Alexia

I let out a yawn as I finally leave that annoying hidden area with the ice river.

For a while there I was almost convinced I was on a wild goose chase searching for nothing. But fortunately my hard work paid off.

And now my soul capacity is far higher than it was before.

A very nice tradeoff for slaving away digging at a river of ice for so long.

On another note, I finally continue making my way down through the trench towards the boss. And along the way I slaughter monster after monster, gradually raising my level back up.

I also make sure to check the leaderboards every now and then to see who all is left in the dungeon.

It'll be rather obvious if someone leaves the dungeon after all. Because their level will stop rising if they do.

Of course, they could just be doing something like what I was doing. What with the ice river digging and all. But it's more likely that they died and have left the dungeon entirely.

Regardless, nothing really happens to the top ten on the leaderboards during my trip down the trench.

Not until one of the names completely vanishes, that is.

One that I… wasn't expecting to vanish.

The Holy One is gone from the leaderboards entirely now.

Did… Mom eat him too?

Huh. She really likes stealing other people's affinities, doesn't she?

I stare forward while blasting a bunch of monsters with quantum bolts, only to shrug as I decide that I don't really care. Mom can do what she wants.

Plus the Holy One was annoying.

So it's better this way.

Anyways, I continue my hunt for a while until I finally begin to see more light from the bottom of the trench. And not just that, but I also see what look like large blue scales making up the floor of the bottom of the trench. Although it's a little hard to tell.

I keep teleporting down, making the bottom of the trench become clearer and clearer to me. Only to stop when the blue scale ground of the trench suddenly moves and a large eye opens up.

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One that stares directly at me.

I stare back at the eye before finally identifying it.

{Cryola – The Frigid Dragon of Cataclysm – Level 1800}

Oh. So it's a dragon.

And a big one at that, considering the size of its eyes and the scales around them.

The ice around me begins to tremble as the dragon moves, only for it to all begin shattering, clearing a massive space all around us. But before any of the rest of the ice shatters, a massive pulse of cold mist shoots out from the dragon as they roar, freezing up the rest of the walls, floors, and ceiling to make them stable again after room is made for us.

And now I can finally see the dragon in all of its massive glory.

Cryola has to be at least a few kilometers in length from the tip of its tail to its nose, but they surprisingly don't have any wings. Just a bunch of glowing blue ice running across their body in waves.

The dragon turns their stare back on me after finishing its roar. Then we just kind of stare at each other for several seconds.

I purse my lips as I wonder what to do here. Seeing as this dragon is still about a hundred and fifty levels above me.

Should I give it a try? Or should I run – or rather – teleport like hell away from here?

Cryola doesn't exactly give me much time to think it over as the dragon lets out another roar and then fires off missiles made out of ice from its body that all head over to target me. Even when I teleport away.

It's like the missiles can track me.

Or I guess they are tracking me.

Is it through body heat? Or something else?

Either way, I continue teleporting away until I manage to lead the missiles to hit a wall instead of me. Only for them to go straight through said wall without pause.

Right. I'm not sure I'm up to fighting a Cataclysm Class monster that's a hundred and fifty levels above me, reaper or no reaper.

So without any further hesitation, I begin to teleport away from this place. Only to find my exit more than a little blocked off.

Because that ice blast from Cryola didn't just stabilize the trench.

It also sealed it up.

Even when I try to teleport past the ice, I can't find anyplace anywhere nearby that actually has open space to teleport into. Almost like the dragon sealed up the entire trench up to this point. Completely blocking me in and cutting off any escape.

Shit.

This is bad.

I continue teleporting away from the dragon's missiles before the dragon seems to grow impatient and begin chasing me itself. But I mostly ignore the dragon's physical attacks even as it swipes its claws right through me. Because that's exactly what happens. They pass through me without doing any damage.

The only things I need to worry about are its magical attacks.

But even just those are a massive pain in the ass to deal with as I try and fail to teleport away from these damned missiles. All while sending my own attacks at the dragon, only for my attacks to barely even scratch its scales.

Eventually I change up my strategy to stop trying to lose the missiles and instead make them hit something.

To make them hit the dragon.

I teleport straight up to the dragon, startling it in the process before teleporting away the instant the missiles are about to hit me. Making them hit them instead.

And that works as the missiles actually deal damage.

Nice.

Time to see if I can kill this dragon with its own attacks.

Because if I can't, then I'm kind of stumped on what to do. Other than maybe trying to flee into the Quantum Realm.

But if I'm fighting it anyways, I really want to try killing it.

So that's a last ditch move. Assuming I can even do it as I need some time to change forms.