The attack I sent out a moment ago was a bit too strong for this delicate dungeon to handle.
The white marble pillars of stone come crashing down towards us, breaking into massive pieces and filling the green sky with an incoming barrage of white-colored stone.
I create a layer of pink mana shielding around my body and air-step down towards my team as they all begin to activate their powers as well.
“A dome! We’ll make a dome!”
I hear Fisher yelling at us as we all form together in a tighter circle, standing on floating earth magic from Abby’s skill.
Ice, rock, and water starts to form all around us as we work together to create an impenetrable mana-imbued defense in mere seconds as the pillars of rocks come crashing down.
I contribute with a layer of rock, but my main focus is using my All-Seeing eye to gaze into the sky through our dome.
For easily a kilometer in the air, more and more pillars are breaking and adding to the avalanche coming down from the sky above.
I’ve started a chain reaction that doesn’t look like it’s going to stop until they all come crashing down.
The thick layer of floating earth magic is steady beneath our feet. I grit my teeth and wait for the first layer of stone to hit our dome of shielding.
As it gets closer, I use telekinesis and mana manipulation to slow its fall and liquify it as best I can. Unfortunately, there’s way too much mass coming down toward us to move it all.
A loud crushing thud hits the top of the dome, splitting the pillar into fragments and falling to the green abyss around the shield on all sides.
“One down… and… too many to go…”
Seconds after, another loud crunching and cracking sound rattles the entire shield and shakes the ground we stand on.
More and more pillars come falling down.
I make sure to soften the blows as best I can with every passing impact.
These are just large pieces of dungeon mass after all. They’re not supercharged ultra-dense mana like our shielding.
The only issue is the weight, size, and sheer amount of these falling death pillars.
Over and over, for nearly 5 minutes straight we’re bombarded by rock.
Everyone is breathing heavily and holding onto their shielding for dear life. I’m most likely the only one that can sense an end in sight.
Everyone else is just biding their time and hoping for the falling stone to stop soon.
Eventually, that end comes…
The last pillar falls and breaks in two, falling down to the pale void and knocking other stone columns down on the way with it.
The dungeon goes down for quite a while. Almost as far down as it goes up actually.
Many pillars and still breaking and falling into each other far below. The echos of stone colliding sound out through the entire pocket world we stand in.
The collisions against our dome fade to nothing and not a single pillar remains above us in the sky.
I speak up.
“It’s over… They’ve all fallen.”
Through the heavy breathing and bright glowing mana, everyone slowly releases their collective shielding, and we’re left standing on a single floating platform of combined magic.
I peer out into the dungeon to see nothing but a pale green empty sky…
Lydia chuckles.
Fisher starts to laugh.
Then Arie, Abby, and Maria all join in too.
The white-haired mage speaks up after we share a lighthearted chuckle over the absurdity we just witnessed.
“Ya learn something new every day. I didn’t know a reaction that massive was even possible to tell ya the truth.”
She smiles and looks over at me.
“That’s one powerful shot you’ve got there. You’ve taken on a Ranked-up monster, haven’t you? Control like that doesn’t come easily…”
I nod slowly.
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to seeing what this Labyrinth has in store for us.”
She grins, then turns toward the direction of the Boss Room.
“Well, one floor at a time…”
There’s a long pause, then she speaks up again.
“It seems like most of the monsters were taken out by the pillar’s fall, but they will all be spawning back in soon enough.”
I activate my enemy detection skill to confirm most of the monsters really are gone.
Lydia continues.
“We’ll need one person to stay behind and guard the exit portal. This Dunegon should be breaking in just a few hours… none of the Solaran forces can handle watching it.”
Fisher speaks next.
“I’m not staying.”
He crosses his arms and looks over to me, then his teammate.
“Neither of you are either. It’s clear we need to handle the highest floors.”
He looks over to the archer, healer, and blond-haired ice mage.
“One of you needs to guard this floor.”
Arie shrugs and replies.
“I don’t have an element summoning skill. It’s impossible for me to stay up in the sky like this.”
I think to myself as Abby and Maria turn to each other discussing the matter.
We never witnessed the Gargoyles use the Life Steal skill, but the best way to counteract it would be a healing skill as well.
Abby would be the perfect fit for this dungeon.
She has an easy enough time staying up in the air on her summoned earth magic and I saw her take out a gargoyle at close range with a single swing from her daggers.
She could collect a lot of loot and mana crystals too.
“Abby, you’d be the perfect fit. Just don’t let these monsters get too close. They can steal HP even without touching you.”
Both of the girls turn towards me, understanding that it’s the safest bet.
With her restore skill, even mutants won’t be able to suck the life from her, theoretically.
The green-haired healer speaks up.
“Sounds good to me. I’ll do my part, you all do yours.”
We work out logistics and say our goodbyes for about 3 more minutes while hovering back over to the spinning exit portal.
Lydia explains that the circle of mana leads to the 19th floor. Once that floor collapses the dormant boss room will be skipped and the 21st will be next.
Abby needs to fend off monsters until the 21st floor fully breaks. No amount of killing the boss will speed this up.
The Labyrinth is a ticking time bomb, almost nothing can stop it now.
Once this floor breaks, all hunters inside will be transported back into the Solaran shielding stairway underground.
You may re-enter the labyrinth to help your teammate on the floor above once this happens.
Meanwhile, the remaining hunters will race to the top to clear the Final Boss before the entire Labyrinth breaks releasing Elite level monsters into the city.
On that note, we leave.
Abby guards the first portal as we make our way to the Gargoyle’s Boss Room.
It takes just under an hour, but we make it to the back of the dungeon to find a floating grey portal.
Without wasting any time, the 5 of us jump through to face the Boss.
The Room we’re transported into is like a miniature version of the pale green dungeon itself. It’s filled with high marble stone pillars and twisting vines growing up their sides.
As soon as the level 484 boss appears, it’s sliced to pieces and riddled with holes by 5 Elite’s full-powered shots in a matter of milliseconds.
The poor creature never stood a chance.
There’s a miniature collapse of stone columns just like in the dungeon, but it ends quickly as transfer magic brings us up to the 22nd floor.
As my eyes adjust, the dry cracked orange stone ground under my feet comes into my line of sight and an earthy herbal aroma fills my nose.
The air is dry makes me lick my lips and the artificial dungeon sun shines down on us as I look out over a magnificent canyon.
Dust clouds are visible in the distance, notifying us that monsters must be approaching already. I activate my inspect, appraisal, and enemy detection skills to lock onto the closest one.
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[400m]
[Lv. 489]
Active Items:
[Lizard Tyrant’s Armor Set] +2400 Defense
[Lizard Tyrant’s Heavy Axe] +2200 Strength
[Lizard Tyrant’s Platinum Amulet] +1800 Mental Strength
Active Skills:
Body Hardening[Special Grade]
Extreme Strength
Hibernation
____________________