Arctic Exploration

Boreal Mimics - that was the name that Isaac bestowed upon the next research specimens. Just like the Black Goos from the Desolate Frontier, the Boreal Mimics were, in essence, just slimes. This time, their bodies were white instead of black, but their weak points were still their cores.

There were two major differences between the Boreal Mimics and their weaker brethren - first of all, they were far stronger, with their Endurance reaching up to C-600 / 29,850. Lastly, their behaviour differed, as there were no cave-like hallways that they could hide in on these floors. In order to make their prey fall into a trap in such an environment, they hid underneath a thin layer of snow, and once any distracted adventurers had ventured far enough into their trap, they would jolt up from underneath and engulf them from all sides.

Needless to say, Isaac had already perfected his slime-fighting strategy when he had faced the Black Goos, so these Boreal Mimics did neither pose a threat to him, nor did they make him spend extra time on researching them. In this thematic zone, they were probably the species that he finished dealing with the quickest - and that was quite the achievement, considering how many of the others weren't that time-consuming to deal with either.

Although the next monsters weren't particularly extraordinary, they at least made Isaac smile wryly. Their bodies were up to five meters tall, covered entirely in white fur, and their eyes were a deep red, akin to dried blood. Overall, they had ape-like shapes and were capable of walking on their hind legs. The biggest group that he happened to come across was a tribe of multiple hundreds. As they could use basic formations to encircle him, they would pose quite the threat to any adventurer that wasn't extremely skillful or already completely outscaled them. As for their stats? They relied mostly on Strength and Agility, which were both at C-650 / 30,650.

For a while, Isaac was simply baffled, as these monstrosities seemed exactly like the Yetis that had been portrayed in the pop culture of his old world. But little did the majority of the people there know that most relatively trustworthy eye witness statements that had been made concerning these creatures had actually described their fur to be a dark brown colour. Due to this, while he had initially been tempted to just call them Yetis and be done with it, he chose to go with a less inaccurate term - White Rakshasas. Their man-eating, bloodthirsty nature was what finally convinced him to make this decision.

But while they now bore a relatively formidable-sounding moniker, these glorified oversized apes were all too easily dispatched. They had no special abilities to speak of, and only their group tactics were worthy of note. All in all, Isaac didn't pay them special attention for long - which was probably for the best.

After all, if this hadn't been happening in the dungeon, where the monsters' minds were warped beyond any redemption or rational thought, then there surely would have been a surviving young White Rakshasa somewhere that would have miraculously gone unnoticed, allowing it to tide through the heartless and inhumane slaughter. After Isaac's departure, it would then have embarked upon a path aiming for revenge and immortality. It would have ultimately failed, but what a journey it would have been!

Speaking of disappointments, the Glacier Golems were nothing to write home about either. They were literally just ice-themed and stronger versions of the Flame Rocks which could be found in the Desolate Frontier - their Endurance and Magic reached up to B-700 / 31,450.

If there was one minor thing of note, it was that their icy explosions were actually quite annoying to deal with, because they would momentarily make the surrounding temperatures drop even lower, causing a slightly increased energy expenditure for Isaac. Of course, as he only allowed them to showcase this ability a handful of times, it couldn't even hope to put more than a slight dent into his perpetually regenerating reserves. As for the icicle shrapnel? He easily evaded or deflected it.

Only found in regions around ice-bound lakes were the Nykar, horse-like monsters quite similar to the Kelpies from the 27th floor. At first glance, the only real difference between the two was that the former were made entirely out of ice. Sometimes, they looked more like inanimate objects than living beings. Initially, Isaac had been more than a little let down by them, as he had thought that they would just be another reskin.

This time, however, he finally got a positive surprise. The Nykar had the ability to change their shapes - mostly into many quadrupedal animals. In fact, even during the entire thirty minutes that he dedicated to this species' research - about three times the amount that he would usually spend - Isaac didn't manage to make them reveal all of their possible shapes and sizes.

Bears, different breeds of horses, elks, even rats - there seemed to be nearly no limits to their ability. Still, each one of their transformations was somewhat flawed: a missing claw, a tail that was twice as long as it should be… these minor mishaps were a part of every one of their forms except for their Nykur one.

