Winter (1)

I thought the Forest of the Four Seasons was called that purely in a metaphorical sense.

A demonic realm teeming with every environmental anomaly imaginable, where multiple seasons lived and breathed side by side. That was accurate enough in its own right. Just gazing Across the River revealed a wild patchwork of different terrains, and among them, the volcanic zone struck me as especially hopeless.

Turns out, that volcano wasn't the only hopeless place around here. My neck of the woods was just as doomed.

The sudden onset of winter was a mess, but the plummeting temperature was far worse. Wonmo and Fast Tree Sloth seemed to be holding up fine thanks to their thick pelts, but I definitely wasn't. The cold bit straight into my marrow. Wrapping myself in the animal hides I'd been using as rugs didn't help in the slightest.

Man, I miss central heating...

How wonderful would it be just to flick a thermostat switch? Shivering from head to toe, I surveyed the area around the cave. Fortunately, aside from the heavy blankets of snow, nothing particularly threatening caught my eye. Still, that wasn't enough to set my mind at ease; I needed to know what the surrounding regions looked like.

Did winter hit the gorillas' territory, too?

It was very likely, but there was no telling for sure. That place was a tropical rainforest. I'd never heard of winter striking a rainforest before—though given that this was the Forest of the Four Seasons, the possibility couldn't be ruled out entirely.

Huddling near the campfire and desperately soaking in what little warmth it offered, I waited for the dwarf to message me back. Browsing the gallery for useful tips helped distract me from the biting chill.

Amid the pointless rumors and geopolitical gossip flitting across the screen, Allfather's comment seized my attention. Animals in regions with winters were, on average, smaller. In other words, the place where I was currently trying to survive was an ecosystem where the wildlife was on the smaller end of the spectrum.

Wait. What the f***? This is 'on average smaller'?!

Wonmo's mother had been as big as a house. The saber-toothed tiger had literally rivaled a small building. If that counted as 'average,' how monstrously huge were the beasts in other parts of the world? I couldn't even begin to picture it. A heavy wave of hollow dread washed over me. I really shouldn't have asked.

Still, there's a far more pressing issue right now...

Food. Trembling, I forced myself to step outside. In the frantic panic of dealing with the freezing cold, I'd forgotten to check something vital: the fish. Dread churning in my gut, I peered into the iron bucket.

"Oh, man. Screwed."

Not only had the water turned to solid ice, but the fish inside were completely frozen stiff. A natural flash-freeze. A long groan tore from my throat.

Even if the fish weren't dead, my food anxiety didn't subside. For one, gathering more on my own was out of the question. I'd have to see for myself, but in temperatures this low, the river was bound to be frozen solid. Sure, I had smoked tiger meat saved up, but who knew how long this winter would last?

Wait... was that why all those animals stampeded near my cave yesterday? Preparing for winter?

It didn't sound completely crazy. Shivering, I tossed another dry branch onto the campfire. Without proper winter clothing, moving around outside was impossible. Even with Princess Chaeng-gu's jersey and KingLeor's athletic uniform layered on, I was still trembling. If not for those high-tech fabrics, I probably would have frozen to death hours ago.

Isn't there any magic item that can heat an entire room?

The thought struck me, so I fired off another post to the gallery. Before I could even consider outdoor tasks, warming up the cave had to come first.

So I really had to bore a hole through the rock. I let out a dry, self-deprecating laugh. With this unseasonable winter barging in, cave renovations were unavoidable.

Well, the ceiling is definitely better than the floor.

Tearing up the floor was out of the question because of the Mithril vein underneath. Mentally compiling a list of necessary materials, I prepared to get to work.

The winter clothes from the dwarf arrived through the trade window. They were makeshift hand-me-downs, but the heavy pelt and thick leather practically radiated warmth just by looking at them. The fur-lined hood was so massive it almost swallowed my head whole, making me look like a backcountry trapper out in the Siberian wilderness.

"Whew, that's better."

Pulling the garments on made life bearable again. My feet were still freezing, but there was nothing for it. I'd just have to double up on thick wool socks. Luckily, I managed to find a decent pair on the gallery auction board.

Now that I was dressed for the cold, the next step was building the fireplace. The dwarf said he'd post the blueprints immediately, so all I had to do was follow the diagrams.

The cross-section blueprint made the internal mechanics easy to grasp, complemented by the dwarf's straightforward notes. The overall structure wasn't complicated. The real headache was the chimney flue. I had to seal the gaps between every single brick tightly so smoke wouldn't leak back into the cave.

Whether building the pizza oven or the smelting furnace, I had always sealed the gaps between bricks with wet clay mortar. And what did that entail in the dead of winter?

Clang! Clink!

"Aaargh! I'm gonna lose my damn mind!"

It meant busting my ass trying to dig through frozen earth. Yesterday's torrential downpour followed by today's snow had turned the ground into concrete-hard permafrost. For a second, I wondered if pouring boiling water over the soil would thaw it out, but I discarded the idea almost immediately. That would just be creating extra work for myself; pouring hot water on freezing ground would turn the whole site into an ice rink.

Guess I have to mine it with a pickaxe.

I ended up literally mining topsoil with my pick. The sheer absurdity of having to quarry plain dirt pushed my patience to the limit.

Once I'd hauled enough frozen clay inside to thaw near the fire, I hopped onto the gallery's auction board and bought a sturdy ladder. I needed to climb onto the cave roof to scout a spot for the chimney vent. The stepladder I'd bought before for butchering carcasses was collapsible and far too short, but this new one was tall enough to reach the elevated rock ledge above the cavern.

Somewhere right around here should...

Plop.

I was scanning the rugged ceiling, searching for a natural fissure or thin patch of stone, when a soft, cold speck landed gently on the back of my hand. Wearing thick leather gloves, I didn't feel the chill against ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my skin, but my eyes caught it instantly.

Plop. Plip.

It wasn't a lone snowflake. More white flakes drifted down in rapid succession. I tilted my head toward the heavens. Thick, bruised storm clouds had swallowed the sun whole, blanketing the sky in suffocating gloom.

Wow...

More trash falling from the sky. What a miserable, godforsaken dump. And as if the forest had plucked that exact thought right out of my head—

WHOOOOOOSH!

"Aaaaargh!"

In the span of thirty seconds, the gentle snowfall mutated into a savage blizzard.

What did I ever do to deserve this?!

The sheer unfairness of it all made me want to scream at the sky.