The eleven young adventurers were sitting around the fire warming themselves up again after completing another level of the dungeon, leaving them on the fifth level. Many of them were holding their hands closer to the fire to thaw them out and regain normal movement in their fingers. Due to the extreme cold and needing to keep their weapons at the ready, the muscles in their fingers became tighter and wouldn't move as easily as normal. Lilia and Karen were experiencing this at its worst, as Lilia was still holding her staff, unable to release it. Karen on the other hand, with the help of Orson, was able to separate her bladed staff and slide it out of her hands. Kathyln and Arthur were the only ones not noticeably affected by the cold, due to both being able to use ice magic, and casting a small spell to reinforce their bodies to the cold. Those who could use fire magic were handling the cold fairly well, and were able to endure the cold well enough. The same could also be said for Feyrith, who purchased an amulet that when supplied with a small amount of pure mana, it creates a warm barrier all over the user's body. It was intended to give the user resistance to fire magic, but Feyrith was able to find another effective use for it. Orson sat with a stoic expression, as he sat like a statue unmoving while refining his mana core while watching Curtis, as Lunaris and Kathyln chatted beside him.

Lilia's teeth chattered as she was finally able to release her staff, and placed it beside her. She looked across the fire to see Tess sitting right up against Arthur with one of his arms wrapped around her, and a very warm looking blanket over both of their shoulders. Tess didn't look like she was cold at all, which meant she probably had Arthur warming her with some fire mana. Lilia slowly moved her head to the left, her whole body shivering as she moved, and saw Curtis sitting beside her glaring over at Lunaris and Kathyln, who were talking to a point that Kathyln appeared to be smiling as Ailuros purred in her lap while she pet him.

Ever since Lunaris and his friends arrived, Curtis had hardly paid Lilia any attention, as he was trying to keep Lunaris away from Kathyln. This however has been an act of futility, as they made sure to keep formation while moving, so he was forced to keep back.

Lilia was now finding herself missing the attention Curtis was giving her before. In the beginning it made her feel nervous and a little embarrassed as she still saw him as a prince, but now she missed the feelings of butterflies in her stomach, and especially the warmth for being embarrassed. Her biggest concern now with her feelings was if she should accept them or not. Curtis was very handsome, and sought after by many of the girls at Xyrus academy, so he almost always had a girlfriend, usually from one of the noble families. Lilia knew that status wise she couldn't compete with those girls, since the Helstea house were not nobles. There were other bigger issues to her that made her nervous, the biggest being that she wasn't sure if Curtis actually cared for her, or if she was just misunderstanding his actions. The other was dealing with the retribution from the other girls back at school who would see her as unworthy and would be jealous.

As Lilia shivered while internally going over her dilemma, she felt something big move and press up behind her. Lilia was surprised and jumped a little as she looked behind her to see Grawder laying as close as he could behind her. Grawder and Lilia's eyes locked for a moment, almost as if they were communicating through their eyes. Thinking she knew what Grawder was trying to tell her, Lilia slowly leaned back against Grawders side, which was warm from laying by the fire.

"T-t-thank yooou," Lilia said to the large world lion as she felt her back warming up.

Even now Curtis was blind to the fact that his bond was showing more concern for his crush than he was. Noticing, and being a little annoyed by it, Grawder hit Curtis with one of his tails. The tail hit Curtis's face, and he swatted it away as he told Grawder to stop without looking. Not willing to accept Curtis just brushing him off like that, and wanting to take another, what will be a free shot, Grawder hits Curtis again, this time with both tails.

"Grawder quit it!" Curtis snapped as his head spun around to look at his bond. As he did this he finally noticed Lilia shivering up against Grawder desperately trying to get warm. "Lilia?" Curtis said in a concerned tone. He moved closer and placed a hand on her cheek. "You're ice cold," Curtis commented as he wrapped his arms around her, and used fire mana to help her deal with the cold. Slowly Lilia began to stop shivering, while Lunaris sighed and shook his head as he watched Curtis out of the corner of his eye.

"Alright everyone, let's pack up and get moving," Arthur announced after they warmed up for an hour and looked like they all had warmed up.

Everyone groaned a little, not wanting to leave the warmth of the fire. Everyone that is except Orson, who just quickly got to his feet and put the blanket he wrapped himself with back into his dimensional ring. Lunaris packed his few things quickly, and after he saw Curtis was ready he walked over to have a word with the former prince.

"Curtis, I'd like a word with you," Lunaris stated politely.

"I'm busy, maybe later," Curtis replied as he wrapped another blanket around Lilia to help her keep warm.

