"Good morning." Jonas said with a wave of his hand.
[Good morning. Long time no see.] Shiro smiled and greeted the party.
"Well, it has been a long time. And I can see that you've improved a lot in both power and appearance." Jonas praised her.
Her combination of a different hair colour and small differences to her face matched her Ice Mage class well.
It was as if she was the personification of an ice princess.
[Thank you very much.] Shiro smiled, accepting the compliment.
[And Miss Silvia, the offer still stands.] Shiro typed out, throwing the offer out to Silvia once more.
"Hahahaha, not even a minute here and you're already trying to poach our best member." Jonas laughed.
"Thank you for the offer. But as I have stated previously, I wish to help this party first." She smiled, rejecting the offer.
Shrugging her shoulders slightly, Shiro expected this outcome.
Sitting down around the table, she got to the main point.
[So the main point of me being here today is to help you guys clear the Blood Vale dungeon. Am I right?] Shiro asked.
"Yeah, we can handle the boss, but our damage is severely limited. The boss was able to heal faster than we can damage it." Jonas sighed.
[Alright I can help out with that. But I have another question for you, how do we split the loot?]
"How about a 60/40 split? Out party would take the 60 since we got more members while you get 40 for your help." Jonas offered.
'60/40 split huh? I was expecting something like 70/30 but this works too.'
[Sure. A 60/40 split is ok for me. Now if you don't mind, can you explain the boss to me? The web can only provide so much and it's better to hear it from someone who's experienced it.]
"Well, the main problem with the boss is how he heals. He would summon a mass of cannon fodder which would simultaneously charge at him. For every fodder he eats, he regains 0.5% of his health. Without this, we would be able to kill him easily. Which is why we need your help. Your ice would be able to freeze them before they even approach the boss."
'Hmmm... Usually, these types of bosses are very simple in terms of fighting skills and the only thing is the healing being a problem. Plus, the loot from these types of bosses are a lot more rewarding.
[Alright. Shouldn't be a problem. Though I'll warn you now, I'll be turning the boss room into an ice field since it'll make everything easier for me.]
"If that's the case, then we'll need to buy some boots that help us walk on ice." Jonas said as slipping on ice during the fight wasn't something they need.
[Well, you don't necessarily need it since I can just leave the floor clear of ice. As long as there is ice around the area and the temperature drops, I'll be fine. If anything, probably a coat?] Shiro replied.
"Mn, that certainly makes things easier. Traction boots aren't common around here." Jonas replied, feeling relieved.
"Since the only thing we need are coats, I have a few stored in my inventory." Silvia laughed lightly and pulled out a few coats for everyone.
"Shiro?" Silvia asked handing her a coat.
[I'm fine. Since I'm an ice mage, the ice doesn't affect me.] Shiro smiled.
Once all the coats have been distributed, Jonas started to hand everyone the potion to help with increasing their willpower.
[I don't need that either.] Shiro chuckled lightly.
"What do you need?" Jonas asked.
[Nothing.]
She didn't need help against the cold nor the bloodl.u.s.t.
"What about MP potions? I remember you needing a few of them." Jonas asked thoughtfully.
[That's where the ice field comes in. I managed to get a skill which makes it so that as long as I am in a cold environment, I'll be able to increase my MP regeneration and HP regeneration.]
Reading what she had written down, Jonas was shocked as that kind of skill was very rare amongst adventurers.
"Oh wow, that must have helped you out a lot then. Without needing to spend as much money on potions and supplies, it means that you're able to save up your money for more expensive items.
"Plus, since you're an ice mage, that's even better." Jonas said with a smile.
"Imagine if it was a heated environment. Even with MP regen, her magic would be less effective." Erica, the fire mage, said out loud.
"It would be good for you but bad for little miss Shiro hahaha." Trace laughed.
Chatting for a little longer while they got prepared, the party walked towards the dungeon.
However, when they arrived at the gate, Shiro frowned when she felt the abnormality of the mana surrounding the gate.
Before she could even warn everyone, she saw them enter without fear.
'£$%$£!!!' Cursing in her mind, Shiro dashed after them.
*BAM!
A familiar sequence of the gate slamming shut could be seen behind them.
Seeing the images on the door shift, Shiro clicked her tongue.
'The dungeon's mutated into a level 50 dungeon.' Shiro thought with a frown.
While she kept her calm, the others couldn't be the same.
Jonas' party felt the blood drain from their bodies as they saw the new dungeon name.
[Mutated Dungeon – LVL 50 – Blood Kingdom]
The jump from level 40 to 50 was a huge gap in status, especially for the monsters.
With their connection to the outside world severed, it meant that they had to either A, clear the dungeon or B, wait for help.
Since the dungeon had mutated, it meant that anyone else in the dungeon would have been forced out with their dungeon being the only active one.
"Of course the second Mutated Dungeon I experience has to be a level 50." Shiro muttered quietly. While the others were sweating and thinking of a way out, Shiro knew that to open a level 50 mutated dungeon, they needed the power of a peak level 60 to break the defences. Even then, the difficulties of opening the dungeon were high.
Most level 60's would give up on the dungeon and the people inside. Or in their words: "The faster they die, the easier is it for the rest of us".
She wasn't unfamiliar with this type of behaviour since it was a rewardless task. Level 60's had better things to do than to expend a lot of their efforts to open a dungeon just for a 'thanks'.
"What do we do?" Madison asked feeling a little worried.
"I don't know." Lyrica replied, feeling a sense of despair creep up on her.
Looking around them, they saw trees and forests instead of rocks and cliffs like before. Off in the distance, they even saw a mighty ominous castle that waved a dark red banner. A red moon was shining brightly behind the castle as it gave the 'sky' a deep red tinge.
