---Colossal Dungeon- The Castle---
Ting Ting Ting Ting!
The noise of metal hitting metal sounded quietly in the distance. The party watched as the colossal knight twitched and bend to get something off the back of his armor.
"Do you really think this will work?" Monique asked doubtfully.
However, her question was answered before Bement could voice his confidence. With a crash, the colossus knelt. The knight had started to slow down before, but he finally could sustain his own weight anymore.
This situation came about because Bement had experience with the Curse of Burden. The seasoned adventurer knew that the curse added weight based on the recipient's weight, not a fixed value. It wasn't as powerful simply doubling the weight of something it hit, but even suddenly being 10% heavier than you are used to could be a tremendous disadvantage in a fight.
His idea was simple, they had Tekar and the dragonfly hidden by Alison's <Illusion Magic>. Then Tekar used it to fly over the colossus and jump onto the back of his armor. The rest was simple, the tank banged his pipe from behind until the other gave in.
The reason why Bement believed this plan would work, was the fact that the colossi were not stronger than their physique suggested. Unlike players and other kinds of monsters whose physical traits far surpassed their outward appearance, they were like supersized normal humans. How many times their own body weight could a human endure when he was already wearing a heavy armor? And then there was also Tekar, sitting on his back, gaining weight at the same time.
"This actually went faster than I thought," the adventurer commented
With the Colossal Knight Guard suffering Tekar's status ailment, the party had to add quickly before Tekar couldn't keep up. The moment the tank was unable to swing the pipe, the debuffs would start running out.
The rearguard aimed their skills and spells at the slits in the massive helmet, while Ellen and the vanguard ran up to it to melt a hole in the armor and attack. Only Asterion and Wolfram stayed with the mages and archers to protect them.
The result was quick and brutal. Using Bement's strategy they managed to quickly finish off the elite monster without losses or using their trump cards.
"I wish it had been this easy all the time," Ellen mumbled as she was retrieving her corrosive slimes which had eaten deep into the knight's body.
"It wouldn't have worked. There were too many and they might have been able to throw off Tekar since they didn't wear such constraining armor," Bement explained to her, as the giant body was quickly reabsorbed by the dungeon.
"Alright, let's keep going like this," Monique announced as they continued exploring the castle.
---Colossal Dungeon- 9th Floor DOWN---
"Just barely managed to cross lv.97..." Seth mumbled, staring at his status. He felt a little depressed since he had gotten his hopes up that they might be able to reach lv.100 in one go. The blacksmith could help his motivation by taking a little dive when he actually faced the hurdle of these last five levels.
Suddenly, he felt someone shove his shoulder, interrupting his thoughts. Mina sat beside him.
"It doesn't matter whether we reach lv.100 here. I told you, this is to spend time together. Stop thinking of maximizing the results," she said with a smile, leaning against his shoulder. He leaned back onto her.
"Right, I forgot for a moment."
Mina reminded him, of something he had already realized before. Just reaching lv.100 would not bring immediate gains, so there was no reason to hurry. It was just that he had a hard time getting out of the mindset of reaching immediate goals. She was right, this was an adventure to distract himself, so it was best to focus on the dungeon.
Over the course of their descent, the undead colossi slowly turned from a zombie-like appearance to that of mummies. The last group they defeated was called Forlorn Tomb Guard and looked like desiccated corpses. They were a little weaker strength-wise, in exchange their bodies were hard as metal, making the armor they wore almost redundant, and faster.
While the team had little trouble dealing with the monsters so far, they found that the darkness not only became thicker but also cause a status effect after elongated exposure. The status window was called Encroachment of Miasma.
The dark soup they were currently walking through and breathing in was probably this miasma and it slowly accumulated in their bodies. As the effect grew, it lowered their overall stats while it had the opposite effect on the undead. Evee's army profited from the environmental debuff, while the rest of the party had to be regularly cured of the effects.
Thinking of it like the dungeon had a theme, it was almost like it was a struggle between darkness and light. As if the darkness from the crypts below was trying to swallow the castle and its inhabitants. If this wasn't a dungeon, one could think the UP and the Down were opposing sides.
"Seems like we reached the bottom," Link announced as he returned on the back of a flying golem.
The gourmet hunter had offered to scout ahead while the others set up camp on the 9th floor. Even with night vision and Seth's divine vision, they could hardly see the next few steps down. This was how thick the miasma had become at this point. After Link dove into that thick soup to see how it continued, he reported that they were actually on the landing of the last set of stairs before reaching the bottom.
"A-Are you sure?" Lydia asked perplexed.
Back then, they had used ropes to get all the way down in this pitch-black darkness. Roping down to the bottom had felt like an eternity and she could have sworn there would be more floors. She had expected there to be at least 15. She also could not remember passing the floor where the guards had stopped following them.
When she explained herself, the others on her team couldn't remember either. However, Link was sure that the next floor was the bottom, on top of that it was guaranteed that they were already deeper than the floor Team 3 was talking of.
"Maybe you guys just got a little confused in this darkness? Or you didn't have the time to recognize it with all the fighting" the chef hypothesized.
"Or has the dungeon changed since then," Mike pondered.
That was also a legit possibility. Maybe the dungeon had shifted since Team 3 came here. It was rare for this to happen in regular dungeons, but it was common knowledge that it could happen in many high-level dungeons. The less a dungeon followed a template, the harder it was to predict its shape and behavior.
"Do you think there is a meaning behind the dungeon's change?" Seth asked. He didn't doubt Lydia's words, the dungeon changing seemed more likely to him.
"Maybe our actions caused it? But why would the undead have fewer floors, when we mostly killed living guards?" Lydia asked confused.
"Whatever it is, we may never find out, but we are finally about to reach the bottom," James said, rubbing his hands.
"Yes, the time for our revenge has finally come," Jess said with fire in her eyes.
Although Fin and Puffles had taken the lead, this couple had also run rampant, especially on the recent floors. Especially Jess, who now had two legendary items in addition to her divine class, was just burning through undead like they were tinder, reminding Seth of good times.
"Seeing how you two are still eager and full of energy, how about you guys take the first guard shift," Seth suddenly said with a sardonic smile.
"Wha-?" "Wait, that's not-" "Why us?" "Right, Ceres doesn't need sleep, why should we stay up to guard?"
"What are you saying now? You shouldn't rely on poor Ceres so much. Of course, we will keep up normal guard duties," Lydia scolded them with a similar smile to Seth's.
The two had become a little conceited ever since they were chosen by the gods, so it was good to take them down a peg once in a while.
Begrudgingly, the couple had to take the first guard shift, while everyone else went to sleep.
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