"It'll just be a moment, I feel it would benefit more than just us if we were to speak," Lunaris insisted.

Curtis sighed. "Fine," Curtis replied with an annoyed tone, and followed Lunaris as he began to walk away.

After being a few steps away, just enough that someone wouldn't hear, Lunaris stopped and turned to face Curtis. "It's clear to me that you don't like me, or the attention that I'm giving Kathyln," Lunaris stated. Curtis just stood there with his arms crossed as he gave Lunaris a serious stare. "I understand you want to protect your sister, probably from anyone who shows any interest in her."

"No, just you," Curtis replied, lying slightly. The truth was that he wanted to protect her from every young boy her age.

"I know there's a lot of jerks out there that might try and win her heart, but I'm not one of them. So I'd like you to please give me a chance," Lunaris said as he stood a little taller, but still a few inches shorter than Curtis.

"Hmmm, I don't think so," Curtis replied heartlessly. "Stay away from my sister." He then started to turn and walk away.

"Her situation is nothing like yours," Lunaris said, causing Curtis to stop and turn around.

"What situation?" Curtis asked curiously.

"Back before your family gave up their title as royals, noble families used to send their daughters to flirt with you didn't they?" Lunaris asked.

Curtis didn't reply, but his expression changed from curious to serious immediately. Lunaris wasn't wrong, back when Curtis was twelve the young noble girls started talking to him more. With puberty just kicking in he was enjoying the attention they gave him, and how they seemed to be enjoying his company too. It wasn't till he overheard a conversation between his father and a duke did he realize the harsh truth of what was happening. The duke was essentially trying to use his daughter as a bargaining tool, trying to arrange a marriage between Curtis and his daughter. Thankfully Blaine told the duke he wouldn't have any discussions like that until Curtis was older. Curtis began to question all the attention the girls were giving him. He then eavesdropped on a small group of girls, and overheard them speaking about him, essentially complaining about the pressure their families were putting on them to get close to Curtis. This reality check became a major blow to him, and made him wonder what would have happened if he didn't learn this. As his mind spun with these thoughts he saw a noble boy trying to talk to Kathyln as she looked to be trying to get away from him. Curtis's older brother instincts then kicked in to overdrive as he marched over to protect his sister from every boy that may try and use her.

Seeing as Curtis did not respond, Lunaris continued. "I don't know what you dealt with, but with your family abandoning their titles as monarchs Kathyln doesn't necessarily have to deal with the same problem."

"What do you mean?" Curtis asked.

"No one knows what will happen with the council after the current representatives step down. It could be you and Kathyln, one of you and your spouse, or maybe someone chosen by the representatives. My point is, marrying you or your sister sister isn't guaranteed power anymore," Lunaris explained.

"And what about you? What do you gain from flirting with my sister?" Curtis asked as his eyes narrowed on Lunaris.

"Hopefully her affection. I genuinely care for Kathyln. I'm not going to throw around the word love, because I think it's hard for people our age to really say if that's what we really feel or not. But I know that I care for Kathyln very much, status or not. I will stay honest and loyal to her as long as she wants me by her side, and give her the affection and respect that she deserves," Lunaris said with determination.

Curtis breathed in deep, then exhaled. He realized Lunaris did have a point, and he did appear to be passionate about being with Kathyln. Curtis then reached out and put his right hand on Lunaris' shoulder and pulled him in close.

"As long as my sister is fine with your affection, I'll allow it." Curtis then squeezed Lunaris' shoulder tighter. "However if you break her heart, I'll see to it that your body is never found," Curtis said in a tone so pleasant that it was almost terrifying.

"I understand," Lunaris replied steadily.

"Good" Curtis then headed back to the others, with Lunaris a few steps behind.

—————————————————————

The adventurers trudged through the dungeon for close to an hour since their last break, although several were ready for another break so they could warm up. Their original by the books formation had now broken, and they were now walking in groups, keeping close to a fire mage for warmth. The cold had become practically unbearable for Lilia, even with the extra layers she was wearing she felt frozen to the bone, even Feyrith's amulet wasn't able to fight off the cold as well anymore. Seeing as the constant cold was becoming difficult to for some of them to bare, a sort of heat barrier was established around them. Arthur, Claire, Lunaris, and Curtis used fire mana to give off some heat, while Orson, Tess, and Lilia used wind spells to circulate the warm air around them. Normally such an act would be seen by experienced adventurers as a waste of mana, and could leave them weaker in a battle. However with so many of them working together, the drain on their cores was negligible when compared to the relief it brought.

"I know we're all just students, but there's no way experienced adventurers can handle this cold that much better," Karen complained as she slowly warmed up with the others.