"Girls, I believe you know what's happening as well so I won't beat around the bush. The dungeon's mutated into a level 50 dungeon that we have little to no chance of clearing. The best thing we can do right now is to bunker down and wait for the support of the level 60's." Jonas said with a sigh. His complexion seemed to have aged by a few years.
However, before they could continue to talk, a horrific killing intent washed over the party causing them to hold their breaths and collapse onto the floor.
Only Shiro was unaffected as she released her own to counteract the killing intent.
*KRRRRR!!!
The ground froze over along with the forest as her passive was freezing everything around her due to the amount of killing intent she was emitting.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she realised the final boss of this dungeon seems to be trying to overpower her.
"Che, you think this tiny thing can overwhelm this miss?" Shiro said as her killing intent exploded out once more but this time with more force.
The tree's started to crack and shatter from the drop in temperature.
As much as Shiro had wanted to avoid affecting the party, there were simply too much killing intent around them and it was impossible for them not to notice.
Trace, Erica and Paul had long fainted while the rest were barely hanging on.
Lyrica understood this feeling to be what Shiro had shown them yesterday and realised that she was trying to shield them from the final boss.
With the sudden increase of her killing intent, she had overwhelmed the final boss and caused him to retract his own intent.
Seeing that he stopped, Shiro also retracted her own intent and quickly thawed the ice around her.
She then placed each of the party members next to the half destroyed tree.
[Are you ok?] Shiro asked with worry.
"Yeah, just need a moment to recover that's all." Lyrica replied in a half-conscious state.
The previous clash of intents was simply too much for the elf to handle and yet, she managed to stay conscious the entire time.
Quickly walking over to Silvia, Shiro shook her a little to get her attention.
[Are you able to cast a spell to recover everyone's mental state right now?] Shiro asked with seriousness.
"Yeah… Just… just give me a second." Silvia said as her face was pale.
Shiro nodded as she had a few cannon fodder she needed to take care of.
She could already sense a few gazes on her as they were approaching the area.
However, what surprised her the most was that Yin was almost completely unaffected by the clash of intents.
"Little Yin, are you hiding something from me?" Shiro asked with a small smile as she stood up.
*Chirp!
Yin shook her head.
"Fine. Just help me kill these monsters trying to eat our friends ok?" Shiro said as eight flying ice daggers appeared in her hands.
Since the conscious party members could see her right now, she didn't want to use her nanotech just yet.
*Chirp!
Flying into the sky, Yin looked down to see six, medium sized beasts that were slowly approaching the around.
She waited until they were pretty close to each other before using Ice Chain.
*KRR!
The chains managed to lock down three of the beasts while the other three dashed towards Shiro.
"Only three huh? Not bad." Shiro said as she praised Yin's timing with locking down half of the beasts.
Dashing towards the beasts, Shiro merged the daggers in her right hand into a sword.
Twisting her body counter-clockwise, Shiro cut the beast from the opening of its mouth before throwing the daggers in her left hand at the other two beasts.
Snapping her fingers, the daggers exploded and froze the other two beasts to the ground.
With two cannon fodders being locked down, Shiro focused on the monster next to her.
Her sword had managed to cut the jaw, albeit barely. Seeing the muscles exposed, Shiro threw the sword at the beast.
*PING!
Biting down as best it could, the beast managed to break the sword in half.
However, before it could even rejoice, Shiro jammed her hands and foot into the mouth and kicked down with all her strength.
*CRACK!
Snapping the jaw off the skull of the beast, Shiro proceeded to grab the upper jaw before flipping forwards and over the body of the monster. This caused the spine to crack but didn't break.
Frowning slightly, Shiro took advantage of this and dug her heels into the back of the monster's neck. This gave it the extra force it needed to break the spine and separate the head from the body.
With the first beast down, Shiro aimed her palms towards the two monsters that she had locked down before and clucked her hands.
Two magic circles appeared above and below the beasts as ice spikes skewered the beasts and killed them easily.
With the monsters dead, Shiro didn't waste any time and immediately dashed towards the rest which Yin had chained up.
Silvia was in awe seeing Shiro's combat efficiency. Even though they were 13 levels higher than her, Shiro's experience and instincts helped her take care of them quickly.
"Wow…" She muttered unconsciously.
She could hear the distant sounds of combat before it became silent once more.
Seeing Shiro comeback with blood stuck to her, Silvia knew the little girl in front of her was much more terrifying than what she shows.
'No one should be this calm when killing monsters especially with how she's killing them.' Silvia thought with a mix of awe and fear.
[Have you recovered enough yet? We need to hurry since we'll be surrounded if we stay in the same place.] Shiro typed out while she pulled out a towel to wipe the blood away from her face. Unfortunately for her, the blood now dyed her white robe with blotches of red.
'Seems like I'll need to get Aarim to dye my next outfit a colour that isn't easily affected. Probably black.' Shiro thought to herself.
"Yes, I've recovered enough." Silvia said as she stood up with slightly shaky legs. She used her staff to support her body so that she wouldn't fall over.
Casting a few spells on the party, they slowly recovered.
Lyrica and Madison weren't too surprised at Shiro's appearance since they knew that she was quite 'messy' when fighting close ranged.
However, the same couldn't be said for Jonas' party. The sight of Shiro being covered with blood, despite her trying to wipe it off, was disturbing for them.
[I'll be taking control of this party for the time we are in this dungeon. I don't trust the level 60's of this city to go out of their way to help us so that leaves us with one option. Clearing this dungeon.]