The Smith wasted no time returning to camp, with no incidents to speak of along the way. The chain worked perfectly, allowing James to easily navigate the snowy passage, and now unburdened by the cold and low visibility, the specters and snow golems couldn't slow him down.

James spent his dinner thinking of what he would need in the new area of this floor, and decided to make some cooling strips with his abundance of Ice Magic Stones. These he completed in the span of only a couple hours, and he spent the rest of the day packing up his campsite.

It was time to move on.

He slept one last time in the little tunnel he had dug, all those weeks ago when he first arrived, and the next morning he set off, wearing his heating strips and his cooling strips, with all his worldly possessions in the magic bag on his back.

There were no monsters to bother him between his old campsite and the snowy passage.

In the snowy passage James encountered three more specters, but there were no snow golems near his chain, and he made it through the passage itself in under an hour, even pushing through waist deep piles of snow.

The first thing James did upon exiting the snowy passage was place down four warding stakes, creating a large warded area in the zone where the cold wind from the snowy passage met the hot, steamy air of the new area and produced a somewhat normal temperature, even as crosswinds caused the temperature to rise or plummet significantly.

Wearing the full suit of Water Armor, it didn't bother James enough to care.

The warded area he had created was roughly ten yards on each side, but didn't include any of the stone walls. It was just a temporary safe zone in case of emergency. So James continued exploring.

Clouds of steam blocked his vision. He could see anywhere from ten to thirty yards, depending on how the clouds of steam flowed, but it fluctuated. It was only by actually moving around and exploring that he built his mental map of the area.

To start, the new area was rather narrow. Unlike the wide expanse of the lake area, this area seemed to be only fifty yards or so across, bounded by more stone cliffs. The steam prevented James from seeing how high up they extended, but he didn't spend long thinking about the ceiling – even with his mother's wisdom in the back of his mind.

That was because of the multitude of ponds of, seemingly, nearly boiling water scattered about.

They ranged from three to ten yards across, but most were roughly five yards across, nearly perfect circles of cloudy water billowing steam.

And they seemed to be full of crab monsters.

This pleased James. He was happy to stock up on crab meat again, and even more happy to stock up on fire magic stones. He took them out with practiced technique and tossed their carcasses in the direction of his warded area as he continued exploring.

Unfortunately, there weren't only crab monsters in the pools.

As he approached one, he was shocked as a serpent head as large as his own poked out lazily, tongue flickering out as it made direct eye contact. Immediately he stopped, raised his shield, and started backing away carefully.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But the serpent didn't seem inclined to come after him. It merely continued to gaze at him as he backed away, eventually retreating back into the cloudy water.

James stayed back from the pools after that.

Interestingly, though the pools were clearly very hot, they didn't contain any essence other than undine. James had half expected he might find salamander essence, but no.

Finally, there was the cliff walls themselves. The stone was the same grey slate he was used to, and there were large amounts of blue and red iron ore. Coal was absent, and small amounts of brown and green iron ore were present as well, but that was it.

What he couldn't find was a good place to make camp.

Past a certain point, the temperature in the area did settle out at ungodly hot and humid. James countered this with his cooling strips and Water Armor – dripping with condensation – but the mental strain of controlling the cooling strips and the drain on his mana were becoming significant.

After several hours of investigating and slaying a couple dozen crab monsters, James collected their carcasses and returned to his temporary warded area.

The temperature was much more comfortable, even as gusts of cold and hot air pushed back and forth. At least he didn't need either his heating nor his cooling strips, given the insulation of his Water Armor. So he set up his smoker and after some trouble, got the tree-monster wood lit and started smoking his collected crab meat. Periodically more crab monsters would arrive to investigate his wards, and James would go slay them, collect their meat, and add it to the meat already smoking.

In the end he collected as much crab meat as roughly two full sized mole monsters over a span of maybe half a day.

The monotony of waiting for more crabs to come and waiting for the meat to smoke, the unpredictable winds, and the day's exploration all got to James, and he laid back to rest his eyes for just a moment.

Some time later, he awoke with a start. He still felt tired, but he had grown uncomfortably cold. Outside the wards there was a dozen of the crab monsters clacking their claws and trying to find any holes in his wards, at least on the side away from the cold air blowing from the snowy passage.

James shivered and activated the heating strips. After some stretching, hampered by the armor he was still wearing, he got up and killed the crab monsters. By approaching along the outer edge of his ward from the direction of the snowy passage, the crab monsters conveniently lined themselves up one by one to be slaughtered, without trying to flank him.

They really didn't seem to like the cold.

That done, James set the meat to smoking and tried to nap again.

The next time he awoke, he was soaked in sweat and having trouble breathing. Not a lot, but each breath was an effort.

Smith Class Skill [Heat Resistance] has reached level 4.

He immediately activated his cooling strips and crawled to his feet. Visibility was so low due to billowing steam that he couldn't see from one end of his ward to the other. The vague shapes of crab monsters surrounded his ward, skittering back and forth.

Thankfully the smoker was alright, and the meat smoking properly.

James awkwardly sat down, still breathing heavily. Eventually he cooled off, but his mana felt like it hadn't recovered at all while he was sleeping. And now it was depleting again.

He couldn't stay here.

About an hour later the winds from the snowy passage once again prevailed, pushing back the heat and steam, and causing the crab monsters to retreat to the far end of his wards. James deactivated his cooling strips, collected the smoked meat, and put his smoker away.

He needed to keep moving.

The crab monsters were slain efficiently and their carcasses piled up in the warded area, and James set off again. Not to explore thoroughly, but to find the way out of this area.

Surely there would be a way out of the area.

Weaving through the scattered ponds billowing steam, keeping his distance from leering serpents and killing any aggressive crab monsters, it only took about twenty minutes of continuing in the same direction before James found the end of the steamy area.

There was a passage, roughly as wide as four men standing shoulder to shoulder, and thirty yards long. The steam halted at the entrance to the passage, and as James stepped in, he found the air temperature rapidly decrease back to normal, comfortable levels.

And at the end of that passage was a door. A large, iron door, with a handle.

After a brief rest to catch his breath, James returned to his ward, collected the crab meat in a bucket and stowed the collected magic stones – an even mix of Fire and Water Magic Stones – picked up the warding stakes, and set them back up within the passage.

Finally, James was able to remove his armor. He took the time to wipe himself down with a rag, the remains of a shirt wet with pure water, and then fell asleep, dead tired.

He slept there, undisturbed, before the large iron door leading to the next boss room.

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