Chapter 296 - Under The Deep Blue Sea (III)

We managed to receive the second Lung Moss around the 4th floor of the cave. We need 4 and we already got 2 so we are almost done. However, it seems our luck seems to have been taken away after our last encounter with the Deep Sea Curse Snake. We didn't meet any of those snakes again and finding the Lung Moss is now too hard.

Currently, we are on the 10th floor of the cave. The cave has 15 floors in total and we are already down to 5 floors that haven't been explored. Ah yes, we also managed to obtain the second broken piece of the artifact which means the other artifact piece might be further below the underground cave.

Our progress is very fast because the enemies are severely scarce and rare to see. This shouldn't be the case in the past timeline since the whole cave is infested with monsters in the past timeline. There might be something that happened here that caused the number of monsters to increase in the past timeline. It is kind of a blessing and at the same time, unfortunate for me. More monsters tend to be a good source of extra exp and since in the past timeline this place is quite generous in experience points, I tend to farm levels here until the exp gain slows down.

Still, I needed to go below and see the real truth that will allow me to forge a connection to the Royalties of the Kingdom of the Deep Sea. There is nothing wrong with increasing your chances of winning and survival.

"Master, I am already seeing the way down to the next floor. Should we descend or should we continue to explore the area for a bit?" Lina asked.

"Nothing much to see here, so let's descend."

...

Yep, nothing much to see...

Until the very bottom of the cave. Monsters seem to have disappeared after we reach floor 11 and the moment we arrived the floor 15, it was now very cold that even Lucia who is usually not affected by cold is now using her hands as a portable heater for all of us. Not only that but I also don't see the last artifact piece which is a big bummer.

"Umm, Mister Bladeheart. I am not doubting your words but are you sure that we can really find what we needed to connect to the Kingdom of the Deep Sea here? There is basically nothing in here that is worth mentioning!" Tina scratches her head in frustration.

"Don't be so rash about it, Princess Tina. We have yet to know what we really need to see here so it is too soon for us to assume things," Lucia immediately reprimanded the words of Tina.

"R-right..."

I didn't say anything and just continue to observe the situation around the place. I can still hear the waves of water around the cave which means there is nothing frozen underground but this coldness is coming from the water itself. But I can't shake the possibility that there will be something that I will be shocked by. I have not witnessed what they saw here underground but whatever it was, I needed to find it.

...

"Woah! This is a pretty ancient door!" Lina inspected the giant door's structure and she keeps on nodding at the structures.

"If I base it on my knowledge in ruins, my guess is that this door is already here since the ancient gods have to dwell together with the other living beings. It is pretty old and the material used by the door is not an ordinary rock as well since it seems to exist only during the time the gods are still with us," Lucia caressed the giant door to feel its texture.

"Is that what I think it is?" Tina points to the center of the door's design.

She traced the current design of the door and found something strange in the pattern.

"Mr. Bladeheart, can you bring out the two pieces of broken things we found earlier?"

"Yeah, sure."

She took the two items and she put the two on two gaps of the door that is the same exact shape as the artifacts. The moment the last artifact was placed, the patterns on the door started to rise up on the surface of the door and rearrange themselves that the four of us have to back out instinctively seeing the spectacle.

"What the hell is going on?" Lucia was baffled seeing the spectacle. Although it's not as awesome as the time the Creature of the Shrine of Ascension did, it is still marvelous enough for us who rarely see things like this happening.

DANG DANG DANG DANG!

The patterns that formed like a flower before are now formed into a circle and the two artifacts that were placed by Tina earlier are now on the door as well, currently combined together. I also realized that the last part of the artifact is still attached to the door which is why we didn't find any trace of the last artifact around.

As soon as all of the patterns were placed together, the door slightly opened and dust from being closed for so long fell from the cracks of the door. Not only that, the moment the door opened, the coldness that we keep on feeling earlier suddenly got stronger when the door is now being opened.

"Ugh...it looks like the cold atmosphere we have been feeling since we came down to the 15th floor is coming here huh?" Lucia was forced to smile even in this troublesome situation.

I slowly walk towards the door and push it open. Anyone who tried to open a sealed door for a long time would also struggle on opening it since it is also a big door and it is made of stone so I had to use my strength.

"F*CK, guys, I know I am strong but this sh*t is heavy, a little help please."

The three laughed before they helped me push the door slowly. It was f*cking heavy that it was not sugarcoating that I thought it wouldn't move at all. We managed to push it open but barely. The door is just too heavy to move at all and we wonder who made this door and made it literally something that can't be opened easily.

Inside is like a different place. It was like a literal freezer of the fridge. It's so freaking cold I don't know what the hell is going on here. There isn't any freezer here in the past timeline. It is cold but not to this extent where everything is freezing.

From what I can remember, it was a long hallway of rocks and gem veins sometimes pops out of here. There are even sometimes the Lung Moss grow on the walls at times. But seeing the walls frozen, I doubt we can even grow anything here unless it's a plant that grows specifically on ice.

We proceed further inside the cave's hallway and as we go deeper, the more freezing the place is.

"My goodness, this is the coldest place I have ever been! Even the cold winters on other Continents aren't this cold!" Lucia's flames even started to show some freezing from time to time. Even the flames that should have been melting the ice are being solidified by the ice.

As we arrive at the very deepest part of the cave, what we saw is a huge chunk of ice. It was so big that I doubt anyone would just ignore the ice at all. In the middle of the ice are two figures. I can't see what was frozen but from the shape, it seems like a boy and a girl were both frozen there. The two are holding hands inside the ice. A censored holding hands since I can't f*cking see them since they are only silhouettes but I can easily tell they are both male and female.

"Two people frozen? Let me try thawing them out."

Lucia summoned her flames that can usually burn almost anything it touches unless it is similar to a rock or water. But with ice, it should be very easy.

WOOOOOSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!

The smoke dissipates and it reveals the same thing. Nothing changed at all.

"What the heck is going on? How come my flames aren't doing anything?!"

The ice didn't have any kind of signs of being melted. It was as sturdy as it was before.

"Should I try smashing it with my weapon, Master?"

"No. Don't bother. From the looks of it, this isn't just something we can just quickly melt. And the fact that they are here in the center means they are something important. This means, whoever they were inside the ice, might be the ones we are looking for.

Then, we felt a slight tremor and a blue octopus appeared from one of the holes in the cavern. So the main cause of the freezing is none other than the octopus.

[Ice Devilfish: Monster of Ice Hell]

HP: 20,000,000/20,000,000

Type: Ice, Water, Sea Monster, Foreign Being