Chapter 400 Distressing Encounter
'Hmm…well, there's no other way to go but down, is there?' Shye pondered while the entire party gazed at the fairly broad staircase leading downward.
After successfully surviving the dangerous attacks of the Bornocs from a disadvantageous position, the confidence of the entire party significantly rose.
Particularly upon reflecting on how Shye had managed to still survive and escape the deadly waters despite being attacked by over twenty Bornocs, as Luna had recounted.
'If this liability could survive such a sticky situation, there's no way that we, the veterans, couldn't do the same! The monsters were probably weaker than they appeared!' was the thought that resonated in the minds of Ulfreign and the other veterans.
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Although they were dead wrong, the confidence boost would serve them well…for the first few floors of the dungeon, at least.
…Over the course of the last two hours, their group traversed three additional bridges constructed from stone steps, engaging in battles with more Bornocs before finally reaching the staircases.
"We…shall descend," Luna said with determination.
She wanted to clear the dungeon not only for herself but also to aid humanity in cleansing the world of these parasitic mana dungeons.
If only Luna was more talented, she would be the perfect hero candidate.
As they descended the staircase crafted from remarkably resilient blue corals, the party remained vigilant, anticipating an attack from some form of creature, even though the stairway seemed tranquil.
Fortunately, their caution was for naught as nothing assaulted them until they reached what they decided to call the dungeon's second floor for simplicity's sake.
Looking around, the second floor didn't look much different from the first except for the vast expanse of water that was replaced by multiple wide coral caverns which served as some sort of maze.
This change made five other party members silently breathe a sigh of relief.
They truly hated being surrounded by water, with only a few small stone steps providing any semblance of solid ground.
With this, they could at least fight comfortably.
The second floor, although a bit more time-consuming, could be said to be easier than the first as all they did was fight some slightly stronger species of Bornoc called Tidereapers—nothing they couldn't handle.
At this point, the entire party, including Shye, felt comfortable, letting their minds wander as they traversed the dungeon.
The question that frequented their minds the most was: 'Where were the other adventurer parties?'
Since they were encountering lots of enemies, did that mean that the other four dungeon extermination squads of Balkrow already perished?
However, it appeared improbable, as such feeble adversaries wouldn't have been capable of annihilating powerful emerald-ranked parties.
'Then where are they?'
Luna's party continued destroying the Bornocs until they unknowingly arrived at the seventh floor, where the scenery changed.
Instead of blue, the coral walls were now red.
They still hadn't encountered anyone other than monstrous creatures.
"That's it for today, we shall rest here in the seventh floor's lobby," Luna said, retrieving her sleeping bag from her spatial bag and setting it up for a few hours of rest.
Naturally, Ulfreign and the other four were pleased with Luna's decision as they were starting to feel exhausted from clearing six floors.
After a few hours of rest, they would be ready to proceed.
Only, they didn't expect that their first peaceful rest inside a dungeon would be disturbed…in a rather distressing manner.
"Puhaahk…F*ck…F*ck!"
The sounds of a human cursing weakly echoed across the scarlet walls of the seventh floor, waking the resting party of Luna up eerily.
"H-Hey! Stay with us! You're fine! You'll be fine!" Luna exclaimed as she dashed towards the gravely wounded adventurer's side, supporting her with
The young woman only had a few wounds, however, they were all spine-chilling ones.
Her entire left forearm seemed to have been mauled off while her left leg had a harrowing blade wound, revealing the white bones beneath.
And her guts…were slowly spilling out.
It could be argued that her survival was nothing less than miraculous.
"Jana! Heal her, quickly!" Luna ordered, trying her best to maintain composure. However, it was fairly evident that she wasn't as calm as she hoped to appear.
Naturally, the party's priestess, Jana, didn't dare dally, swiftly casting all of the healing skills she had in her arsenal toward the wounded female adventurer.
The young woman was very fortunate to have come across Luna's party as she would not have lasted much longer had she not.
After a few minutes, her condition was finally stable.
"What's your name? What happened? And from what city are you from?" Luna continuously asked after making sure that the woman was already safe.
"I-I'm Wynna, an emerald-ranked adventurer from Kerth City. We've been ordered by the city to exterminate this damned dungeon a-and as you can see…I'm…now alone…" Wynna gnashed her teeth as she forced herself to say words she didn't want to.
"I see…I understand that it's hard but can you tell us what happened to your party? Preferably in detail if…you can…"
"Here's what happened…"
The frown on the faces of Luna, Shye, and their other party members deepened upon hearing that there was a narrow cave with a moderately huge-sized Bornoc inside.
The pesky creature turned out to possess both agility and strength. Moreover, it had already honed its skills in battling adventurers within the cave, which happened to be the safest route among the three paths leading to the next staircase toward the eighth floor.
"I-I see…so that's what happened…T-Then, may we ask what challenges would await us in the other two paths?"
Wynna nodded, " slowly " telling everyone what was in the second and third routes.
Only Shye seemed to notice that the woman was recounting her experiences at a slow pace.
Yet, even he didn't dwell on it too much, attributing it to her likely being devastated as the sole survivor of her party, assuming that was the reason for her slow storytelling.
Since he didn't like mingling with the other five, Shye was the one who camped farthest from the group, and he couldn't understand why but Wynna seemed to be glancing guiltily at him occasionally.
Fortunately... or perhaps unfortunately, he didn't have to wait long to confirm his suspicions, as the scenery in front of him abruptly changed.
He…was automatically transported away from the party…