Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance Chapter 186 Dungeon Exploration Part 1

Chapter 186 Dungeon Exploration Part 1

Mira, Celaine, and Maria began to slowly make their way towards the cave, but the atmosphere changed when they entered.
What used to be so cold that they felt like they were about to become an ice cube started to become a bit warmer. It wasn't by much, but with how sensitive they are they were able to feel the slight temperature change.
Needless to say, the interior was still covered in ice on all sides, but due to Mira's ice affinity, she could feel that the ice in this cave was slightly less dense than the ice outside of the cave.
The three of them walked a bit further and started to see bones, both encased in the ice and above the ice. The more they walked, the more bones they started to find until the ice became less ice and more bones along with the ground being completely covered in them as well.
"This is a bit… creepy. It almost seems like whatever came down here wasn't able to escape and ended up dying before they could reach shelter. I wonder if anything was able to live?" Maria muttered.
"Even if they were able to live, how long do you think they were able to live? I mean even beasts that have an affinity for ice would find it hard living in this tortuous environment unless they are way stronger than us." Celaine spoke up while also finding this cave extremely creepy.
Mira just ignored their blabbering and kept moving forward.
It didn't take them long before they reached the end of the cave, or at least what they thought was the end.
What they found at the end of the cave was a set of stairs that led downwards below the cave.
"This is turning into something more akin to a dungeon rather than a cave. How peculiar…" Mira muttered.
"Did you say something, Mira?" Maria asked.
"No, let's go down. Maybe we'll find something good." Mira shook her head and started walking down the stairs with her scythe ready.
Mira slowly walked down the stairs, but what she saw on the next floor was surprising, to say the least.
Entire beasts were encased in ice as it looked like they were trying to destroy the ice on the walls. This second floor was massive, much bigger than the first and if there was a third floor then these beasts must've not been fast enough to make it there.
Mira guessed that in their final moments, these beasts probably went crazy trying to escape their doom, but whatever turned this world into a frozen wasteland spared nobody.
Claw marks were all over the place and tens of beasts were frozen. Mira walked up to one of the ice statues to get a better look and noticed that in their final moments they had a look of fear, insanity, and desperation in their eyes.
"Wha-what happened here? Now my curiosity about what happened to this world is starting to rise! Did someone attack this world by freezing everything? Did this happen naturally? I want to know!" Maria said while looking at the scene in front of her.
She wasn't scared or disturbed about the things she's seeing as she would often see much worse while accompanying Mira, but it wasn't every day she gets to see something like this!
"Who knows? If I were to guess, I'd say someone attacked this world, but it also isn't uncommon for a world to go through a bit of a cold spell. Either way, this has nothing to do with us, we are just here to loot!" Mira chided causing Maria to pout.
"Mou~ Don't be like that Mira! I know you want to know what happened to this world as well! Maybe we'll be able to find better loot with that knowledge! Hehe~" Maria teased Mira a bit, but only got ignored.
"Hehe, Mira's so shy, she-" Celaine started to tease Mira along with Maria, but the two of them felt a chill down their spines that seemed much colder than the surrounding area and the two of them stopped talking.
Unbeknownst to them, Mira had a faint grin on her face.
'Getting bolder, huh. Well, at least they're growing up a bit.' Mira thought to herself as she continued to walk forward.
The strange thing that she noticed about this dungeon was that the further they walked, the denser the ice got.
Another thing she noticed was that the beasts that were encased in the ice had no Qi or energy left in their bodies.
These findings could mean several different things, but with how limited her information is it's difficult to come to a conclusion. The only thing they can do is continue searching this place for anything that might be interesting.
The three of them slowly made their way towards the third floor, where they saw similar scenes to that of the second floor.
The ice was slightly denser than it was on the previous floor along with more frozen beasts.
This scene replayed until they finished exploring the fifth floor and made their way towards the sixth floor.
On the sixth floor, although the scene looked similar, it was completely different.
This floor was covered in beast carcasses and although they were frozen, they weren't in a block of ice like how the beasts were on the previous floors. They were frozen just because of how fucking cold it was in this dungeon.
Not only that, but these beast carcasses didn't have any flesh on them, only bones.
"I guess this means that some were able to live in this harsh condition, but with a lack of food, these beasts were forced to eat each other. I wonder how many beasts were able to live?" Maria guessed.
"No use thinking about it now, let's continue. Maybe you'll find an answer to that question when we reach the end of this dungeon." Mira said as she examined the floor.
"I know, but it's still exciting! It's like we are uncovering a mystery!" Maria exclaimed happily.
Mira and Celaine just shook their heads and continued on with their journey.
Mira was also feeling slightly more excited, but for a different reason. The ice in the dungeon kept getting denser the farther they went and Mira was eager to see why that is. She couldn't care less about what happened to this world or its inhabitants, only loot. And loot is what she was hoping to find!