A Highest Rank in Another World!

Some time had passed and we were getting closer and closer to the exit, we were getting closer and closer to being frozen just like Stanron, and I didn't quite know what to do.

Most adventurers had already started to give up everything and accept their death, but some were still trying to break the ice, but nothing helped.

"Damn it, am I going to die here?" We were only a few feet away from that cold room, and the ice began to advance even faster, leaving all the adventurers even more desperate.

I could see some crying and others wanting to kill themselves before they were frozen, but they didn't have the heart for something like that.

"Looks like the time has come." We were already in front of that room, the first thing I noticed was that the floor was made of ice.

Before long we were all dragged into the room, the cold was extreme, but the fire magic was keeping us a little warm. Of course, it wouldn't last that long.

"But what is this?"

"Is it all ice?"

"This is insane, how can this be possible?"

Arriving in the room, all the adventurers couldn't believe what they were seeing. A huge room that could even be bigger than many cities, the room was covered in ice.

In the ceiling were huge unstable stalactites that could fall at any moment.

All over the room were mountains made of ice and also ice pillars that came out of the ground and were meters high. Maybe they're 20 meters tall? I have never seen anything like this in my life.

There were so many ice pillars all over the room that it looked like a forest made of ice, but no flowers just pillar made of ice.

"This is beautiful." I couldn't contain my words, it was a beautiful place. A place anyone would like to see once in a lifetime.

"This is not the time for this, haven't you noticed?" Riehol was nervous.

"What?"

"We don't freeze to death just getting in here, so Stanron didn't die for it, someone did this to him."

"So it means there's someone in here who did this to him."

"Exactly."

I started looking around and I could only see ice, saw no sign of any living beings. No plant would survive in this place, all the water that was once in this place had also frozen.

"Do you think whoever did this to him is a monster? Or maybe it's a person?"

"I can't say either. This place was created by the dungeon, so what appeared here was also created by the dungeon, wouldn't it normally be a monster?"

"You're right, but I don't rule out all possibilities." There are people strong enough in the world who could do something like that.

"But then, what do you want to do now? The exit is blocked and if we stand here we will freeze to death. We are going look for another way out?"

"Well, our water is frozen, but I think if we suck the ice we'll be fine. Now food is a problem, all the food I brought with me turned to ice." I grabbed a loaf of bread from my bag and slammed it into the wall.

It shattered, the bread was completely frozen as was all the food.

"Try to heat the food with fire magic, I think it will do the trick." One of the adventurers said.

"We don't have many people who can use fire magic, so let's leave it for when we're really hungry, okay?" We've been here for a few hours, so we were already starting to get hungry.

But we would have to hang on.

People who use fire magic need to rest because otherwise their mana will run out and that will be a problem. We were already taking turns, but even so, it wasn't being enough, at some point we would reach the limit.

"Alright, now let's move on, everyone stays together and keeps warming up somehow, preferably walk very close together for your body heat to increase."

"Hmm..."

"Would you rather freeze to death than stay close to a man?" With my words, the men approached and began to practically hug each other, I think that's fine.

"So where are we going?" Riehol said as he approached me.

"Let's move on and let's walk between these ice pillars."

"Doesn't this look like an ice forest?"

"That's what I thought."

####

We continued advancing between the pillars of ice, it was so cold that our steps were slow.

In addition to the ice, a cold wind circulated through the place, showing that there was somewhere the wind would be entering, and that place could be our exit. But it wouldn't be easy to find.

"Dude, this is insane," I said as I looked around and saw the great tall ice structures.

"Don't touch anything, maybe the structures are unstable and collapse, that would be a problem."

"Right." Following Riehol's tip, I avoided at all costs touching some of the structures while walking around.

The other adventurers were also being careful with this, even more with the fire magic, as they could melt the ice and make everything come crashing down on us. But because of the cold, I doubt anything like that would happen.

"Leofald, how about we climb one of those mountains? That way we can get a good view. I don't think continuing to walk around here will help anything, we're just wasting time."

"You're right, how long do you think it would take us to get there?"

"Maybe an hour? But because of the speed we're walking, it might take up to two hours."

"That's a long time."

"But we have no other alternative, walking around here won't do any good, and it would certainly take us even longer to find something."

"You're right, so let's go. You, in addition to continuing to walk, pay attention to your surroundings because something may appear." I still hadn't forgotten what had happened to Stanron, and this thing that did this to him is still around.

From there began our ice adventure. It took us a long time to reach one of the mountains. Along the way some adventurers got sick, forcing us to stop and that delayed us even more.

The only good news is that we haven't had any contact with any monsters. We were fragile, if we found something we would have a lot of problems, thankfully that hadn't happened.

And right now there was another problem. We were on the side of the mountain all made of ice, and it was very steep.

There were a few places to lean on, but with the slippery ice, it was very easy for someone to fall on top and get hurt a lot, or even end up dying. So we decided to pick just a few people to go up.

"All right. I will go, and you two. Riehol and Cas stay down here to help others in case something happens." I had decided to take two C-rank adventurers with me, as taking the other two stronger adventurers with me would be a problem.

The other two guys I picked looked restless and nervous, but they couldn't thwart me.

Riehol and Cas seemed relieved not to have to climb all that structure, I can understand them, this is not going to be easy. For a moment I thought about using a knife to help, but I discarded that idea.

If I pierced the ice, maybe the structure would start to crack, because the ice here didn't feel so firm, it felt like everything would fall apart at any moment.

"Alright, let's start climbing. Don't leave here, understand?"

"Right."

"You two, let's go," I called the other guys and then we started up that high mountain made of ice. The path was complicated and slippery. I had to use my hands and also my nails to keep my balance.

And the cold was burning my hands, every time I held the ice with my hands, I felt like I was putting my hand in the fire, it was unbearable pain.

I started to wonder if these guys could handle it, but I didn't look back and continued climbing carefully.

But even without looking back, I decided to talk to them.

"How are you doing, do you think you can do it?" Looking up I could still see a long way ahead, it would take another 30 minutes or more to reach the top, and it was getting harder and harder to keep up.

Because of pain in the feet and hands, and also because of the slippery structure.

"I think I can, but I don't feel my hands anymore."

"I also can't feel my hands properly anymore, and my face is also hurting."

That was also a problem, the cold wind that blew against our face was so cold it hurt.

"Okay, hang in there, don't let your hand and feet slip, if you fall out of here you already know what will happen, don't you?"

The adventurers didn't respond, but I think they understood what would happen.. After that, we continued climbing the mountain in silence.