Chapter 226 Dungeon Spire— Thirtieth Floor

p It had been a few minutes since Ayumu, Plume, and Satoshi entered the Dungeon Spire, a labyrinth full of monsters and treasures... or so that's what the Japanese Government and the SAO thought as they sent in their number one superhero and his party. As it turned out, they were yet to find treasures in the Dungeon, and it was clear that the team they sent was absolutely under-leveled and short-staffed.

And now they're reaping what they sow. The number one hero's party was defeated, and it was still ambiguous whether he was alive or not.

"He's alive, I'm sure of it," Ayumu muttered to herself as the three of them sped through the floors of the Dungeon. With her counterattack superpower, she easily negated the attack of other monsters. She literally plowed her way through to the thirtieth floor. Despite her counterattack superpower, Ayumu wasn't immune to exhaustion. And traveling through twenty-nine floors whilst fending off monsters was pretty much exhausting for her. Fortunately, Satoshi was there, with his familiar Sera, who had been supporting them by giving them buffs throughout the journey.

Still, Satoshi didn't want to rely on Sera a little bit too much since they still needed her when they got to the thirtieth floor. She's basically the premium healer of the group, and without her, there's no hope of saving Satoshi's dad and the others.

As soon as they got to floor twenty-nine, the difficulty level of the Dungeon became much harder and it took all of Ayumu's strength just to plow her way through the Dungeon. Of course, Satoshi and Plume helped as well but this was their first time in the dungeon so Ayumu had to cover for them from time to time— Not like they needed covering, it's just that Ayumu could get a little overprotective at times.

But as a mom, no one could blame her. Her team members were basically her son and her niece. If anything were to happen to them during this run then there's no way she'd forgive herself. That's why as much as she could, she tried to protect them.

That's also a good strategy on her part as well since the two of them could support everyone when they arrive on the thirtieth floor. Ayumu was aware that by the time they got to that floor, she'd had run out of gas, well almost. (The only reason why she had to go down the Dungeon was to confirm whether her husband was alive or not. She was moving based purely off of her emotions here, nothing more nothing less.)

"We're almost there," Plume muttered to everyone as she suppressed her breath. She was tied, but she didn't want to show it to everyone.

"Right," Satoshi responded. He wasn't tired, just worried that the two members of his team were on the verge of exhaustion even though Sera was assisting them. It was clear that they lacked physical training but Satoshi wasn't going to insensitively mention any of that— not until they were finished with their mission.

From the staircase that led to the thirtieth floor, the three of them could hear grunts as well as a chant that seemed recognizable. The more they ventured deeper, the more they realized that the chant was actually a famous Japanese chant 'banzai'... except it was flipped out to 'zanbai' which was an anagram for the word meaning 'misery'. Banzai was meant to be a positive cheer for someone, but what they were hearing was the exact opposite of it.

Also, the atmosphere and the creepiness of their ritualic voice added another layer of uneasiness to the three as they finally stepped foot on the thirtieth floor.

That's when they noticed the huge orc and the throne behind him. The sides of the room were filled with humanoids donned red and black robes. They were doing the banzai movement in an opposite manner as they continued to chant 'zanbai' instead. 'I'm guessing they watched that classic creepy animated series or something... what was the title... dark stories or something?' Satoshi wracked his head but since the class animated series he was trying to think of existed more than a millennia ago, he couldn't remember most of the details.

"DAD!" His thoughts were interrupted as he noticed his dad pressed on the ground. The moment the three of them entered the room, they too were affected by the intense gravity which caused them to lie flat on the ground, helplessly.

"SON?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Tatsuki exclaimed, his eyes filled with rage, worry, and everything in between.

The last thing he wanted to see right now was his son, and that's the reason why he blurted out his question. For one, he didn't want his son to see him lose, and second, he was about to die. There was no way he'd want his son to see something so traumatizing.

While they were pressed down on the ground, Satoshi had a hard time looking around to see what the situation was.

That's when he realized that they just entered a massacre... and not just any massacre, but a one-sided massacre. A satisfied laugh erupted from the huge orc as he picked one of the superheroes who were near him. "Fools, actually walking in without regard to their lives." He muttered, eyeing Ayumu, Plume, and Satoshi who had just entered. While he did so, he squished the superhero he picked from the ground as if he was an orange. His blood and flesh juices started flowing from the gaps of the orc's hand as he continued to chuckle manically.

"Um... Plunder... " Troppus, who had been part of the support unit on Plunder's party, started speaking as he turned his head sideways with his last remaining strength. His energy had run out and since his body couldn't take the gravity any longer, he was beginning to bleed out from his nose and mouth as he cried in despair.

"I... I don't feel so good." He continued, his face a jumbled mess of crying and bleeding at the same time.

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