The venom glands being sealed meant that the venom inside them wasn't exposed to air and thus wouldn't dry or spoil too fast. I then extracted the magic stone and absorbed the smoke of the spider before moving on to the next monster, a Black rhino. The beast had another of it's kind with it and was a towering mass of dark rough hide in a roughly humanoid shape. I didn't bother playing with the things and simply poked a hole through their brains with erasure before walking over and refining their hides and extracting their stones. I put away my spoils and moved on after that. -
None of the monsters proved a real challenge as I one by one killed them and took whatever of value they had. The silver worms in particular were something I wanted those lustrous silver scales from as I knew Freya would love a dress made from them. The Cadmus I fought proved a little more capable than the rest of the monsters on the floor but as a level six monster that was hardly surprising. In terms of strength though it was weaker than even the Udeaus not more than a few floors above this point.-
Cadmus wasn't a monster rex though so that made sense. Still it's materials would be put to good use. For example I planned to make Hephaestus a dress out of these rich sapphire blue scales since it would really make her red hair pop. Eventually though I stepped foot on the fifty second floor and raised my guard. Valgang dragons were each level five monsters but had fire breaths that rivaled the power and force one might expect from a level six. What that meant for me is even if getting hit by those breaths wouldn't be lethal like for any normal level five it would hurt like a bitch.-
In truth though I planned to skip the fifty second to fifty seventh floors entirely by jumping down the hole one of the dragons punched in an attempt to snipe me. This way I can kill all these annoying fuckers and get a LOT of smoke in the process since Valgang dragons are massive. As i've long since figured out the larger and stronger the monsters were the more and higher quality smoke they gave me when they died.-
It didn't take long at all for the first attempt at sniping my ass came from below. I "saw" it with my technique punch through the two floors below me and immediately back stepped hard to avoid it as the ground turned hot for a couple milliseconds before a pillar of red fire blasted through the floor. The instant the fire vanished I dashed forward and summoned my flames as I swan dived through the hole. Using my flames I boosted my fall speed dramatically which saved my ass as this was not a small drop and the dragons definitely knew I was coming.-
The multiple pillars of flame that came blasting at me from different angles only to miss due to my speed were proof of this. The original dragon that blasted the hole I was going through was already charging it's breath again to blast me but I was just fast enough to get out of the way. After that it was simply too late as I was now on the fifty eight floor and shooting through the air towards the nearest dragon. The fifty eighth floor was much like the floor the Balor was found on as it was a massive open area with high temperatures and red stone all over it. -
The only monster species on the floor was the Valgang dragons. Not because others couldn't come here but that the dragons themselves killed anything that wasn't them that set foot here. It made sense I suppose that the dungeon would create them with an inbuilt sense of territoriality so they would do the whole sniping through the floors thing they do. With a violent "BOOM!" sound I slammed into the head of the first dragon at full speed. It's skull crumbled under the impact as it's whole body compressed slightly before bursting into smoke.-
I didn't hesitate to blast off towards the next dragon as I held my weapon at the ready. Another shockwave later and that dragon too turned into smoke. At this point several other dragons were aiming their fire breaths my way and I had to dodge into the air in a hurry before beginning my rampage. It took me close to an entire day to finally kill all the Valgang dragons due to the sheer size of the floor and it was totally worth it. By my estimate I now had roughly a quarter of the smoke I needed to max out my stats for my level up.-
The next few floors were supposed to be called the Glacier territory but according to the Loki familia after a recent expedition the fifty ninth to sixtieth floors were transformed into a freezing cold tropical jungle with eerie plants. If that doesn't seem to make sense that's because it doesn't. nobody is certain why this happened but most agree it wasn't a normal occurrence for a single reason, the dungeon does not redecorate. The general "theme" of a floor or series of floors don't change like this. The layout might change in hard to predict ways when no one is paying attention but the "theme" is always consistent.
When I stepped foot on the floor and felt the cold I grimaced and cloaked myself in flame to ward off the chill. Like the Loki familia described the floor had plants all over it of strange shapes and colors that made no sense. What could be seen though was that the plants were frosting over slowly. -
'It seems the dungeon is starting to reclaim this place from whatever caused this change.' I thought seriously as I observed from the entrance.