259-272

Chapter 264 - 259: The Fifth Floor 1

Artemia turned to face him and asked.

''How did you do it?"

Alex chuckled. It seemed that the princess was curious as well. However, she suppressed her curiosity and let them finish the monsters before asking him how he killed five goblins with only one bullet.

Isabella approached them as she was curious about what happened.

''It's a secret.'' Alex declared after a moment of silence.

Isabella looked disappointed while Artemia pouted. Alex was so surprised to see such a reaction from Artemia that he burst into laughter.

After laughing for a while, he finally explained.

''My bad, I just used a special bullet. I called it: Homing bullet. It has the ability to track its target. That's all I can say.''

''I see that's some awesome ability. How envious.'' Artemia said she didn't ask more about the Homing bullet remaining ability.

Isabella stayed silent as well. Looking at their reactions, Alex was pleased that they didn't ask more. There was a reason for his action; it was to establish trust between them. He sincerely wishes to have a good relationship with this princess; in the long run, it will be helpful.

''Let's take a break. I think the next floor going to be troublesome to deal with. There is a trap near the door leading down to the fifth floor.'' Alex announced as he sat down on the cold floor.

Artemia's eyes became wide open before she smiled after exchanging a look with Isabella, who should act as a scout as she possesses a certain amount of skills.

While taking a seat next to Alex, Artemia praised before suggesting.

''I didn't think you have the skill to be a scout as well. Well, I won't ask how you know that there's a trap ahead, but I would like to assist us later in detecting traps. This would help alleviate Isabella's burdens.''

''I understand. I will help as much I can.'' Alex said while recalling how surprised he was after seeing that his Divine Sense worked inside the dungeon. He had thought it wouldn't have worked. Not only it worked, but it also showed him if there was a trap ahead or not. It would have been great if he could scan the whole floor. Well, it's living creature nature to ask for more when it has a little.

Shaking his head, Alex took out stuff such as water bottles and sandwiches from his item box and handed them around. The girls accepted and gave their thanks before eating the sandwiches.

After they were done, Artemia ordered Isabella to bring out the dessert, and the three shared it.

It took them 20 minutes to successfully release the trap blocking the way. Isabella handled such a task; Alex watched like a good student, trying to learn the much he could.

The three moved toward the fifth floor, however, this time with a different formation. Alex acted as the vanguard; Artemia became the midguard while Isabella was at the rear. They decided to use this formation because of Alex's skill. Artemia had figured out more or less about his divine sense, so they decided to make use of it, especially on this floor where they may be a Boss awaiting them.

Alex and the others went down the stairs and safely entered the fifth floor of the dungeon.

However, when Alex took his first step on the fifth floor, he reflexively swung Razor his custom-made knife.

'!?'

At the same time, Artemia used one of her glaives to repel something that flew towards her.

Looking at the thing that wrapped around his knife, Alex clicked his tongue. It was a spider thread coming from the ceiling.

''What intense welcome.'' He couldn't help, but joke about their current situation attacked the moment they entered here.

Lifting their heads to look at the ceiling, they saw a big spider with eight legs, more than twenty eyes coldly staring at them.

''Is that the Boss?" Isabella asked to receive a negative response soon as she finished asking.

''You should look around you first,'' Alex suggested.

When Isabella looked around, she was forced to shout, almost jumping back because not too far from them appeared monsters. They were bigger than a human face and had green scales covering their hands and feet. Lizardmen.

Armed with bows, swords, and spears, they glared at Isabella with hostility as if looking at prey.

''Alex, you do something about the spider. If possible, it would be great if you could finish that quickly and come to help us as soon as possible.'' Artemia instructed, unlike Isabella, who was too focused on the spider just after they received an attack; she noticed these lizardmen sneak out, trying to surround them.

Alex nodded at Artemia's words. The latter had already made a move. She threw one of her glaives toward the lizardmen; this move caught them off guard. Like a whip, the glaive twisted around and tore through the air like a bullet, injuring numerous lizardmen before insta killing the lizardman that held a bow at the back and was about to shoot; Isabella shot forward to give Artemia some assistance; the latter had called back her glaive.

If not for the fact that he had noticed a faint thread like a chain the first time he saw Artemia's Gift, he would have been surprised seeing what her weapon just did.

Even while watching the situation from the side, Alex wasn't idling; he pulled on the thread that had twisted itself around the Razor to drag the spider down from the ceiling. As if understanding what would happen if it fell, the spider desperately resisted as it pierced its legs into the ceiling.

This amused Alex. Therefore he decided to put more force into his arms; his physical strength wasn't something this spider could hope to compete against. Soon, the spider was forcedly dragged down, producing a loud bang that sent a shockwave rippling forward. Numerous lizardmen fell onto the ground due to the powerful shockwave.

Artemia looked at Alex with a look of gratitude before continuing to mow down the lizardmen who had failed into confusion.

On the other side, Alex was finally going to make a move to deal with the spider.

Chapter 265 - 260: The Fifth Floor 2, The Boss

On the other side, Alex was finally going to make a move to deal with the spider.

Armed with his two knives, he shot toward the spider who had suffered a bit after falling from such height.

However, just as he was about to cut one of the spider legs, he jumped back out of instinct.

The spider opened its mouth at that moment, spitting out some kind of liquid.

''Tch!''

Due to his intuition, Alex managed to avoid a disaster. Seeing that the liquid gave out smoke as it touched the ground when it landed, it was clear that his choice had been the right one. If he were late, he would have ended up like a certain supervillain (Hero?).

The spider was surprised that Alex avoided such an attack; the spider had intentionally lured Alex into attacking her to deal him a fatal blow. Unfortunately, she still failed in the end. Since Alex would be a formidable opponent to handle and seemed to be protected the other two, she decided to attack them. It could be said that this 3 meters tall spider possesses some level of intelligence.

The spider shot out some threads toward Isabella she deemed the weakest between the three.

''As if I would allow that,'' Alex shouted before throwing knives at the threads, making them deviate from their original target.

The spider's eyes widened when she saw her attacks missed their target. She didn't have time to be concerned about her failure as Alex was already upon her. He swung the knife on his right arm; it was already late when the spider felt the danger of this special knife. One of her legs had been cut off.

''Kyi kyikyi~."

The spider wailed and instinctively swung one of her remaining legs at Alex, the latter evaded by moving to the side before cutting that leg off.

Putting a little bit of strength in his legs, Alex's speed increased, and he moved between the remaining legs as if he was formless; all the six remaining were cut off before a knife went through the spider brain forever shutting her off. The spider died, no knowing why she died so fast. The difference in strength was immense; she was just Rank 4 (Level 39), compared to Alex, she was really weak.

Alex didn't stop for a moment after eliminating the spider; like a ghost, he moved to his left, where there was less concentration of lizardmen. One of the lizardmen noticed Alex and tried to bash his shield against him; however, Alex bypassed him to his utter dismay, and when that lizardman wanted to turn to attack Alex, he was forced to realize that his arms were gone, cut off from the middle.

''Shaa!"

That lizardman cried in pain and fell onto the ground, and started thrashing. His cries put others into a state of confusion; Alex wasn't the one to miss such an opportunity; armed with the two knives, he danced amidst the lizardmen, ripping life as if he was the death god. He was fast yet accurate and deadly.

In the span of a minute, he had killed the seven standing lizardmen.

The lizardmen's leader (he was different from the other lizardmen) standing further at the back noticed Alex slaughtering his men. Furious, he bellowed.

''Shaaaa! Shaaaaa!"

Maybe he was telling the others who started to panic seeing their brethren die so easily to behave; however, before they could recollect themselves after hearing their leader's shout.

Isabella fell back and retreated to Artemia's side. The latter was silent; however, if you watch closely, you could see tiny lightning dancing inside her eyes. Pointing her glaives forward, numerous lightning arrows appeared and were shot at the lizardmen.

One Lizardmen chose to defend by evading while others chose to defend with their shields. As for the one who chose to evade, though he could avoid 1 to 2 arrows, with ten arrows flying, it couldn't dodge them all. A lightning arrow pierced it the moment the Lizardman couldn't evade. Intense lightning spread through his body instantly; he started to dance some kind of unknown dance before getting cooked from the inside and died.

On the other side, the Lizardmen who lifted their shield instead of evading were even more miserable. If what Artemia had shot was a normal lightning arrow, then it would have been the correct course of action. However, the arrows shot this time were not ordinary lightning arrows but arrows made of black lightning, something she hadn't used in their dual. In fact, it was Isabella's first time seeing this.

Shaking his head, Alex observed the lizardmen, who had fallen into a panic after seeing a bunch of their brethren getting annihilated in just a single blow.

''Let's finish them before they recover from their confusion,'' Alex shouts at the other two.

The three moved, and in just five minutes, all the lizardmen were annihilated except for their leader. He seemed to be targeting Artemia with his intense glare filled with murderous intent.

The lizardmen's leader was one size larger than a normal lizard man (1.5 m) and was 2 m in height. His muscles seemed to burst out from the leather armor he wore, which seemed to be made from the skin of some monster. In his right hand, he held a huge greatsword that was well over 1.5m long. His other hand held the only metal shield that the Lizardmen had. This lizardman, whose level was 52 (Rank 6), easily controlled the greatsword with one, and he turned the tip towards Artemia as if asking for a duel.

''Oh?! How interesting. You targeted me because I have annihilated more of your subordinates? You want to avenge them?" Artemia asked while cracking her neck.

The leader of the lizardmen nodded his head.

''I see. I shall entertain youth; however, I doubt you will even last a minute. The fight will end in an instant.'' Artemia declared, sure of herself.

Alex was watching everything from the side with a smile on his face.

Isabella seemed to want to say something when she saw Artemia stepping forward. It wasn't that she feared for the life of her mast; far from that, she estimates the leader to be unworthy of Artemis personally taking action, that's all. However, knowing her master, when she decides on better not force her or else you'll suffer her wrath. So, Isabella couldn't only watch Artemia step forward.

Artemia faced the leader of the lizardmen with her glaives.

For several seconds, neither side moved.

''SHAAAAAAAAA~!''

''Haaaa!''

Both emitted a cry before kicking against the ground at the same time and rapidly closed the distance. Just as Artemia almost reached the leader, she threw one of her glaives toward him. The lizardmen's leader, also the boss of this floor, titled his head to the side to dodge Artemia's glaive before trying to swing his greatsword at Artemia. However,

''Too slow.''

