Chapter 37 – Dungeon exploration.

Dungeon.

I don't really know what is this thing so I'm just calling it dungeon for now. Maybe its dungeon is really a dungeon and it's called like one in this world, but I can't be sure since I was only alive for few months and I still know right next to the nothing about this world.

Either way.

This thing… Is weird?

When I entered this cave entrance, I found a path leading underground.

In the end of the path, I found myself at the underground path way. It gave a very dungeon like feeling from fantasies.

Anyway, this thing… Was weird? It looked both natural and manmade. Huh. I wonder how it works. Is a dungeon man made place? Or is made by itself or something?

Either way, I couldn't care right now, since the enemies were coming.

I ended up running into more of those snowflakes and jawless ice skulls.

They were quiet easy opponents to deal with.

But… Their numbers were quiet annoying.

Not only that, there was that weird ball thing with a sharp long ice things sticking out of it.

It didn't used magic and instead just tried to slash me with it.

I decided to call it ice minion.

It wasn't very strong, but it had some annoying cut attack. But it was also very weak against blunt attacks.

And that was not the only thing. It also dropped that pebble gem thing.

I ate a lot of those small pebble things, but still nothing. No new evolution paths.

Maybe these pebble just hold too little power to give me anything?

Still, this wasn't over.

I killed and killed these elementals over and over and ate countless of those pebble, but still nothing.

(Maybe it would maybe had worked if I was still a weakling monster like a plant animal or plant beast, but because I had become a bit stronger monster I maybe need to eat more of these things or maybe just something bit stronger?)

(But fuck me. Did I killed everything already? I'm not encounter any of those monsters any longer?)

(Hm?)

(What is this?)

(It seems to be a path… Leading downwards?)

(Oh. Is like one of those dungeon where there are multiple floors?)

(Then maybe I will encounter more monster and maybe some bit stronger monster?)

(Well, my goal is yet to be achievement, so it's not like I have choice.)

(Lets go.)

Deerwolf took the path leading downwards and before long, it found itself at another underground passage.

(?)

(The air got slightly colder.)

(!)

(Oh! Something is coming?)

(?)

(Wait. Another snowflake? This one isn't as small as the previous ones and its pattern look different? Is it like evolved version?)

Suddenly, the snowflake monsters began gathering ice and snow together before firing a bunch of icicles at the deerwolf.

(!)

Deerwolf quickly dodged the attack.

(They can create these icicles faster and they can even fire multiple projectiles as well.)

Deerwolf rushed at the snowflake monsters while dodging their attacks, before then slashing them with its claws.

(?!)

(One got killed, but the other two survived?)

(Their endurance must have been increased after evolving!)

Another icicles attack came flying at the deerwolf, but deerwolf crushed and smashed the projectiles with its claws and jaws, before then launching another two attacks that finished the snowflakes monsters.

(The difficulty got noticeable higher. I shouldn't look down on these things any longer.)

(And, there is another thing! There are those pebbles things and they are slightly bigger?)

(…)

(Still nothing after eating them? Still, I did felt a little bit more mana coming from them.)

(!)

Deerwolf quickly moved its head, right before a bigger icicle ended up hitting it.

(There are also evolved version of these guys, huh?)

(They look less transparent and they have lower jaws now?)

(The projectile it just fired was bigger and faster.)

(They also are stronger.)

(I guess if I mess around now, I may end up dying quiet easily.)

Deerwolf rushed towards the skull monster and while running, the skull monster opened its mouth and a white mist began leaking from it.

(?)

(!)

Deerwolf quickly stepped back right as the skull monster shot out a mist from its mouth.

(!)

(The ground got frozen?!)

(It is something like a breath attack?)

(Still. Its range only seem to be 2 meter at best.)

(No problem!)

Deerwolf rushed again at the skull monster and smacked it, but the monster was still okay.

(!)

The second ice skull began preparing the breath attack, but then the deerwolf clenched its hand and hit the skull hard enough to make it shatter.

After dealing with the second skull, it turned its attention back to the first skull and headbutted it, resulting in the skull cracking.

(Hm… This is getting annoying.)

(These guys not only have stronger attacks, but they are also tougher. I need to hit them twice or land one strong hit on them to kill them.)

(?)

(Oh, these guys got upgraded as well?)

(Thes ice pawns seem to have an joints now? Yeb. Those guys will probably be the most annoying ones.)

The difficulty of the second dungeon floor was much higher than of the first floor.

It only had the 3 evolved version of those monsters above, but they were noticeable stronger.

Not only that, they had now more power behind their attacks.

The snowflakes could shot more, while the skulls got stronger attacks.

And those evolved ice pawns are extremely annoying. Their main body isn't that hard, but their blades are. I can still destroy them, but it takes a little bit of strength.

To make matters worse, this floor was also filled with monsters.

I think it took me before, I don't know. An around an hour to beat the previous floor? Maybe around 45 to 30 minutes instead? I don't know.

But this floor is way harder.

Half assed attacks didn't do enough against skulls and ice pawns.

Honestly, I was planning on getting hit, but I ended up getting hit by some nasty attacks.

Not only that, but there is a lot of mana in the atmosphere.

This has never happened before and it made my mana detection less useful and it some situation, I couldn't use my mana detection at all.

It was dangerous.

I still had my sight and hearing, but I still ended up getting hit a lot.

This monster attack may look dangerous, but its really not that. Probably it could give a human a deep cut that would do some proper damage with those icicles' attacks or pawns sword arms slashes, but in terms of power they weren't that scary.

