Born in apocalypse

Amidst the icy vastness, a pair of men traversed together, their steps synchronized in harmony as they traversed the coldness with the help of fire raging beside them.

A regal eagle soared gracefully ahead, its keen eyes mapping out a safe course through the snow-laden landscape.

As the silence began to encroach the atmosphere, the white-haired man finally decided to break it. Looking at the one behind him, he muttered, "Hmmm! How many of such batches have we encountered till now, Azarex?"

"After counting the one we witnessed just a minute ago... then the total number would be 21. We have found 21 such places, Master," Azarex muttered as he remembered everything.

For the past few hours, they were traveling; the duo had encountered multiple places where the corpses of the monsters didn’t have any cores on them. Between all the corpses they had seen till now, there were two things connecting all of them together.

Firstly, they were killed by the same thing, and secondly, the core was missing. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

After an hour in the journey, they had begun to encounter corpses that were mutilated, which indicates that other monsters could have snatched the core as well... even after this, Dhruv had concluded the same thing.

He had taken some time to reach them, that’s for sure, but the circumstances revolving among weren’t any different from all the others.

Sigh!

’What really is this place? This can’t be a normal dungeon, right...’ Dhruv thought looking at the endless snow in front of him.

After witnessing all the weird things in just a single realm, Dhruv really was on the verge of questioning his choice about continuing in the dungeon. The only thing that was stopping him from exiting the dungeon was the reward... the reward he was getting.

After entering the dungeon, he has been continuously leveling up both his level and mutation. He had even felt some of his skills evolving as well.

On top of all this, Dhruv had a hope of clearing the dungeon... this hope comes from the fact that he hadn’t met any monster above beginner tier 4.

As they continued to move toward their location, Dhruv suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from behind him.

"Master, there is another batch of corpses, 150 meters north of us... should we go there?" Azarex muttered as he asked for the next course of action.

’Another Batch...hmmm! Is there any reason to go see them...unless...’ Having this thought in his mind, Dhruv turned to look at him and asked, "Are there monsters beside the corpses... consider only if they are above the middle level of tier 2."

After much consideration, Dhruv had made the decision to avoid fighting anything below middle tier 2 monsters as they only serve to waste his time. The only time he will fight them was when he would encounter a hoard.

Hearing the question, Azarex became silent for a while. Turning his head toward the master, he muttered, "I can’t really see anything... but there seems to be some movement there."

"Can’t see... is the monster invisible?" Dhruv asked as he turned his head to look toward north. Having his mana sense already active he focus all of it to search for the monster.

Before he could get something from his mana sense, he heard Azarex reply, "No master, the monster is hiding itself below the snow... Yes! It’s some type of worm monster that can burrow itself in the snow."

"Worn type monster but for snow... Hmm!.." Dhruv muttered remembering many such type of monster he had seen. The only difference was that the one he had seen was sand type.

Thinking for a second, he turned to discuss their new course of action but stopped as he heard Azarex’s voice.

"Master, it has spotted us and is advancing," Azarex muttered as he quickly formed a defensive stance.

’It spotted us from this far. Hmmm! A tier 3 perhaps. Good, good.’ Dhruv thought as he quickly formed a plan on how to counter the monster’s lethal aspect.

Looking in that direction, he muttered, "Well, it would have been quite interesting to fight you if we weren’t able to do this..."

Sensing a disturbance coming from below the ground, he muttered, "Now."

Azarex, having spent ample time with his master, anticipated the plan unfolding before him. This foresight allowed him to comprehend aspects of it without the need for verbal confirmation.

This understanding prompted him to act accordingly. The instant Azarex heard the command ’now,’ he leaped without hesitation, reaching as high as possible.

He had made the right decision; the moment he jumped, a plain sheet of metal appeared beneath their feet. With the help of his magic, Dhruv flew the metal high above in the air before the monster could complete its attack.

Woooossh!

A mouth with a diameter of 1 meter emerged from the place where the duo was just a second ago. The monster found itself confused as it realized the vibration it was feeling from the ground just a moment ago was completely gone.

