''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.