I decided that I would take a rest yesterday after arriving at the stairs that led to the the next floor, floor 15.
Because the corridors from the 11th to the 14th flood had a much simpler structure than the ones I've passed thus far. Hmm, I probably would have arrived to the 15th floor sooner if I was actually moving at my full pace. However, since I got great results during the day, it wasn't really that much of a problem.
If I had to summarize the 11th through 14th floors, I'd have to call it akin to a beautiful lake.
Even though it's completely underground, there's a blue sky with white clouds. There was even a pseudo-sun that shone brilliantly over each individual floor. A countless number of trees grew around the lake, even though there was such a small amount of land.
I was curious, so I flew up to check it out and it turned out the blue sky and white clouds were simply an image on the ceiling roughly fifty meters above the ground.
It doesn't really move, but from afar it really looks like the real deal. Well, even though it was rather pointless to elaborate, I was still amazed if but for a moment
As I stood on the land that was in the center of the floor where this huge lake spread, I see a countless amount of big and small lakes scattered around on the horizon. The diameter of the huge lake slightly exceeded 1 kilometer. The surrounding lakes have extreme differences in size, ranging from a few ten meters to a few hundred meters, where the depth of this huge lake in the middle looks to be the deepest. The limit seems to be around 50 meters.
Only small plots of land seem to separate one lake from another, and they're submerged to the point that one's feet are already underwater.
I'd say that the ratio of water to land would be around 8 to 2.
Because my current location is pretty shallow and filled with spring water, it is transparent to such an extent that I can see the bottom. I can even spot the shadows of the dungeon monsters that are swimming around, and it almost seems like their bodies are swimming in the sky.
The feeling of being cooped-up that I had up until has disappeared due to this huge space, and the atmosphere has changed entirely.
When I drank it, the water had a nice clear taste, and the scenery was so beautiful that I had to admire it. This is a very good spot for sightseeing. Though, it really is dangerous.
...Hmmm, ya, this is really nice...
Ah, I suppose I should mention that the monsters that appeared on those floors were different. Dungeon monsters that spawned in the hallways and corridors seemed to have favored quantity over quality, or at least in the first ten floors as it switched to quality over quantity for the 11th through 14th.
The amount of monsters that I've found here thus far has been considerably lower, probably three at most, though I suppose I shouldn't be careless as their strength easily is equal to that of several monsters from the 10th floor.
Additionally, the monsters here seem to blend in with the plants that grow naturally around the lake, so it's actually quite difficult to advance over the land than the water. However, I concluded that the dungeon monsters that lurked underwater are even more vicious than those on land. Sigh, I can't even lower my guard for a single moment to enjoy the atmosphere of these floors, I suppose that's what being a [Demigod] entails.
I see....
That said, while there is a substantial level of danger, the 11th through 14th floor are famous places to make money. While I haven't made it there yet, the 15th sounded like it was the same. The reason being that the chance to encounter monsters is far lower, and having a select group of excellent scouts in your party makes it all the easier to evade them. Not to mention that the monsters are delicious, though I suppose it's not just that as there are very rare items that can be obtained with ease here. Though, while harder, I recall that there are other locations you can obtain them. The quantity you can obtain them here, however, is what draws such a large amount of adventurers.
The items that I was able to obtain this time were extremely varied:
"Golden Carrots" that grow in the wild on very special pieces of land on the floors
"Cannon House Onions" that I was able to gather on some wooden ship that was at the bottom of the lake
"Steel Scaled Arowana[1]" that one can easily catch in the lakes that swim around 10 meters down
"Silver Scaled Pirarucu[2]" that can be caught with some effort at around 100 meters as long as you use the Arowana as bait
"Golden Scaled Coelacanth[3]" these can be caught several hundred meters down as long as you bring a few Pirachu along with you for bait
It was also possible to use the Coelacanth as bait in order to hunt ultra-high class ingredients that have various effects. One of those that I encountered was something called the "Fish Lord of the Huge Lake ・ Great Catfish".
There were also some high purity "Medicinal Plants" that generally grew around springs that have a high healing effect. In addition there were "Spring Water Crystals" that endlessly produced water until they deteriorate into powder. Ah, there was also a magical item that I found of super-high quality called the "Large Fragment of the Suspicious Sun" that I obtained from destroying the pseudo sun on the ceiling with my vermillion spear.
In addition, there were plenty of wonderful treasure chests that lay on the bottom of the lake, completely untouched. Their contents were received by my item box with a warm welcome.
There also was a dormant deposit of rare magic metal in an underground canal that connected each lake to one another, to which I, with great humility, mined as much as I physically could.
It seems that the only thing that normal adventurers without a specific race or special ability could do was target & gather materials in the shallow as well as land. This must explain why all of those materials and valuables were left untouched on the bottom of the lakes, given that there were very strong monsters that made such areas their lairs.
Sadly, I didn't have the time I would have liked to explore every inch of every single lake between the 11th and 14th floor, but still had a sense of satisfaction by the end given the amount of untouched valuables that were added to my item box.
Even the items that could were on the land and shallow regions of the water were already quite expensive pieces. Thinking on it, those goods were already quite rare themselves, I wouldn't allow a single eye-catching item escape my gaze for even a moment.
Hmm... I should bring Kanami-chan with me next time, she'll enjoy the sights I can show her..
Enjoying thoughts like that, I finally moved onto the 15th floor early that morning.