A voice coming from behind him sounds in his ear; the leader felt a chill running down his spine; he knew he was in trouble; however, before he could turn around, his head was sent flying into the air.

''As I said, it would end in an instant,'' Artemia said before sheathing her glaives.

Isabella was in awe while Alex sighed. That Boss was unlucky; he thought he had avoided that glaive was thrown at him by Artemia; however, what he didn't notice what the blue chain at the butt of the sword. Artemia threw the other glaive into the monster right as if she had teleported; she appeared right before the same glaive and caught it before catching the other one floating in the air and due to both glaives taking different directions after being thrown (the first went on the left while the second on the right.) and let not forget about the faint blue chain connecting them, Artemia used this chain to server the head of the Boss.

''Brillant.'' Alex couldn't help but praise Artemia's ingenuity.

''Thank you. Let's rest before continuing.''

Artemia smiled before sitting on the ground to recuperate. Isabella moved around to collect monsters' materials; unlike the other floors where they didn't especially collect materials, the monsters they fought here had pretty good materials worth some money.

When Alex wanted to help Isabella, she politely declined, so he was forced to join Artemia, who had closed her eyes to rest.

Chapter 266 - 261: Encountering Another Group

Alex and the others descended to the sixth floor after Isabella finished collecting the usable monster's materials.

Unlike on the previous floors where all floors looked alike and were simple. The sixth floor was different; it looks like a forest made of some strange flowers and giant mushrooms.

Just as they arrived at the sixth, Alex sensed people's presence ahead.

''There are people ahead. They are coming in this direction.'' Alex announced.

Isabella became cautious as she heard the story of how some adventurers did some nasty things.

Seeing her reaction, Alex immediately understood what was going on inside the Knight's mind. Indeed, she was right to be cautious.

After all, anyone could become an adventurer by registering in the guild. Because of that, there were naturally nasty adventurers as well. Adventurers who attacked other people to steal their belongings existed as well. And in the dungeon that they were in now, there wouldn't be any trouble if no one could complain about any events that occurred. If anything happened, it would probably be judged that they died in the dungeon. It was why one must be cautious when inside a dungeon, as you don't know what kind of adventurers you might encounter.

''I see. Then let's wait to see the attitude of the other party. If the party is passing by looking for something, there's no problem. However, if they are scums that are after our wealth, we'll know immediately from experience and deal with them accordingly.'' Artemia said with a severe expression on her face.

Nodding at Artemia's instructions, they waited where they were.

Eventually, after 5 minutes, the three could hear the sound of walking coming from the forest of flowers mixed with mushrooms. Mixed in were also the sounds of armor rubbing against each other. Soon, the shadows of people could be seen coming from the forest.

There were five people. All the members were men. An agile-looking man seemed to be a thief and two swordsmen; the fourth man held a big spear. As for the last man, it was a porter carrying a huge rucksack on his back.

''Huh?"

Before long, the thief, who was walking ahead, stopped and looked at Alex suspiciously. The two swordsmen at the back also stopped to look at Alex with caution as they stepped forward to either side of the thief; the spearman also readied his weapon. For a moment, a grin appeared on the spearman's face; however, it got instantly wiped as if it was an illusion.

On the other hand, the thief glanced at Artemia, and his expression changed; he had the feeling that he knew this girl somewhere; however, he couldn't remember where.

Sighing, he looked at Alex, who was walking toward them, and couldn't help but whistle internally. While it may seem that Alex was walking toward him relatively unguarded, full of opening, the thief knew he would be the one to die if he made a move.

'Better deal with them calmy. No need to antagonist this group.' The thief decided after a moment of consideration.

〖This little thief is sure clever.〗Silveria praised after seeing the thief's expression.

Alex didn't say anything as he stopped not too far from the group.

The first to speak was the thief, who was at the front of the party.

''Hey, it's pretty unexpected to meet someone here.''

Seeing the other party's attitude, Alex decided to go along with it.

''An unexpected meeting, that's a funny thing because you're the first other people that we've encountered since we started exploring the dungeon. We were the first people to enter the dungeon this morning and came straight here. How about you?'' Alex raised a question from the guild staff member stationed at the entrance, Alex's group to enter the dungeon this morning, hence his question.

''Ah! It's that so? We came here for a request to obtain some materials from a monster down here. In addition, we had to spend yesterday night in the dungeon since the monster in question only appears at night.'' The thief explained.

''I see; that must have been pretty hard then?" Alex said.

''Not really. Ah! My bad, I'm Kahil, leader of this group. By the way, it's C Rank group.'' Kahil, the thief, introduced himself. Alex did the same.

''I'm Alex, a D Rank adventurer.''

''I see; you look pretty strong for a D Rank. Well, I won't bother you anymore longer. We will be taking our leave. We rather missed the soft feeling of a mattress. See ya, Alex, and take care.'' Kahil said before leaving with his group; before leaving, he cast one last glance at Artemia. Still, he couldn't remember where he met this girl or where he heard about her.

'Well, whatever, let's forget about that girl.' Kahil mumbled to himself.

From the start, Isabella's presence was completely ignored as if she didn't exist. She didn't mind at all. She was glad that nothing happened as she didn't want to kill another human, not in front of Artemia as the latter believe that Isabella had never killed, that she was just an innocent girl. Well, it was what Isabella thought.

''It went pretty well.'' Artemia, who was approaching Alex, said.

''Yeah! It's only because that Kahil guy is smart. That spearman gave me a nasty feeling. He grinned when he saw you two.'' Alex said after turning around.

''Oh? So, you noticed it too? Well, I would have cut him down if he made any move. Good for him, he didn't.'' Artemia said while caressing her glaives. Alex felt a chill running down his spine when he saw that smile.

''What?" Isabella was confused as she was the only one not to have noticed anything amiss with the spearman.

''Nothing. Let's go.'' Alex said and started walking forward, going into the mushrooms forest. Artemia and Isabella followed him.

Alex had already forgotten about Kahil's group. He wondered how his sister, Luna, and others were doing.

•••••

Back on Kahil's group side.

''Hey, what do you think?''

One of the swordsmen murmured when they were far away enough from Alex's group. He didn't need to say what he was asking about. It was about the strange party they had talked with earlier.

The second swordsman didn't say anything. Meanwhile, the spearman licked his lips like a starving wolf.

''That blue-haired woman was a beauty. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, almost as the Goddess depicted in a story. I want to taste her, I-"

The spearman got interrupted by Kahil, the latter asked.

''Did you say almost like a goddess just now?"

Even the spearman found Kahil's weird, he still responded.

''Yeah. What is it?"

''No way. It's her, the third princess, the famous Goddess of beauty, Artemia Eretria Von Havens.'' Kahil said after remembering Artemia's identity. He finally understood why he found her familiar; he had seen her once, from afar; however, her beauty almost got engraved into his mind.

''No way.'' The spearman trembled when he heard Kahil's words. All his build-up wild fantasy disappeared the moment he heard about Artemia's real identity. He was lucky that lust didn't get the better of him.

''Let's leave; I need to cool off.'' The spearman said; the others nodded, unaware that at the moment, that insignificant porter was grinning as if he knew beforehand who Artemia was; no, it even went beyond that.

'So, it's him. It's showtime.' the porter muttered before silently flicking his fingers.

Chapter 267 - 262: On The Girl's Side 1

Going back in time a little just before Alex and his group entered the sixth floor.

Maria, Luna, Gracier, and Sakuya were already killing monsters on the fourth floor of the dungeon they have been assigned to.

The girls were fighting against a group of goblins; unlike normal goblins who have green skins, the goblins the girls were fighting had black color.

Sakuya moved between three goblins, and immediately they were sliced into two, blood spurt into the air; however, none of those blood landed on Sakuya as she had already vanished from there.

Marla's Ice arrows pierced through the head of five black goblins, Gracier armed with a scythe, sliced two black goblins apart.

Luna stood farther away from the ground, not doing anything.

It didn't take many minutes for the three girls to wipe out the fifteen remaining black goblins.

They decided to take a short break.

After spending 20 minutes of break, the girls moved toward the next floor.

Just as the four descended on the fifth floor, a blinding light covered them, startling not only the girls but the person observing them from the shadow. Maria and the others were forced to close their eyes; when they reopen them again, they appeared elsewhere.

In front of them was inside an endless dead black forest.

''What the hell?" Sakuya couldn't help but curse.

Maria's expression changed; she found their current situation unusual. Gracier became vigilant and readied her scythe. Luna observed their surrounding, when suddenly,

Boom!

A black light exploded not too far from the girls forcing them to protect their eyes, and when the girls became able to see again, they were startled to see that numerous monsters appeared right before them. It was more than thirty black goblins that stood not too far from the girls.

''No way. Is this still the fifth floor?" Gracier asked in disbelief.

''I doubt it is the case.'' Maria was the one to answer her. Sakuya was ready to unsheath her Katana at any moment; however, she seemed to be hesitating as if she was considering something.

This left Gracier confused; therefore, she asked.

''What's going on? Why are we not making any move? Shall I?"

''Just watch,'' Maria said.

At that moment, Gracier remembered that they were four of them, and when she turned in Luna's direction, she got the shock of her life.

The black goblins bellowed and charged forward like a bunch of crazy bulls.

However, Luna, who had already taken a step forward, snarled, raising and swinging her right fist abruptly.

"———!"

A glaring, holy light beam exploded from her fist, blasting straight at the army of monsters ahead. Facing this sudden, oncoming brilliance, the black goblins were devoured entirely before they even reacted. In an instant, a brilliance occupied the entire space of thirty meters, enveloping it in whiteness that was as bright as daylight.

The blinding light wreaked havoc on the black goblins' formation. It seemed that the black goblins' weakness was bright lights. They started wailing and thrashing on the ground as some had their eyes destroyed.

Hundred white arrows appeared in the sky before raining down on the poor black goblins who had not recovered from the first attack. One could be used to describe the current scene, massacre; it was destruction.

''Awesome.'' Gracier couldn't help but praise Luna's prowess when the scene in front of her.

''It's not the end,'' Luna warned before Gracier couldn't celebrate.

Indeed, it wasn't the end just after Luna warned Gracier.

Another black light appeared and exploded. In the blink of an eye, there was nothing except darkness. This was a skill of the black goblins shaman - Dark Mist.

They fired one when Maria's and others appeared for the first time; however, it was not strong, while this time, it was the combined effort of three black goblins shamans.