For a while, Isaac was under the impression that they could only transform into quadrupeds, and that this was the limitation of their shapeshifting - well, he was wrong. They even had various humanoid forms, but these really seemed to be the only non-quadruped ones that they had access to. Another thing of note was that in contrast to their non-Nykur animal forms, the humanoid ones didn't have any obvious flaws - except for being made out of ice, of course.

This caused Isaac to speculate a little. What if the Nykar originally had both a horse and a human form? To switch between them wouldn't need them to make use of whatever ability they were using to shapeshift into other forms besides these two inborn ones, and it would explain why the unnatural ones always had minor but clear flaws.

Because he hadn't seen all the shapes that they had to offer yet, Isaac stuffed close to a hundred Nykar into his inventory, so he could give them the proper attention that they were due later. Their weak points had already been discovered - just like golems and slimes, they had a core, upon whose destruction they would die. As for their stats, their Agility and Magic were at B-750 / 32,250.

It had to be mentioned that even someone as careful as Isaac had almost been taken aback by the Nykar's ability to transform once, when they first showcased it to escape some of his attacks. For a regular adventurer, if they weren't warned in advance, they could easily fall prey to these deceptive horses.

Towering at a height of over thirty meters, with dark brown, long fur, an elephant-like frame and sporting three massive tusks on each side of their trunks - those were the most apparent features of the Woolen Terrors. Yes, they were basically just massive mammoths. Usually, they would use their weight as a weapon, and would charge at any prey that entered their sight - still, due to their poor maneuverability, they could easily be dodged. Well, if they were alone.

Their herds consisted of more than a hundred individuals, and having such a hulking and massive wave of fur and tusks flooding towards oneself was a humbling experience, to say the least.

'You may be able to dodge me, but can you dodge all of us?'

If the Woolen Terrors were capable of thought, that was most likely what would be going through their thick skulls.

Even Isaac decided that it was a far smarter decision to vault onto their backs at the first chance that he got, because evading them on the ground may be possible, but it would be extremely burdensome - the bigger the herd, the bigger the trouble.

Once one arrived on top of them, however, one had to face the next wave of devastating attacks, whose origins were their trunks. With a Dexterity that one wouldn't expect from such huge monsters, they could accurately pinpoint their prey simply by aiming at the spots on their backs where they felt a slight itch. It was quite similar to how one would squash a mosquito.

While it was possible for Isaac to completely circumvent this problem by utilizing his Anemoi Steps, he didn't need to do so, because the trunk attacks were a walk in the park to deal with. If he was too annoyed, he could even just cut them off.

As was reasonably often the case, the stronger the thematic zone's monster species got, the more of their stats were outstanding - for the Woolen Terrors, their Strength, Endurance and Dexterity were all at A-800 / 33,050. At this point, a slight trickle of excelia finally came Isaac's way again.

Aside from the Nykar, there was one more monster species that sported a human-like appearance - this time constantly, not just occasionally. They seemed to be women of many different ages, clad in white robes that were almost transparent. Their skin was ghastly and colourless, and so were their eyes - even their hair was white most of the time, although other hair colours could occasionally be spotted.

For regular adventurers, some of these women would indeed appear to strike a quite seducing figure, they might even be led astray. But some other women, especially of the older variety… they would probably cause the opposite effect, to put it nicely.

Usually, these women would sport a plethora of different facial expressions, all aiming to get their prey to come closer to them, into their chilling embrace. Still, due to them having been spawned by the dungeon, they all still had a kind of bloodlust lingering in their gazes. Admittedly, that could easily be missed, especially if one was to be distracted by their oftentimes mesmerizing assets, but it was still present. In other words, unless one was a helplessly affection-starved pervert, one would be fine.

After all, which kind of fool would jump headfirst into a honeytrap? Well, not Isaac. To test them, he attacked the women from a distance using his bow and wind blades, which caused them to fully reveal their true colours. Their expressions shifted into ones of abject fury and killing intent, while they screeched unintelligible sounds at a high pitch. Just seconds later, massive snow storms would start to form and trap their prey. Occasionally, they would also produce icicle-like projectiles which they could fire at their enemies at will.

The screeches were also rallying calls, which would quickly result in up to eighty of them making their way to their sister in need, bombarding their prey from all sides with their Magics. Even in close quarters, they were still a little dangerous. Using mana, they would form icy claws on their fingers with which they would attempt to rip apart their opponents.

