Nathaniel heaved out a sigh as he put on his clothes and strapped an enormous greatsword onto his back. All he wanted to do was sleep in at home, but he was called by the adventurer's guild to solve a problem within the Ice Forest dungeon.

He wasn't sure why they had called for him to go to this particular dungeon as it only had enemies around level 10 and he was at level 64. Nathaniel knew that the Ice Forest dungeon was trapped, meaning that those within had to defeat the boss to exit the dungeon. But that reason alone didn't explain the mysterious disappearances of four parties.

Perhaps the adventurers could not defeat the boss slime at the end of the dungeon. Either way, he still had a job to do and left his house.

On his way to the dungeon, he passed by several parties of novice adventurers who looked at him with either fearful, apprehensive or respectful looks.

[Swordsman – lvl 64]

Those that did use their identify skill on him simply saw a high leveled swordsman.

A couple minutes later he arrived at the dungeon but saw something strange. Nathaniel’s eyes were drawn not towards the dungeon entrance but towards a person.

[Mage – lvl 20]

Using his identify skill on the person he didn't see anything odd.

"Weird..." he muttered.

The person in question was a young girl who looked to be around 18 years of age. She had snow white hair that went down to her waist and wore a cast of ice around her left arm. But what drew his attention was the amount of blood on the blouse she was wearing.

Walking closer, Nathaniel was able to get a better look at the girl. He looked at her face and assumed she had a frightened or confused expression.

But when his eyes met her icy gaze, he involuntarily flinched. His instincts were screaming at him to run as he felt like a tiny rabbit in front of a dragon.

The feeling fleeted as soon as it came as the girl tilted her head to the side in confusion. Nathaniel felt a cold sweat drench his back and he shuddered nervously, ‘I must be imagining things, what the hell was that.’

“Em, excuse me Miss, are you perhaps okay?” Nathaniel asked awkwardly, walking up to the girl.

She frowned at the sound of his voice, pondering for a moment before opening her mouth. But what came out was something that Nathaniel could not quite understand.

‘She must not be from around here,’ Nathaniel thought before thinking of a way to communicate to the girl.

“Ah, um... is your arm, alright there?” He gestured, pointing to his arm while wearing a pained expression on his face.

The girl saw the gesture and seemed to understand, nodding her head in response. Nathaniel could not help but glance down towards her chest which was covered in blood. She seemed to misunderstand the notion and the temperature of the air around the pair lowered drastically.

He realized after a moment that he was in-fact staring at something that he shouldn't have.

“I uh.. didn't mean to... sorry...” Nathaniel immediately apologized, looking up at the sky with a flustered face and rubbing the back of his neck.

The girl released her control over her magic and the temperature returned to normal. But the grumpy expression on her face did not disappear.

Unsure of what to do in this situation he pulled out a translucent orb from his inventory and inserted his mana into the orb. The girl looked at the orb and raised her eyebrow with interest, but she still seemed to be a little grumpy.

“Oh this," he laughed, "it’s a recent technology that was invented by the MagiTech association, it lets me talk to someone even over long distances.” Nathaniel explained, excited about the invention.

He was a huge fan of the item and was just about to go on a speech about the device; but when he saw her confused face, he paused.

“Right, different language, whoops,” he muttered.

{Hello, name and what is the situation?} a deep voice rang out from the device.

“It’s Nathaniel, I just got to the Ice Forest dungeon, but something came up,” he said, glancing back towards the girl before continuing, “There's this girl here, white hair, blue eyes, wearing a bloodied white blouse who appears to be injured. She is also unable to speak the language and is a level twenty ice mage.”

{Alright, we’ll send someone over to pick her up and bring her back to the guild so we can figure out what's going on.} with those words, a click sounded out, signaling the connection being cut off.

“Okay young miss, you just sit tight and wait here while I solve this problem,” Nathaniel said, bending over and drawing a stickman in the dirt to convey his message.

The girl looked at his drawing and covered her mouth with her right hand before letting out a light laugh. She then created a chair of ice which she promptly sat back and relaxed in.

Shaking his head, he entered the dungeon.

Several hours later, he found the boss room which was a circular clearing. He had already double-checked the rest of the dungeon but found nothing that pointed him in the right direction.

Walking around the perimeter of the boss arena, he looked for the boss of the dungeon which was supposed to be a giant slime. But all he saw was destruction. The entire clearing was encased with a layer of ice, some of it thicker in certain places. Nathaniel could also see massive craters under the ice that hid the stone below. While long scars were gouged into the floor itself, definitely not caused by a boss slime.

