SOE 0021: Ascent

Entering the second floor, Leo saw the exact same scenery as before, it was the same lush forest that they appeared in. But this time, they were instantly attacked by three of the mutated rats. Still, the assailants were swiftly dispatched by their vanguard sword wielders.

"I expected a scenery change…" Dante commented while examining the same phenomenon that he expected. The three rats' bodies promptly disintegrated into nothingness.

"That only happens every five levels." Lyra told him, "Hence the major distinction between the levels. The only exceptions being the tenth to twentieth floors, which all have the same scenery."

"Cool…" Leo said nonchalantly as the party continued on their way forward. The journey was the same as the first floor. They moved as if they were perfectly aware of the location of the portal that would lead them to the next floor. The only difference from the first floor was the increased number of enemies. Where they were to fight one mutated rat, they were fighting, two or three. It was the same with the snakes and goblins.

Since the monsters were no stronger than an average apprentice, some even being as weak as a novice, taking care of one or three made no difference to the party of adepts and journeymen.

A couple more minutes later, they were at the entrance to the third floor. It was the same as before, with orange-looking walls that seemed as if they were flowing with magma.

Slowly, they passed through more and more of the same enemies that also seemed to be getting stronger.

By the time they reached the fifth floor, they were easily encountering the same monsters with the strength of journeymen. By the time they reached the end of the fifth floor, The Journeymen swordswoman was panting a little since she was now encountering enemies of her own caliber. The last few monsters had needed her to coordinate with her adept teammate.

The entrance to the fifth floor seemed similar yet slightly different. The glowing magma texture was still there, but it seemed more intimidating, more active. As if the magma would soon burst out of the walls and envelop them.

Without stopping, they entered the portal to the sixth floor. This time, Leo saw something that did surprise him. Instead of the natural environment that he'd envisioned, in his surroundings, he saw architecture typical of the insides of castles and forts, decorated with dark rocks that were chiseled to perfection to form the walls. He didn't know where the light was coming from, but the entire hall was faintly illuminated, making the textures of the walls visible, including the tapestries filled with trees that seemed difficult to discern at first glance.

'This place must be loaded with people during the rush time. It's good that we came here before the dungeon was opened to the public.' Leo was glad that they chose this time to enter the dungeon. five floors in these narrow halls would undoubtedly end up with them encountering more adventurers than monsters, which would cause quite a bit of problems.

"Everybody stay alert. We have to move cautiously from now on." Lyra called everyone and fixed their positions in a formation where everyone would promptly be able to defend someone if they got attached. She put the two sword wielders at the front along with the tracker just behind them. Leo, Ingrid, and Lyra were behind them while their backs were covered by the archer and the heavyweight fighter. This time, they were more close-knit and were ready for any ambushes.

They continued on their way when they came across their first enemy, a huge bat swooped down from the ceiling and targeted Lyra in particular. Before it could get close enough, the journeyman archer had already shot two arrows through it. But the bat was still alive, continuing its descent with a determined flap, though, it did seem wobbly after the attacks from the journeymen archer.

When it got close enough, the adept tracker threw a dagger at it, directly skewering its head before it could dodge. The dagger seemed to magically fly back to the tracker's hand and the bat fell, turning into particles in mid-air.

As they continued on their journey, Leo thought, 'I guess Richard was wrong about finding hoards of the weaker monsters on the higher floors. Vineta seems to have a completely isolated environment between the sections…'

After a while, they encountered a literal hunk of armor. Leo didn't think anyone was inside it by the looks of it, but it was a walking suit of full-plated armor that walking toward them with a weird gait. Its movements didn't seem that stable.

"Yeah, that's something you expect when you see this kind of a dungeon…" Leo commented dryly. He'd come in thinking that these dungeons were natural constructs that were just there. He hadn't reviewed or even bothered scouring through, the knowledge about dungeons in the first place, so he didn't know the exact circumstances behind them. But from what he could discern at this point, these dungeons were completely man-made, or at least made by someone, or something that was familiar with their architecture.

Just as the armor appeared in the party's field of vision, an arrow shot through the gap in its helmet, stabbing through its head, but there didn't seem to be much effect from the archer's attack as the armor continued its approach.

As the armor approached the party, the tracker — who had been mostly responsible for making sure that the party was going the correct way — pulled out two daggers from his belt and threw them at strategic locations at the armor while covering them in with his aura. Both shoulder joints were broken with two of his dagger throws and just as he threw the third dagger at the throat, the armor ducked, dodging the attack and taking the dagger to its face. A loud clinking sound reverberated through the hall as the dagger bounced off of the armor's helmet.

By this point, it was close enough to the Adept swordsman who swung his sword through its neck before it could react.

"We have to move quickly before the bats show up," Lyra warned as the group increased its pace while making sure that Leo could keep up with them.

Just as one of the bats appeared in front of them, the tracker threw a dagger at it, instantly killing it before it could alert anyone else about their location. Moving hurriedly through the floor, they only took a couple more minutes to reach the exit, where another hollow armor was waiting for them.

Just as the archer and tracker were about to wear down the armor with their previous tactic, "No time." Lyla interjected and moved with a speed that Leo didn't even register at first. At the same time, he heard some screeches from his back and realized that they hadn't lost the bats. They were approaching them in a group of at least thirty from what Leo could roughly count.

Lyla appeared in front of the hollow armor and pressed her palm on its chest. As a blue glow appeared on Lyla's palm, it spread to the chest plate and got absorbed inside. The knight's armor burst apart as if whatever force was holding it together was gone. Lyla came back to the formation as the party continued forward in perfect coordination and entered the familiar orange portal with lava flowing through the rocks. It was the same suppressed one that Leo had seen before when they were traversing between the first five floors.

As they entered the next floor, Leo's curiosity caught up to him, "I thought you were a non-combatant…" He said to Lyla.

"I still have the aura capabilities of a knight," She said, "I just prefer staying away from fights and managing the battlefield." She didn't elaborate on her skillset and Leo didn't pry either.

Lyra didn't make a move until they got to the eighth floor where they were being attacked by one of those hollow armors on a warhorse. Not because the others weren't strong enough to take care of the armor on horseback, but because there was a horde of bats nearby and if they wished to avoid them, they had to take care of the horseback armor quickly and cleanly.

They kept moving through, the ascent took much longer than before, but by the time the next two hours passed, they were at the portal that led to the eleventh floor. Lyra had made only scarce moves through their journey, but each of them was lethal and fast, not giving any of the enemies the time to trap the party.

By now, the entrance to the dungeon had opened and some of the early risers had already entered the dungeon. This included some accomplished knights who were moving through the floors as quickly as possible to reach the twentieth floor to train there. Other than them, with the headstart that the party had, it was impossible for anyone to come up ahead of them.

Same as before, the eleventh floor was a new world in its entirety.