Aurelia was walking through the forest exhausted from all of the walking and fighting, but she was surprisingly not at all sleepy. She wondered if that was because she was in the dungeon, an effect of her levels, or if the healing potions affected how much sleep she needed. Perhaps it was a combination of factors, but either way she was grateful she didn’t need to find a location to have some fitful sleep in the middle of a dungeon. She would probably go to sleep and then never wake up again, because some bear had found her.

Using the strings of light to find the bears had helped her immensely, but after killing so many, there were only a few left to find. The bears also seemed to be located further apart from each other. Aurelia may now know where to go, but that didn’t help her travel to those places quicker. She only needed to kill thirty bears before she would complete the challenge of this portion of the dungeon, but after killing the 29th bear, she had decided she might as well go all the way. Aurelia was now tracking down another brown bear, and it seemed to be the last in the forest, as she had not found any more living brown bear paths besides the one she was on.

As she walked, Aurelia came across some scorched grass from a previous fight with a red claw bear. She jumped over the black ground, clearing it easily. Aurelia glanced down at her boots, an inquisitive look on her face.

“What if I…? No, that's stupid…” Aurelia continued forward, muttering to herself.

Deciding that even if she did look stupid, she would be the only one around to witness it. Aurelia began to skip through the forest, and she yelped in surprise as she began to breeze through the forest. Each skip allowed her to travel a lot further and a lot quicker than walking. Her jumping boots also seemed to work with the skipping as each skip moved her further than before. Not to mention, all the new stat points had made her stronger, quicker, and she had more energy to move and yes, to skip.

Aurelia smiled as she continued forwards and only stopped a couple minutes later when she heard the sound of roars and crashing noises. She continued following the brown string of light when she saw the brown bear she had been searching for. Her content facial expression turned to shock as she saw the imposing brown claw bear hurl a large boulder at what looked like a giant polar bear. The shocked look on her face turned to awe when the white bear brought up a paw and a wall of thick ice formed from thin air in front of the bear. The boulder impacted the ice wall with a loud shattering noise. Bits of rock and ice flew in all directions, the boulder split apart and the ice wall had a huge crack down the center.

Aurelia ducked behind a tree as some shrapnel fell near her, even almost forty feet away. She peaked her head back out to see the brown bear rushing towards the white bear with a roar. Aurelia took the chance to identify the two bears. The brown bear was a normal brown claw bear at level 15, but the white bear gave her a new description.

[White Claw Bear] Level 15

Health: 600/750

Mana: 290/400

Stamina: 290/310

The [White Claw Bear] is a monster found in mountain and glacier regions of Eldria. The [White Claw Bear] has high vitality and strength, using its long claws to decimate their foes. Can use ice and snow related spells for both offense and defense.

The white claw bear had the most mana available of any of the types of bears, but also had less health. Aurelia had already witnessed that the white claw bear could defend itself in other ways, being able to defend itself with the ice wall.

Aurelia watched as the brown claw bear attempted to get around the cracking ice wall so it could get at the white bear. She noticed that the white bear had an injury on its side, with bright red blood staining the white of the fur. The white bear turned towards the approaching brown bear and swiped a claw in its direction. The claw swiped harmlessly through the air and Aurelia thought it was just an attempt at a threatening gesture. She was surprised when a cloud of snow seemed to flow through the air from the white bear towards the approaching brown bear.

The brown bear roared at the white bear as it scrambled forwards on all fours, making a circular arc around the ice wall. That was when Aurelia saw the floating white snowflakes meet the fur of the brown bear, encompassing the bear in a cloud of snow. Aurelia’s jaw dropped as first the brown fur seemed to frost over, and then the entire bear turned to solid ice. The bear had literally frozen in place.

The white bear walked forwards towards the ice statue sniffling in its direction. Aurelia tried identifying the brown bear and was shocked to see that the brown bear was still alive. Its health had gone down to 100 points, but it was not dead. She decided now was her chance to attack the bears. She didn’t know why the bears were attacking each other, but she didn’t want the white bear to take away her chance at getting progress on her dungeon objective.

Aurelia teleported right next to the two bears, only a couple feet away from the frozen bear. The white bear had a paw on the statue seemingly trying to test whether it was alive or dead, but it paused when the bear noticed Aurelia. She smiled at the white bear.

“Surprise!” Aurelia pointed her wand at the frozen brown bear and cast a lightning chain.

