Cold bit into Leo’s cheeks like tiny glass shards.\n\nRusting pipes, thick as redwood trees, snaked across the cracked asphalt of the outer perimeter.\n\nFrost coated the metal like a layer of fuzzy white mold.\n\nEvery step forward was a battle against the biting wind.\n\nHe tightened his grip on his jacket, pulling the collar up to his chin.\n\nImages of his fallen family, the people he couldn’t save during the first dungeon break, burned in his mind like hot coals.\n\nTheir voices haunted his quiet moments, begging him not to fail again.\n\nDanger loomed over this reservoir, a high-tier zone abandoned even by the scavengers of the Sovereign Coalition.\n\nThey had left behind warning signs—skulls spray-painted on concrete barriers, rusted wire fences wrapped in thorns, and the occasional frozen corpse of a thief who had ventured too close.\n\nFrozen solid, the Abyssal Reservoir stretched out before him like a vast, bruised eye in the skull of the city.\n\nWind howled through the skeletal steel structures of the ruined water treatment plant.\n\nListening closely, he could hear it.\n\nWhispers rose from beneath the thick, unnatural blue ice.\n\n"Just a fishing trip," Leo muttered to himself, his breath puffing into a thick white cloud.\n\nHis fingers trembled inside his worn fingerless gloves.\n\nFear was a luxury he couldn’t afford.\n\nBack at the sanctuary, the children were huddled inside a protective dome of magical vines.\n\nThey were safe for now, but those colossal Gravel-Worms were still tunneling through the surrounding ruins, threatening to collapse everything.\n\nHe needed more power.\n\nReclaiming the planet zone by zone required absolute strength, not just hope.\n\nStep by step, he ventured onto the slick, sapphire surface of the reservoir.\n\nIt wasn't the white, cloudy ice of a normal winter.\n\nDeep, electric blue and terrifyingly clear, the ice allowed him to see feet down into the dark water, yet it looked as dense as polished stone.\n\nBeneath the surface, faint shapes seemed to drift.\n\nPale, elongated limbs shifted in the currents of the deep reservoir.\n\nHe tried to ignore them, focusing on the rhythmic thumping of his own boots.\n\nBut the whispers grew louder with every step he took toward the center.\n\nThey sounded like a lullaby, sung by a mother whose voice had been frozen in her throat.\n\nIt was beautiful, but it made his skin crawl with a deep, instinctual terror.\n\nReaching the center of the reservoir, he stopped.\n\nHeavy concrete blocks lay scattered near the edge, remnants of a collapsed retaining wall.\n\nDragging one of the massive chunks over took several minutes of grueling effort.\n\nHe hoisted the stone above his head, his muscles straining against the weight.\n\nWith a grunt, he slammed it down.\n\nA dull, metallic clang echoed across the frozen expanse.\n\nIce resisted the impact without a single scratch.\n\n"Fine then," he whispered, summoning his cosmic fishing rod.\n\nLight flared in his palm as the rod materialized.\n\nIt pulsed with a warm, starlight glow, a stark contrast to the deathly cold of the reservoir.\n\nHe tapped the butt of the rod against the blue ice.\n\nMana surged down the shaft, concentrated into a single point of pure, explosive kinetic force.\n\nSplinters of blue glass erupted into the air.\n\nA spiderweb of glowing fractures raced outward, and a perfectly circular hole, about three feet wide, dissolved into the dark water below.\n\nSteam rose from the opening, smelling faintly of sulfur and ancient decay.\n\n"Time to see what’s hiding down there," he whispered.\n\nHe baited his hook with a high-grade glowing grub, a rare item he’d fished up days ago.\n\nWith a smooth, practiced flick of his wrist, he cast the line.\n\nSinking into the black depths, the glowing bobber vanished from sight.\n\nAbsolute silence descended, heavy and suffocating.\n\nHe stood perfectly still, holding the rod with both hands.\n\nMinutes bled into each other.\n\nHis toes grew numb, the chill creeping up his calves despite his heavy winter gear.\n\nSuddenly, the line twitched.\n\nIt wasn’t a normal bite.\n\nA sharp, violent pull yanked the rod downward, nearly ripping it from his grasp.\n\nHe braced his feet, digging his boots into the slick ice.