Embers from shattered wooden shelves mixed with the cold, stacking snow that blew through the open side of the chamber.

  I walked into the destruction ahead. With every step, my feet sank deeper into the snow, compressing beneath me with an oddly satisfying crunch.

  "So sad..."

  I exhaled, looking over the fallen, shattered, and burned wooden structures. Books still smoldered where they had colpsed—pages once filled with knowledge now drifting through the air as dimly glowing ash, giving up the st of their warmth to this unforgiving cold.

  "I would've loved to read through all these books..."

  I stared at the flickering fmes as the wind pressed into my back—so cold it felt like countless tiny needles piercing my skin.

  "So cold,"

  I muttered, watching my breath fog up and vanish.

  Pressing on, I took slow, heavy steps through the snow that had piled up over time.

  "I like that they made the north complex a winter area..."

  I huffed, stepping onto a wooden shelf mostly buried beneath white, only a single corner still jutting out.

  "But couldn't they have made it a little less..."

  I paused, looking around for a path forward.

  "...snowy?"

  There was nothing but ruined shelves as far as my eyes could reach.

  Which wasn't far—because the snowstorm bzing in from behind obscured my vision drastically.

  So much so that the game even spped me with the [Shortsighted] debuff, reducing my vision range by a whopping 60%.

  Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I could still see clearly enough—nothing more than a slight inconvenience.

  What worried me far more was the [Cold] debuff that had been clinging to me for a while now.

  On its own, it wasn't dangerous. Just a five percent movement speed reduction.

  But that was only the first stage.

  If I didn't find a proper source of warmth soon, it would eventually escate into hypothermia.

  And that would mean the end of my short One Time Mage run.

  I couldn't let that happen.

  Not in the tutorial—without even seeing what this world truly had to offer. There would be no greater shame than that.

  After trudging through the deep snow for a while—my [Cold] debuff already advancing into [Freezing]—I finally spotted it.

  A flicker of orange light.

  A wooden shelf, burning brightly. The snow around it had melted away, leaving behind nothing but a wet, dirty puddle.

  It wasn't much.

  But it was enough.

  "Huwah... finally some warmth," I stuttered, crouching down as the heat washed over me.

  The cold began to retreat, the fire acting almost like a campfire.

  "Man... senses in a game really are a double-edged sword," I sighed. "Being able to feel things is cool, but of course that includes pain—and other not-so-great stuff too."

  Crouching lower, I rubbed my hands together, watching as my fingers slowly shifted from lifeless white to a healthy red.

  "Yeah..."

  A small smile crept onto my face.

  "But this part? This is definitely one of the good sides."

  I remained there for a good while, enjoying the quiet, atmospheric moment—listening, for the first time, to the faint background music that pyed softly in my ears.

  There had always been one thing that elevated a good gaming experience into an excellent one.

  Music.

  I swayed slightly to the rhythm and, after a while, even began to hum along as I checked my mails and social media.

  "Oh, Quinn is diving again," I murmured.

  I had stumbled across her newest post on Quickster. She was out on a boat, dressed in a wetsuit, an air tank strapped to her back.

  "Wonder if she ever headed off the dive?" I asked myself. "I heard it's a really good and beautiful diving simutor."

  After a bit more scrolling, I finally felt warm enough to get back on track.

  "Alright, enough doom-scrolling. Time to get back to work."

  I stretched my limbs and yawned loudly.

  The comfort of the warm, cozy fire while the snowstorm raged behind my back created a contrast so pleasant it made me feel a little drowsy.

  I looked around one st time before deciding it was pointless.

  The path deeper into the library was completely cut off by rubble and colpsed stone, making any progress in that direction impossible.

  So instead, I walked toward the torn-open wall of the library and stared down the cliff beyond.

  Pristine snow rested atop jagged bck rock, the mountain wall trailing downward into an uncertain abyss. No ground was visible through the raging storm.

  I gnced upward instead—toward the narrow trail leading to the ominous North Tower.

  The two entities atop it had become much clearer now.

  By this point, I could feel their presence.

  So overwhelming it made every hair on my body stand on end.

  Without further hesitation, I jumped.

  Leaping down onto the icy path below.

  "Woah—shit," I stammered, nearly slipping as I nded, only barely managing to keep my footing on the narrow trail.

  Out in the open, the cold was even more wild and unforgiving. Even the slightest breeze felt like it could freeze me solid.

  "Brr... is there no way to tune down the sensory effects a bit...?"

  I quickly opened the settings menu, but there was nothing.

  "I better reach the northern section fast, or I'll freeze to death... literally!"

  My teeth cttered violently as my body shivered, fighting against the merciless cold.

  The path grew narrower the further I went.

  Snow clung to the stone so thick it erased any sense of depth, forcing me to move slowly—testing each step before committing my weight. The wind howled against the cliffside, tearing heat from my body faster than I could recover it.

  My vision blurred slightly as another system warning fshed.

  "Warning: condition critical!"

  "Yeah... yeah, I get it," I muttered. "You want me dead."

  I stopped beneath a jagged overhang, shielding myself from the worst of the wind.

  That's when I noticed it.

  A piece of paper was wedged between the fractured rock wall and yers of ice sealing it in pce.

  Curious, I stepped closer, brushing snow and frost away until I could see it clearly.

  Runes.

  Carefully written across the yellowed page—torn from what had once been a book.

  My eyes lit up with joy as I hurriedly searched for a loose shard of rock.

  "This can't be real—haha!"

  I ughed, hammering against the ice. Chips broke away with each strike until, finally, the frozen casing cracked apart.

  The paper didn't come free immediately. Years of pressure and ice had fused it to the stone, clinging stubbornly as if glued in pce.

  Carefully—slowly—I peeled it away.

  The moment it left the wall, a system notification rang out, echoing through the mountain.

  "Spell acquired: Snowball. Do you wish to learn it?"

  As if that was even a question.

  "Yes—learn spell!"

  The page burst into fme in my hands, vanishing without leaving even ash behind.

  Then the system spoke again.

  "Spell learned: Snowball."

  I let out a cracked ugh.

  If not for the hypothermia and the brutal ninety-percent movement reduction, I would've danced on the spot.

  Fortunately, the north complex was already in sight.

  A hundred—maybe two hundred—meters remained.

  Normally, that distance would've been nothing.

  But with my movement crippled and snow fighting me every step of the way, progress was agonizingly slow.

  Honestly... I wasn't sure I'd make it.

  Maybe I'd bitten off more than I could chew.

  Then—

  Unbelievable luck.

  A gargoyle y frozen in the snow ahead, half-buried and motionless.

  "I am the luckiest bastard on earth..."

  Grinning, I raised my wand with shaking hands, barely able to keep my grip.

  "Magic Missile."

  The purple sphere smmed into the stone creature, shattering it into fragments.

  Salvation.

  "You have leveled up. Congratutions. You are now level two."

  In that instant, the cold vanished.

  My limbs loosened. My body responded again.

  Leveling up restored everything—health, mana, stamina—and purged all status effects and cooldowns.

  Without hesitation, I sprinted toward the complex, nearly slipping several times on the icy path.

  What I failed

  to notice—

  Was the music changing.

  And by the time I realized it, it was already too te.

  I pushed through the doors.

  A massive red bar stretched across the top of my vision.

  General of the Dragonborn — Runan