But it was a pity that the same move wouldn't work twice on the girls, especially with Luna being prepared against it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shortly after the black goblin shamans released the dark mists in a panic after seeing the first force they sent getting wiped, a series of rumbles and explosions echoed as a dazzling, white light column appeared above them before transforming into the form of a gigantic fist. Then, it slammed the ground like a gigantic hammer. Not only did the holy light eradicate the darkness, but it also smashed the black goblins hiding into bits.

Luna withdrew her right arm and let out a peal of evil laughter. What she just used a new skill she just perfected, Holy fist + Holy Bash= Holy hammer.

Gracier's mouth was opened in an o shape.

''What are you spacing for? Let's finish them before they retaliate.''

Luna shouted at Gracier before a white light covered her body, and she shot forward like a cannon, clashing against some unfortunate black globin. That goblin was shot back like a bullet, his fate unknown. Luna moved to the next enemy, her fist covered by a white light glove smashed the jaw of a half injured globin to bit.

Maria and Sakuya joined Luna, slaying black goblins here and there.

Finally, Gracier also moved. Because she was the last to move, the remaining black goblins who had regained a bit of calm launched their attacks on her, thinking that she was the weakest one.

''Humph!"

Gracier harrumphed before spinning her scythe to block the arrows fired at her. Before another attack could reach her, Gracier jumped back and, at the same switched her Gift into bow form and started to perform a rapid shot.

Swoosh! Swoosh!!!!!!

Numerous Fire arrows tore through the air and pierced the goblins' archers at the back. It was not the end; those arrows which missed their target landed on the ground and blossom into beautiful yet deadly Fire lotus that swallowed the nearby black goblins' and burned them to crisps.

Maria, who just dodged the blade of the black goblin, couldn't help but be impressed by Gracier's skills. However, Maria didn't have the time to focus too much on Gracier's fight as she was fighting a rather tricky goblin. This one was bigger and taller than the typical black goblin (1.2 m). This particular goblin was almost 3 meters tall. It was dressed in black armor, had a greatsword and a shield.

Clank! Clank!!!

Both human and monster moved at fast speed, exchanging blows.

At first, the giant black goblin successfully blocked Maria's sword; however, as the fight progress, the goblin was finding it hard to perfectly control his body, as if he was getting dull.

Suddenly, the monster froze after locking eyes with Maria; she used Glaciate on him, her unique eye ability. Just when Maria's sword was about to claim the giant black goblin life, Maria's switched to defensive posture because of the sudden feeling of danger.

''Gah!''

Maria was blown away; she almost coughed blood. She managed to control her fall and successfully landed on the ground.

Looking in front of her, Maria was shocked to find another two identical monsters appeared. The battlefield turned silent at that moment.

Chapter 268 - 263: On The Girl's Side 2

Looking in front of her, Maria was shocked to find another two identical monsters appeared.

The battlefield turned silent at that moment.

To be more accurate, one of the new monsters that appeared was a little different from the others; it had a snake tail.

Luna, Sakuya, and Gracier quickly jumped back and warily looked at new monsters.

''Alexia, are you okay?" Luna asked.

''Don't worry, I'm fine. Those monsters will be hard to deal with, especially that chimera one.'' Maria glared at the black goblin with a tail.

Boom!

The goblin chimera moved so did Maria.

Sakuya and Gracier also moved to take care of one of the remaining two black goblins, while Luna dashed toward the goblin Maria had also killed. She knew she must quickly take care of this monster to assist Maria.

Luna threw a punch straight at the head of that black goblin, and because her body was enhanced, her fist was pretty fast.

Even so, the black goblin was able to dodge the blow by tilting his head to one side and send a kick toward Luna at the same time.

A white shield appeared right before the goblin leg could strike Luna; she summoned her staff and used it to bash the black goblin. He couldn't dodge in time, so he was pushed a couple of steps back.

''Shit''

Just as Luna was about to pursue the black goblin, she was forced to stop and immediately prepared her next move.

Hiding among the dead goblin, an injured black goblin shaman finally finished casting his spell; he launched it.

Hiss! Whoosh!

A gigantic viper made from dark energy widened its jaw and pounced on Luna.

And Luna, who was seemingly unable to react in time, was swallowed by the viper entirely.

''I did it.''

That was what the black goblin shaman thought. Even the goblin Luna was fighting against thought the same because he knows how powerful that spell is.

However, before they could celebrate, a dazzling, white light flashed past their eyes, blinding them.

Boom!

In the blink of an eye, the enormous viper exploded into bits of fragments. The burning, holy energy surged like blazing flames, devouring the snake.

Before they could open their eyes, Luna had already flashed next to the black goblin, her right palm almost the left chest of the black goblin and,

''Holy beam''

A blaring white light was shot from her palm and tore through the goblin's chest, leaving a big hole there.

Everything happened too fast, and by the time the black goblin shaman could utter a word, a white arrow punctured his head, instantly killing him.

''Hah.. hah. Hah!"

Luna panted, she started to feel dizzy, and she knew the reason for the current feeling of dizziness. It was because she almost depleted her MP. She quickly took out a Mana recovery potion and drunk it in one gulp.

''Pouah! It doesn't matter how many times I drunk it; I can never get used to its taste. Time to help others.''

Quickly scanning the battlefield, Luna saw that Gracier and Sakuya battle was nearing the end; there was no need for assistance; however, Maria was struggling against the black goblin chimera.

There were a few injuries on her body. The chimera, on the other hand, could regenerate at will, making him troublesome to deal with.

However, Luna had the solution against such an opponent.

Creating five white arrows around her, Luna launched them at the chimera; it was to obstruct him to give Maria enough time to jump back for Luna to treat her injuries.

It worked, and by the time that chimera managed to take care of Luna's arrows, Maria had received treatment and heard about Luna's plan.

Maria couldn't help but smile as she shot forward like a bullet, her sword aimed at the neck of the chimera; however, it couldn't connect, it got blocked by the chimera battle-ax.

It was a moment a white ball came from behind Maria's back and exploded, covering her body and the chimera's body.

The black goblin chimera bellowed because he started to feel uncomfortable, as if something was changed inside his body, and he soon got the answer.

Maria switched to daggers, her speed increased, leaving afterimages behind she slashed at the chimera from all sides.

Numerous wounds appeared on the monster's body, and unlike the previous times when the monster's body get healed at astonishing speed, this time something like that didn't happen; this surprised the monster, he wondered what happened to its body?

However, he didn't have the leisure to think about it as new enemies appeared and joined the battle.

Moving his great battle-ax, the monster blocked Sakuya's katana; his tail forced Maria back.

Like an angel of death, Gracier, with her flaming wings, descended from the sky intending to slice the chimera into two; Sakuya had already jumped back.

Clang!

The chimera managed to block Gracier's scythe with his ax; however, he was forced to jump back because flame burst out from the scythe and tried to swallow him.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Boom! Boom!

Before the monster could stabilize his body, he was attacked by light arrows. (A/N: also known as White Arrows)

Annoyed, the chimera bellowed, his muscles bulged to their limit, and he sent his right fist crashing against those arrows. Using his remaining arm that held the great ax, he blocked Sakuya's katana. The force of their clash sent Sakuya crashing back.

Fortunately, Maria happened to be on her trajectory; she quickly caught her body before placing her down.

Before she could ask Sakuya anything, a chilliness erupted deep down in Maria's heart without any warnings, instantly engulfing her entire body. She knew death was coming.

The chimera had flashed next to them; her great battle-ax raised high, ready to claim their life.

Luna couldn't make it in time; before her arrows could strike, the great battle-ax would have claimed their life.

In this hopeless situation, Gracier moved; she shouted out of her lungs to catch the monster's attention.

''You scum!"

And it worked. Gracier immediately unleashed Dragon's eyes with all her might.

The chimera froze for a second; Luna's white arrows arrived before the monster and exploded against him.

A flame whip coiled around Maria's and Sakuya waists, and they were dragged back.

Everything happened too fast, and by the time the monster was able to see again, the girls had been rescued.

''Rahhhh!"

The black goblin chimera roared before charging toward the girls. Maria and Sakuya went to intercept him. They exchanged dozen of moves before falling back, leaving Luna and Gracier the opportunity to shine.

More than forty arrows were shot at the chimera, light arrows mixed with fire arrows.

The chimera roared; his roar was so loud that it managed to divert some of the arrows from their original target; he took care of the remaining by cutting them down.

However, Maria and Sakuya didn't continue to attack him as he thought; they stood each at Gracier side; Luna had her hands put on top of Gracier's back.

The monster had a bad feeling; he tried to launch his great battle-ax at Gracier; however, it was already too late.

Luna poured almost all of her remaining MP into Gracier's body.

''Go!!" She shouted before falling back to the ground.

A sadistic smile found its way on Gracier's beautiful face.

''Blossom.'' She said and,

A beautiful fire lotus appeared out of the ground instantly before exploding, swallowing the black goblin chimera.

Even though a normal monster would have died after such a big explosion, the chimera was still alive; however, he was a pretty bad shape, one of his legs and arm were gone. The monster was half-kneeling using his great battle-ax.

He knew he was going to die, so he held his head high; he matched his black eyes with Maria's blue eyes before the latter swung her sword to behead him. Thus the battle came to an end.

The girls sat on the ground to rest.

''Seriously, what happened?'' Sakuya asked.

''I don't know, but I can speculate that we are on the higher floor,'' Maria told them her hypothesis.

''I wonder why it happened, though.''

It was Luna who said this. Gracier stayed silent before speculating.

''Maybe it was man-made. I have this feeling.''

''What?"

The others shouted unintentionally before Luna became worried.

''I hope Alex is doing fine.''

She was not the only one concerned about Alex's wellbeing; the others as well couldn't help but pray for Alex's safety now that they knew someone could alter their destination inside the dungeon.

After resting for a moment, the girls moved, they decided to explore this floor.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Alex's group was fighting.

Chapter 269 - 264: Eighth Floor

''Alex, I will leave the mushrooms at the back to you.''

Artemia's voice echoed into the surroundings. Alex nodded before moving; using two knives, he cut the body of a mushroom into two before moving to the next.

In the blink of an eye, he slew five mushrooms; he killed his sixth mushroom by crushing it under his foot.

It was about an hour after they encountered the party that had spent the night in the dungeon.

