I exited the hidden place through another tunnel and it was already dark.

“Did you hear what we were talking about?” I asked Raimeiryuu.

“Yeah, I’ve heard everything.” He replied.

“What do you think about what he told me?”

“From the fragments of memory that I told you and what I’ve lost, I can say that he was telling the truth. If I manage to recover more memory fragments, I can verify that story. Nonetheless, I think there were no lies in his words.”

“Damn… That Vladimir, he knew a lot of stuff and I’m sure he’s hiding more.”

“He appears to trust you, that’s why he told you about this place. Apart from him, you are the only one who could find this place and meet that person.”

“I can’t understand that guy. He is tricky.” I scratched my head. “Whatever, let’s leave this discussion for later and finish this raid.”

“Yeah. You have been away from them for quite a time. I think they are worried.”

“Yeah, I’d better hurry.”

***

I traveled north from where I got out and saw a ‘Flame Tower’ spell emerging hundreds of meters away.

“That’s Larry’s spell. They must be fighting over there.”

I run through the ruins into the place of battle and saw a huge triple-eyed wolf fighting my teammates.

Andrew sensed that I was coming, and he gave me a quick look of relief.

James was focusing on his ‘Taunt’ skill, while the others were concentrating their attacks on the boss monster.

The gigantic wolf seemed to be on his last breath. He was all bloodied and barely managed to stand straight.

As the last struggle, he jumped back and disappeared into the shadows of the ruins.

Before Andrew could sense the upcoming attack, the monster appeared from his shadow and attacked him with his sharp claws.

I took this chance to step up into the battle, protect Andrew, and kill the boss monster with a ‘Dragon Slash’.

“Shiryuu.” Screamed Kamui. “Where have you been the whole day?”

“Sorry I got lost while we were fighting those monsters,” I replied.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” Said Mika.

“We were separated for a few hours too, even Brian here only managed to meet up with us right before fighting the boss monster of this area.” Said, James.

A door opened in a nearby wall, and a path that led to the underground appeared.

Jennifer and Mary healed the team, and then we proceeded to the next floor.

***

The seventh floor was a maze tunnel area. It was similar to the second area, but the layout was different.

This time, we had to reach certain rooms to unlock new paths that either led to the right way or the wrong ones.

Andrew’s mapping abilities were limited since the paths and rooms did not appear unless we reached the destined locations. Therefore, we had to do it the hard way. Meaning, we had to look into each room and path separately.

The main monsters of this area were the maneless lions and long leg bears.

There were a few traps here and there that were quickly found by Andrew.

When we have reached the last room, the boss monster was waiting for us. He was a four-arm lionman.

The battle started when Edward dashed towards the monster and kicked him in the face.

The lionman caught the leg of the fighter and threw him away.

Larry used his winds to catch Edward and James used his usual ‘Taunt’ skill.

Kamui used a ‘Breathless Fang’ that was dodged by the monster and he headed towards James and pummelled him with several punches.

He protected himself with his shield and motioned to Brian to shoot the boss monster.

Brian prepared his gunshot and shot six consecutive shots at the head of the lionman. He sensed the bullets coming, so he dodged them and run towards the gunner.

Mika shot a ‘Light Beam’ at the monster and smashed him with the nearest wall, and then she followed her last attack with a ‘Light Room’ that trapped the lionman inside it.

Larry shot a ‘Fire Ball’ that came down on the monster from above the room and Mika made for me a light hoverboard that transported me towards the top of the room, and I launched several ‘Air Slashes’ at the monster.

After the dust settled down, the lionman roared and destroyed the light room.

“Shiryuu dodge!” Andrew screamed.

Suddenly something fell from the sky on me and pinned me to the ground. “What the hell is this?”

A big mechanical hand fell down and stopped me from moving. “Was a trap triggered?”

“James, Kamui, it’s coming for you too.” Screamed Andrew again, and then two more hands fell on James and Kamui.

“Did the monster trigger some traps?” Asked James.

“It could be the case.” Replied Andrew.

The lionman proceeded to tackle Brian and shot a fire breath on Larry.

Mika used a multi-layered barrier to protect him from the fire attack, but she was taken out by surprise punch to the body, and then the lionman pummelled her with more punches.

Larry used a ‘Water Blast’ spell that pushed away the boss monster and Edward hit him with a barrage of mana-clad kicks.

The monster lost his balance and fell down to his knees.

Larry used this chance to launch another ‘Water Blast’ and ‘Fire Ball’ spells that hit him head-on.

He tried standing up, but Larry smashed his head with a ‘Rolling Kick’ and was thrown next to Brian.

The gunner stood up and shattered the brain of the lionman with a deadly shot.

After the defeat of the boss monster, the mechanical hands disappeared and the healers used their healing spells on all of us to heal us from the damage we took in this battle.

****

When we have reached the eighth floor, we found ourselves in the same area as the first floor, but this time we climbed some stairs that led to a door that was connected to the underground of the green plain area, instead of teleporting directly into its center.