\n\n"Got you," he hissed, clenching his jaw.\n\nInstantly, a wave of pure psychic dread traveled up the line.\n\nIt wasn't just cold; it was a living, breathing malice that invaded his mind.\n\nVoices erupted in his ears, a chaotic chorus of weeping women and screaming children.\n\nHe gasped, his vision blurring as the world around him spun.\n\n"Let go," a voice whispered inside his head, sweet as honey, cold as grave dirt.\n\n"Just let go and sleep."\n\nHe squeezed his eyes shut, his teeth grinding together so hard he tasted copper.\n\n"No," he growled.\n\nVisions flashed behind his eyelids, violent and overwhelming.\n\nHe saw the surface of the Earth peeling away like old skin.\n\nDown, down through the layers of rock and magma, his mind plummeted.\n\nIn the very center of the planet, suspended in a void of black fire, hung a giant, fleshy heart.\n\nIt beat with a slow, thunderous thud.\n\nThump.\n\nThump.\n\nWith every beat, waves of blue frost rippled outward, feeding the veins of the world.\n\nFlesh and ice merged in that terrible vision, the weeping heart bleeding cold tears that formed the reservoir above.\n\n"This is what's coming," the whisper crooned.\n\n"You cannot stop the freezing of all things."\n\nHe felt his hands slipping from the grip of his rod.\n\nHis fingers were locking up, turning a dangerous shade of white.\n\nLosing his mind was a far worse fate, but he had no choice.\n\nImages of the orphans, their small, terrified faces huddled in the dark of the sanctuary, flashed in his mind.\n\n"They need me," he roared, channeling every ounce of his willpower.\n\nHe pulled.\n\nPulling with his back, his shoulders, his core, and his very soul, he fought the psychic pull.\n\nReel gears grinded against the immense drag, clicking slowly.\n\nBlue light flared from the hole in the ice, blindingly bright.\n\nSomething massive was rising from the depths.\n\nIt fought back, thrashing with a weight that felt like reeling in a mountain.\n\n"Come on!" Leo screamed, his voice cracking under the strain.\n\nVeins bulged on his neck, and blood began to trickle from his nose.\n\nWith one final, agonizing heave, he threw his entire weight backward.\n\nA brilliant sphere of crystalline ice erupted from the dark water, flying high into the air.\n\nIt landed on the frozen surface with a heavy, musical ring.\n\nSilence fell over the reservoir once more, heavy and absolute.\n\nPanting heavily, Leo fell to his knees, clutching his chest.\n\nHis heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.\n\nAhead of him lay the prize.\n\nIt was a sphere the size of a grapefruit, carved from a single, flawless piece of blue crystal.\n\nInside, a miniature storm of frost swirled, pulsing in sync with his own heartbeat.\n\nA translucent blue screen floated into his field of vision.\n\n"[Frost-Vein Core (Epic Rank) acquired. Do you wish to assimilate?]"\n\n"Yes," he gasped out, barely able to breathe.\n\nCold dissolved into a stream of pure, liquid ice that shot straight into his chest.\n\nPain, sharp and absolute, white-hot in its freezing intensity, ripped through his body.\n\nHe screamed, but no sound came out, his throat instantly frozen.\n\nFrost spread across his skin, painting intricate, geometric patterns over his arms and chest.\n\nInside his mind, a new knowledge bloomed, heavy and ancient.\n\nHe could feel the ice.\n\nIce would bow to his will now, shaping itself at his command.\n\nBut the cost was immense.\n\nShivering violently, he hugged himself, trying to generate some warmth.\n\nWarmth did not come.\n\nHis internal temperature had plummeted, leaving him feeling hollowed out, like a shell of ice.\n\n"Can I really survive this?" he whispered, his voice trembling.\n\nEvery cheat had a price, and he was starting to realize his mind might not survive the weight of the cosmic rod’s gifts.\n\nWhat if he became the very monster he was trying to protect his people from?\n\nA sharp, gunshot-like crack shattered his thoughts.\n\nHe froze, looking down.\n\nDark lines raced outward from the hole he had fished through.\n\nSuddenly, the ice beneath Leo's feet shatters completely, and he plummets into the freezing, pitch-black depths of the reservoir where a glowing, skeletal figure waits for him with open arms.