Mira's group found themselves looking forward to going through this dungeon. Mira held high hopes for finding some sort of treasure while Maria and Celaine were just glad to do something other than training.
All they've been doing is cultivate, fight, or temper their body over the last few years. This is especially so for the fighting part. There is more to the world other than killing things and that's why they are so excited about doing some exploring that didn't involve killing or tempering.
Mira, on the other hand, was slightly dissatisfied when she noticed all of the beasts in the dungeon were already dead. Isn't a dungeon supposed to be a place where one fights waves of beasts? It's no fun if all of the beasts are already dead.
The only reason she was continuing on with this journey is for the potential of finding some sort of treasure.
The 3 of them continued to explore the sixth floor before finding the stairs that led down to the seventh floor.
The seventh floor was similar to the sixth, but with a few slight changes. One, there were fewer dead beast carcasses, and two, the ice was denser than it was on the sixth floor and by a rather significant amount as well.
The beast carcasses this time looked like they were barely being held together. The only thing left of them were bones that have been frozen in ice, but even these bones held no Qi within them.
Mira couldn't even determine what rank these beasts were when they died, but if she were to guess Mira would say they are at least Rank 6 beasts or higher. That means that, if her guess was right, all of these beasts were similar in strength to Core Formation Experts.
Just the thought of all of these beasts being slaughtered like cabbages made caused her to shudder a bit.
Mira turned around and saw Maria and Celaine walking through the place like they were some sort of detectives. They were inspecting the bones, floor, walls, anything they could think of to look for clues.
Mira's eyebrow twitched but decided not to say anything. If they weren't even able to guess the strength of the beasts they were inspecting then they'd truly be useless fools. She also felt like even if she did remind them of the dangers this dungeon possessed, they wouldn't listen to her.
This could also serve as a form of training if things went wrong so the two of them never take anything lightly, even if it's just some empty dungeon only containing dead beast carcasses.
The three of them kept walking through the dungeon at a steady pace to make sure they don't run into any traps.
Soon they reached the eighth floor, which was similar to the seventh except it was much smaller, the ice was much denser, and there were fewer dead beast carcasses, but these beasts were at least twice as strong as the ones on the previous floor if not stronger. Yet, even these beasts didn't contain any Qi within them.
Even if Mira was a fool, she figured that either the ice in this dungeon wasn't as simple as it looked or these bones have been like this for tens of thousands of years.
This is because bones from Rank 5 beasts or higher didn't just simply rot away. They would still contain Qi even after the beast died and it would only dissipate after a significant amount of time or if something extracted it. Sure, all of the meat was either eaten or absorbed by something, but even if that was the case there should still be Qi left within the bones.
Mira was leaning towards there being something peculiar with the ice because even if these beasts have been dead for tens of thousands of years, they were preserved in ice.
Either way, they'd most likely find out when they reached the bottom of this dungeon.
It didn't take them long before they reached the ninth floor, but things were clearly much different on this floor.
There were only 5 dead beast carcasses encased in ice here and Mira could tell just by looking at these beasts that they were significantly stronger than the dead beasts above. The bones were much thicker and one could still feel the power from those bones even without Qi in them.
The other thing Mira noticed was the ice in this room seemed to be slightly different than the ice on the previous floors. She could feel two different types of ice, one was the ice that layered the rest of the world while the other type seemed to be a bit malevolent.
"I suspect that the next floor may be the last floor to this dungeon. I sense two different types of ice in this room and I suspect that the origin is probably on the last floor." Mira turned around and said to her two companions.
"Got it! Maybe this last floor will allow us to put together the mystery of this dungeon and maybe even what happened to this world!" Maria exclaimed optimistically.
"Understood!" Meanwhile, Celaine readied her saber and got ready for battle.
Mira ignored Maria and just nodded her head. She turned around and started walking towards the tenth floor.
As soon as they found the stairs, they were hit with an extremely oppressive cold that seemed to want to slip into their bloodstream to suck out any Qi contained within their bodies.
Maria and Celaine narrowed their eyes and controlled their body to prevent anything weird from happening while Mira revealed a slight grin with a sharp glint in her eyes.
The first thing Mira thought about was an Ice Elemental Essence or some sort of treasure. It could be some sort of rare beast, but she found that it probably wasn't a beast.
Why would a beast who can control ice to such an extent never leave this place even after sucking everything dry? Also, she's never heard of any sort of beast that can absorb someone else's Qi with only its aura. Wouldn't such a beast be even more overpowered than Rhydian? Even the legendary Dragons and Phoenix's would have to bow down to such an unreasonable creature!
Mira didn't bother checking on the two behind her and continued to walk down the stairs.
When she reached the bottom she saw a weird sight in front of her and let out an evil grin, like a grave robber who just found a treasure!
She saw a massive tiger-looking beast laying down in the middle of the room, except only its bones remained. Even though there wasn't a hint of Qi left in its bones, Mira understood that this beast was king. The skeleton was over 7 meters long and 4 meters tall and just its paws were almost half of Mira's size.
Mira had a feeling that if this beast were still alive, she would be nothing more than an ant in front of it. No, possibly even less than an ant. An ant might be able to survive if it accidently got stepped on due to how small it is, but she would undoubtedly die if she got stepped on by such a creature.
But this isn't what made Mira so happy like she just found a wonderful treasure. What made her happy was the small ice mist that hovered above the massive tiger skeleton.
It was mostly ice blue but contained a hint of red that almost looked like veins on the icy mist.
"Is this what people call a lucky encounter? My last significant true lucky encounter was probably the scythe inheritance I stumbled upon in my previous life. Even though this one isn't quite as good, it's exactly what I was hoping to find during my stay in this ice world. Are the heavens finally taking pity on me or is this perhaps a trap? When have I ever have such luck to actually find what I've been looking for? Ah, fuck it! Whatever, let's just catch it and absorb it while I still can!" Mira thought to herself as she prepared to catch this Ice Elemental Essence!
