Ice And Mana

"So we're not on Earth anymore..." Mubles the guy with glasses to himself, while thinking...

"A dwarf?! Like the dwarves from fantasy videogames?!?!" Esclamates Haru, surprised and a bit shocked, "Again with those "Videogames", just what are you talking about??" Asks Darius, confused, "So it's a full fledged isekai, with demons and other fantasy races..." Says Mia, while thinking,

"Anyway, Adam already told you my name, but allow me to introduce myself again." Says Darius, "*Ahem*. I am Darius Smith, a capable blacksmith and member of the dwarf race" continues Darius, while introducing himself to the others,

"My name is Hasegawa Haru, nice to meet you!" says Haru, introducing herself, "I am Olan, i don't have a surname because i am a villager..." says Domo, still a bit shocked, "My name is Shirayuki Mia" says Mia, "You already know my and Ray's names, so that leaves glasses guy here." Says baldie, while looking at the guy with glasses.

"I am Yoshida Akira, make sure to remember it." Says glasses guy, while adjusting his glasses with his finger.

I want to check his status, but we have to find a way to get out of this cave first...

I could use the Bracelet Of Gluttony, but i don't know if it will work like last time, since this isn't exactly the Room Of Instanity...

"We can only go further inside the cave" says Akira, while looking at the dark tunnel ahead of us,

"Give me a piece of cloth." continues Akira, while looking at Domo. "What for??" Asks Domo, confused, "Do you want to wander aimlessly in the dark once we're in the tunnel? If no, then give me a piece of cloth." Responds Akira while tending his hand forward, waiting for Domo to rip a piece of his clothes off and give it to him, "*Sigh*, Fine..." Says Domo.

He ripped off a piece of cloth about double the size of a paper sheet, and gave it to Akira.

Akira then took out a baton that he probably took in the armory from under his shirt (why did he have it under the shirt??), and a small metal bottle from his pocket. He then opened the bottle and put the cloth on top of it, then he turned it upside down, to let whatever liquid was in the bottle come out and wet the cloth.

"What's that?" Asks baldie, "A bottle of pure alchool" responds Akira, "Why the heck do you have a bottle of alchool with you?" Asks baldie, "Better safe than sorry, just like the situation we're in now." Responds Akira while wrapping the cloth around one of the ends of the stick.

He then took off his glasses and moved near the hole in the wall, placed the stick on the floor and put his glasses in a way that would redirect the sunlight in one point on the cloth.

"Now, let's wait. Too bad i ran out of emergency flint right before being teleported in The Tower." Says Akira, as if it was the most normal thing in the world...

After a while, the the cloth catched on fire.

"Woah, so that thing they did in the movies actually works?!" Esclamates baldie, "What?! How did you do that?!? Are those glasses an artifact???" Asks Domo, amazed and shocked.

Oh, right, Domo didn't know about science.

"Let's just go." Says Akira while holding the torch he created and walking towards the dark tunnel.

We then entered the tunnel together.

We could only see as much as the torch brightened, and it was kind of cold, even with the heat of the torch's fire, "It's hella cold here, i'd be freezing if it wasn't for this torch!" Says baldie while rubbing his hands, trying to make them even a bit less cold, "Ugh... I don't like cold places..." Says Domo while holding his arms.

It was getting colder and colder the deeper we went into the tunnel, we could even see our own breath by now...

After a while of walking, we reached an enormous circular room, it was something like 50 meters high and 80 meters wide.

There were blue crystals that looked like blue ice that brightened the whole place. They were both on the ceiling and down on the floor, some were huge, some others were small, there were all kinds of sized crystal clusters.

Floating, at the centre of the room, there was a white sword... It was a greatsword, its blade was pure white, the handle being made of clear ice, with a gem, made from the same kind of crystal there was was in the cave, put at the end of the handle. I could sense multiple threads of ice cold Mana connecting some huge crystal clusters in the room, wich looked more similar to ice than crystals, to the greatsword.

"Wow.... What is this place..." Says Domo, too amazed to speak anymore words, "Yeah, the scenery is beatiful and all, but it's gotten even colder now." The moment after Akira said that, the fire on the torch extinguished because of the sheer cold in the cave.

The good thing is that we didn't need the light of the torch anymore, the bad one is... That we were going to freeze to death at this rate.

"We have to get out of here as soon as possible... Also, don't move too much, try to preserve the heat in your body." Says baldie, trying to give advices to us,

"Didn't think you'd know that it's better to preserve the heat than to try and create more by moving, expecially in this kind of sheer cold. You're smarter than i thought." Says Akira to baldie, "I don't know if i should take this as an offense or as a compliment... Anyway, i knew that because i was used to travel around the world and go mountain hiking sometimes, that is when we were on Earth..." Says baldie, looking a bit nostalgic while thinking of his original world.

We then went each a different way, searching for a way out.

I walk towards one of the ice crystal clusters with Mana in them, curious about why those were different from other crystal clusters.

Now that i'm so close to it, i can see how huge and beatiful it is...

Before i knew it, my hand was touching the crystal, but the moment it touched, my hand almost froze.

"UGH"

I immediately stepped back, holding my hand.

I could barely move it now. The only reason it didn't completely freeze is because my own Mana could partially stop the cold Mana in the crystal from entering my body directly.

...

As i was thinking on how i could erase the Mana contained in the crystal, a strange idea came to my mind.

Erase? It's not like i must erase it... What if i could...

Absorb it?

After all, the Bracelet Of Gluttony can't store living beings, but Mana isn't alive, let alone a being. And even if that didn't work, i could just store the crystal itself, but the others might see the crystal suddently disappearing, so i'll go with the first method.

[Infinite Storage]...

I could see the ice cold Mana leaving the huge crystal cluster, but it was not being stored in the artifact...

[You are using the Bracelet Of Gluttony to absorb the Mana in the crystal]

[Alert! Detected a strange affinity with ice Mana. Detected the usage of an absorption type skill. You are now making the Mana you are absorbing through the skill your own!]

What?! I can absorb the Mana in the crystal like this?!

[Congratulations! After absorbing all the ice Mana in the crystal, your Total Mana reached 3000!]

As the blue screen appeared in front of me, i could no longer feel the Mana thread connecting the crystal cluster and the greatsword.

I wonder what will happen once all the Mana threads are gone...

Chapter 25-End.