The final Encounter Zone before the boss lobby was called the Crucible of Frost.
That damned place almost killed him. It almost did.
It was not a land of sands like the Unwelcoming Hills, nor a volcano like the Volcanic Stone Land, but a glacial marshland.
It was hell but with gagged ice as the flames and freezing wind as smoke. Here and there geothermal vents met permafrost, creating a nightmarish ecosystem of steaming bogs and sharp ice shelves.
Breathing was a ruthless task. Percival found his nose blocked by congested ice at multiple occasions.
The air was a physical assault.
Even when he did manage to breathe it in, it only hurt him more. With each breath, it pushed into his respiratory system, scalding one lung with sulfurous heat while freezing the other with razor-sharp chill.
It was in this Encounter Zone that Percival learnt something difficult: Solo-clearing an A-Ranked Gate World when you're no longer the Sword Saint wasn't easy.
