Several hours have passed, Mia spending the time exploring the dungeon while experimenting with her new power and status.

The most annoying part was getting used to her newfound changed essence, she had yet found a way to regulate her temperature to a more normal level, the side effects of this being very apparent in this damp swamp. She had a constant fog emanating from her, and her skin and tail were collecting ice shards as water froze upon contact with her.

She found this very annoying, which didn’t help.

Her magic and mobility, however, had improved greatly. Most monsters dying instantly as she experimented with new ways to use her near-perfect control of ice, even the treants were no problem at all and were simply overwhelmed by her newfound power.

This was sadly limited to ice magic, as she could figure out how to use her newfound water magic, which she made zero progress in. the same could be said with weapons, she found magic too useful to even bother with it, at best she would make a random weapon and throw it, but outside of that she was beginning to prefer magic by a long shot.

It helped that her int had broken passed 600, her dex not that far behind.

She was too fast and hard to hit, with magic power comparable to her aunt…

“Maybe not… maybe not that much…” She figured that would be taking it too far, especially after seeing it first hand “Fire tornado was powerful….even if she never hit it…” she had to wonder what her stats looked like in comparison to other heroes, or other adventurers for that matter, could she now win against stronger humans?

She hoped so, she’d at least like to be able to fight that coo-coo crazy lady that tossed her around.

Besides all that, she had redone her boots, having no need to shield herself from the water anymore she made her boots into simple shoes. She had entertained the idea to make clothes out of ice for her to wear to replace the barely holding on rags she was wearing but… it was impossible to move in and was shelved.

It also didn’t help something in this dungeon didn’t add up.

She had opened several chests as she explored the dungeon, all of them holding skill orbs.

At first, she was excited for the potential of a new skill, however, the skills themselves were… well…

[painting: 1]

[Dyeing: 1]

[Goldsmithing: 1]

[Butchering: 1]

These, added with 2 Orbs that did not do anything when she tried to use them, made her a tad disappointed. “Why all crafting…” She wanted battle skills, or maybe more magic, something she could use and while she did enjoy her time crafting her special trident, she didn’t think painting was going to save her mother.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“And then these two!” she held up the two orbs that refused to work, clanking them together “Why won’t they work!?”

[Because you already have the skill they contain.]

“…oh.” She held the two orbs up on last time before chucking them behind her, two satisfying *plops* could be heard as they fell into the water.

“If all I am getting is crafting stuff, and levels are getting slower… better get out.” She sighed, she had gained two levels since her little tantrum, and with the endless swamp she didn’t see much point in staying any longer.

Now the bigger issue, how to get out.

She turned around and hopped off the shrine “how I got in…” she glanced down, squinting she could just barely see the familiar stone hallway deep into the water “Good, that’s still there.” She knelt down on her platform of ice, sticking one of her hands into the water.

“Hrm… problem…” Bringing it back up, it was covered in a thin layer of ice.

“Maybe not a problem?” if all she had to do was dive in and cross to the other side, she could handle ice forming on her…

Right…?

“yeah…” she lowered her face down towards the water, trying to stick her face into it, or push off into it in a dive but she shot back up, the time she drowned popping up in her mind and dominating her thoughts.

“Maybe there is another way!” she shot up, laughing a bit “Yeah! Maybe! Swamp has to lead somewhere, right? Deeper in maybe there is an exit!” She turned on her heels “Maybe I ca- who?”

She had spun around, planning on going deeper, but when she did she found herself face to face with a young women. She leaped back, not having sensed her at all “…who?”

The women was unmoving, wearing a blank expression on her face.

“What, want?” Mia perked up.

‘eh? Why am I? …later.’ She shook her head, focusing on the lady, Human, and besides the blank expression on her face and feeling she gave off another oddity was her attire, a black dress laced in white frills…out of place was an understatement, she even had a matching bow…

“Hello?” It not doing anything was always strange, was this another weirdo from the church or… kinda persistent to chase her all the way down here…

Her ears flickered, hearing a series of clicks and clacks that drew her attention to the girl, now twitching in place. Mia quickly made a few knives, readying herself as the girl raised her hands, and with two metal clangs, two swords shot out of her sleeves.

Followed by two hallow *thunks* as Mia tossed her knives into the lady’s head, the lady fell backwards onto the hard stone floor of the shrine. “Weird.” Mia’s face furrowed, but ignored it and approached the girl “alive?”

The girl laid there, motionless with two knives in her head. She was not bleeding despite the wounds, and didn’t react even with Mia poked her with a long ice stick “Dead… what even was tha- hrm…” She didn’t like the implications of this, both cases of them.

A random human showing up and attacking her was nothing new, but saying nothing and attacking? If she was with the church, she’d expect some crazy nonsense and to be fair this was still pretty crazy, but it wasn’t laughing while bashing her head in crazy.

And then there is her speech… how to put it…it was like she was back in the village, granted she had been called out before switching back and forth depending on how much she wanted to deal with the person talking to her…

[So, you are aware of that.]

…but with the lady it was involuntary, and the moment she confirmed she was dead she was able to be more verbal.

She could only hope it was on time thing.

“Hey Ami, what do you think about this human?” at least she could talk to Ami normally.

[An anomaly, doesn’t fit with the other monsters present in the dungeon.]

“you think she’s with the church?” Taking her stick she prodded around the girl’s neck, looking for an insignia or anything out of place.

[I do not see why this abomination would be a part of it.]

“Harsh.” Mia shrugged, figuring it was best to move on and leave her to rot. Continuing deeper into the swamp.