Frostina.

  She was Ayla’s character in Dream Land Online, a name that sent shivers through the competitive ranks.

  She dominated event leaderboards, swept first-place prizes, and held the top positions in several rankings with an icy grip.

  For a long time, no one even knew who she was. She had simply appeared one day, soared to the top, and stayed there… until her real-life assassination sent shockwaves through the community.

  But the truth was far less glamorous.

  In the game’s first year, Frostina had been nothing more than another struggling student player.

  She had little time to play, juggling studies and part-time work. She couldn’t afford in-game purchases. She lacked friends to party with in dungeons and wielded gear so generic that no major guild spared her a glance.

  What set her apart wasn’t skill or connections, but it was obsession.

  While others rushed through quests and dungeons, Frostina lingered in corners of the world most players ignored.

  She loved the game’s lore, and it was that love that changed everything.

  One day, she stumbled upon a dusty old book tucked away in the ruined royal library of Arkavia, the kingdom’s capital.

  At first, she skimmed it like any other piece of flavor text through the screen window. But something in the writing piqued her curiosity.

  She reread it, not through the screen window, but manually, page by page, word by word, and discovered hidden lore far richer than what the game typically revealed.

  The book spoke of a mysterious garden atop a snowy mountain, deep within the monster-infested northern forest. It claimed that rare herbs bloomed there, untouched by players and NPCs alike.

  No one ever explored that forest, most considered it endless, with no quests or rewards to justify the effort.

  But as Frostina closed the final page… a system notification flashed before her eyes.

  ? Hidden Quest Unlocked! ?

  ? Seek the Garden of Winter’s Breath ?

  ? Quest Rank: Legendary ?

  ? Rewards: ??? ?

  ? You found information about a garden on a mountain summit in the Infinity Forest in the north. Find that garden! ?

  That moment marked the beginning of everything.

  Driven by wonder and a sense of purpose, she ventured into the vast forest alone. She fought off low-level monsters, avoided stronger ones, and pressed deeper into uncharted terrain.

  Days passed in-game, and she never gave up. Eventually, she reached the mountain spoken of in the book, and began to climb.

  The higher she climbed, the colder it grew. Snow whipped through the air in icy gusts, and monsters prowled the cliffs below. At last, battered and exhausted, she arrived at the summit.

  And there, just as the book had described, was the garden.

  A breathtaking grove of glowing herbs and crystalline flowers, nestled in a frozen plateau.

  She had done it. The quest was complete. But she didn’t even get to savor it, let alone check the reward.

  Because…

  From stormy clouds above, a thunderous roar split the sky.

  A massive, three-headed ice dragon dove straight toward her!

  Frostina had no time to react. Her hand barely twitched toward her staff before—

  CRACK.

  In an instant, the dragon froze mid-air. Shimmering layers of ice formed around it, locking its wings and limbs in perfect suspension, like a sculpture carved from frost and magic.

  It then fell to the ground, a cloud of chilly mist rising in its wake.

  Frostina stared in disbelief.

  “...Why would an ice dragon freeze from ice?”

  As she thought to herself, a rough, yet beautiful voice echoed behind her. It sounded like someone who hadn’t spoken in years.

  “What are you doing here in such a fragile body? Do you have a death wish?”

  Frostina turned slowly.

  Standing just a few paces away was a woman she would never forget.

  Her hair was long and ocean-blue, tangled slightly from the wind but still catching the faint light like frozen sapphire. Her eyes, deep and storm-dark, gleamed with a quiet power. She wore silver mage robes traced with shimmering aqua lines like starlight across fabric. Beneath the cloak, a white dress and light-blue skirt rustled gently in the mountain wind. In her right hand, she held a tall staff crowned with a glowing azure orb, humming faintly with magic.

  But her left sleeve hung empty…

  She had no left arm.

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  And then, as if in recognition of the moment, the system flared again.

  ? Hidden Quest Unlocked! ?

  ? Wanderer’s Identity ?

  ? Rank: Legendary ?

  ? Rewards: ??? ?

  ? You have encountered a wanderer. Discover her identity! ?

  Frostina’s eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat.

  It was rare to meet wanderers in Dream Land Online, especially during the game’s early days.

  Some were powerful allies, others merely background flavor. A few, according to threads on the forums, were legendary-tier NPCs.

  But those ones never stayed. They refused to follow players back to town, often vanishing as mysteriously as they appeared, leaving quests unfinished and identities unknown.

  But the wanderer in front of her wasn’t just any wanderer.

  This was an encounter unlocked from a Legendary-rank hidden quest she’d stumbled on by reading a dusty lore book most players probably skipped. She didn’t follow some Dream Land Wiki guide or Dream Land Forum leak.

  She found this herself. She clenched her fists, barely containing her excitement.

  She thought.

  “Holy crap! She’s a legendary wanderer! I found her! I freaking found her!”

  For a second, she just stood there, stunned.

  The rarest kind of NPC in the game, standing right in front of her. Most players only ever saw these characters mentioned in forum threads. They showed up, gave cryptic lines, and disappeared before anyone could do anything.

  But this time, it was her turn.

