Chapter 3: Dungeon Mutation

Her task today was to scout out the [Leader Class] Bear.

If the situation is good, she would try to defeat it or rather try to escape as fast as possible. If it is bad, she'll still escape as fast as possible.

'Aiya~ So many high-level bears.' Shiro thought seeing the Bears in the area.

[Bear LVL 20 – Empowered]

[Bear LVL 18 – Empowered]

[Bear LVL 20 – Empowered]

[Bear LVL 20 – Empowered]

Most of the bears were close to or at LVL 20. She had to make sure that she doesn't draw their ire before she reached the obelisk.

The reason as to why she needed to reach the obelisk today was due to the fact that the Bears have almost conquered the entire floor. Staying longer wouldn't be advised.

Zipping through the trees, Shiro made sure to try to be as quiet as possible.

It was only after a few hours did she finally reach the edge of the forest. The obelisk stood in front of her but so was the bear.

[Ice Elemental Bear LVL 20 – Leader Class – Empowered]

It only made it worse that it was an Ice Elemental Bear. Her Tier 1 Ice magic can't even be used to clean its ass.

'The [Leader Class] title will probably give it some Ice resistance, not to mention the fact that it is an Ice Elemental Bear.' Shiro thought while she looked at its hulking figure.

Standing at 3 meters, the bear had void black fur with Ice protruding out of its spine. The Bear's eyes glowed blue as he looked at his guards.

He had 5 LVL 20 Bears around him and reached out for one of them.

*BANG!

Hitting one of the Bear's, the [Leader Class] Bear threw the corpse into his mouth as he began to chew.

'Did… Did he just one shot a LVL 20 empowered Bear?!' Shiro thought, her eyes widened in shock.

Sure, she may have heard how strong a leader class was, but seeing one was another matter in itself.

'I will definitely die if I try to face it with my Ice magic. I need to leave using the obelisk.' Shiro thought with a frown.

Staying still in her place, she surveyed the Bear's movements to check when it was most optimal for her to reach the obelisk.

It took a few hours of observation, but she came to the conclusion that every moment was the most optimal as the god damn Bear didn't move a single bit.

She tried to draw its attention by throwing rocks to create noise in another location but the Bear sent his underlings instead.

Throwing the rock once more, Shiro decided to make a run for it when the Bear had the least amount of company.

'NOW!' She thought dashing in a bee line towards the obelisk. Her heart was pounding with nervousness since the [Leader Class] locked onto her almost instantly.

Quickly making a block of Ice to substitute as a shield, Shiro hoped it would block the Bear's paw long enough for her to avoid it.

The Ice was nothing more than air as the paw easily shattered it. Jumping forwards, Shiro protected her head with her arms whilst she tried to roll.

*BOOOMMM!!!!

The ground shook since the paw missed her narrowly. However, it still sent her flying forwards causing her to roll heavily across the ground.

[HP: 680/1200]

"Urg… God damn Bear." Shiro muttered feeling pain all over her body.

The Bear didn't give her a chance to recuperate since a second paw was already heading towards her.

Thankfully, the force of the first attack sent her next to the obelisk.

[Obelisk Teleportation]

[3F]

[2F] <-

[1F]

Immediately tapping 1F, Shiro saw her vision shift as she was teleported to the edge of a forest.

Sighing in relief, Shiro laid back waiting for her HP to regenerate.

When a person used the obelisk, it wouldn't teleport them to another obelisk. Rather, it teleported them to the edge of the floor and he/she would need to make their way to the obelisk once more.

Lucky for her, this meant that she was closer to the entrance of the dungeon.

Taking a few pieces of mana stones she kept in her inventory for rations, Shiro chewed on them whilst she thought about the previous fight.

'His STR was higher than I thought. To shatter a Tier 1 Ice block like it was air means his STR is around the 200's or higher. A LVL 20 [Leader Class] Bear should be roughly a LVL 30 to LVL 40 [No Class] Bear monster.' Shiro thought when she realised that this meant the Ice Elemental Bear was akin to a Low/Mid-Level D Rank monster.

'No wonder he took half my HP with a missed attack.' She thought in relief that the paw missed. If it hit, it would definitely kill her in one swat.

'This miss has been hit by a variety of attacks. I refuse to be killed like a fly!' Shiro thought in her mind as she stood up. She wanted to leave the Dungeon as soon as possible.

The gate of a Dungeon was as it says. A giant gate. It wasn't too hard to spot since a giant set of doors could be seen not too far from her.

Walking towards the door, Shiro could see the engravings on the door itself.

"Bears, Wolves, Ice Elementals… Just a typical E rank Dungeon huh?" She muttered as the gates of a Dungeon would give people some idea of what was inside the Dungeon itself.

Seeing movement on the doors, Shiro became vigilant as she quickly hid behind some trees and looked at the gate opening with narrowed eyes.

A party of 5 appeared and they seemed to be novices since their equipment was rather sub-par. The aura they emitted gave Shiro no danger either as she understands she could probably kill them easily in a 1V1.

*CRRRRR

The doors slowly closed when the party of five entered. They were chatting without care as if they were having a picnic.

"!!!!" Her attention was drawn away when she saw movement on the door.

The initial carvings and images shifted as they morphed and the overall picture changed.

Dungeon Mutation.

There was a low chance of a Dungeon Mutation happening since it would change the Dungeons fundamentals. Out of a hundred Dungeons, there would probably be one or two that would mutate.

Right now, the dungeon was changing as an orange light appeared in the centre of the forest.

[Dungeon Mutation Occurred]

[Current Location – Fire Elementals Charred Forest 1F]

[Rank – E+/D-]

'Fire Elementals? Lucky for me.' Shiro thought with a smile, this meant her Ice would actually do something. She could probably grind for a few levels and maybe challenge the Ice Elemental Bear. Or rather a Fire Elemental Bear due to the mutation.