Aurelia immediately teleported away, as the lightning struck the bear and ice shattered, sending pieces flying everywhere. The white bear was struck with ice and the chained lightning spell as the brown bear died. Aurelia moved a little bit closer to the white bear, casting mana bolts at the bear. The white bear roared in pain and in anger, turning to face Aurelia.

Aurelia jumped to the side, casting a spatial slash that hit the bear at its neck. The bear made a gurgling noise, but continued to move towards Aurelia. She made one more spatial slash, aiming at the same spot as before, and hit the wounded white bear again. The white bear stumbled back from the impact of the spell and then collapsed to the ground. Aurelia whooped in excitement as she received a kill notification for the white bear.

She skimmed through the notification about experience from killing the brown and white bears and accepted the loot notification, watching as the bodies of the two bears disappeared.

[Brown Claw Bear] meat x 5 received!

[Brown Claw Bear] pelt x 1 received!

[White Claw Bear] meat x 6 received!

[White Claw Bear] pelt x 1 received!

[White Claw Bear] ice claw dagger: uncommon received!

[Earth Manipulation] skill book: rare received!

[Monster Core] level 15 x 2 received!

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22 Copper coins received!

5 Silver coins received!

All loot deposited in [Spatial Storage].

Aurelia smiled at the notification, excited at getting more interesting loot. She dismissed the notification and pulled out the skill book she had received. It looked like what she imagined a spell book would look like. A leather bound book with gold detailing with worn-looking pages. Aurelia wasn’t exactly sure how skill books worked in this world, and after briefly scanning through the pages, she decided she would wait to ask more questions on what it was. She didn’t want to use it, only to regret the decision by wasting it or something.

She next pulled out the ice claw dagger. The style of the dagger was very similar to her flame claw dagger. In fact, it was the same dimensions, but it was made with white leather instead of black. Making a guess on how it worked, Aurelia put some mana into the ice dagger. She kept the blade away from her main torso, ready for something to happen. It still shocked her when an aura of cold suddenly appeared around the blade of the dagger. It didn’t seem to affect her negatively in any way, but she could still feel the biting chill it produced.

Aurelia looked around for something to use it on, but the bodies of the bears were gone and there was no way she would use it on herself. She decided to just try pressing the flat of the blade against a dead tree stump. Aurelia watched as at first a circle of frost appeared where the blade touched wood, and then the wood began to freeze solid. She watched in fascination as the wood became coated in ice because of the blade. Aurela smiled at her new weapon. This dagger would definitely come in handy.

Aurelia took another look around her, trying to see where she could go to next. She had now reached over thirty bears defeated, so she could try and find the exit or kill the last bear in the dungeon. Glancing at the pathway strings around her, she couldn’t see any that represented a living monster.

She remembered back when she had first gotten her Spatial Tracking skill and had first observed the colored strings. There had been multiple white strands, along with one golden strand. She had only seen one white bear so far, so she knew there must be more of them out there. Aurelia also wondered what the golden strand might have been for. Perhaps that one led to the boss of this section of the dungeon.

For the moles and then the snakes there had been a single monster far stronger than all the rest. Those monsters were the hardest to kill, but had both given her a lot of experience and the best loot. At that thought, Aurelia decided that she for sure needed to at least find where that golden strand led to.

Aurelia looked around again, but realized there was nothing here that could help her.

“But, maybe…” Aurelia pondered, before walking over to the single white strand that had represented the white bear she had finished off. From what she had observed before, the white strands had all been heading together in the same direction as the golden strand. From all of the bears she had fought so far, the white claw bear was the strongest of the four bear types she had come across. That may be her opinion, but the white claw bear had shown strong offense and defense skills that none of the other bears had shown. And if the white bears traveled with the golden bears, maybe if she backtracked where this white bear had come from, she could find where the other bears might be located.

Aurelia didn’t have any other good ideas, so she decided following the dead white claw bear’s path would be her next course of action. After attaching her new dagger to her belt, she set off through the forest following the faint white strand of the white bear’s path.

The strand of white light took her through the forest, and Aurelia recognized some of what she saw. Eventually, she came to a spot that made her stop. The strand she had been following meandered forwards until it met four other strands. Three of them were glowing white and one gold strand, all vibrant with life. It seemed the white claw bear she had killed had separated itself from the other bears at some point, with it ending up in a fight with the brown bear.