However, the real problem was that their attacks could accumulate with each other and they was a lot of them.

Getting hit few times by that breath attack ended up making my feet unable to move or the area that were hit again and again by ice pawn sword arms ended up giving me nasty wounds or those snowflakes monsters could shot at me non stop from afar, making the damage accumulate very fast.

Fuck. Now I know they send a group of elves here. Doing it alone with those guys is far too dangerous! Its not like facing an army of weak monsters, but just few very powerful monsters like that centipede or that elven protagonist wanabe.

In the end, a lot of damage ended up accumulating and I had some annoying wounds across my body.

I didn't had choice but to quickly go back on the surface in order to start recovering.

I still had some food like some of those weird fruit ball things. I don't know what the hell they were. They were like a watermelon shaped things, but they tasted like sweet apples? And their flesh was purple…. Also, it made a weird…"Goe" sound when I was eating it…

It was…. Safe? Right? I mean those elves were carrying it and all…. So, it must have been safe for consumption, right???

…

Well, it's not like I had any option.

After eating a bit, I planted my roots into the ground and rested for 2 hours before then going back in again.

Honestly, I did took some of the fruits with me, but the problem was it was all that was remaining.

Most of the food that elves brough had spoiled.

Well, I couldn't eat it since I was focused mostly on recovery and devouring the elven bodies to unlock new evolution.

Well, I can still force myself to eat that rotten food, but will nothing bad happens if I eat it? I will just leave for the desperate times.

Anyway, I went back into the dungeon and began once again exploring it, killing the ice monsters and devouring their gem stones.

Afterworlds, some time passed and I ended up coming back to the surface.

[Freezing Plant Big Deer]

[Freezing Plant Big Wolf]

[Freezing Plant Demi-Werewolf]

[Freezing Plant Demi-Wendigo]

[Freezing Alure Seed]

[Freezing Plant Child Person]

(Hm… I finally unlocked new variant evolution options.)

(But it's not the thing I was looking for.)

(There are no new evolution paths.)

(Still… It's not over.)

(I killed everything on that floor and…. There is another path leading downwards. That means that there is a third floor!)

(Should I go deeper?)

(The monsters on the floor 1 and 2 were weak, but the problem was their numbers. It was too much to me. Honestly, if the corridors were much wider, then I would have definitely suffered more damage, even on the floor 1.)

(Not only that, but because the monsters on the second floor were stronger version of the monsters from the first floor, I ended up getting injured a lot unlike the floor before where I barely took any real damage.)

(But… The problem is that dungeon may still hold the answer I seek. The answer to getting stronger.)

(…)

(Getting injured is a problem with my current state, but the biggest problem is the time.)

(Elves can make their appearance at any time and if that happens, I will have no choice but to evolve way earlier than expected and will also end up losing access to the dungeon.)

(And this is something I cannot let happened.)

(If I could have unlocked an variant paths, then I can definitely unlock an new evolution path if I continue devouring more of those stone gems and get my hands on more of those stronger monster that may be still lurking in dungeon.)

(I need to go back in and devour everything I can find!)

(I need to evolve into something that can give me enough power to survive.)

(With that being said, let's go!)

I headed back to the dungeon after resting a bit and made my way to the 3th floor.

(…)

(Wow.)

(It's really cold here.)

(When I went from the first to second floor, it did get colder, but the different was not THAT big!)

(…)

(Does that mean that the difference in power between the floor 2 and 3 is much bigger than difference between floor 1 and 2?)

(If so, it maybe be explaining why it's so cold here.)

(!)

(Something is coming already!)

Deerwolf put its guard up as a group four ice sculpturers in the shape of the humans were approaching the deerwolf.

(?)

(They… Look weak?)

(No mouth. No face. No weapon or claws.)

(They are just an ice in shape of a human?)

(Still, I shouldn't look down on them. The monsters in the floor 2 were stronger than floor 1 monsters. So, there is good chance if not 100% that these bastards are stronger than monsters' floor above.)

One of the humanoid ice monsters began running towards the deerwolf before swinging its arm at like a bat, but the deerwolf easily dodged the attack.

(?)

(Eh? It's not very fast?)

Deerwolf swinged its claw at the monster, trying to hit it with a blunt type attack and managing to land the hit.

However-

(?!)

(What the hell?! This guy is at least two time tougher than ice pawn!)

(!)

Deerwolf quickly stepped back and dodged the second humanoid ice monster attack.

(Their attack are not very fast, but the problem is with their durability!)

(I need at least 3 good hits to kill one of them! And I doubt the half assed attack will do any damage proper whatsoever!)

(They don't appear to posses any long range skills or posses' ability to use magic, BUT THEY ARE VERY ANNOYING!)

Deerwolf repeatable attacked the ice puppet like creatures over and over again, until all four ice monsters ended up crumbling.

(Fuck me! That was straight up annoying!)

(Not only that, but they seemed to posses some power, since they made some cracks appear on the ground when they hit it.)

(They may appear simple and weak, but they were definitely stronger than any of the monsters floor above.)

(No magic or anything, but just simple attack patterns made them dangerous.)

(Probably getting hit once would do more damage than any of the attacks from the monsters magic attacks.)

(…)

(Oh…. You got to be fuking kidding me right now.)

Deerwolf watched as a large group humanoid ice sculpturers began walking towards him.

(…)

(Maybe I should have not come down here….)