Needless to say, after Isaac allowed himself to experience all of their Magics firsthand, he simply used his mana to interrupt them and made them fizzle out into nothing. A cold shiver ran down the spectating Titania's spine at this sight…

The women's stats weren't anything impressive, except for their Magic, which was at A-850 / 33,850. Still, usually they wouldn't need any other weapon, as Magic was extremely overpowered in this world, to say the least. But against Isaac, they could only line up not-so-obediently and be slain. Just like regular humanoids, the most efficient method to kill them that he came up with ultimately turned out to be a clean and swift beheading yet again.

After he concluded his research on them, he decided to call them Yuki-onnas. They were far too similar to these figures of folklore from his past world, and he didn't see any reason to desperately try to be creative. If he left it up to other adventurers, these women would probably be cursed with a name like 'Cold Babes', or a similarly horrifying one.

All the while until he reached the 61st floor, at around 5 a.m., he didn't encounter any new monster species, nor any significant change in scenery. Then, finally, new kinds of specimens joined the fray.

For the first time since he had come to this world, Isaac truly felt like he was facing actual dragons. Yes, he had fought many of their kind before, but none of them had made him mentally exclain in any kind of admiration before, and none of them had made him truly think that they were the dragons that he had occasionally pictured in his head. These ones, however, did.

Their scales were snow-white and had a certain beauty to it, while their bodies, from their heads to the tip of their tails, were about 40 meters in size. As for their wingspan when they took to the skies - or rather, the airspace of this floor? It was almost 100 meters.

In Isaac's old world, most people only knew two kinds of dragons - the Western and the Eastern ones. The ones that he had encountered now definitely looked like the former. While they were beautiful and regal, and evoked a sense of wonder and respect, they also had an air of danger to them, as well as the appearance of apex predators. Their claws appeared as if they could rip apart any opponents, their quadrupedal bodies were muscular and imposing, and their heads were just plainly fear-inducing.

An approving smile played across Isaac's lips as he observed these monsters. He had always preferred Western dragons over Eastern ones. This wasn't because he had come into contact with the former first, far from it - the earliest depiction of a dragon that he had ever seen was that of an Eastern one. The real reason as to why he had developed such a preference over his life was simple - he felt like Eastern dragons looked a little comical. Yes, it was just a matter of personal taste, nothing more.

In an effort to give these newly discovered dragons a more original name than the other ones that he had chosen today, out of pure appreciation for them, he chose to call them Zimsmoks. Admittedly, he hadn't tried hard, but at least he hadn't settled on the name of a creature from folklore or mythology this time. In other words he hadn't been completely lazy.

The Zimsmoks were most often seen in groups of five, but never more. Occasionally, they would roam the floor all on their lonesome. Needless to say, they could also make use of breath attacks - ice-elemental ones, which really didn't come as a surprise. Even though they were truly gigantic in size, they still had a lot of airspace to maneuver through, as the ceiling, by now, was close to ten kilometers in height. Honestly, they were an absolute pain to fight and kill. Their stats were all at S-900 / 34,650, which at least gave Isaac a handful of stats worth of excelia per slain dragon.

Still, it took him quite a while to end even a single one at first. Monsters with enormous bodies would need to be dealt far bigger injuries than smaller monsters to achieve the same effect. With only a khopesh in hand, the amount of damage that he could deal was very limited.

If he couldn't have made use of his Anemoi Steps, he would have only been able to rely on some improvised Magics and his bow. But even when he successfully aimed for their eyes, he was soon disappointed - due to the flimsy material of his arrows and bow, they couldn't pack much of a punch and even the transparent membrane that always covered the Zimsmoks' eyes was enough to resist his attacks. The worst that he could do was to give them a slight itch. He should really upgrade his weaponry sometime…

Even when Isaac got close to them, his khopesh could only barely overcome the durability of their scales. After using this to wound them, he quickly decided that he shouldn't clash directly with their defenses, as this temporary weapon of his was already beginning to dull. Admittedly, if he just made use of all of his power and didn't reduce his stats to match his opponents anymore, he could have simply obliterated these dragons with a casual punch, using only his physical body - but that would have been far too easy, and it would not have resulted in thorough research either.

Because the breath attacks could effortlessly be dispelled by him, they didn't trouble him at all, and he could carefully size up the Zimsmoks' bodies in detail. Truly, if he had a better weapon, he would be able to simply cut them apart piece by piece, as usual. But as he couldn't do that now, his options were a little more limited. At first, he had hoped that some of their scales would be less resilient, that they would have particular spots where they were less developed. Still, that wasn't the case.

