Gilbert charged like a battering ram, his greatsword arcing through the air with the weight of a falling boulder. Fire trailed behind the blade in a streak of molten orange, searing the air with every swing.
“Ice Spike.”
A shard of jagged frost burst upward from the ground, meeting the attack mid-air. It shattered on impact, a spray of crystals and steam bursting outward, but it bought her just enough time to sidestep the blow.
Another swing came, heavier, faster. She slipped past it again with a whisper of ice mist trailing behind her.
She raised her hand.
“Ice Spear.”
a volley of frosted lances erupted from her hand, hurtling toward Gilbert’s chest.
He spun, cloak flaring, and swept his blade in a wide arc. The spears shattered in the air like brittle glass. Steam burst in thick clouds around them. But one found its mark, grazing his shoulder. He winced, though it didn’t slow him.
The two began to circle each other, neither gave ground.
Gilbert’s blows were brute-force, heavy and fast, raw offense pushed through muscle and fire.
Frostina was all precision. Timed barriers that absorbed single strikes, lance bursts that disrupted his rhythm but never fully landed.
For every swing he made, she replied with perfect spacing and a defensive spell.
For every step he pushed forward, she shifted the battleground just a few degrees off, always placing herself between him and Silica without ever needing to look back.
They were locked in a stalemate.
Until…
A deep-red flare burst from Gilbert’s body.
Flame aura exploded outward in a violent pulse, cracking the floor beneath him and sending molten veins of energy through the frozen corridor. The frost on the walls evaporated instantly. The air turned dry and shimmered with heat.
The very atmosphere twisted with steam, swirling around him like a living beast.
Even the illusion realm groaned, the magic straining under the sudden spike in temperature.
Gilbert straightened slowly, eyes burning with orange light beneath his bangs.
“No more warm-ups,” he said.
Frostina moved quickly, her grimoire flipping open beside her.
“Ice Wall—”
The frost barely began to rise before it hissed, shriveled, and evaporated into steam.
She didn’t flinch.
“Ice Rain—!”
A thousand glittering shards fell from above, raining down like divine judgment.
But they never made it to him.
Each one sizzled and vanished in the superheated air around Gilbert, burned away before even touching his aura.
Frostina narrowed her eyes.
“...I hate fire.”
She shifted her stance, stepping back as she recalculated the range, the tempo.
But Gilbert had already raised his greatsword behind his shoulder. Flames coiled tight around the blade, glowing brighter, denser. He wasn’t just powering up. He was turning the entire environment into his weapon.
“It’s over,” he growled.
Then, he vanished.
No, he moved too fast, leaving a blur of flame streaking past the eye, like a comet streaking through fog.
A shadow fell over Frostina.
Her eyes widened.
Gilbert suddenly closed his distance. His sword was already mid-swing, fire roaring along its edge.
Then, as the wall behind Frostina melted too, Silica moved on instinct alone.
“Silica—?!” Frostina exclaimed.
Silica threw herself between them, wind aura surging down her arms and into her blades. Her twin daggers clashed against the greatsword with all the force she could muster.
The impact rang like a bell struck too hard. A shockwave of fire and wind burst out in a wild ripple.
“Ugh…!”
Silica’s arms trembled under the pressure. Her daggers bent. Her knees gave way.
Then Gilbert’s aura detonated.
A violent wave of fire exploded outward like the flare of a miniature sun.
Silica’s blade shattered.
Flames swallowed both Silica and Frostina.
The blast rocked the entire corridor. The icy ground fractured. What little frost still clung to the walls instantly vanished. Smoke and heat rippled out in a cone, pushing back the fog of the maze.
Frostina and Silica were flung backward like ragdolls.
They crashed into a half-melted ice pillar several meters away. Silica struck first with a sharp gasp of pain. Frostina twisted her body midair and took the brunt of the second impact, shielding her without a word.
They collapsed into a heap, smoke rising from their scorched clothes.
Frostina pushed herself upright, slow and unsteady. Her limbs protested, and her vision wobbled for a heartbeat. The edges of her robe were singed and curling with heat.
Beside her, Silica let out a low groan, her hand twitching weakly.
“Ugh…”
Frostina’s eyes flicked to Silica’s HP bar.
3%.
She exhaled, a shaky breath of relief.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Across the scorched corridor, Gilbert stood like a war statue carved in flame. The air rippled around him, heat haze blurring his outline.
“I warned you,” he said evenly, cracking his neck with a hollow pop. “This is what happens when you hold back.”
He stepped forward, dragging his greatsword behind him. Sparks and molten flakes peeled from the stone beneath.