Though Alex and the others had steadily made their way towards the stairs to the seventh floor, as soon as they got near, they were attacked by mushrooms in the nearby area.

The smallest was about 1m tall. The largest was about 3m tall. For some reason, tree-like roots grew from the huge mushrooms, which allowed them to move. Fortunately, its only attack was to throw its body towards them. Though spores were spread out every time they were cut, they didn't seem toxic and didn't hurt them.

After killing the last mushroom, Isabella, who was panting, said.

''I think it's the end, nothing w-"

Her words got cut off by an explosion.

Boom!

The forest made of strange flowers and mushrooms trembled as if something was about to come out underground.

Something did come; it was five meters tall man-eating flower.

Just as the man-eating flower came out, thick vines were shot at Alex and others.

They quickly dodged these vines. Artemia shouted at them to fall back when she saw them wanting to go towards the man-eating flower.

Clapping her hands together, a three meters long black lightning spear was created.

Sensing the danger coming from the black spear, the man-eating flower tried to attack first; however, everything got destroyed when they came into contact with the black lightning spear.

Swoosh! BOOM!

The body of the man-eating flower was pierced by the black lightning spear and exploded into pieces.

''Wow! Black lightning is indeed too destructive.'' Alex commented when he saw how destructive Artemia's black lightning was.

Isabella nodded her head while Artemia only smiled.

The group moved toward the next.

On the seventh floor, Alex's encountered a group of mantis (3 meters long); they quickly dispatched them before moving to the next floor.

However, the group was stunned by the scene in front of them.

''Wow! Unbelievable!"

At the scene spread before his eyes, Alex muttered involuntarily. Isabella was surprised as well. Only Artemia seemed not surprised by this scene.

''Uhh, there's no mistake that this is the eighth floor down, right?''

''That's right, there's no doubt about it. This is the eighth floor.''

At Isabella's sudden mutter after she had gathered herself, Artemia affirmed her question.

''Then why there's a forest inside a dungeon? Furthermore, no matter how you think about it, why is there a thing like a sun as well?"

Yes, the scene before Alex's eyes couldn't be described as anything other than a forest. The sun-like thing in the sky that Isabella mentioned actually illuminated the area with light.

''Calm down, Isabella. This is a dungeon; it's a strange place where anything can happen. You will let your guard down if you get confused.''

Artemia called out and put a hand on Isabella's shoulders to calm her down. The latter quickly pulled herself back together after hearing Artemia's voice. She lowered her head with a flushed face.

''Well, although I'm surprised as well, what Artemia said isn't wrong. We must focus especially in such strange environment; this forest is nothing but peaceful as it appears.'' Alex warned in turn.

The three walked into the forest with Alex as the vanguard, Artemia, the midguard, and Isabella at the rear.

Alex, who at the front sensed some presence through his divine sense, quickly warned the others. They all readied their weapons, and soon the enemy appeared from literally all directions. Their appearance was close to that of a monkey. However, sharp fangs extended from their mouth, and their skin was covered with water. The smallest ones were 80cm tall, while the biggest was around 1m tall. However, there were about 40 of them surrounding Alex and the others.

''Water monkey,'' Alex shouted the name of the monsters surrounding them.

BANG!!!!!

Armed with his two silver guns, Alex shot down more than eight Water monkeys in one attack.

''Kikikyi~!''

Suddenly seeing its companions being killed so easily, it watched as the bodies hit the ground, blood coming from their forehead. A Water-Monkey raised a cry of caution. However, it was too late; both Artemia and Isabella launched magic attacks.

''Lightning arrows.''

''Wind blades.''

Those magics slew numerous Water monkeys. Isabella moved toward the last Water monkey.

The last Water monkey had its head removed by Isabella's spear.

Just as they about to clean up the battlefield, another group of Water monkeys appeared; there were 20 this time.

Alex quickly eliminated half of them, another five got eliminated by Artemia's lightning arrows, and when Isabella wanted to kill the remaining five, they heard a ferocious roar resounded through the neighboring area.

''Groaaaaaaaar!"

The remaining Water Monkeys fighting with Alex's group before immediately disappeared into the forest without hesitation after hearing the roar. It was like the withdrawal of soldiers given a command.

''I see. As expected, the reason why the monsters were all here was because someone was leading them.''

Though Alex watched the surroundings while hearing Artemia's impressed murmuring, his Divine Sense caught sight of something.

Alex reflexively pointed one of his guns in that direction.

It was a Water Monkey that was considerably larger than the ones from the troop before. It was about 3 m tall. Its large size was apparent when you considered that the largest Water Monkeys from before were only 1m tall.

'No doubt, it seems this is the guy that raised that roar just before.' Alex mumbled.

Maybe the huge Water-Monkey noticed that it had been spotted; it tried into the forest depths after glancing at Alex, Artemia, and Isabella. There was a dangerous glint that flashed through the huge Water monkey's eyes when he turned around to escape.

Alex knew he would regret it if he let such a dangerous monster go.

''Phantom Bullet.''

The invisible bullet tore through the air and claimed the life of a huge Water monkey before he could completely disappear into the forest.

Bang!

The huge Water monkey headless body fell into the ground startling the other Water monkeys.

''Kikikyi~!''

''Kikikikikyi~''

After raising confused cries seeing their leader died, the remaining Water monkey fled after understanding what would happen to them if they were to stay and confront Alex and his group.

''Smart,'' Alex commented.

Chapter 270 - 265: First Night Inside A Dungeon

After seeing Alex killed the huge Water monkey, Isabella couldn't help but raise a question.

''Why did you kill him even though he tried to flee after knowing the difference between us.''

Sighing, Alex explained, ''It where you got it wrong. That monster had enough intelligence to signal a retreat after seeing that our strength was dangerous. He would go back to further prepare before attacking us with a massive force. So, I chose to eliminate it before he could.''

''You have done well. I was exactly thinking the same.'' Artemia said.

''I see. I thought that he wouldn't attack us anymore because he saw we were stronger, how naive of me.''

Looking at the dejected Isabella, Alex said.

''Let's continue.''

The three moved deeper into the forest.

It was about half an hour after leaving the place where the Water Monkeys attacked them. When Isabella used a sword to cut through the bushes, which seemed to be hiding something, they finally found what Alex had been looking for since he saw this forest. It was a fast-flowing river. The water was clear, and fish could be seen swimming inside.

''I'm still surprised that there is a river inside a dungeon; there are even some fish inside it. Alex, where do you think we'll end up if we followed the river upstream?"

Isabella asked lightly while checking the quality of the river water with some chemicals.

''I don't know. You will find out if you tried it, though.' You should stop using your common sense inside a dungeon.' Alex shrugged his shoulders while looking at the surrounding for any monsters that could sneak attack on them, especially Isabella, who was busy testing the water.

''Right. Inspection has been completed. Your highness, there's doesn't seem to be any particular problems with the water's quality, so it's safe to drink.''

''I see, good work. Well then, where should we set up camp?"

After thanking Isabella, Artemia took a look at the surroundings. There was no doubt that the waterside was a place for monsters to drink water; if adventurers camped here without care, it was like asking to be attacked.

Because of that, somewhere near the water source that wasn't conspicuous from the outside was desirable.

Just as Alex was about to start searching for a good location for camping, he heard Silveria's voice.

〖Master, I found the perfect location for you to camp. I'll guide you there.〗She suggested.

'Okay, I will follow.' Alex nodded his head.

It was a few minutes after going back into the forest. The place where Alex had stopped following Silveria's suggestion was a huge tree with a cave-like opening that was wide enough for a few people to enter. It didn't seem like any monsters were lurking inside as dead leaves were piled up. There were no discarded corpses inside either.

''You are a good scout. I never thought there was something so convenient inside the forest.'' Artemia offered honest praise.

''Really, what is with this dungeon? If there was a light-like setting sun, I could still accept it, but I didn't think it could accurately make dusk into night.'' Isabella muttered with an amazed voice as she looked up into the sky that was dyed a fiery orange because of the setting sun.

''As I said, it's meaningless to think about every single thing in a dungeon,'' Alex said while making an exasperated sigh.

Artemia chuckled while Isabella was forced to stop acting like a country bumpkin.

After making a campfire, the three sat around it. They ate and drunk some light vine.

Because Artemia had some devices set up around the camp that would act as alarms, it became unnecessary for them to take turns and guard.

''It seems you are feeling sleepy, Isabella, so go to sleep,'' Artemia suggested after seeing the sleepy Isabella.

Of course, Isabella was going to admit that she was feeling sleepy; if she did that, it would be admitting that she was a failure as Artemia's knight.

''No, your highness, I'm not feeling sleepy at all. I shall stay here and guard you.'' As expected, Isabella's answer was a denial. Artemia could only chuckle.

''What are you thinking about?" Artemia asked Alex, who stayed silent since the moment they finished eating.

''Oh! Nothing important.'' Alex responded.

There was a mischievous glint that passed through Artemia's eyes.

''You are thinking about your fiancée? You missed the feeling of her smooth skin?" She teased him.

Alex looked at Artemia with a blank look on his face.

Artemia ignored Isabella, who had a surprised expression on her face after hearing her words.

''What with that look?" Artemia asked, seeing that Alex was still giving her the blank stare.

''For a dignified princess, you don't act like a one. You seem angelic at first, but after interacting with you, I know you are nothing but angelic.'' Alex said with a smile.

Even though Isabella found Alex's comment to be rude, she didn't say anything.

On the other hand, Artemia, who heard Alex's words, had a blank look on her face for a second before she burst into laughter.

''It's good now that you smile. I don't know what you were thinking about to make such a face, but I know it is going to fine. If you consider me as a friend, then I will gladly help you when you would need me. Don't keep everything for yourself; share it with others. This way, your burdens will feel lighter and easy to carry.'' With a bright smile, Artemia announced.

Isabella nodded her head while Alex smiled at Artemia.

''Thank you, your highness. I will gladly ask for your help when I will need it,'' he promised.

''Can you tell me a bit about your world? I'm intrigued. I want to know how your world looks compared to ours.'' Artemia said she was curious about Alex's and the others' world, a world said without Magic. How fascinating. Being born into a world of Magic, Artemia didn't know how a world without magic would feel.

''Our world? Why not. Earth is...''

Alex told the duo about Earth's history. The girls were excited to learn about Earth's fascinating history.

And with this, the party spent their first night in the dungeon.

