The Snow Woman’s Three Stages

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Leah stood before the small blackboard—she felt like it had been a year since she had lectured like a teacher.

“Simply put, the Snow Woman herself doesn’t have phases; she’s an Empress with only one health bar—that’s quite rare.” Leah first wrote the words “Snow Woman” on the blackboard, then began to speak.

“Is it because she’s a defensive BOSS, so there’s no room for her true form to fight? That does fit the dungeon’s setting.”

“But that’s not the case. She herself doesn’t have three stages, but her castle does.”

“Ahahaha… No wonder the Abyss of the End is called ‘the castle itself is the main body.'” Leah watched Will, who sat on a chair, a notebook placed on the desk, diligently taking notes. He wrote down headings, even copying every sentence just like he used to take notes.

—He was truly taking notes, listening attentively, and even answering her!

He wasn’t… as she had expected, coating the chalk with some liquid, or secretly applying liquid to the back of her neck while she lectured at the blackboard, just to see her make a fool of herself in class. Well, it looks like this guy’s perverse pleasure in taming people hasn’t reached that level yet. It’s… it’s probably because she’s read too many strange novels from the students she took in… Leah’s wandering thoughts were interrupted by him—

“Teacher Leah, don’t get distracted. Pay attention in class.”

“Ahem. According to the data collected by ‘Cradle,’ and the results of these recent challenges, what we know is…” Leah began writing on the blackboard, first drawing a simple sketch of a castle, then adding two round shapes. The stick-figure castle was something she had specifically learned from a stick-figure drawing tutorial magazine just last night. She just couldn’t find a way to draw the archery turrets, so she had to use two circles instead.

“Phase One, her castle’s automated defense systems activate.”

“You call these circles ‘automated defenses’?”

“—You’ve been in my classes for so many years, you, you know what my drawing skills are like, alright! In short, it’s composed of automated arrow-shooting turrets, ground that generates freezing ice blocks, and occasional blizzards.”

“It seems…” Will’s gaze was clearly on Leah’s arm, her forearm that he had healed before, “the most difficult to deal with are the ice arrows.”

“Mm.” She nodded in agreement. “There are too many of them; some always slip through—and this refers not just to the number of arrows, but also the number of turrets… If we use Blazing Meteor to trade one-for-one with the ice arrows, it often leaves little left to attack the turrets.”

Will’s gaze drifted slightly between the blackboard and Leah, already contemplating a solution.

“So, what about Phase Two?”

“Phase Two.” Leah drew a super large box around the stick-figure castle, encompassing the entire structure.

“Simply put, a reflective wall will appear. It’s hypothesized that this magic forms a reflective wall based on the characteristic of ‘ice’ being able to create mirrored surfaces.”

“Huh? Don’t tell me it can reflect fire magic too? Isn’t that a bit too cunning?”

“Well… not quite. It doesn’t reflect fire magic.”

“Hmm… then what is it? A BOSS with a mirror-reflection ability, now that I think about it… I don’t think I’ve seen one before.” Leah noticed that Will didn’t seem to know much about the Snow Woman. She had originally thought that since Will had targeted her and even wrote about this BOSS in the Quest System, he should at least have a decent grasp of basic knowledge about the Snow Woman, if not a thorough understanding. But he truly seemed to know very little, and he didn’t hide this lack of knowledge; in fact, he openly displayed it.

That was rare! For such an overly clever and hardworking student, Leah, as his “teacher,” had always found it difficult to feel superior to him. Although he had asked her many questions he didn’t know, each time it was as if he were just checking answers with her, leaving Leah with little sense of accomplishment from teaching him.

Now she really had caught an opportunity. She could properly “educate” this good student!

“Simply put, it actually absorbs the magic cast upon it and reflects it back as a cold light.”

“I see. So, essentially, it’s still an ice-attribute magic attack.”

“Dungeon monsters, although academic texts often mention monsters with multiple elemental attributes, but… if you truly look at unofficial dungeon guides, such monsters rarely appear. The dungeon’s theme greatly restricts the monsters within.”

“Oh? I thought Teacher Leah was purely academic. I didn’t expect you to start reading strategy guides now.”

—It’s all because of your influence. As a professor, I should just be doing lab experiments!

But Leah still held back that somewhat sour, personal remark, unsuitable for a classroom.

“Ahem. Overall, I haven’t actually cleared this floor before. A few times, Blazing Meteor happened to blast the enemy, but I still fell on this floor.”

“…But if that’s the case, Teacher Leah, how did you know there was another phase after that?”