Frostina’s lips parted slightly. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears, fast and steady.
Silica coughed, sharp and hoarse, as she struggled to sit up. Her limbs trembled from the earlier impact and her daggers has shattered.
“…Sorry,” she murmured, her voice barely audible over the hissing steam. “You got dragged into this because of me…”
Frostina didn’t look back.
Frostina simply reached out and rested a hand on Silica’s shoulder, just enough pressure to say:
Ahead, the corridor had become an inferno. The ice was long gone. The floor shimmered with heat cracks. The once-frozen walls glowed dull red from radiant warmth.
Gilbert stopped walking.
He raised his sword.
Fire swirled around him with dangerous elegance, forming tight coils of burning aura.
Then, the flames gathered into shape.
High above him, a massive serpent emerged from the inferno. It bared fangs of molten fire, scales of rippling heat, and eyes that glowed like embers in a furnace.
“I’ll end this in the next strike,” he declared.
Silica’s eyes widened as the serpent loomed over them. Her breath caught in her throat. Every instinct screamed that she was facing something utterly beyond her current level.
Her fingers reached for Frostina’s arm in panic.
“Take my badge and run—!”
But Frostina spoke over her, quiet and casual, as if they weren’t staring death in the face.
“Hey.”
She rolled her wrist once, like shaking off a cramp.
“I’ve been thinking about that name you mentioned… the one for overclocking.”
Silica blinked at her, stunned.
“Wh-what?! What are you talking about right now?!”
But Frostina didn’t answer.
The air turned sharp.
The temperature plummeted. Frostina’s robe whipped around her as a vortex of cold erupted upward, mana spiraling in ribbons of blue and white. The frozen remnants of the maze surged toward her, drawn like dust to gravity.
Silica could only stare, her lips parted.
This wasn’t ordinary casting. This wasn’t a skill, or a combo chain.
“In Dream Land Online,” Frostina said, her voice slow and clear over the growing roar of energy.
“When a player surpasses the game’s limits…”
The mana thickened. It pulsed like a heartbeat, compacting with each breath.
“When they reshape their own abilities beyond the system’s intention…”
The mana overhead twisted. It no longer looked like a spell, but it became something else.
A massive bird unfurled its wings high above her. Its feathers shimmered like polished glass, trailing streams of sub-zero light. Its eyes gleamed with clarity beyond anything manmade.
“I name it…”
The bird’s wings stretched wide, casting a wave of frost across the burning corridor. The fire serpent overhead flickered in place, as if uncertain.
“....”
As the name echoed through the corridor, a shockwave of mana surged outward, biting cold and diamond-clear, sweeping down the corridor like a silent blizzard.
Silica flinched as the mana swept through her, but it didn’t hurt. Instead, it felt like something inside her had been… seen. Like a part of her she never dared show had been quietly acknowledged.
Her badge buzzed faintly, resonating with the colossal force gathering above.
She looked up, eyes wide, lips parted.
The icy bird hovered above, massive and majestic, its crystalline wings spread wide, shimmering with layered frost. It pulsed with power, silent and sovereign.
And at that moment, Silica wasn’t just in the middle of a test.
For a moment, Silica was back in every tournament she’d lost in, surrounded by roaring crowds, outmatched by male champions who always seemed to hit harder, rank faster, win more.
She remembered the cheers that were never for her. The headlines that celebrated her being
No matter how much she trained, how perfect her reactions became, they always edged her out. Every single time.
She had always told herself it didn’t matter.
That being good was enough.
But deep down, a part of her had ached to prove something else.
That a girl could stand at the top. Not in a women's bracket. Not in a side category.
But at the very top, above everyone else.
It had always felt impossible. A dream that sounded bold when spoken aloud but tasted bitter after every narrow defeat.
And yet…
Silica looked up at Frostina.
She had summoned a force so vast the world itself seemed to bend around her.
A dream that Silica yearned for.
Frostina was proof that her dream could be real.
Dreamshaper
The word escaped her lips like a whisper, reverent.
Her chest tightened, not with envy, but with admiration so sharp it stung. Her lips curved into the faintest, trembling smile.
And then—
Gilbert laughed.
A low, fierce sound that crackled like his aura.
“Hah! So you’re finally taking me seriously!”
He roared and brought his sword down.
The fire serpent responded immediately, coiling and lunging in a blazing arc. Its jaws opened wide, infernal flames rolling deep within its gullet.
Frostina stretched her hand forward.
Above her, the icy bird screeched, wings flaring as it dove in a spiral of biting wind and blizzard.
