Chapter 645: [Taking risk]

The 14th layer was filled with a deadly silence.

It seemed as it was void of any traces of life. The vast, seemingly endless magma was just like a pool of still water that did not even form the slightest ripple. The quietness seemed to cover every single inch of this hellish hot world…

Waves of heat permeated the entire floor. For normal people, it was hard to even see people in the distance, due to the distorted air. Drip, drip… Scarlet flows of lava streamed like rivers throughout the 14th floor, occasionally releasing bubbles of gas. In the area around the lava rivers were glowing red rocks.

Normal creatures would not be able to survive in a place like this.

Bang! A low, deep sound suddenly appeared in this quiet hell. Immediately, the viscous magma seemed to be stirred by something as it began to furiously rise and fall. An enormous magma fire wave whistled and rose before finally falling down, shooting out a magma flow in all directions while emitting a loud bang.

Then, following after was several dozen Magma Columns, acting like playful snakes, shot towards the three figures walking in the gut grilling-like ground. Woooosh. One of the figures flickered and suddenly large canopy-like bat wings expanded, acting like an umbrella, covering the group from the sudden actions of the Magma. With a buzz, the wings moved backward and as if shockwave was generated, a dozen columns of magma were blown away, exploding.

Thud! As if nothing happened, the fiery red figure softly descended on the ground without any change in her expression. Then, suddenly, another snake-like magma column shot out from the side, shooting towards the black-clothed figure’s side, this time much lower than before.

The fiery red-clothed female snorted and immediately moved on the side of the black-clothed youth, her arm turning into a scaly dragon’s claw. The magma that landed with a bang was swiftly being reflected aside when it made contact with the crimson scaled arm. But then another magma burst out, then another and another…

The arm of the woman was dense as it danced in the air, appearing to have superimposed on each other by an unknown number. They blocked the incoming magma flow without allowing it to enter. This dense defense really left one speechless.

After a few minutes, the magma attacks finally ceased.

“Are you okay, Dakna?” the black-clothed youth with silver hair asked gently.

“Yes, Master,” Dakna, wearing a red-colored skimpy dress smiled in response.

Allen smiled wryly, “You don’t need to do that. It’s not like they would be able to affect me,”

Dakna shook her head. “I can’t do that. Whether it would hurt master or not is not the problem. Master taking hit from them is not something I cannot allow.”

“You really have changed, Dakna… I never thought you would turn into something so strict. I think I prefer the time I first met you with your sister, you’re still free and casual by then,” Allen smiled in nostalgia.

“Master…” Dakna showed a bashful smile. Though, her heart was being assaulted by sweetness. Indeed, that was the first time she had met Allen—was it probably love at first sight? She didn’t know, in any case, she hasn’t fallen in love prior to that fateful moment. All she thought about that time was curiosity and interest—for a human to be able to defeat her sister, is something shocking even to her.

Then, starting that moment, her interest in him become stronger as time passed by. In the end, despite her sister’s objection, she became his tamed beast… in other words, his slave.

Adventure and the sense of freedom by going everywhere and anywhere she could ever imagine, she thought at that time that these were the reasons why she decided to become his slave. But probably it wasn’t that…

—Probably, she just doesn’t want to be separated from him…

“Are you missing your sister…?” Allen asked.

Dakna was startled then all of a sudden she felt her hand being grasped by a large hand. When she looked down, her face flushed as she saw her hand being grasped by Allen in an affectionate, couple-style holding hands. Fortunately, the world they are in is dyed red and so, her face flushing deeply wasn’t that noticeable.

“A…a bit,” Dakna answered. But she didn’t pull away. Her heart drowning in sweetness enough for someone to have diabetes. “However, it’s not really a problem. After all, I will see her again in the future…” she smiled warmly.

For the Dragon Race, the flow of time is completely different than humans. They are fine without seeing each other for a thousand years and they would just think of it as being separated by a few months. Therefore, although they are separated from her sister, it’s not really that long enough yet to feel that she was missing her. In her mind, it was just a few weeks since she left the mortal world. Which is extremely absurd and ridiculous...especially for a human.