Chapter 271 - 266: Against The Ogres

The following day, the fake dungeon sun shined brightly to announce the start of a new day.

The group was already up and was eating when suddenly, they started to hear a sound of vibration.

''The ground is vibrating. Do you sense it too?"

As Alex muttered, he felt his body shake slightly again. Listening, they could faintly hear a thudding noise. As the sound gradually grew louder, the vibrations grew proportionally larger.

''Something is coming,'' Isabella said while tightly gripping her spear.

Artemia had already summoned her Gift; she readied her two glaives.

''Given the timing of the footsteps, there should only be two of them at best. I can imagine its size.'' Artemia said.

Thud! Thud!!

The sounds of footsteps grew closer and closer until the first enemy came to view.

Alex had encountered this type of monster in the past; however, this one had one head instead of two.

''An ogre. Who would have thought I would encounter one this soon.'' Alex muttered while glaring at the green monster in front of him.

It was at least 5 meters tall. Its body was filled with an overwhelming amount of dense muscles. The club the monster held in its hand was simply an uprooted tree.

''There is still another one at the back,'' Isabella shouted; it seemed that she hadn't heard Artemia's words.

''I'll take care of this one. You should take care of the remaining one.'' Alex announced before kicking against the ground.

Looking at the puny existence running toward him, the ogre snorted with disdain before raising its club.

However, the Ogre didn't know the existence that was Alex. If it had known Alex's ability, rather than not taking any serious countermeasures, it would have swung its club with all its strength from the very beginning. However, opposite to its physical ability, its intelligence was low. It had decided that Alex was an insignificant being based on his appearance alone.

''Raaaaaarh!"

The club swung down with the momentum as if to destroy everything it touched. It was a single attack with no thought put into technique, only a brute strength. However, the attack that was made with only physical strength hid a violently destructive force.

Yes, that was if it hit.

''Such an attack is obvious! Compared to that two-headed ogre, you are nothing.''

Jumping back, Alex provoked the Ogre with his eyes and words as the club made a small crater in the ground.

Although the Ogre couldn't understand human words, it could still fully understand the malicious intent against it.

Yes, the diminutive creature that was only up to its knees was disrespecting it. How infuriating. I shall crush his skull on the ground.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" (A/N: Die you bug.)

As a simple Ogre, it went berserk at Alex's cheap provocation, raising its club again and smashing into the ground with increasing anger.

However, such an attack could never land on Alex; moving to the side, Alex dodged the mighty blow before aiming Silveria at the monster's unguarded knee and fired.

''Phantom Bullet''

BANG!

Crack!

The ogre kneecap broke.

''GAAAAAAAAAA!''

The ogre wailed of pain; he almost dropped its club, then came the second attack.

BANG!

Crack!

The remaining kneecap got broken by another phantom bullet.

''Gugiahhhhh!"

This time the ogre wail shook the whole forest sending the second ogre into a frenzy.

Pouring a little bit of MP into Sleipnir, Alex felt the change, this time more clearly, his knife elongated; he felt like he wasn't standing on the ground.

Knowing that his MP was draining faster, Alex moved.

Swoosh!

He disappeared, and when he reappeared again, he had at the back of the ogre with his knife sheathed and then,

Thud!

The ogre's head fell into the ground shortly followed by its body.

''Amazing. I have never seen someone perfectly handle Sleipnir as you did. It almost one jealous.'' Artemia, who was not participating in the fight, praised Alex after seeing him making good use of Sleipnir.

After collecting the body of the dead ogre, Alex joined Artemia to watch Isabella fight.

Dodging the ogre that had become reckless after seeing his brother died, Isabella lowered her head and muttered something.

Isabella was astonished to see Isabella's speed increase all of a sudden.

〖It seems that this girl also a boot similar to yours, master.〗Silveria, who was silent since the start, finally spoke.

Alex nodded while watching Isabella ran across the ground and leaped into the air with two steps. At a height over 5 m, the figure of Isabella could be seen above the head of the Ogre.

''Gaa~!?''

''Haaa!'' Isabella shouted.

As expected, maybe noticing the enemy at the same height as its line of sight, as Isabella swung the spear in her hands at its head, the Ogre almost simultaneously raised its club.

However,

「GA!?」

Isabella's spear wasn't normal; its weight got increased. Currently, it weighed over 100kg. Adding to that was Isabella's momentum. Moreover, for the magic empowered spear, cutting through the club, which was basically a tree, was met with no resistance. The blade approached the head of the Ogre; however, because of its survival instincts, though it moved back, causing a massive wound to be torn into its chest, the attack didn't kill it.

''Gugiaahhhhh!"

''Tch!"

Isabella clicked her tongue in annoyance as she landed on the other side.

''Isabella used the new skill she acquired after a painstaking training,'' Artemia explained.

Alex couldn't only smile bitterly as he knew why Isabella trained so hard. It was in the hope of fighting him and maybe win.

〖Well, it's a good thing she stopped provoking you. If not, her pride would have been crushed after seeing you beat her even under her gravity magic. I never expected that little girl to be an Earth Elementalist. I thought she was only Water elementalist.〗

To Silveria's words, Alex responded, 'Maybe, she just recently awakened the Earth element like Leon.'

〖Maybe. Oh! It's about to end.〗

As Silveria said, the fight was about to end.

After receiving such a deep wound from the puny human, the injured ogre became enraged and started to swing its club recklessly.

Dodging the blows, Isabella launched an attack.

''Water Snake!"

Isabella's spear was transformed into a huge spear that tore through the ogre's club before piercing the latter chest. The right side of the ogre was utterly gone. It's died with his eyes wide open; he couldn't believe that they couldn't claim a single life before being killed. How unbefitting of Kings of the forest.

Thud!

The lifeless body of the second ogre fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, Isabella could be seen on her knees, panting hard. That last move had taken a lot of MP; however, it was worth it.

''That was a nice fight.''

Alex, who was approaching Isabella, praised her.

Chapter 272 - 267: A Startling Revelation 1

''That was a nice fight.''

Alex, who was approaching Isabella, praised her. He then looked at the corpse of death ogre; the right side was wholly gone.

''That was some powerful skill. Even me, I will have a hard time dealing with it.'' Alex muttered.

〖Well, if you neither use Phantom Bullet, Erase, Ice bullet, then it will be hard to deal with her attack.〗Silveria commented.

''Well done, Isabella. I'm proud of you.''

Artemia's words put a smile on Isabella's lips.

''Let's take a short break. We had a tough morning.'' Alex proposed as he sat on the ground in a lotus position.

''I wonder how the girls are doing?" Alex suddenly mumbled, and because of the proximity to the other two, they heard him.

''It seems that you are worried about them. Don't worry; knowing their strength, I don't think anything will happen to them. They just need to be cautious.'' Artemia said while sipping orange juice.

''Even though I have never fought The Ice queen and the S Queen, from the hearsay, I know they are strong, probably stronger than me. So, don't worry.'' Isabella also said some comforting words to lessen Alex's worries.

While he was surprised by Isabella readily admitting to being inferior to Maria, he was even more surprised by the S Queen he just heard.

''Excuse, Who's the S Queen?"

Even though he had an idea who that person might be, he still asked just to be sure.

''Don't you know Lady Sakuya's nickname?" Isabella asked with confusion.

Alex shook his head. He only heard about Maria's and Luna's nicknames.

''Did you forget that Alex just recently came? It's normal for him not to know. The S Queen is the nickname given to Sakuya after she thrashed numerous young masters and mistresses. She even beat the shit out of my Big brother. Since that day, he came to fear her. In the start, Big brother tried to go after the three; however, unlike the other two who rejected him while staying polite, Sakuya's way was brutal. She asked for a duel; if my brother wins, she will consider becoming his woman.''

Before Artemia could continue further, she was interrupted by Alex, who raised a question.

''And what if she wins?"

Facing Alex's question, Artemia revealed a troubled expression before saying.

''She didn't say it.'' She said.

''What ?" Alex was surprised.

''It's not like she didn't want to say; however, before she could say her condition, Maria moved faster to close her mouth. That day I was there, I was disguised, so people didn't know it was me. From the feeling that I've got what Sakuya wanted to say would be without a doubt something outrageous.'' Artemia said while recalling the dangerous glint that passed through Sakuya's eyes just as she was about to announce her condition.

''I can picture what she would say,'' Alex said while imagining a naked prince running around in the capital with Sakuya sitting on top of his back, making an Ohohoho sound.

Alex shudders just by imagining such a scene; he quickly wiped away the invisible sweat on his forehead.

Inside her dimension, Silveria was laughing hard; she laughed until she started to roll on her bed holding her belly.

Ignoring her, Alex focused his attention on Artemia, the latter continued.

''As you have heard it. My brother lost, badly even. He got beaten to the point that his face was almost unrecognizable.''

''To that point?" Alex said, surprised.

Artemia nodded, ''Well, my brother isn't powerful like the rest of us, but he is smart. Governing an empire doesn't always require the emperor to be the strongest. I would have preferred him to become the emperor rather than my sister, but that would-. Forget it, let's not talk about it.''

Alex didn't pursue the matter as well, as he no interest in the throne or politics.

''Better quickly made Maria yours because my brother will never give up so easily, especially now that he learned that you made Luna your woman,'' Artemia warned him.

Chuckling, Alex said, ''No matter what he will do, Maria will never become his woman, you can be sure of that.''

Seeing Alex so confident, Artemia didn't say anything more. She stayed silent for a moment before looking at Isabella and said.

''Isabella, go scout the area near the river for a moment.''

Isabella nodded before disappearing. There was nothing to be added anymore as Isabella understood the underlying meaning of Artemia's words.

''What do you want to talk about for you to send Isabella away?" Alex turned to face Artemia after Isabella was gone.

Chuckling Artemia asked, ''You are already aware of my goal coming here, aren't you?''

''Yeah, I know.'' Alex nodded.

''I see. I must thank Elseria then.'' Artemia said.

''What is the relation between you and her? Who's she really?"

Alex couldn't help but ask this. He had this nagging feeling that Artemia and Elseria knew each other; they seemed to share some secrets.

And as expected, Alex didn't get the answer he was hoping for.

''I will let you figure that out. It isn't for me to say it.'' Artemia answered with an apologetic smile.

''I hate when you lots act like this.'' Alex didn't hide his dissatisfaction.

Artemia had expected such an outcome, so she said.

