Episode 46.9

"I cannot believe it. Floor 80 in just four days? We broke through 80 whole floors from day one to four? Unbelievable."

"Ui-san. You've said that already."

"Eda-dono. This is one deed that will go down in history."

"Ui. Come get your meat."

"Thank you, Lecan-dono."

Ui got her spirit back. The way she sees Lecan is also adorned with respect now.

That's fine and all, but she's getting a bit too enthusiastic.

Although now that they've gotten this far, things should get easier now.

Lecan himself has never stepped on floor 81 and below, but Jiza and Ui have filled him on the details.

Starting from floor 81, each shaft will only have one enemy spawning. These Magic Wolves are order of magnitude stronger than all before them, but these members should be able to deal with them no problem. At the very least, it's definitely much easier than having to deal with five to six wolves at once.

The difficulty of floors 81 and below comes from what comes after exiting the initial five shafts. Unlike before, the shaft exit leads to another shaft where all members join in together to defeat a common enemy before they can warp to the next floor. In other word, the boss of the whole floor.

And from this floor onward, pure white Magic Wolves will start appearing. Magic Wolves that null magic attacks. The floor bosses tend to be one in particular. However, Lecan, Arios and Julius are swordsmen. And Jiza can deal with wolves that are weak to magic. Hence, there's nothing to fear really. The problematic ones will be enemies on floor 100 down.

"Lecan-dono. It seems like something is troubling you."

"Ah, Arios. Yeah, just got something on my mind."

"Would you care for a drink?"

"Right. I'll have some."

The booze tasted especially good. Sipping on strong liquor while chewing on dragon's meat. The throat burning booze heals one's weary body from combat. The soup was extra tasty as well. Eda didn't hold back on ingredients she threw in the soup to celebrate for breaking floor 80.

Boruk stood behind everybody without making any sound. Only its emerald eyes reflected mystical glimmers under the light of campfire.

On the fifth day.

Lecan, Jiza, Arios, Ui and Boruk, Eda and Julius each took a shaft.

The moment Lecan stepped inside his shaft, a giant white Magic Wolf in the back unleashed a freezing breath.

"<Flame Spear>!"

The cold breath and <Flame Spear> clashed mid air, creating an explosion that scattered white fog in the surroundings. Lecan charged forward. Beyond the mist lied the remaining mess of the giant white Magic Wolf, dead. The Flame Spear Lecan shot was only slightly bigger than the freezing breath, but its power overwhelmingly surpassed it, erasing the breath before landing on the magic beast itself, blowing it into smithereens.

Up to floor 80, black mist would only emerge once you entered a room, then magic beasts would spawn from the mist. But from floor 81, magic beasts are already spawned before one enters a shaft, they will immediately attack once you've stepped inside. Its attack speed and power severely outclasses Magic Wolves up to this point.

But that's it. It's not a threat at all to Lecan. He instinctively cast magic since the opponent was a white Magic Wolf. He wanted to check out just how resistant they are to magic. Yet the enemy did not completely null magic despite being white.

Lecan ran out of the exit.

Followed by Arios, Eda and Julius, Ui and Boruk and then Jiza.

Ahead of them is a big entrance covered in mist. Big enough to let six people go in at once. It's finally time for a group battle.

"Alright. Let's go."

"Please wait a minute, Lecan-dono. I shall go in first."

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"What?"

"That is my duty as a Magic Knight."

Mages risk getting themselves instantly killed by abrupt ambush coming their ways. Hence, magic knights are expected to get into a room first to lure the boss's attention and buy time for the mages to launch their attack. And if the wolf is a pure white one, the mages would launch magic attacks that dazzle it and give chances for Magic Knights to close in and defeat the wolf with swords.

"Ah, right it was. But this is gonna be our first time fighting this enemy. I'll just have a quick look."

Lecan casually walked in the shaft.

It's more a room than a shaft. A round room, around 50 steps in diameter. And a giant black Magic Wolf lurking deep inside made a sudden rush at him.

Lecan also leaped forward. He drew a sword that commands absolute supremacy over wolf-type magic beasts, <Demon Wolf Cutter>.

Lecan's right eye shot out a light as if it was piercing his enemy, and just when his slash was about to land on the wolf's neck, the wolf twisted its body and dodged Lecan's attack.

A moment after his sword hit empty space, Lecan who realized the enemy's intention kicked the ground and twisted his body just as the magic wolf leaped at him from above. Timing-wise, he shouldn't have made it in time. However, Arios who had broken into run behind Lecan sliced the Magic Wofl's right foreleg, stopping it short. As such, the sword Lecan swung down reaped the giant Magic Wolf's head with that one slash.

"Whoa there."

Blood gushed out of the fallen wolf like a waterfall. Arios twisted his body to dodge it.

"Arios, you saved my skin there."

"Please think nothing of it. But, that Wolf sure was quick. And also, big."

"Yeah, it was. Slightly exceeded my expectations. Size-wise too."

Floor 81's boss was on a whole different level than all other magic wolves so far. Standing tall with extremely swift movement and attack speed. Even Lecan wouldn't leave unscathed had he been hit by a ramming attack from one. It dodged a slash Lecan swung the same way he did up to this point. Its reaction speed was also outstanding.

Near the entrance, Julius and Eda stopped moving just as they were about to run, with Ui and Boruk behind them and Jiza even further back.

"I-it can't be. The Magic Wolf in Floor 81's Warp Room, a Black one at that, in one slash. There's no way."

The room was silent enough to make Ui's whisper be heard by all.

"Lecan-dono. Your sword, it's that, right?"

"Yea, that."

<Demon Wolf Cutter> surpasses even <Void Cutter> in this dungeon. Lecan was in an awfully good mood.

Lecan cut up the magic beast's chest with his sword and took the magic stone out with <Move> magic like he always did.

Witnessing that, Ui's eyes popped open as she froze over.

Lecan put his right hand to his left chest and bowed at the battlefield like always. Arios, Julius and Eda did the same.

Jiza and Ui stared at the four of them wonderingly.