Allen looks at her and smiled warmly. Occasionally, many monsters appeared and attack them but with Dakna and the Mummy Lord, Allen was reduced to a mere spectator. Although he would fight against some , stillunlike from before, Dakna and the Mummy Lord would clear his way for him. Although he was happy about their concerns and care but still being protected like this, for an energetic person like him is somewhat unbearable…

Well, since they seemed to be enjoying playing bodyguards and protectors, Allen can only smile bitterly and enjoy sightseeing.

Although the Mummy Lord had some trouble fighting a large group of monsters due to the Elemental Banned, giving him limited ways of offense but Dakna was more than enough to actually deal with all of the monsters. Although not as strong as Allen and the Mummy Lord, Dakna as a Dragon was already extremely powerful, among the top seats of those people under Allen.

She was a descendant of the Flame Dragons, the emperors of all Dragon races. She might not be able to showcase her real power in the mortal world but here in the Celestial Realm where restrictions were pulled out, she was among the top powers.

Furthermore, with Allen, her master steadily advancing in strength and getting stronger, like all the Tamed Monsters, she too was getting pulled by him and becoming even more powerful, even when she was doing nothing. Compared to her from when she just met Allen, she was a hundred times stronger than that!

So for all the fights, Allen did not need to even step on the battlefield, she could do it all by herself. This field seemed to be created just for her!

Hence, a very frequent scene that occurred in the 14th layer was this: a red-clothed female at the front cutting and slicing and beating up monsters, a strange-looking masked person beating up monsters with his crook and flail, and lastly a black-clothed youth sitting on a boulder or a rock, idly playing around and lazing, while watching them.

… …

Dakna incinerated a dozen monsters once again.

Then, she followed by a kick and slashed out with her claws.

The monster they were facing seems to be a merging a fishman and a lizardman, with fish-like heads and a crimson scaled body and brisky tail that looks like that of a lizardman, they were called [Lava lurkers].

Aside from their numbers, they have the ability to swim freely through the lava and magma. There were some troublesome ones that look like a shellfish of around one meter, wearing a red heavy armor glowing red because of the heat. Its charge has tremendous destructive power, like a mad raging bull amidst the flock of sheep. On top of that, its solid, heavy, lava armor isn’t even dented by some simple attack such as Dakna’s fire fist and fireballs.

Worst, there are basically dozens of them.

With only so many, they are able to attack a large crowd of several hundred people. They’re known as the most difficult dungeon monsters of the upper layer according to Romeia based on the past records. She said that around 40% of the deaths in the upper layer are caused by these fellows.

Well, for Allen though, they all were delicious. Like fresh sashimi, if you can just ignore their appearance, once they are cooked, they are actually high-class ingredients. Furthermore, it can also bestow good fire resistance skills and increased its proficiency by a significant amount. Another thing, there is some low chance of obtaining fire type skills. In any case, they are good ingredients and very delicious! Thus, Allen couldn’t help but started picking up ingredients and materials drop as they go along.

One of the main things about the 14th layer of the Dungeon is that there’s barely any safety zone. From Romeia had told him, this Dungeon becomes brutal as one goes up. It’s like the Dungeon’s difficulty is not fixed and it becomes excessively perverse as you go deeper within the Dungeon.

Of course one doesn’t need to mention the fact that the dungeon monsters are attacking day and night, and it’s also annoying that the terrain features change from time to time.

If you get careless for a moment at a smooth spot with no lava around, it will suddenly gush out from under your feet.

You will surely be incinerated in an instant.

There are also the natural, fatal volcano gasses that come in out of nowhere. To normal players, this place is indeed, Hell!

The 10th layer and below is like an easy mode while passed that would be medium mode and probably as one goes even deeper, hard mode or even a nightmare would be activated. It was really hard and extremely dangerous—many people had lost their lives challenging this Dungeon in the span of countless centuries. Actually, even those extremely powerful players, the moment they let their guard down and take a rest, they’re dead no second later.