''Don't be like that. Let's talk about something interesting instead. I heard you talked with Lilith just before we came. Is that right?"

''You are well informed. As expected of the princess. Well, that's true.'' Alex didn't deny having talked with Lilith as it wasn't something that should be hidden.

''I see. Let's me guess you two made some kind of alliance to screw Lucifer. She talked about acquiring something Lucifer coveted. Did I get right?" Artemia asked with a smile.

However, to Alex, that smile wasn't angelic in the slightest; it was demonic like the one a demoness wore when everyone goes according to her plan.

Gulp!

'This woman is scary. It's a good thing I'm on her side for the moment.'

Alex thought after gulping audibly.

''You have perfectly guessed what she said. So, now I want to know what all these questions are about?"

Alex's words were simple. Would you please go straight to the point?

Artemia smiled, and just as she was about to open her mouth, they heard a loud explosion coming from Luna's direction.

BOOM!

Chapter 273 - 268: A Startling Revelation 2

Going back in time a little. When Artemia was asking Alex if he knew the real goal of this expedition, Isabella, on the other side, sat not too far from the river and was throwing stones on the water while muttering.

''I wonder what they're talking about?"

''What if Alexender became a beast and assaulted her highness? Kyaah! I must be there to watch, no save her.''

''Should I go back to peek?"

Isabella quickly shook her head and tried to convince herself.

''No, that not it. Everything I'm doing is for the princess's wellbeing.'' She said.

This would have sounded convincing if she wasn't wearing a dangerous smile on her face. Currently, Isabella's mind was filled with some dangerous scenes, not suitable for a sane mind to learn about it.

Isabella was so lost in her little world that she hadn't noticed the monster lurking behind her. It was a Water monkey, and unlike average, this Water monkey was different. It stood at 2 meters tall; its fur was a little bit grayish on the left side. While it was not mid Boss like the one Alex killed yesterday, it wasn't far from it; this is a unique monster; calling it Rare species should be more accurate.

This monster was the mate of the one Alex killed; in other words, the killed monster's wife. She came to seek vengeance for her man. What Alex and others didn't know was that just after getting killed, that giant Water monkey released a special pheromone that sticks against his killers to alert the others. It was pretty undetectable, so Alex's group didn't know.

As for the reason why the female Water monkey picked Isabella especially, it was simply because she was the weakest of the three.

Holding her right paw forward, the rare female species of Water monkey slowly changed. A water ball of the side of three basketball was created in the sky, just above the daydreaming Isabella.

Just as the spell was completed, the female Water monkey swung her arm down.

Swoosh!

At the last moment, Isabella was able to sense the incoming danger. Mustering enough strength into her legs, Isabella managed to barely avoid the fate of being squashed by a water ball.

BOOM!

A big explosion occurred that leave a deep scar on the ground where Isabella was.

It was this same explosion that alerted Alex and Artemia to come over quickly.

And when they came, they were shocked to see Isabella locked in a fight against a strange Water monkey.

''It's the woman of that Big monkey I slew yesterday.'' Alex immediately announced upon seeing the female Water monkey.

Artemia was curious about how he knew that; however, she stopped when she recalled the particular skill those reincarnated have: Appraisal skill.

''No good,'' Artemia shouted when she saw Isabella be sent flying; she even spurted a mouthful of blood before crashing against a tree, breaking it.

While puking blood, Isabella tried to move. However, Artemia's voice dissuaded her.

''Isabella, stay done. I shall take care of this little monster.'' Artemia declared.

Her declaration forced Alex, who was preparing to kill the female Water monkey, to step back. He went to assist Isabella in getting back on her feet.

When the female monkey understood that Artemia would be her opponent, she turned tail and ran.

''As if I would allow getting away after injuring my cute subordinate.''

Artemia declared before disappearing as well; like a bolt of lightning, she moved, passing through the trees as if they were not present.

On the other hand, the female Water monkey jumped from tree to tree like a ninja. The two continued the game of catching first when Artemia suddenly stopped and leaned to her left.

Swoosh! Bang! Crack!

A big tree passed by air breath of her face and crashed against the tree behind her. The big tree almost surpassing the one that attacked Artemia was broken into two. If Artemia's instinct weren't sharp and warned her that she was walking into a trap, she would have become a corpse by now.

Looking at the female Water monkey who had a human-like face after seeing her trap failing (A/N: She showed a disappointed face.), Artemia's eyes turned calm, and instead of immediately lashing at the culprit of her current mood, she calmed before suddenly taking an action that startled the female Water monkey.

Artemia turned her back at the monster and simply walked away. At first, the monster was confused, thinking maybe it was some kind of devious trap the despicable human was plotting; however, no matter how long she waited, Artemia didn't make any move, she continued to walk back towards Alex and Isabella's direction.

Seeing this, the female Water monkey grinned before trying to create a spell to kill Artemia.

Just as she stretched her paw, bolts of black lightning descended from the sky and obliterated her.

At the same time, Artemia mumbled.

''Black Demise.''

''Sigh! This skill is still incomplete; if not, I would have erased at least half, if not the whole forest. Time to go back.'' Artemia said, dejected.

The other monsters that previously hoped to move against Alex's group dropped that idea after seeing the scene of some portion of the forest gone.

•••••

Artemia joined Alex and Isabella; the latter was sleeping after receiving treatment.

Alex and Artemia decided to resume their previous discussion.

''Do you have an idea about what you are going to snatch?" Artemia asked, her legs crossed.

''I don't know, but I guess it's some kind of treasure.'' Alex speculated.

〖I'm curious as well.〗Silveria said; however, Alex ignored her and focused on Artemia.

''You are wrong; what you will be going after is the same thing I'm currently after.'' Artemia dropped a bomb.

''What?" Alex shouted.

As if it wasn't the end, Artemia added.

''Lilith is the same as me. A reincarnated goddess, in fact, she is the reincarnated goddess of Demon.''

''Eh?"

Alex was so surprised that his mouth was wide open.

〖What a starling revelation.〗Silveria sighed.

Alex nodded his head. Artemia continued.

''Even Lilith herself isn't aware of this truth. What you are going to snatch is something that contains a part of her power. It was sealed after that battle. Acquiring this thing may bring back some of her memories apart from increasing her strength.''

''I see; however, I'm more interested about what happened back then for this world gods to fall,'' Alex said, his eyes locked on Artemia.

Chapter 274 - 269: The Tenth Floor

''I see; however, I'm more interested in what happened for this world Gods to fall.''

Alex said, his eyes locked on Artemia. The latter chuckled before talking.

''We fought against a monster that shouldn't have existed in our world, and as you have guessed, we lost. We were handled like children, we who claimed as the strongest existence within this world, how ironic. Even though we lost, we still managed to seal that monster as we couldn't kill it. One among us predicted the arrival of otherworlders. This was his words: 'Among those will arrive shall be the one that can slay the beast, he will have an unusual Gift.' That was our friend last word.''

''I see. Can you tell me what kind of beast you fought?" Alex asked; while he sympathises with Artemia for what she went through, he was more interested in getting more information about his future enemy. This dragon won't be an easy opponent.

''It was a dragon, however, a sinister dragon that shouldn't exist in this world. This dragon cast a curse upon this world, making it impossible for this world resident to one-day step into the God realm. It is why there are only Demi-God level powerhouses in the current world. It was as if this monster feared that those who advanced into the God realm would be a threat to it.'' Artemia explained.

''I see, let's-"

Just as Alex was about to continue, they heard movement coming from Isabella's tent. She had woke up, so Alex decided to postpone this discussion for another time.

''Time to get going.'' He said, and Artemia nodded. They waited for Isabella to join them before moving.

•••••

An hour later, Alex and the others finally found the stairs leading to the ninth floor, and soon they appeared on the ninth floor.

''Tch! Another mushroom forest.''

Alex said, annoyed; unlike the previous forest (a mix of flowers and mushrooms), this forest was solely composed of giant mushrooms the size of an adult male.

While fighting against the awful smell in the air, the trio walked through the mushrooms forest and strangely, they didn't encounter any monster on their way to the tenth floor.

''Strange. Why there isn't any monster on this floor?" Isabella asked as they were about to go down to the tenth floor.

''It's a good thing that we don't have to fight any monster here before going down on the tenth floor where we will probably fight against a boss,'' Artemia said while giving one last glance at the ninth floor.

Just as they stepped on the tenth floor, what welcome them was total darkness; however, Alex, who had night vision, was able to see in the darkness. He went immediately alert at the scene in front of him.

''Enemies ahead,'' Alex shouted while switching to Silveria. At the same time, he used Xerox to create a second gun.

Artemia and Isabella readied their weapons and came the light, followed by a

Kacha~, kacha~, kacha~, kacha~.

From the other side, a group of skeletons appeared.

They consisted of white bones without a piece of flesh on their bodies. They looked just like a model of the human body. The eyes in the skull were also hollow, giving a terrible feeling. The most different part from a human body was a magic stone in it, protected by the ribs. When defeating an undead with physical attacks and not magic, the quickest way was to destroy the magic stone directly.

The Skeleton at the lead had a long rusty sword. The Skeleton right beside it held a spear and pointed the tip at Alex.

This group of skeletons numbered around thirty.

Alex was the first to make a move.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!!!

Bullets tore through the air with perfect accuracy, as if the other two knew that it wasn't their time to shine; they just waited at the back, letting Alex fight to his heart content.

In just three minutes, Alex eliminated this group of skeletons.

''Amazing.''

At Isabella's voice, Alex gave a wry smile while looking at the corpse of skeletons in front of him; he couldn't help but shook his head.

Skeletons were rank E monsters. They were lower-ranking monsters than the rank D Water Monkeys they had encountered on the eighth floor and the Lizardmen they had encountered on the third floor.

However, Skeletons were hated by other adventurers for the single reason that it was undead. Basically, it was a monster that didn't have an ego. For that reason, it would not be frightened no matter how much it was damaged and would just attack the adventurers. Adding to that, the proof of subjugation of Skeletons was their magic stone, which was problematic. In order to defeat a skeleton with physical attacks, there was no other choice than to destroy the magic stone. As a result, it was subsequently challenging to obtain proof of subjugation. For similar reasons, you couldn't expect to get many materials from such an ordinary monster. If it was a higher ranking undead monster like a Skeleton Lord, its bones, strengthened by magical power, could be used as materials for weapons and armour. Or using alchemy, its material could be used to produce a magic item or special potion. However, this was impossible with the lowest ranking Skeletons.