“Did we get lost and returned to the first floor?” Asked Brian.

“No, this is indeed the 8th floor…” Replied Andrew.

“Does this mean that all these floors were connected?” Asked Mary.

“It seems so. Most of the transitions were direct.” I said.

While we were talking, a message popped up:

“Welcome to the final floor. You have only one task here… Survive until you defeat the boss.”

“So this is a pure battle floor.” Said, James.

When the message disappeared, a lot of monsters spawned around us in the open green field.

Gun gorillas, ape fighters, hobgoblin riders, armored lizards, and one-horned wolves were amongst the spawn monsters.

Like the sixth floor, we were separated and fought a hoard of monsters.

The monsters kept re-spawning even after we have killed them. A batch after batch came at us with the intent to kill us.

We had Mary and Jennifer on our backs. Their healing spells were effective and kept us alive even when vicious monsters surrounded us.

After a long time of fighting, the number of monsters dwindled until the last monster was killed.

Since this was the last floor, we shared all the mana potions between us so we could be ready to fight the final boss of this dungeon.

It did not take much time between the last monster killed and the appearance of the boss monster.

He spawned further away from where we were and slowly moved towards us.

The final boss monster of this dungeon was a horned red ogre. He was not wearing anything except his torn shorts, and he was holding a big kanabo with one hand.

James used a ‘Taunt’ skill to lure the monster to himself, which worked and the red ogre attacked the guardian with his kanabo.

James protected himself, attacked the boss monster with his shield, and pushed him away.

Edward rushed towards the ogre and attacked him with a sequence of kicks while he was lured by the ‘Taunt’ of James.

The ogre did not even try to protect himself from Edward’s barrage of attacks. He did not budge and tried to attack James again with a swing from his kanabo.

This time, Brian shot the monster with several bullets, but they could not pierce his skin. They hit him and bounced off.

“That’s a really tough skin.” Exclaimed Brian.

Larry used ‘Water tower’ and ‘Fire tower’ spells that emerged under the ogre, but he still did not flinch or budge.

He kept attacking James who was still protecting himself with his shield.

Mika tried to blind the monster who was unaffected by her spell.

“He is really sturdy.” Said, Andrew.

Kamui and I tried to cut him with our swords but we could not penetrate his skin.

“Let’s try a mana attack,” I suggested.

I used a ‘Bull Tackle’ on the ground while Kamui used a ‘Crescent Cut’. Even these attacks did not work on him.

“At this rate, James can’t keep up his defensive stance.” Said Mika.

“Larry, can you try to push him away with your wind?” I asked.

“I’ll try.” While Larry was preparing a large ‘Wind Gust’, Mika used a multi-layered light barrier to strengthen the shield, James.

In the meantime, we kept attacking the monster with what skills we had.

After Larry finished preparing his spell, he shot it at the monster and managed to push him away from James.

This time the monster reacted to Larry’s attack and suddenly threw his kanabo at him with tremendous speed and power that penetrated the wind and flew directly towards Larry.

I used a ‘Dragon Head’ to counter the kanabo and protect Larry from the boss’s attack.

The ogre switched his sight towards me and attacked me with his bare hands.

I dodged his punches and countered with several slashes that did not cut him.

Brian used a charged shot right on the back of the monster and the bullet was stuck on his back.

He turned towards Brian and kicked him away, and then he swung his arm and hit me on my side.

The ogre moved away from us and took his kanabo, and then he turned towards James again and attacked him.

His attack patterns were messed-up, so we took turns using some of our strongest attacks to get the attention of the boss monster and kept this rotation.

After a while, the ogre started bleeding from his head.

“We are dealing damage. We can do it.” Said, Edward.

Suddenly a gate appeared from nowhere.

“What’s that?” Asked James.

“I have a bad feeling about it…” Replied Andrew. “I can’t sense anything from the other side of it.”

The earth started shaking. Loud footsteps were heard approaching.

A big number of skeletons came out from the gate, and dozens of winged beasts, with lion heads and scorpion tails, flew above them.

“What the hell is happening?” Screamed Brian.

“Those are Manticores. Each one of them is a high rank-A monster, and there are dozens of them. There is no way this is real…” Replied Andrew with a big shock on his face.

“I’ve never seen skeletons before.” Said, James.

Mika approached me and pulled my arm.

I turned around and saw fear on her face.

“Don’t worry. It won’t be the same as last time.” I patted her head.

The hoard of demons stopped moving and was divided into two lanes to make a path.

This time, a sole monster came out from the gate and it closed.

He moved slowly until he reached the front of the demon army.

When I saw the demon who was the leader of the skeletons and manticores army, I felt blood boiling inside my body, and without wasting a second, I dashed towards the demon, while rage took the better of me.

“ADRAMELEEEECH,” I screamed.

“Ono-Ha-Itto-Ryu Ougi, FLASH SLASH.” I used one of my secret techniques against the leader of the demons.

He took a sword from one of the nearby skeletons and blocked my attack.

“It’s been a while, Mythological Weapon user. I came for you.” He smiled.