“Well, about that…” She felt a little embarrassed about Will pointing out that she was too weak to reach Phase Three.

“Alright. I’ll be direct. In the Adventurer’s Guild’s records, one adventure team cleared up to the third phase’s skill description.” Leah tapped the castle diagram with the chalk.

“How did they get through Phase One and Two?”

“I don’t know. They deliberately concealed the method for defeating Phase Two, under the guise of ‘protecting fair competition.’”

“Hmm…” Will seemed to guess something, lowering his head in thought. “Then… what was that team called?”

“It’s from the records of Crimson Blaze, an adventure team ranked in the top ten…”

“Oh.” Will seemed to feel a slight aversion when he heard “ranking” and “Crimson Blaze,” giving a brief reply.

“According to the records, Crimson Blaze also has a witch. I even suspect that’s why ‘Cradle’ hired me.” Leah continued to explain. It was quite common for witches to work for the Adventurer’s Guild. But, well… because these witches were quite troublesome, they would often hide deep inside dungeons where humans couldn’t find them. After a decade or two, their enemies and friends would all be dead, and they could start a new life. It was truly rare for a witch to have a team name that lasted a long time in human adventurer history.

“What’s that witch’s name? Since she’s your colleague, Teacher, perhaps you know her?”

“No. You… you think too highly of me. I’ve never heard of such a person.” Leah shook her head. Because Lis used to be a “human-avoiding” conservative among witches, Leah, as her daughter, naturally didn’t have much contact with witches who associated with humans. She was also considered young among witches and hadn’t fully integrated with the Witch Association, so her connections with other witches were naturally few.

“However, in this era, star-making is a common phenomenon. A top-ten adventure team should have easily traceable records. Could this witch be…” Will seemed unusually interested in this witch whose identity was unknown.

“Pay attention to class.” Leah tapped the desk.

A bit strange… After falling into magical circuit depression, she actually became very numb to all sorts of emotions. This naturally included the “jealousy” that was originally one of a witch’s strongest feelings. However, she admitted that when she heard Will showing concern for another witch, she truly felt an inner “jealousy.” There was no boiling blood, no violent pounding of her heart, and no burning jealousy from her magic circuits. It was a very pure emotion, born directly from her heart.

“Alright… then let’s get back to the current problem. Since the Abyss of the End hasn’t been cleared…”

“Yes. That witch also failed to break through the final Phase Three.” Leah tapped the castle with the chalk.

“Phase Three is the ice wall that forms the castle.”

“Ice wall…” Will reacted particularly strongly to that term. Leah remembered the Quest System he had written; it seemed to indeed mention that—she was originally supposed to be defeated by the Snow Woman’s ice wall.

“No need to doubt, it’s exactly what you mentioned in the quest. It seems now that this Snow Woman, who became an Empress, also has a similar skill.”

“How did you know I wrote…” Will paused mid-sentence. “Alright. I remember why now. Please continue.” Now, whenever Leah looked at Will, she always felt as if he had completely bared his soul, exposing his inner self to her. The old Will always used his “performance” to mask things he didn’t want to reveal—such as the “future” he knew, the “death” he was intimately familiar with, and the “failures” and “partings” he understood. That’s why he sometimes seemed like an oddball. But ever since she had seen his Quest System, these things were no longer “riddles,” but “facts” laid bare before her. These aspects had also become exposed weaknesses in him.

“Now, it seems the method to destroy the ice wall remains a mystery…” Leah looked at the tattered Primordial Text—the book she had tried to read many times but failed.

“…Perhaps Melyn’s ancient magic Primordial Text can give us some ideas.” After speaking, she looked at Will and put the chalk back in its box.

“The lesson on the Snow Woman ends here. I have nothing else to teach—for you, knowing this should be crucial information, right?”

“Mm. Indeed. Although I don’t have the original data, the refined information you’ve provided is even more useful.” Will looked at his notebook, which was filled with information and ideas. Then, he closed the notebook.

“Then class dismissed for now.”

Oh, right. Gazing at Will’s heterochromatic eyes on either side, and her own golden hair reflected in his monocle… Leah then realized… He hadn’t done anything in this class… Even when the class ended, he didn’t seem to have given her any “reward” for attending the lesson.

But it seemed… She had actually quite enjoyed this class. For the first time in a while, she recalled some simple, happy emotions.

“What are we doing next?”

“Then… shall we go look at the ancient texts first?”

“No, no, wait. I have some training methods I want Teacher Leah to try.”

“What… is it?”

“It’s about how to defeat the turrets.”

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