Normally cursed energy was like air or fire, formless and weightless but with pressure behind it. After the change in my soul however my cursed energy thickened and grew dense so it was more like water than either of those. It wasn't smooth flowing water either but felt "lumpy" for lack of a better term. It surged outside my control sometimes or barely accomplished anything during other times. It was really fucking annoying to be honest. The worse part had to be the fact I couldn't fix it entirely either for a time. I hadn't accomplished what I had set out for the dungeon to do and didn't have enough smoke to max out my stats. -
I ended up spending the next three days "kneading" my cursed energy until it was at least usable on a reliable enough level but surges and dips still existed. Finally I set out from the sixty second floor to the unrecorded sixty third floor. I don't know what I had expected but it was just more snow and blizzards. This cold while still incredibly harsh and filled with dangerous magic even for a level seven had no souls trapped in it and even more so had monsters.-
Jagged crystalline things made of ice that reminded me of War shadows almost with their shape but WAY faster and more durable. I easily clocked them out as level six monsters and they were plentiful and annoying. See the visibility on this floor was, frankly, nonexistent. Much like War shadows these assholes liked to ambush you from the swirling disorienting blizzard gales smashing into you from every direction with seemingly no warning at all. Since the frost was formed from magic and NOT directly part of the dungeon my technique also didn't work on it so I got mere moments to react when they came at me.-
They were fragile thankfully so killing them took only a good solid hit on the area around their fist sized stones. I considered unleashing my flames fully on my surroundings but I thought better of it considering how ice and snow is just cold water and my flames never handled water very well. Even as true pure hell fire I wasn't sure if this trait was carried over if even if it originated from that to begin with. whatever the case I'd test it later in a safer environment.-
Still the thin cloak I had around me of flames kept the nasty chill away and even kept my mobility intact as the snow was evaporated and cleared in a small two foot radius around me. Those Ice shadows as I named them weren't the only monsters either as there was another that I named the snow badger. As the name might give an idea of these things they were massive badger like monsters with mostly white fur and a single wide golden stripe of fur down the center of their backs, they were also level six.-
Did I mention they were ten feet tall and had the nasty habit of ignoring pain and injury in a mad attempt to kill you? Because they were very much that. Collecting their pelts was a pain in the ass but at least all these level six monsters were doing wonders for my smoke intake. By the time I made it to the sixty fourth floor I was willing to say I had about half the amount of smoke I needed to max out my stats. Naturally that was when things got troublesome for me as I stepped out into the sixty fourth floor.-
It was a strange floor as it was perfectly clear and flat all the way across EXCEPT for the snow covered mountain in the center of the floor. Honestly it was beautiful as the soft silver light from the crystals on the ceiling shimmered down on the snow that wasn't ice for some reason or another and left the whole place glowing faintly. I thought that there was perhaps no monsters on this floor or they were hidden under the snow and as it turned out I was right, in the worst way possible.-
As the snow melted around me from my heat output and I got a good mile into the floor that "mountain" began to shake. Snow fell away in great amounts as the beast below it fully stretched out and made itself known. In form it was similar to the Goliath as it was very human like for the most part. The biggest differences however were the skin color, hair, horns and clothes it wore. It had a long rough grey beard reaching down to it's waist and bald head that sported two ridged goat-like horns from the forehead. It's skin was an icy blue color and covered literal miles of banded muscle.-
On it's waist was a massive scaled loincloth that while not the first time I had seen a monster wearing clothes stood out all the same. The massive monster breathed out a dense foggy breath like a cloud as it observed me and then to my surprise held out it's right hand and ice began to condense and form the shape of a massive club. I decided at that exact moment to name this obviously monster rex Jotun, the ice giant.-
The next moment I had to dodge a miles long and wide club that smashed down towards me. The sheer power from it striking the ground sent out a shockwave that sent me tumbling through the air uncontrollably while the snow was tossed into the air like a miniature blizzard. I shot towards the monster with my flames propelling me and smashed into it with an explosive sound. It groaned in pain and stumbled back three steps as it fought against gravity.
'Tch, it's hard.' I thought as I shot upward to dodge the massive meaty left hand trying to slap me against it's chest like a fucking mosquito.