In other words, it’s hard for challengers to rest. In their case, Allen was someone with a lot of stamina as a Mid God powerhouse while Dakna was a Dragon and the Mummy Lord was an undead. They barely needed rest. Furthermore, their powers and abilities, aside from the Mummy Lord, which was actually not a problem since the Mummy Lord can be classified as a leech that is attached to Allen through Death Mask curse—were all invulnerable to fire elements and can even increase their strength just by standing there without doing anything.

Allen was an all-rounder, and unlike normal jack-of-all-trades and master of none, he was able to avoid any problems being like that due to the Void Spider Buddha Scripture he was practicing that enables him to balance all the elemental forces within him without a problem. And so, even if he was banned by some elements, he was still able to retain his power using one element. He was really, truly a God, on the road of omnipotence!

As for Dakna, he was True Dragon, and a descendant of Fire Dragon no less, an emperor among the Dragon Clans.

And this kind of place is not any less normal to her. This kind of hell, was just like a hot sauna for her—her power rising up with the use of the flame energy around them. So this place is basically a playground for them. Compared to anyone else, this makes taking a rest possible, which makes their lives considerably easier.

Without rest, the group was still facing a large number of dungeon monsters when going through the area with the field boss.

[Cursed Firesouls] balls of fire freely floating in midair, covered in a black curse flame. It was an extremely strong monster despite its weak-looking appearance. It doesn’t have any strong offensive attacks though but every hit of the flames it shoots, the players will receive various random curses which were extremely annoying. Furthermore, with another group attacking, you can only wait to get beaten and killed. They are far more troublesome and annoying than any monsters in the dungeon.

Next was the carnivorous moth, [Shadow Eater] giants moths that are as big as a man. They hide themselves in the shadow and hunt for prey using paralyzing and illusion mist they emitted. And coupled with their sharp tentacles coming from their bodies. Their scales hold a high glamor effect that spread around flame illusions.

[Explosion worms] a classic trap of some kind. Because of the ground’s color, the crimson dyed small worms that were only a palm’s length couldn’t be seen clearly. They crawled here and there without any care or signs. And if you step on them carelessly, they would suddenly go off into a grenade-like blast of explosion.

Well, for the group’s personal defense, it was really nothing though. But for normal players, it was a scary enemy. Then, there is also [Great Lava Slimes]that has the habit of mimicking lava, waiting to ambush targets passing by. They are capable of high speed movement, can generate volcanic gasses, fire magic attacks and shoots out acid body fluids.

… And so on.

There were really many monsters though and all of them are extremely troublesome!

Dakna and the Mummy Lord engage in all the battles in contrast to Allen strolling along and looking at the scenery before occasionally healing her and the Mummy Lord.

However, suddenly—

As he was watching them, he inhaled a deep breath of hot air, parted his lips, and smiled. He was just about towards the two after seeing that the battle was almost ending, when his expression suddenly changed. Almost instantly, he lowered his head in an abrupt manner and stared intently at the bottomless magma sea from behind him. Unlike from the small lake and ponds of magma and flowing rivers of Lava from before, the deeper they walked within the 14th layer, the strange the landscapes become.

In front of Allen and the others was a vast sea of magma, as if it was the very core of the world.

He tried sensing anything from it but it seems like there was something that was blocking his perception and so he could only give up. Walking towards the shore of the Magma Sea, monsters found here were extremely powerful. From what Romeia had told him beforehand, walking along the shore would lead him to the Door Guardian for the next layer.

In this layer, Romeia didn’t found any of her comrades, only in the 15th layer where Halubine was waiting.

However, what is this? Allen frowned.

Earlier, the deep region of the magma had emitted a summon. Not for him, apparently but for the Firebird within him. Moreover, the summoning strength this time around was stronger than any other time.

“…I also don’t know what is happening…” Fia asked with a doubtful expression. “It’s as if someone was calling me…”

“Do you have any connection to this place?”

“No, this is the first time I’ve been here though… so it is unlikely…!”

“Then… just what is there?” Allen’s eyes flickered.

His expression also changed a little. He had become full of curiosity because of the unknown summoning during this period of time. However, he was unwilling to randomly investigate due to his cautiousness. Today, however, he was somewhat interested. Perhaps, there would be some unexpected things below…

This time… he shall take the risk once again!