The same view of the land being swallowed by several lakes didn't change though so I decided to just travel through it quickly while collecting materials of worth. I was mostly aiming for the stairs that led to the lower floor near the deepest area of the floor. It only took me a few minutes to get there at full speed, though given the looks of the area around them, it was likely that i'd have to fight the next floor boss. The circumstances this time looked a bit different though.
The stairs were surrounded by an arch of rock that hadn't been there for the previous floors, isolating them from the rest of the floor.
Inside, the floor was pure sand that echoed my steps as I progressed inside. From there, I noticed a small pond of spring water that was opposite to the stairs. Advancing on foot, the entrance behind me was suddenly blocked by a large bolder that rose from the ground. At the same time, the stairs suddenly disappeared behind a large torrent of water. A literal waterfall pouring down upon them from the ceiling.
Though there was always an escape path up until now, this one certainly looks like it's impossible to simply run away from.
It was pretty obvious that this one was kill the floor boss, or die from it.
The floor boss was just a huge crab.
It had a thick shell that was comprised of irregular blue and red patterns, with it's back covered of hexagonal prisms that formed of various stones and crystals. It's figure was rather massive with an oppressive figure that faced me, it kind of reminded me of something like a bulldozer..
It's right hand was saw-like, similar to a fiddler crab that vibrated at high speeds and sparked whenever it touched anything solid, producing a high-pitched sound at the same time. It had four red, compound eyes that stuck out the front of it's body, silently observing it's surroundings. Lovely red and white bubbles were coming out of the front, dissolving anything they touched. "King Crab ・ Crysora".
It was delicious.
Oh, and the shell was covered with high-rank magic items..
[Floor boss [King Crab ・ Crysora] successfully eliminated. ]
[Achiever Yatendouji is permitted to proceed to the next floor, floor boss [King Crab・ Crysora] can hereafter be passed without battle ]
[Achiever Yatendouji has been Awarded the [Crystal Crab's Bubble Poetry] ]
[ Achiever Yatendouji has been Assigned the Rare Skill [Crystal Resonance] as a bonus for a solo kill]
The crab easily had the defense of the Warpidron, combined with the War Salamander's offensive abilities. It possessed superior mobility compared to its size and weight, the claws vibrating at a high speed that was easily capable of breaking right through powerful and magical weapons. It had a ranged attack that used the countless bubbled that it released from it's mouth, dissolving anything they touched. It proved rather difficult to evade given the sheer amount of them. The crystals on its back also released a powerful sound wave that you couldn't see coming, let alone avoid if you didn't instantly comprehend the principle behind it. The red light that it emitted also debuffed physical strength while also appearing to drastically increase its own abilities. That threw me off for a brief moment, I suppose. Then, when I was about to cut it down, the King Crab jumped almost all the way to the ceiling for a good several seconds. It let out a powerful strike with it's scissors, targeting the ground with its full might. The attack didn't finish there, as the energy from the impact converted to an electrical surge that pulsed out in countless electrical snakes that threatened to vaporize anything they touched. The sand and water were blown away instantly.
Even if it were me, a direct hit like that would have been instant death. Even just avoiding it would have turned me to pulp by the force of the debris and lightning strikes, a truly dreadful attack.
Well, if I didn't use any abilities of course.
I instantly activated [Black Demon King's Laminated Dragon Armor] , throwing up just over one thousand defensive shields around my person in an instant. I was greatly surprised by the result, it actually managed to destroy my first 53 layers! Truly frightening..
I suppose any normal body would have been killed, even mine would have at least taken some serious injuries.
Nevertheless, the King Crab named Crysora died in just under twenty minutes. I took my time with it to keep it intact as much as I could, put it's corpse in my item box, then advanced to the 16th floor.
The 16th floor seems to be an entire underground lake.
The stairs just ended in a carved-out circle in the rock with water in the center. From here on out, I had to go underwater, advancing towards a tiny speck of light in the far distance of this gloomy lake.
It's possible to breathe while progressing through here as there are spots that will sporadically spout out air bubbles, and even places that had small rooms of clean air that form from the air bubbles.
The number of traps also have decreased by a significant margin, though, I had to instead focus on the below-freezing water. It was cold enough to even drive me to shivers, a nasty condition to be sure if it went too far.
Ah, to mention for those that had managed to come here before, given that the entire floor is an underground lake, it's likely that those who could advance from here on were very few if any. It's the main reason why most challengers of this dungeon are more than satisfied with selling the items of the 11th through 15th floors. If you managed to gather items here, however, i'd say you'd be able to easily have the money to go on an extravagant spree for a good period of time. Though, it's certainly a form of compensation if you risk your life like that diving into this lake.
I suppose i'll dive further and further, since there's no doubt that the magic items and drops that are obtained from here on out are beyond incomparable with those that are found on the 11th through 15th floors. Thus, I shall continue.
As it turns out, after a little while the ice-cold water wasn't a big deal anymore and I was easily able to make it to the 18th floor by the end of the day.
In the darkness of the underground lake, fish type monsters were swimming – such as the "Regular Backer Chub[4]" of around 60 centimeters that uses its thick lips to attach itself to one's meat in order to weaken and remove it, and the "Super Characin[5]" of around 1 meter that attacks with its fangs and fins that are as sharp as the edge of a knife -- and even though I had to plunge into the deep gloom to approach them.
I didn't mind though, everything that came to me was very delicious.
It was surprising though, advancing in such gloom and darkness was far more mentally tiring than I thought. If I had been untactful, my body would have been easily cut to shreds by the razor-sharp rocks that protruded from every angle.