''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.