  And she wasn’t going to screw it up.

  Sure, she had zero clue what to say in a situation like this, legendary NPC encounter, rare quest, mountain of snow, dragon-sicle nearby, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her.

  So, she went with the only strategy she had left.

  Unfiltered honesty.

  “I-I read about the garden on this mountain in an old, dusty history book.”

  She blurted out, trying not to bounce on her heels.

  “So I came here while level—uh, I mean, while improving myself by fighting monsters.”

  The wanderer stared at her, visibly dumbfounded.

  “You came here… alone? Just to find this garden?”

  Frostina scratched her cheek and gave an awkward little smile.

  “Uh… yeah. I mean, it’s not like I had any friends to explore it with.”

  There was a pause.

  Then the wanderer laughed hard, a full-on belly laugh echoing through the snowy mountaintop.

  “Hahaha! You’re a madgirl!”

  Frostina’s face went hot. She was being roasted by an NPC. Somewhere, a dev was probably watching this exchange and having the time of their life.

  Still, she held her ground.

  “I-I won’t miss this chance even if I have to be humiliated!”

  She told herself fiercely.

  Eventually, the wanderer wiped a tear from her eye and calmed down.

  “Ah… sorry, sorry. I haven’t laughed like that in years. You reminded me of myself.”

  Frostina’s eyes lit up and she screamed inwardly.

  “THIS IS IT! The clue is here!”

  Trying to sound casual but totally not casual, she asked.

  “Umm… you mean, you also came here alone to find this garden?”

  The wanderer chuckled.

  “Ah, no, not really. I didn’t even know this mountain existed. I just kind of… ran away from monsters and ended up here by accident.”

  Frostina blinked, slowly turned her head to stare at the massive, frozen three-headed dragon right next to them.

  She said, in the flattest voice she could muster.

  “…You ran away from monsters?”

  This was, without question, the worst excuse she had ever heard in her gaming life.

  Her mind screamed again.

  “She literally turned a dragon into a popsicle, and she’s saying she was a helpless little girl running from mobs?!”

  The wanderer seemed to catch on what she thought and quickly added.

  “Oh, that was a year ago. Back then, I was just a totally normal and delicate girl… umm… yeah, a year ago.”

  Frostina’s jaw dropped. She wasn’t even sure which part to process first, the shameless self-praise, or the hidden, terrifying implication.

  “What the hell?! She got THIS powerful in just one year?! Solo?! Even the top ranked players can’t kill that dragon without a tens-man raid!”

  Before she could speak, the wanderer tilted her head.

  “You’d better head home. You’re still too weak to stay here.”

  Frostina’s heart skipped a beat.

  “What?! No, no, no, she’s kicking me out?! My quest’s not even finished yet!”

  Panic surged. She had to do something, anything, to keep the interaction going.

  Thinking fast, she blurted.

  “U-Umm… I haven’t properly thanked you for saving me. Would you like some food?”

  The wanderer waved it off instantly, pointing at the ice dragon.

  “No need. That one’s enough to feed me for months.”

  Frostina’s thoughts went into overdrive.

  “Do I offer to help her cook it? No, no… I don’t have cooking skills. My dismantling level is trash. I’d probably ruin the meat completely.”

  “What if I ask her to share the meal with me? No, that’s begging! Even bratty NPCs can smell that!”

  Her mental gears screeched and sparked, scrambling for any plan that wouldn’t backfire.

  Anything to stop this legendary wanderer from vanishing like every other rare NPC in existence.

  Seconds ticked by.

  Then, the wanderer spoke again, her voice dismissive.

  “Go home. You don’t need to thank me. I was just hunting for myself and happened to find you.”

  That did it.

  Panic short-circuited her self-control, and before she could stop herself, she blurted out the first desperate thought that crossed her mind, half shout, half plea.

  “C-Can you teach me that magic?!”

  The words hung in the icy air.

  And the second they escaped her mouth, she wanted to snatch them back and eat them.

  Her mind regretted soon after.

  “Why?!”

  “Why did I say that?! We’re not friends. We’re not allies. We don’t even know each other’s names!”

  “What kind of deranged newbie begs a legendary NPC to teach them ancient ice magic five minutes into a conversation?!”

  She wanted to throw herself off the mountain just to reset the interaction. But too bad the game didn’t have a rewind button or a cliff-jumping shame mechanic that let you yeet yourself into a ravine to reset a conversation.

  The wanderer’s gaze sharpened instantly. Her expression cooled like frost forming on glass.

  “No.”

  She said flatly. Just one word. Like a door slamming shut.

  Frostina wilted.

  “…Ah.”

  She muttered, her shoulders sinking.

  “It’s over.”

  “What had I been thinking? Legendary NPCs didn’t just hand out secret OP skills like candy. This wasn’t a tutorial quest. I wasn’t the chosen one.”

  She scolded herself bitterly.

  “Of course she said no. Why would she teach some random noob her ultimate magic for free?”

  “God, that was so stupid.”

  The chance of a lifetime had come and gone.

  And she'd fumbled it.

  Or so she thought… until the wanderer spoke once more.