With nothing but disappointment in its mouth, the monster was about to head back into the snow... but stopped as it heard a disturbance in the vibration once again, the only difference being the place of the vibration was different.

"Enhanced Metal Spear..." The whisper rang in the surroundings.

The vibration it felt all over its skin was coming from above its head.

Instantly, it turned its head to see the source of the vibration. It did find the source, but there was another thing that it had noticed. A strong mana source was flying in the sky ready to be launched in his direction any moment.

Finalizing the target, Dhruv let go of the spear. Moving at an incredible speed, the spell reached the monster in an instant.

Boooooom!

With a loud sound, the spear lodged itself in the monster’s mouth, mildly injuring the monster. Dhruv had calculated wrong and hadn’t provided the spear enough mana to tear through the other side of the monster’s skin.

Your passage looks good, but I made a few minor adjustments for clarity and consistency:

"Lack of intensity wasn’t going to be a problem, as Dhruv had another ace up his sleeve. Looking at the monster with a smirk on his face, he muttered, ’Multiple, Multiply... Multiply Enhanced Metal Spear...’

Reaching the limit of his capacity, he had placed a total of six ’Multiply’ blueprints alongside the Spear blueprint. He could’ve increased the number of ’Multiply’ blueprints if he hadn’t enhanced the spear spell.

The only reason Dhruv was able to achieve this was that, alongside ’Multiply,’ he was using a very basic spell—a spell he could cast almost instinctively."

Within a second, thirty-two enhanced metal spears rained down, hitting the monster on every inch of its face. Despite it being his mouth, the monster had incredibly tough skin and managed to tank all of them, but not without sustaining heavy injuries...

Screech!

Screaming in pain, the monster lost its composure and immediately went on the offensive. Manipulating its mana, it began firing multiple rounds of small but lethal earth spikes toward the opponent flying in the sky.

Tun! Tun! Tun!...

Hitting a metal shield, all the spikes dropped to the ground. Quickly realized something the monster removed half its body from the ground and lunched toward the sky in hopes of catching the annoying prey flying in the air.

Its attempt proved to be naught as Dhruv just increased the height between the two. Looking at the pitiful sight of the monster he decided to finish it.

"Azarex, control the flying..." Saying these words to his guardian, Dhruv stopped providing mana to the sheet of metal and instead began to ready another spell.

’Metal construct...’ Whispering these words, he first created something on the ground beneath the body of the monster. Having the preparation made he began to manipulate once again...

Stooping in his track the monster quickly noticed a large amount of mana gathering in the sky. Having the feeling that nothing good was going to happen it quickly thought of going back into the snow.

The monster suddenly stopped in its tracks as it noticed something. There were some spikes lodged against its skin in a way that, if it tried to move back into the snow, they would impale its skin.

This setup seemed effective, but it caused nothing more than a minor inconvenience to the monster. Instead of going back to the same place, the monster just had to find a new spot from which it could burrow into the snow.

Without wasting any more seconds, the worm quickly moved a few meters from its original location and began to dive into the snow.

While one part of its body—the back—was emerging on one side, the other part—the head—was burrowing into the ground at the same time. Although the monster thought this was the best course of action, it was far from it.

"...Thunderous Smith’s Hammer." A voice rang out in the surroundings as a hammer descended from the heavens.

Booooommm!

Within a moment, it hit the monster straight in the middle, breaking it into two parts. The monster almost got divided in half, but it wasn’t completely dead yet.

A notification rang in Dhruv’s ear as the monster finally succumbed to blood loss.

[You have killed a monster Adult Dunesnake Borrower.]

[You have earned 10,000 CC.]

[You have gained exp.]

[You have leveled up.]

"A tier 3 monster... hmm! Nice." Seeing the notification, Dhruv floated down from the sky and began to move toward the monster’s body.

Sensing the core of the monster, Dhruv remembered something. Looking toward his guardian he muttered, "Azarex can you check this guy’s memory."