethic...The world really is unfair.” She gestured with her finger, carefully covering his body with the sleeping bag.

“...Become even stronger. So that you can protect those that are precious to you.” She was speaking from her heart, as someone who hadn’t been able to do so. Unbefitting of her usually-dignified appearance, there was a sad smile on her face. 

***

Plop, plop. 

Seo Jun-Ho twitched under the drops of water that fell on his face. 

‘...It’s cold. Is the ceiling leaking?’ 

He wiped his face and slowly opened his eyes. 

“Oh, you’re awake?” The Frost Queen was hovering over him, melting a snowball. 

Seo Jun-Ho suppressed his irritation as he muttered. “...I’m a Player, so my senses are heightened. You could have just told me to wake up,” he muttered in annoyance. 

“I am well aware. I simply wished to sprinkle water on your face.”

“Seriously, why are you like this?” Seo Jun-Ho said disdainfully. 

His back ached as he sat up. He turned to find the sleeping bag next to the wall. 

“If you saw that I was sleeping, you should’ve brought me the sleeping bag.”

“Oh my! I didn’t know that we were so close.”

“Nevermind.” Seo Jun-Ho stood up and headed to the shower room to clean himself off. He changed into a fresh outfit and drank a bottle of water and ate three pills for breakfast. 

“So what’re you gonna teach me today?”

“Speed.”

“Speed?” She nodded at his question. 

She flicked her wrist, and with a crack, a sword was created in the blink of an eye. 

“0.28 seconds...I really have been weakened. Now, you make one.” 

He was much slower. 

“3.85 seconds. Do you know why there is such a difference between you and me?” The Frost Queen asked.

“Isn’t it a matter of practice? I started barely three months ago, but you’ve had your whole life.” Seo Jun-Ho responded.

The Frost Queen shook her head. “That is one factor, but the difference between our methods is the fundamental issue.”

“What is it then?”

“Simple.” As she pointed her finger, an icicle slowly started to form. “This is how you are using your ability. And this...”

Crackle. 

A new icicle was created instantly. Unlike the other one, it had started to form from both ends. 

“If you freeze it from different directions, it will naturally be faster.”

“Ah...!” Seo Jun-Ho clapped his hands. He didn’t want to admit it, but she was a good teacher. The demonstration made it much easier for him to understand. 

‘I see. When I freeze things, it goes in one direction.’ 

When he made a sword, he started with the handle and finished on the blade. If he made an arrow, he started with the shaft and finished on the arrowhead. But if he made them at the same time, he would be much faster. 

“Now that you understand, try it once.”

“Like this?”

Crackle! 

A sword was created in the blink of an eye. 

“1.29 seconds...” Compared to his 3.85 seconds from before, it was much faster. 

“Not bad. Do not forget what I just taught you.”

“I should do some extra practice with this. I’ll be concerned with a lot of other things during battle. “ He needed to train his muscle memory so that his body would react before his head. “So what else are you gonna teach me?”

“...I will show this only once, so pay attention.”

The Frost Queen let out a soft breath. The human was absorbing her techniques like a sponge. She wondered how long it would be until she had nothing left to teach him. 

It worried her a bit. 

***

In the secretarial room of the Korean Players Association, the secretaries were chatting after their lunch break. 

“Haa, I’m jealous of Ms. Si-Eun these days.”

“Me? Why?” Cha Si-Eun asked, surprised. The other secretaries immediately answered. 

“Your boss is Player Seo Jun-Ho.”

“Hasn’t he been doing really well recently?”

“Yeah. He’s also good-looking and well-mannered. I’m so jealous.”

“I bet Jun-Ho-nim doesn’t call you after hours and make you run errands in the middle of the night.”

Cha Si-Eun was flustered by the sudden slew of questions. ”There are Players who make you go out in the middle of the night?”

“What are you saying? Of course, there are.”

“Most of them, in fact.”

“They order you around for the tiniest things.”

Cha Si-Eun sipped on her ice coffee as she listened to their complaints. 

‘I see. It seems that I have it easy.’ 

She looked at them in a new light. 

Of course, that wasn’t exactly the case. They didn’t know that Cha Si-Eun had to answer over 1200 emails and 500 phone calls a day. 

“I heard a rumor that he’s in the training room right now. How long is he going to stay in there?”

“I don’t know. It’s about time that he comes out.”

“He’s so tenacious.”

“It’s because he works that hard that he is where he is right now.”

It had already been two weeks since Seo Jun-Ho entered the training room. Seo Jun-Ho told Cha Si-Eun that it would take him two weeks before coming out, so she was expecting to see him today. 

She was correct.

Ping. 

Vita rang. Cha Si-Eun checked her message and stood up abruptly. 

“Oh my, he’s out!”

“Who? Player Seo Jun-Ho?”

“You should go.”

Cha Si-Eun waved goodbye to the other secretaries and headed to the floor with restaurants. There was no need to look for Seo Jun-Ho. She simply looked to where the people were staring. 

“Jun-Ho-nim!”

“Slurp.” He had finished a bowl of ramen in the short amount of time it took her to get there. He waved. “It’s been a while, Secretary Cha.”

“Yes, it really has. But...” As she saw him, she felt something that she couldn’t describe. 

‘Something’s different.’ 

But she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Except for the fact that his hair had grown out a bit, there wasn’t much of a physical difference.

Ah! 

