Alexia

I frown as I turn my attention from the map on my right, to the temple in front of me, and back to the map again.

Guess I should’ve expected this.

On the mini map directly over the temple is an icon in the form of a staircase. Which, if I had to guess, indicates an exit.

Which means I’m gonna have to enter the temple to find the exit.

I look around the area at the icy hills around me for a second before sighing and walking towards the temple.

Looks like I have no choice.

The temple in front of me is square in shape, with five towers, one at each corner and one at the center. And the entire temple seems to be made out of ice. Extremely thick ice that you can’t see through.

There are also draugr warriors randomly patrolling around the temple, but they aren’t much trouble to deal with since they’re mostly alone. Even if their levels are around level 210 to 220.

Draugr are too stupid to be much of a threat after all. Especially with their low numbers.

After dealing with the few draugr at the front of the temple, I walk up to the strange wall that’s stationed where an entrance should be.

The wall has several different depictions on it with little moveable slabs. And if I had to guess, I’m expected to move the slabs into a certain formation.

Each slab has a depiction of some sort of undead monster on it, some of which I recognize others I don’t. But I do at least know that the monsters look like they’re at varying levels of power.

There’s also some sort of straight line off to the side full of empty positions for slabs to go.

I frown at the puzzle for a second before going with my gut instinct of trying to organize the undead by their Class. And nothing actually happens for several slabs as I do that.

Until I get to a slab depicting something I don’t recognize and the temple wall begins shaking along with the ground around me. Then several of that very undead burst out of the ground with a roar, the skeletal beasts immediately charging at me upon their release. And out of the corner of my eye, the slabs all teleport back to their starting positions.

This is going to be annoying.

I tighten my grip on my polearm before ducking when a skeletal beast leaps at me with its bony teeth chomping down, barely missing me.

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Very annoying.

The other beasts come after it, but I teleport out of their way and bring my polearm down straight on their neck, only to find my eyes widening in shock at the sight of my polearm’s blade quite literally bouncing off of it. Then I teleport back a couple dozen meters and identify the monsters.

{Fallen Beast – Level 222}

{Fallen Beast – Level 223}

{Fallen Beast – Level 221}

{Fallen Beast – Level 222}

{Fallen Beast – Level 222}

{Fallen Beast – Level 220}

{Fallen Beast – Level 220}

I… have no idea what Class these are. I’ve never even heard of them before. And what’s with that identify result? I’ve never heard of a purple identify result before.

But judging by their speed and that defense, they have to at least be Class C despite their nonexistent intelligence. Because their level wouldn’t justify that power.

My thoughts halt when the fallen beasts suddenly light up with a pale blue flame that seems to be freezing the air around them.

A cold flame? Seriously?

There’s something off about these monsters.

I frown at that but don’t have the time to ponder further on it as the monsters all start charging straight towards me, making me teleport back again before using waveform manipulation on the cold flames surrounding each one of the beasts. And to my pleasant surprise, one of the beasts has its cold fire changed to a burning crimson fire that immediately has it howling and rolling on the ground before turning to ash. But the others merely find their fire turning to either water, air, or not finding anything happening to it at all besides the fire lowering or increasing in intensity ever so slightly.

In the end it causes more confusion than actual damage, but it did deal with one of them and make the fire no longer a problem in a couple others, so it’s worth the soul it cost to use.

I raise my hands and begin blasting Quantum Bolts at the creatures, taking advantage of their confusion to get a couple direct hits that only cause some limited damage on their bones and nothing more. Meanwhile on the ones whose cold flames were enhanced, the Quantum Bolts didn’t do any damage at all.

That cold flame is annoying.

The fallen beasts resume their charge towards me, having recovered from their confusion and now quite a bit angrier than before judging by the blazing blue flames in their eyes. So I teleport away again, only to find a ball of cold flame already having been sent flying towards where I teleported, making my eyes go wide in shock.

I try to teleport again, but for some reason find the skill acting sluggish the closer the fireball gets to me. And in the end I don’t manage to teleport before part of the frost fireball hits me, freezing over bits of my arm and making me grimace before I quickly use Quantum Reversal to get rid of the damage.

The skill costs quite a bit of soul to use, but it reverses the wound nonetheless, and I teleport away again, gritting my teeth in the lingering pain and more than a little irritation.

Okay, seriously. What the hell are these monsters?!

A magic element that slows down the activation of skills somehow? Just what sort of element even is that?

And why are these monsters to powerful in the first place?

A Class C monster shouldn’t be… wait a second…

I blink before teleporting away from another fireball.

The Quantum Architect and the System introduced a Class S form of monster, so… could they have introduced Class B and A forms of monsters too?