Chapter 336: Forceful advance

After entering the second floor, they emerged in the middle of a flourishing forest with a large variety of trees, blooming flowers, thick and short bushes, and stones protruding out of the ground.

[Search] Search for the portal that leads towards the third floor. Time: [72 hours]

The task on the second floor was simple, yet also not simple!

It wouldn't be that easy to find something hidden, even more so if one were to consider that the first floors of a dungeon were supposed to eliminate the majority of challengers. 

"Let's figure out how large the second floor is. After that, we can think of a proper solution to find the portal. It has to radiate mana, even if it might only be subtle and not enough to attract our attention." 

Shane's words made sense and princess Ilya agreed to his plan. 

Because the Elus race was largely dependent on mana they had developed a great mana perception. 

Illya had been a unique case amongst them as she was a Superior elemental. 

Other than that there was Cosmo, whose mana perception was equally well developed! 

Even an ordinary Lesser Starlet Fox was able to sense subtle mana fluctuations, and Cosmo was at the [Legendary] quality! 

It was not possible to evolve Cosmo right now due to his strength increasing drastically, but that was not necessary! 

Shane didn't worry about finding the portal at all and they simply rushed through the entire forest in 3 hours. 

All four directions looked similar to the middle of the forest and there were no particular signs indicating the existence of a portal that was cleverly hidden. 

The surrounding trees, plants, herbs, and bushes were also releasing mana, and it was evident why the second floor was situated in a forest. 

'Does the dungeon think that it's enough to throw a portal inside a forest to hide its mana fluctuations?' 

He knew that some dungeons were sentient, but couldn't truly believe his own thoughts right now.

As such Shane couldn't help but smile at that thought, and he had already figured out an idea to take care of the issue, that was in fact the second floor. 

However, before doing anything stupid, Shane wanted to make use of the time and opportunity in front of them. 

"Let's collect the herbs, plants, and flowers on this floor before anything else. They're quite valuable!" 

He was not sure whether what he had seen was in fact what he thought he had, but if it were to be true, solving two missions at once wouldn't be problematic. 

Princess Ilya was not as confident as Shane was. However, after she heard his plan, Ilya agreed without hesitation.

Within 30 hours, Shane had summoned several hundred Astral Artisans from the Hidden Paradise to empty the entire second floor.

Meanwhile, Shane had plucked one particular batch of flowers called [Dragonic myndra flowers] that were at the [Uncommon] and [Rare] quality!

This allowed Shane to solve the only system mission he had left.

[[Herb collector (Platinum)]has been successfully solved! Reward: Mana purification manual (80%)]

Purchasing the mana purification manual with 80% had been fairly easy and Shane couldn't help but thank the second floor's environment.

The entire forest had been uprooted, while the other things had been taken care of too.

As such there were no distracting mana fluctuations left that could prevent Princess Ilya or Cosmo from finding the portal towards the third floor.

Meanwhile, Shane had stored everything they had collected from the second floor in his spatial ring.

He had liked his plan to use the Astral Artisans to clear the entire floor of trees and other unnecessary items that were nothing but a hindrance.

Fortunately, there hadn't been any beasts on the floor, otherwise, he would have been forced to call for the Starlight guild members too for reinforcements.

This would have been annoying and a waste of time, but thankfully there had been no need of doing the same.

Even then, Princess Ilya had been astonished to see hundreds of humans emerge around Shane, seemingly out of nowhere.

While Shane had understood her astonishment, he had just shrugged his shoulders without saying anything else.

The fluare tower dungeon didn't prevent him from using the Hidden Paradise to its fullest potential, and Shane had exploited the permission very well.

If it hadn't worked, he would have set the entire forest ablaze after collecting five Dragonic myndra flowers at the [Rare] quality!

There was not much left for them to do, and Shane decided to let both Cosmo and Princess Ilya do the rest.

His mana perception was not good at all, but he was of the opinion that the portal to the third floor had to be underground.

Otherwise, nothing would make sense.

The surface was clear and there was nothing in the sky either, thus Shane decided to take a look at the things they had collected from the second floor.

Most tree trunks along with a high number of plants and flowers were immediately sent over to the Hidden Paradise to process them.

Unfortunately, most of them couldn't be easily reproduced and Shane could only sigh deeply at the thought of losing such precious treasures.

There were a few useful plants and even seedlings for certain trees that he decided to plant inside the Hidden Paradise.

Nevertheless, the 'valuable' goods were mostly the Dragonic myndra flowers and that was only because they allowed him to accomplish his mission!

His expectations had probably increased too much, but the entire floor was not even worth 100,000 gold coins!

Shane had to lower his standards, otherwise, he would grow discontent with most goods he would receive inside the fluare tower dungeon.

Thus, he calmed down and decided that it might be better to take a proper look at the system shop in order to sell a few flowers and herbs that couldn't be reproduced easily.

Time passed slowly, and Shane decided to help the others in searching for the Portal because it was taking way too long in his opinion.

In the end, it took them only a total of 27 hours to finish the entire mission, despite having a total of 72 hours to finish it.

Without further ado, they had taken the final step to emerge on the other side of the portal that had been hidden deep underground, only to lead them to the third floor.

There was no resting zone, and only the system notification they received a moment later told them that they had solved the second floor's mission.

[Second floor has been successfully conquered. Time left [45H:24M:42S]! Threshold reached. Improved Reward: Nuir, earring of sensation]

__________

[Nuir-Earring of sensation [Tier-2 - (Extraordinary)] 

-[Enhanced senses(passive)]

-[Heightened perception]

_________

The earrings were extremely valuable for him, and when they manifested in Shane's hand, he noticed that they were clip-on earrings.

He didn't even need to pierce a tiny hole in his earlobe! 

Meanwhile, Ilya had received something else, but Shane didn't try to probe.

It was not his reward, but Ilya's after all.

Thus, he could only be glad that they had forced their way through the second floor without any issue.

Despite not having fulfilled any hidden requirements the time they had required was short, thus they had received a better, improved reward in comparison to those that would take longer to solve the task on the second floor.

However, all of that was not as important as the third floor, they had emerged inside!

"Did we return to the middle ages?" Shane could just mumble while scratching the back of his head.

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