Northern Tundra

Mauri and Gary can feel the cold wind blow and see many pieces of ice floating in the water as they grow closer to the tundra, Gary asks Mauri while shivering.

"so what are we gonna do?"

Mauri replies.

"we have to ration our remaining food, then we use whatever blankets, and clothing to warm ourselves naturally, because if we try to use fire magic to warm ourselves up this whole time, then we will exhaust our mana, and end up freezing to death for sure."

Gary nods in agreement and then both of them find whatever article of clothing and blankets so they can keep their body heat up. Mauri looks out through the misty view, and notices that they are getting close to the coast at a worrying speed, Mauri turns to Gary and says.

"you may want to hold on, because we are about to hit the coast."

the boat then slams against something hard, Mauri looks down and sees water starting to ger inside the boat, she then says.

"we need to hurry and get off, these clothes will do us no good if they get wet now."

they both quickly gather all the food and put them inside a box, in which Mauri picks up after they packed the last of the food, then they jump off the boat and land on the ice, Mauri then says to Gary.

"be careful when you step on the ice, you don't wan to slip and fall here."

after carefully walking on the ice for a good while, they finally arrive to s snowy floor, Gary asks still shivering.

"what's the plan?"

she replies.

"we are going to find a cave or any shelter while we still can, before it starts snowing."

Gary then asks.

"so I'm guessing no one is going to look for us, and I'm also guessing you don't want to be found right?"

she responds.

"yeah that's right, you probably already know what I did at Grezia right?"

he replies.

"I'm very aware of what they say you did."

Mauri asks curiously.

"what did they say about?"

he hesitantly responds.

"that you lost your mind and went on a rampage killing many innocent lives."

Mauri thinks to herself.

"so they didn't waste any time, spreading propaganda about me."

Gary then continues.

"but since you mentioned your family being killed,

It all makes sense that you killed some people when you found out they were hunted down."

he stops himself, and then starts saying more.

"If I had the strength that you have, I'd probably do the same thing."

she asks him curiously.

"so what did you end up doing?"

he replies with resenment in his voice.

"I didn't do a damn thing, all I could do was cry helplessly and cower in fear."

after that they silently kept walking through the snow, Mauri then thinks to herself.

"there is a lot of mountains here, hopefully the one closest to us has a cave."

after a few hours of walking, they arrive at the foot of the mountain, Gary calls out to Mauri while pointing at the side of the mountain.

"look Mauri, it looks like a cave entrance, but it seems that we have to climb up to get to it."

as Mauri stares at the entrance, she starts to feel snow falling down, Gary says to her.

"it's starting to snow, I think we should go there."

Mauri replies.

"yeah I agree, we should hurry so we can start a fire and get some sleep."

and as they start climbing, Mauri thinks to herself.

"at least I don't have to use my hands to climb."

still carrying the box Mauri stars ascending closer to the cave with Gary behind her, the cold wind starts blowing harder and more snow began to fall, Mauri turns to Gary and shouts.

"pick up the pace, it looks like the weather is getting worse!"

The both of them climb at a much faster pace, until they finally got inside the cave, but everything and they can't see much so both of them chant.

"candlelight."

Mauri looks around and notices that the walls inside the cave are not made of rock, but are made of concrete, Mauri and Gary stare at each other, then Gary asks in a low voice.

"this cave is not natural, is this a dungeon?"

Mauri whispers back unsure.

"it could be."

Gary whispers back with enthusiasm.

"this could be a good thing, we could explore this dungeon and find something useful here."

Mauri is getting an uneasy feeling about this dungeon, but ignores it and replies to Gary.

"you're probably right, but we should be careful, if one of us gets badly wounded then our situation will go from bad to worse."

Gary responds with confidence.

"well we have you here, and with your amazing magic power there won't be much to worry about."

Mauri replies.

"I appreciate your confidence in me, but we still got to proceed with caution."

he responds.

"fine I get it, I'll just follow your lead."

they both begin to walk down corridor, and Mauri thinks to herself.

"this doesn't look like any regular dungeon, it seems like whoever built this, didn't focus on making any rooms, and only focused on this empty corridor."

after a few hours of walking down the empty corridor they arrive at a metal door, Gary out of breath asks Mauri.

"are dungeons usually this boring and empty?"

she replies.

"no and I think this isn't like any other dungeon I've encountered before."

Gary approaches the metal door, but he couldn't find a way to open it, he then asks Mauri confused.

"how are we supposed to open this door if there is no handle?"

Mauri approaches the door and notices that there are words enchanted on it, she thinks to herself.

"this is weird why is it written in the ancient language, and all the way out here?"

Mauri knows how to read the language due to the fact that she was born with the Hero's Blessing, she then reads it to herself.

"seal will unlock once palm makes contact with door."

Mauri slowly places her palm on the door and then, bright white light shine all around the edges of the door and then it slowly creaks open.