Chapter 166: High Level Dungeon (Part 3)

I tilted my head across as a Lesser Demon closed in on me and lunged forward with a snarl, driving its claws towards the middle of my face.Its claws whizzed past my right ear, before I swiftly slammed my left palm onto its solar plexus, before chanting...

"<Mana Pulse>!"

A sharp screech of agony rang out as the Monster’s eyeballs erupted, blood pouring out of its mouth, nostrils, ears and eyes as it convulsed in pain, before I put it out of its misery with a rapid swing of my right arm, severing its head as my blade sliced through its neck.

I then sprang back as two more Lesser Demons came zipping in towards me from either side, crashing onto each other as I leapt out of the way, before chanting as I locked my gaze onto both of them...

"<Command: Kill Each Other>."

The two Monsters stiffened, before violently lashing out at each other, roaring and snarling in pain as they tore each other apart.

As one of them plunged its claws into the head of the other, killing it, I sprinted towards it and drove my blade forward as I closed in, piercing through the right side of its head, before the blade burst out the other side.

It went limp and collapsed onto the ground with a thud as I pulled my blade back out with a sharp twist, whipping it across to get the blood off before sheathing the blade.

Well, looks like that takes care of all the Monsters on this floor. And so far, this is really turning out to be one of the more boring raids I’ve been a part of.

We’re up to the fortieth floor now, and it’s been nothing but Lesser Demons the whole time. My gains haven’t been great, we haven’t encountered any groups of more than twenty Lesser Demons so far.

And with four Aces in the party, that’s hardly any threat, we’ve had no trouble whatsoever so far.

Besides the Detector, the back line has had barely anything to do. None of us have so much as gotten scratched yet, so the Healer’s basically been a spectator.

And Damien has restored Aria and Kelsey’s Mana and stamina a few times, but I haven’t needed that since I can do it myself through Desecrator.

The mid line hasn’t had much to do either, Keira and the Ice Mage have only used their Magic a few times, since the three of us at the front line have had a pretty easy time of things.

While I suppose the smooth progress isn’t a bad thing, the gains I’ve gotten so far haven’t really been worth the effort. My current stats, in comparison to what they were at the start of this raid, are:

HP: 435 -> 445

MP: 600 -> 648

Strength: 440 -> 450

Agility: 590 -> 604

Vitality: 430 -> 440

Perception: 580 -> 593

Power Level: 512,500 -> 530,000

I suppose my gains haven’t been totally insignificant, especially my MP, but considering that I’m halfway through a High Level Dungeon, this is pretty disappointing.

"I don’t like this. With each passing floor, I’m increasingly feeling like something is going to go very wrong before much longer, this is way too easy," Frowned Aria, as we began extracting the Monster Cores.

"Yeah, this has felt more like a larger Mid Level Dungeon that a High Level one. That said, there are still more than thirty floors to go, so anything could happen. And if nothing does, then so be it. An easier raid means less risk, and that’s certainly nothing to complain about," Pointed out Kelsey, as I brought out Ravage to consume the Monsters.

Seems Lesser Demons’ Mana doesn’t fade as fast as other Monsters upon death, so I haven’t needed to bother with paralyzing them. That’s likely the case with its higher evolved forms too.

"It would be nice if I had a bit more to do...but I guess it’s a good thing, since it means no one’s getting injured," Spoke up the Healer.

"Still, even with deviations from standard patterns, one thing that never changes in any Dungeon is the fact that it always gets increasingly difficult the further you go," Pointed out the Ice Mage.

"Dungeons are like rivers...they flow nice and steadily, and then all of a sudden, there’s a waterfall. How long before we reach this one’s waterfall? It’s only a matter of time before we find out," Remarked Damien, looking like he was spacing out.

"Don’t say stuff like that, we can’t be too pessimistic. But I suppose it certainly won’t hurt to prepare for the worst. Alright, let’s keep going," Stated Kelsey, as we continued heading through the Dungeon.

We passed through the fortieth floor, before heading up to the next one as the tunnel at the end of the floor came into sight.

As we stepped out of the tunnel and onto the next floor, we ventured in, waiting on the Detector to give us the heads-up as we steadily made our way forward.

It didn’t take long before she sensed the presences of Monsters, and finally, things were changing up. She detected five presences, all High Levels. They’re likely Demons.

I drew out my sword and got ready to charge up my Blaster with a Pulse Bullet, as we steadily drew closer and closer to the Monsters the Detector was sensing, until eventually, they came into sight...

"Hm? Well, would you look at that, we’ve finally got some humans up here."


"Good, I was starting to get bored."

"Just eight of them, huh? This’ll be easy!"

They look just like the Greater Demon I encountered before, except they each have one horn instead of two.

And unlike the Lesser Demons that all looked pretty much exactly the same, these Demons each have discerning features, most notably hair of different colors and styles.

"Keira, you’re up!" Called out Kelsey, as the Monster took aim at us, charging up masses of black energy.

"[Wind Dome]!" Exclaimed Keira, an intense gust of wind bursting out as the Demons fired out a barrage of dark energy blasts towards us.

A large dome of wind surrounded us in a matter of second, swirling around us with immense speed and force, intercepting the blasts of dark energy and diverting them away, before a barrage of icicles came shooting out from behind us as the wind dome faded, the Demons scattering as the icicles came raining down towards them.

"I’ll make this a bit easier for us...<Command: Don’t Move>," I chanted, all five Demons freezing in their tracks as they spread out...