Looking at the broken piece of bones lying on the ground for a moment, Artemia lifted her head and scanned the tenth floor, the area where her eyes could see. Apart from the monster they just fought, there was nothing else.

''How strange, I thought we would encounter a tough opponent here on this floor, but I'm disappointed only to see a bunch of weak skeletons,'' Artemia complained.

''You talk too fast.'' Alex, whose sense was enhanced than the others, said before shooting towards his left.

Bang! Crack!

The enemy that planned to sneak attack on them got instantly killed. It was a skeleton hound.

''What?"

Isabella emitted a startled cry before gulping; more than hundreds of skeletons appeared just as if they got teleported here.

''Now, it's more fun.'' Artemia declared before disappearing.

Chapter 275 - 270: An Unusual Floor

Now, it's more fun.'' Artemia declared before disappearing. Blue lightning was wrapped around her body, increasing her speed to a crazy level.

She passed through a group of seven skeletons for a second, and just as she left, these skeletons were reduced to dust. Because lightning work against skeletons as Fire did, it was easy for Artemia to eliminate skeletons quickly.

Not wanting to be outdone, Isabella moved as well, making use of her newfound power, the Earth element, especially gravity magic; Isabella was to almost compete against Artemia.

However, the star of this fight was, without doubt, Alex, who kept firing left and right with a frightening accuracy of a hundred per cent. He had killed more than sixty skeletons since the arrival of the first group.

Just as Artemia eliminated the last skeleton, something surprising happened. The areas where Alex and others stood started to shake, almost making them fall into the ground, then there was a flash of light that blinded Alex's group.

''What's going on?"

While stabilising himself, Alex couldn't help but raise his head and survey his surrounding; surprisingly, they were back at the entrance where Alex fought the first group of skeletons.

''Something does feel right. Why are we back at the beginning again?" Alex turned to face Artemia in whom he believes to have more experience in a dungeon.

Just as Artemia wanted to speak, another group of skeletons appeared; however, unlike the previous group with thirty members, this one had thirty-five members.

Annoyed, Alex quickly eliminated those thirty-five skeletons. Just as he killed the last skeleton, Alex's level increase by one once again, he immediately checked his new status. It was true that levelling up becomes easier inside a dungeon where they inexhaustible supply the monster. Since yesterday Alex had level twice.

『[Alexander Kael Touch]

Class: Magic Gunslinger

Age: 17

Male

Race: High Human

「 Rank 7]

Level 68

Experience Value (XP): 400/19200

Magic Power: 5070 (+ 60) ➤ 5130/5130

Magic: None

Attack: 1550 (+20) ➤ 1570

Defense: 1450 (+20) ➤ 1470

Agility: 1600 (+20 BP) ➤ 1620 (+200)

Intelligence: 1450 (+20) ➤1470

Luck: 1230 (+20) ➤1250

BP: 0

SP: 0

Gift: Two Guns * Semi-sealed*

Skills: [Advanced Appraisal Level 1] [Item box Level 2] [Swift Fingers Max] [Divine Sense Level 4] [Throwing knife Level 5] [Dark Vision Level 2] [Dual Wielding Level 2] [Accel Level 3] [Knife Art Level 4] [Link Level 3] [Gun Art Level Level 10] [Normal Regeneration Level 5] [Mana Recovery Level 5] [Synthesize Level 3] [Shadow Shift Level 1]

Special Abilities: [Language Comprehension][Danger Sense] [Overdrive] [Death's Eye] [Envisage] {Erase} {Magic Bullet} {Snatch} [Hellsing] [Xerox]

Titles: [Otherworlder] [The one who can't use Magic] [The one whose fingers are faster than Flash] [Goblin Slayer] [The Reborn] [Shadow Nemesis] [The Slaughterer]』

'That should be good for now.' Alex mumbled to himself after using his BP; he added it to his MP as the more MP he has, the more extended Sleipnir unique ability will last; however, now wasn't the time to think about such a thing.

Frowning, Alex once again checked their surrounding, and his conclusion was the same, they were back at the same place where he first fought.

''I think that we have fallen into a trap. One of the skeletons we killed must have been the trigger that sent us in a time loop.'' Artemia explained after analysing their current situation.

''I see. I finally understood why we keep experiencing the same thing for a while.'' Alex said before killing his 200th skeleton.

''How do we get out from this?"

Isabella was the one to ask this; she was getting sick of constantly killing only skeletons.

Artemia stayed silent before suddenly ordering,

''Please step back.''

Alex and Isabella stepped back as they were ordered.

Artemia walked to where she believes everything began, where that unusual skeleton fell under Alex's bullet. Taking a deep breath, black lightning started to gather around and before attacking the ground.

Crack! Bang!

The sound of glass breaking could be heard after Artemia's black lightning struck the ground.

Another blinding light assaulted Alex's group.

When they open their eyes again, they were inside a big room; behind them was a small room, it was probably where they got stuck into an infinite loop.

''This doesn't look like a typical tenth floor I have read about,'' Isabella said with a frown.

Alex and Artemia didn't say anything as they were focused in front of them.

From the other side of this floor, footsteps could be heard coming straight towards Alex's group.

Alex's frowned in disgust; an intense smell of rotten flesh drifted to his nose, whose five senses were much sharper than the ordinary person.

''Fuck! It stinks.'' He couldn't help but pinch his nose as the smell became harder to bear.

Artemia, who was just behind Alex, also frowned silently and held her nose.

Before long, the damp footsteps approached.

The identity of the damp footsteps and the putrid smell became apparent. Some had half-rotted bodies with their rib bones exposed; others had gooey liquid coming out of their eye sockets. Every time they took a step, an odour would drift out, and flesh and liquid would fall on the ground, making sounds as countless shadows tried to move towards Alex.

''Zombies. It was to be expected. I hate zombie films, to think I will encounter them in reality.'' Alex muttered bitterly. With his sharp senses, the direct hit from the putrid smell had already left him in a bad mood.

The same for Artemia, whose sense, while it might not be sharper like Alex's senses, was sharper than the average human. She turned her eyes to the nearly 20 Zombies and gave a groaning cry in a bad mood.

Meanwhile, noticing the Zombies, Isabella spoke up unpleasantly.

''Wait a minute, there are some Zombies with armour equipped. Could that mean that it was some fallen adventurer?"

''I wonder. Perhaps this is the fate of adventurers who lose their lives on this floor. Ugh, as I thought. I would hate it if I ended up like that.''

Artemia confirmed Vel's thoughts and turned to look unpleasantly at the Zombies who were gradually approaching.

Adventurers who challenged the dungeon naturally wanted to avoid dying here. The danger of death always accompanied diving into the dungeon. However, even if you died here, your corpse would be turned into a toy by a Lich who is a higher form of undead.

One should know that effective attacks against ordinary undead, such as Holy magic (Light Element) and fire magic, were also effective against Zombies. Or, if you didn't mind coming in contact with rotten corpses, you could also target the magic stone buried inside their flesh.

While Alex's group was composed of neither Healer nor Fire mage, they still had an advantage when fighting against undead monsters. With Alex unusual ability to deal with dark creatures and Artemia, whose destructive lightning element left one in awe, it could be said the undead monsters were unlucky.

''Let's sent those poor souls on their way.''

Artemia declared as she stepped forward, white bolts of lightning were dancing around here.

Chapter 276 - 271: An Elder Licht ?

Alex's group quickly eliminated those zombies.

''It smells awful,'' Artemia said while covering her nose. Because she used lightning to eliminate the zombies, the smell of burnt rotten flesh wafted through the air; Alex had a hard time as well. Suddenly, his eyes widened; this didn't go unnoticed by Artemia, who stood beside him.

''Another enemy?" She asked while being on guard.

Before Alex could answer, a metallic kin~ sound echoed into the surroundings.

Isabella thrust out her spear on reflex. However, the magic spear that was thrust out in the short moment that the enemy attacked pierced the air instead of the enemy.

''Be careful, it's fast!''

As Isabella's voice echoed into the surroundings, everyone held their weapon as they watched the enemy.

As the faint light from the dungeon walls illuminated the area, a huge wolf appeared. Its height from feet to head was up to Alex's chest. From its upper jaw, deep green fangs stretched out like the extinct Sabertooth Tigers from Earth. And from its back, something like a tentacle grew on the left and right, making sharp sounds as they moved through the air. It was probably a blow from the tentacle that had attacked Isabella.

''Phantom Wolf.''

Alex mumbled the moment he saw those wolves; seven of them appeared at once.

''It's my first time seeing something like this. Alex, can you-"

Alex didn't wait for Isabella to finish what she was going to say before he started to explain.

''Phantom Wolf It's a C rank monster, but it usually lives in packs. In packs, they are B rank monsters. As for its strongest weapon, rather than its fangs, watch out for the tentacles that extend from its back. You can treat them as something like a whip. It can manipulate its tentacles at will to attack the enemy and uses its fangs to finish off its target. In addition, their physical ability is high, and they can use wind magic to attack fast and retreat if they can't win. They got the name phantom from the fact that when they attack, it's almost impossible to see them.''

''I see, it's a rather annoying enemy.''

Listening to Alex's explanation, Isabella pointed her spear at the enemies.

Swoosh!

The phantom wolves made the first move. At the same time as that bark, a gust of wind blew, blinding Alex's eyes. He felt two killing intents.

Responding quickly to the killing intent, Alex poured magic power into the Sleipnir, his knives elongated, and he swung them, making sure not to hit his surrounding party members.

''Graaah!"

Splash!

Like a knife cutting through butter, Alex's knives bisected two phantom wolves; at the same time, Alex threw one of his knives at the wolf that was trying to sneak attack, Isabella.

Being enhanced by the wind element, Alex's knife was fast; in a flash, it pierced the phantom wolf head, instantly killing it.

Before Alex could assist Artemia, the latter had already eliminated three phantom wolves, almost as if she was competing with him; this made Alex chuckle.

Isabella was the only one still fighting; she twisted her upper to dodge the last phantom wolf attack before kicking the wolf flying with her legs.

She immediately chanted,

''Water spikes.''

And five conical spikes made of water were formed. They were about 10cm in diameter; those water spikes tried to pierce the phantom wolf; however, the wolf was able to twist its body and dodged the water spikes.

Just as the monster landed on the ground, Isabella was already in front of it; she sent five thrusts in one attack.

