Fenrir

Erik - the mixed party's leader - warns the others as they step into the sixth floor, "Remember, we need to deal with passing the floor before we go to the spider nest."

The others nod their heads in acknowledgement as they start making their way through the clearing at the taiga's entrance into the snow-covered forest.

Unlike most of the parties that make it this far, this one has been here several times before - with the purpose of some World Ore, of course - so they probably have the entire floor's layout memorized at this point.

Without any hesitation, the intruders begin making their way through the taiga towards the fortress, all whilst shivering a little from the cold, with their breaths coming out in small puffs of white mist.

However, within just three minutes of stepping into the snow-coated woods of the floor, a pack of direwolves quietly begins to stalk them.

I watch on with anticipation as the direwolves continue to follow behind them, only to pause in surprise as the Halfling archer suddenly spins around and sends an arrow flying straight into the eye of one of my direwolves.

"That's..." I mutter without taking my focus off of the party, "not what I was expecting."

The direwolves appear to be even more surprised than I am as they begin to jump away in fright from seeing the sudden death of their companion, only for them to be picked off as well by another arrow, mixed with a couple of fireballs from the Undine.

Wait a second... fireballs? I thought she was an aquatic species...

The intruders make quick work of my direwolves as I contemplate this odd turn of events before they take the key pieces from the direwolves' quickly-fading corpses and continue their way through the taiga.

I wonder why a member of an aquatic species decided to learn fire magic instead of water magic?

Hmm, then again, it doesn't really matter.

The party continues making their way through the taiga, wiping out packs of direwolves every now and then until they eventually find a beowolf, leading a pack of its own.

Elisah raises her hand in warning whilst crouching low to the ground, but not before the beowolf lifts its head and begins sniffing at the air. The beowolf then immediately turns its head in the intruders' direction as a light growl begins to emanate from it.

"Shit," Elisah - the Elf - swears as she raises her daggers and stands back up, deciding to abandon any sort of stealth as she shouts, "It's spotted us!"

Erik swears in response before climbing to his feet and raising his great shield in preparation. He then yells out commands to the others, who quickly follow them.

The Halfling - I think his name was Corbin - stands up and immediately draws his bow, letting loose an arrow straight into one of the direwolves closest to the beowolf. Meanwhile, the Undine fires off another fireball straight towards the beowolf as it begins to growl louder and leaps out of the way, leaving the fireball to continue past it into three of the dozen wolves within the pack, blasting them out of the way.

"At least those fireballs aren't as powerful as Leon's lightning bolts," Dawn suddenly mutters from her place on a beowolf's head inside of my core room.

I glance at her before saying, "True, but I bet the fireballs cost less mana to cast than the lightning bolt."

Dawn pauses in place, leaving her to float above the beowolf as it continues moving, before she bobs up and down in agreement as she says, "That's probably true."

I shift my focus back towards the intruders right as the beowolf collides with the party leader's great shield, forcing him back a little, with his feet digging into the ground from the force. At the same time, the Undine sends another fireball towards the remaining direwolves, finishing off half of the survivors right before Elisah reaches the others with her daggers.

She is able to use a lot more magic than the Hybrid is able to...

I take a moment to identify her again, since I haven't done so since the first time she entered my dungeon.

Name: Séafraiah Elar

Race: Undine

EXP Level: 9

Cultivation Level: 9

Oh? It looks like she got another CL since they first entered my dungeon.

Although it still confuses me as to why she is with this party, considering how many levels she has on them. Since the rest of her party is all around levels 5 and 6 in both EL and CL.

Then again, despite how little she speaks, they obviously respect her.

Wait a second...

I turn my attention towards Dawn before asking, "By the way, is an Undine a Demonic race, or an Angelic one?"

Dawn's flame turns into a mixture of blue and yellow flames out of surprise before she says, "She is actually one of the Neutral races in the Eternal War."

Neutral... races?

"There are Neutral races?" I ask her with obvious confusion in my words.

Dawn focuses on my core for a second before turning light pink in embarrassment and saying, "Yes, there are. It's just that there aren't very many of them in the world."

Well that's... interesting. I guess not all of the creatures outside are warmongers then.

"That said," Dawn suddenly continues, having turned back to her normal blue shade by this point, "the Neutral races tend to be stronger than both the Angelic and Demonic races, strictly because they have to be in order to keep either of them from pulling them into their war."

"Oh," I utter with some surprise before turning to watch the end of the intruders' battle. "That would explain her strength a little bit, although not why she is respected."

Dawn bobs up again at my words and says, "Another way the Neutral races keep their neutrality is by teaching both sides of the war. The Neutral races, such as that Undine for example, have longer life spans than most of the other races and they also tend to have more knowledge on magic as well."

Hmm, now that is interesting.

"And let me guess," I begin as the Undine pulls her sword out of the beowolf, "since they help teach both sides of the war, the Demonic and Angelic races tend to have some respect for them?"

It would certainly explain the way they treat the Undine.

"Well," Dawn begins, sounding slightly hesitant, "not always. Most races tend to be respectful of them, but there are always those that want more and decide to attack them instead. Although that doesn't usually end well for them."

The black light emanating from my core flashes slightly in my agreement.

It really doesn't make sense for them to attack someone for their strength and knowledge. After all, why would someone attack someone who is stronger than you so that you can get their strength? It obviously won't work out well for them.

Unless they have something to use against them, that is.

"Good job," Erik suddenly says, distracting my thoughts as the intruders continue making their way through the floor.

Anyways, this party is too strong for this floor.

It's kind of annoying.