Instantly they turned their attention to the outside while leaving a bit of themselves to finish the scythe's change into a boss monster.

As soon as they looked outside, they knew what it was that originally caught their attention.

The ships were leaving.

The five battered ships looked a bit better than when they first spotted them, and the ship that Alexis, the weird man, came on was on the move.

The child watched as they headed through the plateau and out the other side, where no storms existed at the moment.

They watched as the six ships disappeared on the horizon, and their leaving left the child with a question.

Where are they going?

Ever since they have first awakened, everything has been new.

From floating with the other icebergs and them being stuck within the five islands, these have been physical places that they have explored. And the child knew that there were a lot more places to explore in the world, and they couldn't wait to see more.

Even floating within the plateau's current was filled with a sense of exploration.

They never knew what they would find, but that was part of the excitement of being in a motion of custom movement.

And the child was starting to feel that adventurous urge again. To be free-floating and not just floating within the plateau's currents.

With the ships gone, the child turned back to their scythe mantis, and while they had their attention elsewhere, it had turned into a floor boss.

The scythe mantis grew to be 50 centimetres long and tall and kept the same green pattern and claws. But along the tooth-like ridges along the monster's clawed arms, these little holes led to a small little chamber where they produced this foam. Once released by the mantis, the foam rapidly hardens and is strong like stone, creating both a trap and a defence measure.

Congratulations! You have made the scythe mantis your seventh-floor boss and have named it the "Foaming Mantis."

On their eighth floor, they choose a sphere of ice krill. But this time, they used their ice mana string to help create the boss.

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Entwining their mana string and the ice mana string, the child pushed them into the monster and started pushing their golden flecks.

While the krill got bigger, about 47 centimetres long, and gained a thicker ice defence. Where the ice layered on its body, covering all weak spots. But the best part of the change is their ability to manipulate ice.

The boss still made a shield of ice, but now they had enough control of the ice that it became almost like their pressurized ice in hardness and durability. And the best part is that they could now create ice spheres around opponents and ice rings that they could throw. The spheres of ice can trap completely or severely limit their ability to move depending on the size of the invader. The ice rings are razor-sharp and move fast in the water and even faster in the air.

Congratulations! You have made the sphere ice krill your eighth-floor boss and have named it the "Ice Ringed Krill."

The monster for the ninth-floor boss was chosen from a sphere ice krill. Even though they already had a sphere ice krill as their eighth boss monster, the child did not care.

Taking their ice mana string and their golden flecks, they focused solely on the krill's ability to manipulate ice.

Unlike with the ice-ringed krill, the outcome was completely opposite. Instead of creating ice, the monster started producing something much cooler.

The krill rapidly cooled down certain areas, creating these tendrils of supercooled salt water that froze all the animals and plants that were in its path. And with the ability to manipulate where these tendrils go, the child knows that the monster will be lethal for those unprepared.

It even used the supercooled temperatures as a defence. It layered them repeatedly in thin sheets, covering up their weak areas.

Congratulations! You have made the sphere ice krill your ninth-floor boss and have named it the "Brinicle Krill."

The last boss monster that they began to create, they chose from an enthralling snail.

Taking their own mana string and a water mana string, they injected them into the snail, and it completely changed the monster.

The enthralling snail used colours to help ensnare weak minds, hold their attention and command them to a certain extent. Still, with this boss monster, they managed to take that out completely.

With injecting the water string into the monster during the process, it helped increase the size of the monster and gave it a unique ability.

The monster grew to be a metre in size, with increased arms with hooks and claws and still held its transparency. At the tips of their arms is where the water mana took effect.

With the flick of the snail's arm, a small, quickly spinning circulation of water. A mini whirlpool.

The child watched as it was strong enough to rip up some of their kelp.

Congratulations! You have made the enthralling snail your tenth-floor boss and have named it the "Whirlpool Snail."

POV Alexis Miftern

It had been a crazy two and a half weeks. With the appearance of Karttunen and the Royal Company of the Golden Claw of the Iporanga nation, their trip to the dungeon within the iceberg got even more interesting.

Alexis originally had high hopes for this expedition. All they wanted was to track down the dungeon within the iceberg, harvest enough plants and animals to make a profit, and potentially influence what the dungeon might grow with more expensive, rare, or little-known materials that they could quickly monopolize. But that changed with where they found the dungeon and the group that lived in the area. The Tsiamewo proved to be good trading partners and have been sharing delves in the dungeon equally.

With the Golden Claws and Tsiamewo trading with him and the goods he managed to harvest from the dungeon, their cargo hold was full. And in good timing, too, as the Golden Claws were about to make their journey towards the Trebecen kingdom within the Togiak continent. Luckily, Mareian convinced the company to let them tag along.

But before they left, Alexis chiselled a piece of ice off of the iceberg and placed it in a charmed glass bottle. This piece of ice had a tiny piece of the dungeon's mana within it, and he planned to use it to track the dungeon.

Well, not track it per se, but narrow the dungeon's location down to a couple hundred-kilometre radius. And since it's an iceberg, it shouldn't be too hard to spot.

As their ship sailed with the Golden Claw through an open patch of sea, Alexis looked back at the dungeon getting smaller and smaller.

I will be back.