The next day James returned to the snowy passage, now armed with an enchanted Red Iron Warhammer. Unlike the heating strips, which started to damage themselves if he ran them too hot, the hammer seemed to be limited more by the enchantment itself than the underlying material. At a certain point, he couldn't push any more mana into the enchantment to increase the heat of the hammer higher than it was, not that he could measure this with any great accuracy.

He once again tied the chain around his waist, ensuring he could find his way back out, and ventured inside.

He kept his eyes peeled for specters, but was caught by surprise when one struck him from the back, instantly frosting over his armor and chilling him to his core. It phased right through his body and after flinching from the cold, James nailed it with a [Hammer Strike].

There was a howling shriek, almost like the sound of a windstorm, and the monster seemed to shrink into itself, eventually coalescing into a pale blue magic stone.

[Appraisal] failed to identify what kind of magic stone it was, which did confirm that it wasn't a Water Magic Stone, but there was no great mystery to James what kind of magic stone it must be.

He picked up the stone and put it in his magic bag and stood for a minute, focusing on the heating strips. Slowly, slowly, the chill faded. He stretched his arms, getting a feel for how they moved despite the cold, and then resumed his trek, making sure to scan in all directions periodically.

It took him a moment to register that he had indeed killed one of the specters, and a grin formed on his lips. It felt really, really good that he had had a problem, and he solved it right away using both of his Classes. It gave him a sense of accomplishment and a sense of confidence that he could overcome the challenges he faced in life. Maybe, if he made it home, he could train more with his parents and figure out a way to deal with people even without a combat Class.

The chain was also proving exceptionally useful. As he paused and turned and scanned around every few steps, the chain behind him kept him oriented and heading in generally the same direction. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another specter, and this time he met it directly with a [Heated Blade] [Hammer Strike], once again killing it instantly and dropping one of the, presumably, ice magic stones. He collected it and continued on.

A short while later, he encountered another specter and slayed it, collecting another stone, when a new monster appeared. A snow drift shifted and coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape, compacting in on itself and standing a head taller than James himself before it stalked closer.

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Wary, James quickly scanned for other monsters and readied his shield. The snow monster lumbered closer, stomping through the snow, and raised both its arms to crash down on James' shield.

He simply backstepped out of the way.

For once, there was a monster that wasn't significantly faster than himself, and he remembered his mother's wisdom to never take a hit that could be easily avoided.

There was a tremendous crash and snow was blown in all directions as the monster slammed down on the area just a few feet in front of where James now stood. He countered with a side-swipe [Hammer Strike] that sizzled all the way through the monster's arms, melting straight through the snow that made them up.

The monster reeled back, waving the stumps of its arms in the air. James stepped forward boldly and struck the distressed snow monster in the chest with an overhand strike. Almost effortlessly the hammer passed through the snow, melting it as it went. He stepped back and retreated behind his shield again, ready for reprisal, but the battle was already over. The monster quivered silently for a moment before collapsing in on itself, with massive chunks of compressed snow falling to the snow-covered ground. A larger pale-blue magic stone fell to the ground and was quickly buried under the blowing snow.

James spent a moment digging the thumb-sized magic stone out of the snow and stood, finding a specter approaching silently from the front. He swiped it with his Red Iron Hammer, killing it, and spun around, checking for more, but he was finally alone, at least for the moment.

He collected the final small magic stone and continued forward, but another specter got him from behind just a minute later, worsening his chill. The heating strips were barely keeping him from shivering at this point, even as he could feel his skin growing painful from the heat. After dispatching the sneaky specter, he scanned around and saw not only several more specters gliding towards him, but also a snow monster forming at the far edge of his vision, fewer than ten yards away.

Much closer than he would have liked.

He made the decision to retreat again. He quickly put the slow-moving snow monster behind him, and after dispatching another three specters, he was on his way back. The snow had mostly filled in the path he had left behind him, but it was slightly less effort than pushing deeper into the passage had been, so he didn't mind.

Rather, he was worried about the chill. He had to turn the heating strips down to keep from burning himself, even with the mole monster hide insulation, but his chill was worsening. He was starting to shiver uncontrollably.

James made it out of the passage without any more monster encounters, and took a moment to catch his breath outside the passage, away from the chill wind. But he couldn't seem to get warmed up, even with the heating strips running. He had to force himself to turn them down now that he was out of the icy passage, so that they wouldn't be damaged. Eager to get back to camp and heat up some water to drink, since that had worked last time, he dumped the chain in a disorganized mess inside the little warded area, and quickly headed back to base camp.

There were still no bird monsters in the nests on the cliff.

It took several hours of drinking hot water to recover from the chill which had made his bones feel like icicles. Looking at his arms and legs after removing his armor, he noticed several patches of skin where he had been lightly burned by the heating strips, through gaps in the mole monster insulation. He had been running the strips a little too hot, and it still hadn't been enough after taking direct hits from the specters.

James sighed, but still buoyed by the success of his Red Iron Hammer against the monsters in the snowy passage, he pulled out his loot from the day's excursion. Six small pale-blue magic stones, and one larger one.

It was time for some experimentation.

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