Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

Chapter 1660: Ice Trolls

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FLAAASH!

From the skies, a ray of light descended, taking the faint, ethereal shape of Gabriel, who appeared floating in midair with his little wings. He was very small, about the size of a cat, floating around with surprise. While both slept in the cabin, they could accompany us as Spiritual Beings.

“Oh wow! It worked! Amazing… I like this! I like being spirit.” Gabriel said happily.

“You do? Hehe, I bet you do!” I giggled. “You’re flying everywhere. Alright, come on now, don’t fly too far, or you may disappear.”

“Disappear?!” he panicked, following me closely.

We moved through the cold mountains, walking along slopes and near precipices and cliffs, ultimately reaching our destination not long after. The Icy Caves were a series of caves connected to a large accumulation of Ice Spirit Crystals and other Ice Attribute materials. There was even something called Frost Mithril, a type of steel used to make the city’s walls and most of its buildings.

“Yep, there they are.”

And no surprise, there were several camps in front of these caves. Ice Trolls were enormous, standing four to five meters tall, with ice-blue skin, long pointy noses, white hair, yellow eyes, and pointy ears. Above all, they had very long tusks on their lower jaws, which made me wonder if they truly were Spirit Races or just another species of beings altogether.

“Here we are. It seems this is the place,” Katherine said. “This is the first time I’ve seen Ice Trolls. They’re quite rare, usually living in the Far South. They’re well known as Barbarians. These tribes usually fight among one another.”

“Do you know anything else about them?” Mark asked.

“Not really…” Katherine sighed. “I’m sorry… but it’s rare, though, that they’re here trying to invade this City. They must be looking for something. And aren’t they… what are those auras?”

She quickly noticed what we noticed as well. They had stronger, darker auras, not entirely akin to the icy auras they would usually have. There was a deep darkness within them. It seemed that, just like Spirit Beasts, they had been somehow corrupted.

“You think there’s a crystal nearby?” Rita asked me.

“I don’t know. The ice and the snowstorm make it hard to detect energies,” I said. “But maybe in the Icy Caves. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise why they would be camping right next to it, right?”

“Well yeah…” Rita nodded.

“I have to ask, though, are we sure they’re evil? Maybe they’re being brainwashed,” Lily commented.

“It depends. They might have been brainwashed, or they might have willingly accepted the dark powers. If the case is the latter, then there’s nothing we can do but fight them,” I sighed. “But first, let me see their information.”

I took out my smartphone and snapped a photo of them. They were quite aggressive, even among themselves, groaning and roaring at each other or smacking one another’s heads with wooden clubs.

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[Ice Troll (Corrupted)]

Classification: Spirit Race, Ogre, Ice, Magical Beast.

Danger Level: A+

Information: Aggressive and barbaric giants that live in frozen areas of the Realm of Avalon, distant cousins of Goblins, who have grown to even larger sizes through eons. They possess immense physical strength and durability and great regeneration from wounds, capable of regrowing lost limbs over time.

Despite being of the Ice Element, they aren’t quite adept at Ice Magic and rely mostly on physical brute force, although there might be Shamans or Druids among their numbers. These smarter members have embraced the power of Ice or Dark Spirits, becoming more attuned to Nature and Magic. They are the most dangerous, leading groups to ravage villages of their own brethren or their cousins, such as Goblins, Mountain Trolls, Red Oni, Gnomes, Fairies, or Brownies. They are widely known as enemies and are usually hunted and killed on sight.

It is believed that it is in their nature to be ruthless, cold, and monstrous toward others. Despite their intelligence, they use it only to cause more destruction and hunt down the weak. These particular trolls have had their malefic nature heightened, willingly accepting the Darkness of a mysterious crystal, becoming Corrupted and growing even stronger.

It is recommended not to confront them alone, as their power can equal that of Elite Warriors of other Spirit Races. Their superiors, such as Ice Troll Shamans or Ice Troll Druids, can surpass those power levels with ease. When they group in such large numbers, it is only recommended to fight them with equally large armies.

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“Interesting. This information thingy classifies them as Magical Beasts,” I said. “And it seems they’re indeed pretty bad. They have, by nature, malefic personalities, kind of similar to demons.”

“Huh.” Mark rubbed his chin. “And what about the corruption?”

“It says that they willingly accepted it to grow stronger. I think they were a tribe living in the faraway Frozen Wastelands and wanted to find ’new fertile lands’ to pillage and ravage,” I explained. “Most likely, there must be someone from the Demon King of Death working with them or incentivizing them to do all of this.”

“I see. Makes sense,” Katherine nodded. “So what’s our plan? Should we lure one of them out and take them down?”

“Or we could simply go down there and slay all the bastards,” Rita smiled cockily. “Wouldn’t that solve the whole problem for those Ice Fairies, and we’ll be left alone to enter their little city and do as we please?”

“Sounds fair,” I nodded. “But they’re A+ Rank. It depends on their numbers, so let’s watch for a little longer.”

“Ah, it’s a pity they’re not redeemable,” sighed Lily.

“I’m sure they could be if you tied them up and forced them to be good, like I do with my Demonic Weapons, but I don’t think that’s a practical way of handling every problem like this,” I laughed a little. “I’ve grown to be more decisive. We can’t really waste time here either way. So let’s count them, and then, if we can realistically fight them all, go for it.”

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