"Well it doesn't matter, in the end conquering this dungeon is only a matter of time" Brutus had no doubts about that. The dungeon may be dangerous, filled with mystery and irregularities but it wouldn't be able to stop them.
As Brutus sank into his thoughts, time flew by and soon it was time to move again. They got their weapons and armour all restored up and ready to be used once again.
They expedition force gathered near the entrance to the 45th floor, their current objective and started descending the stairs. Soon, they were in front of the 45th floor.
The 45th floor unlike the other floors they had trotted up until now, was a vast rocky terrain filled with boulders and mountains. No signs of greenery could be seen anywhere in this place, all around them were huge rock formations.
If the place wasn't a dungeon, it would have been a spectacular scenic view that would attract a lot of tourists.
"These are metamorphic rocks! They usually form in places that contain an immense amount of heat" The guild leader of the Ten Mountains Valley, Roberson Rangel spoke.
He bent down and touched the ground "The rocks are heated up… is this floor perhaps a volcanic area?".
"That can't be, this dungeon is a low ranking one. Special terrains and unique conditions can only appear in high ranking dungeons" The grey haired man denied those words.
"If it isn't from a special terrain, then it means that something on this floor had transformed these rocks into such" Brutus pointed out.
The other guild leaders also came to the same realisation. As the expedition force marched forward, they felt the temperature around the surroundings rise up. The closer they inched towards the centre of the floor, the higher the temperature became. Until it reached a point where even the breathing air became hot and the adventurers felt like they were in the middle of a desert in a hot summer weather.
Some people who had resistance to fire, were fine but those who didn't, seemed to struggle a little.
"Cassius, what do you think?" Brutus who was in the forefront and leading the group, asked the guild leader of the Assassins guild who was standing on top of a huge rock formation.
Since this place had nothing but identical looking rocks, it was quite easy to get lost if one did not know how to navigate the way. And from up there, one could get a good view of the entire floor or so Brutus thought.
However, the answer that he received from Cassius was not an optimistic one.
"Everything here looks the same. The numerous rock formations hide the entire valley, I cannot see inside the rifts. I can say that we are not walking round and round but I cannot say if we are going in the right direction".
"I see" Brutus nodded his head. If they cannot navigate their way like this, they had no other choice but to explore the whole place and find the right path. But doing so would end up taking a lot of their time… that is if they marched as a single unit.
If they divided themselves into teams like what they did on the 40th floor, they would be able to explore the floor much more quickly. However, after what had happened the last time, Brutus believed that many guild leaders wouldn't accept this. He himself was against it too so he can't blame the others.
"Is there no other way than to divide ourselves into teams once again?" Brutus muttered, it was as if the dungeon itself was trying to lead them into doing so.
"It cannot be helped, if we want to clear the place faster, it is the best way" The grey haired man also arrived at the same thought.
"Personally, I don't have a problem if it's just the members of my own guild" the guild leader of the Crimson Demolition Guild, Arven Lantz interjected. He proposed that instead of dividing themselves into two guilds in each team, they all lead their own guild to explore the place.
This way, there was no chance that you would suddenly get ambushed from behind but it nonetheless opened up other risks.
"What are you going to do?" The grey haired looked towards Brutus. Since Brutus was made the leader of the expedition force, decisions such as this must be made by him.
Brutus pondered for a while, just as he was about to say something, the ground suddenly started trembling.
"What's going on?" the quaking of the ground became more frequent with time.
"We have company. I can see clouds of dust coming towards our way from all directions. It's the monsters, they have located us" Cassius who was surveying from above, interjected at this moment.
"What kind of monsters are they? Are they new species?" the guild leaders asked.
"Wait up, I cannot see clearly because of the dust barring my vision but they look humanoid. What? They are climbing up the rocks. Everyone be careful, they are some subspecies of demonic apes" Cassius reported.
His shout immediately caused the expedition army to raise their weapons and prepare for combat.
"This is bad, our current location is not a good one" Brutus examined his surroundings; all around them were large rock formations. They were squished in between cliffs and the space was narrow enough to only allow a couple of people to walk together side by side.
There was not enough space for the guilds to display their power. The paths ahead were also the same, if they huddled together, they would no doubt suffer injuries.
"Incoming!!!" as if to prove his words, the monsters fired huge fireballs that came from all around. Some missed their marks, some cracked on the cliff side while some dropped on the adventurers.
Although the adventurers were able to defend through it due to their skills, they all felt a little constrained around here. The monsters skilfully used the terrains to climb around the rock formation and cliff side and pincer them from all directions.
"Tch, a bunch of weak monsters think that they can use fire magic in front of me and my guild" the man with gaudy red robes and frisky crimson hair, spat. He raised his hand and the core stone embedded in his ring shined.
A vast amount of energy gathered around his hand and formed a golden rotating ball. The heat coming from the ball was so intense that it even distorted space and forced some of the adventurers to step back.
"WAIT!!… STOP!!… if you fire that magic here…" Brutus tried to stop but he was a step too late.
The guild leader of the Crimson Demolition Guild, Arven Lantz smiled "Infernal Magic Mastery- [Scorching Hell Blast]".
He had finished conjuring his magic within a few seconds and fired it towards a large group of demonic apes that were throwing fireballs from on top of a rock. However, contrary to his expectation, although he did manage to make charcoal out of the monsters, he had also engulfed the expedition force into its radius.
To make matters even worse, the cliffside couldn't handle the powerful magic and huge chunks of debris started falling down on them. Quite a few people got caught underneath it.
In a situation like this where they cannot display their full power, clustering together like this will only hamper them. Thus Brutus came to a decision.
"Everyone we cannot fight like this. The place is too narrow and disadvantageous for us to use our skills and magic. So let us divide ourselves into different teams and clear the floors separately. All the guilds will work alone and stay in touch with each other through the transponder conch. That is all, disperse".
Right after his command, the expedition force started separating and each guild hurriedly went towards a different path.
The 45th floor was like a grand canyon with numerous rock formations and rifts. Each rift and gorge was narrow and winding, it had multiple twists and turns and was like a giant maze one would have difficulty navigating through. On top of that, the floor was filled with Fire demon Apes who were quite powerful and difficult to deal with.
----
3 hours into the exploration of the 45th floor...
"Dammit, these monsters are coming out of everywhere," Dalton Lance remarked, after the expedition force divided themselves up, he and his team who had chosen the northeastern direction, came to a stop after a while.
This place was filled with monsters and they came at you from everywhere. The Sea god's trident guild wandered around the rifts and when they finally found some broad area, they chose to fight their pursuers.
Skills and magic flew everywhere, and after half an hour, a mountain of monster corpses lay around them.
"Huff… Huff… is everyone alright? Those who are injured you can drink your potions and rest, we are going to a little break here" Dalton organised the team. Although this place still made them vulnerable to guerrilla attacks, it was better than the other place and broad enough for them to respond to monster attacks.
"Sir Dalton, what are these monsters? Although they look like demonic ape, their characteristics and attack patterns are so much different" one of the guild members asked.
The monster they were facing, was quite intelligent and individually were all above level 380. Not only that, they also knew fire attacks and used guerrilla warfare. A monster of such intelligence was rare even in [C] tier dungeons; however, this dungeon was filled with such monsters.
"Sir Dalton, come look at this" one of the senior members and one of his trusted aides, was scavenging through the monsters when he pointed at something.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m