Transmigrated as a Ghost

Floating high above their camp, Marcus looked around the mountains trying to spot anything of interest.

'Oh, that looks like it might be worth checking out.'

Spotting the very edge of a large glacier that ran up been two mountains and had created a large valley in its wake. Marcus floated over towards the massive form of ice wanting to get a closer look.

As he got closer, he noticed that there was something else interesting about this glacier, as it appeared to have a series of holes running through it.

'Hm, there might be some sort of creature, or maybe even a whole pack of creatures living in this glacier. Time to check it out.'

Feeling the call of adventure, Marcus floated up to one of these nearby holes and poked his head in.

Looking inside he saw that the tunnel in the ice went on for about a hundred feet before curving to the left.

'Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.'

Floating right up to the entrance, Marcus resolidified and let gravity carry him.

This tunnel was angled downward, and he soon began sliding down like he was at an attraction at a theme park.

Zipping down the ice, Marcus was having a blast as he built up more and more speed.

However, as much as he was enjoying the ride, it soon came to an end, as the tunnel he had started in intersected perpendicularly with another.

CRASH!

Smashing into the ice, Marcus left a number of webbing cracks through the area as his entire body impacted

Naturally, he did not suffer any actual damage, and had taken the hit on purpose simply to see what would happen.

'Damn I really am sturdy now.' Marcus thought as he looked over his form that was uninjured.

Unfortunately, while he had come out unharmed. The loud noise he had made attracted one of the beings that had made these tunnels.

'What the hell is that thing.' Marcus thought as he stared at the creature that had just appeared.

From its appearance it looked a bit like a centipede with a blueish white exterior, other than the numerous glowing red spikes on its back and the flames licking out of its mouth.

'Level twenty-seven Remorhaz. Well even though it looks pretty imposing being over twelve feet long, its level is still pretty low.'

Of course, this thought was mostly Marcus' own skewed viewpoint. For the world at large this would have been a terrifying monster capable of destroying a village and causing major damage even to a small town.

'Woah there.'

Jumping back Marcus dodged as this Remorhaz lashed forward and smashed into the ice where he had been a moment ago.

And as it pulled back, the ice had melted form the extreme temperatures being generated within this monster's body.

Turning back towards Marcus, the Remorhaz opened its mouth, and a blast of flames was released forward. Covering the entire tunnel and leaving Marcus nowhere to escape.

Nevertheless, it was not like he needed to run, and casually walked through the flames encasing his form with his mana barrier.

'I think that I have gotten too used to fighting life and death battles with higher level opponents. This is almost too easy.' Marcus thought as the novelty of this encounter was beginning to wear off.

'Shining lance.'

Casting his tier two light magic spell, Marcus impaled the Remorhaz in an instant piercing it into the side of the tunnel.

Still, this one blow did not kill the monster and it began crying out in distress.

'Oh, there must be more of them if it is calling for help.'

After making this observation, Marcus grabbed ahold of his shinning lance and split this Remorhaz in half. Ending its life.

Yet as it fell in two pieces, flames and heat blasted out of its dead body and covered the area.

'Wow, talk about a nasty death ability. Even once you think you have won it covers the area in fire.'

Luckily, the level and quality difference between Marcus and this monster was immense, and even begin caught off guard he had not taken any damage from the fires that were relatively cool compared to the ones he usually worked with.

Taking its core and some of its outer armor, Marcus looked at them with a conflicted expression.

He was supposed to come completely empty handed, so storing these in his item box could complicate things if someone made an issue out of it.

'Well, maybe I put them somewhere else and retrieve them later.' He thought as he placed them into his item box.

'Looks like the next one is coming.'

Turning around Marcus felt another creature approaching, but when it appeared, he was surprised to see what it was.

Instead of being another Remorhaz like he thought. It was a pure white caterpillar looking monster.

'Level twenty-five frost worm. Do both of these different monsters inhabit these tunnels?'

Flabbergasted that two very different monsters were living in such close proximity, and using the same tunnel system, he wondered what was going on.

Were these two species indifferent to each other, or maybe they were currently in some type of turf war and this worm had come to finish off a distressed enemy.

However, its actions went against either of Marcus' hypotheses, as the frost worm let out what sounded like an angry roar when it saw the dead Remorhaz.

'Darkness bullet.'

Firing off a single darkness bullet, Marcus blasted a hole through the open mouth of the frost worm. Killing it instantly.

'To think there was a time when creatures like these were a real threat to me. Now it only takes one low level spell apiece.'

Having dispatched his most recent opponent, he walked up to this frost worm and removed its core.

'Sounds like more are coming.'

Waiting for just another minute Marcus soon saw that a half dozen Remorhazes and frost worms had appeared around him.

Seeing this there was no longer any doubt that these two different creatures were indeed working together and were the rulers of this glacier.

Still even a hundred monsters in the low to upper twenties were not a threat to him, and he quickly dispatched his new adversaries.

'It could take forever to simply take out those that come after me. Might as well make my way deeper inside stealthily'

Switching back into his ghost form, Marcus began floating thought the tunnels heading down and deeper into the glacier towards the core area.

His curiosity was beckoning him to go on and find out why these two very different types of monsters were working together.

Though as he continued on, he found that the density of these monster increased by quite a bit.

'So, the Remorhazes make new tunnels and the frost worms make sure that the structures are stable so that the inside of the glacier does not collapse. Certainly, this is a good symbiosis that they have figured out. But I still wonder what brought them together.'

After witnessing what appeared to be the main reason for these creatures working together. Marcus floated deeper in and soon started passing by higher level specimens. Eventually finding a massive frost worm over forty feet long that was level fifty-one.

Except as he made it into the next chamber, this monster seemed insignificant to what he found at the core of these monsters' nest.