After about ten days more of a voyage, Conrad left the airship finally, and after using a taxi to reach the general location, he started walking to the Ice Cradle.
After about twenty minutes of walking with some other small and big groups, he comes to a city called Northern Frost City.
"I should buy some winter clothing here."
All the surroundings are covered in snow and ice.
Northern Frost City is a relatively modern town with about a hundred thousand people living inside of it.
It was the last relatively normal city before he reached Ice Cradle and entered Ice Cradle Underground City, or, by a smaller name, Cradle City.
Cradle City too needed special permission to enter from respectable organizations, but for a hunter, entry cannot be denied at all.
The influence and power of the Hunter Association are too much for any kind of a place, including places like NGL, to stop them from entering the city; they could try, but it would create too many problems in terms of political matters.
After entering Northern Frost City, Conrad bought enough food and some clothing for himself. Now that he was wearing dark insides of a sweater and a black jacket made of wool, he did not need much aura to stop the cold.
The general temperature of the Northern Frost City was about -10 Celsius; it was cold but still okay for humans to live as long as they had okay clothing and the fuel was there.
"Okay."
"Now, it is time to enter Cradle City."
Conrad went to a big building called Cradle Communications, which was a building that needed to be visited for a voyage to Cradle Underground City, and it dealt with all communications between the outside world and Cradle Underground City, including transportation, trade, and heat distribution.
"Hi," said Conrad to the man waiting behind a counter; the man looked at him for a moment.
"A tourist of some sort?" he thought.
Conrad passed his hunter license and then said.
"I would like to enter Cradle Underground City."
The man looked at the license and quickly confirmed it with the card reader just beside his table, and then his uninterested face showed a big smile.
"Of course."
"There is a basic fee of ten thousand yen..."
Conrad nodded and placed the bank notes on the counter; the man picked them up and then wrote something on the computer.
"Mister Conrad, a bus will come to the entrance in an hour; it will go to the entrance of Cradle City."
"From there, people will guide you to enter the underground city."
"Thank you for visiting."
Conrad nodded and then left the building and started waiting outside.
After one hour later, the people waiting numbered up to fifteen, including Conrad, and the bus arrived.
After all the people boarded the bus, it started going toward the Cradle City.
The distance was not long, only about fifty km, but in this cold environment ordinary people without training and used to cold weather cannot pass this area.
Every km they get closer to Cradle City, the temperature decreases about 0.1 to 0.2 Celsius. When they reach the entrance of Cradle City, the general coldness around the site reaches -30 Celsius.
The inside of the city is normally about -40 Celsius, and there are areas that reach down to -80 Celsius and down to -100, at which point no human can think of living.
One breath would be enough to freeze up all the insides of the individual, and the death time would be down to ten to fifteen seconds of exposure.
A new user with his ten and ren usage can resist the temperatures down to -40 for some time before needing a heat source.
Even a nen user, with a relatively strong amount of nen, may not be able to resist the temperature of -80 for longer than ten minutes at the very most.
The bus ride is relatively peaceful; nobody talked but just looked at the outside from their double windows. The heating is always on so that nobody feels uncomfortable.
About one hour later, on the clean way, Conrad and other people reached their targets.
As they left the bus, they felt the bone-chilling cold air around them.
Some of the guides called them out and directly led them to several buildings.
As they entered, they felt great because of the comfort of the heat inside of the buildings.
The guide, a woman wearing a thick parka, looked at them and started speaking.
"Thirteen of you will be guided all around the Cradle Entrance Base for photos and videos as you guys are paid for."
As she said these words, several guides took the thirteen people; only Conrad, a woman with a short stature, was left.
The woman looked at them and nodded.
"One of you is a hunter and the other is an expert of geography from Harvard University."
"You two will be led by me to enter the Cradle City."
"Be aware that all expenses will belong to you there, and when you enter, you cannot leave until you stay there for fifteen days."
"The entry and leaving the city only opens every fifteen days; if you are there for fifteen days and don't leave when time is up, you will be needing to wait another fifteen days."
"Opening the 'Gate of Cradle' takes resources and time, and it only opens when there is a logistic need, so we cannot open it only for you."
"Be aware of that."
"I will be leading you to the entrance, and when you enter, another guide that lives inside of 'Cradle City' will talk to you about the city and how it works."
"Anything?"
The woman said, "Conrad," or the expert woman said nothing.
"Okay, then follow me."
"You guys will be entering in two hours."
Conrad and the expert woman started walking behind the woman; the expert woman from Harvard University looked at Conrad for a moment.
"I am Dali, Dali Nax."
Conrad looked at the woman and nodded.
"Conrad Everest." Dali nodded and smiled.
In a sense, Dali, with her stature and black hair and blue eyes, was a miniature woman with great features, and she gave a sense of wisdom and also happiness when one watched; Conrad liked these kinds of people.
At least, he did like it when he was back on Earth and lived a normal life.