[Ash's Apartment – The Living Room] [Time: 05:00 AM]
I packed my bag with the precision of a bomb disposal technician.
Rations? Checked. Thermal blankets? Checked. The [Gravity Hammer] I looted from the Clockwork King? Strapped to my back. It was wrapped in heavy burlap so it looked like a piece of rusted junk, not a chaotic artifact capable of crushing a tank.
"System, run a simulation," I whispered, tightening my boots. "Probability of survival in an A-Rank Dungeon with a C-Rank stats sheet?"
[System: Calculating... Without the 'Night-Weave Suit', survival probability is 0.4%. With the Suit, it rises to 12%. If you actually use your brain instead of hitting things with a stick, maybe 40%.]
"I like those odds," I lied.
I looked at the kitchen table. My phone sat there, the screen dark. The Chairman's message burned in my memory. Kill her.
I opened my inventory and pulled out a small, spherical device I had crafted last night using parts from the destroyed Sentinel.
[Item: The Kinetic Dampener (Homebrew)] [Rank: D] [Effect: Absorbs kinetic energy in a 5-meter radius for 3 seconds. It's basically a localized 'Pause' button for violence.]
If it came down to a fight between me and the Ice Queen, I couldn't beat her in a magical duel. She could freeze the moisture in my eyes before I could blink. I needed to cheat.
"I'm not killing anyone today," I told the empty room. "But I'm not dying either."
[The Frozen Spire – Entrance Gate] [Time: 06:00 AM]
The Dungeon Gate for the Frozen Spire wasn't a swirling vortex like the others. It was a literal crack in reality, jagged and white, leaking a mist so cold it made the asphalt of the parking lot brittle.
A perimeter of armed guards from the Hunter Association stood watch. They looked bored, mostly because nobody was stupid enough to enter the Spire.
Except her.
Seraphina Frost stood near the barricade. Even at 6 AM, she looked perfect. Her silver hair was tied back in a combat braid. She wore white leather armor reinforced with blue mana-crystals, and a heavy fur-lined cloak draped over her shoulders. She looked like royalty.
I walked up, looking like a hobo with a burlap sack on his back.
"You're late," she said without turning around.
"It's 5:59," I checked my watch. "I'm early."
She turned, her icy blue eyes scanning my outfit. She paused at my sneakers.
"You're wearing canvas shoes to an ice dungeon?"
"They have good grip," I shrugged. "Besides, I run hot."
[System: You are going to lose your toes. I will log the time of death for each individual toe.]
Seraphina sighed, a puff of white fog escaping her lips. She handed the guard the Golden Ticket—the Guest Pass.
The guard, a burly man with a scar over one eye, looked at the pass, then at Seraphina, then at me.
"Lady Frost," the guard grunted. "This is an A-Rank zone. You're bringing... him? He smells like cheap apples."
"He's my mule," Seraphina said dismissively. "If he dies, I'll just carry the loot myself. Open the gate."
The guard hesitated, but you didn't argue with a High Mage. He signaled the team. The heavy mag-locks on the gate disengaged with a thud.
"Stay close, Janitor," Seraphina whispered, her voice dropping the arrogance for a split second. "Once we cross the threshold, the temperature drops to -40 degrees instantly. Keep moving, or your blood will gel."
"Understood."
We stepped through the crack.
[The Frozen Spire – Floor 1: The Glacier Fields]
The sound was the first thing to hit me. The wind didn't howl; it screamed.
The world turned white. We were standing on a vast, jagged plain of blue ice. Giant pillars of frozen water spiraled up into a dark, auroral sky. The cold was a physical weight, pressing against my chest, trying to squeeze the heat out of my core.
[System: Environmental Warning. Ambient Temperature: -42°C. 'Night-Weave Suit' thermal regulation active. Mana consumption increased by 5% per minute to maintain body heat.]
My suit was working overtime, humming silently against my skin. To Seraphina, I probably looked like I was freezing, but beneath the clothes, I was toasty.
"Movement," Seraphina snapped.