The two elemental titans clashed in midair—
And then, they collided.
A shockwave tore through the corridor.
The impact sent steam exploding outward in every direction, turning the battlefield into a swirling fog of light and mist. For a long moment, there was nothing but the roar of clashing energies and the crackling sound of melting stone.
And then…
A shape cut through the haze.
The icy bird burst from the cloud, undeterred. It shrieked again and dove straight toward Gilbert.
His eyes widened.
“Tch—!”
He barely had time to raise his sword.
The impact struck like a glacier falling from the heavens.
The second explosion ripped across the corridor, buckling the floor beneath them.
Cracks spiderwebbed through the stone.
When the mist cleared, the corridor lay in ruins.
Gilbert was sprawled on the broken floor, one hand clutching his side. Steam curled from his armor. His greatsword lay several meters away, scorched and motionless.
“Ugh…” He groaned faintly, clutching at his side.
The fire serpent was gone.
Its heat was extinguished.
Only drifting snowflakes remained.
Frostina stood in the center of it all, her robe fluttering gently in the residual wind, the last feathers of ice drifting down like snow.
Gilbert blinked through the haze. His vision was blurred. His muscles burned.
He let out a low, amused groan.
“…Guess I lost.”
Frostina walked over, crouched beside him, and plucked one of the three badges from the scorched remains of his chestplate.
“I told you,” she said with a faint smirk, “I’m in a good mood.”
And then—
The system chimed.
The timer hit zero.
A golden light enveloped the maze. One by one, players and mercenaries vanished from the frozen battlefield, teleported out of the illusion realm and back into the real arena.
Silica was the last to look away from Frostina’s silhouette before they were whisked away.
The world blurred, the frozen ruins dissolving into streaks of light and then the arena snapped back into view.
Rows of participants were already being tended by four healer mercenaries stationed at the edges of the platform.
The wounds might have been illusionary, but the pain was not. Every grimace and hiss of breath from the battered mercenaries made that clear.
Since the Starlace Order didn’t yet have their own in-house healers, they were using this as a recruitment drive, pulling from those who had passed the first test. And now, their second test wasn’t a fight, but a service of tending the fallen.
Frostina had barely stepped onto the platform before the arena erupted.
“WHOOOOAAA!”
“Frostina! Frostina!”
“That finish was so crazy!”
The cheers came from players, mercenaries, and even a few stoic-looking recruiters who had been trying not to show bias.
Frostina allowed herself the smallest smile, scanning the crowd with calm eyes.
“Frostina! You were so cool!”
The voice came from close and then Silica slammed into her with a hug that nearly knocked her back.
“S-Silica?!”
Silica froze like she’d just remembered herself.
“A-Ah! Sorry, sorry! I just… Ugh… got excited.”
She pulled back awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck.
“A-anyway, uh… want to join my e-sports team?”
Frostina didn’t even blink. She rejected flatly.
“No.”
Silica’s shoulders sank.
“I… I see. Too bad…”
Inside Frostina’s mind, Cryssa’s voice chimed in dryly.
(“Aren’t you a little harsh?”)
Frostina sighed.
“I mean, if we became colleagues instead of friends, we’d probably stop talking like we do now. I’ve added you, by the way.”
For a second, Silica just stared at her. Then her face lit up like a sunrise.
“Friends… hehe…”
She popped open her UI so fast it was almost comical, accepting the friend request without hesitation.
“Ahem. Then… will you create a guild later? Don’t forget to invite me!”
“Huh?”
That caught Frostina off guard. In her previous life, Silica had been the one running a guild, while Frostina had always preferred playing solo.
“…I’ll think about it.”
“Okay!” Silica grinned, bouncing on her heels like she’d already heard a yes.
A crisp system chime cut through the noise of the arena. But it wasn’t from the players’ HUDs.
Cryssa froze mid-air, her gaze snapping to the translucent interface hovering before her.
Cryssa’s eyes widened, her head snapping toward the judge.
(“Reina! Change of plans!”)
Reina, one of the Starlace Order’s coordinators, looked at Cryssa as she commanded.
(“We start the third test immediately! Gather all members at the south gate!”)
There was no hesitation. Reina gave a curt nod and, without further questions, projected her voice over the crowd to address the remaining participants who had cleared the second test.
Cryssa’s gaze dropped back to the glowing system panel.
? NPC Quest Unlocked! ?
? Save the Survivors! ?
? Rank: Legendary ?
? Rewards: ??? ?
? Location: Lua Village ?
? A player has located survivors in a village near Stelluna territory. ?
? Rescue them and reclaim the village! ?