This was just what Aurelia had needed. She smiled as she changed direction and started following the four new lines. Almost a half an hour later, she still hadn’t found the bears, but she noticed that instead of the flat ground of most of the rest of the forest, she was starting to walk up an incline. The forest was dense enough that she couldn’t see much of the surrounding land, but she could now tell that she was now walking up a hill.

As she continued, the hill became steeper and steeper. Fortunately, it wasn’t too much for her and Aurelia knew she had the increased levels to thank for that. Aurelia continued to watch the glowing strands and saw when they led deep into thick bushes and undergrowth before disappearing from her sight.

She approached the bushes with caution and apprehension, worried for some sort of ambush. Aurelia headed into the brush wand first, her hand sweeping back and forth to move branches out of her way. The dungeon around her was quiet except for the sound of crunching branches and leaves underfoot.

Aurelia caught sight of the glowing white and gold strands peaking through the branches and watched them flow through the air towards what looked like a dark hole in the side of a mountain. She paused as she spotted the cave in front of her, wary of the darkness and what may lay beyond.

She had no light spell to light her way, but she did have the glowing crystals from before. Aurelia took one out of her inventory, and held it up in her left hand as she walked forwards, her other hand still holding her wand at the ready. The dark cave reminded her of the first two sections of the dungeon, giving her that same sense of gloom and mild claustrophobia. Aurelia had gotten too used to having the wide open forest and felt even more disappointed that she had to go back underground.

Aurelia followed the glowing strands of the bear's path. Interestingly, while the strands glowed, they didn’t seem to light up the area around it. They stood out, but that was it. She guessed it was because it was something only she could see, and didn’t actually affect the world around them.

She then came to a fork in the cave system and the glowing strands actually branched away from each other. Two of the white strands and the gold strands went to her left, while a single white strand went to her right. Aurelia paused, considering where she should go. She knew she wanted to defeat all of the bears before moving on, and that meant she would have to eventually go down both paths. Aurelia considered and decided killing one at a time would be a lot easier than a group of the bears, especially in these close confines.

So Aurelia went to the right, following the lone white bear. Five minutes of walking later, she was met with a thick wall of ice, covering the entire tunnel in front of her. Curious, Aurelia backed up and started shooting mana bolts at the wall of ice. The explosions the spell made on impact were loud in the close confines of the cave system. She cringed back at the noise, then observed the ice wall again. Nothing had happened. Aurelia couldn’t even see a scratch in the ice wall or even ice shards on the ground. She then shot out a couple spatial slashes and even her lightning chain. Nothing happened. The ice wall stood there, mocking her. Aurelia glared at the ice wall and at the glowing strand that seemed to pass right through the wall.

Aurelia decided to try one more thing and stuck her wand in her belt before she took out her flame dagger. She set the dagger ablaze and approached the ice wall. Aurelia put out her hand and set the flaming metal against the cold ice. After a couple of seconds, she took the dagger away and brought the glowing crystal closer to see clearer. Nothing had happened.

Aurelia groaned in frustration at her lot and decided she wouldn’t be able to go this way after all. She turned away from the ice wall and walked back towards the intersection she had come from. When she came back to where the bears had split up, Aurelia walked into the left tunnel, following the three bears.

After a couple of minutes, she began to hear noises. They were loud. It sounded like a lawn mower starting over and over. The deep sound making its way deep in her chest. She slowed her pace and realized there was light up ahead. The golden light shone from a cave up ahead of her. Aurelia tiptoed forwards, hoping to catch the bears unawares.

When she finally saw the cave, though, she stopped in surprise at what she saw. She had finally found the two white bears and one giant golden bear all together in a heap on the cave floor. All three of them were asleep, and the loud noise she had heard was from them snoring. Aurelia huffed in amusement at the sight. She continued to look around the cave seeing what made the golden light. There were melon sized orbs of light floating in the room, giving off a golden glow. The cave was large, and Aurelia grimaced at what could only be bones scattered around the room. Large bones of a large animal, but Aurelia wouldn’t be able to say what exactly they were.

And that is when she saw it. Her final destination. The stone door at the far end of the room, marking what Aurelia knew to be the exit. Her eyes lit up in excitement and she took a step forwards into the room. Immediately she knew she had made a mistake. The snoring had stopped and now there were three sets of glowing eyes staring at her.

“Ooops…”