One question remained in her mind though.

'Why wasn't I affected?' She thought.

'Could it be that I'm technically not a part of this Dungeon? So if they beat the Dungeon and the Dungeon wipe occurs I should be safe from it… Let's not gamble for now.' She thought as her hypothesis could be wrong and erase her ass from the face of this Dungeon.

The party of five seem to be panicking too since they hit the door a few times but it refused to budge.

Sneaking closer to them, Shiro wanted to see if she could gather some information about where she was and which time period.

Peaking her head out slightly, she exposed her two azure eyes as she glanced over.

The scout seemed to have noticed something since he shot an arrow towards where she was.

"Ah!" Shiro was surprised at how they shot without warning. Quickly ducking, she looked at the arrow embedded into the tree.

'How rude!' She thought, turning back to the group.

[Xin Feng– LVL 15 – Swordsman]

[Jin – LVL 14 – Archer]

[Clare – LVL 15 – Priest]

[Bonney – LVL 14 – Assassin]

[Trevor – LVL 18 – Guardian]

They took their positions with Trevor at the front, Xin Feng and Bonney behind him. Jin and Clare were situated at the back.

Trevor slammed his shield down as he shouted at her.

[Taunt Failed]

"Huh? Aiya! You five want to kill this miss!?" Shiro shouted jumping back to avoid another arrow.

Sliding slightly on the ground, she looked up to see the Guardian charging towards her with his shield.

Conjuring up a block of Ice, she blocked the charge causing the Guardian to be stunned for a moment.

Rolling to her side, she avoided the stab of the assassin. Her instincts were kicking in since she wasn't the strongest person in her previous life for nothing.

Mid-roll, she aimed her palm as a Tier 1 Ice bullet shot towards the Assassin.

The assassin was hit, but her body flashed with a white light healing her up.

"Tsk." Shiro clicked her tongue before she retreated back into the forest. A group fight was disadvantageous for her right now. They were weaker than her if she fought them 1 on 1 but this was currently a 5 v 1.

She landed on a branch and quickly stabilised herself.

Looking at the five who were vigilant against her, an idea entered her mind as she gave them a provocative sneer.

###

This was supposed to be our graduation exam. We had to conquer the E ranked Dungeon before we leave.

We were at the top of the class so the teachers were confident in us beating the Dungeon.

"Check your minimaps. We don't want to be ambushed near the entrance." I called out to my long-time friends.

"I know I know." Jin, our scout, replied.

Our group talked for a little while but we froze when we felt the mana jump.

"Feng! This Dungeon is mutating!" Clare shouted out whilst me and Trevor tried to open the door but failed.

"We'll have to wait for the teachers to send in D ranked members or higher to pry this door open." I said with a frown. The situation wasn't looking too great but we could survive as long as we hold our ground and wait for rescue. Some would try to clear the Dungeon but we knew better.

Mutated Dungeons meant the monsters became stronger so it would be suicidal to try to proceed without ample preparation.

Only when there were no other options would a party try clear one unprepared.

Jin seemed to have picked up a monster because he shot towards the location where the monster was.

"Ah!"

We heard a soft voice cry out in surprise as we became vigilant.

[Shiro – LVL 16 – Snow Girl]

[HP: 1200/1200]

[MP:1950/1950]

A named monster!

There were instances where a monster would be named. Not only would they give more loot, the EXP you would get for killing one increased by a lot as well.

Even if she wasn't named, we would have needed to kill her anyways since she could go get reinforcements which would endanger our safety.

We looked at each other before we entered a formation the school taught us.

Trevor used Taunting Shout but the Snow Girl seemed to be unaffected. Jin launched another arrow to see if he could hit her.

Dodging backwards, she opened her mouth as she started to talk but all we heard were wordless echoes.

"Feng, I think she might be an intelligent monster." Trevor said with a frown.

"I think so as well." I replied. This would make the fight harder because she could very well lure us into a trap.

Trevor charged towards her with Shield Bash in hopes of stunning her. However, what he hit was a block of Ice as Bonney quickly tried to stab her so Trevor would be safe.

The Snow Girl rolled on her side before firing an Ice Bullet at Bonney. Clare didn't dawdle as she quickly healed Bonney up.

"Jesus, it's like fighting an instructor." Bonney said with a frown whilst we looked at the Snow Girl standing on the branch.

"Isn't a Snow Girl supposed to be a weak E rank monster?" Trevor said keeping his guard up.

"But this one is a named monster. We can't judge named monsters with the same logic." I replied as my friends nodded gravely.

The Snow Girl seemed to pause for a moment before flashing a provocative sneer. She turned around and disappeared into the forest leaving us here.

"Hmm… Don't follow. Even if she does bring reinforcements, we need to wait for the teachers." I said as my friends agreed. Chasing after her would bring us more danger.

###

"They didn't follow?" Shiro muttered seeing the five not following her.

"And here I thought they were greenhorns. Seems like they know the more important basics." She said sitting down on the branch.

"Hmm… current goals, current goals. Number 1 – Reach LVL 20. Number 2 – Leave this Dungeon." Shiro muttered while a flaming fox jumped at her.

She waved her hand as a spear of Ice stabbed the fox through the mouth killing it instantly.

Since it was a fire attribute monster, it had a weakness towards Ice and water resulting in an instant kill.

"Weak." Shiro said, kicking her legs back and forth.

Her initial goal was to lure the party in the forest so she could ambush them and capture them one by one. Now that was out of the window, she'll have to find out about her surroundings when she leaves the Dungeon.

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