Chapter 43: New Demonic Power

Luke opened his inventory and tapped on the newest addition. A brief shimmer flickered on the screen as the item’s description appeared, glowing faintly in the air before him.

His eyes narrowed.

It’s useful… but not for me.

[Yeti Fang (Uncommon)
Description: A longsword forged from the fang of a furious Yeti.
Requirement: Level 5+ in any Fighter class.]

So that was the catch. He couldn’t use it. Not because of strength or skill, but because his class didn’t qualify. Still, he tried equipping it. Nothing happened. The system rejected the action, and the weapon refused to materialize in his hand.

With a quiet sigh, he dragged the item into Princess Charlie’s inventory slot.

Good to know I can equip her with class-restricted weapons like that…

Princess Charlie summoned the weapon—but without her arms, it dropped to the ground with a dull clatter. Luke walked over and picked it up. It was heavier than he expected. Solid. Powerful.

Still, at least now he’d confirmed something: he could interact with the weapon through her. That much worked.

But he knew better than to hope. The system wouldn’t be fooled. The sword didn’t recognize him. It didn’t respond to his stats or his class. He wasn’t a Fighter. And no matter how clever the workaround seemed, the system would never bend for him.

Which meant…

The weapon was useless to him.

Allison, leaning against a tree nearby, watched with folded arms. He gave a nod of approval.

“That’s going to be real useful on the road.”

Luke glanced toward the distant wall of the kingdom, just visible along the horizon. The wind stirred his cloak.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Let’s get moving.”

***

The snowstorm hit harder than either of them had expected.

“Dig faster!” Allison shouted, his voice nearly swallowed by the wind.

They clawed at the ground with frantic urgency, hands tearing through the snow as it piled up around them. Allison’s pace faltered quickly—his bare fingers turned red, then numb. The cold was merciless.

Luke, however, pressed on. His dungeon-forged gloves granted him precious resistance, and he kept digging with grim determination.

“That’s deep enough!” Luke called out to Charlie over the howl of the storm.

He flung open his wolf pelt cloak and spread it across the base of the pit. Allison did the same, tossing his cloak to Charlie. Without hesitation, she moved to cover the entrance.

Both boys dropped into the narrow burrow, curling in on themselves against the cold. Charlie pulled the remaining pelt over the top and sat on it, anchoring it down with her own weight to keep the wind from ripping it away.

Outside, the blizzard screamed like a starving beast.

“Shit… it’s freezing,” Allison muttered through clenched teeth, shivering uncontrollably.

Darkness wrapped around them like another layer of ice—but then, with a soft flick, Luke summoned a flame from his ring. It flickered to life, casting dancing orange light across the tight space. Warmth crept into the air, slow but steady.

“If it weren’t for your gear,” Allison murmured, cradling his frozen hands near the flame, “we’d have frozen to death before the second storm even hit.”

This wasn’t their first time doing this.

Since leaving the Yeti-haunted forest, they’d been forced to dig makeshift burrows with every new storm. One after another. It had already been a full day of trekking across endless snowfields—and not a single sign of civilization.

In a standard tutorial, they might’ve expected checkpoints. Maybe even groups of survivors. But nothing about this place was standard.

Every single step forward made that more obvious.

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Luke had already tested Charlie’s new race skill: Basic Bone Regeneration. The process was slow but functional. It hadn’t been enough to fully restore both her arms—barely enough for one, actually—so he returned her to his soul space. Twenty-four hours later, she came back whole.

The skill had clear value. It was far from perfect, but still better than waiting a full day without her. Luke suspected if he poured enough stat points into her Vitality and Intelligence, she could heal more and faster.

The HP and MP drain will be a problem long-term, though. But if she ever gets wiped out in battle, this could mean the difference between returning… or staying dead.

“We’ll reach the wall by this time tomorrow, if we keep pace,” Luke said.

Across from him, Allison huddled closer to the fire. His fingers were a pale purple, and Luke frowned as he noticed the early signs of frostbite.

“That’s the hope,” Allison replied through clenched teeth. “The tutorial mentioned the inside of the city isn’t this cold. Just gotta survive until then…”

The fire crackled gently between them, a small, flickering flame pushing back against the chill. Its warmth was fragile—temporary—barely enough to fight the storm that howled just beyond the walls.

Outside, the blizzard raged on. Unforgiving. Unrelenting.

A force of nature that cared nothing for who lived or died beneath it.

But tomorrow, they’d reach the wall. The edge of the kingdom.

And beyond that?

Things wouldn’t get easier. They’d only get more complicated.