"Actually, I think we're faring better than most experienced adventurers," Arthur replied.

"You've got to be kidding me. Seriously?" Curtis asked from atop Grawder.

"As I'm sure you've noticed, it's been getting colder the further we go," Arthur stated.

"So I'm not going crazy then," Lilia commented as she still shivered.

"Nope. Because of this, I can't find any records of any adventurers going further than we already have, except for the initial guild scout teams report from when this dungeon was discovered," Arthur informed everyone.

"So wait, we're going to be the first ones in years to make it to the bottom?" Claire asked.

"As long as we can endure it. The only reason I was even willing to consider this dungeon was because of all our fire and wind mages. Most parties don't usually have so many fire and wind mages," Arthur replied. "Of course the added help from our unexpected guests did help a great deal."

"You're welcome," Lunaris chimed in graciously.

"Well I'm sure adventurers have had this idea before, why wouldn't they try it?" Tess asked.

"Because of the scout team report. They were all properly equipped and even had additional fire and wind mages like us, but they still all came out suffering frostbite and hypothermia," Arthur informed everyone.

"And you thought this was a good idea for us?!" Claire asked in shock.

"The difference is in our goals. The scout team only wanted to gather information, while we're here to clear the dungeon," Arthur told them.

"You think there's an artifact and mana beast causing this cold don't you?" Orson asked in a rare addition to the conversation.

"That's right. These temperatures aren't normal for any dungeon. Normally if it's cold the temperature usually levels out by the second or third level, and is reasonably tolerable. It's just getting colder and colder the further we go, as if we're getting closer to the source. If it's a mana beast, once we kill it the temperatures should start improving. If it's an artifact then all we need to do is shut it off, or put it in a dimensional ring to contain the effects," Arthur explained.

"And if you're wrong and we can't stop the cold?" Feyrith asked.

"Then I'll be wrong, and I'll drain my own core warming everyone to ensure no one gets hurt from the cold on the way back," Arthur replied.

Just then the corridor began opening up drastically into a large chamber. The air was clear, and the chamber shined as the ice reflected the small amount of light entering the space, brightening the chamber to the point that they could see the exit. As they looked across they couldn't help but feel they were looking out onto a frozen ocean, with a cluster of spikes of ice that resembled a frozen wave. The entire chamber appeared to be completely clear of any mana beasts, resulting in nearly everyone letting their guard down. However Orson, Arthur, and Sylvie kept their guards up. Despite how safe everything appeared, they couldn't shake the uneasy feelings they were getting.

"Grawder?" Curtis said as his bond suddenly stopped in his tracks as they approached the ice spikes.

Everyone else stopped and looked back as Grawder crouched down as if he was preparing to pounce while making a low growl. This was the confirmation Arthur and Orson needed, there was something dangerous in that chamber.

"Get ready to fight everyone," Arthur said as he drew his sword and ignited it in flames.

Just then the ice shook as a low growl was heard, and fissures started to form in the ice, originating from the spikes. The spikes in the ice began to grow longer as the ice began breaking even more.

"There's a mana beast under the ice!" Arthur yelled as he realized what was happening.

Soon a ten foot tall white beast emerged from the ice as it stood upright on its back legs. The beast looked like a giant frozen rodent with three three foot long claws on what could be considered its front paws. It had what looked like thick armor on its back and sides that appeared to be made of ice, with what also looked like spikes made of ice on its back, each looking sharp enough to run through any adventurer unfortunate enough to be caught in its way.

"Claire, Lunaris, with me, everyone else, you know what to do," Arthur ordered.

Sylvie jumped off of Arthur's back and ran to Tess's feet and she and the other conjurers began firing ranged spells, while Orson, Karen, took up defensive positions in front of them, while Curtis and Grawder covered the rear.

The beast swung its claws, cutting into the ice as they came forward, and sending shards of ice towards the three adventurers charging at it. Arthur and Lunaris both ignited themselves in flames and began deflecting and dodging the ice shards. Claire however used gale stomp and shot herself over the ice shards. While still midair she aimed her sword and began rapid firing fire bullets at the beast's face.

The fire bullets hit their marks, causing the beast to raise its claws to protect its face. This also prevented the beast from following up with another attack, allowing Arthur and Lunaris to take the offensive. Without speaking they charged in with flaming swords. Their past experiences as adventurers told them exactly what they needed to do. Running along the outside of the beast on opposite sides, they slashed their flaming blades along its legs by the kneecaps. The beast then crumbled to the ground, as its legs could no longer support its weight, appearing to cut its mobility. Claire landed on the opposite side of the beast closest to the exit as the beast flailed around violently, before rolling itself up into a spiked ball. Upon seeing this a sudden feeling hit Arthur, telling him this was bad. Suddenly the spiked ball began rapidly spinning, and shot towards the rest of the party as the spikes shot up chunks of ice behind it as it moved

"MOVE!" Arthur yelled at the top of his lungs.