Deciding that he needed to take a closer look, he walked towards the center of the clearing and soon saw something odd.

What appeared to be a giant wolf with silver fur lay on the ground, but it was dead.

"Doesn't really look like a slime to me..." he muttered and walked right up to the corpse.

Inspecting the corpse, he found multiple wounds. Two deep holes in its back, a long gash on its underside and a puncture wound into its heart.

But what he found odd was that the entirety of its insides were frozen solid.

'Did she do this...?' he thought, picking up a shard of ice from the ground.

Frowning, he quickly spotted the exit in the form of a magic circle and ran towards it. But when he appeared at the entrance of the dungeon, the white haired girl was nowhere to be seen.

 

****

 

“What a fucking prick, so what if I'm flat,” Rin muttered under her breath.

She assumed from his drawing that he had wanted her to wait for someone to come get her.

But sitting and waiting was starting to become boring.

After around twenty minutes of waiting, Rin was just about to get up and leave but she soon felt a presence approaching her from the forest.

Sure enough, a person had come. It was a dwarf who had a short and round stature with deep-set brown eyes. He wore heavy plated armor while an axe was strapped to his waist.

[Warrior – lvl 47]

‘Doesn’t look like a stickman to me,’ Rin thought, glancing at the pudgy dwarf who appeared at the edge of her vision.

He looked at her for a moment, seemingly to confirm something, then looked back downwards towards a document in his hands. Once again looking up at her face, he gestured for her to follow him with his fingers and turned around, walking back the way he came.

Shrugging, Rin hopped off her chair and followed the man. They walked through the forest and soon arrived at a stone road which was filled with carriages and people.

The pair walked past several groups of adventurers who had various kinds of expressions on their faces seeing her.

Some looked at her with sympathy while others were shocked seeing her level at such a young age.

As they continued to walk along the road, a wall hiding many tall buildings came into view.

"Wow...." Rin muttered in awe of the view.

While she was admiring the view, a blonde female elven ranger chuckled at the sight.

[Ranger – lvl 39]

The elf walked up to Rin and whispered something into her ear. But being unable to understand the elf's words, she only gave a slight nod in reply as the elf chucked once more.

Walking out of the forest line, Rin saw the area around the city to the right was covered by farmland. But when she looked to the left, she gasped in amazement.

A vast ocean was spread to the edges of her vision while the sun glimmered on the surface water. The pair continued on the road until they came up to the gates of the city. Gesturing for her to wait, the dwarf walked up to the gate and spoke with a man inside a booth.

Rin watched as they exchanged a couple of words before the dwarf flashed a card of some sort.

'Some kind of I.D. I suppose,' Rin thought.

The gatekeeper shouted something and the gates opened. But he gave Rin a strange look as she walked past.

Entering the city, Rin found herself in a large square while a large obsidian pillar with runic markings stood tall in the center.

She couldn't recognize the markings on the pillar but saw something on top of the pillar that was familiar to her. It was a giant white stone, carved into the shape of a sphere that would produce light.

Rin smiled at the sight of the crystal, happy to see that there were some parallels between her past world and this new one.

Around the square, she saw people either sitting on benches or standing around.

The person with the highest level was a man at level eighty, he gave her a light nod when he noticed her gaze. While the lowest was a level five baker who sold bread and pastries with a cheerful smile.

Many people gave her a quick glance before going back to what they were doing. Apparently coming in with bloody clothing and injuries were common enough to not warrant her any attention.

Leaving the clearing, Rin continued to follow the dwarf as they walked along the crowded sidewalk of a paved street meant for carriages. There were colorful storefronts to the side that looked interesting to Rin but the dwarf continued walking.

A couple minutes later, the two arrived at the largest building that she had seen yet. The base of the building was made with a polished stone while the rest of it was made out of metal and dark wood.

While the entrance of the building was a large archway that didn't have a door. It stood at a height of 5 meters and led into an even larger hall. Looking upwards, she saw a large sign on top of the archway with similar markings to the pillar she saw earlier.

The dwarf looked at the girl with a proud smile before gesturing for her to follow him into the building.

Rin assumed it was the adventurer's guild as inside the main hall of the building stood many different kinds of people carrying weapons and armor.

Walking to the front desk, the dwarf talked with the receptionist and handed her a document. Not understanding anything, Rin didn't think she was needed and walked over to a nearby chair to rest.

Without anything to do, Rin inspected random people with her identify skill but found none to be over level 100.

‘Weird, for such a big building they’re all this weak?’ Rin thought.

