Chapter 250 Demonic Core

After 30 minutes of constant climbing, they finally made it to the peak of the volcano.

"Now we just jump in." Luna looked into the hole which was extremely deep with no bottom in sight. The group took a glance at the hole, making them all question if it even is the boss room.

"Can't I just use ice magic to create a slide down?" Shaman did not want to just jump in without having a way to stop herself.

"Ah don't worry about it, you will live." Luna suddenly pushed everyone and herself with water, giving no warning whatsoever.

"AHHHHHH!" Elysia and Clara instinctively wrapped their arms around Shaman, almost choking her. Silver and Elanor were falling side by side searching for a way to brace their fall. However, Silver could not enter any shadows since he needed solid ground. He could technically hide on Elanor's body, but it felt wrong for him so he opted to just fall.

Himeko caught on to what Luna was trying to do, as just before she pushed everyone, Himeko saw a mischievous grin.

"Shaman! use your ice?" Elysia was helpless in this situation thanks to her only knowing how to destroy or kill things, but not how to protect herself. Clara was much the same with no real skills that will brace a fall.

"Sto-op sh-shaking me th-then!" Shaman was being thrown around by two people desperately trying to get her to do something, but now she was dizzy and unable to concentrate.

It would be too late as they were about to hit the ground. Elysia and Clara shut their eyes not wanting to watch their approaching demise, while Shaman only just got her bearings back.

Just as their faces were a few metres from collision, blue slime covered the ground creating a pillow. The group, who were expecting to hit solid ground ended up being embraced by something soft instead.

Bouncing up into the hair, Clara and Elysia opened their eyes, realising that they were now going back up.

"What the hell?" Clara looked down seeing the blue slime which had braced their fall. At first, she thought it was a monster that was going to eat them. Now however, she noticed it was directly connected to Luna's staff, which was lodged into the ground nearby.

After bouncing a few times, they sunk into the slime as if it was a couch. Shaman was in a daze now being crushed by Clara and Elysia instead of being choked.

Elanor and Silver landed nicely on the slime since the former used her wind just before hitting the ground.

Luna and Himeko quickly got up as they were now in the boss' territory.

"That was uncalled for!" Elysia protested as she genuinely thought she was going to be either severely injured or dead.

"You can yell all you want later, the boss could appear anywhere." Luna dispelled the slime causing them all to fall to the ground except for Elanor and Silver.

The two of them were in the process of getting up, but Elanor wasn't expecting her support to just disappear so she almost fell back. Silver caught her hand and pulled her up, saving her from falling. The same couldn't be said for the other three as now Shaman was on the verge of passing out from being crushed by 2 girls.

"I would move if I were you, it looks like your girlfriend is going to pass out from too much ass." Luna noticed that Shaman hadn't responded in a while and was a little worried that she was being crushed.

"Oh?" Elysia and Clara looked down at Shaman whose eyes were rolling back while mumbling something.

"At least I can say I died by ass~...." Shaman accepted that she may not make it out alive, but she was smothered to death by her loved ones. However, today wouldn't be the day of her death as she was finally freed.

"Shaman!" Elysia gave Shaman a light slap in the face to wake her up which seemed to do the trick.

*Cough* *Cough* "Huh? What? I thought I died?" Shaman looked around trying to get her bearings as she had no recollection of what happened in the last few minutes.

"Ahhaha, sorry we kind of freaked out and almost killed you." Clara came clean straight away. Although 'killed' was an exaggeration, it certainly felt like they were getting close to it.

"It wasn't too bad, ahem, anyway where are we?" Shaman didn't care about what happened and was more concerned about where they were.

"Boss room." Himeko kept a lookout while they gathered themselves, so she kept the explanation brief.

"Oh…" Hearing that they were in the boss room instantly brought Shaman out of her confused daze. She stood up pulling out Kotetsu and kept alert as they could be attacked at any moment.

"Glad that we are catching up." Luna started to regret her choice of toying with them since she didn't think it would disorganise them this much. However, the boss hadn't appeared yet so it wasn't a big deal, albeit still stressful.

Everyone pulled out their weapons, ready for the boss to appear and expecting something to happen.

"This isn't right, he should have crawled out of the ground by now." Luna scanned the area with her mana but wasn't able to find any traces of the boss.

"Could someone have killed it before us?" Himeko knew it was unlikely, but other people could have possibly been in the dungeon.

"There is a chance, but we have been in here for 2 hours already. It makes no sense that they would still be down here." Luna didn't disregard the chance of there being people, but who? Almost everyone who was tier 7 and above was called to the capital.

"Could it be one of the admirals from the human side?" Elanor threw a random idea out there which was surprisingly more likely than it being any demon.

"That would be stupid. Wouldn't they come after us while we were still weak?" Elysia instantly denied the idea, why would they let them grind out the dungeon before fighting?

"They might not have known we are here and or have even been too busy fighting the boss." Shaman wanted to entertain the idea since it very well could be the case.

"Hold on, I see something." Himeko, who watched the back of the group, spotted a light appear in the distance.

"There! Mana is coming from that light." Luna looked over and focused her mana sense directly on the light to increase her maximum range.

"Careful everyone! We don't know if it is the boss or not." Himeko didn't like how abnormal the situation was, so she wanted everyone to be prepared for anything.

"I'm sensing something odd… It is definitely the boss, but it feels stronger somehow." Luna couldn't put her finger on it and would need to see the boss itself to get a better idea.

The light became closer now forming the shape of a human. It was definitely the small variant of the boss, but the magma in its body was purple.

"Demon essence?" Luna couldn't sense it since there was no way to actually measure it, but she knew what it looked like.

"What?" No one in the group knew what demon essence was, including Clara who was a demon. She knew there was some other energy in her, but didn't know the name for it.

"It's something all demons have and it looks like our boss here has somehow found a way to use it. I swear there was an order to constantly clear this dungeon to prevent any mutations." Luna explained about an interesting detail that no one heard of before.

"Mutations?" Shaman wanted to know more as she was aware of dungeons having differences sometimes, but mutations sounded completely different.

"It only occurs in certain dungeons like these. If they're left unchallenged for a prolonged time, then their boss will change in a drastic way. It is something you would normally not have to worry about since those dungeons are managed by the local governments." Himeko gave the explanation as she had helped with the tier 8 dungeon in the fox realm for a favour.

"That makes sense, but I feel like this was planned." This dungeon sitting directly under the capital, Shaman would have thought this would never happen so clearly this was not coincidental.

"It has to be, the elite squad have been given leave from dungeon clearing for a while, so I know exactly who is responsible." A list of suspects appeared in Luna's head, which she would need to deal with after they got out.

"Any tips? We can figure out who's responsible later." Elysia did not like how close the boss was getting and yet they still haven't done anything.

"Oh, right you guys are not demons. The boss will most likely regenerate its health as well as have stronger attacks. Think of it as him having a stronger version of mana, but much more expensive. However, It looks like the molten core is now a demonic core, meaning he now has an infinite source of demonic essence." Luna now had a better look at the boss which made the core in its chest much more obvious. The red gem became infected with purple now making its primary source of energy demonic essence.

"Now we don't have any more time so do as we did with the monsters outside, just make sure you coordinate your attacks and STAY CLEAR of any attack from the boss. I'm sure turning into fried half-beasts is not on your bucket list." There was no more information Luna could give, so with her done Himeko charged forward to start the boss battle.