Thankfully, due to the time they trained together, Tess and and Lilia were ready to act. Simultaneously the two wind conjurers released a burst of wind in every direction, sending everyone flying out of the way, including each other. The beast rolled right past them and slammed into the chamber wall, getting its spikes stuck in the process.

"Elijah cage it!" Arthur called out, knowing stopping this beast was the most important part of they were to beat it.

Elijah said the spell as he focused very carefully. The ground shook a bit as some ice cracked, but nothing ever really happened.

"The ice is too thick, I can't get any pillars to come out," Elijah yelled back.

Kathyln then cast her own spell, resulting in a series of ice spikes shooting out of the ice. The spikes couldn't pierce the beasts armored hide, but it was enough to help hold it in place.

"It won't hold for long so hurry!" Kathyln called out urgently.

"Elijah, Kathyln, make your way to the exit! Everyone else let's....." Arthur started, before the beast began to break free of the wall and spikes. "Shit," Arthur said under his breath as he and the rest of the party took a fighting stance.

"Arthur, I think I have an idea," Elijah said as the beast stood back up on its hind legs, and with a single swing of its claws shattered the ice spikes. "All I need is Kathyln, a fire mage, and as much time as you can give me."

"Alright. Lunaris, Kathyln, help Elijah. The rest of us will buy you some time," Arthur replied, as he gave everyone their orders.

Arthur led the charge with Orson and Claire on either side of him, with Karen, Curtis, and Grawder coming from a different angle. Meanwhile Tess, Lilia, and Fayrith began casting spells to try and keep the beast from moving.

"Alright what's the plan?" Lunaris asked as he arrived at Elijah and Kathyln.

"I need heat, a lot of it. Enough to melt a hole as big and deep as you can as fast as you can, right there," Elijah instructed as he pointed to a spot a few feet away. "Kathyln, while he does that you need to be ready to cast protection spells strong enough to hold back any attacks if needed."

Kathyln and Lunaris both nodded and got into position. Lunaris sheathed his two short swords on his back, then drew the broad sword from his side. He held the sword with both hands pointed up as he said a spell. As he completed the spell his entire sword burst into a bright yellow flame, making it look as though he was holding fire in the shape of a sword. He then turned his sword pointing the blade towards the ice and plunged it in. Immediately steam erupted from the ice as cracks spread out from the flaming sword.

Meanwhile Arthur led the rest of the party in battle against the spiked beast. Arthur had full confidence in his team to beat this beast under normal circumstances, however these weren't normal circumstances. Due to the ice nearly all the augmenters were struggling to keep in control and not slip and fall. Curtis was only managing because he was riding Grawder, who was digging his claws into the ice to keep in control, however he was clearly moving slower and wasn't nearly as agile. Orson was using small bursts of wind to assist in his movements on the ice, but his reaction time was a bit slower as it was more difficult to make sudden direction changes. Claire was doing the same as Orson, but was trying to keep herself moving and made her movements more fluid, however sudden changes were also a struggle for her. Karen was actually doing fairly well, as she was able to form water under her boots that froze extremely fast into a spiked texture allowing her to get some traction and control as she moved. The downside was though, that the ice on her boots wore down pretty fast and a new layer was needed every minute or two. Arthur on the other hand was doing by far the best out of any one, as he applied his ice skating he did in his AA rank promotion match to keep moving quickly. All of this left Arthur nervous about the possibility of one of them being involved in a serious accident that they couldn't recover from.

"Elijah, how much longer?" Arthur yelled, not liking all the close calls they were having.

Elijah looked down at Lunaris through the steam. He had made incredible progress, with Lunaris being nearly six feet down in the ice. "Almost ready," Elijah replied as he pulled a bundle of rope from his dimensional ring. "Lunaris, that's enough."

"But, there's still ice down here," Lunaris replied, having trouble breathing with all the steam.

"I know, but I'm worried about you making it out of there," Elijah replied as he stated to lower a rope.

"Ok, just one final push. Stand clear," Lunaris replied. Just then the flame intensified, as steam billowed out even faster, while he focused the flames. Kathyln and Elijah both fell back trying to keep out of the steam. "Ready?" Lunaris called out a few seconds later.

