Frostfire Legacy

Aster looked around and realized quickly that they were surrounded. Other than the twelve up front, there's also another six behind, blocking their escape path. Cassy was completely unable to detect their presence up until they showed up, giving him a good guess of their levels.

"Who are we, ah? You must be living under a rock, little guy! We're famous around here!"

"Shut up, Gale! Another word, and I'm cutting your tongue off!"

"AH?! Do you think you're stronger? Try me, you fucker!"

"..."

Although they didn't really answer his question, Aster could more or less guess their identity. They were, most likely, the other members of the kidnappers from the first floor who were lurking around the second floor!

"Star..."

Cassy raised a worried voice, clinging to his back. With them being outnumbered, normally they have no choice but to get captured. Right... normally.

"Freeze."

With a casual word, the entire grassland, even a small part of the forest, froze in a flash. The set height was from the ground up to the chin of the tallest one of them... which meant some of the enemies got completely covered in ice and died in a flash.

"W-What the...?! A mage?!"

"No, I didn't hear him cast! He must be using a magic tool!"

"Damn it! I can't break the ice! I can't move!"

Of the twelve enemies ahead, only five of them managed to keep their lives. Of course, that's just temporary, as the frozen parts were literally frozen. Their organs would slowly fail, leading to their eventual deaths.

Aster drew his sword and slashed one of the surviving five's heads, letting it roll off as blood started spraying, even staining his face with a few droplets.

"...!"

All the other four gasped, realizing their soon-to-be fates.

"Bastard! Let me go! I can't die here! I can't—!"

*SLASH!*

"N-No! Don't kill me! Please! I—!"

*STAB!*

Without a hint of mercy, he chopped off the heads of those who tried to speak out of turn. The last two went quiet, sweat trickling down their foreheads despite the cold wrapping their bodies.

Aster knew that he was running against time, so he pointed his sword at the first one, the non-leader-looking fatty, and asked. "Tell me, where is your base?"

"I-It's in the forest behind us! About three kilometers in! Please spare me! I have a wife—!"

*SLASH!*

"I wasn't asking about your life story," Aster whispered while rubbing the blood from his cheeks. However, he only managed to spread it out instead. "Anyway, you? Is what he said true? Is that where your hideout is?"

The last of the kidnappers nodded his head slowly, "Y-Yes..." before staying quiet, avoiding saying anything else that could lead to his death.

"You're smart, I see." Aster grinned, sheathing his sword. "We'll go check if your words are true. If it is, then I'll unfreeze you." He whispered before walking past the man.

Cassy, who was behind him the entire time, felt a little scared. It was her first time seeing Aster show his cold side—it was the first time he did this, other than the time he tried to commit suicide before Mayor Magnus as a threat.

'Star...'

She pouted while watching his intimidating figure, covered with countless droplets of blood. For the first time, she felt like she didn't really know the person before her.

"..."

After staying quiet for a while, she started to chase after him, not letting Aster head on alone. She felt that if she didn't accompany him, Aster would disappear somewhere far away where she couldn't catch up.

"Let's leave a note," Aster whispered before rummaging through his pockets.

After searching for a while, he could only get the receipt from buying the bags, so he decided to use it. He didn't have any writing tools, so he just used the blood on his cheeks as ink and wrote three characters: "3 KM."

Although it was a little cryptic, Kali and the other two should be able to quickly determine the situation when they return and see the group of frozen kidnappers followed by this note.

Aster hung the note on a tree's branch, in a conspicuous position to not be missed, before entering the forest. Cassy also followed closely behind him, her ears standing tall and alert.

The forest was filled with even more dangers, after all. Other than the goblins, there were also the added monsters of the second floor, like the Small Cave Spiders or the Cave Rats, which they had to be wary of.

However, unlike her expectations, no monsters approached them at all. The entire way was as peaceful as it could get, but Cassy was finding it creepy.

"Star, be careful." She warned. "I don't know what it is, but there's something in here that's making the monsters not come close."

Inside her head, warning signals were blaring, but she had no choice but to follow Aster onward. Soon enough, they reached a tall cliff, with them standing at the edge of it. Looking below, a familiar-looking setup of tents could be seen.

"Those bastards...!"

Cassy growled upon seeing that there were already a few newbie adventurers tied up on the central pillar in their base. Most of them were roughed up and bloody, while the women looked even worse, with their eyes looking empty.

"..."

Aster scanned the base and counted the number of enemies present. "There's a lot more of them compared to the one on the first floor." He muttered. With just a casual headcount, he already went past three digits!

"We can't handle them with just us two. Let's wait for K. and the rest!" Cassy suggested, worried that Aster would just charge forward without a second thought.

"... You're right. Let's wait for them."

Fortunately, he still retained cool-headed judgment. Aster lay down on the ground, peeking through the edge while trying to memorize the routes of the guards and finding possible routes they could take during rescue.

The situation continued for about half an hour before Cassy's ears flicked, hearing a familiar set of footsteps and breathing approaching.

"Star, the girls are here." She whispered. "I'll go and meet them halfway to update them of the situation."

"..."

Aster just nodded his head, not bothering to move his gaze away. Cassy paused for a bit before turning around and dashing back the path they had taken.

As she left, Aster began to think to himself. 'Why am I getting impatient?'

After all, it's not like the kidnappers did anything untoward to him just yet. Even though they had threatened him and Cassy earlier, they suffered no harm. But despite understanding this, he couldn't help but want to move and wipe out the kidnappers from the second floor.

'They... are scum that can't be allowed to live.' He frowned.