While she was lost in her thoughts a woman sat down on a chair right next to her. It was the same elven ranger that she had seen on the road earlier.

‘Her again,’ Rin thought as she turned towards the elf.

The elf held her hand out as a greeting along with saying something that Rin couldn't understand.

‘Ah... this is going to be annoying,’ Rin shrugged then pointed towards her open mouth while shaking her head.

The elf looked lost for a moment before pulling out a bow from her inventory. Pointing towards the bow, the elf made a sound with her mouth then pointed at Rin.

'Seems like she wants me to repeat it,' Rin thought before repeating the noise.

Hearing Rin's crisp voice, the ranger clapped and had a wide smile on her face.

‘I don't like how she treats me like a child though...’ Rin thought and frowned.

The elf then took out a map from her inventory before pointing at the title on the top and producing a sound with her mouth.

“Arphen,” Rin echoed the sound, feeling the word on her tongue.

‘I guess the region or continent is called Arphen,’ Rin deduced.

The elf continued to teach Rin words in the local language before the dwarf and the receptionist walked up to the two. The dwarf said something to the elf before she stood up and waved goodbye to Rin.

Gesturing for Rin to follow her, the receptionist and the dwarf led her into a room with an elevator powered by mana cores that lifted them up to the forty ninth floor.

They exited the elevator and walked through the hall until they reached a door. The receptionist opened the door revealing a room with a bed and table in the corner, bookshelves containing books for children and a large window across from the door.

Another door connected to the left side of the room was slightly open, inside Rin saw a toilet and a sink while a wardrobe filled with clothes was next to the bathroom door.

They handed the key to the room to Rin and left her alone inside the room. Rin walked over to the window and pressed her right hand against the glass while her left hung uselessly to her side.

“I wish I had my wings right now,” Rin said aloud, admiring the view of the city from the current height. She stared out of the window for a couple of minutes before being interrupted by a knock on the door.

Walking over to the door and opening it, she found the same dwarf from before but noticed that the receptionist was gone, instead there was a skinny man in a red robe.

[Healer – lvl 27]

The healer gestured for her to sit down on the bed, while he took out a couple of items from his inventory. He pulled out a type of liquid, a thermometer, and some bandages. He told Rin to take off her cast but when she did not respond to his voice he looked over to the dwarf for help.

The stout dwarf gestured for her to remove the cast by tearing an imaginary cast off his left arm. Rin complied, gritting her teeth as she undid the ice around her arm.

But when the healer saw what lay beneath her ice, his face immediately blanched. Seconds later, the thin man summoned a type of bag into his hands before he vomited in the item.

Silence surrounded the room as Rin looked at the dwarf with a blank expression before she burst out into laughter. With the dwarf soon joining her with a hearty laugh of his own.

With an embarrassed look on his face, the healer left the room and soon returned with a cheerful, brown haired woman in tow. But the moment the woman's eyes fell on Rin's arm, her expression hardened.

[Healer – lvl 49]

‘It can’t be that bad right,’ Rin thought looking down at her arm, ‘Okay maybe it is that bad.’

The woman who looked to be around her mid-twenties grasped Rin’s right hand, saying something that she could only assume to be comforting as the healer pushed her healing mana into her.

Rin looked down and saw her flesh and bone glowing with a warm green light as it reknit itself in front of her eyes.

‘She’s pretty good at this,’ Rin thought while watching her arm heal.

When the healer was done her face was pale and sweat dripped down from her forehead to the floor below. The procedure had taken a little over an hour but Rin’s left arm had completely regrown itself. However, the new flesh was still tender and she would unable to use it to its fullest for the next couple of days.

The dwarf had along with the other healer had left about halfway into the procedure and she was unable to thank them. Nevertheless, Rin thanked the woman who healed her arm with a smile. The healer responded in kind with a smile of her own before leaving Rin alone in the room, closing the door on her way out.

Walking to the window, Rin found that the sun had set and the night was in full view. She looked up at sky, mesmerized by the stars that reminded her of her old world. She wondered if it had survived and was out there somewhere.

Turning around, she walked to the wardrobe and opened it. Inside there were several articles of clothing but nothing was too fancy. Picking up a simple black gown, she discarded what she was currently wearing and put on the dress.

Examining herself in the mirror above the wardrobe, she found the black gown to compliment her snow white hair. She struck a couple of poses in the mirror but was soon starting to feel drowsy. Locking the door to the room. she made her way to the foot of the bed.

“A bed, fuck yeah,” Rin smiled before hopping onto the mattress and drawing the covers over herself. Quickly nodding off to sleep in the comforting embrace of the bed.