With strengthened will power and mental focus, I immediately proceeded nice and quickly below into the depths of the dungeon. Having to move my ass, I stopped actively picking seafood ingredients and aimed straight to reach towards the deepest part while taking in what I can take as long as it's in my range. The deeper the dive, the less populated the place is, the internal structure becomes more complex, like an ants nest, and the frequency of dungeon monsters that attack become increasingly persistent.
Between the border of the shallow area before reaching the intricate corridors, apparently, to ward off those who come in by mistake, there are many fish-type dungeon monsters such as a heinous small fish with a human face that looks scary, called [Yakuza-Faced Fish] in this current place.
[Yakuza-Faced Fish] usually shout loudly while attacking in ferocious groups with their fellows, but in reality, it's just a small fry that, with its direct attack bites, is such low level that doesn't really count as damage. Since it has some sharp teeth, it would be painful if it bit you normally, but it is still on the level that couldn't leave a scratch on my exoskeleton.
Advancing down the corridor while ignoring the [Yakuza-Faced Fish], I then came across a huge octopus that took the form of an armored warrior, [Octopus Heavy Warrior], as well as a group of turtles, [Cannon Turtle], with bombs that shoot from their backs. The bombs that are being shot at me takes the form of a small turtle, which chase after targets and try to stick to them. This is also powerless in front of my exoskeleton.
I had been wondering, before recovering their carcasses from the instant killing and moving on, I couldn't tell whether the number of people, Mermen or Adventurers, who would come here is becoming less and less because of it getting too deep or because of the possibility of more attacking monsters, but I got an obvious answer from this encounter with the dungeon monsters.
There is also a place which is extremely narrow but eventually widens, with the probability of an assault by a pincer ambush. Although the monster quality is not that high, the monster quantity is becoming annoying. They did manage to make subtle scars here and there on the exoskeleton's surface, which were probably caused by the repeated attacks.
It is not a problem for me, but the narrow pathways, poor visibility and the intricate internal structure, adding the monster's quantity, will make capturing this dungeon pretty tedious. In exchange for those troubles, rare seafood ingredients also increased at this depth level. Since I'm at a location that's quite difficult to comprehend, the rate of engaging with monsters become smaller than before.
The quality of ingredients at this level is really stimulates my appetite, which seems quite tough to ignore. Even after suppressing the harvest of ingredients to a minimum, the more I advanced to a deeper part, the more irregularity in how many rare ingredients could be found, it's surely set against me or some natural law.