She raised her staff—a beautiful rod of crystalline wood.
The snow ahead exploded.
Three shapes burst from the ice. They looked like wolves, but twice the size, made entirely of jagged perma-ice. Their eyes were burning blue flames.
[Monster: Cryo-Warg (Elite)] [Rank: B] [Ability: Flash Freeze Bite]
"Three of them," Seraphina analyzed instantly. "I'll take left and center. You handle the straggler."
She didn't wait. She slammed her staff down. "Glacial Spike!"
Massive spears of ice erupted from the ground, impaling the two lead wolves. They shattered into a thousand diamond-like shards.
But the shards didn't stop moving. They skittered across the floor, pulling themselves back together like magnets. Within seconds, the wolves were reforming.
"They regenerate," Seraphina shouted over the wind. "Physical damage is useless! Ash, do the thing!"
The third wolf lunged at me, jaws snapping for my throat.
I didn't panic. I saw the physics of it. It was just water molecules arranged in a lattice structure, held together by mana.
I didn't need to hit it hard. I needed to disrupt the lattice.
I sidestepped the lunge—[Friction: Reduced to 0%] on my soles—sliding smoothly across the ice like a skater. As the wolf passed me, I reached out and slapped my hand against its flank.
[Active Skill: Resonance] [Target: Crystalline Structure] [Frequency: High-Pitch Vibration]
I pumped a burst of mana into the wolf, vibrating its molecules. Not enough to melt it, but enough to create a catastrophic structural failure.
HUMMMMMM.
The wolf mid-air started to vibrate. A high-pitched whine filled the air. Then—
CRACK.
It didn't just break; it turned into dust. The vibration shattered the ice crystals into a fine powder that the wind instantly blew away. It couldn't reform because there were no chunks left to grab onto.
Seraphina watched the powder blow away, her eyes wide.
"Entropy," she whispered, confirming her own theory. "You decayed the bonds holding it together."
"Sure," I said, catching my breath. "Let's call it that."
[System: You literally just microwaved a dog. You are a monster.]
"The other two!" I pointed.
The two wolves Seraphina had smashed were fully reformed now. They snarled, ignoring her and turning their glowing eyes toward me. They recognized the bigger threat.
"Back me up!" Seraphina yelled. She began chanting a high-level spell, the air around her twisting.
I unslung the hammer from my back. The burlap sack fell away, revealing the dull, black metal of the Gravity Hammer.
"Hey, popsicles!" I yelled, banging the hammer on the ice.
The wolves charged.
"System," I grinned. "Let's increase the gravity in front of them. Make them heavy."
[System: Manipulating Gravitational Constant. Area: 10x10 meters. Multiplier: 4G.]
The wolves hit the invisible zone and face-planted. Their legs buckled under their own sudden weight. They slid across the ice, helpless, right to Seraphina's feet.
"Now!" I shouted.
Seraphina didn't hesitate. She pointed her staff down.
"Absolute Zero."
A flash of white light blinded me. When my vision cleared, the wolves weren't just frozen; they were statues. Their molecular movement had stopped completely. No regeneration. No life. Just dead matter.
Seraphina breathed out, a long plume of steam. She looked at the frozen statues, then at me.
"You manipulated the gravity to pin them," she observed, "so I could line up the kill shot. You're a Controller type?"
"I'm a Porter," I said, leaning on my hammer. "I just carry the weight."
She stared at me for a long moment, the suspicion in her eyes warring with respect.
"Good work, Porter," she finally said. "But don't get cocky. This is just the foyer."
She turned and began walking deeper into the storm.
I watched her back. My hand brushed against the pocket where my phone sat.
Retrieving the Heart of Winter is going to be the easy part, I thought. Surviving my partner is going to be the nightmare.
[System: Quest Updated. Floor 1 Cleared. 15 Floors Remain. Current Trust Level with Ice Queen: 15%. Warning: If Trust drops below 0%, she will likely turn you into a lawn ornament.]
"Let's move," I said, and followed her into the white.
[End of chapter 16]