The five of them were driven toward the dungeon in Hayden’s car. Hayden was the second boy, with neat chestnut-brown hair. Sitting beside him in the front seat was Luke, the boy who had received the paper slip, with black hair.
Freda sat with Elvis and Caelithia in the back seat. Elvis had only found out their names before they left.
"So, Elvis and Caelithia, what are your Classes? We need to know our Classes before entering the dungeon," Luke asked.
"Light Warlock," Caelithia replied succinctly.
"Warrior Warlock," Elvis answered.
"Um... Light Warlock isn’t bad, but Warrior Warlock... this is the first time I’m hearing about it," Luke replied hesitantly.
"It’s still the useless Warlock Class. Out of all the mutations, you brothers and sisters managed to land on the negative natural mutation." Hayden chuckled, his eyes never leaving the road.
"Hayden! Don’t be rude," Luke admonished. Then he turned to Elvis. "Don’t mind him. Warlocks are also good Classes, but their limits have not been explored. Maybe you brothers and sisters will be the ones to explore them and usher in a new age for the Warlock Class."
"It’s fine." Elvis waved at him, not caring about Hayden’s offensive remarks.
Meanwhile, Caelithia simply shut her eyes, ignoring everyone.
Hayden snickered. "They always say natural Class mutations are never negative mutations. But I can tell you that artificial Class mutations help the host choose the direction they want to evolve in. Natural mutations feel forced down your throat."
"So, my Class is Knight," Luke said, changing the topic. "Freda is an Archer Class. Hayden here is an Ice Mage."
While Freda slouched into herself with her petite figure at the introduction, Hayden’s face glowed with pride.
"Cool," Elvis remarked.
Luke began explaining the dungeon to Elvis, who simply nodded.
Feeling bored, he decided to scan everyone with Blood Appraisal.
As expected, Luke and Freda had Strength as their dominant attribute, while Hayden had Intelligence as his dominant attribute.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the location on Seventh FF Street.
Hayden parked the car beside a fenced building, where a few officers were patrolling out front, and they all alighted.
Surprisingly, Hayden waved his hand over the pouch attached to his waist, and a short staff with a white orb at the top, along with a thin-bladed sword, appeared in his hands. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
Luke replicated the same action. A double-handed, single-edged curved sword appeared in his grasp.
Luke and Hayden walked in front, with the other three trailing behind.
They were stopped at the gate by a stern-looking guard.
Luke quickly handed over the paper slip. The guard then passed it to another officer, who took it inside.
A few minutes later, the officer returned and beckoned for them to follow him. He led them through a heavily protected building with a plain design—except for the extra-large, metal doors—before they finally met a middle-aged man smoking beside a reinforced, metal door.
The man said to them, "You have five hours to make your way to the end of the dungeon and take the portal back. Or you will die in the dungeon.
"By now, you should already know the things about the Frozen Forest dungeon, so I won’t say anything. If you don’t know, then you can die inside. Do all of you have a storage bag?"
Elvis, Caelithia, and Freda shook their heads.
The man tossed three black, three-pouched bags at Elvis, and he caught them, almost losing his composure.
"Those are universal storage bags, and you don’t need to bind them to use them. Just bring anything you want to store close to the mouth, and it shrinks. In it goes," he explained.
Then he warned them sternly, his sharp glare making all five of them shiver, "Remember, they are borrowed items. Despite being Common equipment, each one is worth a million Terris Credits. So you will bear the cost if they are misplaced."
They nodded.
Then he turned and walked up to the thick metal door.
He slotted in a golden card, and the thick, heavy door, which resembled a bank vault door, released a beeping sound. He then spun the handwheel before pulling the door open.
"Follow me."
The man led them through a narrow, metal passageway before they finally arrived in front of a four-meter-tall, white, circular portal, its surface slowly swirling and softly rippling as it exuded a freezing chill.
He gestured for them to go in.
"Let’s hold hands so we don’t get separated," Luke said.
Elvis’s vision went black for a second, accompanied by a mild squeezing sensation, as though something were tightly wrapping around him.
The pressure disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, along with his vision returning.
However, a freezing, billowing wind assailed him, whipping his hair back as he squinted against it and shivered inside his boots. The air tasted like frost.
Looking around, he found himself holding hands with his teammates in an immaculate frostbound world that stretched endlessly beneath the pale-white sky, with short, frozen trees dotting the snow-white landscape.
Elvis released their hands and tried to move, feeling the softness of the ground, heavily carpeted in thick snow.
Distant howls could be heard reverberating through the surroundings.
The cold made him realize that Caelithia had chosen the wrong type of armor; the trio’s furred armor was far better suited to the snowy world. Even its white color camouflaged them against the immaculate white expanse.
He turned and gave Caelithia a glare.
She shrugged in reply, making Elvis uncertain whether she understood his glare.
"T-ten wolves ahead." Freda’s voice, muffled by the howling wind, brought Elvis back to the present.
"Like we planned. Elvis, Caelithia, and I will be at the front. Freda and Hayden will support us from the back. But since I’m Level 5, I won’t attack much to give you the chance to level up," Luke stated.
They nodded.
Elvis pulled his sword from its scabbard and placed the scabbard in his universal storage bag.
"Let’s go." Luke guided them through the murky, thin haze.
Ahead, ten white wolves emerged like ghosts beneath a frozen tree, their bloodshot blue eyes gleaming through the haze and serrated fangs glinting beneath curled lips.
Elvis instantly scanned the largest wolf among them, which he assumed to be the alpha of the pack.
Surprisingly, the largest wolf had Strength as its dominant attribute, while the rest had Agility as theirs.
The alpha wolf roared, and they all lunged at Elvis’s group.