Elijah held tight on the rope as he leaned back, his feet catching on some ice footings Kathyln created. "Ready!"

With that Lunaris began climbing out of the ice hole. At times like this Elijah wished he was an augmenter, as he was unable to pull the rope, only hold it as Lunaris climbed. As Lunaris reach the top of the hole, she saw a delicate hand extended down to him to help pull him out. He looked up to see the hand belonged to Kathyln, so he took her hand as she tried to help pull him out. Lunaris didn't really need Kathyln's help, but the chance to hold her hand and touch her fair skin was all the reason he needed.

With Lunaris out of the hole Elijah looked down into the hole. It was nearly five feet around and twelve feet deep, with a second hole at the bottom that went down even further. Elijah closed his eyes as he tried to sense the earth beneath to see if the hole was deep enough.

"I hope that's enough. It felt like that ice went down forever," Lunaris commented as he wiped the sweat from his face.

"It is. That second hole made all the difference," Elijah replied, then looked to Arthur. "Ready! Lure it over here!"

With that said Arthur and the others began to fall back towards Elijah. They moved slowly, staggering their way back to make sure the beast didn't roll itself into a spiked ball again. The beast continued after them, slashing with its claws as it went, oftentimes hurling chunks of ice in the process. Kathyln and Feyrith kept forming quick barriers to protect everyone as they retreated. Arthur made sure he stayed closest to the beast the entire time, to redirect it if it were to at any point get off course.

Arthur took a step back and stopped as he felt nothing under his heel. He looked back to find that he reached the destination, and everyone else was already on the other side of the hole behind Elijah. The beast took another swing at Arthur, however he was ready, and took a wind mana assisted jump back and over the hole. As the beast's claw missed Arthur and hit the ice, it used that claw to help push itself off and lunge at Arthur and Elijah, who were standing a few feet away from the edge of the hole, with the rest of the party behind them. As the beast moved over the hole, a one foot diameter stone spike shot out of the ground. The spike pierced near the beasts throat and pushed into its skull as it lifted it up, essentially mounting it to the cavern ceiling. The blood from the beast ran down the spike and began to fill the hole in which it originated.

"You know, you could have just shot a spike up, not created a pillar to pin it to the ceiling," Arthur commented as he thought about having to remove its beast core.

"I know, but I wanted to ensure it died," Elijah replied as he scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed by his overkill. "Honestly, I expected the spike to break out of its skull and leave it here where we could reach it."

"Speaking of reaching it, how about you lower it down so we can take the core," Arthur requested.

However, before Elijah could speak the first word of his spell, the spike was starting to crack.

"Back away NOW!" Arthur yelled as the weight of the beast finally became too much for the spike and snapped. Everyone ran, and the beast crashed into the ice with a thunderous sound as the impact forced the ice to crack and break, sending ice spikes pointed up.

"Is everyone ok?" Arthur asked as he turned to check on his friends. Everyone nodded and acknowledged they were ok.

Just then Arthur was reminded of a scene from a movie from his previous life, where a squirrel forced an acorn into ice, and a glacier began to break. The only reason this was coming to his mind now was because the ice was making the same noise as it did in the movie as it broke.

Arthur's head shot back to the beast, and he could see it make a sudden drop of a few inches, as long deep cracks in the ice began to form and were moving towards them.

"Everyone get to the exit now," Arthur said as he began to back away. Just then the mana beast disappeared as it was swallowed up by the hole in the ice, and the ice began falling in behind it in a wave. "RUN!" Arthur yelled.

Everyone took off running to the exit. Grawder started running with Curtis on his back. As Curtis approached Lilia he slid down to Grawder's side while holding tight on the reins of the saddle, and scooped her up at her waist and pulled her up onto Grawder. He would have worried about getting Kathyln as well, but saw Lunaris picked her up into his arms and was using wind magic to propel them as his feet slid on the ice.

"Hurry papa!" Sylvie urged from Tess' shoulder as she saw the enlarging hole closing in behind Arthur a few steps behind them.

Arthur glanced back to see the ice was practically breaking away under his feet. They were about a hundred feet to the exit, there was no way everyone was going to make it. Elijah was right beside him, he moved a little closer and shoved him forward with all his might as he also prepared a powerful wind spell. Elijah flew forward, almost catching up to Tess and the others when Arthur released his spell. Everyone was thrown forward at great speed, and continued sliding on the ice to just within the exit.

Everyone looked back as Arthur was fighting to escape, jumping from one large ice sheet to the next, trying desperately to keep from falling. Twenty feet away the ice sheet was too large when it started to go down, and Arthur couldn't clear it.

"ART!"