Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

The lance pierced through the mana armour and dug into the shoulders of the demon who was able to avoid his vitals being targeted in the nick of time.

"Where is the opening?"

Simon who was silent up until now finally spoke up. He extended his hands and grabbed the white spear.

CHII… Immediately, his skin started burning and black smoke emitted from his hands. Nevertheless, he did not let go and tightly clenched onto the lance.

"A foolish move, the lance is made of Holy Magic, it is the bane of all the denizens of darkness. If you keep on grabbing onto the lance you feel unimaginable pain and slowly get weakened by its effect".

Davis laughed, but his chortle was cut short when he saw the sword he had deflected earlier come targeting his blind spot.

"Infernal Blade" as if that coarse voice was the incantation, the blade lit up with brilliant golden flames that covered the entire sword and brought about an infernal amount of heat with it.

It was true that a high tier weapon leaves a great opening. When knocked out of the hands of the user, they lose the buff provided by that weapon. However, to tackle that, Simon had learned the [Mana Flow] and the [Dominator's control] technique.

As long as he used those skills even if the sword was knocked out of his hand, he could easily recall it back.

Simon hadn't forgotten the events in the past, how his sword was knocked away by Davis in the coliseum when he tried to surmount any resistance. He was crushed until he was completely powerless.

It was precisely because he remembers that he doesn't want to repeat the events from the past.

The sword that was knocked away, came targeting Davis when he was least expecting it. Davis clicked his tongue seeing that he was unable to pull the lance back, he hurriedly pulled back and dodged the sword.

"As I thought, just using my current powers isn't enough to defeat an opponent like you. I guess I have no choice but to use that power to even stand a chance"

Simon smiled, he clenched hard on the lance that was lodged onto his shoulders and shattered it into many tiny light particles.

"What are you talking about? Do you really think you stand a chance against me? Don't make me laugh, there is nothing you can do at this point that can cover the huge gap in our levels"

Davis spat grumblingly, he was a little peeved that he had to pull back from an opponent who was not even level 500 yet. His Irritation turned into contempt when he heard the words of the demon but he soon regained his composure when he saw the core stone on the Floor Buster stop blinking.

"I don't know what nonsense you are talking about, but it all ends here. Let me show you true despair as I capture all those precious forest spring spirits that you have been hiding inside your dungeon" Davis stated with a victorious grin.

Soon after, the machine started trembling and sending shockwaves through the ground indicating that it was all charged.

Seeing this, Simon attacked the machine with his Infernal magic but unlike the last time, Davis was fully prepared for something like this and created a barrier around the machine that easily stopped his attacks.

"Use it" Davis spoke keeping his eyes on the demon.

The black robed person named Edgar materialised beside the FloorBuster and operated it. A beam of light was blasted forth from the machine and bore through the floor.

BOOOMMM…

There was a deafening sound followed by enormous shockwaves that shook the whole dungeon, coming from the centre of the floor. All eyes that were present on the 48th floor turned towards the direction where the sound came from.

The primary unit locked in a fierce battle with the monsters, was surprised for a second before quickly realising the source of the sound. They all wore a smile on their faces as a renewed light of conviction flashed in their eyes.

"This… it must be that invention from the adventurer's association being used again" the vice guild leaders who were fighting the former three overlords, spoke looking at the huge cloud of dust appearing in the middle of the floor.

"That person must have used it to dive deeper. As long as he can get to the floor where the dungeon core is, everything will be over"…

"That means we just need to hold on for as long as we can"…

Even if most of the vice guild leaders of the top twenty teams were joining hands currently to fight against these enormous monsters, they were still being pushed into a disadvantage.

Each of these beasts were decked out in a sturdy layer of scales and features that made most of their attacks ineffective against them. Not only that, these beasts had their own powerful weapons and unique attack patterns.

For example, the long and slithery one, which was covered in a layer of dark purple scales, could control the weather. It had brought over thunder clouds covering the entire ceiling of the floor and used them to attack and defend.

The Sky was the territory of the Lightning Draconic Serpent.

While the other one with gigantic crystals on its back, controlled the land. Its powers were so absurd that it was nigh impossible to fight it on the ground. The earth Shattering lower dragon used its Seismic Magic Mastery to manipulate massive boulders that could easily crush dozens of adventurers at once.

And the last of the trio, was the master of the sea. It controlled the water body which covered 50% of the territory of this floor and attacked by drowning its foe or ripping them apart with its intimidating razor sharp teeth and claw.

The Deep Sea Alligator King was a menace through and through.

The sky, the land or the water, these vice guild leaders couldn't find any ground in this battle. To make matter worse, even their guilds were unable to contend against the monsters.

Led by the orc with the appearance of a shaman, the primary team was suffering massive losses at his coordinated attacks and powerful magic. The might of the Diluvian High Orcs led by Berigard himself, was in full display in front of the thousands of adventurers.

-----

"What is going on, where are these vibrations coming from?"

21st floor, waiting not far away from the entrance of the next floor, Bea commented feeling the tremors of the dungeon.

These sudden tremors came from time to time making her wonder what was going on on the lower floors.

"Hmm… I'm a little worried, Emma let's finish our task here fast and return back to our master's side" since she wasn't there when the floor buster was revealed she was unaware of the origins of these tremors and could hope to return back as soon as possible.

"Oh! They came sooner than I expected"

Bea turned her eyes towards the entrance and there she saw a woman wearing a pointy hat and carrying a staff, fly out.

Karina Lowell, a name that perhaps everybody, from old to even kids in the kingdom knew about. The name carried prestige, might and authority that everybody dreamt for.

She was a person that was heralded as the greatest magician that the kingdom of Ellesmere has ever seen. At the age of 22, she broke through the barrier of level 400 and then went on to become the fastest person in the kingdom to reach level 500, breaking all records.

At the age of 40, she established her own guild and stood toe to toe with many powerful guild leaders of the world. However, she did not stop there, for she was an idealistic person. She gathered every talented girl in the kingdom with aptitude for magic and took them under her wing.

From there, the stellar rise of the mage guild, with Karina at the helm started. As her valour and fame spread, the mage guild started becoming more influential and soon it became one of the top five guilds.

She was a woman that stood at the pinnacle of all the mages in the kingdom and right now, she was so shaken by the scenery that lay in front of her that her mind had completely gone blank and she could no longer think straight.

"This…" a dozen of other figures also rushed out after her and landed beside. Their shock was no less than hers as they saw the aftermath of what was left behind after the tertiary team was defeated.

The floor was a complete mess, blood and gore could be seen littering the floor, painting the ground red. Numerous potholes and craters dotted the ground with corpses of adventurers that were yet to be absorbed lying on the ground.

There was an enormous spider web on the ceiling and hundreds of cocoons wrapped to it. The entire floor bore the signs of a terrible battle.

"What is going on, where are the tertiary teams?"

a veteran adventurer of one of the twenty guilds, muttered in confusion. However, no one answered him since they all wanted to know the same answer.

Where was the tertiary team?

"Hey… look, there are silhouettes of two persons over there" Someone pointed out.

Immediately, all eyes turned towards that direction only to see two women donning maid clothes, walk over.

"Welcome, we were waiting for you" the maid with peach coloured hair, commented giving them a warm welcoming smile. While the other maid simply kept her head down and acted all nervous and jittery.

The adventurers immediately unsheathed their weapons and got into formation, the moment they noticed the maids.

"Who are you guys and where are the tertiary teams?" they asked.