Ultimately, he came up with three feasible approaches. The first two required him to dispel their breath attacks and charge into their mouths, attacking them from the inside. The best choice here would be to follow their throats all the way to their stomachs and to use mana manipulation to keep their gastric acid at bay. That way, he could quite easily cut a path to their hearts. The less ideal choice in the 'entering the dragons' bodies'-scenario was to stay within the mouth and try to attack the brain directly. That was far more difficult, as he would have to overcome a layer of bone, and his weapon was simply too brittle for that.

The last idea that he had had was to attack their eyes directly. Using his arrows had been ineffective, but if he caught them by surprise, he was confident that he could easily stab through the membranes protecting the eyes before they could shut their eyelids, all the way through the holes in their skulls that allowed their eyes' optic nerves to connect to their brains. This was a far easier and less unpleasant experience than to enter the bodies of the beasts, so it was the choice that he went with the majority of the time.

But of course, to test out the feasibility of all three paths, some beautiful, snow-white dragons were shredded brutally from the inside, causing them to attack their own stomachs in a desperate and futile frenzy, attempting to get rid of the unwelcome intruder. They ripped their scales and flesh open in the process - those were truly tragic sights.

Sometime while he was rushing through the 62nd floor, carefully looking around for any other new monster species to grace with his presence, Isaac suddenly tensed up and got both himself and Titania to grind to a halt.

"What is wrong, master?"

A confused expression was plastered on the shivering Demi Spirit's face. Never before had she ever seen him the slightest bit nervous or on edge, but he clearly wasn't in as much of a casual mood as before now. Still, she couldn't make out any reason for his sudden change in behaviour.

Without looking back at her, he focused on something far in the distance and spoke quietly, just loud enough for her to barely be able to perceive it.

"I think I just found this zone's Monster Rex. The one before this one was already relatively close to Level 7, so this one should have reached it. If you stay here, you will most likely get hurt, or even die. You remember the way to the staircase we came from, right? Carefully make your way back there."

They had only been on this floor for less than ten minutes, so of course she recalled this information. In fact, they hadn't travelled far from the staircase at all. Thankfully, due to monsters usually avoiding these places, it should indeed be the safest place nearby. Slightly happy at her well-being having been considered by her master, she whispered an obedient "Alright."

Then, she grew a little bit worried, and after a moment of silence and indecision, she finally voiced a question.

"What about you, master?"

With a slight smile playing across his lips, Isaac turned his head slightly and looked back at her. There was a fire of excitement burning in his eyes, which seemed almost fanatical to her. He gave off the aura of a suicide-bombing moth about to dive straight into a flame. At the same time, he appeared to be oddly filled with confidence.

"I'll go and fight it."

Before she could even try to convince him otherwise, he had already ran into the distance, completely soundlessly. Sighing to herself, Titania shook her head and cautiously and quickly went back to the staircase that they had descended before. As most monsters on the way had already been slain when they had first come through here, only a few stragglers needed her to dispatch of them.

When she had arrived back on the staircase, which was found in the side of one of the mountains that reached all the way to the ceiling of this floor, carefully hidden from view by copious amounts of snow, she looked into the direction that Isaac had headed and couldn't help but feel conflicted.

On the one hand, she wondered what would happen if he were to die - would she be free again? For some reason, her gut feeling told her that even if that happened, it wouldn't be the end. On the other hand, she felt like cheering for him, as aside from their previous conflict and the unfortunate position that she found herself in, wasn't he a good guy? After all, he had sent her out of harm's way at the first sign of real danger.

Suddenly, an almost ear-splitting roar assaulted her senses and stirred up a massive blizzard that threatened to engulf her entire field of view.

'This is absurd! How many kilometers separate me from the source of that roar? It's probably at least 20!! How can the blizzard still reach me, and this quickly?'

In an instinctive effort to get to safety, Titania retreated a few more meters into the staircase, before she noticed that it somehow kept most of the assaulting winds and ice at bay already.

Amidst the enraged roars and ear-shattering impacts that caused the land to tremble, she thought that she could make out peals of elated laughter. Subconsciously, she clenched her fists a little and whispered under her breath, so quietly that not even she could register the words that she had uttered.

"Master, please be safe…"