Chapter 47

Half an hour later, the adventurers reached the second floor. But they didn’t see any monsters. The veterans figured out the beasts had gone further down.

They weren’t wrong. But they didn’t know the Dungeon Master was commanding the monsters. Jake wanted to separate some adventurers from the party. As a whole, they were powerful. But individually, not so much.

”Where are the fucking monsters? Don’t tell me they all grouped on the seventh floor?” One fighter asked, irritated with walking all the time.

He wanted the monster parts. By selling them, he could make quick cash. But he hadn’t killed a single beast yet. Was this really a tier one dungeon?

”Patience,” one priestess said as she held her staff.

Tak… Tak… They walked in silence.

Amelia could hear the distant sound of water dripping. She peered at the stalactites. A woman, armed as a knight, looked at Amelia and diverted her gaze.

Suddenly, one rogue shot forward. Irene pointed her wand ahead, but the goblin was gone. The adventurers tried moving faster, but Irene stopped them.

”It could be a trap.” She motioned the trap master to act.

He nodded and touched the walls. His eyes trailed through the marks on it, and he threw a dart to the ground ahead. Carefully walking forward, he glanced up and waved his hand.

They arrived at an intersection. Irene told the rogues to go left. Higher mana was coming from that direction.

The four knights protecting her walked with heavy steps. Their armors and shields reflected much of the light from the spell [Illumination].

Whoosh!

A ranger suddenly shot an arrow ahead, and it accurately hit the earlier goblin. The adventurers spared the goblin a glance before walking past its dead body. It must have wandered away from the group, they thought.

”They’ve taken the bait, master…” Lena fluttered over Erin and informed Jake, who was now ascending the floors.

An hour later, the party of 20 reached the third floor. Upon reaching here, they found many types of magical plants illuminating this place. There were even mana crystals glowing on the walls.

Greed appeared in some adventurers’ eyes. They wanted to mine these mana crystals. However, they quickly became alert. This floor could have monsters living on it, and their guess was right.

”Grr… Grr…” Black wolves and direwolves emerged from the tunnel to surround them.

”Prepare for battle,” Irene said.

Shiing! All knights unsheathed their swords. However, the adventurers didn’t move first. They were waiting for these wolves to attack.

Sou! Sou!

Suddenly, arrows rained down. Everyone was taken by surprise. The trap master shouted at this moment.

”Above us, goblins!”

”Kekekeke….” The green creatures laughed as they shot poisoned projectiles at the humans with their crude crossbows.

Snap! A battle started in an instant. The rangers, fighters, and rogues dodged the arrows with their quick movements. They ran behind some rocks to take shelter. When the wolves pounced, they went to the tunnel entrances and started fighting.

Meanwhile, the priestesses cast holy barriers around the knights who further shielded the mages. Cutting these measly arrows was too easy. The mages at the center chanted twisted words, and shot short-range spells at the wolves.

”Aoo…” the direwolves cried and ran backwards. The fighters followed, only to be stopped by kobold warriors, who had come from the other chambers.

”There are more monsters coming. Everyone, don’t stretch too far away! Porters, come under the barrier!” Irene used magic to amplify her voice.

Her breasts jiggled as she turned around and shot lightning out of her staff, instantly killing a black wolf. She also noticed the kobold warriors riding more black wolves.

Irene adjusted her mage hat. They were as good as dead if they came into her range.

”Rangers, take out the wolves. Leave the kobolds to the fighters!”

”Nrrya!” Amelia’s nails grew as she fought the kobolds. Compared to other fighters, she was better in combat with the monsters.

Dodging the spears directed at her with nimble movements, she swiped the faces of the kobold warriors with her paws. Her tail wagged left and right, the tight flesh on her thighs vibrated as she moved around.

Climbing on one kobold’s body, she punched its head and cracked its neck. Then, she pounced on the other one. However, a wine snake suddenly caught her right foot.

”Nyaa!” she cried as it pulled her.

”There are snyakes, be careful!” Amelia warned and kicked the snake’s tail. The other fighters quickly came to help her.

An arrow suddenly killed the wine snake holding the cat girl. She nodded to a ranger and got back to fighting.

On the other side, the priestesses started giving out buffs to the rogues and knights. That increased the casualties of the monsters. Three mages jointly fired icicles at the annoying goblins above, killing quite a few of them

The poisonous arrows had injured three adventurers. If they let the goblins fire more, it would be an embarrassment to their ranks.

”This place is large, they are on the second floor and have the higher ground.” Irene quickly realized the situation.

Previously, she had thought that only one goblin was there. Two entire goblin tribes were hiding on the second floor, actually. When the adventurers stepped on the third floor, they could rain arrows from above.

”Aaahh!” one fighter suddenly cried as a poisoned arrow hit his leg.

Numa, one of the twin priestesses, acted immediately and cast a [Heal] on that fighter. A mage’s healing spell could patch the wound but it wasn’t like a cleric’s, which could even dispel the poison.

”Don’t underestimate them. Goblins are much more dangerous than you think!” A knight warned and blocked the kobolds’ spears with his shield. As a 2nd circle knight, he didn’t break a sweat battling four unranked kobolds at once.

At this moment, one of the hooded mages suddenly sensed something. A spiderweb pulled one of the rangers to a dark chamber. Demon spider babies which were as big as human kids swarmed the unprotected fighters.

They first caught the trap master. He used his dagger to cut the sticky, white webs which tried binding him. However, there were too many of them.

”Help me!” he cried miserably as they carried him.

Irene pointed her staff at the spiders and blasted two of them at once. However, many more took their place, and dragged the trap master to the other chambers.

”They took another one. What do we do?” a rogue asked, fighting two dire wolves.

”Tch!” Irene clicked her tongue. She couldn’t cast an Area-of-Effect spell with so many of her allies here. A fire-attributed spell would be perfect against these monsters. But inside the dungeon, she had to be wary of burning too much air.

Right now, much of the team was scattered, fighting the monsters. The D-Rankers were killing efficiently, but others at the E-Rank were being taken away.

She didn’t understand how monsters of different species were cooperating so well. This shouldn’t be possible unless… an intelligent monster was commanding them!

”Follow those spiders. Leave these puny monsters to me!” Irene shouted, not knowing that this was exactly what Jake wanted to happen.