Five blue spears light went through the phantom wolf body, killing it.

''Phew! They are tough to deal with.''

Isabella said while wiping away the sweat on her forehead.

''Isabella, quickly collect the materials; we will leave this floor; I have a bad feeling.''

Artemia approached Isabella and urged her. Alex was not surprised as he was also feeling ominous for a while. This floor was too bizarre. With Alex help, Isabella rapidly collected the usable materials.

Boom!

The whole floor violently shook just as the group was about to stand up and find the exit to the next floor.

''No good.''

Alex muttered before pouring MP into Sleipnir and threw himself on Isabella, thus saving her life.

From the ground, Isabella's eyes widened when she saw a huge black scythe passing above them. If Alex hadn't intervened, she was sure to lose her life. She became momentarily dazed.

''Get hold of yourself. This isn't the end.''

Alex's voice brought Isabella back to reality. When she searched for Alex, he was already gone. His figure could be seen standing in front of the huge shadow shrouded in darkness.

Compared to this shadow, Alex was tiny. Artemia was standing beside Alex, her glaives connected in the form of a spear.

''You can't be serious, right?"

Isabella could only mutter helplessly as she watched the colossal monster that appeared; it was 8 meters tall. In his right hand was a giant black scythe, the same scythe that almost took her life if not for Alex timely intervention.

The huge monster that appeared was a black skeleton wearing a worn-out black robe. This skeleton emits a dangerous aura; Isabella felt suffocated even when the monster's aura wasn't directed at her. She wondered how Alex and Artemia could bear this aura; even Rank 9 adventurers couldn't emit this kind of aura.

''Jie jie jie~ I thought I would be able to harvest at least one life with that attack. Jie Jie jie~ however, the little rat managed to save the bug life.'' the black skeleton talked.

Isabella's became round; she couldn't believe what was happening. For this monster to speak the human language could only mean one thing, it was the highest tier of undead monster, An elder Licht, something an average Rank 10 couldn't hope to fight. Fear took root inside her heart, making her body refuse to listen to her command.

Meanwhile,

〖Master, it's hopeless, the current you can't fight this monster.〗Silveria didn't hold back and told Alex the cold truth.

'I know damnit.' Alex answered back while hiding his trembling hands; he had trouble holding Silveria. He was feeling scared; never before in his life he had felt such fear.

Compared to him, Artemia appeared relatively calm, yet her eyes were cold; no gentleness could be seen in the current Artemia's eyes.

''What do you want? This isn't a floor you should appear on?" In an ice-cold tone, Artemia questioned.

''Jie jie jie~ Like they person said, you know pretty everything. Well, I don't mind telling you why I'm here. I'm here for your life, Jie Jie Jie~.'' the Elder Licht declared with his black scythe raised.

''I see.'' In the same tone, Artemia answered; however, she secretly ordered Alex to catch Isabella at her signal.

''Jie Jie~ Quietly han-"

The elder Licht's words got stopped by an explosion.

Boom!

Making use of that explosion, Alex disappeared, and when he reappears again, he was holding Isabella in his arms.

Artemia and Alex exchanged glances before Artemia tore apart a scroll she brought from her space ring.

''Nooo~''

Seeing the scene in front of him, the Elder Licht bellowed and threw its scythe towards the white light enveloping Alex's group after the scroll was ripped; unfortunately, the Elder Licht was a step too late, his black scythe passed through the white light. Alex's group was already gone; however, the Elder Licht could still hear Artemia's voice.

''I will surely pay you back today affront.''

Knowing that he had failed his mission, the Elder Licht retreated to his original floor. However, he was laughing.

''Jie jie jie jie~.''

''The next time, I will claim your life. Without killing me, you can obtain what you are after. Jie jie~ Torturing you will be fun. Eh? So, that boy is the prophecy boy; I understand why they tasked me to find a way to deal with him. He is giving me a dangerous feeling even while being weaker than me. I'm not too fond of this feeling; I don't like it at all. The next time I shall flaw his skin, pull out his tendons and grind his bones. Jie jie jie~ I can't wait to start. I hope you will survive until that day, Prophecy boy.''

Sitting on a gigantic black throne made from the bones of what seems to be the bones of human's bones, countless human bones, the Elder Licht looked forward to the day he would fight Alex's group. Just thinking about it makes his non-existent heartbeat in anticipation.

•••••

At the same time, in another location, there was a flash of light, and after the light disappeared, three humans could be seen. Naturally, it was Alex, Artemia and Isabella.

''What happened?" Alex asked; however, it was a thud sound that answered his question.

Artemia fell face against the ground. After putting Isabella, who had lost consciousness during their transfer, on the ground, Alex checked Artemia's pulse. Seeing that she was still alive, he breathed a sigh of relief before sitting on the ground.

〖Don't worry, she just fainted, having exhausted her MP. Let's her recover. As for Isabella, she fainted because of the huge pressure. Master, please rest. I will be on the lookout.〗

Silveria's words make Alex feel like a huge load had been lifted from his shoulders, so he breathed another sigh of relief before letting himself go.

Just as his back touched the ground, Alex fell asleep.

Silveria appeared and heaved a long sigh.

Chapter 277 - 272: The Truth

Silveria appeared and heaved a long after Alex fell asleep.

''To think someone would come out this early to stop us. I thought we would at least reach the twentieth floor before anything happens; guess I was too naive.''

Silveria muttered while checking their surrounding; after Artemia used a forced teleportation scroll, the group was sent into a random floor. Currently, they were inside a huge forest, sounds of birds chirping rang out, and the fragrance of fragrant flowers drifted around the air. There was even a waterfall not too far from Alex's group. This place was a pretty good secluded paradise, but the precondition was that there weren't any people here, and this wasn't inside a dungeon.

Suddenly, Silveria, who was enjoying the first time in a long time, the feeling of a warm breeze against her skin, frowned when she sensed some presence coming towards her.

Soon, footsteps could be heard, and they got closer and closer until five humanoid monsters with pig heads appeared. They only held primitive weapons such as crude clubs made from uprooted trees and stone clubs.

The orcs that appeared looked at Artemia and Isabella with lecherous eyes; when they sat Silveria sitting there so calmly, they became enraged.

''Buhi, buhi~.''

They started muttering some unknown language while pointing their clubs at Silveria.

Even though she didn't know what they were talking about, the fact that they looked at her with lust-filled eyes made Silveria; hence she flicked her fingers and,

Boom!

Those five orcs exploded, producing a gory scene.

''You should stop pretending, little miss. We need to talk.'' Silveria said before sitting back where she was.

Knowing that she was busted, Artemia stood up and sat across Silveria after summoning a chair from her space ring.

''It's a pleasure to meet Alex's famous master finally,'' Artemia said; she tried to stay at the best of her capabilities. However, her voice still held some hint of playfulness when she spoke.

''I don't like to play around. Smart as you are, you already know my identity.'' Silveria's tone leaves no room for a joke.

Artemia's face became serious, and she said.

''Yeah, I have speculated about your identity after doing some investigation that ended fruitlessly. Now that I saw you here, it became clear who you might be. Never I would have thought. A gift could materialise like this. I only thought at best you can speak with your Gift and only exceptional Gift has this ability. We are still frog at the bottom of the hell. They exist things unknown to us.''

When she said that last words, Artemia stared at Silveria.

''It's why I must go to higher worlds,'' Artemia added after a moment of silence.

''Not only you but others as well. It's probably because you were eager to leave this world that you ended doing something you shouldn't have. I bet you forced the world's door, and something came out to stop you; unfortunately for you lots, what appeared wasn't something you could defeat. If only that it would have been good; however, the guardian that should only test you and judge if you are worthy or not to go to higher worlds was corrupted and result in your world suffered this terrible fate. You brought this upon yourself. If not because our starting point was here, I would have never let my master play your game and clean after you.''

Silveria's tone didn't sound friendly at all. Others may not know the truth, but after numerous investigations, Silveria understood the truth. Even though the original world got destroyed after that war, till today, some of the original world systems were still used. Back then, to go from one plane to another, you will face the guardian and pass a test before going to the next plane. Well, powerful individuals could tear space apart and travel at will; however, individuals such as these were rare.

Between anchor worlds (Mysthia is one of them) exist guardian beasts. Anchor world is the term used to design a world with the world's portal, more specifically Plane's door. This door links to higher worlds or lower worlds. And because Artemia and others wished to ascend to higher worlds after finding out the existence of this door, a guardian beast came out; not only this guardian beast was powerful, it was corrupted as well.

'Better pretend you are still sleeping, master. Like this, you will get more information. I just recently got some evidence. What I said was a half-truth, half-lie; I want some confirmation.'

Silveria sent her voice into Alex's head; unlike what Artemia was thinking, Alex wasn't sleeping; no, he was still sleeping a moment ago. Because Silveria wanted him to hear their discussion, she woke him up.

Alex silently nodded his head and continued to pretend to be asleep; he regulated his breathing to the extent that it was impossible to know he was faking sleep.

Artemia lowered her head after hearing Silveria's accusations. After a long moment of silence and after checking Alex and Isabella's condition, being sure that those two were still sleeping, she finally talked.

''You are pretty scary, do you know that?" Artemia said half-jokingly; however, Silveria's eyes didn't even twitch; they remained cold as she stared at Artemia.

''Ugh!"

Artemia felt uncomfortable under Silveria's stare. She could only sigh and admit everything.

''What you said is true. One day we stumbled upon that unusual, extremely tall black door. After numerous analyses and speculation, we came to know about the purpose of this door. Did you know that Typhania is a High Elf, a race that shouldn't exist in this world, the dwarves that got wiped out were said to come from a higher world a long time ago. In fact, I'm not also an original resident as well. I don't know what happened, how I, no, we end up here. I will tell you something usually only a few people know. I'm not human; I'm Half High Angel; I'm a mix between a High Human and a being from the Angel race. I know you must know about those special races, that exist only in the higher worlds, even High Human is said to have gone extent over there.''

Silveria put on a startling expression just for the sake of gaining more information.

Unknown to her, Artemia continued,

''And why I know all these things, it is because when I got close to the black doors, some memories that should have existed previously inside my head but sealed got unsealed. Same thing with Typhania. We just want to go back and find about we really are. However, we made a big mistake and paid the highest price.''

Alex's breathing almost became unnatural when he heard about these revelations. However, he quickly controlled his breathing once more and continued to listen to their conversation.