Versatile: Alternate World

Seeing those enemies, I decided not to rush and attack. I am a bit in a distance from them so the monsters did not see me, allowing me to hide. But to see a different colored goblin, I am wondering whether that thing was a variant or not.

Without any way to see the strength of the enemies, hiding from them is the best course of action I can do at the moment. Not because I am being a coward but because fighting against the enemies will just slow me down. I don't want to get too caught out with the enemies and end up failing the quest due to this.

I waited for at least 5 minutes before I went out of my hiding spot and continue my exploration. If I ever meet those guys, I will have to fight back without holding myself back.

It took me a few twists and turns around the mine. Despite looking small outside, the mine extends underground and this made me scratch my head. If my objective is possibly at the very end part of this place, it will take me quite some time before I can even finish it. I have to increase my pace before the timer runs out.

Then, I suddenly heard a quiet shriek. It was very faint but I am sure about it. Looking ahead, there is a road that will make me need to make a turn, and judging from that sound, it might be intentional and a trap to lure anyone to investigate the shriek.

I am always cautious when it comes to the corners of caves. After all, with monsters in Alternate World being smart enough to create traps, I could potentially be defeated and killed in the process if I don't take extra caution of my safety.

To make sure it is safe, I pulled out the Smoke Poison Potion, one of the items you can get when crafting in the alchemy table. It is one of the potions I created for the sake of this expedition as things like this give quite a big advantage in exploring and stalling enemies. To think I will be using it now means that all the potions I made will be put to use one day when situations arise like this one.

CLANG!

The glass bottle broke and the poison that became smoke the moment it went into contact with the air contaminated the area with poison. The poison is not lethal enough but it is suffocating enough that anyone who tries to hide will just be receiving a painful poison on their lungs and they will be forced to get out of their hiding spot.

I waited for a bit to see if there are enemies that will pop out and after a few seconds, the smoke dissipated but there are no enemies that were suffering from the poison. Despite the result, I am not convinced. What if they are immune to poison?

Since a bomb is out of the question since that will just attract more monsters, I decided to just use the defensive capabilities of my Versatile Weapon's Shield of Vanagloria. I slowly made my advance and ready myself to prepare for a trap or assault by monsters on the corner.

Contrary to my expectation, there are no attacks directed towards my shield and no enemies seem to rush and assault me. I look around first to check whether it was a false alarm or not and I sighed in relief when I did find everything was just me being so paranoid.

However, I am not that enthralled when I saw two ice blocks in the same area I throw the Smoke Poison Potion. The shape is just not a random ice block and perhaps because the place seems to be too out of place as the mines seem to be not freezing at all and I don't even see any frozen stalactites or stalagmites that can make these things.

Approaching the Ice Figures, I quickly saw some silhouettes inside the ice. I fired one [Fireball] on it to test it out if it will melt but to my surprise, it didn't melt the solid ice.

"Master, do you want me to shoot out my fireball on that ice?" Lucia suggested.

"No, there is no need to do that. I was just trying to see if I can melt a bit of the ice and see what was frozen here. It melted a bit of the surface ice, it is now easy to look what was frozen."

I bash the ice a bit and the remaining ice that obscures the clear content inside fell and I finally saw what was frozen.

"Mining Imps? Wait...aren't these guys the mining imps I saw earlier along with the Blue Goblin?"

I may not recognize them since I only got a glimpse of the monsters who passed by earlier but am I just overthinking things? Why are they frozen? Is the Blue Goblin perhaps some sort of Ice Mage monster? But that goblin doesn't have any sort of accessory that will allow me to identify it as a shaman or a mage. Since I am not an expert in goblins, I decided to ask Gobu about this.

"Gobu, can I ask a question? Are goblins who are capable of using magic will always use staff and wear some sort of headdress to classify themselves from other goblins?"

"Yes, Master. Most goblins might be common foot soldiers or just archers but once they develop mana in their bodies, they will immediately start wearing those headdresses they put in their heads. I am a special case since my mana only manifests whenever I hold a sword or blade that is why I didn't wear any sort of things like that."

"Okay, one last question, can you tell me more about the blue goblins?"

"Blue Goblins? I am not sure about that Master, the only color I know of Goblins are Black, Green, Brown, and Red. So far, I have not seen a Blue Goblin in my life. But perhaps I might just not be that knowledgeable and there are Blue Goblins out there in the world."

I scratch my head at his response but perhaps he got a point. Despite being a goblin, there is no way to know what kind of variants goblins exist in this world. As for a Blue Goblin, I heard about it before but I never actually saw the creature. You can say that it was my first time seeing it with my own eyes. Still, I am a bit doubtful if that was indeed a Blue Goblin or it was just something else.

Without anything left to do and since I have no need to investigate the ice anymore, I continue mapping the whole mines.

...

30 minutes later, I already confirmed that something is very wrong here. Since the quest is Very Hard, I should be fighting multiple monsters here inside the mine and since we are in the Frozen Region of Sandurk, that only strengthens my assumption of getting attacked by monsters. However, to my confusion, I have been mapping for quite a while but I never come across any monsters. I did some things similar to the poison smoke potion earlier from time to time especially if I was not sure about the way being safe but every attempt I made are all just a bust.

Based on the mapping I made, it seems I am almost near the center of the mines. If I went in deeper, I might be able to find the hidden room the Rodola Ore was located. That also means the one guarding it will be the ultimate enemy if I didn't meet any monster along the way.

However, I am not expecting to see what I saw when I reached the main center of the mines. The monsters that were supposed to be living in that area were all frozen, Not a single one of them is thawed out, all of them are frozen to the bone.

[You have discovered: The Frozens]

The Frozens? Is that a typo or something on the system or that was the official name of this place? I looked around at all the iced monsters and all of them looked ferocious, I even saw a few Wyverns up in the ceiling but they are all frozen too. Who caused this phenomenon and why? There is no way it happened because the weather of this region is cold because the mine has a higher temperature compared to the temperature outside. There is no way it was the cave that caused them to freeze over. If they are monsters native in this area, being frozen should be the last thing that should happen to them.

"Oh? A human seems to have wandered in my ugly yet cold lair, welcome welcome, nonetheless. So what brings you here today, human?"

I pulled out my Versatile Weapon and readied my battle stance in case a surprise attack will immediately stop us. I noticed a figure not too far from us is the one who is speaking, however, since he was in the dark part of the mines, I can't see him clearly.

"Ha, a cautious guy, that is a good thing but... there is no need to be cautious to an old guy like me."

I furrowed my eyebrows when the figure who was speaking appeared because the one who is currently talking to me is none other than the Blue Goblin that I saw earlier.