She realized that the piercing look in his eyes had softened and became like any other person’s eyes. Cha Si-Eun immediately understood what it meant. 

“Congratulations on your mastery.”

“Thank you. You have good eyes.” He mixed his bibimbap, looking embarrassed. “It’s not all that amazing,” he muttered. 

“They say that master fighters check their opponents’ eyes first.” This was because most of them had sharp looks in their eyes. When Gong Ju-Ha first met Seo Jun-Ho, she tried to scout him because of that. The eyes were harder to conceal compared to other forces and energies. 

‘It’s a good thing that I learned.’ 

When he had been Specter, he had perfected the concealment of his powers. But the reason his eyes were so bright now was because of the Frost skill. It was so powerful that it made it hard to conceal.

‘The Frost Queen was super helpful.’ 

This was old news by now. After he learned to properly handle the Frost element, he had reached another level of mastery. Even though his stats were the same as they were two weeks ago, he was at least 1.5 times stronger now. This was why Players had to continue their training and keep on fine-tuning their skills. 

“You came at a good time. I was planning to book a plane ticket.”

“Where to...Oh.” In the middle of her sentence, she realized that it was pointless to ask. “To the Tibetan region in China. I’ll book a flight for tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you.” Seo Jun-Ho smiled brightly. His secretary was quite skilled. 

***

“...” Seo Jun-Ho suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned around. Mountaintops and plateaus filled his vision as far as the eye could see. 

“This is a beautiful place. I thought the human world was only filled with peculiar castles.” Even the Frost Queen was so impressed she couldn’t help but speak words of praise.

The Tibetan plateaus, also called the world’s roof, was a peculiar place that boasted an average elevation of 4,500 meters. It was a place where prophets had come to seek asceticism, and in the 21st century, it became a popular tourist spot with millions of visitors every year. 

And 30 years ago, it had become a sacred place for Players. 

“Is the Cave of Trials here?” 

Seo Jun-Ho nodded at the Frost Queen’s question as he answered. “Yeah, we just have to go a little bit further.”

“Make haste. I want to see it as soon as possible.” Seo Jun-Ho let the Frost Queen pull at his hair and started to walk again. He arrived at the Cave of Trials three hours later. 

The Cave of Trial’s entrance was inside a Tibetan tribe’s large tent, which measured thousands of square meters. 

“Welcome, traveler. My name is Jampa, and I am the caretaker here.”[1]

He was wearing clothes typical of the Tibetan tribes, and he stuck out his tongue in greeting. It was an unfamiliar and curious gesture, but it was a greeting unique to the Tibetans. 

‘I was so confused when I first saw it.’ 

The same was true for the Frost Queen. She pulled at Seo Jun-Ho’s hair and said in confusion. “C-Contractor, that man stuck his tongue out at you. Why did he do that?”

“Thank you for welcoming me with the traditional Tibetan greeting.”

“Ah, so you know.” 

Seo Jun-Ho gave her an explanation while talking with Jampa. 

“The Association contacted me ahead of time. Let me show you to your room.” Jampa offered.

“No.” Seo Jun-Ho held out his bag and shook his head. “Please just put my luggage away.”

“Then you...?”

“I’ll be going into the Cave of Trials right away.” 

He made sure he was well rested on the plane. In addition, he had already warmed up his body on the hike up the mountain. His body was in its best condition right now. 

“Hooo, I understand. I will escort you.” 

Seo Jun-Ho gave his bag to someone else and headed deeper into the tent. Unlike most tents, the walls here were thick and didn’t let in any wind inside. It was also large enough to hold hundreds of rooms. 

“It’s slippery, so please watch your feet.”

They started down a staircase that led below. As they got deeper and deeper, the walls around them started to change into the walls of a cave. After descending for a long time, they reached a cool, empty cavern. The Gate stood in front of them.

“This is the Cave of Trials.”

It looked exactly the same as the last time he visited the Gate. In fact, he felt nostalgic. 

“Gate information.”

[Cave of Trials]

Entry requirements: Levels 25-30

Party cap: ∞

Clear requirements: ∞

Difficulty: ∞

The Cave of Trials was known as the most peculiar Gate that had shown up in the last 30 years. There were plenty of Uncleared Gates, but the Cave of Trials couldn’t be completed by design. It also evaluated each Player on its own terms. 

[Cave of Trials Rankings]

1. Specter - 9th floor

1. Rahmadat Khali - 9th floor

1. Tenmei Mio - 9th floor

...

1. Wi Cheon-Hak - 9th floor

1. Shin Sung-Hyun - 9th floor

1. Kim Woo-Joong - 9th floor

...

The ranking list was full of familiar names. His comrades and his name were obviously up there, and so were the Nine Heavens. 

‘I thought the record would be beaten after 25 years.’ 

But he knew better than anyone. Even if you survived the horrors of the 9th floor, it wasn’t easy to move on to the 10th. 

“We don’t know much about the Gate, so I don’t have much to offer. But...” Jampa put his hands together. “May the northeastern winds bless your days to come.”

“And may you stay unbending against fiercer winds.” Seo Jun-Ho returned the gesture in kind.

Jampa seemed happy when he returned his tribe’s greeting. Seo Jun-Ho left him behind and entered the Gate. As soon as he entered, a message popped up. 

[Error.]

[Second entry. Clearance is needed from the administrator.]

It was a different view from the last time. 

1. He refers to SJH as ‘ascetic’, but it doesn’t translate well ☜